It’s time to install TWRP on your brand new Xperia XZ1. With the TWRP recovery, you can also root your Xperia XZ1 using Magisk. This good thing for the Xperia XZ1 happened just today. XZ1 owners are now free to break the boundaries in order to unleash the true power of their phone.
The Xperia XZ1 originally came out back in August this year. The phone is equipped with a 5.2-inch screen with full HD resolution having Gorilla Glass 5 protection. Sony has powered it by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 CPU accompanied by Adreno 540 GPU. To boost up the CPU processing, Sony has installed a 4GB RAM. To fulfil your storage needs, there is a 64GB internal storage chip. It also has the expandable card slot. At the back, Xperia XZ1 has a 19MP shooter and on the front, it has a 13MP shooter. One of the best features of this phone is its software. The XZ1 ran on Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. The downsides of this phone are its old design and the full HD display while the rest of the world has moved to QHD displays for the flagship phones. Sony didn’t upgrade its design language yet. Sony is sticking to many things old which are a reason for Sony’s boat to start sinking.
Anyways, we are here for the installation of TWRP recovery and rooting the Xperia XZ1. There are many benefits that you will get by installing a custom recovery on your phone. Backing up Nandroid, separate partitions, EFS, clearing Dalvik Cache, installing .zip, .img and other such files are just to name a few. TWRP’s installation will provide you with a gateway to root the phone as well. Once we have successfully installed the custom recovery, the Magisk.zip file can be flashed to root the phone immediately. All of this process is explained in this on-going tutorial. Let’s move towards the tutorial Install TWRP and Root Xperia XZ1 with Magisk. I will try to keep the guide as simple as possible so that even novice users can easily tweak their Xperia XZ1.
Here are the required downloads and installations:
- Download Sony USB drivers for Android and install them on your computer. Without USB drivers, you may not be able to establish a connection between your phone and your computer.
- Download Minimal Android ADB and Fastboot drivers. These are the best ADB and Fastboot drivers you can find. Minimal ADB and Fastboot will be used for unlocking the bootloader of the phone and then for flashing TWRP recovery.
- Download TWRP recovery file for the Xperia XZ1. Right after download the recovery file, rename the file to xperiaxz1.img.
- Download Andro+ kernel for the Xperia XZ1. This kernel is necessary to help the phone boot up with TWRP recovery.
There are a few precautions that you need to have before following the procedure. Read all the instructions given below carefully.
- This guide is only for the Xperia XZ1. You cannot follow this guide to install TWRP and Root any other phone.
- Make sure your phone has at least 50% of its battery juice. Trying to flash files on a phone with a low battery life is a risk. If the phone goes dead during the flashing process, you might end up bricking it.
- Backup your important data like the contacts, call logs, text messages and media content. This process requires unlocking the bootloader of your Xperia XZ1. Unlocking the bootloader will completely wipe your phone. It’s always better to have your data backed up.
- Get your original data cable to connect your phone to the computer.
- On your computer, disable windows firewall for a while.
- On your phone, go to settings > about device > tap the build number for 7 times to enable developer options. Once you have successfully enabled developer options, get back to settings and open them. In the developer options, enable USB debugging and OEM unlocking now.
- Now follow this guide to unlock the bootloader of Xperia XZ1.
- After unlocking the bootloader, follow the steps given below to install TWRP and root Xperia XZ1.
Note: This is a custom process and it will void the warranty of your phone. Make sure that you are following this procedure at your own risk.
Install TWRP and Root Xperia XZ1 with Magisk
- At this point, your phone should have the bootloader unlocked. Download Magisk.zip file and copy it to your phone’s internal storage.
- Copy the downloaded and renamed TWRP recovery, which is now xperiaxz1.img file to the Minimal ADB and Fastboot directory. You can find the directory in your windows installation drive’s program x86 folder. It should be as
C:\Program Files x86\Minimal ADB and Fastboot. - Also, copy the boot.img which is the kernel file in the same Minimal ADB and Fastboot folder.
- Now open the cmd-here.exe from the Minimal ADB folder or Minimal ADB and Fastboot.exe file from your computer’s desktop.
- A command window will open up now.
- Enable OEM Unlocking and USB debugging on your phone. The instructions are given above.
- Connect your phone to your computer now.
- In the command window, enter the following commands one by one.
- adb devices
- This will return a list of attached devices with a code verifying connection.
- adb reboot bootloader
- This will reboot your phone into the bootloader.
- fastboot devices
- This will verify connection in bootloader mode.
- fastboot flash recovery xperiaxz1.img
- This will flash the TWRP recovery.img file.
- fastboot flash boot boot.img
- This will flash the kernel.
- fastboot flash FOTAkernal boot.img
- This will flash the kernel.
- fastboot reboot
- This will reboot the system.
- adb devices
- Once your phone reboots, shut it down completely.
- It’s time to boot into the TWRP custom recoveryy now. To do so, power on your phone by pressing the power button + volume down button. As the phone vibrates, let the power button go and keep the volume down key pressed. TWRP will open up in a few seconds.
- TWRP will now ask you for a password on the splash screen. If you were using a password or pin on your phone previously, that same password will work here. If there was no password or pin, then you can use this password: default_password.
- You will see TWRP in a while. Now in TWRP, tap Install > Locate and select Magisk.zip file and flash it.
- Reboot your phone now. Install Magisk manager from the play store to manage root. That’s all.
I hope you guys find this guide helpful as I’ve tried to make it as simple as possible. If you have any queries or you are stuck with something, feel free to reach me out through the comments section below. Thanks.
