You might be a new user to Android OS or a normal user of the android device till now who wants. You might be sad or worried that your smartphone manufacturer is offering outdated software so that it is not able to meet your daily requirements.
This is where the concept of ROMs come, by flashing ROMs in your old android device. With flashing your device you are capable of getting rid of trashy and useless apps that are pre-installed on your phone. Hence, we can say that updating the Android ROM will bring a lot more to your table to enhance your Android experience.
This is due to the reason that an iOS device is criticized that you are not the admin of your own device!
Disclaimer:- We are not responsible for any harm caused to your device during the whole process. This process is just for educational purpose and may void the warranty of your smartphone.
Prerequisite for Flashing a ROM
You can’t just go to the cheesy stuff straight. you need to set up your smartphone so that its ready to get flashed with the whole new software.
- You need to Backup your data first of all.
- Enable USB Debugging from the settings app of your smartphone.
- Connect your phone to your laptop or PC. and download and install your USB Drivers
- Use your favourite Backup Tool to backup your data.
Steps To Flash a ROM
Before you download and install a new ROM for Android, you need to unlock the Bootloader of your android smartphone and flashing a custom recovery. There are a hell lot number of ways to do that and it can’t be summed up in a single post, We can give you two examples.. choose any which you like: Download TWRP or ClockworkMod
Additional Guide for Newbies:
How to install ClockwordMod?
- Open the folder where your CWM Recovery .img file is saved.
- Open a CMD window inside that folder.
PRO TIP:- SHIFT + RIGHT CLICK ON ANY EMPTY WHITE SPACE INSIDE THE FOLDER AND THEN SELECT OPEN COMMAND WINDOW HERE.
- Connect your Android phone to your PC or laptop. Type the command mentioned below in the window to boot your device into bootloader/fastboot mode:
adb reboot bootloader - When your device boots into bootloader mode, type this command in the command line.
fastboot flash recovery twrp-2.9.x.x-xxx.img
NOTE:- modify CWM.img with the name of your CWM recovery .img file.
- Once CWM is successfully flashed on your device, type this last command to reboot your device.
fastboot reboot
Steps to Flash Android ROM
1. Unlock your bootloader and install a custom recovery
Before downloading and installing any ROM to your android phone, You need to unlock the bootloader and then flash a custom recovery. Since the ways to unlock the bootloader for each type of Android phone are diverse, we cannot list the detailed steps to accomplish this task. You can refer to the above method given.
2.. Backup your Data
This is the most important step out of all. I am giving this much importance to this step since if something goes wrong while installing your new ROM for Android, your whole data along with its settings would be lost forever.
If you have not yet done the same, no problem you cant skip this step and move on further on how to create a backup of your data before continuing further.
1. Restart your mobile and enter Recovery mode. Most Android phones are rebooted by pressing the Power and Volume or Home button. But for more new latest phones the process may differ for obvious reasons
2. Proceed to “Backup” or “Nandroid Backup” by using the volume up and down buttons. The backup process will take a bit of time.
3. Downloading and Flashing the Desired ROM on your android device
There are tons of ROMs available on the internet as there is diversity in developers. There are 100s of developers which build ROMs for different smartphones. Forgetting the desired ROM, you can go to search the file which is in zip form on Google.
So according to your needs find a ROM (I would prefer to browse XDA developers forums for that). Also, note that you download ROM which is suitable for your Android device. If you download and install the wrong ROM whole process would be required to be done again and your mobile won’t boot.
Once you get your ROM for your Android device. Download it and transfer it to your mobile SD card through a USB cable
TIP:- Make sure that the file is in .zip format
4. Reboot the device and enter the Recovery mode (mentioned above in the article).
5. Go to “Install Zip from SD Card” section under the Recovery and choose the zip file you have downloaded and click on “OK” to start the installation.
6. When the setup finishes, Wipe the data and cache in the Recovery Section to avoid problems caused by previous data.
7. Reboot your phone and then you can enjoy the new ROM.
If you find something unusual the chances may be that you might have installed an unsupported ROM and you would require to do the process again
