Last Updated on September 20, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake

The Android operating system isn’t without its faults: if you want to try to find your files, you’re probably better off downloading a file manager application from the Google Play Store instead of trying to figure out where it ended up within the Android natural navigation . . . you won’t just be looking for it after a few days, you’ll give up entirely and forget about whatever you were doing. You also won’t pass many people talking about Android without hearing how it’s a touch slow—or, at least to them, when they’re using whatever trickled-down version of Android they have at the moment.

Android doesn’t stop the phone carrier networks from installing heaps of applications, commonly refereed to as bloatware to those who don’t like it, which can take away some of the speed that Android had before it made its way into the hands of those same carriers. What’s more, there’s nothing you can really do it about it unless you get root access and start deleting the additional apps, which can be done by using something along the lines of Titanium Backup.

There is another solution to the same problem: just skip the getting root access part and use a custom ROM to your advantage. Not all devices out there have the luxury of getting a custom ROM installed—and especially not one that’s actually really good—but if you have a popular device such as the Google Pixel C, then you’re bound to find at least a few. And certainly, one or two that give you a close-to-stock version of Android that’s considerably zippier.

Much of the time, people are choosing to install custom ROMs to update to newer versions of Android, versions that have not yet arrived as official OTA updates, but a large chunk of users are also doing it just to find some more speed. You can achieve this by installing a custom ROM that is listed as “debloated,” meaning it has had those applications installed by the carrier networks removed already, and it’ll give you the version of Android the way Android developers intended it to be running without the rest of the junk—the stuff that was slowing it down.

Details We Should Know

  • The TWRP Recovery images found in this guide are only developed for the Google Pixel C tablet. Do not attempt installing them on another device.
  • You can follow this guide using any of the big three operating systems: Windows, Linux, and Mac. You just need to download the right platform tools package for your operating system which you will see when you visit the Android Studio webpage.

Files We Need

How to Install TWRP Recovery on Google Pixel C Tablet

1. Scroll down to the Android command line tools section of the Android Studio webpage and install the SDK tools package, making sure to choose the right one for your operating system, i.e., download the one for Windows if your computer is running on Windows.

2. Once you have the SDK Manager extracted on the computer, select to install only the platform-tools, so you end up with the adb and fastboot binaries.

3. If you’re using a version of the Windows operating system, make sure you install the universal ADB drivers, so you have the right drivers installed, both for the adb and the Google Pixel C device.

Note: If your Google device isn’t being detected still, you can install the Google USB drivers as well, so you would then have both the adb drivers and the Google USB drivers.

4. Pick up the Google Pixel C tablet and navigate to the Settings > About and then tap on where it shows the build number at least seven times. It’ll then unlock the Developer Options menu. Press the Back button and then enter the newly unlocked Developer Options menu from the Settings and enable the USB debugging mode.

5. Next, boot it into bootloader mode by first powering it off and then booting it up by holding the Volume Down and Power buttons.

Use Google or Bing for further instructions if you can’t get it to boot into bootloader mode, or just use the command from the command line shown later in the guide.

6. Connect the Google Pixel C tablet to the computer using its USB cable.

7. Now on the computer open the Command Prompt and and type the following and then hit Enter on your keyboard to get your Google Pixel C into bootloader mode if you weren’t successful with it before:

adb reboot bootloader

8. Copy the latest TWRP Recovery image that you downloaded so that it’s in the same folder as the adb and fastboot binaries. Rename the image “twrp.img” by right-clicking on the image and selecting the option to rename it.

9. Now type the following command into the command line and then hit Enter on your keyboard to flash the TWRP image:

fastboot flash recovery twrp.img

10. Type the final command following and then press Enter on your keyboard and then as soon as your device reboots, hold the key combination for recovery mode so it first-time boots directly into TWRP:

fastboot reboot

You should now find that TWRP Recovery is installed on the Google Pixel C tablet, If you don’t boot it directly to the recovery mode sometimes the work you do can be wiped, and you would find the stock recovery back on the device. When that happens, you have no choice but to follow the guide again.

That’s all.