Install TWRP Recovery & Root Galaxy Note 7 [Exynos]

Galaxy Note 7 has finally been rooted. After a lot of hard work, the Note 7 was finally rooted yesterday because of the collaborative efforts of our friend Dr.Ketan and the famous Android developer Chainfire. Chainfire added support to his SuperSU for the Galaxy Note 7, the device can now be rooted by flashing the latest SuperSU Beta in custom recovery mode.

A TWRP Recovery made its way to the Galaxy Note 7 just after a day or two when the device started shipping. The TWRP recovery’s version is 3.0.2.0, which is the latest version of the TWRP. With the release of TWRP for the Galaxy Note 7, the custom ROMs, MODs and tweaks already started landing on the development forums. Now that the device has been rooted as well, it means that the time to unleash the real power of this all new beast by Samsung has come.

Just to have a recap, Galaxy Note 7 was released by Samsung on August 2 in the New York City. After the Galaxy Note 5, Samsung jumped straight up to the Galaxy Note 7. It brings a 5.7-inch QHD display protected by Gorilla Glass 5. The phone has got Gorilla Glass 5 protection at its back as well. Galaxy Note 7 brings and Iris scanner to help you unlock the phone simply by looking at it. The Note 7 also brings a new and enhanced S Pen. The new TouchWiz UI is quite responsive and there’s less bloatware as compared the previous versions of Galaxy Note 7. Note 7 came out of the box running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Samsung has promised the Android Nougat update for the Note 7 in the coming 2-3 months.

It’s time for us to get back to what we are here for. This guide will enable enable the Galaxy Note 7 users to flash a TWRP custom recovery on the phone and root it afterwards. The guide is applicable on the Exynos Galaxy Note 7 running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Exynos variants of the Note 7 include  N930F, N930X, N930FD, N930K, N930L and N930S. Assuming that you’ve understood the purpose of this guide, we will head towards the tutorial and get over.

Early preparations

1. Charge your Galaxy Note 7 up to 50% to avoid power issues during the flashing process. Check your device’s model number carefully under settings > more / general > about device.
2. Enable OEM Unlocking and also enable USB debugging mode on your phone.
3. Get a microSD card as you will need to copy SuperSU.zip file to that, otherwise you will have to use the MTP mode while you boot up into TWRP recovery to flash copy it.
4. Backup your important contacts, call logs, sms messages and also copy your media content to your computer as you will have to wipe your phone on the way.
5. Uninstall/disable Samsung Kies while using Odin. Samsung Kies can hinder the connection between your phone and Odin.
6. Use OEM data cable to establish connection between your PC and your phone.
7. Follow these instructions to the letter to avoid any mishap during flashing process.

Disclaimer: Rooting, flashing custom recoveries and tweaking your device are the processes which are never recommended by device manufacturers or the OS providers. In case a mishap occurs while following the method listed below, TechBeasts or the device manufacturer may not be held responsible. Make sure that you are doing everything at your own risk.

Downloads and installations

• Download and install Samsung USB drivers on your PC: Download Link with Guide
• Download and extract Odin 3.12.3 on your PC: Download Link with Guide
• Download the TWRP Recovery.tar file carefully according to your device.
  • TWRP Recovery for Galaxy Note 7 SM-N930F/FD/X/W8: Download
  • TWRP Recovery for Galaxy Note 7 SM-N930S/K/L: Download
• Download SuperSU.zip file and copy it to your phone’s external SD card. If you haven’t got an external SD card, you will need to copy it to internal storage after installing TWRP recovery.
• Download dm-verity.zip file and copy it to the extern SD card as well. Alternatively, you can also copy both these.zip files to a USB OTG if you have got one.

Install TWRP Recovery & Root Galaxy Note 7 [Exynos]

1. Open Odin3.exe file from the extracted Odin files that you downloaded above.
2. Put your Galaxy Note 7 in download mode now. To do so, turn off your phone first. Now turn it on by pressing and holding Volume Down + Power + Home button. As soon as your device boots up showing a Downloading screen, leave the keys.
3. Connect your phone to your PC now. Odin should show an “Added” message in the logs and also show the blue light in the ID:COM box. This will verify a successful connection between your phone and your PC.
4. Now click on the “AP” tab in Odin and select the TWRP Recovery.img.tar file according to your device carefully.
5. The options ticked in Odin should be only “F.Reset Time“. Make sure that the Auto-Reboot option is not checked, we do not want to reboot the phone after flashing TWRP recovery.
6. After selecting the file and checking/unchecking the options carefully, hit the start button. Odin will now flash the TWRP and show you a PASS message in a few minutes.
7. Once done, disconnect your device from your PC now.
8. Now you need to boot directly into TWRP Recovery. Turn off your phone completely and turn it on by pressing and holding Volume Up + Home + Power key now. Your phone should successfully boot into newly installed custom recovery.
9. TWRP will ask you whether you want to allow modifications or not, you will need to swipe finger to the right to enable modifications. Swiping the finger to right will trigger dm-verity, if you will need to disable it immediately. Leaving it enabled will not let you boot the phone neither root it. This is an important stuff since we want to be able to modify the system.
10. Now tap “Wipe > Format Data > type “yes” to formate data. This is important to disable encryption. This step will factory reset your phone, so make sure that you’ve backed up the entire data at hand.
11. Now go back to the main menu in TWRP Recovery and tap “Reboot > Recovery”. This will once again reboot your phone in TWRP.
12. Now make sure that you’ve copied the SuperSU.zip and dm-verity.zip files in external SD Card or USB OTG, if not then transfer both these files to your external SD Card by using MTP mode in TWRP now. Once you’ve the files, tap “Install > locate the SuperSU.zip according to the location where you copied > flash it”.
13. Now once again tap “Install > locate the dm-verity.zip file > flash it”.
14. Once done flashing, reboot your phone to system.
15. That’s all. You’re rooted and have a TWRP recovery installed. Best of luck.

Learn: Restore Samsung Galaxy Note 7 to Stock Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow Firmware

That was it guys. Don’t forget to backup your EFS partition now and also create a Nandroid backup. Its’ time to unleash the true power of your Galaxy Note 7. I hope that this guide proved to be fruitful for all of you. Let us know if you are stuck with something or something isn’t working right for you.

Credits: Dr.Ketan, jcaduono & Chainfire