Install TWRP Custom Recovery on Xperia XZ Premium

Sony Xperia XZ Premium made it to the hands of users very recently. This is the very first smartphone to come out with the 4K display. Sony has always been a rockstar in the display department. The Xperia XZ Premium flaunts a beautiful display with mouth-watering graphics. The resolution is 3840 x 2160 pixels while the PPI is 807. Xperia XZ Premium’s display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The phone is actually premium by all the means. It comes powered up with the Snapdragon 835 CPU. The RAM is 4 GB and the internal storage is 64 GB. Sony Xperia XZ Premium is equipped with a 19 MP primary camera and a 13 MP selfie camera. Xperia XZ Premium runs on Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium’s custom development has kick-started as well. TWRP custom recovery has been released for the phone. The custom recovery will let the Android enthusiasts do everything out of the boundaries on their phone. You can start creating Nandroid backup and also a backup of all other partitions. TWRP custom recovery also has options like wiping the partitions of the phone individually. You can flash the .zip and .img files using the install option in the recovery. Furthermore, TWRP recovery will also create an opportunity for you to root your Xperia XZ Premium. Let’s have a look on the procedure to install TWRP custom recovery on Sony Xperia XZ Premium D8141 and D8142.

Note: Installing TWRP Recovery on your Xperia XZ Premium requires unlocking its bootloader. Unlocking the bootloader has a number of drawbacks. Unlocking the bootloader wipes the TA partition of Xperia smartphones which results in loosing the DRM keys. The loss of DRM keys makes the features like Bravia Engine, Xreality, 4K Video recording and Sony Bass Surround Sound useless. These features will not work on your phone if you unlock its bootloader. If you do not really care about these features, you may go ahead and flash the TWRP recovery on your Xperia XZ Premium.

Preparations

• This guide is only for the Xperia XZ Premium D8141 and D8142. Do not try this on any other variant or phone. Check your phone’s model number under Settings > About device section.
• Backup your Contacts, Call Logs, SMS Messages and Media Content. This is very important as we have to unlock the bootloader and it will wipe your phone.
• Charge your phone good enough to ensure that it lasts during the recovery installation process.
• Enable USB Debugging mode on your Xperia XZ Premium.
• Enable OEM Unlocking on your Xperia XZ Premium.
• Unlock the bootloader of your Sony Xperia XZ Premium.

Required downloads & installations

1. Download and install Sony USB drivers.
2. Download and install Minimal ADB & Fastboot drivers.
3. Download the recovery and boot file according to your phone.
   1. XZ Premium TWRP Recovery.img
4. Rename the downloaded file to recovery.img only.

How to install TWRP Recovery on Sony Xperia XZ Premium

1. Make sure that you’ve downloaded and installed Minimal ADB & Fastboot drivers on your Windows PC or installed Mac ADB & Fastboot for Mac.
2. You will get a Minimal ADB and Fastboot folder in your Windows installation drive’s Program Files. Navigate to the Program Files or Program Files x86 > Minimal ADB and Fastboot > copy the recovery.img file files here.
3. Connect your phone to your PC now.
4. Now open Minimal ADB & Fastboot.exe from your desktop. If you do not have this file on your desktop, then go to your Windows installation drive i.e. C drive > Program Files > Minimal ADB & Fastboot > Press and hold Shift Key + Right-click on an empty area with the open folder > click “Open command window here”.
5. Connect your Xperia XZ Premium to your computer now. If the phone asks for any permission, allow it the connection with your computer.
6. Now in the command window, enter the following commands one by one.
   1. adb devices
   2. If the phone is connected successfully, you should see a code here with the list of devices attached.
   3. adb reboot bootloader
   4. This will reboot your phone into the bootloader mode.
   5. fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
   6. This will flash the TWRP recovery.img file on your phone.
   7. adb reboot recovery
   8. This will reboot your phone into the newly installed TWRP recovery.

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