How to Root and Install CWM Recovery on Verizon HTC One [Guide]

HTC introduced its flagship device HTC One back in February, 2013. The device eventually became the world’s most beautiful and best smartphone. It sports a beautiful 4.7” inch full HD display with 469 ppi and is powered up with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 Quad Core CPU clocked at 1.7 Ghz. There is a RAM of 2 GB installed, and a massive battery of 2300 mAh under the hood. HTC introduced the new camera that is an Ultrapixel ranged at 4 MP and is said to be better than that of an ordinary Megapixel camera. Out of the box, HTC One runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, the device has been updated to Android 4.3 now.

Back to the topic, Having a device like HTC One without root access is kinda boring and incomplete. While Android is an open source operating system, the developments have never taken a break and there is something new to try out everyday. Flashing mods, custom roms, playing with clock speed of your CPU, optimizing battery and performance of your phone is all what needs the root access. Not only that, to flash custom roms and zip you need to have a custom recovery installed on your device. In the following post we will be having a look on a method to install custom recovery on your Verizon HTC One  and how we can root it.

Before we begin, here are some pre-requisites that you need to follow.

1. Unlock your Verizon HTC ONE’s  Bootloader. Follow our guide here.
2. You need to install Android ADB & Fastboot drivers carefully. Follow our full guide here. In case you are have problems making fastboot folder, simply install the Android SDK from the guide and get the Fastboot folder here.
3. Make sure that your phone’s battery is charged over at least 60%. This is highly recommended in order to prevent any power issues on the device during the flashing process.
4. Make sure that your device is Verizon HTC ONE. Do not try this on any other device.
5. Make sure that you have backed up all your important Contacts, Call Logs & Messages. It is highly recommended in case of any mishap or data loss to backup all your important data.
6. Make sure that you use the original data cable to establish the connection between your PC and phone.
7. Disable the Fastboot option under the power settings on your device.
8. In case of USB connection problems, enable USB debugging mode on your device. To do so, open Settings>General>Developer Options>USB debugging mode.
9. Make sure that you followed the above instructions carefully, and go ahead now.

The methods involved in flashing custom roms and rooting your phone is highly custom and may result in bricking your device, and has nothing to do with Google or the device manufacturer that is Samsung in our case. In case of any mishap we may not be held responsible. Follow these instructions to the letter to avoid any mishap or bricking. Make sure that whatever you do, you are doing it at your own responsibility.

Files you need to download:

• Download CWM Recovery.img file – Download Here.

• Download SuperSU version 1.65 – Download Here.

Here’s How to Flash Custom Recovery:

1. 1. 1. Make sure that your correctly installed the Android ADB & Fastboot setup guide.
      2. Now open the Fastboot folder and place the downloaded CWM recovery.img file in the fastboot folder.
      3. Turn off your HTC One and then boot into HBoot. To do so, press and hold Volume Down + Power Key.
      4. Select ”Fastboot” in Hboot, once in Fastboot mode, connect your device to your PC.
      5. In the Fastboot folder, hold shift and right click on an empty area and click on ”open command prompt here’‘.
      6. Now you are in the command prompt under the fastboot folder.
      7. Type the command first ”Fastboot Erase Cache”. It will erase your device’s cache only.
      8. Now type the command ‘‘Fastboot Flash Recovery Recovery.img”. Recovery.img is the philz recovery image file. Rename it for your ease of use.
      9. It will flash the philz advanced cwm recovery on your device. Congrats! You’ve done it. To boot into recovery mode, you need to boot your device into HBoot (Volume Down + Power) and then select recovery. It will open up the CWM recovery on your Verizon HTC One.

How to Root your Verizon HTC One:

1. 1. 1. You must install the cwm recovery following the above method once.
      2. Place the downloaded SuperSu.zip file on your device’s sd card.
      3. Boot into Hboot, to do so turn off your device and turn it on by pressing and holding Volume Down + Power Key. Once in HBoot, select Recovery.
      4. In the Recovery mode, select ”install zip > choose zip from sd card” and give it the SuperSu.zip file that you placed on your sd card, in the next step select ”yes”.
      5. It will take a while to flash SuperSu in your device, once the process is finished, reboot your device and find SuperSu app in your app drawer.
      6. Phewww! You’ve successfully rooted your device as well now.

Now wondering what to do with your rooted phone and custom recovery? 

Here’s the answer for you!

Rooting your phone gives you complete access over all the data which is apparently locked by the manufacturers. This includes removal of the factory restrictions and making changes to the internal system and the operating system. Gaining the root access gives you the privileges to install various applications to enhance the performance of your device, allows you to remove the built-in applications/programs, helps you to upgrade the battery life of your device &install the apps which require the root access for the proper functionality and modify your device in so many other ways e.g using mods and custom roms. By installing custom recovery, you can flash custom roms in the phone easily. Custom recovery also let’s you backup your current rom and restore it in case of any mishap. There is a laundry list of things you can do after having your device rooted and installed the custom recovery, now once you’re rooted go ahead and enjoy it on your phone. Here’s our collection of 10 Best Root Apps.

How to keep Root after OTA Updates

The OTA updates rolled out by the manufacturers wipe the root access on your phone. In case you don’t know how you can restore the root access after OTA update, you’ll have to root your phone once again, but there is no need to do it as you can restore it using the OTA Rootkeeper App which is available in the Google Play Store. The app creates backup of your root and simply restores it after any OTA update.

That’s All! In case you got any queries or any difficulties, feel free to leave us a comment in the box below. We will try our best to help you out. Thanks.