Last Updated on November 20, 2019 by Mathew Diekhake

Installing a custom recovery on the Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 is the second step after rooting it. While root allows you to enjoy root-requiring apps, a custom recovery like CWM makes it possible for you to enjoy custom ROMs on your phone.

Custom ROMs cannot be installed like an app on your phone. They must be flashed either through Odin or a custom recovery and only then they can be functional. Using the latter method to flash a custom ROM is what we’d recommend you to do.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8

So, here’s how you can flash a CWM based custom recovery on your Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8:

The Files You Need

  1. Your phone must be rooted before you can do this tutorial. If you aren’t rooted yet, please root first using our how to root the Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 tutorial.
  2. This should install a ClockworkMod Recovery based custom recovery on your phone.
  3. You must have access to a Windows running computer in order to do this tutorial.
  4. You should have Samsung USB drivers installed on your Windows running computer. If you do not, install those first using the given link.
  5. Download Odin to your computer. You will use it to flash a custom recovery on your phone.
  6. Download CWM Recovery to your computer. It is the actual recovery that will be flashed on your phone.
  7. You should only try this on a GT-I9152 device.

Installing a Custom Recovery on the Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8

  1. Unzip files from Odin over to your computer by right-clicking on the Odin archive and selecting Extract here.
  2. When files are extracted, double-click on Odin executable to launch the Odin tool.
  3. When the Odin launches, click on PDA and navigate to the folder where CWM Recovery is located. Click on the recovery image to select it to be flashed on your phone.
  4. Uncheck the option that says Repartition in the Odin. It will cause issues so you are unchecking it.
  5. Checkmark both Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time options as they will not cause any issues during the procedure.
  6. Turn off your phone.
  7. Reboot your phone into download mode. Your phone must be in download mode for the Odin to be able to recognize it. To do so, hold down Volume DOWN, Home, and Power buttons simultaneously on your phone.
  8. Press Volume UP when you see a warning message on your phone and you should be in download mode.
  9. Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable.
  10. Odin should indicate that your phone has been detected by changing the color of one of its boxes.
  11. Click on Start in the Odin and let it flash the selected recovery file on your phone.
  12. It should only take a couple of minutes to install CWM Recovery on your phone.
  13. When Odin’s done installing recovery, your phone will automatically reboot.
  14. You are all done!

CWM based custom recovery was successfully installed on your Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 device.

While you can always use the Volume UP+Home+Power key combo to get into the recovery mode, you can use an app like Quick Reboot for quicker access to the recovery mode.

Now that a custom recovery is up and running on your phone, you can try out some custom ROMs on your phone. If you don’t like one, go ahead and try another until you are satisfied. Make sure to have a NANDroid backup so you can restore it when something goes wrong.

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