How to root Xiaomi Redmi 2, and install Clockworkmod recovery without even voiding warranty

Xiaomi Redmi 2 was launched just a few weeks back worldwide, and the first flash sale of the successor to the popular Redmi 2, in India, occurred just last week. As Xiaomi doesn’t keep its users from trying to mod their smartphones by themselves, we figured it would be nice to root the phone and customize it more to our liking. This article is for everyone who is seeking guidance regarding how to root the Xiaomi Redmi 2. Rooting the Redmi 2 will allow you to uninstall the bunch of crap apps that come pre-installed, use apps that requires superuser permissions, among many other things.
Before you start on on the path to root the Redmi 2:

• We, or the developer(s) of any tools that might be used in this guide, can’t be held responsible if anything goes wrong with your device.
  
• Make sure that your phone is charged well. Anything below 30% can be risky, as we don’t want your phone to run out of your juice while we are performing the operation.

Rooting the Redmi 2 is a multi-step process, the main steps being the following ones:

• Step 1: Installing drivers for the Xiaomi Redmi 2 on your PC

• Step 2: Installing clockworkmod recovery on Redmi 2

• Step 3: Root Xiaomi Redmi 2 by flashing the superuser zip file

If you get stuck at some step, or prefer watching rather than reading, we have a video describing the complete process below. Feel free to refer the video if you get stuck somewhere in the guide we have written ahead.

So let’s start on our crusade by explaining the first step, i.e. installing the drivers for Yu Yureka on our PC, so that we can use fastboot to flash the clockworkmod recovery in the subsequent step.

Downloads required:

• Download the Droidiser Rooting Kit for Redmi 2 zip file on your computer and extract it anywhere you like. All the files required in this tutorial are present in this 40 MB download.

Installing drivers for Xiaomi Redmi 2 on your Windows PC

1. In the folder in which you extracted the Rooting kit for Redmi 2, double click, and install, MiPhone20140509.exe. The installation can take a few minutes. So don’t get impatient too quickly.
   
2. Once the installation is finished, go to the same folder and while holding the shift button on your keyboard, right click on an empty space. Now select the Open command window here option, which would open a command window in the current directory.  Leave this command window open for now, we’ll get back to it in a while.
   
3. On your Redmi 2, go to Settings > About Phone and in there, tap on the MIUI Version field seven times. This would unlock the developer options on your Redmi 2.
   
4. Now go to Settings > Additional Settings > Developer Options and make sure that USB Debugging is turned to on.
   
5. Connect your Redmi 2 to the PC using USB cable.
   
6. In the command window, give the command:
   
   adb devices
7. If your device drivers have installed fine, a pop-up should appear on your phone, asking you to authorize adb to connect to your phone.
   
8. Once you authorize it, enter the command again, and now the command prompt should return something like this.
   
   
   
9. That’s it. You’ve completed this step. And believe me, it only gets easier from here on.

Installing clockworkmod recovery on Redmi 2

1. If the command window that you opened previously is still open, then well and good. Otherwise go to the folder in which you extracted the Rooting kit again, and press Shift + Right click to get to the Open command window here option.
2. In the command window, give the command:
   
   adb reboot bootloader
   This will reboot your phone in the fastboot mode.
   Note: You can boot into fastboot mode without this command too. To do so, switch off your phone. Then, press and hold Volume Up and Power button till some weird screen appears. Then select Fastboot.
3. Once your phone is in fastboot mode (a screen saying Fastboot should be visible on your phone), give the command:
   
   fastboot flash recovery cwm.img
4. The command window should show something like “Writing finished”. Once it says so, disconnect your phone from the USB cable. Then pull out your Redmi 2’s battery and put it back in. Now power on your phone as you normally do.

Root Xiaomi Redmi 2

1. Make sure that you didn’t directly jump to the rooting part. In order to the below steps to work, you need to make sure that you have followed the rest of the guide above.
2. Connect your phone to the PC again, and transfer the file named UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.40.zip (present in the folder in which you extracted the Rooting Kit) to your phone’s internal memory.
3. Now power off the Redmi 2 (by long pressing the Power button and selecting Power Off option).
4. Once the phone has shut down completely (a tiny vibration will confirm the same), press and hold Volume Up and Power buttons simultaneously till the screen powers on.
5. A menu should be visible asking you which mode you want to power on your Redmi 2 in.
6. Select the Recovery option to boot into the recovery mode.
7. Now you should be in the clockworkmod recovery on your Redmi 2. Use Volume Up and down to scroll through the available options and the power button to select the currently highlighted option.
8. Scroll down to the Install zip option, then select the choose zip from /sdcard option, then the 0/ and finally select the UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.40.zip file that we copied to the Redmi 2’s internal storage.
9. Once we select the file we need to flash, we will need to confirm our action. Select Yes – install UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.40.zip to confirm the installation.
10. Once the zip is installed, select the reboot system now option.
    Note: If the recovery says something like Root access probably lost. Fix?, select the Yes – fix root option.

In case you are facing any troubles in rooting the Redmi 2, let us know in the comments section below. We shall be happy to help. Don’t forget to share this post with your friends, to help them root their Redmi 2, without having to search for a working guide.