[Moto E General] neo.ank:
[IMG="Title"]http://xdaforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2838582&stc=1&d=1404755830[/IMG]

About the guide

This guide is to provide information about the phone and directions about modding your phone. Most of the stuff is already posted in the forums while some of it is not. I'll try my best to explain how the stuff works for Moto E. How to Root, recover, troubleshoot so you don't screw up your phone by flashing something you're not supposed to.

Standard Disclaimer:** I'm NOT responsible for any damage you do to your phone trying to mod it. Understand how to recover from issues carefully. **

Index

I just bought a Moto E, now what?

Starting Up -Drivers, ADB and Fastboot.

Facts - Bootloader & Recovery.

Beginning the workout

Unlocking Bootloader

Flashing Custom Recovery

Rooting.​

I just bought a Moto E, now what?

Congratulations on your phone.:D Now you should understand the device you have.

Moto E has three variants,

XT1021 - Single SIM

XT1022 - Dual SIM

XT1025 - Dual SIM with TV

Determine what variant you have. Its important as some mods maybe specific to one device and might not work with other.

To get more info about your device, I'd recommend giving this FAQ thread some time.

[FAQ] Frequently Asked Questions For Moto E​

Starting Up - Drivers, ADB & Fastboot

So let us begin. You need to setup your system first.

Drivers, Get your drivers from Motorola Motorola Device Manager. Install it.

ADB & Fastboot.

[Option 1]

(Android SDK), Android SDK is the Android Software Development Kit. It includes the tools to develop apps and debug your device.You need it in order to mod your device and recover sometimes.Get it from Android SDK Its a big package in terms of size.

[Option 2]

If you don't plan to develop anytime soon and concerned with the size, you can get the Minimal ADB & fastboot from [TOOL]Minimal ADB and Fastboot

Setting UP ADB & Fastboot:

You need to set you path variables so you can run ADB & Fastboot commands without worrying about your present directory.

Extract your SDK package to a directory. (or installation path in case of minimal)

Run SDK Manager.exe. It might show few packages available to download. Tick everything under tools.Click Install packages. Accept license. Install

Naviagte to platform-tools (it should have files adb.exe & fastboot.exe)

Copy the path

Now goto Control Panel > System

Click Advanced system settings

Click environment variables

In the box, find 'Path' under system variables. Select it and click Edit

Now, Paste your SDK path in the Variable Value after a ; (It should be something like this C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;I:\Android SDK\platform-tools;) Click OK

Done, close the boxes and windows.

Now time for validation. To verify if you've setup the system correctly.

Get your phone and goto Settings>About Phone.

Tap on Build Number 7-10 times (until it says 'You are a developer'), You've enabled developer options.

Goto Settings> Developer options.

Under Debugging, tick USB DebuggingClick OK.

Connect your phone to your PC (on a USB 2.0 port). It might install some drivers, let it finish.

Now open the command prompt on your PC.

Type

adb devices

.

You will get a prompt on your phone to authorize. Tick 'Always Allow from this computer' And click OK.

It will show the device ID followed by 'device'.

Done, your system is ready.​

IMP: If you encounter some errors. Check Troubleshooting.
​

Facts - Bootloader & Recovery & Rooting.

Bootloader

Bootoader is a small code that reside in your device. When your phone is turned ON, it loads all the hardware and the software of your device and make your phone come alive.

Locked BL & UNLocked BL: Locked BL is a little insurance (for most users)for your device. It checks everything your system can flash(install) thus helps to keep it safe from unwanted or corrupted files. This sounds cool at beginning but is a nightmare for developers. This means there is no way to rewrite the stock recovery of your phone and limiting the things you can do with it(bye bye custom ROMs).

Unlocked BL on the other hand allows to rewrite the recovery (almost everything) on your phone with a custom one, but it also include the risks(everything good, comes with a price). You Lose your warranty (permanently) and your phone is vulnerable to bricking.

Its totally your choice if you want to unlock your BL or wish to remain on stock.
​

Recovery

Then we have the Stock Recovery, this little part of your phone is also locked and cannot be removed or changed from your phone, it will allow you to make Recovery stuff like Full Wipe (Data and Cache) and install Update.zip(specific only) files.

A custom recovery is a special recovery. This allows Android Phones to do recovery tasks, like deleting data, installing recovery Zips and so on; The tasks you are allowed to do with Stock Recovery are pretty basic. Here is where TWRP comes into play.

TWRP is a Recovery that allows you to not only do basic tasks but also create Backups, Restore Them, Fix Permissions and quite a lot of other useful stuff like flashing Custom ROMs.

A Custom Recovery is installed by flashing the Recovery Partition in your Android Phone with a Custom Image.

Most importantly and commonly, Recovery is used to flash update.zip files. These files could be anything from ROM zip to apps,or certain modified system files. Whenever you see the term, "Recovery flashable", this is what meant by it. They are always in *.zip format.
​

Rooting.

So, what’s rooting and why everyone talks about it.

Phones come “locked” , this means users can only do basic usage of their phones, installing/uninstalling apps, wallpapers and basic stuff. You can see but not touch any System file, or change the actual behavior of Android. Rooting just means you have access to your phone like an Administrator(in windows) or SuperUser(in linux), meaning you can access and change system files, delete/create files and folders and so on.

Rooting simply involves giving user rights to modify system, this is done by pushing (installing) 'su' binary into system. This can only be done by a Custom recovery and needs unlocked Bootloader. There are other methods to push 'su' binary to android system but none of those work as of now for Moto E. Unlocking BL and flashing through TWRP is the only method available.
​

Beginning the workout

So now that you know your phone and the terms, you can begin modding it. The process followed is simple:

Unlock your Bootloader

Flash a custom Recovery

Flash Root binary

Flash the custom ROM (Optional)

Unlocking your Bootloader:

This is the first step for modding.

IMPORTANT: Unlocking your Bootloader will void your warranty permanently(Not applicable to EU users.). You cannot claim your warranty once you request the unlock key. No matter if you don't unlock, relock it or the issue is unrelated to Bootloader. That is Motorola Policy.

Also, all your apps, data, photos,music on your internal memory will be wiped make sure to back it up before proceeding.

You can follow the Guide to unlock BL by [MENTION=5857550]Falcon G[/MENTION]

[GUIDE]Unlock Bootloader - Moto E

It is well detailed.
​

Flash Custom Recovey

After you have unlocked your Bootloader, you can flash a Custom recovery.As of now, TWRP & CWM are available for Moto E

You can easily flash it using the TWRP manager app from play store (not tested) Play Store Link

Or you can flash the recovery manually:

Manual Flash:

Download TWRP from TWRP.. Or ClockworkMod from this thread.

If its an *.img file then rename it to recovery.img . If its compressed archive (*.zip or *.tar) then extract and rename it.

Boot you phone into fastboot mode. (See tips)

Connect you phone to PC

Goto the folder where you extracted your recovery. Shift+Right Click, select 'Open Command Prompt Here'.

Type in command prompt

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

(it should give a partition size mismatch error, don't worry about it)

Reboot.

Done.

Root

You have a custom recovery, now you can flash the root package.

You can check this thread for root, or follow the procedure below.

Download the SuperSU from this thread. DO NOT Extract it.

Copy the .Zip file to your phone. (Internal sdcard recommended)

Boot into recovery(See Tips)

Chose, flash Zip from sdcard

Chose the zip file you copied and confirm

Reboot

Done. You are now rooted. Check the phone it should have the SuperSU app.

[Optional] Flashing a custom ROM

Finally, you can flash your desired Custom ROM.

IMP: Please DON NOT ask for recommended/best/stable ROM in this thread or anywhere in the Forum. It is against forum rules

Make a complete Backup, Most important, in case you get into some error, you'll need it to recover.

You will lose your apps in the process when you wipe /data. So backup your apps too.You can use Titanium Backup or any other app from Play Store.

Download the required ROM from Dev section.(Make sure you have the correct ones depending your variant)It should be a *.zip file. DO NOT extract.

[Optional] Download Gapps. Make sure you have the ones for KK.It should be a *.zip fil as well. Again, DO NOT extract.

Download any add-ons required (like the dual-sim fix for CM)

Copy the files to your sdcard root directory, or any folder just remember it(internal recommended, however external will also work fine)

Boot into recovery.

Make a backup. Chose backup & restore amd create a complete backup.

Wipe /data /cache /dalvik cache.In case you are updating the same ROM, like flashing a nightly, you can skip wiping /data and only wipe /cache and /dalvik cache.(just for reference it is called dirty flashing).

Select 'Install zip from sdcard', navigate to the ROM .zip and select it. Let it finish.

Similarly, flash any Add-ons you have like gapps.

Reboot. First boot will take some time, be patient.