If you own the new LG V10 smartphone that’s released by T-Mobile, AT&T and South Korea, you can now install a custom recovery image on the device. Once you have installed the custom recovery, you no longer get access to the stock recovery which Google had made for you, but you do get a new recovery with far better features. The main feature users need in the custom version of recovery is the ability to upload custom ROM zip files which Google leaves out of the stock recovery on purpose so you are running their version of stock Android ROM.
The Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP) probably heads the list of custom recoveries you want installed in 2015; it comes with a touch-based UI for your tapping pleasure and doesn’t rely on the Volume and Power keys for navigation like your traditional stock recovery and ClockworkMod custom recovery normally would.
The Files You Need
- Download the TWRP recovery image for the V10 smartphone with model number H901 on this page.
- Download the drivers on your computer from this page.
- You must have the LG V10 bootloader unlocked before you can install a custom recovery on the device.
- Furthermore, the guide below for installing the custom recovery on the LG V10 only works for the H901 model number. You can double-check your model number by heading over to the Menu > Settings > About Device > Model Number.
Installing a Custom Recovery on the LG V10
- Download the TWRP recovery file on a Windows PC.
- You’ll find the file automatically ends up in the Downloads folder by default. Shift the TWRP file over to the desktop.
- Now you need to flash Android SDK on a Windows PC — the same PC as you have the file.
- Open the Android SDK folder.
- Connect the LG V10 into the computer in normal mode.
- From within that SDK folder which you have open, hold down the Shift key and right-click where there is no files and you will get a new menu popping up.
- Choose to “open a new command window here” from that new menu.
- The command prompt window will open on your computer and you can start typing some commands to install the TWRP recovery.
- Type the command:
adb reboot bootloader
– your device will now boot in the bootloader mode which is hwy you could connect it to the computer in normal mode before. - Type the second command:
fastboot devices
– that command will show you if your device is connected. No connection here points to an Android SDK or LG driver problem you must solve by installing those sets of drivers on your computer. You can find the LG drivers from the Lg website and you can find the SDK drivers from within the Android SDK folder. - The final command that flashes the recovery:
fastboot flash recovery your-file-name.img
– you must change the part where it says your file name for the real file name of your TWRP file. If you cannot get it right, you can change the file name of the recovery file so it’s easier. For example, right-click over the file and choose to change the file name to something like custom-recovery. - Your TWRP recovery is now installed on the LG V10 smartphone. You can boot that up now if you like by typing another command:
fastboot boot twrp.img. - Alternatively, you can learn how to boot into custom recovery mode on Android devices and do it later.