How to flash a custom recovery (like CWM or TWRP) on Android

If you have decided to take a trip to the land of custom ROMs and Android hacking in general, you’d need to take one first step - flash (install) a custom recovery. In this article, we explain what exactly is a ‘custom recovery’, how you install it, and what are some popular solutions.

Let’s start with the fact that every phone ships with stock recovery software. Stock recoveries vary slightly between phone makers, but they are identical in their essence - they allow you to manually flash official updates and clear your phone’s cache. Sounds limited? It is, and that’s why custom recoveries exist.

Custom recoveries that we’ll flash here replace the limited stock ones, adding all sorts of functionality to your phone. Flashing a custom recovery is often a key part of the rooting process, but that is not its only use. Here is a short summary of all that you can do with a custom recovery:

• Create and restore a backup image - A backup image makes a copy of all your phone settings, application and app data. Such a backup copy is crucial if your hacking experiments fail - in such cases, you can use the created backup image to restore your phone to a fully functional earlier state without losing any data.

• Flash custom ROMs - custom ROMs can completely overhaul the looks and functionality of an Android smartphone, and usually they are the main reason for first flashing a custom recovery.

Important: You have to unlock the bootloader on your phone before flashing a custom recovery! Here’s how to do it on Motorola phones.

How to flash a custom recovery