Update Xperia Play, Xperia Ray to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow CM 13 Custom ROM

Update Xperia Play, Xperia Ray to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow CM 13 Custom ROM:

Custom ROMs are the reason behind giving a new life to the legacy Android devices. Whenever manufacturers forget their devices, custom ROM developers land in to keep the device alive by bringing a higher version of Android to it.

Just today, an unofficial build of CyanogenMod 13 custom ROM based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow has been made available for almost all the Sony Ericsson Xperia and Sony Xperia devices which came out either in 2011 or 2012. Sony Xperia Play and Sony Xperia Ray are the two devices which also came out under Sony’s Umbrella with Ericsson in February and June 2011.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Xperia Ray are entirely different devices from each other. We will have a recap of both these smartphones before we move towards what we are here for.

A Glimpse Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Sony Xperia Ray Specs

Overview:

It definitely is the time for Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Xperia Ray owners to prepare their devices for Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The available custom ROM is in early development stages, but it’s pretty good to give it a try. The ROM has got its mainstream features working which means you will likely be able to keep it as a daily driver.

You may find the camera for Xperia Play a little buggy, but it might work by means of a third party camera application. For Xperia Ray, the Radio, Ant+, HDMI and 720P video recording are not working for now.

Since we are getting Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow to work on this device, compromising for these features shouldn’t be big deal for most of the users. If you’re willing to flash this firmware on your Xperia Play and Xperia Ray, you may have already spotted the right place to do so.

The succeeding guide is going to take you through a step-by-step method to update your Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Xperia Ray to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow CM 13 Custom ROM

Precautions / Early Preparations:

• This guide is intended for Xperia Play, Xperia Ray only. Do not try this on any other device or else you will result in bricking it.
• Your phone must be running the latest available Android 4.0 ICS firmware on it.
• Your phone must be charged over at-least 50% to avoid any mishap during the flashing procedure.
• Use the original data cable to establish connection between your phone and your PC.
• Unlock Bootloader of Xperia Play, Xperia Ray. Here’s How to Unlock Bootloader of Xperia Smartphones
• Install USB Drivers for Xperia Play, Xperia Ray using the drivers installer from the Flashtool installation folder. Download Flashtool from here. After installing USB Drivers, connect phone to PC using the USB cable so that USB drivers are installed properly and connection is established properly.
• Install ADB and Fastboot Drivers. | Mac ADB And Fastboot Drivers. To avoid the lengthy installation, use the Minimal ADB and Fastboot tools for your PC to make the installation quick.
• Make a backup of all everything including Contacts, SMS Messages, Call Logs.
• Make a Nandroid Backup if any custom Recovery is installed already. If not, you will find a custom recovery later in this guide. – Guide
• Copy all the media files and anything else stored in the internal memory to a PC before flashing to save this data.

Disclaimer:

THE METHODS INVOLVED IN FLASHING CUSTOM RECOVERIES, ROMS AND ROOTING YOUR PHONE ARE HIGHLY CUSTOM AND MAY RESULT IN BRICKING YOUR DEVICE, AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GOOGLE OR THE DEVICE MANUFACTURER THAT IS SONY 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.

Required Downloads:

• Download the cm-13.0.zip ROM file carefully according to your device.
  • Xperia Play: cm-13.0-xxxxxxxxx-UNOFFICIAL-LegacyXperia-zeus.zip
  • Xperia Ray: cm-13.0-xxxxxxxxx-UNOFFICIAL-LegacyXperia-urushi.zip
• HDPI_miniGAPPS-6.0-20160226-tb-signed.zip

Xperia Play, Xperia Ray to Android 6.0.1:

1. First of all, we will need to format the SDcard to ext4 or F2FS format. Here are the steps on how to do so.
   1. Download and install MiniTool Partition on your computer.
   2. Connect your SD card using a card reader to your PC, if you’re using internal storage, then connect your device to your PC and mount it as mass storage (USB).
   3. Now launch the MiniTool Partition Wizard on your PC.
   4. In the MiniTool Partition Wizard, select your SDcard or your connected device and then click on Delete.
   5. Now click on Create and from the displayed options, configure it as follows.
      • Create As: Primary.
      • File System: Unformatted.
   6. Do not touch any other option and leave everything as it is and click on Ok.
   7. Now hit Apply and click on Yes as soon as a popup comes up.
   8. Hold on tighter while the process finishes.
   9. That’s all with the partitioning process.

Next Method:

1. Make sure that you’ve followed all the instructions listed above.
2. Extract the downloaded cm-13 ROM.zip file and copy boot.img from it to your desktop.
3. Rename the dowloaded CM-13 ROM.zip file to only “update.zip” and the Gapps.zip file to only “gapps.zip”.
4. Copy downloaded CM-13.zip file and Gapps zip to phone’s internal memory.
5. Now turn off phone wait for 5 seconds.
6. Hold volume up button and connect the phone to PC.
7. The LED should remain blue, which means that the phone is in fastboot mode.
8. Now copy boot.img to Fastboot (platform-tools) folder or Minimal ADB and Fastboot installation folder.
9. Open that folder, hold shift button on the keyboard and right-click on the mouse.
10. Click on Open Command Window Here.
11. Type fastboot devices and press Enter.
12. It should only one fastboot connected device in return. If it showing more that one, then disconnect any other connected device or close any Android Emulator. Also, make sure that PC Companion is completely disabled if installed.
13. Now type fastboot flash boot boot.img and press Enter.
14. Type fastboot reboot and press Enter.
15. Disconnect your phone from your PC now.
16. While the phone is booting up, press Volume down button repeatedly to enter recovery mode.
17. Now in recovery, format system/format data and then format cache. You can find the format options in Advanced / Advanced Wipe options in CWM or TWRP recovery.
18. Now in the custom recovery, select Apply Update > Apply from ADB.
19. Connect your phone to your PC once again.
20. Now in the opened ADB Command line, issue this command: adb sideload update.zip and hit Enter key.
21. Once the process has been completed, issue this command: adb sideload gapps.zip.
22. Now that the ROM and GApps have been installed, wipe cache and dalvik cache from recovery once again.
23. Reboot your phone now. The first reboot may take up to 10-15 minutes.
24. That’s all! Best of luck :)That’s all. Just in case you’re stuck with something, reach us out through the comment box below. We will try to help you out at our best.