Learn how to Install TWRP Recovery on Android without root and with root by a step-by-step explanation to modify your Android system.
If you are not an ordinary Android phone user and love to apply many modifications to your phone, the official recovery on your phone may not help you achieve what you want, starting from installing a custom ROM or installing any ZIP file on your device. That’s why you would need a custom Recovery on your phone, such as TWRP Recovery.
What’s TWRP Recovery, and Why do you need it
TWRP is an abbreviation for Team Win Recovery Project, the team that started building custom Mods in 1996, and they have moved into creating custom recovery for Android phones to allow users to install custom ROMs and custom Kernels and custom Mods.
Users can also wipe and reset the device or its cache and even backup all the data and restore it by only using the volume and home/power keys to move and select between the choices.
It’s not so hard to get a custom recovery like TWRP Recovery on your Android phone as you might think, all you need is a small knowledge of using PC and the mobile phone, and you will get it all done after following the upcoming steps.
In this article, I will show you how to install TWRP Recovery on an Android phone with and without root if you don’t want to void your warranty by rooting it.
Precautions before installing TWRP Recovery
Before heading into the installation process of TWRP Recovery, you should take some precautions to avoid any possible data loss or device breaking.
First, take a full backup of your device before installing TWRP Recovery, and you can learn how to back-up your phone to the cloud from a previous article, and you can also learn how to back-up Android SMS, Call logs, and others from this article.
After backing-up your phone by following the previous articles, make sure that your phone is charged above 50% so no shutdowns could happen during the installation process which may cause some issues.
Flash TWRP Recovery without Root
There are two methods to install TWRP Recovery on your phone, the first is installing it on an un-rooted phone, which is a little harder and requires a longer process, and the second is installing it on a rooted phone, which is much easier than the first one.
The first thing you will have to do to install TWRP Recovery without root is downloaded the proper version from their official website.
You can easily select any version of TWRP Recovery versions available if you already know what the suitable version for your phone is, or you can click on Devices and find your device so you can install the proper version of TWRP Recovery based on the website instructions.
In the installation section, you will find two choices: install TWRP Recovery on rooted phones or install it on un-rooted phones; select to install it on the un-rooted device so you can be taken to the download page directly.
After downloading the proper version of TWRP Recovery on your PC, you will now have two ways to install it, the first one works almost on any type of phone, and the second is by using Odin, which only works on Samsung phones, and I will tell you how to install it using both of the methods.
Flash TWRP Recovery using Fastboot
The first method is the general method that works on any Android smartphone, which requires following the steps accurately, so you don’t miss any step or do anything wrong.
In this method, we will use the ADB, an abbreviation for Android Debug Bridge, and it’s a command-line tool that allows you to modify and apply commands on your phone via PC.
You can use the ADB on Windows, Linux, or macOS, and in this article, I will focus on using it via Windows 10 PC.
First, you will need to enable your phone’s USB debugging option. You can do this by heading into your phone’s Settings, clicking on About Phone, scrolling down until you find the Build number, tapping on it continuously for 7 times, more or less based on your device, and you will get a message telling you that you have become a developer.
After then, go back, scroll down, and you will find a new option called Developer Options.
After tapping on Developer Options, scroll down, and you will find an option called USB Debugging; switch it on and then move to the next step.
By finishing the above steps, now it’s time to download the tool package from this link; and it’s an official tool, so you can download it from the Google website itself.
After downloading it, extract the downloaded file, which has the name “platform-tools-latest-windows.zip” to a C:\adp.
The installation process of TWRP Recovery now starts. All you have to do is to copy or move the downloaded .IMG file to the location where you have extracted the ADB files.
Now, connect your phone to your PC, and make sure that you have installed the required drivers for it; hold the SHIFT button on your keyboard, right-click on any free space in the folder, and click on “Open PowerShell Window Here“.
Type the command fastboot devices and click Enter, and you will find your device’s name in the second line; after then, replace the “Image-File-Name” with your file’s name, and type the installation command of TWRP Recovery, which is:
fastboot flash recovery <Image-File-Name.img>
And the process will start installing TWRP Recovery on your phone once you click on Enter.
Note: Devices like Google’s Pixel, Moto Z2 Force, Xiaomi Mi A1 don’t support this command, and you will have to replace “Fastboot flash recovery” with “fastboot boot” like:
fastboot boot < Image-File-Name.img>
Install TWRP Recovery using Odin
If you are a Samsung phone user and you don’t like the previous method, you will have the option to use Odin, which is a software that you can use to flash and download custom ROMs, kernels, and recoveries on your Samsung phone without having to type any commands.
After downloading the TWRP recovery .IMG.TAR file by following the previous steps, download the Odin tool from the Odin Download website or the Samsung Odin website; and it’s preferred to use the latest version of this tool or to check for the suitable version for your phone.
After downloading the Odin tool and extracting the downloaded .zip file on your PC, run Odin3.exe file and then connect your phone via USB, but first, you will have to boot it into Download Mode by clicking the Power button+ Home button + Volume Down button at the same time.
Now, after connecting your phone to your PC, click on the AP button on the Odin tool, select the recovery file and then click Start.
Once the installation process is completed, you will see a “PASS!” message on the screen, and you will find your phone rebooting itself automatically.
Install TWRP Recovery with Root
If you have a rooted phone or plan to root it by following the steps in this article, you will be able to download and install the TWRP recovery application from the Google Play store and use it directly without any of the above steps.
After downloading and installing the application, all you will have to do is to accept the terms and conditions, click on Run with Root Permissions, and tap OK.
With this application, you will be able to download and flash TWRP recovery by tapping Select Device and selecting your device. Then, it will download and install the required file to flash TWRP Recovery.
Also, you can download the .img file by yourself and move it to your phone’s memory, click on Select a file to flash, and choose it so the installation process will begin.
Note: If you don’t find your device listed when you click on Select Device, then you, unfortunately, cannot flash TWRP Recovery on your phone.
How to Update TWRP Recovery
If you have found that TWRP Recovery is important for you and you want to keep it up-to-date, I prefer you to install the Official TWRP App so you can easily update your version of TWRP Recovery by just downloading the newer .img file each time you want to update and install it by following the previous steps in the installation with root section.
Also, you can even adjust the application settings to automatically check for updates on fixed intervals like every day by clicking on Settings and selecting the interval you want.
Conclusion
By reaching this line, you now have learned how to flash TWRP Recovery on Android phones so you can modify your system by installing custom ROMs or kernels, and you can even flash another .zip file or wipe your data.
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