Last Updated on January 28, 2020 by Mathew Diekhake

There is no denying that Google Nexus devices are always amazing when they arrive as long as you can stand what they look like. The designs come with an acquired taste, and it never seems to be anything close to the most beautiful devices on the market for whatever reason Google decide that should be. Perhaps they are trying their best to deliver the best-looking smartphones that they know how, or perhaps there is more to the story than first meets the eye.

Regardless of your opinion on the designs of the Google Nexus devices, you cannot deny that they are always popular devices. One of the main reasons the Google Nexus smartphones are always popular is because there are always so many custom ROMs to install on the phone, and they are easy to root and always have a custom recovery available when you are ready to install it on your device. It’s said that Google knows these devices are going to be rooted, and they always make them appealing to do so.

Google Nexus 4

Anyone planning on installing a custom ROM on the Google Nexus 4 smartphone just for the sake of getting fewer system apps need not worry because the stock ROM that comes on Google Nexus devices is about as close to the stock Android experience as one could ever imagine. It comes out of the box with as pure of an Android experience as you’ll find. That doesn’t make custom ROM installing any less popular on these devices though because for every ROM that is debloated there are another one or two ready to update your features — and many of the time that is with features that your device has never seen before.

Files You Need

  • Download the Minimal OS custom ROM file for the Google Nexus 4 smartphone from here.
  • You must have a custom recovery — preferably Team Win’s TWRP Recovery — running on the Google Nexus 4 smartphone before you can follow this guide and install a custom ROM on the smartphone.
  • You must have rooted the Google Nexus 4 smartphone — using any rooting guide method that works — before you can use this guide and install a custom ROM like the Minimal Os on the smartphone.

The custom recovery image we are choosing to create a guide is Team Win’s TWRP Recovery. Those of you with TWRP can follow this guide step by step. Those of you with another custom recovery such as Koushik Dutta’s ClockworkMod Recovery can still follow the same guide; however, you will need to be aware that the wording on the buttons will vary to some degree. For example, TWRP’s menu has the word “Install” whereas the ClockorkMOd Recovery shows the “Install from SD card”.

Installing the Minimal OS custom ROM on the Google Nexus 4 smartphone

  1. Download the Minimal OS custom ROM zip file from the files section above directly to the computer and then have it waiting on the desktop.
  2. Connect the Google Nexus 4 smartphone to the computer with the USB cable.
  3. Copy the Minimal OS custom ROM zip file over to the folder on the internal storage SD card of your phone and make sure you keep the zip file at the topmost level and not hidden in one of the sub level folders or else you will not find it from the custom recovery later.
  4. Unplug the Nexus 4 from the computer and then press the Power button, followed by tapping where it says to do so on the Nexus 4 display to turn off the smartphone.
  5. Reboot your Google Nexus 4 smartphone holding the hardware button combination for the recovery mode and the custom recovery you have installed earlier will boot up on the display.
  6. Tap on the option that says Install from the main recovery menu and then follows the on-screen instructions to browse the SD card and install the Minimal OS custom ROM.
  7. Choose the option that says it will reboot your system from the main recovery menu and then wait until your device reboots back into the normal mode.

In conclusion, that is how to install the Minimal OS custom ROM on the Google Nexus 4 smartphone by using a computer to transfer the file, a custom recovery image, and the Nexus 4 smartphone. You will find the smartphone reboots now to the normal mode and how you would normally use the device. The stock ROM is gone and replaced by the Minimal OS custom ROM for the first time and now every time until you choose to swap it over for something else. The choices are limitless with plenty of other custom ROMs available for the Google Nexus 4 smartphone. Moreover, you can flash the same stock ROM your device was running before you ever installed a custom ROM on your smartphone if you prefer going back to the software that the Android developers intended you use. The only thing you need to do is make sure you know how to flash the stock ROM if you want to go in that direction. You flash any future custom ROMs in your custom recovery just like you did with the guide above. All you need to do is make sure you backup using the NANDroid Backup features and then press the button to wipe to wipe the data and apply a factory reset. Those of you using the TWRP Recovery will find that pressing the Wipe button automatically clears all of the caches too whereas those using something like ClockworkMod Recovery will need to choose to clear the caching manually. Those of you using a stock ROM will not flash it from the custom recovery — a custom recovery partition is made to flash custom files only and not your official stock ROMs.

Moreover, anyone who needs some help can try making sure that the Minimal OS custom ROM file was copied to the topmost folder of the SD card and not hidden in one of the subfolders that might be available for your internal storage when viewing it from a computer. The reason you need to keep it at the root level is that sometimes you cannot see the file from the custom recovery image if it is in one of the subfolders.