We had earlier shown you how to install TeamWin Recovery Project (TWRP) custom recovery on your Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE and get your device rooted using TWRP recovery. ClockworkMod (CWM) and TWRP are the top two custom recoveries for Android devices. This guide focuses on helping you to install CWM recovery on Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE and getting your device rooted using CWM recovery.

Disclaimer: This guide is intended as a helpful “how to”. dotTech and its writers are not responsible for any gain or loss (including but not limited to bricked devices) incurred as a result of following this guide. Install a custom recovery at your own risk. Installing a custom recovery may void your warranty. Root your device at your own risk. Rooting may void your warranty.

Requirements

This guide will help you to install ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery on your Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE and get it rooted using CWM recovery. Proceed at your own risk.

Before We Begin

To start with installing ClockworkMod recovery on your Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE and rooting it, make sure that you are ready with the following:

• Download cwmrecovery.img (ClockworkMod Recovery) to your computer. Do not extract this file.
• Download CWM-SuperSU-v0.96.zip (or the latest version of SuperSU from its official XDA thread) to your computer. Do not extract this file. Place this file in the root directory of your phone’s internal storage.
• Install ADB and Fastboot on your computer.
• Motorola USB drivers for Windows, if you are running Windows, or the drivers for Mac or Linux if you are running those. Install the drivers if you haven’t installed them already.
• Make sure that USB debugging is enabled in your device (Settings -> Developer Options -> USB debugging).

How To install/flash ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery on Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE

Follow the steps below to install ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery on your Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE:

• Turn on your device if it’s not already on.
• Plug the device to your computer via a USB cable.
• Open a command prompt in your computer (First, press Win + R to launch the Run dialog, then enter “cmd” in the dialog box).
• First, change the working directory of the command window to the directory where you had placed the CWM recovery file (cwmrecovery.img) using the command “cd directorylocation” without quotes (for example, “cd c:\android“).
• Boot into the fastboot mode by entering the following command in the command prompt:
  • adb reboot bootloader
• Then (after the device is in the fastboot mode), in the command prompt, enter:
  • fastboot flash recovery cwmrecovery.img
    
• You can unplug and reboot your phone after the process finishes.
• Congrats! You now have CWM recovery installed on your device.
• Read on to know how you can get your device rooted using CWM recovery.

How To Root Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE using ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery

Follow the steps below to root your Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE using ClockworkMod recovery:

• Hold down the Power button to turn off the device.
• Turn on the device by holding down the Volume up and Power buttons together. When the device responds, release Power button.
• Once the display turns on, release Volume up button.
• You should be now inside CWM recovery!
• Take a backup of your device by choosing ‘backup and restore‘, and then select ‘backup‘.
• After the backup is complete, ‘go back‘ to the main menu of CWM recovery.
• Select ‘install zip from sdcard’.
• Select ‘choose zip from sdcard’.
• Now select the file CWM-SuperSU-v0.96.zip (or the latest version of SuperSU) that you had downloaded earlier.
• Choose Yes, and CWM recovery will now start installing the file.
• After successful installation, you can reboot your device by choosing ‘go back’ and then ‘reboot system now’.
• Done! Your phone is now rooted (if everything went fine)!
• Open up your Apps list and you will notice a new app ‘SuperSU’. You can access it anytime to manage root permissions for different apps.

Conclusion

Enjoy an extensive ClockworkMod recovery along with the power of root on your Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE. Now you can do things such as performing advanced backup and recovery, partitioning SD card, installing custom ROM’s, block ads, or deny apps Internet access.

[via XDA]