A stock recovery environment allows for the flashing of official software updates, but it won’t allow for the flashing of rooting files or custom software. For that, you’ll need to get a custom recovery instead.

A custom recovery image is a different recovery environment, one that’s been developed by third-party and allows for the flashing of unsigned zip files which can include the rooting files such as SuperSU and custom software which can be any custom ROM that is made for your device.

Over the years there has been a few custom recovery images that people could choose from. At times these were made for all devices while others only had the choice of one of two.

The first custom recovery image that became popular to use was ClockworkMod Recovery. It used the Volume keys to navigate, just like the stock recovery images do too. But then came TWRP Recovery, a new type of custom recovery that came fully equipped with a touch-based interface, as though you were browsing the Android operating system and tapping on the devices display to navigate instead. This was an obvious advancement over the older ClockworkMod Recovery. The developer of ClockworkMod then came up with Philz Touch Recovery, which was ClockworkMod’s answer to the TWRP, since it too came with a touch-based user interface. In the end, though, it was the constant development of TWRP Recovery thanks to its open source nature and having several people looking after it, that took the reins of the custom recovery images, and both ClockworkMod and Philz Touch recovery images stopped development.

Details of Note

  • The custom recovery images available in this guide are only to be installed on the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime VE 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.
  • The codename for the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime VE TWRP Recovery image is “grandprimevelte.” You will see that codename in the TWRP image file path and also from your About Device menu so you know you are flashing the right file on the right device.
  • You can find the device tree files over at its GitHub page.
  • You can install the official TWRP Recovery application from the Google Play Store or from the TWRP website as an APK, if you have root access on the device already, and get the TWRP installed that way, no adb required. Once the app is installed, it will be in your Downloads folder. Navigate to the Downloads folder and select the TWRP application. When the application opens tap on the option for flashing the TWRP.

Files Required

How to Install TWRP Recovery on Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime VE

1. Firstly, you need to know that the Odin flashing tool is really easy to use, but it only works on the Windows operating system. You won’t get the flashing tool to load on a Mac or Linux computer. It doesn’t really matter what version of the Windows operating system that you’re using as long as it is something above Windows XP.

2. Download and install the Samsung USB drivers on the computer if you don’t have them already.

3. Download the stock ROM from the links above directly to the computer. Extract the file by right-clicking on it and choosing the option to extract. When you do, you’ll see the tar.md5 file inside. That’s the file you’ll be using to do the flashing.

4. Download the Odin flashing tool. It doesn’t really matter what version, but the latest is the most up to date so grab that one. Extract the Odin file and then double-click on the Odin executable file (.exe) that is found from within the Odin folder after extraction. You should now have the Odin interface open on the computer and waiting for you to connect to it.

5. Boot the Samsung mobile device into the Download Mode by first powering it down and then rebooting by holding the “Volume Down + Home + Power” keys at the same time.

6. A yellow warning triangle will come up on the device’s display. At this time you need to press the “Volume Up” button. You’ll then see the device getting into the Download Mode. It’s then ready for the flashing.

7. When in Download Mode, connect the Samsung mobile device to the computer with the USB cable.

8. If you have installed the USB drivers correctly, the Odin flashing tool should detect your device. You can tell this by observing the ID: COM port lighting up with a color, usually yellow or blue. (It doesn’t matter what color, it’s the lighting up that counts.)

9. After the device is picked up by Odin, click on the “PDA” or “AP” button, depending on what button your version of the Odin flashing tool has.

10. Navigate to the stock ROM folder and upload the tar.md5 file to this location in Odin.

11. Without changing any of the default settings, click on the “Start” button in Odin, and the flashing then begins.

12. Wait until Odin shows a “Pass” message before disconnecting your device.

TWRP App Installation Method (Root Required)

If you decided to download the TWRP application from the Google Play Store or the APK file from the official TWRP website, then after you open the application you will be given a few different options to choose from. But before even going that far, it’s important to note that you should only install the TWRP APK file from the official TWRP website. If you’re installing it from Git, or any other file hosting website, it might not be the official version, and thus, it won’t have been built or tested by the official TWRP developers and maintainers.

Once the application is open, you’ll need to agree to not hold anyone from TWRP responsible for any issues that your device may face while using the application. This is a standard disclaimer that Team Win puts on top of each of the recovery image files from the official website as well, so it’s nothing new. It just explains that it is your decision to put the custom recovery on your device, and while they work hard to provide a quality product, there are no guarantees that your device isn’t susceptible to damages relating to TWRP while the custom recovery is installed. You can grant the application root permissions now as well. Root access can be obtained by flashing SuperSU, or other appropriate rooting files, from the custom recovery itself. Without root, you won’t have access to some of the app’s features, such as image flashing. It’s here also where you can enable InsightCore (a feature to monitor and record the network performance of your device).

Once you’ve accepted the agreements, you’ll see the TWRP application’s home screen, where you can choose to flash TWRP or view the network statistics. When choosing to flash the custom recovery, you’ll need to scroll and select your device from the list to make sure you are flashing the correct file. When the device is chosen, the TWRP application automatically then searches for the latest version of the TWRP for that device and will continue doing so every day for as long as the app is installed. This interval can also be altered from the Settings in the top right-hand corner of the device’s display when the apps open.

If root access has been enabled, you’ll see the chance to select the custom recovery image and the buttons for flashing the images to boot or from recovery. You should choose to flash the images to recovery. Only use the boot image flashing when you are flashing full boot images, not just kernel zimages.

DD Installation Method

You can also get the custom recovery installed on the Samsung Galaxy J7 Exynos SM-J700 smartphone by using the DD install method. To do it this way, download the latest recovery image file for your device from its downloads page on the official TWRP website (Primary [Americas]| Primary [Europe]) and then place the file in the root of your /sdcard folder. Rename the image “twrp.img.”

You then need to run the following commands from the ADB shell or a Terminal Emulator application:

su

dd if=/sdcard/twrp.img of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/recovery

Custom recoveries are most useful when you’re installing custom ROMs or getting root access. Once you have installed a custom ROM, you can’t go back to an official build without flashing the stock recovery at the same time, but you can remove the root access and keep the custom recovery.

If you’re just using your smartphone without root access and on a stock version of Android, then you won’t even notice the custom recovery is there, so there’s no need to be in a ruckus trying to change it. But you can swap it over for the stock recovery again if you want as well; it just won’t come with a guarantee from the guys at TWRP that everything on your device will be okay. In fact, they explicitly say that if you’ve done anything that plays with the system partition, such as removed stock apps with root access, or even just having root access with SuperSU on some versions of Android for that matter, while having the custom recovery installed, that it could potentially give you problems. So unless you really need to remove it, it’s best just to keep the custom recovery image on your device once you’ve flashed it.

But for those of you who do definitely want to go back to using the stock recovery again, you can do that by getting the recovery image file from the stock ROM zip file and flashing it the same way you flashed the custom recovery image. Alternatively, you can also flash the stock ROM in its entirety using the appropriate flash tool for your device, and since the stock recovery image is inside the zip file, it will install it that way as well.

That’s all.

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