Give a new life to your ageing Moto G

One of the best Android mobile phone ever developed for the mass was the 1st generation Moto G by Motorola. Motorola was owned by Google during the release and since 2013, the Moto G series has offered some of the best of both worlds. A clean and bloatware-free stock android experience and premium looking hardware at a very affordable price.

The 2013 Moto G also called the Moto G1 by a few of us and code-named falcon, was one of the best in the G series because of the premium looks during the time of release and a stock Android OS experience. It also received quite a few major OS updates. But that was back in 2013. The phone has 1GB of RAM and 16 Gig of storage for the top-end model with no expandable memory option (non-LTE version). The device had received a final upgrade to version 5.1 Lolipop and it stopped receiving updates after that. However, we can flash a custom ROM on this device to give it a new life and surprisingly its faster than the stock OS. There are options to update this even to Android 9 Pie.

With that said, This article will guide you through the process of flashing a custom ROM. We will be installing the Resurrection Remix OS custom ROM version 5 which is based on Android 7.1 Nougat.

Note: I have tried my best to keep this guide as simple as possible. However, it has to be noted that the guide requires you to have some technical knowledge on how Computers and Android phones function. It will also help if you are good with Google search :)

WARNING!! Do this at your own risk! You and you alone are responsible if the device is bricked!

Step 0 — Charge the phone to at-least 70%

Just charge it!

Step 1 — Install Platform tools on your PC

Download and extract the android platform tools for your OS. I will be using Windows 10.

Step 2 — Open a command window in the extracted location of the tools

Type cmd in the search and press enter. it is also advised to open the command prompt/window with elevated permissions like the administrator user. once the window is running, navigate to the extracted folder from the previous step.

watch this video to know how to open a command window.

Step 3 — Enable developer options, USB debugging and OEM Unlocking.

The developer options need to be enabled in your Moto G. To do this, navigate to

Settings > About Phone > Build Number

tap on the build number 7 times or more until you get the message that the developer options are enabled. More details here

Now find the developer options in the settings menu, click on USB debugging and enable it. Next, find OEM unlocking in the developer options and enable it.

Step 4 — Install the drivers

It is likely that the PC doesn't have the proper drivers installed on it for the Moto G device and you may run into some problems later. You can download the Motorola drivers here. If the drivers don't work or are not found, install the universal driver here.

Step 5 — Connect the phone with the PC with a good Micro USB cable

Disable phone lock screen and keep the phone connected with the PC. If everything was done right from the steps above, the notification area must show that your device is connected for USB debugging (this is important).

Step 6— Unlock the bootloader

To install a custom ROM, the bootloader needs to be unlocked. Motorola has made it easy for us. A detailed solution is available.

In the command window type the following command and press enter:

adb reboot bootloader

Once the device boots into fastboot, type the following command and press enter:

fastboot oem get_unlock_data

Now follow the steps given my Motorola in their help site. You should get an email with the UNIQUE_KEY. Copy and paste the key along with the command and press enter:

fastboot oem unlock UNIQUE_KEY

The bootloader should now be unlocked.

Step 7— Install a custom recovery

To install a custom ROM, a custom recovery is required to be installed on the device. The most used being the Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP)

Download the recovery here and install the recovery by following the instructions provided here (Fastboot Install Method — No Root Required)

Type the following command and press enter:

adb reboot bootloader

Download the correct image file and copy the file into the same folder as your platform-tools from Step 1. Rename the downloaded image file to twrp.img and type the following command and press enter:

fastboot flash recovery twrp.img

Twrp should now be installed.

Note: The recovery may get overwritten on the first reboot. It is better to boot to recovery immediately after the above step. On the bootloader menu use the volume- key to highlight the ‘Recovery’ option and press the volume+ key to enter TWRP recovery.

To boot into recovery, turn off the device and then press and hold the power button and lower volume key (volume-) simultaneously for a few seconds and then let it go. The device should now boot into the bootloader. Use the volume- key to highlight the ‘Recovery’ option and press the volume+ key to enter TWRP recovery.

OK! Phew…

Everything above was to get the device ready for the OS installation hence this is a one-time thing. You can now install any custom ROM with the steps below without redoing any of the above. Let's install the ROM!

Step 1 — Download the ROM

Download the Nougat (Android 7.1) version of Resurrection Remix OS from here. There is also an Oreo (Android 8.1) and a Pie (Android 9) version available (search for falcon in the respective folders) but I find Nougat version to be best suited for the hardware. Since Oreo seems a little slower, and on the Pie, I was not able to install the GApps. However, any ROM/flavour should work with the steps below.

Step 2 — [If you need Google apps/services] Download Open GApps

Download the Open GApps for the device from here. Make sure you select ARM > 7.1 > Pico for the Nougat ROM. Pico packages should be sufficient as it has the minimum Google apps required to get you started.

If the android version is other than Nougat, select the appropriate package.

Step 3 — Reboot to Recovery

Turn off the device and then press and hold the power button and lower volume key (volume-) simultaneously for a few seconds and then let it go. The device should now boot into the bootloader. Use the volume- key to highlight the ‘Recovery’ option and press the volume+ key to enter recovery. the phone should now enter TWRP recovery.

The selected option is ‘Recovery’ . Sorry about the bad image quality.

Step 3 — Wipe the system

Wipe the system by following the procedure recommended here

Step 4 — Copy the zip files to the internal storage (ROM and GApps)

Connect the phone with your PC and copy the zip files into the internal storage root folder.

Step 5 — Flash!!!

Now its time to flash the ROM and the GApps. Click on the Install button on the TWRP recovery, select the Custom ROM zip file, Swipe right to start the process. It should take some time to complete it. Once the process completes, you can now install the Open GApps package similarly. Select the GApps zip file, Swipe right to start the process. It should take some time to complete it. To know more, follow the detailed instruction here to flash these packages.

Reboot your device

The ROM should now be flashed. Reboot the device and it should be ready for use. IMPORTANT NOTE: The first boot usually takes a lot longer than usual (close to 15 mins in a few cases) so let the little guy do its thing. If it takes longer than 30 mins, something is wrong and its panic time! review the steps above and try again. A little google search might also help.