The wait is over for Sony Xperia Z3 users, now you can also have Android 5.0 Lollipop on your Xperia Z3 with CM 12 nightly build. You can read this tutorial and learn how to flash this ROM on your Z3.

CM 12 is Android 5.0 Lollipop based custom ROM fabricated by Cyanogen Mod team and Nightly are the test builds pre released for testing purpose so that they can improve their ROMs. The ROM is also a nightly build so it could have bugs but all major things will work and stable enough so that you can use it for daily use. CyanogenMod team will give OTA update for this ROM to remove possible bugs.

CyanogenMod Hero

 

Flashing ROM is illegal as well as risky so you should take some necessary actions before going to flash this ROM to your Z3 phone.

  • Backup each and every important file you have in your phone to your PC or any other external drive. You can sync all your contacts to Google account and restore them when finished installing ROM and use Titanium backup application available on Google Play Store to backup your important apps. We can’t be claimed if you use any of your important data.
  • In steps to install ROM you will notice that two important steps are there “Nandroid Backup” and “factory reset”, these two steps are very important. Nandroid Backup will make a backup of previous ROM so if anything goes wrong you can go back to the previous ROM easily and Factory Reset is important before removing the previous installed ROM.
  • This tutorial and files listed in this tutorial are only for Sony Xperia Z3 only. Do not try to install or use this process on any other phone or device as it may brick your phone seriously.
  • Your phone has to be on a unlocked bootloader and latest custom recovery (Team Win Recovery Project – TWRP recommended) should be installed in your phone so that it should support Android 5.0 Lollipop ROM.
  • You phone should have at least 75% battery before starting this process so that your phone will not go powerless during this process cause if this happens your phone might get bricked.
  • Do not skip any of the steps mention in this tutorial cause skipping any step mentioned here may cause you loose your phone.

If you had read all the points above then you are all ready for flash Android 5.0 Lollipop based CM 12 ROM to your device.

Steps to flash Android 5.0 Lollipop based CM 12 to your Sony Xperia Z3

Read all the steps carefully mentioned below.

  1. Download CM 12 ROM zip file from here.
  2. Download Google Apps zip file from here.
  3. Transfer both zip files (do not extract) to your phone SD card and unplug your phone when transfer completes.
  4. Turn your phone off then boot it on “recovery mode”.
  5. Create a backup so that you can get back your previous ROM if anything goes wrong. Click on Backup, give this backup a name then confirm the process.
  6. Clear your phone by clicking on “Wipe” then confirm the process.
  7. Now click on “Install” then “choose zip from SD card” then choose the CM 12 zip file downloaded earlier and finally confirm installation.
  8. After installation flash the GApps zip file as you install previous zip (CM 12) file.
  9. After installation click on “Reboot” then “System”, this will reboot your phone normally.

Booting of your phone to this new CM ROM can take up to 15 minutes so have patience. If it fails to boot repeat all the process or go to recovery and click on restore and run the restore you made earlier so that you can at least get your previous ROM back.

Enjoy Android 5.0 Lollipop on your device. Now like and share this tutorial so that your friends can also toke benefit of this and if you have any queries post it in comment section below.