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Root Help!? Just bought an Evo 4G off of Ebay and I think it is rooted??

Unfortunately unrooting isn't that simple a process. In fact, it's about as simple as installing a custom recovery & ROM.

Besides that, re-rooting, depending on what updates your device receives, can be even more difficult, if not impossible, as future updates occur (impossible isn't likely, though).

Here's the easiest thing you can do, which will unroot you and remove your custom recovery, but leave your NAND unlocked for future "possibilities".

First, make sure you've installed HTC Sync.

Then, download this file: Dev-Host.org - The Ultimate Free File Hosting / File Sharing Service

That's the latest stock OS (ROM) for the EVO 4G. It's a ROM Update Utility (RUU) that runs on your computer, and it will update your device to Android 2.3.5.

You will need to enable USB Debugging in Android for it to work (Settings -> Applications -> Development, check USB Debugging). Once you've installed HTC Sync, and enabled USB Debugging, when you connect your device to the computer, it should detect it and install the necessary drivers. Then you can run the RUU to update your device. This will also perform a factory reset, which will remove any data.
Does this actually remove the root? And how do I run RUU to update my Device?
 
Does this actually remove the root? And how do I run RUU to update my Device?


Its a program that runs on your computer to place a stock ROM and recovery on there.

You will still have S-OFF but as far as you will be able to tell you will be unrooted. It will make becoming re-rooted very easy though because you technically still are.
 
Does this actually remove the root? And how do I run RUU to update my Device?
It will remove root (but you will stay S-OFF - you'll need to remember that for when you decide to re-root).

The RUU is just an exe file. After it's downloaded on your computer, you double-click it to run (just like you do to install HTC Sync).

EDIT: Got ninja'd by Rxpert . . .
 
Okay sounds good, I will try it as soon as my downloads get done. And do I have to do anything on the actual Evo itself or just connect it to the Computer while it is on and let it do the rest? Also will this make the regular HTC Sense come back on and make everything look like a "Normal Evo"?
 
Okay sounds good, I will try it as soon as my downloads get done. And do I have to do anything on the actual Evo itself or just connect it to the Computer while it is on and let it do the rest? Also will this make the regular HTC Sense come back on and make everything look like a "Normal Evo"?
My initial instructions for you told you what you have to do on the device.

While it's flashing, you just let it. It'll tell you when it's done. I'll be logging off, so if you need anymore help, I'm sure someone can assist you.

And yes, the EVO will be returned to stock conditions.
 
Okay sounds good, I will try it as soon as my downloads get done. And do I have to do anything on the actual Evo itself or just connect it to the Computer while it is on and let it do the rest? Also will this make the regular HTC Sense come back on and make everything look like a "Normal Evo"?

Everything will look completely stock.

The program will give you a few directions to make sure everything is set up properly on your phone. After that just make sure the computer doesnt fall asleep while it is running (should take about 10 mins)
 
Everything will look completely stock.

The program will give you a few directions to make sure everything is set up properly on your phone. After that just make sure the computer doesnt fall asleep while it is running (should take about 10 mins)

So I have HTC Sync downloaded and when I connected my Evo to the computer it downloaded some drivers in the task bar like normal but when I open HTC Sync and plug my Evo in it doesnt recognize it, and I switched the USB Connection type from charge only to HTC Sync and when my Evo searches for HTC Sync on my Computer nothing happens. So do I need to do that with HTC Sync or should I just run the RUU program to put that regular ROM on my EVO?
 
If I remember right your not supposed tovhave HTC sync on the computer when trying to run the program.

Never mind I just got My HTC EVO 4G to connect to HTC Sync but it didn't really download anything but should I exit out of HTC Sync and run the RUU program that I downloaded for the standard ROM on My HTC EVO 4G?
 
sorry, I don't know. Try it one way and then the other. We had it set as charge only to root it.

edit: read where you have to have usb debugging on and I think charge mode is the right setting.

make sure your computer doesn't hibernate or anything while you are doing it too.
 
Okay I just did it and now I have the stock Android on My EVO 4G, thank you so much for the help! I have one more question lol if I take my HTC EVO 4G into Sprint can they tell if it is rooted?
 
Yes they will know, because you still have the phones securities off (s-OFF). But honestly if you tell them you bought the phone like that they will usually be cool with it. It wasnt your choice to root it, it just came that way.

If you want to make it so that they cant tell anything, you need to get s-ON. We can give you the files needed to do that as well, just let us know.
 
from what I understand about the Sprint store (and results may vary here)...the tech at the stores generally dont care if you are rooted..for the most part..problems could arise if you need to send to HTC for warranty work though..and it being an older phone you bought used, you would have to pay for HTC to work on it anyways...and they will fix it if you pay.

*can anyone provide some additional thoughts..just my findings/experience w/ friends who are also rooted.

ps..dont let us see you back here when you run out of internal memory!! LOL!!!!
 
Rooting voids your warranty.

If your phone is not in warranty you have to pay for repairs anyway so they dont care if you are rooted or not.
 
Okay and thanks again for the help! And since I am still rooted can I get free wifi tethering? If so how can I? Also what is some other stuff that I can do since I am rooted?
 
Well no, because now you have a stock Rom and recovery. The ROM I suggested in my first reply had lots of bells and whistles like free WiFi tethering but running the ruu was much easier if you just wanted stock
 
Okay and thanks again for the help! And since I am still rooted can I get free wifi tethering? If so how can I? Also what is some other stuff that I can do since I am rooted?
You are not rooted. Your device is NAND unlocked, which means you can flash a custom recovery and THEN root, but you just undid all of that :eek:.

That's why we were suggesting you follow Rxpert's instructions, so that you could have free tethering, and have a ROM with cool tweaks and bloatware removed. But you referred to do these things later. I didn't realize later would be tomorrow (today) :rolleyes:.

You can still follow his instructions to install a custom recovery, and then flash MikG v3.1. It's not too late :).

EDIT: Dang it, Rxpert . . . constantly being ninja'd by that one . . .
 
Okay I am still on the verge of rooting my HTC Evo 4G and going through this again but I was playing with an Evo 3d and I liked the new sense 3.0, so I wondering is there a ROM that I could get that has Sense 3.0 with some of the goodies like wifi tethering? If so could I install these ROMs just like I did with the other ruu I just installed? If not how would I do it? Like I have said before, I have never rooted or really done anything to an Android Phone like this but would like to start getting into it. So if someone could explain to me exactly what to do/what Im doing that would be great. Thanks.
 
Yes, it is very simple to install another ROM, though the process will be different. It involves going into recovery again. I'm honestly not sure if the RUU they had you run installs the default recovery again. You can always test it out by powering down and then hold VOLDOWN+POWER. Scroll up/down with the volume keys to recovery and press the power button to "click" on it. Do you still have Clockworkmod?


Anyway, I'm going to give a huge +1 for MikG. It is a fantastic ROM (with many Sense 3.0 features in it), has all sorts of goodies baked into it, and has a terrific development community behind it. Basically what you need to do is this:

1. Download the zip file for MikG from here (no need to unzip it, just leave it as a .zip file):

MikG v3.11 [3/9/2012]


2. Plug your phone into your USB port and copy the .zip file to your phone's sd card. Put it where ever you want, but remember where you put it because you will need it in step 5.


3. Boot the phone back up into recovery and MAKE A BACKUP!!! This way, if anything goes wrong, or you don't like the new ROM, you can always just switch right back to the old one. Pretty cool eh?

Note: If you become a "flash-a-holic" and start trying tons of different ROMs, then you'll probably take a backup of each one before flashing another. Storing several backups will take up significant space on the sd card so don't keep too many, or copy most of them to your computer's hard drive and store them there instead.

4. Once you have a backup made, choose the options in recovery to wipe data, cache, and dalvik cache. You may want to wipe several times.


5. Once this is done, go to the main menu in clockworkmod, select install zip from sdcard > choose zip from sdcard and then scroll to your zip to apply it. Here is a pretty good video of the process. Even though it is an older version of clockworkmod the steps are pretty much the same:

How to flash a zip file using Clockwork Mod Recovery - YouTube





It should install everything and MikG will automatically reboot it when it is done. If you install another ROM that doesn't automatically reboot then it's pretty easy to just navigate "back" through the clockworkmod menus until you can select reboot from the main menu.

Also, many people will recommend installing Amon RA recovery instead of clockworkmod. I never personally had a problem with CWM but installed Amon RA anyway. For now you can use CWM to get MikG installed.
 
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