Last Updated on November 12, 2018 by Mathew Diekhake

If your Sony Xperia Z5 Compact is rooted, here’s how you can go about installing a custom recovery called TWRP on it.

Once installed, this custom recovery should let you flash many custom developments on your Xperia Z5 Compact phone, including kernels, ROMs, and so on.

Recovery for the Xperia Z5 Compact

Here’s how to flash this recovery on your phone:

Files You Need

  1. Your phone must be rooted before you can install a custom recovery on it. If you have not done so yet, please use our how to root the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact tutorial to gain root on your phone. When that is done, return here and continue.
  2. This should flash a custom recovery called TWRP on your phone.
  3. This should only work for the E5823 variant of the phone. If you do not have this variant, please do not do this tutorial or you will brick your phone.
  4. This tutorial has been written keeping the Windows version of Fastboot in mind. If you are on Linux or Mac, the steps will slightly vary.
  5. Ensure that Universal ADB drivers are installed, if you run a Windows-based computer.
  6. Download TWRP Recovery to your computer. It is the recovery image that will be installed on your phone.
  7. Download Fastboot to your computer. It should help you flash the above recovery on your phone.

Installing a Custom Recovery on the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact

  1. Extract files from both Fastboot and TWRP Recovery over to your computer by right-clicking on each of them and selecting Extract here.
  2. On your phone, head to Menu->Settings->About phone and tap on Build number for 7-8 times and it will say you are a developer. It should have unlocked the developer options menu on your phone.
  3. Head to Menu->Settings->Developer options on your phone and turn on USB debugging.
  4. Plug in your phone to your computer using a suitable USB cable.
  5. Place TWRP Recovery files into the fastboot folder.
  6. Open a command prompt window in the Fastboot folder by holding down Shift on your keyboard and right-clicking anywhere on the screen and selecting Open command window here.
  7. When the command prompt window launches, type in the following command and hit Enter:
    adb reboot bootloader
  8. Your phone should reboot into the bootloader mode.
  9. When your phone is in the bootloader mode, issue the following command. Make sure to replace recovery.img with the actual name of the recovery image you have downloaded to your computer.
    fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
  10. Wait for it to flash the recovery on your phone.
  11. When it’s done flashing the recovery, reboot your phone using the following command:
    fastboot reboot
  12. Your phone should reboot.
  13. You are all set!

TWRP custom recovery was successfully installed on your Sony Xperia Z5 Compact and you can now reboot into the same using the Quick Boot which is available for free on the Google Play store.

In order to flash a custom ROM on your phone, all you need is root access and a custom recovery – and you have got both of them. So, go ahead and try out various custom ROMs, custom kernels, and everything else that you wish to see running on your phone. But make sure you fully backup your phone before flashing anything just to be in the safe side.

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