[bradenfontaine]

Many people want to root,flash roms, and do other stuff, but are afraid to do it. There is a wealth of information out there and sometimes people just need a little push. This thread will have many different sections, explaining what is what, and what to do. If you can follow directions, then this should be a breeze for you.

We are NOT responsible if you brick your device.
You should read this entire guide before attempting any of the following.

This forum has some good topics here
RAZR Rooting, ROMs, and Hacks - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com

And there are a ton of people here that are more than willing to help those who have read, searched, and ask in a mature manner. no credit for this goes to me, it all goes to the guys over at ,
, and some of our own community.

What is Root?

Rooting is basically gaining root access to the system files of your device, and unlocking the Superuser ability to make changes otherwise blocked by being unrooted. rooting itself does not change anything, other than allowing you to have access. With Root access you can back up your apps and settings, freeze bloatware, tweak your CPU, install custom ROMs, and a whole lot more.

What is a ROM?

A custom "ROM" is basically a skinned version of Android that a developer has tweaked to his liking. some ROMs give overclocking abilities built into them. some even have early access software that hasnt been released to your phone yet. as in, which has the Circles Widget built into it, just like on the new Razrs about to be released.

First steps

1. make sure your are up to date. The top two links are the drivers, 32 bit or 64 bit. Download whatever one you need for your operating system.


2. Download Matt’s Razr Utility 1.82 and dont forget to buy him a beer.

Matt’s Utility, as I’ll call it from here on out, is a very powerful, and multifunctional tool.
Upon downloading to your PC, you will want to unzip the file to a folder. I recommend creating a new folder and just keeping these files in that folder. Once unzipped, navigate to that folder and find the .bat file named DroidRAZRUtility. Put a shortcut to this on your desktop if you’d like.

Keep this utility in a safe place, it will be your best friend from here on out.







1) If you ever brick your phone, or need to ship it back to Verizon, you will need to do this option. This will remove root, and put your phone back to the way it was when you first took it out of its pretty black box. To do this option, you will have to put your phone into AP Fastboot mode. It sounds scary, but it is not. AP Fastboot is the stock recovery program that is built deep inside by Motorola. Turn off your phone.

Press and hold the following buttons at the same time until the screen turns on
1. volume down
2.volume up
3.power

Press Volume down until you reach the AP fastboot in the list
Press Volume up to select.



2) The Goods, this option is to root your Razr. Follow the onscreen prompts. Very simple and straight forward. You will have to have USB Debugging turned on. To do that, on your phone, go to System Settings. All the way at the bottom is Developer options. Check the box for USB Debugging.

3) Just an app to keep your root if you ever get pushed an update from Verizon.


4) Install safestrap. It just puts the app on your phone. You have to actually go into the app in your app drawer and install the recovery from there.

UPDATE: Some of you have been asking about Safestrap 3.0, it is still in beta phase. Once it has been released from beta, we will update this post with links. If you are feeling brave and have no concern for your phones safety, you can download it but be warned. If you mess anything up, do not and i repeat DO NOT COMPLAIN TO HASH, he will not respond. the most important thing you can do is read read read.

Download to your sd card, use a file exploer like ES FIle explorer to navigate to the file, install it, then open it and hit the install recovery button.

Installing a custom ROM

1. Go get your self a custom ROM.

2. Download one of your choice and put it on your EXTERNAL SD CARD. I recommend creating a folder and naming it ROMs so it is easy to find.

3. Reboot your phone.

you will be prompted to hit either the menu key for safestrap recovery, or the search key to boot normally.



4. Lets hit the menu key.

Now at the top you should notice that it says safe system is off. We are going to turn it on.
But first, lets create a back up of our current system

1. Use the volume keys to scroll down to the backup and restore line,use power to select
2. Hit backup
3. choose external SD card
4. Hit yes for the next two screens and the backup will begin. It will take 10-15 mins to complete

5.Now that you have your current system backed up, lets install a custom ROM. Im going to plug Arctic HD () because it is very similar to our stock system and runs quite well. Each ROM will have its own set of instructions on how to install, so follow them closely.

Make sure you have the ROM you want to install on your SD card BEFORE you switch to safe side. If you switch to safe side with out installing a ROM, your phone will not boot up it will just go to a black screen.

6. Navigate to Safe Boot Menu.

DO NOT use the fast toggle, it will skip the backup of your current system and you wont be able to restore it if something happens

7. Select Toggle safe system
8. Select Yes- Enable safe system, let it do its thing.

Installing the ROM

Return back to the main screen of safestrap
1) Wipe Data.
2) Wipe Cache.
3) Advanced -> Wipe Dalvik Cache (you will get an error message, all is normal)
4) Mounts and storage -> Format /system
5) Install the zip you downloaded and placed on your SD card
6) After first boot (which can sometimes take upwards of 10 minutes), reboot your device for best results.
7) Enjoy!




if i have made anything unclear or hard to understand/follow please do no hesitate to let me know, i will make any changes anyone sees fit. i will try to keep this up to date as changes are made.


this could not have been possible without the help from carracerz14 and everyone else on this forum.

all credit of layout and design goes to carracerz14

If I help you in anyway remember to hit that thanks button.

Also if you find an interesting rom setup, feel free to post links, screen shots, and experiences for the rest of us.

[bradenfontaine]

How to Make a Backup and Restore

UPDATE: Some of you have been asking about Safestrap 3.0, it is still in beta phase. Once it has been released from beta, we will update this post with links. If you are feeling brave and have no concern for your phones safety, you can download it but be warned. If you mess anything up, do not and i repeat DO NOT COMPLAIN TO HASH, he will not respond. the most important thing you can do is read read read.


1) Reboot your Razr.
2) When prompted, hit menu to boot in Safestrap Recovery
3) Scroll down to "backup and restore"
4) Hit "backup"
5) hit "external SD card"
6) There is no need to include webtop as most ROMs do not have webtop capabilities built in. if you are backing up your main stock system, then you would want to hit "yes", if not, hit "no".
7) There is no need to include your primary system in the backup, as it is already backed up when you toggled you safe system in the instructions in the above post. so hit "no".
8) Drink a beer, you've just made a back up!

[carracerz14]

Looks good to me :thumbup:

Sent from my RAZR MAXXIMUS

[carracerz14]

This needs to be made a sticky for sure

Sent from my RAZR MAXXIMUS

[bradenfontaine]

sorry for the poor camera quality, i'll try to do better when i get home.

[dmmarck]

Well done .

[durango992007]

Just rooted and romed my phone yesterday. Couldn't believe how easy it was. Am running artic hd right now.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums

[dmmarck]

Hey your clock/weather thing, I can has?

[durango992007]

Get yourself a rom that has it on it. This one is really awesome. Where the time is,if i have a missed call or text message it tells me there and i can click there to view it, rather than using the drop down menu.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums

[dmmarck]

Get yourself a rom that has it on it. This one is really awesome. Where the time is,if i have a missed call or text message it tells me there and i can click there to view it, rather than using the drop down menu.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums

I don't think they make those for my phone

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

[carracerz14]

Hey your clock/weather thing, I can has?

You have the nexus, correct? This clock is from the new moto launcher. BUT you can download the one more clock app and use the chrome rings theme. It doesn't have the animations showing missed calls or texts but it looks the same :thumbup:

Sent from my RAZR MAXXIMUS

[bradenfontaine]

Hey your clock/weather thing, I can has?

That is the Arctic HD rom. It has it built in!




Sent from the fingers of a madman

[dmmarck]

You have the nexus, correct? This clock is from the new moto launcher. BUT you can download the one more clock app and use the chrome rings theme. It doesn't have the animations showing missed calls or texts but it looks the same :thumbup:

Sent from my RAZR MAXXIMUS

Splendid, thank you.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

[bradenfontaine]

Uh oh that's right your Nexus man sorry I forgot

Sent from the fingers of a madman

[dmmarck]

Uh oh that's right your Nexus man sorry I forgot

Sent from the fingers of a madman

How could you?!

[bradenfontaine]

That widget was actually the main reason I installed Arctic. I'm just not a fan of their home screen, and that widget will only work with their home screen. Sad day indeed

Sent from the fingers of a madman

[bradenfontaine]

How could you?!

I have too much going through my mind 24/7!

Sent from the fingers of a madman

[bradenfontaine]

Starting to see an influx of jelly bean roms flowing in...

So remember safestrap 2.11! older versions will not be compatible

Sent from the fingers of a madman

[bradenfontaine]

Arctic HD





Sent from the fingers of a madman

[carracerz14]

That widget was actually the main reason I installed Arctic. I'm just not a fan of their home screen, and that widget will only work with their home screen. Sad day indeed

Sent from the fingers of a madman

I thought the same thing at first, but the new launcher really started to grow on me.

I do still prefer to have my home screen in the middle but it was just something I had to get used to. I do like how you can swype to the left of the home screen and get the quick toggles.

Sent from my RAZR MAXXIMUS

[bradenfontaine]

I like to customize things that home screen won't allow. Things Apex will. I'm sure there are apps to achieve what I want, but that's just more crap clogging my app drawer and bogging down my CPU.

Sent from the fingers of a madman

[carracerz14]

Yeah true. I like launchers but I always get my screens all set up then by the time I download one I don't feel like setting them all up again lmao

Sent from my RAZR MAXXIMUS

[dmmarck]

Yes HTC does, or did. Make a white one. But from what I understand, they were having issues with the white paint chipping off and exposing the white plastic underneath. They were going to delay the release of the white version but I don't know until when.

Anyone know when it will be released or where I can get my hands on one?

Nova can restore saved backups of your settings from other launchers, iirc/fwiw.

Sent from my Overly Suspicious Robotic Grouper

[Dandroid2010]

I need an advise.
I recently bought my Razr Maxx in Singapore. its an Asian Version. Im planning to root and install custom roms. im not used to rooting and stuff but i can definitely follow instructions.
Question is will this work on my device if its an asian version? Sorry im just a noob.
Thanks!

[carracerz14]

Nova can restore saved backups of your settings from other launchers, iirc/fwiw.

Sent from my Overly Suspicious Robotic Grouper

Lmao I believe you quoted the wrong post

Sent from my RAZR MAXXIMUS