How To: Root the HTC MyTouch 3G

I. Before You Begin

1. This works on the OLD MyTouch only (the one without the 3.5mm headphone jack at the top of the phone).

2. YOU MUST DO THIS WHOLE PROCEDURE AND THEN DO THE NEXT ONE ON LOADING A CUSTOM ROM TO GET FULL ROOT ACCESS!

II. Downgrade to Cupcake

1. Download the Original SAPPIMG.nbh:
Original SAPPIMG.nbh

2. Plug the phone into your computer via USB. Select Mount by pulling down on the notification bar at the top of the phone’s screen and selecting the USB notification. You should now be able to access the sd card in your phone on your computer.

3. Now, put the .nbh file that you just downloaded on the root of the SD card (NOT in any folder, just on the sdcard itself).

4. Unplug the phone and turn it off.

5. Turn on the phone by holding the Volume Down button and the End key until the bootloader screen comes up.

6. Hit the End key to start the update. DO NOT INTERUPT THIS PROCESS.

7. Once it is done, hit the trackball to restart the phone. You now are on the stock Cupcake firmware.

III. Flash a Custom Recovery Image

1. On your phone, goto Settings, Applications, and make sure Unknown source is checked ON.

2. On your phone, goto Settings, SD card and phone storage, and click Unmount SD card.

3. Then click Format SD card (it should automatically remount after this).

4. Plug the phone into the compuer via USB, then pull down the notification bar and click on the SD card notification. Then click mount.

5. Download this APK and the recovery image and save it to your computer:

FlashRec.apk

Amon Ra’s Recovery Image

6. Once they are saved to your computer, copy them both to your SD card (do NOT put them inside any folders on the SD card, just put them on the SD card itself).

7. Unplug the phone from the computer once they are downloaded to the SD card.

8. Goto the Market and download Linda File Manager or any file manager program if you do not already have one.

9. Open the file manager and goto SDCard and then find the FlashRec apk file and click it. If asked tell it to use Package Installer to open it. It should automatically install the apk.

10. Open the FlashRec program and click on Backup Recovery Image and wait for it to finish.

11. Once done, click on the empty text box in the FlashRec program and type:

/sdcard/recovery.img

Then click on the Flash Custom RecoveryImage button and wait for it to finish.

12. Turn off the phone and turn it on into Recovery mode by holding down Home and Power to turn it on (keep holding until the recovery screen comes up has a bunch of text on a black background). So long as that screen comes up, LEAVE IT ON THAT SCREEN, you have done it correctly and can now go on to the How to Load a ROM video for your appropriate device!

How To Load a Custom ROM on the HTC MyTouch 3G

13. To get Root access you MUST go to the next video mentioned above and load a custom ROM.

Reported Issues

Issue: I get Invalid Recovery Image or Flash Recovery doesn’t show up, it stays greyed out!

Solution: Make sure that the spell correction and auto completion are OFF in the Text Settings (Settings > Locale and Text > Touch Input > Text Input then turn off Prediction, spell correction, and word completion) of your phone. If not then it may put in spaces where they do not belong. (I had it put a space after .img and couldn’t see it so couldn’t figure out why it kept saying invalid recovery image, like you guys).

Other than that, just make sure it is on the root of the SD card (not in any folder) and that you are typing in:

/sdcard/recovery.img

and it should show Flash Recovery

Issue: When I download the FlashRec.apk it shows up as a .zip not an apk.

Solution: No problem. Do NOT extract it, just simply replace the .zip with .apk and then proceed with the procedure.

Issue: I get backup failed or flash failed when I try to use the FlashRec progam.

Solution: This is most likely because you already have a custom recovery image (OR HAVE DONUT), please use one of the unrooting procedures to get back to the original recovery image and THEN you can use this procedure.

Written by: TheUnlockr