Motorola managed to script a successful comeback story in 2013 with devices like the Moto X, Moto E and the Moto G. To further win over customers, the company went ahead and released an official bootloader unlocking tool for its devices to support third-party development.
The unlocking tool makes it significantly easier to gain root access on any recent Motorola device, including the 2nd gen Moto E (LTE and non-LTE variants).
Before you can proceed to gain root access on your Moto E, you will need to unlock its bootloader using Motorola’s web based unlock tool. If you are running Windows, you will need to install these drivers on your PC before you can use ADB and fastboot on your PC.
Keep in mind though, that unlocking the bootloader will wipe your device of all data so make a backup before you proceed with the steps. Additionally, do note that requesting Motorola for the bootloader unlock key itself will void the warranty of your device irrespective of whether you then root the handset or not.
Step 1: Download the required ADB/Fastboot files from below, if you did not already do it while unlocking the bootloader. Also, download the TWRP recovery and SuperSU ZIP file for your handset from below.
- ADB/Fastboot – Mac, Windows
- TWRP for Moto E (2015) – 3G (a.k.a otus) | LTE (a.k.a surnia)
- SuperSU (Transfer this ZIP file to the internal storage of your Moto E)
Make sure to rename the TWRP file to something simple like “motoe.img”. Also, keep the ADB/Fastboot and TWRP image file inside a new folder called “moto” on your desktop. Open up a new command prompt or terminal window and navigate to this folder using the ‘cd’ command.
cd /username/desktop
Step 2: Reboot your device into fastboot mode by switching it off first and then pressing Volume down + Power button at the same time. Leave the keys after a few seconds and your Moto E will automatically boot into bootloader mode. Connect it to your PC and enter the following commands in the Command prompt or terminal window opened in the previous step:
fastboot devices
The above command will confirm whether your device is being detected by your PC or not. Mac users, make sure to prefer a “./” before every fastboot command.
./fastboot devices.
Now, we need to flash the recovery on the device using the following command -:
fastboot flash recovery motoe.img
Step 3: Use the Volume Down button to select the Reboot option and confirm your selection by pressing the Volume Up button. Once your device has booted back into Android, again switch it off and boot it back into bootloader mode (as mentioned in Step 2).
Step 4: From the bootloader menu, select the ‘Recovery’ option and confirm it by pressing the Volume Up button. Once your Moto E boots into Android, tap on ‘Install’ and then select the SuperSU zip file that you had transferred to the device in Step 1.
Once the ZIP file has been flashed, select the ‘Reboot system’ option. The first boot after installing SuperSU might take sometime as the cache for all the installed apps needs to be rebuild.
To confirm whether you have root access on your device or not, you can use applications like Root Checker from the Play Store. If you are facing any issues, make sure to drop in a comment and we will be happy to help you out.
