Last Updated on September 20, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (China Qualcomm)Before you can get updates installed on your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone the device needs to boot into the custom recovery image which most people know as having a phone in recovery mode. Once it applies the update, it will then boot back into the system image and the operating system boots, and you’re viewing and starting to use the new software update.

That’s actually the process whether you install over the air updates automatically or flash firmware zip files manually yourself using the flashing tools fro ma computer. The only difference is the OTA update does all this for you by itself and downloads the file directly to your device. If you were doing it all by yourself, it would be you who has to go find the stock ROM zip file and then flash it to the device.

The stock recovery image is great for getting updates installed—as I mentioned Android wouldn’t be able to apply updates at all without it—by there’s no way you can manually upload zip files to the recovery image itself so you can do other things such as flash rooting files or custom ROMs.

That’s why developers made custom recovery images: after the custom recovery image is installed, it will have wiped over the stock recovery and created a new recovery that has completely new features, one of which is the chance to upload zip files.

Most people use custom recovery images so that can flash custom ROMs or SuperSU, but it’s also useful if you just want to take NANDroid backups—they can be done just by using the custom recovery interface without having to install anything else at all.

Details of Note

  • The custom recovery images available in this guide are only to be installed on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (China Qualcomm) 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 Samsung Galaxy S8 is a dm-verity device, meaning that swiping to allow system modifications results in your device being unable to boot if it is using the stock kernel. To get around dm-verity’s boot prevention, you must first install a kernel that has dm-verity disabled in the fstab.
  • The codename for the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (China Qualcomm) TWRP recovery image is “hero2qltechn.” 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 visit the official support thread over at XDA-Developers if you run into any problems along the way.

Files Required

How to Install TWRP Recovery on Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (China Qualcomm)

Note: 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.

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

2. Download the firmware (.tar) file 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

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

7. 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.

8. 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.

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

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

11. Wait until Odin shows a Pass message before disconnecting your device.

You can now close the Odin flashing tool and continue using your computer if you like.

That’s all.