How to install TWRP 3.x Recovery on your Android device

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Custom recoveries have always proved to be the best source to tweak your Android smartphone. Custom recoveries are responsible for giving Android power users the freedom to flash and modify their devices without going through any potential risks. In most of the cases, a custom recovery will help you to root your Android phone by flashing the SuperSu.zip file.

Using a custom recovery, you can create a backup of your whole Android system image, which will help you to recover your device just in case you end messing it all up while trying to pull in some new features. Another advantage of custom recoveries is the option to wipe cache and Dalvik cache, which proves out to be a life savior at times when your Android phone gets stuck in a bootloop after flashing a custom ROM. Other then these two features, custom recoveries offer lots of features that are quite handy in many critical situations. Having one recovery installed on your Android phone is always recommended.

When it comes to choosing a custom recovery for your Android phone, you might come across two names, the CWM (ClockWorkMod) and the TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project) recovery. CWM is relatively old, the recovery which was the pioneer in Android development while the TWRP recovery came out a bit later. Both these recoveries have their own features and caught the likings of different users, but because of a much better UI, TWRP is becoming the first choice for most of the Android power users these days because of its frequent updates.

TWRP recovery offers a complete touch UI. You can do everything simply by tapping the on-screen buttons. The UI is self-explanatory and involves no complexity at all. Even a novice Android user can operate it easily. Other then that, this recovery has much more active development. TWRP, at the moment, is available for most of the Android devices and for almost all the possible version of Android. Over the past few years, the developers have worked consistently to improve the TWRP recovery and as a result, the biggest overhaul in the history of TWRP has happened now. The latest version, TWRP 3.0.0 is out carrying a plethora of new features.

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The very first and the most notable thing to be found in the TWRP 3.0.0 is the new UI. It overtakes the old and flat greyish UI. The new UI now sports a new blue header and also a new blue scroll bar on the left. TWRP now brings a language translator as well. This feature is a great utility for the users who can’t understand English can now translate TWRP to their desired language. The list of changes in TWRP 3.0.0 is attached below.

True Terminal Emulator – Includes arrow keys, tab and tab completion, etc. (by _that)
Language translation – Languages that require large font files like Chinese & Japanese won’t be available on most devices. Some languages may only be partially translated at this time. Translations are welcome over at OmniROM’s Gerrit. (mostly by Dees_Troy)
Flashing of sparse images – On select devices you will be able to flash some parts of factory images via the TWRP GUI (by HashBang173)
Adopted storage support for select devices – TWRP can now decrypt adopted storage partitions from Marshmallow
Reworked graphics to bring us more up to date with AOSP – includes support for adf and drm graphics (by Dees_Troy)
SuperSU prompt will no longer display if a Marshmallow ROM is installed
Update exfat, exfat fuse, dosfstools (by mdmower)
Update AOSP base to 6.0
Many, many minor fixes and tweaks

If you’ve come here finding a way to flash the latest TWRP 3.0.0 or 3.0.x recovery on your Android smartphone, then you’re spot on! The succeeding guide illustrates How to install TWRP 3.0.x Recovery on your Android device. There are three different methods to install TWRP recovery, the first one shows how you can install TWRP on Android using the TWRP.img file. The 2nd one shows how you can install TWRP on your Android phone using the TWRP.zip file and the last one, which is basically for Samsung Galaxy series shows how to install TWRP 3.0.0 or 3.0.x on your Samsung Galaxy using the TWRP.img.tar file. Time for us to move ahead now, go through the pre-requisites carefully.

Precautions

  1. This guide will work for almost all Android devices by the manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, HTC, Google, Motorola, LG, Oppo, ZTE, and others. The TWRP recoveries can be installed on Android devices running Android Jelly Bean, Android KitKat, Android Lollipop and Android Marshmallow.
  2. Download TWRP 3.0.0 or 3.0.x recovery for your Android device carefully. Downloading a TWRP recovery that’s not meant to be for your device’s model number can result in bricking it.
  3. Charge your phone up to 50% to avoid power issues during the recovery installation process.
  4. Use the original data cable to establish a connection between your Android smartphone and your computer.
  5. Disable firewall, any Antivirus if you’ve enabled it on your computer.
  6. Enable USB debugging on your Android smartphone. To do so, go to settings > about device > tap the build number for 7 times. This will enable developer options in settings right above the about device option. Now open developer options and enable USB debugging.
  7. If your device comes with a locked OEM permission, you need to unlock it. Here’s a guide on how to enable OEM unlocking.
  8. Follow the method that suits your device the best.
  9. The process is entirely custom, it will result in voiding the warranty of your phone. In case your phone gets bricked during the recovery installation process or some other mishap occurs, TechBeasts or the recovery developers may not be held responsible. Make sure that you’re proceeding at your own risk.

How to install TWRP 3.0.x Recovery.img file on your Android device

This method will mainly work for almost all Android devices. You can easily flash TWRP.img file on your HTC, Sony, Google, LG, Huawei, Oppo, Motorola or any other phone which has the TWRP recovery.img support. In order to make this method work, you need to setup Android ADB and Fastboot on your desktop PC or Mac OS X computer. Another method to install TWRP.img file is the use of an application like Flashify or Flash Gordon but for these applications, you will need root access. The following part of our guide discusses both these methods.

 

Installing TWRP 3.0.x Recovery.img file via Android ADB & Fastboot

  1. Install and setup Android ADB & Fastboot tools on your desktop PC or Mac. Following are the relevant guides.
  2. Download the TWRP Recovery 3.0.x.img file carefully for your Android device. Rename the downloaded file to only TWRP.img to avoid any confusion.
  3. Now copy the downloaded TWRP Recovery 3.0.x.img file in your ADB and Fastboot folder. If you’ve performed the full ADB & Fastboot installation, you will copy this file in your installation drive i.e. C:/Android-SDK-Manager/platform-tools. If you’ve installed Minimal ADB & Fastboot, you will copy the file in C:/Program Files/Minimal ADB & Fastboot.
  4. Now open the platform-tools or Minimal ADB & Fastboot folder. Press and hold the shift key on your keyboard and then right click on an empty area within the aforementioned folders. As the menu pops up, click on “Open command window here”. This will open up the cmd to flash recovery.Screenshot_117
  5. Make sure that you’ve enabled OEM unlocking and also enabled USB debugging, go ahead and connect your phone to your PC.
  6. Now push the following commands one by one.

adb devices

This will verify your device’s  connection with your PC.

adb reboot-bootloader

This will reboot your device in fastboot mode.

fastboot devices

This will verify your device’s connection in fastboot mode.

fastboot flash recovery TWRP.img

This will flash the recovery.

Install TWRP 3.0.x Recovery.img file via Flashify

Make sure that your Android phone is rooted and has Flashify installed on it. Here are the relevant guides.

How To Use Flashify To Install Custom Recovery, Kernel [.img/.zip files]

  1. Download the recovery.img file using the link attached above and rename it to only TWRP.img.
  2. Copy the downloaded recovery.img file to your phone’s internal or external storage.
  3. Now open the installed Flashify application on your Android smartphone and give it root access.
  4. Tap the FLASH option in Flashify.
  5. Now tap the Recovery image button and locate the file that you just copied to your phone.  10751930_10204602290589869_200023050_n
  6. Follow on-screen instructions and flash the recovery.img file (TWRP.img).
  7. Reboot into recovery using the reboot options in Flashify or use the button combination for your Android phone.

 

How to install TWRP 3.0x Recovery.zip on your Android

Again, this method too will work for most of the Android smartphones [manufacturers mentioned above] including Samsung Galaxy as well but for this method, you will either need a custom recovery pre-installed on your Android device or you will need root access in order to flash it using Flashify.

How to flash TWRP 3.0.x Recovery.zip via Custom Recovery

  1. Download the TWRP 3.0.x Recovery.zip for your device carefully.
  2. Copy the downloaded file to your phone’s internal or external storage.
  3. Boot into custom recovery on your phone. You can boot into recovery using adb reboot recovery command in the adb and fastboot shell or also use the button combination according to your device.
  4. Now in the custom recovery, select or tap Install / Install Zip from SD card > Choose Zip from Sd card / locate the zip file > Select the TWRP recovery.zip file > flash the file.
  5. Once flashed, reboot into recovery mode and you will find the latest TWRP 3.0.x installed on your device.

How to flash TWRP 3.0.x Recovery via Flashify

  1. Download and install Flashify on your Android device.
  2. Download the recovery.zip file using the link attached above and rename it to only TWRP.img.
  3. Copy the downloaded recovery.zip file to your phone’s internal or external storage.
  4. Now open the installed Flashify application on your Android smartphone and give it root access.
  5. Tap the FLASH option in Zip File.10751930_10204602290589869_200023050_n
  6. Now tap the Recovery image button and locate the file that you just copied to your phone.
  7. Follow on-screen instructions and flash the recovery.zip file (TWRP.zip).

How to install TWRP Recovery.img.tar on your Samsung Galaxy

  1. Download TWRP 3.0.x Recovery.img.tar file for your Samsung Galaxy Device carefully.
  2. Download and install Samsung USB drivers on your computer.
  3. Also, Download and extract Odin3 3.09 on your computer’s desktop.
  4. Put your Samsung Galaxy in download mode. To do so, completely turn off your Samsung Galaxy and then turn it on while pressing and holding Volume Down + Home + Power key, as the warning shows up, press Volume Up to continue. This will boot your phone into download mode.
  5. Now connect your phone to your PC and open Odin3.exe.
  6. Now Odin will show you a yellow or blue light in the ID:COM box depending on your version of Odin. This light shows that your phone is successfully connected in Odin mode or download mode.
  7. Click on the PDA or AP tab in Odin and select the recovery.img.tar file.Odin_Techbeats.com_
  8. Make sure that the only options selected in Odin are Auto Reboot and F.Reset Time. No other options should be ticked or touched.
  9. Now click on the Start button in Odin. This will begin the recovery flashing process. Once the flashing ends, your device will reboot automatically.
  10. Now you can reboot into recovery mode using the three button combination (Volume Up + Home + Power key).
  11. That’s all.

Want to root your device now? Flash the SuperSu.zip file in recovery and it will be rooted.

Now that you’ve installed the TWRP 3.0.0 recovery on your Android phone, you may checkout our custom ROMs section to flash a nice custom ROM on your phone, or find our a nice mod to add some new features to your phone.

Don’t forget to create a Nandroid backup, also backup all possible partitions of your device right after installing the TWRP recovery.

That’s all. Stuck with something? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Reach us out through the comments section.

The TWRP Recovery belongs to the TeamWin 🙂

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Usama is a software engineer by profession and at TechBeasts.com he uses his expertise to solve everyday consumer tech problems with his main areas of interest being Android, iOS and Windows.

14 COMMENTS

  1. So I put the twrp.tar file on my galaxy tab 2 10.1 P5113 using odin but everytime I try to boot into recovery I get the no command line.

  2. So I flashed twrp on to my Galaxy Tab 2 P5113 using odin, but now everytime I try to boot into recovery I get a no command line. Not sure what to do now any tips?

  3. So I flashed twrp on to my Galaxy Tab 2 P5113 using odin, but now everytime I try to boot into recovery I get a no command line. Not sure what to do now any tips?

  4. Hii
    I want to custom recovery and cm12 only for my device karbonn titanium s8
    I want to update my device in lollipop version
    So plz help me and send me TWRP and cm12 only for my device karbonn titanium s8
    Plz plz

  5. I have a smg550t android version 6.0.1 it doesn’t specify lollipop or any other os. How do l make sure I get the correct twrp file?

  6. I have twrp .img file. How to convert to .tar for use with odin, and .zip to flash from sdcard?
    I even converted .twrp to .tar(peazip), then used odin to flash: Log says success, but when I open bootloader I don’t find twrp.

  7. .tar files are used for Samsung galaxy phones, and they are already available on the official TWRP site. For galaxy phones, you can flash .tar files in Odin.

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