It has been a few weeks since the new Nexus 7 went up for sale on the Play Store. While the launch of the tablet has been plagued with GPS and touch-screen sensitivity issues, it is hard to say that the tablet is not selling like hot cakes. Initially, there were some issues on gaining root access on the new Nexus 7, thanks to Android 4.3. However, these issues have been sorted and now you can easily gain root access on your shiny new tablet.
The first thing you need to do before you can gain root access on your new Nexus 7 is to unlock the bootloader. You can follow this guide to unlock the bootloader, but make sure to make a backup of your data since the whole device will be completely wiped.
Step 1: Before you gain root access, you will need to flash a custom recovery on your tablet. Download the latest version of TWRP recovery for the new Nexus 7 from here. Put it inside the same ‘google’ folder that you had created on your desktop while unlocking the bootloader. Also, rename the file to “twrp.img”.
Download and transfer this SuperSu zip file to root storage of your Nexus 7.
Step 2: Assuming you have setup adb and fastboot properly, you need to put your N7 in fastboot mode. You can do it by pressing the Volume Down + Volume Up + Power button, simultaneously, from the power off position. Then, connect the device to your PC.
Step 3: Make sure the device is properly detected by fastboot by entering the following command
fastboot devices
If your device is successfully detected, fastboot will show the device ID of your Nexus 7.
Step 4: Now, its time to flash the TWRP recovery. Simply enter or copy-paste the command below
fastboot flash recovery twrp.img
Once the recovery has been successfully flashed, unplug your device and reboot into recovery mode by selecting the Recovery option in bootloader mode using the volume keys and selecting it by pressing the Power button.
Step 5: Once your N7 has booted into recovery, tap the Install option. Navigate to /sdcard/0 and then select the Superuser zip file that you transferred to the device in Step 1.
Once the zip has been flashed, reboot your device into Android to enjoy root access.
