Have a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact that you want to get a little more out of? This guide will teach you exactly how you can root your device! In no time at all you’ll have root access on your Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, which will open the door to endless possibilities.

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. Root your device at your own risk. Rooting may void your warranty.

Requirements

This root guide is for the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact running Android 4.3. is specifically for the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact.

Take note this will wipe all your files and data on your phone. Proceed at your own risk.

You will need a micro USB cable.

Before We Begin

Download and install the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact USB drivers to your Windows PC.

In order for this root guide to be successful, your bootloader must be unlocked. As this is a very complex process that may void your warranty, we recommend going to this link on Sony’s website, following the steps to unlock your bootloader and returning to this guide to finish the process.

Installing Custom CWM Recovery

• Download the Android SDK to your Windows PC and extract the zip file to a folder on your desktop. Name the folder ‘Android SDK‘.
• Inside the folder on your Windows Desktop named ‘Android SDK‘ find the folder named ‘sdk‘, and inside that folder‘ find an open a folder named ‘platform-tools‘.
• Once inside the ‘platform-tools‘ folder, press the shift key on your keyboard and right-click on some whitespace in the folder. Doing this will bring up a special Windows right-click context menu. Select the option to ‘open command window here‘.
• Once the command prompt window has been opened on your PC, leave it open.
• Download the recovery image to your Windows PC by following this link.
• Find the file that you just downloaded in your downloads folder on your Windows PC. It should be called ‘Z1c_DooMLoRD_AdvStkKernel_FW-114_v01.img‘. Rename this file to boot.img.
• Move the boot.img file into the ‘platform-tools‘ folder that you have open on your desktop.
• Enable USB debugging mode by going to the Settings area of your Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. Inside the Settings area, find and tap on About Device.
• After entering the About Device section, scroll down and look for the build number. Tap the build number repeatedly till a small pop-up comes up that says ‘You are now a developer’.
• After enabling developer mode on your Z1 Compact, go back to Settings and scroll down to the Developer section and tap on it. Look for the USB debugging option and enable it.
• Plug the micro usb cable into your Windows PC, and into your phone.
• On your Windows PC, go back to the command prompt window and type in adb devices and then adb reboot bootloader.
• After using the commands above to reboot your device into the bootloader, it’s time to start flashing the custom recovery image to your device. Do this by entering fastboot flash boot boot.img into the command window on your PC.
• The flashing will now start. DO NOT UNPLUG YOUR PHONE!
• You’ll know that the flashing is complete once you’re able to type again inside the command window on your Windows PC.
• After the flashing process has finished, enter fastboot reboot into the command window. Once your Z1 Compact has rebooted, custom recovery should be installed and working.
• Keep the command prompt window open and move onto the next section of the guide.

How To Root Device

• Download SuperSU from this link. Look for UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.91.zip located in the Downloads folder on your Windows PC, rename it to update.zip and place it onto the root of the storage area of your Sony Xperia Z1 Compact.
• Go to the command window that we’ve been using earlier and type in the command adb reboot recovery. This will reboot your device into your newly installed CWM recovery.
• Inside the CWM recovery on your Z1 compact, select the option to ‘Install Zip’ in the menu.
• Locate the update.zip file that you placed on the root of the internal storage of your Z1 Compact.
• Once you’ve selected the update.zip, your device will then start the flashing process. Be patient and do not power off your phone.
• After the flashing has completed, reboot your device. You should now have root!

Done!

Conclusion

Enjoy a rooted Sony Xperia Z1 Compact.

[via howtodroid]