Last Updated on January 28, 2020 by Mathew Diekhake

If you wish to root your Xiaomi Mi 4C, you need to first install a custom recovery on it. A custom recovery will then make it possible for you to flash SuperSU in order to obtain root on the phone.

If you wish to do that, here’s how:

Files You Need

  1. While this tutorial has been written keeping the Windows version of Fastboot in mind, you can still make it work on both Linux and Mac but the steps will slightly vary.
  2. Ensure that the Xiaomi USB drivers are installed on your computer. Install them if they are not already.
  3. This should flash TWRP custom recovery on your phone.
  4. Download TWRP Recovery package to your computer. It has everything you need to flash TWRP recovery on your phone.
  5. You should only try this on a Xiaomi Mi 4C phone.

Installing a Custom Recovery on the Xiaomi Mi 4C

  1. Unzip files from TWRP Recovery package over to your computer by right-clicking on the package and selecting Extract here.
  2. Unlock the Developer menu on your phone by heading to Menu->Settings->About phone and tapping on Build number for 7-8 times and it will say you are a developer.
  3. Head to the newly unlocked menu at Menu->Settings->Developer options and turn on USB debugging.
  4. Turn off your phone completely.
  5. Turn your phone back on in fastboot mode. To do that, hold down Volume DOWN and Power buttons together for a few seconds.
  6. Your phone should reboot into fastboot mode.
  7. Connect your phone to your computer using a suitable USB cable.
  8. Open the Mi4c-root-tool folder that you extracted from the package, hold down Shift on your keyboard and right-click anywhere on your screen and select Open command window here. It will launch a command prompt window on your computer.
  9. Type in the following command into the command prompt window and hit Enter:
    fastboot devices
  10. Your phone will show up on the list which means your phone has been recognized by your computer.
  11. Type in the following command into the command prompt window and hit Enter:
    fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
  12. It should flash the custom recovery on your phone.
  13. Wait for it to flash the recovery on your phone.
  14. When it’s done flashing recovery, reboot your phone using the following command:
    fastboot reboot
  15. Your phone should reboot normally.
  16. You are all set!

TWRP was successfully installed on your Xiaomi Mi 4C and you can now follow our how to root the Xiaomi Mi 4C tutorial to gain root access on your phone.

A custom recovery helps you customize and recover your phone from various situations. For instance, if you flashed a non-working custom ROM on your phone and your phone is not booting up, you can get into the recovery mode and restore the phone backup. Your phone should be back up and running as before.

Before you can restore, you need to first create a backup and for that you need to enter the recovery mode, choose the backup option, select all the partitions to be backed up, and submit. That will create a full backup of your phone that can be restored at any time to get back to the working condition.

There are tons of things you can do when you have a custom recovery and the first thing that we recommend you to do is root your phone. Our guide linked above should help you do that.

So, go ahead and have fun!

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