HTC One rooted! The device that currently sits on the throne of the Android world has gained root access while the hype from its announcement is still fresh. With its off-the-charts specs and prowess, root access is only going to add to the already-popular device’s appeal. If you are one of those lucky few who somehow managed to grab this device, or are planning on getting one soon, you are in luck. The rooting procedure is fairly easy, though the recoveries needed are not fully functional yet and there have been complaints regarding users failing to boot into a certain recovery. The idea is to flash a recovery, boot into it and install the SuperUser package from within. Not sure whether you should root? Our guide on the top 10 reasons to root an Android device might help you out with your decision.

To play it safe, we will be temporarily ‘booting’ the device into a recovery and installing the package, rather than permanently flashing a broken recovery to the phone. There are currently three recoveries available for the device as listed in the requirements section below.

Disclaimer: Follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be held responsible in case your device gets bricked or damaged in any other way as a result of following this method.

Requirements

• An unlocked bootloader. Visit HTCDev and select “All other supported models” as your device.
• Fastboot package and drivers for HTC One.
• Recovery images: CWM Touch | CWM | TWRP
• SuperUser package from Koush.

Instructions

1. To begin, download the fastboot package and extract the contents to a folder.
2. Download the recovery of your choice, rename it to ‘recovery.img’ and copy it to the location where fastboot.exe is.
3. Download the SuperUser zip file and copy it to the root of the phone’s storage / SD card.
4. Power the phone off, boot into fastboot mode and connect the phone to your computer. You can do so by holding down the Power button and Volume Down key at the same time and then selecting ‘Fastboot’ from the menu using the ‘Power’ button.
5. Once in fastboot mode, open command prompt on your computer, switch to the path where fastboot.exe is and enter the following command:

   fastboot boot recovery.img

6. The device should now boot into the custom recovery. Navigate to ‘install zip from sdcard’ and choose the SuperUser package to install it.
7. When installed, simply reboot the device.

That’s it! Look for the SuperUser app in the app drawer to confirm that your HTC One has been rooted. Additionally, you might want to take a look at our compilation of the top 15 must-have apps after rooting an Android device.

[via XDA-Developers]

The post How To Root HTC One M7 Using Custom Recovery appeared first on AddictiveTips.

The HTC One is becoming HTC’s biggest hit to date, and rightly so since the phone is not only amazingly beautiful to look at, but also packs quite a punch when it comes to specs and features. The device was rooted soon after getting released, and we brought you our rooting guide for the device as always, though it required you to do everything manually. If you are looking for an easier way to unlock your HTC One’s bootloader, flash ClockworkMod, TWRP or any custom recovery to it, root the device or any combination of the above, there’s now an all-in-one toolkit available to help you with the process.

HTC One M7 All-in-One Rootkit is developed by XDA Recognized Developer hasoon2000 – the same guy who brought us similar toolkits for several other popular HTC phones including One X+, Droid DNA, One X, One S, Vivid, Rezound, myTouch 4G Slide, Amaze 4G and many others.

Let’s now get the toolkit up and running, and see what we can do with it.

Setting Everything Up

Before you can start using the toolkit, you’ll have to configure a few things on both your computer and your phone.

• Enable USB debugging on your phone.
• Download the tooklit. Make sure to get the latest version, in case there are multiple files there.
• Extract the contents of the downloaded RAR file. We recommend using 7-zip for the purpose.

Unlocking the bootloader

The toolkit guides you through all the steps of unlocking your phone’s bootloader. Just start performing the steps from the top-left box one by one in that order. You’ll have to select a step, press the ‘Go’ button, follow any instructions that pop up to complete it, and move on to the next step, doing it till the process is complete.

Installing A Custom Recovery

Once you have unlocked the bootloader, you can quickly install a custom recovery using the toolkit. There is built-in support for downloading and installing the latest version of ClockworkMod (classic) or ClockworkMod Touch recovery using the top-right box. In addition, if you want to install another recovery such as TWRP, you can use the third option i.e. ‘Your Own Recovery’ and follow the instructions to flash any recovery using its .img file.

Rooting The Device

To root your device, first make sure you have unlocked the bootloader and installed a custom recovery. Next, select the ‘Perm Root’ option (the last one) from the Extras section and follow the instructions to get root access in no time.

Flash A Kernel

The Kernels section lets you flash any custom kernel to your device with ease. Just make sure the kernel you are using is meant for the HTC One, and is in boot.img format. If it is in recovery-flashable format, you’ll need to open the zip file and extract the boot.img file from it first.

Performing Other Useful Commands

The Commands section allows you to perform several other useful commands without having to do so manually. These include:

• Booting into bootloader
• Booting into recovery
• Checking CID
• Erasing Cache
• Getvar All
• Rebooting Phone
• Relocking Bootloader

In addition, the Extras section also allows you to

• ADB Sideload a ROM
• Batch-install one or more apps using their APK files
• Backup/Restore apps and their data
• Flash factory RUU zip (Complete factory reset)
• Fix Mainver error
• Make a logcat

Quite a handful, isn’t it? So if you’ve got yourself an HTC One that you want to take beyond the stock features it comes with but are afraid of doing it all manually due to the risk of messing things up, go ahead and use the toolkit as a much safer and quicker option to take full control of your device.

[via XDA-Developers]

The post HTC One M7 Toolkit: Unlock Bootloader, Install Recovery, Root & More appeared first on AddictiveTips.

Till just over a year back, ClockworkMod (aka CWM) was the go-to custom recovery for pretty much every mainstream Android device. Things have changed a lot since, with a newer player entering the game and gaining a lot of critical acclaim, as well as a huge user base. TeamWin Recovery Project – or TWRP for short – is a fully touch-based custom recovery that was initially developed for Nexus devices, but has since been made available for countless other smartphones and tablets as well, in form of both official and third-party builds. Just like we took you through a very detailed tour of ClockworkMod recovery and its features, we’re going to guide you through all the features of TWRP right after the jump.

In case you aren’t familiar with the concept of a custom Android recovery, we suggest you check out our ClockworkMod recovery guide (linked above) and go through the ‘About Android Recovery’ section. That said, let’s take a closer look at TWRP.

The first thing you’ll probably notice about TWRP is its GUI that looks impressively modern when it comes to a recovery environment, especially compared to that offered by ClockworkMod. You get the same basic set of features that you’d expect from any modern and full-featured custom Android recovery, all laid out in a very organized manner with large, touch-friendly buttons that make using it a breeze. Furthermore, the tablet variants are actually tablet-optimized. Here, take a look for yourself:

Installation

Installing TWRP is super-simple and if you’ve previously installed a custom recovery, you shouldn’t have any trouble doing it. Though for those who haven’t had any prior experience with custom recovery installation, we have you covered. Just head over to the guide linked below and follow the GooManager method for rooted devices or the fastboot method (for both unrooted and rooted devices with an unlocked bootloader) to get TWRP up and running on your device in no time. If neither of these methods work for you, the flash_image method should come handy, though it requires root access.

Installing a custom recovery on Android

Features

TWRP gives you access to all the features you would expect from any custom recovery, and then some. Let’s take a look at them in detail.

Interface

The interface of TWRP comprises of large buttons that make it easy to spot the feature you require at a quick glance and select it with a quick tap.  You’ll also find soft buttons for Home and Back here, along with one for the log view that shows progress of all the operations you’ve performed in recovery.

The log is normally shown automatically while any recovery operation is taking place, but goes into background when the operation is complete. By using the Log button, you can bring it up again if you missed out on anything, or needed to look up some info for troubleshooting purposes.

Install

As the name suggests, the Install option lets you install any recovery-flashable zip file to your device. This can be a ROM, a kernel, a mod, a theme, a system app – pretty much anything that’s available in the recovery-flashable zip file format.

Upon hitting Install, you’re presented with the files and folders on your phone’s storage, from which you can select the file you want to flash. With the file selected, you can either swipe the slider to confirm and start flashing the selected file, or hit the ‘Add More Zips’ button to queue up more files for flashing one after the other in a batch – a feature we haven’t come across in any other custom recovery. It will present you with a file selection screen just like the first one, letting you add up to 10 files to the flashing queue before flashing them all in the selected order. You can also clear the queue any time by tapping the ‘Clear Zip Queue’ button to start file selection from scratch.

Once the flashing process is complete, TWRP gives you some handy options for quick access to certain tasks that many users would need to perform after flashing, eliminating the extra steps required to pick them from their individual sections. These include wiping cache and dalvik cache, and rebooting the system, in addition to a Home shortcut.

Wipe

This section is dedicated to wiping all standard partitions on your Android device. By default, TWRP offers you to perform a full factory reset upon hitting Wipe, since it’s the most common form of wipe operation that most users need in recovery. This will wipe all your user data from the phone, including your installed apps, cache, and dalvik cache. This will not effect the internal or SD card storage area of your phone, meaning your documents, downloads, pictures, music, videos and other files will stay safe.

If you would rather want to wipe EVERYTHING including the aforementioned data, tap ‘Format Data’. This will wipe all your apps, backups, downloads, pictures, videos and media, and will also remove encryption on your internal storage, if you have applied it, essentially leaving nothing but the operating system itself on the device, in a complete factory state.

If you want to be more specific about the partitions you want to wipe, hit ‘Advanced Wipe’ instead. You can then select one or more common partitions to wipe specifically, leaving the rest untouched. The partitions available for wiping include system (where your operating system is stored), data, cache, Dalvik cache, and usb-otg in case of our Nexus 4, but may (or may not) include other partitions as well. Just remember – if you are unsure of whether to wipe a partition or not, NEVER touch it, especially if it’s the system partition. If you are following instructions provided somewhere, wipe only the partitions that the instructions clearly specify to wipe, and leave the rest untouched. Otherwise, you might be stuck with a device with no operating system installed, or lose all your data stored on the device.

Backup

A timely backup can save you from a lot of hassle later on in case of any data loss due to a faulty installation or an operation performed by mistake in recovery mode. That’s why all custom recoveries for Android come with a backup feature (also called NANDROID backup). TWRP’s backup section lets you take a backup of the current state of your phone, allowing you to select the partitions you want to be included in the backup, and even letting you give the backup a custom name on the go.

You are also shown your available storage space, and you can calculate if it’s enough for the backup, based on the sum of the individual partition sizes, that are shown with each partition.

Restore

This section lets you restore your phone to the state of any previously taken backup. Simply select the backup that you want to restore, optionally choose the specific partitions that you want to restore, and swipe the slider to begin the restore process.

Do remember that restoring a backup will essentially wipe the current state of your phone, meaning any changes made after that backup will be lost. However, your internal or SD card storage will remain untouched, and any files that you may have added there after the last backup will still be there.

Mount

Most casual users will never really need this section, but for power users, this can be immensely useful. Here, you can mount or unmount several key partitions of your device, in order to access them over ADB (or certain areas of the recovery, as we’ll see later.) You can also see the amount of free internal storage available on your device here.

Settings

TWRP lets you tweak a few recovery-specific settings, such as toggling signature verification for the zip files you flash, using the rm -rf command for wiping instead of the format command, wherever applicable, skipping MD5 generation during backup, enabling MD5 verification of backup files, using military-style time for the clock display, and a simulation mode in which you can test out recovery operations without actually performing them, which is super-useful for those creating custom TWRP themes, in testing them out to ensure they apply properly to all areas of the recovery.

The Time Zone option lets you specify your own time zone for the time display in recovery mode, by choosing it from a list of all global time zones, and optionally specifying any offset if required.

To keep things secure, TWRP also comes with a lock screen that activates automatically after a predefined screen timeout period, and can be unlocked with a swipe similar to the unlock gesture on the iPhone, as you can see in the screenshot above. This option can be toggled from the Screen section.

Advanced

In the Advanced section, you’ll find some further features that many users might not require. You can copy the recovery’s log to SD card for accessing it later, which can be useful for debugging purposes. You can also fix file permissions, which can help if things aren’t working properly due to improperly set permissions for important files. There’s also a Reload Theme option that is useful for those developing a custom theme for TWRP.

The ADB Sideload mode is also accessible from here, which essentially allows you to put your phone into a mode where files can be flashed to it from a computer using the ADB sideload command. This mode shouldn’t generally be required by anyone who doesn’t already know how it works, and those unfamiliar with it don’t really need to worry about it. For those who are going to use it, the Wipe Cache and Wipe Dalvik Cache options can come handy to ensure that both these cache partitions are wiped after the ADB sideloading process completes.

There are two more options here – Terminal Command and File Manager. These (especially the File Manager) deserve a section of their own, so let’s now take a look at them.

File Manager

Not many custom recoveries come with a built-in file manager, but TWRP has taken things one step further by adding one to the mix. Once you launch it from the Advanced menu, you are shown the file or folder selection screen. Simply navigate to the file or folder you want to manage, and hit the ‘Select’ button. For conveniently locating the required file or folder, you can use the sorting options.

Once a file or folder has been selected, you can then copy or move it to another location, set its permissions to rw-r—r– (755) by using the ‘chmod 755’ button, or to any other permissions you want by using the ‘chmod’ button, delete the item, or rename it. These options can come incredibly handy when attempting to fix things from recovery in case of any issues that have made the phone inaccessible in normal Android mode. However, use these only when you are sure of what you are doing, and don’t mess around with any files that you don’t know much about, or else you might end up harming your OS.

Terminal Command

The Terminal Command mode found in the Advanced menu lets you run a batch file that contains Terminal commands that you want to execute. These files usually have a .sh extension, and if you are unsure about this mode, just let it be, as you won’t exactly need it in that case. For those advanced users who do need to run such a file, TWRP offers the same file selection interface in this section that’s featured in the other parts of the recovery, as we’ve seen above. Simply select the file and you’ll be able to run it right from recovery.

Reboot

This menu provides you with handy options of rebooting your device directly into specific modes right from recovery. The options available include System (normal Android mode), Recovery, and Bootloader (fastboot mode). In addition, you can also directly power your device off from here.

Final Words

TWRP is nothing short of a breakthrough when it comes to Android recoveries. It provides the most impressive user interface we’ve seen in recovery mode, making it a very easy-to-navigate GUI – a major jump from the traditional menu-based boring and complicated recovery interface found in most other recoveries including ClockworkMod. And the interface is just the icing on the cake; the several handy features offered by TWRP that are nowhere to be found in other custom recoveries make it THE best custom recovery currently available for Android, period! It also allows users to theme it to their liking by editing an XML file, and fully conforms to the OpenRecovery standard for its recovery operations, rather than going for its own non-standard ways. This standards-compliance makes it compatible with the excellent GooManager app for scheduling flashing of files without leaving the Android environment.

TWRP has replaced ClockworkMod on all our devices here at AddictiveTips, and we have no hesitation in recommending it to any Android user looking for a custom recovery for their device.

Visit TWRP Website

The post What Is TWRP Recovery & How To Install & Use It On Android Devices [Guide] appeared first on AddictiveTips.

One of the really spectacular things about Android is that users can flash all sorts of custom ROMs, kernels, themes and mods on it through its recovery environment. Don’t like the stock ROM? Fret not! You can always flash CyanagenMod, MIUI, AOKP or Paranoid Android instead. Don’t fancy that ugly Samsung Touchwiz? We neither, so grab a flashable theme and get rid it. Even if you don’t use recovery for flashing anything, it still has other uses like backing up and restoring a complete image of your phone.  When it comes to flashing anything on Android, ClockworkMod Recovey is perhaps the first to come to mind because not even a couple of years ago, it was the sole mainstream custom recovery available for most Android devices. But things have changed quite a bit since then, with TWRP  (short for TeamWin Recovery Project) fast becoming the custom recovery of choice for many. Like ClockworkMod has ROM Manager that lets you schedule recovery operations from within Android that are to be performed automatically in recovery later, TWRP users now have TWRP Manager that does the same for devices running TWRP recovery. And what’s more – it boasts an interface identical to that of TWRP itself too!

Needless to say, you will need TWRP installed on your device before you can use TWRP Manager. If you don’t have it already, our TWRP guide (linked above) should help. Next, install the app from the link provided at the end of this post, and you should be good to go.

The app allows you to schedule recovery functions without entering TWRP recovery environment by using OpenRecoveryScript. These include all the supported functions of a normal recovery environment such as flashing ROMs, wiping data, creating or restoring backups and so on. The interface looks exactly the same as the original TWRP. The home screen houses eight different touch-friendly buttons labeled Install, Wipe, Backup, Restore, Mount, Settings, Advanced and Reboot. To execute an action, simply tap its button from the home screen, followed by swiping the slider to confirm. For instance, if you want to wipe data, select it from the main screen, choose the type of wipe by marking the available options, and swipe the slider.

Whenever an action is initiated, your device automatically reboots into recovery, completes the pertaining action and restarts itself back in Android. You can also create and restore backups in the same way. For that, TWRP Manager asks you to mark the partitions you want to back up from boot, cache, data, recovery, system and Android Secure, as well as choose options for the backup such as compression and MD5 generation. Lastly, you can also select the location for your backup between internal or external storage. The Reboot menu allows users to reboot to system (Android), recovery or bootloader, or simply power off  the device.

The app is still in its early alpha release thus have many missing functions, and contains errors and bugs. For instance, the integrated backup to Dropbox feature is not yet implemented. So are the available options under the Settings screen. Likewise, the mount feature is also yet to be fully implemented into this app.

TWRP Manager is available at Google Play Store for free. Testing of the app was carried out on Android 4.2.2.

Install  TWRP Manager from Google Play

The post TWRP Manager App Released For TeamWin Custom Android Recovery appeared first on AddictiveTips.

Flashing a custom recovery on your Android device, such as ClockworkMod or TWRP, doesn’t take much time if you’ve got all the required tools at hand and a little bit of spare time. However, the process can be quite cumbersome to new Android users who aren’t familiar with technical Android terms, ADB commands and/or the procedure to flash recovery image via fastboot. Thanks to XDA-developers forum member DsLNeXuS, we have a nifty little Android app that makes flashing a custom recovery on your device a one-click-process. Recovery Tools allows flashing a custom recovery without even rebooting the device or using any ADB command. Why would you need it when it can be done using ROM Manager or GooManager, you ask? With this application, you can flash both ClockworkMod Recovery and TWRP (one at a time, of course), though the available options may vary from device to device. Recovery Tools already supports a wide-array of Android phones and tablets, and comprises of a very minimal and intuitive design. Details to follow after the jump.

The application only works on rooted Android devices. Everything is entirely done within the app; no rebooting into bootloader or using ADB/fastboot commands required. A major benefit it offers is that if you have CWM installed and need to switch to TWRP for something, you can simply use the app to quickly flash TWRP and the next thing you know, you’ll be booting into TWRP! It works equally well the other way round too.

To get started, download the app from Google Play Store (link provided at the end). As mention earlier, the application requires root access so make sure you grant it the required root permissions when prompted. The app look very simple and sports a clean design. On its interface, you will find two buttons: ‘Flash ClockworkMod Recovery’ and ‘Flash TWRP Recovery’. It should be noted that only one custom recovery can be installed at a time. All you have to do is tap the button for your desired recovery. Recovery Tools also displays your’ device’s model at the bottom, along with the recovery’s path on your file system. For the technical ones among us, the app uses dd to directly write the recovery image to the partition.

If the required recovery IMG file isn’t already present on your device at the appropriate path, the app automatically downloads it for you. Just tap the Yes button when it asks you for download. Once downloaded, the recovery is flashed and no further input is required from the user. After successfully flashing the recovery, Recovery Tools also prompts whether you’d like to reboot to your new recovery. You can either cancel it or tap Yes to reboot to the recovery that you just installed.

Recovery Tools is an open-source app and you can grab its source code from Github. It’s available on Google Play Store for free, so grab it in order to be able to easily flash and switch between CWM and TWRP at will without any complicated procedure.

Install Recovery Tools from Play Store

[via XDA-Developers]

The post One-Click Install CWM Or TWRP Without A Reboot Using Recovery Tools appeared first on AddictiveTips.

Earlier on, we covered a guide detailing how to root the new Nexus 7 and the older Nexus devices – barring the Nexus S and Nexus One – on Android 4.3. If you’ve owned a Nexus device, you probably know how the bootloader unlock and rooting process is pretty much the same across the board. While there are plenty of toolkits available for every Nexus device out there, Wug’s Nexus Root Toolkit would be the first one that serves the new Nexus 7, complete with bootloader unlocking, one-click root and recovery flash, and more. Make no mistake, the toolkit has been around for a while, catering to Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, older Nexus 7 and Nexus 10, but it has just recently been updated to include support for the latest Nexus 7 as well.

A few days back, we covered a Linux-based Nexus toolkit that supported most of the Nexus devices, but not the new Nexus 7. This one, however, is Windows-based and supports all Nexus devices.

Using the tool kit is fairly simple. You will be prompted to download all the required files that might be needed, depending on the device you select as well as the build you’re currently running.

Next up, you need to enable ‘USB Debugging’ on your device. Assuming you’re on Android 4.2 or higher, follow the instructions as laid out in the screenshot above. New to Jelly Bean or for that matter Android? See our quick guide on enabling USB Debugging on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The toolkit includes a full guide for manually installing the driver, though you can have the toolkit install it automatically for your device as well. The basic interface of the toolkit gives you options such as unlocking, rooting (with or without flashing a custom recovery), flashing to the stock factory image, and even identifying if the device is soft-bricked or in a bootloop. Backup and restore functions have also been provided so you can keep your data safe before attempting anything here.

Hit the advanced button and you’ll be able to pull or push files, install APKs, perform ADB functions, temporarily boot into a custom recovery, flash a stock recovery or kernel etc. Not sure what a particular function will actually do? The toolkit has dynamic tooltips as well, so hover over a button for a better explanation of the said function.

With a robust ‘Settings’ menu, you can play around with what recovery is installed to your device, set file associations for APK files, tinker with update settings and more. You can grab the recovery for free from one of the following download links. For updates and queries, head over to the forum thread at XDA-Developers linked below.

Download Wug’s Nexus Root Toolkit | Mirror 1 | Mirror 2

[via XDA-Developers]

The post Root, Unroot & Unlock Nexus 7 (2013) & All Other Nexus Devices With Wug’s Toolkit appeared first on AddictiveTips.

If you’ve installed ClockworkMod recovery on your Android device and have been into the custom ROM scene, you’re probably familiar with ROM Manager – the GUI app that lets you schedule all recovery operations such as ROM or recovery installation, backup creation, wiping data and cache etc. from within Android so that you don’t have to use the recovery’s interface for them (the operations are still performed in the recovery mode). There’s also GOOManager that makes the same possible with TWRP recovery. While both these apps work great, they both have room for improvement, both in terms of the variety of resources they offer, as well as the quality of their presentation. XDA-Developers Member jrummy has now provided us with an alternative by the name of ROM Installer that does just that, and does it brilliantly. Just like with ROM Manager and GOOManager, the operations will actually be performed in recovery, but you won’t have to do anything while in recovery mode. In what follows, we will take an in-depth look at this app and all its features.

Disclaimer: This app uses root access to schedule advanced operations that are then performed in recovery. These operations involve modifying your operating system, and even wiping your storage. Use it to install ROMs and perform wipes only if you know what you are doing. AddictiveTips will not be liable if your device gets damaged or bricked in the process.

ROM Installer’s interface looks just great. Needless to say, the app requires root access to be able to perform these advanced operations, and asks for Superuser permissions when launched for the first time. It then takes you to its home page and starts loading all the ROMs, recoveries and mods available for your device from various reputed resources. In the featured section, you’ll see popular names like AOKP, Carbon, CyanogenMod, MIUI and Paranoid Android, with other options right below under ROMs. In addition to ROMs, you can also find several flashable mods, add-ons and kernels via the links provided under the Extras, Goo Developers and Community labels by scrolling down. To access all the different sections of the app, tap the ROM Installer button at the top-left or swipe in from the left edge to reveal the app’s navigation drawer.

For any ROM or mod you select, you’ll be shown its relevant info including screenshots, views, favorites, comments, a description and all relevant downloads, with the latest stable ones being listed on top. Tapping any available download will further let you download it to your device, or view its details.

In the details of any download, you’ll be able to view its source URL, upload date, MD5 checksum, number of times it has been downloaded, and links to its available add-ons (if any). If you choose to download a ROM, you’ll also be offered to optionally download a compatible Google Apps package and it will be installed with the ROM. You can also skip it altogether or do it later if you want. The app will then connect to the server and start downloading your selected ROM and any GApps package you’ve chosen.

In the Backup & Restore section, you’ll see all backups that have been made from your device from a recovery such as TWRP or ClockworkMod. Tap a backup and you’ll be able to restore, rename or delete it, view its properties, or extract the backup files for any manual manipulation. You can also use the Advanced Restore function (if available in your recovery) to selectively restore the partitions you want.

The Flash Recovery section lets you browse and flash popular recoveries for your device directly without having to use fastboot or flash_image commands for the purpose. The app also conveniently shows the latest versions of popular recoveries such as TWRP and ClockworkMod on top, with all other available versions listed below in reverse chronological order in separate sections for each recovery.

There’s also a ROM Installer section that lets you select and queue multiple zip files of ROMs, GApps, mods etc. to flash. Just tap Add Zip, browse to the location of the zip file that you want to flash, repeat the process for any other zip files if required, select the recovery that you have installed (if it doesn’t get detected automatically), and tap ‘OK’ to reboot the phone and start the flashing process.

ROM Installer can also be configured to automatically check for updates to your currently installed ROM at an interval of your choice. Just go to the ROM Updates section and select a schedule as well as time of your choice to check for updates. The schedule may vary from hourly up to weekly basis and if an update is found, the app shows a notification for it, tapping which starts downloading it automatically.

From the app’s menu, you can quickly access some of its features. You can install a ROM from its zip file stored on your SD card (you’ll be taken to the ROM Installer section after picking the file), or create a new backup with a name of your choice.

From the same menu, you can access the Downloads section, where you’ll be able to view and manage all currently downloading ROMs or mods that you’ve started in ROM Installer. Tapping any ongoing download will let you cancel it, while tapping a finished one will take you to its installation process. Another handy option in this menu lets you wipe data, cache, dalvik cache and battery stats. Throughout the app, any operation you select will show you a confirmation prompt before it reboots into recovery to perform it.

There’s also a power menu that allows you to quickly perform several types of reboots including normal and fast system reboots, reboot into recovery or bootloader, restarting system UI, and powering off. Lastly, the app’s settings let you specify a download path of your choice, manually download a zip file by specifying its direct URL, select the recovery that you currently have installed (in case it isn’t automatically detected by the app), toggle quick backup and restore modes (availability depends on your recovery), enable the automatic update detection feature and set it to perform at each boot, add GOOManager to your Launcher, and set a user-defined device name in case yours isn’t getting detected automatically or you just want to explore the downloads available for some other devices (though make sure not to flash anything meant for another device, unless you’re sure it’s fully compatible with yours.)

In a nutshell, ROM Installer offers everything you’d ever need for scheduling all your recovery operations from Android, and it is far superior to ROM Manager, GOOManager or any other similar app. It has already replaced the former apps on my device, and I’m sure it’ll find a permanent home on the devices of many others as well. You can install it for free from the link provided below, and visit the XDA thread linked at the end to follow its development.

Install ROM Installer from Play Store

[via XDA-Developers]

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A lot of Android enthusiasts use custom recoveries such as TWRP and ClockworkMod for flashing ROMs and mods, taking and restoring full device backups, and even managing their files using the full-featured AROMA file manager. And while most users wouldn’t really need to take screenshots in recovery mode, us bloggers, developers of custom recoveries and AROMA-based apps, as well as designers of recovery themes need this functionality often to showcase what they’re reviewing or working on. In what follows, we will guide you through the process of easily taking screenshots of your Android device while it is booted in recovery mode, regardless of what custom recovery it’s running.

Unlike when you’re booted into Android normally, the standard Volume Down + Power button combination doesn’t work for snapping a screenshot in recovery. Previously, Android SDK’s DDMS tool used to work just fine for the purpose, but that’s no longer been the case since the past few updates.

The only working solution that I’ve been aware of so far was to manually grab the raw framebuffer data and then process it using the ffmpeg command-line tool to get the required image. However, there’s a serious caveat with this solution: it isn’t a single, universal command for all Android devices, because different devices and recoveries use different pixel formats for their framebuffer, and the command also needs be tweaked to factor the device’s native resolution and a stride factor in the raw image. I have personally been through the nightmare of spending hours trying to figure out these parameters for some of my devices when writing some of my guides involving recovery screenshots.

What we’re about to see is an awesome little tool by XDA Member makers_mark that gets the job done for you while keeping all such complications in the background.

Meet Recovery Screenshot

Recovery Screenshot is a script (only available for Windows as of this writing) that utilizes ADB and ffmpeg to pull the raw framebuffer from your device and then process it accordingly to present you with the screenshot in PNG format.

Before you can start snapping recovery screenshots, you must configure the tool for your device. So, let’s get started.

Settings Things Up

Before you proceed, make sure you’ve rebooted your device into recovery mode, connected it to your computer via a USB cable, and installed the necessary drivers for it.

Download Recovery Screenshot and extract the contents of the downloaded ZIP file to any convenient location on your computer. Next, launch the tool using the RUNrs.bat file in the folder. The script will present you with the following options:

Select the first option, i.e. make a configurations setting by pressing 1. You will then be asked for your device’s screen dimensions in pixels. Make sure you enter the shorter dimension as width and the longer one as height.

Recovery Screenshot will then pull the framebuffer from your device, process it in several pixel formats with ffmpeg, and put the processed PNG files into a ‘Pixel_formats’ folder inside the folder where you extracted the tool.

Now go to the Pixel_formats folder and check out all those images. You’ll notice that most of them look funny, which is perfectly normal; they were processed using a pixel format different from that of your device. What you need to look for here is the image that looks right, note its name (which is the name of its pixel format), and press any key to continue.

If you’ve found the correct image in the folder, go ahead and press 1 to finalize your settings. If you didn’t get lucky this time though, just hit 2 and the tool will try out even more, less commonly used formats. In that case, look again in the same folder for the dozens of new images added there, and make a note of its name when you find the correct one.

After you’ve found the correct pixel format, enter it on the next screen exactly as you see it in the name of the correct file (without the .PNG extension). For example, in our testing using the Nexus 5, the correct image was rgb0.png and hence the correct pixel format was rgb0.

After you input the correct pixel format for your device and hit Enter, you’re done with the configuration – it’s now time to start snapping those recovery screenshots. Your settings are saved and you will no longer need to configure the script for the same device when launching it again.

Capturing Screenshots in Recovery

After the initial configuration is complete, you’re given the following options whenever you launch the tool.

What might seem confusing here would be the presence of three options for grabbing the framebuffer. Explaining how Android’s double framebuffer system works is beyond the scope of this guide, and the image you’re looking for could be in either of the framebuffers, so it’ll be a good idea to go for the third option each time, i.e. getting both framebuffers. Just hit 3, and Recovery Screenshot will start pulling and processing both the framebuffers for you.

The resulting processed image files will be placed in a subfolder inside the script’s main folder, and given a name based on the current date. The images inside will be named based on the current time, as well as the framebuffer (upper or lower).

Note that when you try to capture a different device’s screenshots, you might need to configure the tool again. To do that, just hit 4 on its main screen to reset your settings and start over. The fifth option i.e. the manual mode doesn’t involve having a device connected in recovery mode, and can be used to manually specify your settings and process any raw image file as source.

A Few Results

Here are a few screenshots captured in recovery mode using the script. The first one is TWRP recovery’s home screen, the second one shows flashing progress, while the third one is the AROMA File Manager.

Again, while it isn’t for everyone since casual users and even most power users will never need to capture recovery screenshots, Recovery Screenshot can prove to be a lifesavers for people like me who previously had to go through the hassle of manually pulling framebuffers and processing raw images with ffmpeg commands each time we needed to review a custom recovery or AROMA script.

Download Recovery Screenshot from XDA-Developers

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The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus do not have a headphone jack. This is possibly the most disturbing change made to the iPhone in terms of hardware. People are so upset with the change they haven’t given much thought to home button on the new sets. It is no longer a mechanical button you can press. You now tap it instead of pressing it. This hardware change doesn’t call for buying any new accessories and it’s fairly easy to get used to. That said, try entering recovery mode on your iPhone 7 or 7 Plus and you’ll find you can’t use the long standing method to do so because the Home button cannot be pressed. Here’s how to enter recovery mode on your iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

To enter recovery mode follow these steps;

1. Open iTunes on your PC or Mac
2. Connect your iPhone 7 or 7 Plus to your PC or Mac via the lightning cable it comes with
3. Hold down the Power/Lock button and the Volume Down button at the same time
4. The Apple logo will appear on your screen. Do not release the buttons
5. Keep both the Home button and the Volume Down button pressed until the Apple logo disappears and is replaced with an image indicating the lightning cable connecting with iTunes.
6. You are now in Recovery mode. iTunes will also show you a prompt on your Mac or PC when you have successfully entered recovery mode.

It’s possible all iPhones that are manufactured in the foreseeable future i.e. next two years, will have the same Home button so this method will work for upcoming handsets.

If you’re using an iPhone for the first time and it’s the iPhone 7 you won’t need to enter recovery mode. Anyone upgrading from an older iPhone to iPhone 7 will definitely need to enter recovery mode to restore the phone from a back-up. Given the iPhone 7 and 7 plus sales figures, this means a lot of people. Happy upgrading.

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Apps on Windows 10, no matter how stable they are, can still crash. The crash may be a result of an unexpected request sent to the app, by the app, or by the system. A crash may also be a result of the app not having enough system resources to perform a function. It might also be forced to shut down if Windows 10 decides to install updates.

An app crash results in data loss but some apps like Microsoft Word have a built-in feature for recovering lost data. Here’s how you can recover an unsaved Word document on Windows 10.

Recover unsaved Word document

There are two ways to recover an unsaved Word document; auto-recovery, and manual recovery. Neither is hard but auto-recovery works at the description of Microsoft Word.

1. Auto-recover Word document

The built-in auto-recover feature on Word works by saving a version of the document at regular intervals. It basically saves when you forget to. To recover an unsaved Word document after a crash, follow these steps.

1. Open the Start menu or the apps’ list and find the Microsoft Word tile.
2. Right-click it and from the context menu select the document you were working on.
3. If you never saved the document i.e. never gave it a name, simply open Microsoft Word.
4. The Document Recovery panel will open on the left.
5. Select a version of the document to recover and then save it with the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut.

2. Manually recover unsaved Word document

If the Document Recovery panel doesn’t open, there is still a chance that you can manually recover a file.

1. On your desktop, open Microsoft Word.
2. Go to File>Options.
3. Select the ‘Save’ tab.
4. Under the ‘Save Documents’ section, look for the Autorecover file location.
5. Copy the location to the clipboard.
6. Open File Explorer.
7. Paste the location into the location bar, and tap Enter.
8. You will see a file with the ASD file extension. This is the auto-save. Double-click to open it.
9. When prompted, select Word as the app to open the file with.

Conclusion

By default, Microsoft Word saves documents every ten minutes however, users can change this interval to be as low as 1 minute. Go to File>Options>Save and change the auto-save interval for all files. It may slow your system down just a tiny bit but it will allow you to recover more recent changes after Microsoft Word or Windows 10 crash. You can also change where the auto-recovery files are saved and set it to a cloud location allowing you to recover a file from a remote system.

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The hard disk or the SSD on your system is divided into smaller volumes/drives. File Explorer only shows drives that users can save files to but there are other, smaller drives/partitions that you can’t see. These partitions contain the EFI or the boot information or recovery information. If you view a list of volumes on your HDD or SSD via Command Prompt, or via the Disk Management utility on Windows 10, you will be able to see the size of these partitions, and how many there are.

Access boot partition in File Explorer

The boot and/or recovery partitions aren’t listed in File Explorer. There is no address that you can enter in the location bar to access them. You have to instead go through Command Prompt.

1. Open Command Prompt with admin rights.
2. Run the following command.

mountvol

3. The command will return a list of all the volumes that your HDD or SSD is divided into. Note the GUID  given next to each volume and the *** NO MOUNT POINTS *** message.
4. All volumes with *** NO MOUNT POINTS *** are boot or recovery drives.
5. Copy the GUID of the volume you want to access.
6. Run the following command. Replace ‘GUID’ with the GUID of the volume you want to access. Do not remove the curly braces.

start \\?\Volume{GUID}\

Example

start \\?\Volume{6718a8b3-0e21-4051-bd61-9c9ca9932023}

7. Tap Enter.
8. A new File Explorer window will open. You may be prompted to grant admin access. Click Continue to access the drive.

Unhide recovery partition

You cannot unhide the boot partition but recovery partitions can be unhidden. Once unhidden, you can access them from File Explorer without having to run the above commands in Command Prompt.

To unhide a recovery partition, follow these steps.

1. Open Command Prompt with admin rights.
2. Open the diskpart tool with this command: diskpart
3. List all connected disks with this command: list disk. Note the number given to the disk.
4. Select the disk with this command: select disk 0 (replace the number to match that of your disk).
5. List all partitions with this command: list partitions.
6. Select the partition you want to unhide: select partition 1 (replace the number with the number given to the partition you want to unhide.
7. Double-check to make sure the partition is indeed hidden with this command: detail partition.
8. Finally, unhide it with this command; set id = 07 override.

Need to hide the drive again? Follow this guide on hiding a recovery/reserved drive.

Conclusion

Boot and Recovery drivers are essential. They do not take up a lot of space so it is best to leave them untouched. Accessing files in them is easy, and you can create backups via File Explorer but never tamper with these files or drives unless you know what you’re doing.

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