Last Updated on September 21, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake

The Android ROM that comes preinstalled on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone comes with a recovery image.

While not used all that often, the recovery image is there for you to apply updates which can help you recover from common device related problems or just update you to a newer version of Android.

When you accept an over the air update it automatically unpacks the software update zip file and installs it from the recovery image. When your device reboots so that it can use the recovery image it is booting into what is known as recovery mode.

The only real difference between an over the air update and when you flash stock ROMs using a flashing tool is the file is automatically download to your device when you accept OTAs whereas when you use flash tools you have to go and get them yourself.

SO in short a recovery image that can be accessed from recovery mode helps you apply updates. But it won’t allow you to install zip files and apply updates from within the recovery mode when you use the stock recovery mode. For that you need a custom recovery image so you can the boot the device into the custom version of recovery mode.

When you have a custom recovery image installed you can then boot into recovery mode and then install zip files that may contain a custom ROM or rooting scripts such as SuperSU.

Details of Note

  • The custom recovery images available in this guide are only to be installed on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (SM-G935F) 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 (SM-G935F) with Exynos processor TWRP recovery image is “hero2lte.” 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 J1 Ace (SM-J110)

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.

Custom recovery images such as TWRP don’t support official software updates once they’ve been installed. Because most people will make changes to the system partition after installing a custom recovery—by getting rooting with SuperSU, removing the system applications, installing BusyBox, so forth—sometimes that can cause instability in the software if you then go back to running official updates. Therefore instead of doing that, the TWRP team advises that you just update your version of Android, if you must, by using a custom ROM. Most custom ROMs will actually help you run newer versions of Android quicker than the official updates that can take quite some time to get around to rolling out for your device, so from that perspective, continuing with custom ROMs isn’t a bad idea. And if you one of the unluckier ones, about the worst case scenario is something arriving a few days later than the official updates.

With that all being said, if you did need to return to the stock recovery, it is possible to do so. There’s technically no way that you can uninstall or remove the custom recovery image, but you can replace it by wiping the stock version over it. Your Android operating system always needs to have a recovery partition along for the ride with it, which is why simply uninstalling it isn’t going to work. There are no steps you need to take before you flash over the top of the custom recovery either; you can only ever have one of them installed at a time, and it handles the swapping for you when you flash.

To return to stock recovery, you need to find the Samsung stock ROM package that allows for you to return to stock Android. Inside that zip file will be the recovery image which you can flash using the same steps that you used for flashing the custom recovery image. In addition, if that is too much work, you always have the option of just flashing the complete stock ROM with the flashing tool that works for your manufacturers, in this case, that being Odin.

That’s all.