Guide How To Install Custom Recoveries in Any Android devices

You must have a supported version of custom recovery installed to flash your favorite ROM. Two most renowned name in custom recovery is ClockworkMod recovery and TWRP recovery. However, there are few other free recoveries that mainly based on CWM recovery or TWRP recovery such as SafeStrap, Boot Menu Manager (BMM) or Philz Touch recovery. As said already, you require to have latest supported custom recovery if you want to do advance task such as installation of latest custom ROMs or MODs. Before contenuing how to install latest version of ClockworkMod recovery or TWRP recovery easily, we first need to know little bit about stock recovery.
“Nearly all Android devices ship with a recovery console that is basically a partition on the device’s internal memory and can be booted into. The stock recovery of almost all Android devices provides a few basic yet handy options that allow you to factory reset your device and also to recover its operating system using an official ROM in zip format, but that’s all you can do with it. That’s where a custom recovery comes handy.”

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A custom recovery replace stock recovery and with this it bring various advance functions that stock recovery don’t have. With the help of custom recovery, you can install both official (stock firmware) and unofficial ROMs as well as other updates including apps, themes, kernels etc. by flashing zip files, can wipe not just user data but pretty much every partition on your device, mount the storage card for USB mass storage access without leaving recovery, partition your SD card, wipe Dalvik cache and battery stats, fix permissions, perform, manage and restore backups and so on. However, custom recovery mostly used for flashing or installing new ROMs and Gapps.
ClockworkMod recovery which developed by Kush, is the first custom recovery that catch the attention. The earlier version of CWM recovery don’t comes with touch feature (but now available in touch supported version) and to fulfill the gap the first touch supported custom recovery TWRP introduced. Recently, developer Phil3759 rolled out an advance version of CWM recovery which we call PhilZ Touch 6 Recovery. It remove the boaringness of custom recovery by offering various colourful customization features.
In this page I will offer you an easy to follow installation guide of CWM recovery (currently the latest version is 6.0.4.7) and TWRP recovery (currently the latest version is 2.6.3.3). PhilZ Touch 6 Recovery comes with different installation option for various manufactured models, that’s why I unable to offer a guide on it. The installation guide I discussed here require a rooted device, so you must have a rooted Android smartphone or tablet. This tutorial should work most devices including latest Galaxy S4, Xperia Z or HTC One.

How To install latest CWM recovery on Most Android devices

1. Download and install ROM manager app from Play Store. It’s available for free.
2. Then tap on Recovery Setup and select ClockworkMod Recovery under Install or Update Recovery.
3. Next confirm your device and in very next screen tap on Flash ClockworkMod Recovery.
4. The app then download the recovery from internet and then ask for Superuser permission. Allow the app Superuser permission and wait till you see a Success massage.
5. Now go back to ROM Manager main screen and tap on Reboot into Recovery. Confirm your action and soon your Android device boot into ClockworkMod recovery non-touch version. For need to purchase the touch version or find a flashable copy of it.

That’s it! Your Android device now have latest version (that available for your device through ROM Manager) of CWM recovery installed. You can jump between recovery option through volume rocker and select an option using Power button (in some cases Home button).If you bought the touch version then you can operate through touch. One thing you should note, ROM Manager only offer latest officially supported version of recovery. You can always flash unofficially released CWM recovery to obtain a newer version.

How To install latest TWRP recovery on Most Android devices

You already learned installation steps for CWM recovery. Now, if you want a touch enabled custom recovery and unable to purchase or find touch version of CWM recovery for your device then try TWRP recovery aka TeamWin Recovery Project.One thing I like about TWRP is the User Interface. The big icons really come handy.

1. Download and install GooManager app from Play Store. It’s available for free.
2. Now open GooManager app then hit Menu button and later tap on Install OpenRecoveryScript from pop-up menu.
3. Then confirm your action and follow on screen instruction. Select right device if various variant available. The app then download an .img file of TWRP and install it on your device.
4. Once done, tap on Reboot recovery to boot into recovery. Confirm your action and soon you will see touch enabled TWRP screen.

That’s it. You now know how to flash custom recovery such as ClockworkMod recovery or TWRP on your Android device. Once done, go and find some custom ROM to enjoy your first modified OS experience.

An interesting note is, recently developer DsLNeXuS from XDA develop an App called Recovery Tool which find and flash latest version of your choice of recovery between CWM recovery and TWRP. This way you can save your precious time. However, since the app is very new, you may not see support for all devices that you own. The app also allow you to flash a recovery from your phone’s internal or external memory.

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