Last Updated on September 20, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake

ZTE Axon 7Team Win’s official TWRP Recovery custom recovery image is now available for the ZTE Axon 7 smartphone.

Once you’ve got it installed, you can start taking advantage of its added features which allow for you to upload and flash zip files. Often those zip files can be SuperSU for root access or just custom ROM files which can be flashed directly and then result in a new ROM of your choice booting up when your phone reboots.

This is what you need to flash the TWRP Recovery on the ZTE Axon 7 smartphone, regardless of what version of Android you’re running.

Details We Should Know

  • You need to have the ZTE Axon 7 smartphone’s bootloader unlocked before you can begin to follow this guide that gets the custom recovery image installed on it. If your Axon 7 is running a version of Android before Nougat, you’ll need to unlock your bootloader using the ZTE official B20 unlock fastboot. Further information on that is available at the XDA-Developers web forum.
  • The TWRP link shows two links: one for the Americas and another for Europe. You’ll need to download the one that best suits where your device is from. For example, if you have an American model number, then you would download the TWRP version for the Americas.

Files We Need

How to Install TWRP Recovery on ZTE Axon 7 Smartphones

1. Install the Universal ADB Driver on your Windows computer first so that everything else can work when you try to use it.

2. Copy the TWRP .img file so that it sits in the same folder as the ADB and Fastboot. Once they’re all in the same folder, rename the TWRP to “trwp.img.”

3. On the ZTE Axon 7 smartphone, navigate to the Settings > About menu and tap on the build number at least seven times so that the Developer Options menu becomes unlocked. Then press “Back” and enter the Developer Options from the Settings, where you can then enable the “USB Debugging” mode with another tap.

4. Connect the ZTE Axon 7 smartphone to the computer with the USB cable.

5. Since the Universal ADB Driver is installed, the Windows computer will have no problem detecting your device, plus allowing for the ADB commands later.

6. From the ADB and TWRP folder, hold the Shift key on the keyboard and right-click on the white background, where there are no files, and then select “open a command window here” from the menu.

7. Type the adb reboot bootloader command to get your ZTE Axon 7 smartphone into the bootloader mode.

8. Type the fastboot oem unlock command to unlock the device.

9. Type the fastboot flash recovery twrp.img command to flash the custom recovery image.

10. Type the fastboot reboot command and then hold the right key combination to enter Recovery mode (it’s the same for stock and custom recoveries) so that TWRP boots immediately before the operating system. Once TWRP boots once, it will patch the stock ROM and prevent it from wiping the custom recovery that you just installed. Failing to boot directly into the custom recovery after installation can result in the stock recovery appearing again when you go to boot the custom recovery later.

The custom recovery image is now installed and will remain so until you choose to flash over it. To get the stock recovery installed once again, you need to flash the stock ROM as the recovery is always part of the ROM itself.

What’s more, anytime you choose to flash the stock ROM will result in the custom recovery being replaced for the stock version there is no way around this.