Root Xperia Z1 Compact D5503 14.5.A.0.242 5.0.2 Firmware Plus Recovery

By
Usama M
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50

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact received the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop under the build number 14.5.A.0.242. This update was released a while ago and most of the people have already installed this update. The only thing left for Android power users after updating their devices is the root access and a custom recovery. There was not proper way to gain any of these both until now. Sony Xperia Z1 Compact with model number D5503 can now be rooted on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop firmware, with build number 14.5.A.0.242.

The rooting method that is used in this guide is different and easier from the traditional rooting methods for Xperia devices at this time. Moreover, this rooting method requires less steps that any other method at present.  The new lollipop update is based on the Material Design. Apart from the mainly visible changes, lot of changes have been made to the internals and architecture of OS. The Android OS is more secure now. Therefore, Android Power Users are well aware that rooting is alos difficult with Android 5.0.2 Lollipop update on Xperia Z1 Compact D5503.

This guide explains two methods; Rooting D5503 14.5.A.0.242 firmware and installing a custom recovery on Xperia Z1 Compact D5503. This guide is for rooting 14.5.A.0.242 firmware on Xperia Z1 Compact. Do not even attempt to try these files on any other smartphone. The recovery that will be installed during this guide depends on the user. The aroma installer allows the users to choose between installation of TWRP and CWM installation on Z1 Compact Lollipop firmware. This is done only once at the booting time. Both of these custom recoveries are good enough for most of the tasks. If you would like to use a touchscreen interface in the custom recovery, then install TWRP. Otherwise you can install CWM custom recovery. Follow the steps given below carefully to root Xperia Z1 Compact D5503 on 14.5.A.0.242 Android 5.0.2 Lollipop firmware and install a custom recovery.

1. This Guide Is Only For Sony Xperia Z1 Compact D5503

This rooting method is only for the device mentioned above. Make sure that your model number matches the one listed above. To do so, go to Settings > About Device on your device and see your model number. Flashing this firmware on any other device will result in bricking it so make sure that you meet this requirement first of all.

2. Battery should be charged at least over 60%.

Make sure that your battery is charged enough to complete the flashing process. In case your battery is low and your device goes dead during the flashing process, you may end up soft bricking your device as it won’t complete the flashing process.

3. Backup everything!

Just to be on the safe side, you may consider backing up each and everything from your Android device. This is highly recommended so that in case anything goes wrong, you still have the access to all of your data and you can restore it immediately. You may backup everything as listed below.

  • Backup SMS Messages
  • Backup Call Logs
  • Backup Contacts
  • Backup Media – Copy your files manually to your PC or Laptop.
  • Titanium Backup – If already rooted, use Titanium Backup to backup all of your apps, system data and other important content. If you haven’t rooted your device previously, skip this step.
  • Backup Nandroid – If CWM  or TWRP installed previously, otherwise skip this step and perform this at the end of flashing.

4. Enable USB Debugging Mode on your device.

Enable USB debugging mode on your device. To do so, tap settings>developer options>USB debugging. If you can’t find developer options in settings, then tap settings > about device and tap “Build Number” for 7 times and you’ll get em’ activated under settings.

5. Install and setup Sony Flashtool.

You must have installed Sony Flashtool. Find the full guide here.

After installing Sony Flashtool, open the Flashtool folder from the drive where you installed it. Now open Flashtool>Drivers>Flashtool-drivers.exe and install the Flashtool, Fastboot & Xperia Z1 Compact drivers from the list. If you do not find the Flashtool drivers in Flashmode, skip this step and install Sony PC Companion instead, for drivers support. [Important]

6. Use OEM data cable to establish connection.

Make sure that you use the phone’s original data cable to establish connection between your phone and the PC. Using a different data cable might result in interrupting the firmware installation.

7. Unlock Bootloader

Use the following guide to unlock the bootloader of your Xperia device before proceeding. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Not doing it might brick your device.

8. Set Up ADB and Fastboot Drivers

Download and install ADB and Fastboot drivers on your computer. If you are using Windows, then you should use Windows 7 to use ADB Drivers. ADB Drivers for Mac and Windows are given below.

ADB & Fastboot For Windows | ADB & Fastboot For Mac

Steps To Root Xperia Z1 Compact D5503 14.5.A.0.242 Firmware

1. Install Custom Recovery on Xperia Z1 Compact .242 Firmware

  1. Make sure that ADB Drivers are working correctly.
  2. Also make sure that you have unlocked bootloader of your smartphone.
  3. Make sure that build number of your phone’s current firmware is 14.5.A.0.242.
  4. Make sure that phone’s model number os either D5503.
  5. Once you have ensure these above mentioned tips, move to step 6.
  6. Download Root+Recovery+BusyBox Zip from here and copy to phone’s internal storage.
  7. Download CM11 ROM for Xperia Z1 Compact from here.
  8. Extract boot.img from the download CM11 ROM only and place it anywhere on PC.
  9. Copy the boot.img to Fastboot folder or Minimal ADB Installation Folder.
  10. Now turn off Xperia Z1 Compact.
  11. Hold volume up button and connect with PC using USB cable.
  12. LED should turn blue indicating phone is in fastboot mode. It can be any other color but phone must not go in charging. If it goes into charging mode then it means that fastboot drivers are not installed correctly and you have to install drivers again. Then jump back to this step.
  13. Open the fastboot folder where boot.img is placed.
  14. Hold shift button on keyboard and right-click on mouse.
  15. Click on “Open Command Window Here” (For Windows).
  16. Type fastboot devices and press Enter
  17. If is shows only one device with random serial number, move ahead. If there are more than one devices than uninstall any Android Emulator on your PC and disconnect any other device. Also uninstall PC Companion if installed.
  18. Type fastboot flash boot boot.img and press Enter.
  19. The flashing will be done in few seconds.
  20. Now type fastboot reboot and press Enter.
  21. While phone is booting up, use the volume buttons or power button to boot into custom recovery.
  22. Select install in recovery and install the package you copied in the 6th step.
  23. Select the recovery that you want to install during flashing.
  24. After recovery has been installed, just reboot your device.
  25. Work here is done. Now move on to next step.

2. Root Xperia Z1 Compact .242 Firmware

  1. Download SuperSU flashable zip.
  2. Place it in the SD Memory of your phone.
  3. Now turn off phone.
  4. Turn it on.
  5. While phone is turning on, press volume buttons and power button to enter recovery mode.
  6. Once in TWRP, tap on install and locate the folder where you have placed the SuperSU zip.
  7. Install it (Flash it) and phone will be rooted automatically and SuperSU app will also be installed.
  8. Now go back to main menu and reboot the device.
  9. That’s all! Now your phone is rooted with custom recovery installed.

Got any question? Ask me in the comments below

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Usama M
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.

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50 COMMENTS

  1. this don’t work, after install TWRP keeps looping on boot, just can get to TWRP and tried wipe dalvik cache, factory reset, etc and keeps always in loop.

  2. hello and thank you sir >>>>> but If i can’t unlock my boot loader please how can i do it >>> couse maybe some thing wrong with my boot loader i tried alot of time for unlock with all virsion but still lock

  3. @ajsilva:disqus you must have the new firmware. Please try these steps.
    After flashing TWRP, root your device by flashing SuperSu.zip
    After this, boot your device in flashmode and connect it to PC,
    Open flashtool and load the firmware.
    Exclude system from the right side and flash the firmware.
    Let me know if this workaround fixes this issue or not.
    Good Luck.

    • I had the latest firmware, the problem was the boot.img that flashed from here, not even with another cyanogen boot.img my phone boot normally, had to put another boot.img that found. Later I can put here the link (now I’m on phone).
      Couldn’t install the supersu because wanted to put on international memory after install twrp but after it couldn’t boot the phone.

  4. not working for me i did everything and i just see sony logo then reset and again sony logo i cant go to system

  6. I couldnt 😔
    I did it a lot of times
    1-did it as you said, and Then… Bootloop 😟
    2-Did it as you said, flash ftf without system…Bootloop Again 😧
    3-did fastboot with another boot img, based on cm11 z1c ROM…bootloop once Again😕
    4- Did it. With another boot img z1c cm11ROM and flash ftf excluding system…and BOOTLOOP 😠

    5-did fastboot with a boot img from a cm12 ROM, didnt bootloop, but i couldnt instal cwm/twrp (cause cm12 ROM have Cyanogen Recovery and doesnt let you install anything, neither The root, so i got my Phone as i Already have it😒

    6-did fastboot with a boot img z1c cm11ROM, Then did flash ftf without syste… The same result, couldnt install anything . 😫

    7- i give up, i did flash ftf, and got my Phone as i have it, and lost 5 hours of mylife
    😵

    Please Help me
    😭

  9. hey everyone, I did all 34 steps (chose cwm) and after that i flashed the 14.5.A.0.2.42…. Software (but no system). Now i still can’t boot to a system. So i stucked at this point and have no idea how to continue. Is there anyone who can help me please?

    edit: I’m trying with the another boot.img (http://www.mediafire.com/download/05tlay9fopp57x8/boot.img) and chose TWPR-recovery – same result: sony logo/fastboot mode/recovery

    So i did get stucked here…
    Please help me…

  10. Hi, I did the same and boot came in a loop! Afterwards I installed the boot.img from the link you gave in the comment box and this worked for me. So maybe you should change the image file in the tutor. Thank you very much for helping me with rooting my Xperia Z1 compact 🙂

  11. “Sony Xperia Z3 with model number D5503 can not (<– SHOULD THIS BE "NOW") be rooted on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop firmware, with build number 14.5.A.0.242." Which is the boot.img link that Dirk refers to?

  13. Everything went right, till the 18th step.

    C:Program FilesMinimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot flash boot boot.img

    sending ‘boot’ (11386 KB)…

    OKAY [ 0.378s]

    writing ‘boot’…

    FAILED (remote: Command not allowed)

    finished. total time: 0.401s

    That’s what it shows en the command screen

  15. Works like a charm. I started it out on the mac but that was too complicated. So did it through my windows xp! Thanks guys!

  16. please help me guys.. im stuck at #17. when i enter “fastboot devices”, nothing will happened.

  18. pls, help guys im stuck here but nothing happend plsss help me out to root my z1 compact android ver. 5.0.2

  19. Can’t get bootloader unlocked, whatever tried. Windows 8.1 Pro. Installed all the required drivers, got BLU code from Sony, and it fails to unlock. Service info configuration says: “Bootloader unlock allowed: Yes”. I tried everything, including different ADB/Fastboot drivers, writing 0x0FCE instead of 0x0fce, different fastboot instances (both from Sony’s Android SDK and from “Minimal ADB&Fastboot”, different directory paths (short and long)… Null. Nada. Zilch.
    fastboot devices returns normal output (body s/n connected), fastboot -i 0x0fce getvar version returns version 0.5. All attempts to write whatever boot.img end with FAILED (remote: Command did not succeed)

    Another way I tried (and failed) is Flashtool (not Sony’s Emma, but proper flashtool, most recent version). It pretends to do the job (though to make it work you have to create a folder named “registeredDevices” with body’s serial number inside and inside that place a file named ulcode.txt, containing Sony’s official BLU code starting with 0x, and do that in both C:Users%userprofile%Local.fastboot, as well as in C:Fastboot (substitute drive letter and directory paths with your own), but practically cuts it. It requires Flashmode (volume down key) instead of Fastboot mode (volume up key), after the procedure the Service info Configuration entry changes from “Bootloader unlock allowed: Yes” to “Rooting status: Unknown” and both phone’s cameras catch a bug (Bootloader Relock operation with Flashtool restores camera operation to normal).
    I have D5503, Russian official, upgraded to 242 from rooted (BL locked) and heavily customized 108 (JB 4.3) via PC Companion. USB cable is genuine OEM from original box. Intel USB 3.0 controller on Toshiba Kirabook 13 X00M, all other ports free — e.g. everything is as suggested by the manual.

    Any ideas?

    What bothers me as well is that under Lollipop the phone started to suck battery power like industrial vacuum cleaner, although CPU overheating occurs less often (some Stamina options are on, X-Reality off, display brightness set on about 50-60%, cellular data and wifi on).

    • @ignatsolovey:disqus please connect your phone by enabling usb debugging mode, and issue this command: adb devices

      show me a screenshot of the output.

      • @usamamujtaba:disqus USB debugging mode is THE first thing I enable with any Android device I ever connect to a PC, regardless. Just in case. Of course, the first thing I did was enabling it and I double-checked that several times when problems appeared. When the phone asked if debugging should be allowed with my computer, I approved that.

        Output of adb devices is empty, with any of seven drivers I have (Android ADB interface, Android Bootloader Interface, Sony ADB Interface, Sony Fastboot Interface, Android Composite ADB Device, Sony Composite ADB Device — all by Google, Inc., not signed; Sony so0107 ADB Interface Driver by Sony, signed. The last three considered incompatible by Windows, but without any visible adversities (fastboot devices outputs body s/n connected with any of seven). The first four, which are “compatible”, have version 4.0.0.0 and dated 06.12.2010.

        That rings some bells. My first thought actually is that the problem is with that drivers. ADB drivers always pose some problems, even with Chinese noname phones, half of which come factory rooted.

      • Everything worked under Win7 x64 where no other phone was ever rooted. I guess that it had to do something with either Windows 8.1 or Sony’s unlock code (I requested another to another email and it was different).

    • Thanks, that’s quite useful, though I have Intel USB drivers installed. Anyway, tribal dance around bootloader was done on Win7x64 machine, and even that, actually, I could avoid if I didn’t cling on the idea of rooting clean official stock firmware and then gutting with Titanium Backup. For now it’s over, after I fed that thing with DstrikerZ1 Kai 4.7 custom ROM and it works like charm, even Xposed Framework 3.0a4. The only bugs I’ve yet encountered are buggy auto display backlight (which I never use anyway), and constanly freezing 4K video mode (which itself was pulled from Z3 Compact and is not of any essence for me yet, though FHD/60p is quite nice, to use phone as tretiary camera for filming industrial stuff (CNC machines etc.), where ActionCam is a bit too wide… though when I need to do videos for my work (I’m photographer) I shoot FHD/25p@35Mbps with PMW-200 camcorder for better compatibility and less strain during editing and encoding.

  21. Hi there, Will you provide me a link to download the flash tool for sony d5503 lollipop 14.5.A.0.242 5.0.2 for rooting, thank you

  24. Please confirm if we’re supposed to “flash” the boot.img or just temporarily boot into the CM11 boot.img. According to the recovery installer author (here :http://forum.xda-developers.com/sony-xperia-z1-compact/development/ub-root-recovery-busybox-lolipop-t3085479) we’re only supposed to temporarily boot into the CM11 boot.img.

    In other words, instead of running “flashboot flash boot boot.img”, we are only supposed to run “flashboot boot boot.img”.

    Running “flashboot flash boot boot.img” got me into a bootloop.

    • I was able to fix my bootloop problem by re-flashing the original .242 boot.img in fastboot. And voila, my 5.0.2 Lollipop phone is working again, with root.

      I will try your new tutorial to get to 5.1.1.

      Thanks a lot :).

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