HTC One S: Root, bootloader unlock, and custom recovery using all-in-one toolkit

Gone are the days where we’d have to fiddle with command prompts to get root access. These days, there are rooting packages that can easily root your phone with a click of a button. Even luckier for HTC One S owners, there is a toolkit that isn’t just limited to rooting your phone. You can also use this toolkit to flash custom recovery, do commands, flash drivers, gain permanent root access, and much more to your mobile phone.

Driven to help the newbies in the Android OS, XDA Developer hasoon2000 created an all-in-one toolkit for the HTC One S. Using his expertise in scripts, he was able to come up with a handy tool to help beginners play with their mobile phone and jump-start their way of becoming expert Android developers.

In this guide, we will be tackling on how to install and use hasoon2000’s toolkit. Read on to learn how to use the all-in-one toolkit for the HTC One S.

Warning

The instructions in this guide are intended for use with the HTC One S. Applying these instructions on another device or model may produce undesired outcomes.
The information in this guide is provided for instructional and educational purposes only. There is no guarantee that these instructions will work under your specific and unique circumstances.
Use these instructions at your own risk. We shall not hold any responsibility or liability for whatever happens to you or your device arising from your use of the info in this guide.

Requirements

An HTC One S
A Windows PC
WinRAR or another program capable of extracting RAR packages
Backup your mobile data or transfer important files to the phone’s SD card. You can refer to our guide on how to perform local backup of your data and how to sync your data to the cloud.
Charge your battery to 60% or more.

Installing the Toolkit

Download the HTC One S all-in-one toolkit from here (One_S_All-In-One_Kit_v1.0.rar, 51.7 MB) to your computer. NOTE: Do not change the name of file.
Use an extracting tool to extract the One_S_All-In-One_Kit_v1.0.rar to your computer. NOTE: Make sure to extract the file directly to one of your computer’s drives (e.g. save the file to drive C:\ so the the file should be located at C:\One_S_All-In-One_Kit_v1.0).
Navigate to the folder where the extracted files are located.
Double-click on One S.exe to launch the toolkit.

Using the Toolkit

If you have successfully launched the toolkit, you can use it to unlock your phone’s bootloader, install custom recovery, or root your phone permanently.

Unlocking the Bootloader

You can unlock the phone’s bootloader using the toolkit in just five steps.

To install the HTC Drivers to your computer. Click 1. Install HTC Drivers and press Go. HTC Drivers will automatically be installed to your computer.
Click 2. Register at HTCDev and press Go. This will redirect you to the HTC Development page. Make an account and log-in.
Click 3. Get Token ID and select Go. A command prompt will appear showing your phone’s Token ID. Make sure your phone is connected to your computer. Highlight the Token ID and copy it. Close the command prompt after copying the Token ID. NOTE: To copy the Token ID, press the right mouse button on the command prompt and a pop-up menu will appear. Select Mark and highlight the Token ID. After highlighting the Token ID, press the right mouse button to copy it.
Submit your Token ID to the HTC development site by selecting 4. Submit Token ID. Make sure you are logged in to your HTCDev account. You will receive a file Unlock_Code.bin in your email. Download the file and paste it to the Data folder inside the HTC One S all-in-one toolkit folder.
If all are set, select 5. Unlock Bootloader and click Go.

Flashing Recovery

If you have successfully unlocked your phone’s bootloader, you can now flash a custom recovery (or the stock recovery) to your phone. All you have to do is select one recovery from the list:

ClockworkMod Recovery 5.8.2.3
ClockworkMod Recovery 5.8.2.4 Touch
Interim Touch (Custom ClockworkMod)
Stock Recovery

Select one and click Flash Recovery to start flashing the selected recovery image to your phone.

Performing Commands

You can also perform commands to your phone by using this toolkit. You can perform the following commands:

Boot into Bootloader
Boot into Recovery
Reboot Phone
Relock Bootloader

Select the command and click Do Command to perform the command to your phone.

Gaining Permanent Root

Do the following steps to gain permanent root access to your HTC One S:

Connect your HTC One S to the computer via USB cable.
Launch the HTC One S all-in-one toolkit.
Under Commands, select Boot into Recovery and click Do Command. Wait until your phone boots into Recovery Mode.
Under Extras, select the Perm Root (GB/ICS) and click Run.
The toolkit will automatically flash the required files to permanently root your HTC One S.

If you’re a newbie or if you are allergic to the complexities of dev-related tasks for your phone (e.g., rooting using ADB commands), this all-in-one toolkit can be the best buddy and companion to your HTC One S.

NEED TO KNOW!

Comments

Ron999

Do I have to unlock the bootloader on the one s to give it root? Thanks so much…Ron
Jleepate76

I have rooted three different types of phones. I graduated to the One S. I pride myself on researching and gaining an understanding of the processes involved in gaining freedom with my devices. This process has been a challenge. I couldnt figure out how to properly process command codes. This process has saved me. Thank you , thank you, thank you, thank you. I will subscribe and be a loyal member forever. I cant believe your site and link isnt more readily available on a basic web search, and believe me, I’ve searched quite a bit. Thank you again. Sincerely, an imcompetent, competent noob.
Jleepate76

@ron999.
yes dude. unlock bootloader and get all the programs you need. when i went into this process i was able to skip the unlock and program downloads because i already had them done. went straight to root. commited a couple hours over two days to do this and stumbled upon this site, i take everything slowly and purposely. if you cant unlock ur boot loader on ur own i’m worried. htcdev.com
SoftFocusFarmer

I have managed to unlock my bootloader, and have flashed the stock recovery on to the phone (as CWM doesn’t seem to want to play ball…). I am now trying to do the Perm Root step. I can get to recovery mode but when I try to run the Perm Root (GB/ICS) i notice in the cmd that it keeps saying “device not found” under every line. Also, the phone is not rooted as I do not have Superuser access. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Ian Court

I also have unlocked the bootloader using the Hasoon 2000 toolkit, and flashed Stock recovery.
When I attempt a permanent root (after booting into recovery) I too get error messages:

C:Androiddata>adb kill-server

C:Androiddata>adb reboot recovery
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
error: device not found
ECHO is on.
Wait til you are in recovery, then press a button

C:Androiddata>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

C:Androiddata>adb shell mount /system
error: device not found

C:Androiddata>adb push SU/su /system/xbin/su
error: device not found

C:Androiddata>adb shell chown 0.0 /system/xbin/su
error: device not found

C:Androiddata>adb shell chmod 06755 /system/xbin/su
error: device not found

C:Androiddata>adb shell chown 0.0 /system/bin/su
error: device not found

C:Androiddata>adb shell chmod 06755 /system/bin/su
error: device not found

C:Androiddata>adb push SU/busybox /system/xbin/busybox
error: device not found

C:Androiddata>adb shell chmod 4755 /system/xbin/busybox
error: device not found

C:Androiddata>adb push SU/Superuser.apk /system/app
error: device not found

C:Androiddata>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

C:Androiddata>

Any ideas what is going wrong?

I am running my HTC One S in UK (T-Mobile) . Android OS is Ice Cream Sandwich.

Please try to keep the answer as simple as possible. Although I am reasonably 7knowledgeable regarding PCs and Win7, I know nothing about Android, and this is my first attempt at rooting a phone.

When (if) I manage to root the phone, I want to delete the uneccesary (and unwanted) apps and ringtones that came pre-installed on the phone. Can anybody please tell me where they are located; I cannot seem to find them by using Windows Explorer in Win7, linking the phone to PC via USB cable
Patrick

Attempting to root my HTC One S. During step 3, I’m getting the following:

D:One_S_All-In-One_Kit_v1.0One_S_All-In-One_Kit_v1.0data>adb kill-server
* server not running *

D:One_S_All-In-One_Kit_v1.0One_S_All-In-One_Kit_v1.0data>adb reboot bootloade
r
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
error: device not found

D:One_S_All-In-One_Kit_v1.0One_S_All-In-One_Kit_v1.0data>fastboot oem get_ide
ntifier_token

And nothing ever happens.

Thanks for any advice!
- Alvin Ybañez
  
  Hi, Patrick. It seems that your computer wasn’t able to detect your phone.
  
  error: device not found
  
  What you can do is install the USB Drivers for HTC One S to the computer. You can do that by installing HTC Sync. Make sure to close HTC Sync before using the toolkit to prevent interruption.
  
  You try the following steps to check if your phone has successfully connected to the computer:
  
  If you have ADB installed on your computer, connect your phone to the computer, open command prompt, and type the command adb devices. Your phone’s serial number will appear on the screen.
  
  If you have downloaded the fastboot package on your computer, reboot your phone into Bootloader Mode, choose fastboot in the Bootloader menu, connect your phone to the computer via USB cable, open command prompt on the computer, navigate it to the fastboot folder, and type the command fastboot devices. Your phone’s serial number will appear on the screen.
  
  If the two methods doesn’t work, your phone wasn’t able to connect to the computer.
  - Patrick
    
    Thanks Alvin! I think my pc was having HTC driver issues, so I tried from another PC and was able to unlock the bootloader.
    
    Now I seem to be having problems booting into Recovery Mode. Whether I do it using the All-In-One Kit, or manually, the phone reboots, shows the green arrows in a circle, then a red triangle with exclamation. When I hit the home button, there is a console looking window that says Android system recovery at the top, with several options to choose from (ie Reboot, Apply Update, Wipe Data, etc), and underneath some messages saying
    “Failed to open loopdevice (No such file or directory)”
    “Failed to mount /sdcard (No such file or directory)”
    (repeated several times)
    
    If I try your above connectivity tests, they fail (no device located). But if I boot into fastboot, I can connect using ADB no problems – but then I can’t use the kit to gain perm root.
    
    Any ideas?
    Thanks!
    - Alvin Ybañez
      
      The one you’re referring as “there is a console looking window that says Android system recovery at the top, with several options to choose from (ie Reboot, Apply Update, Wipe Data, etc),” I think that is the Recovery Mode. Have you successfully flashed the CWM Recovery using the kit?
      - Patrick
        
        I had flashed the Stock Recovery – didn’t realize I was supposed to flash the CWM ;)
        
        So now I just flashed the CWM recovery, then tried the ‘Boot into Recovery’, the phone reboots, I get the flash screen with the message “this build is for development purposes…”, then reboots again to normal flash screen, and then goes into ‘normal’ phone mode. There is an Error Report icon at top saying ” this phone just recovered from an abnormal reset…”
        
        Am I missing something?
      - Danny
        
        I have the exact same issue. Did you ever find a fix?
- Ky0suke
  
  Was running into the same problem The magic key I found for this was that you (1) had to have the device set to default connect to PC as a HDD and (2) enable USB debugging in the developer options [i think it's the last option in settings]. Also, Hasoon2000 has released an update to his tool… I recommend looking for the 1.1 version. After that, had no problems following the instructions.
BigBusa

attemping to root my htc one s and when i get to the perm root step, i get error: more than one device and emulator. Any advice?
Guy

Since I’ve unlocked the HTC One S device, I can’t use internet pass through.
Before the unlocking I could do it. Any ideas?
Thing1rokks

i figured out the reason some people cant unlock/flash recovery…
or at least this is the problem i had.
make sure u set your usb connection to storage device
Spam

thanks thing1rokks that did the trick i was going mad!
Spam

no still no luck it flashed cwm but doesnt let me access it. so i cant flash the perm root.

I just boot into recovery and its the normal one with no actual recovery options.
Spam

and with the stock recovery it wont let me flash the perm root either:(
danprice7134

Hi Guys,

I just rooted my One S and ran into a few issues. As I can see a few others seem to be having similar issues I thought I would tell you how I managed it.

I used Hasoon2000′s All In One Kit to perform the bootloader unlock without any issues apart from the phone not connecting properly every time. To get around this i went to “Settings>Connect to PC>Default connection type” and selected “Disk Drive” to ensure the phone always connects as a storage device.

The recovery flashed without problems but neither CWM 5.8.2.3 or CWM 5.8.2.4 Touch recovery would not boot. I got the screen saying this build is for development purposes but the recovery tool would not load, instead the phone just booted into android. So I tried the “Interim Touch (CWM)” recovery which booted fine.

So then I proceeded to perform a Perm Root, which went through fine and the command prompt confirmed the files had been flashed. But when i rebooted my phone and ran “Root Check Basic” from android market, my phone was still not rooted.
After many attempts using Hasoon2000′s toolkit I searched the internet for more info and found this tutorial http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1583427 showing the necessary steps to perform the whole process manually but as I already had the bootloader unlocked and recovery flashed and working I just used Step 3 which is the Perm Root step.
In the tutorial there is a link to got to this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538053 On this page there is a link to an attatched file called “CWM-SuperSU-v0.90.zip” Download the zip file and copy it to your phone without extracting it. I dropped it in a new folder called “supersu”
Then you need to boot into recovery, either use Hasoon2000′s toolkit using the Commands section or turn off your phone and then turn back on with the volume down button pressed to boot to the bootloader, use the volume buttons to navigate to “Recovery” and confirm with the power button.
Once you are in recovery (Mine said “ClockworkMod Recovery v5.8.1.5″ at the top) select “install zip from sdcard” then “choose zip from sdcard” then loacte the “CWM-SuperSU-v0.90.zip” file and select it. You will then be asked to confirm. Select Yes from the list and let it do it’s thing.

Once this had finished, I rebooted to phone and I am now fully rooted.

Hope this helps someone :)
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Jacob-Kral/1584215890 Jacob Kral
  
  why does this have any downvotes??? worked great for me, the first cwm recoveries wouldnt flash using the toolkit, and this solved my issues.
Dan

I’m almost there. I’ve got my first phone and I’ve almost rooted it…it’s just that when I’m in Recovery mode to input supersu (made a new folder directly on my phone, called it supersu) when i hit the vol – button to install zip from sd card, the screen goes black and goes back to the first option…I can’t really get to the install zip from sd card option. Any ideas?
- Dan
  
  Problem is now that my phone doesn’t seem to be able to find the zip file…any ideas?
jacob

says cannot load ‘unlock_code.bin’
Haywood

can anyone help me im at the command prompt and doing step 3 and it always says error device not found and i have my one s set to disk drive and its the default option.
its always “waiting for device” just need help
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Jacob-Kral/1584215890 Jacob Kral
  
  mine did that too, just select the htc sync manager, even if you dont have it installed on your computer, it will be found and you can continue.
jimclark54

I’ve had a similar problem to the one below where the console can’t find the phone. I suspect it has something to do with having HTC Sync MANAGER installed instead of the old HTC Sync program. If the MANAGER program is installed on a PC, then the drivers won’t install. If you install the console on a computer without any HTC software, the drivers install fine, but can’t find the phone. Frustrating.
PA

I can’t get anything to work… I followed all the directions and nata. Has anyone else had this issue?
Gabriel

Finally something that works, thank you so much!
Elizabeth

When I type in fastboot oem get_identifier_token I get a message that says that ‘fastboot’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
sumeet

Hi,

I did unlock the bootlaoder from the HTC dev website and instead of flashing the CWM recovery i flashed the kernel ,now my phone doesn’t power on at all. Please help.
http://twitter.com/johnnyorgan Paul Doonan

I’ve tried everything, including Danprice’s help and nothing works. I’m still not rooted. Three hours of my life gone for nothing. Thanks anyway
http://twitter.com/johnnyorgan Paul Doonan

Oh wait!! Fx Explorer was lying! Just tried Root Checker Basic and I’m rooted!!! Hurray! Thanks loads danprice7134 :D!!!
dave

hello i have a HTC ONE S through bell (bell aliant) my computer is on windows 7 ultimate x64
only flash i used from toolkit is TWRP 2.3.1.0 (S3) when i use perm
root says im rooted i click on boot into recovery i get hung up on a
screen has the HTC logo and then this build is for development purposes
only do not distribute outside of htc without htc’s written permission.
failure to comply may lead to legal action
no matter what i do boot into the boot recovery from pc
or unplug usb and try from the phone itself no matter what way i try it
hangs at that same stupid screen how can i get passed that screen ?
when im in bootloader screen up top says tampered and unlocked (not sure that matters or not but there it is anyways)
nibroc88

how do you know that the flash properly worked?
nibroc88

how do i know that the rom correctly flashed
nibroc88

how do i know that the flash correctly worked?
LLegoLLaS

i boot into stock recovery mode but when i run the Perm Root it says device not found
brian

hi the Unlock Bootloader just fine works greet as for rooting no go just say,s no divice

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