Last Updated on November 15, 2019 by Mathew Diekhake

While the Lenovo A850 is already rooted, it has now been blessed with two of the finest custom recoveries for Android – namely TWRP and CWM.

If you do not already know, a custom recovery is a recovery that replaces the stock recovery on the phone and offers you many great features that were not present in the stock recovery. One of these great features is the ability to flash custom developments on the phone, which cannot be done with a stock recovery.

Recovery Lenovo A850

If that sounds good to you and you wish to have a custom recovery on your Lenovo A850, here’s how you can get one on your phone:

Files You Need

  1. Your phone must be rooted before you can do this tutorial. If you have not rooted your phone yet, do so now using our how to root the Lenovo A850 tutorial. When that is done, return here and continue.
  2. This tutorial allows you to flash your favourite – either TWRP or CWM – recovery on your phone. Just use the one that you wish to install on your phone.
  3. Check whether your phone runs ROW or CN firmware as you have to download the recovery accordingly. You can check that by heading to Menu->Settings->About phone->Version info->Baseband version. If it says ROW, you are on ROW firmware. And if it says CN, you are on CN firmware.
  4. Download Recovery for ROW firmware to your computer
    OR
    Download Recovery for CN firmware to your computer.

Installing a Custom Recovery on the Lenovo A850

  1. Extract files from Custom Recovery over to your computer by right-clicking on the recovery archive and selecting Extract here. Wait for the files to be extracted.
  2. Plug in your phone to your computer using a suitable USB cable. Ensure your phone can receive files from your computer.
  3. Copy either CWM or TWRP recovery over to the internal SD card storage on your phone. Make sure to place the recovery on the top so that it is easily accessible.
  4. When recovery’s copied, disconnect your phone from your computer.
  5. Launch Google Play on your phone, search for and tap on Mobileuncle MTK Tools, and install the app on your phone.
  6. Launch the app after it is installed on your phone.
  7. Provide the app with root permissions by tapping Grant in the prompt that appears on your screen.
  8. Tap on Recovery update in the app.
  9. Tap on the recovery image that you copied to your phone. This is the recovery image that you copied to your phone in step-3.
  10. Tap on OK and the app will start installing the recovery on your phone.
  11. Wait for the app to finish installing the recovery on your phone.
  12. When the app’s done installing recovery, reboot your phone.
  13. You are all set!

Awesome! Your Lenovo A850 now has root access as well as a custom recovery to help you with flashing custom ROMs and tons of other custom developments on your phone.

A custom recovery is not just about flashing a custom ROM, but you can also use it to flash a custom kernel, other custom recovery flashable zips, create full backups of your system, erase the phone data, factory reset the phone, and even do debugging when the phone is not turning on in the normal mode.

As the name implies, a recovery is supposed to help you recover from a bad condition and that is what CWM and TWRP recoveries try to do for you. They help you recovery from bad flashes, help you get new ROMs on your phone, and so on.

So, go ahead and give custom developments a try using the newly installed custom recovery on your phone!

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