Install Android 4.4 KitKat CM 11 Custom ROM on Sony Xperia SP

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Sony’s Xperia SP is Sony’s mid range device, and is also one of my favorite Xperia phones. The phone fits perfect in your hands, has a 1.7 GHz dual core processor, 1 GB RAM, 8 MP camera at the back and a VGA camera on front, while the display is 4.6 inch scratch resistant TFT, what else could you expect from a mid range phone, and I guess Xperia SP is the perfect choice. Well, the device runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean out of the box and Sony has planned the upgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat. As off now Sony has announced that the phone will receive Android 4.3 in the next month (December, 2013). What we have for you here today, is the unofficial CyanogenMod 11 based Android 4.4 KitKat custom ROM for Sony Xperia SP.

If you are familiar with custom ROMs and if you are one of those Android freaks who always like to taste the latest and greatest version of Android using custom ROMs before it actually comes out officially, then this post is surely for you. The guys at XDA have always been good with their work, and they have cooked up an unofficial CyanogenMod 11 based KitKat ROM, I’ve explained the method to install this ROM on Xperia SP in simple and easy steps below, scroll down and follow this guide to letter, but before we begin please keep in mind, as I mentioned that this is unofficial CM 11 ROM and is a nightly build, it may contain bugs, and may not be kept for every day use, flash it only if you have much knowledge about the custom ROMs and if you can handle these…

Xperia SP

Disclaimer: The methods involved in flashing custom roms and rooting your phone is highly custom and may result in bricking your device, and has nothing to do with Google or the device manufacturer that is Samsung in our case. Also rooting your device will void its warranty and you will be no longer eligible for any kind of free device services by the manufacturers/warranty providers. In case of any mishap we may not be held responsible. Follow these instructions to the letter to avoid any mishap or bricking. Make sure that whatever you do, you are doing it at your own responsibility.

Here are some important points to keep in mind and some pre requisites:

      1. Make sure that your phone is Xperia SP C5303/2. Do not try this on any other phone.
      2. Make sure that your phone’s bootloader is unlocked, if not then unlock it here.
      3. Your phone must be rooted and have a CWM recovery installed. Follow this post to root and install CWM recovery.
      4. Your phone’s battery must be charged over at least 60%. This is highly recommended in order to prevent any mishap during the flashing process.
      5. Make sure that you backup your important media content, contacts, call logs and messages.
      6. Make sure that you make nandroid backup using the backup option in CWM recovery. This is highly recommended so that if the custom ROM doesn’t work, or if you do not like it after flashing, you can immediately restore the previous system on your phone.
      7. Once again I insist, use this guide to letter to prevent any mishap.

How to flash Android 4.4 KitKat CM 11 Custom ROM on Sony Xperia SP:

      1. Download the ROM’s zip file from Here .
      2. Open the downlaoded .zip folder and extract the boot.img kernel file only.
      3. Download Android ADB and Fastboot drivers, follow our full guide here to make it easy.
      4. Now place the kernal file that is boot.img file that you extracted from the zip folder in the fastboot folder that you downloaded form the guide linked above.
      5. After placing the kernel file in the fastboot folder, open the fastboot folder. Press shift and then Right click on any empty area inside the folder, now select “Open command prompt here“. flash it using the command “Fastboot Flash Boot Boot.img”. In case you are confused, follow the Android ADB & Fastboot drivers guide carefully.
      6. .
      7. Place the ROM.zip file and Gapps.zip file on your phone’s internal or external sd card.
      8. Boot into CWM recovery. To do so, turn off your device, now turn it on and quickly press volume up and down keys, you will get the CWM interface.
      9. In CWM wipe the cache and dalvik cache.
      10. Now select “Install Zip>Choose Zip from Sd card / external Sd card”.
      11. Select the ROM.zip file that your placed on your phone’s Sd card.
      12. It should take a few mins to flash the ROM, now once again select “Install Zip>Choose Zip from Sd card / external Sd card”.
      13. Choose the Gapps.zip file this time and flash it.
      14. As soon as done flashing, clear cache and dalvik cache again.
      15. Reboot system now, you should see the CM logo on the boot screen now, it may take upto 10 minutes in order to boot into home screen.
      16. Congrats! Enjoy unofficial Android 4.4 KitKat custom ROM on your Sony Xperia SP now.

That’s all for now. Do tell us about your experience about this ROM. In case you got any queries or you face any difficulties, feel free to stop by the comment box below. We will try our best to help you out. Thanks All!

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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.

43 COMMENTS

  1. This port runs out of batt twice as fast from the previous rom I was using and it takes forever to charge. Too bad I’ll have to back to 4.1.2

      • I disagree. Custom roms are meant to improve several aspects of a stock firmware like performance, hardware and software efficiency and so on otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to flash one. Although this didn’t fail to provide the full 4.4 experience but it drastically failed in battery consumption and charging time(which I also experienced in CM10-huashan ported to SP) 🙂

  2. @william_villegas:disqus That’s your driver problem, please install the drivers properly, also make sure that you enable USB debugging mode on your device.

  3. When my phone boots it always freezes and reboots then. Then it completes the boot and freezes then after 1-2 secs and reboots..

  4. can any give me stock rom of .254 for c5303 which is not country locked.please I need it urgently I’ll be very very thankful… please…

  5. Hey man, great job. But i think i miss something.
    My phone keeps rebooting when is in full load.
    when i test it with Antutu, reboots in 21%. Can you help me with this?

  6. There are no links to unlock the phone and to install CWM. Plz just don’t Copy-Paste a tutorial without making sure that all the links are there.

    • @rolandbenjamins:disqus kindly watch your words before you make a comment. Techbeasts.com doesn’t copy anyone. Our content is independent and genuine. About the link, it wasn’t hyperlinked and is updated now and you may check. And thank you for letting us know about the link.
      People have their mind and they can find the tutorials if it’s not linked in. Others have used this guide and flashed this ROM without making any noise that you can read in the comments below.

      • Excusez-moi for that then, I just come across a lot of blogs for this kind of stuff that just copy things. One way to notice this are broken (or non-existent) links, so that’s why I thought that this could be the same thing.

        I just needed a clear tutorial, and I thought this would be a good one. So I was kinda frustrated that there were links missing 😉 So thx for upping the link for Unlocking the bootloader, but the CWM/Root link is still not there.

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