Xperia:Installing a Custom Recovery

The recovery is a partition that you can boot into, with several options for modifying or restoring your phone. Typically you can clear cache partitions, reformat the device, and not much else. Custom recoveries allow you to do more, like making backups of your setup (Nandroid). The two most common custom recoveries for this phone are Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP) and Clockwork Mod (CWM), with the latter being the recommended one to use.

Built-in Recoveries in Custom Kernel

Many custom kernels include at least one custom recovery built in as well. Note that the button command may differ between custom kernel versions; if one combination of buttons isn't working, try another.

Lupus Kernel:

• For TWRP, hold down Volume Up (top/left) while booting until the phone vibrates twice.
• For CWM, hold down Volume Down (bottom/right) while booting until the phone vibrates twice.

DoomKernel:

• For CWM, hold down Volume Up (top/left) at the Sony Ericsson logo.

Turbo Kernel:

• Hold down Volume Down (bottom/right) while booting to enter the Turbo boot menu. From there you should be able to select TWRP. You can change the recovery to CWM under the Settings and Tools menu.

Extreme Kernel:

• Hold down the Search (magnifying lens) button while booting to enter CWM.

Bootable Method

This is a temporary way to use a custom recovery that doesn't write any files to the phone. You will need to have Xperia:ADB setup first.

1. Turn off the phone and connect a USB cable to the computer.
2. Hold down the search (magnifying lens) button on the phone and connect the USB cable to it. The light on the power button should be blue.
3. Download this bootable copy of CWM:
   • Mirror 1
   • Mirror 2
   • XDA Thread
4. Open a command prompt and browse to the location of your recovery file.
   • Ex: cd C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Downloads
5. Enter fastboot boot *.img, where the * is the name of the recovery file.
   • You may need to enter it as fastboot -i 0x0fce boot *.img.
6. The phone should reboot into CWM. You can use the volume keys to move up and down a menu, and the home button to select an option.

X-Parts Installation Method

If you're on a stock ROM with a locked bootloader, you can use an app called X-Parts to install CWM. You will need to be rooted for this.

1. Grab the latest version (or the recommended v0.5):
   • https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1437840 (mirror)
2. Install the APK on your phone.
3. Open the X-Parts app and click the install button.