TWRP is the custom recovery image you want to install on the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone if you want to be flashing custom ROMs and getting root access.

Once you’ve got TWRP installed, you can boot into the custom recovery partition by using the same hardware key combination as the stock recovery that you were already using. These will vary depending on the manufacturer, but once you know the key combination it always stays the same, regardless of the recovery image that is installed.

The difference of course is going to be when you’ve got the new recovery booted. The stock recovery only allowed you to do basic stuff to help recover the device from whatever may have been wrong with it: flashing signed zip files, aka new updates, and taking factory resets being the two options that most people use.

The custom recovery on the other hand offers heaps more: you can take backups, restore those backups, install unsigned zip files such as custom ROMs and rooting files, and loads more. . . .

If you do plan on installing a custom ROM, which many people do choose to do, then you’ll want to backup before each new flash because you also need to wipe the ROM before you flash each ROM as well. If you were to wipe without backing up then you would of course lose the data that isn’t saved.

Not only is the NANDroid backup feature from TWRP great for backing up and restoring quickly, but it also offers you the chance of backing up individual partitions instead of all the data. For example, if you were to tap on the “backup” button from the main TWRP interface, you would then get the chance to check boxes for backing up things like the system partition or leaving it out. That helps you only backup the partitions you’re interested in having instead of doing the full system image backup.

Details We Should Know

  • The custom recovery images available in this guide are only to be installed on the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone. Most devices have a custom recovery image developed specifically for it, and you shouldn’t install one that is intended for another device unless advised it is okay by a professional.
  • You can follow this guide on any of the major three computer operating systems: Windows, Mac, and Linux. You just need to download the right platform-tools file from the Android SDK package when you’re on the Android website, which is walked through during the guide below.

Files We Need

How to Install TWRP Recovery on Huawei Honor 4X Smartphones

1. Install the universal ADB driver on the computer from the download link. That will make it possible for you to use adb commands as well as the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone. If you can’t get the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone connected to the computer, then you can also download the Huawei USB drivers instead so the computer has both the ADB drivers and Huawei drivers installed.

2. You need to have the platform-tools part of the Android SDK on your computer. From the download link scroll down until you get to the command line tools section and then download the package that is made for your operating system.

3. Once you have the SDK Manager on your computer, check the box only for the platform-tools, so you end up with the adb and fastboot binaries installed on the computer.

You could also install the drivers from there as well if you wanted.

4. Pick up the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone and navigate to the Settings > About and tap your finger over the build number at least seven times so that the Developer Options menu becomes unlocked. Then go back to the Settings, enter the Developer Options menu and then enable the USB debugging mode.

5. Connect the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone to the computer by using the USB cable that it comes with.

6. Now on the computer open the Command Prompt and type the folowing command and hit “Enter” on your keyboard to get the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone into the bootloader mode and ready for the flashing:

adb reboot bootloader

7. Make sure you have copied the TWRP image file to the same folder as the adb and fastboot binaries. Also when you’re there, change the name of the TWRP to “twrp.img” by right-clicking the mouse pointer on it and selecting the “rename” option from the menu.

8. From the command line type the following command and hit “Enter” on your keyboard to flash the custom recovery:

fastboot flash recovery twrp.img

9. Lastly type the following command and as soon as the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone reboots, hold down the key combination to boot directly into the recovery mode.

If you don’t sometimes the stock recovery will wipe over the custom recovery you just installed.

fastboot reboot

The custom recovery image for the Huawei Honor 4X smartphone is now installed, and you are ready to boot into recovery mode and start flashing the custom ROM or rooting zip files.

You can always change the custom recovery image for a stock recovery again in the future if you’ve had enough of using TWRP Recovery. You can get the stock recovery installed again by flashing the correct Huawei stock ROM that was made for your device. If you don’t want to flash the entire ROM it’s also possible to unpack the ROM zip file, find the recovery image file, and just flash it using the adb commands as well.

That’s all.