Chinese manufacturers have been producing some really nice Android phones lately, and one of those phones is the Elephone Vowney. While the company name may not ring a bell in your mind, it is an excellent company from China that sells a really great Android phone.

The Elephone Vowney is a budget Android phone that packs some of the most exceptional features of the Android OS, and it lets you enjoy them without damaging your wallet. The phone features a fingerprint scanner, NFC, 3GB RAM, 8MP camera, and runs Android 5.1 on-board.

Although Android 5.1 cannot be called an obsolete version of Android, we are now seeing phones that run even the Android N version so for some people it is an older version of Android. If you are one of those individuals, and you would like to have the latest version of Android running on your phone, you will need to root your phone and then install a custom recovery on it.

Rooting and installing a custom recovery on your Elephone Vowney allows you to load your phone with the custom ROMs that are based on the latest versions of Android. Not only that, but the root-access should enable you to install the so-called root-requiring apps on your phone that are far superior to the common apps you have been downloading on your phone.

There are lots of things you can do when you have rooted your phone, and if that sounds good to you, here’s how you can root your Elephone Vowney:

Details of Note

  1. You must have a computer that runs Windows to do this tutorial as the tool that you are going to use is Windows only.
  2. This tutorial will use SP Flash Tool to flash TWRP custom recovery on the phone.
  3. The tutorial should flash SuperSU to to root the Elephone Vowney phone then.
  4. You should have MTK drivers installed on your Windows computer. Install the drivers if they are not already installed.
  5. You should only do this tutorial on an Elephone Vowney phone. Doing this on any other Elephone phone will brick the phone.

Files Required

  1. Download SP Flash Tool and save it to your computer. It will be used to flash the custom recovery on your phone.
  2. Download TWRP Recovery for Elephone Vowney and save it to your computer. It is the custom recovery that you are going to flash on your phone.
  3. Download SuperSU and save it to your computer. It will be used to root the phone.

How to Install Custom Recovery on the Elephone Vowney

  1. Extract files from both SP Flash Tool and TWRP Recovery over to your computer by right-clicking on each of the archives and selecting Extract here. It will make the files available for your use.
  2. Double-click on SP Flash Tool when it is installed on your computer. The tool should launch.
  3. When SP Flash Tool launches, click on the button that says Scatter-loading.
  4. You should now be able to select a scatter file in the tool. Navigate to the TWRP Recovery directory and select the scatter file available there to be loaded in the tool.
  5. Uncheck all the checkboxes in the tool except for RECOVERY as you want the recovery to be flashed on your phone.
  6. Click on the Download button in the tool.
  7. Turn off your Elephone Vowney phone entirely using the Power button.
  8. While your Elephone Vowney phone is turned off, plug it into your computer using a suitable USB cable.
  9. The tool should automatically start flashing recovery on the Elephone Vowney phone. It should not take too long to finish the process.
  10. When the tool’s done flashing TWRP Recovery, reboot your phone.
  11. Disconnect your phone from the computer.

You are done. TWRP Recovery was successfully installed on your Elephone Vowney using SP Flash Tool.

Now that you have a custom recovery up and running on your phone, here’s how you can go about getting root on your phone:

How to Root Elephone Vowney

  1. Connect your phone to your computer using a compatible USB cable.
  2. Copy SuperSU .zip from your computer over to the internal SD card storage on your phone. It is recommended to place the file in the root directory, so it is easily accessible.
  3. When SuperSU is copied, disconnect your phone from your computer.
  4. Turn off Elephone Vowney your phone using the Power button.
  5. Turn your phone back on in recovery mode. To do that, hold down Volume UP and Power buttons together for a few seconds.
  6. Your phone should reboot into the recovery mode.
  7. When TWRP Recovery opens, tap on the option that says Install. It should let you install a file on your phone.
  8. Navigate to the internal SD card storage on your phone and select SuperSU .zip to be installed on your phone.
  9. TWRP should ask for a confirmation before you can install the selected file. To confirm your action, tap on the option that says Swipe to Confirm Flash.
  10. TWRP should begin flashing SuperSU on your phone. Wait for it to do that.
  11. When TWRP’s done flashing SuperSU, reboot your phone by selecting Reboot followed by System option from the recovery menu.
  12. Your phone should reboot normally.

And your Elephone Vowney should now be rooted!

Now with a custom recovery and root access on your Elephone Vowney, you can enjoy tons of root-requiring apps and custom ROMs on your phone without any issues. There are thousands of such apps and ROMs out there on the Internet that should help you get the most out of your phone.

Let us know how this worked for you in the comments below.

Take Into Account

Team Win often release several TWRP Recovery files for a particular device. They always recommend installing the latest version of TWRP available to avoid compatibility issues. If you have updated the firmware on the device recently and the most recent version of TWRP is not working, then try downgrading the firmware and trying again.

Some custom ROMs that are newer might not be compatible with older versions of TWRP Recovery. You can fix that issue by updating to the latest version of TWRP also.

You can visit the official Team Win Recovery Project home page and scroll down the list to find your device to get the most recent version if the version available in this guide is not working for your device.

You might also be interested in:

Have something to say? You can contribute to this tech article by leaving a comment below.