How to root Sony Xperia Z5 Compact [Guide]

^[1]These are the guidelines to root Sony Xperia Z5 Compact smartphones. The Compact is the smaller version of the standard sized flagship model and comes with different hardware. Therefore, it’s imperative you do not follow this guide on the standard Z5 flagship device.

REQUIREMENTS

• The following guide is made for the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact only. Do not follow it on any of the other Sony Xperia devices — even the Xperia Z5 standard sized flagship device. If you did follow the guide on a device that isn’t the Compact variant, you will likely brick that device.

BEFORE WE BEGIN

• Rooting the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact represents an unofficial job that Google and the device OEM do not recommend. It”s for that reason that doing this to your device will void the warranty. You should have no worries unrooting the device to get that warranty working again.
• Download the Sony USB Drivers ^[2] for your mobile phone. You want that on the computer so your device has no worries communicating with the computer and the computers files and programs.
• Make sure the USB Debugging Mode is turned on. You can check that by navigating to the menu > Settings > Developer Options > USB Debugging. Check the box and leave the Developer Options. It should remember your settings when you leave. Now that you have the USB Debugging on, you can connect the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact to the computer and complete the guide.
• If you cannot see any Developer Options from the menu, try heading to the About Device menu on your smartphone. Keep tapping over the build number until it says you are now a developer.

HOW TO ROOT SONY XPERIA Z5 COMPACT

1. Download the rooting package you need from here ^[3].
2. Download the custom kernel you need from here ^[4].
3. Transfer both of the files over to the desktop of your computer.
4. Right-click over the files and select the ‘extract here’ option.
5. Create a new folder and transfer both the files from the desktop over to that single folder.
6. Connect the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact to the computer.
7. From within the folder you created with the two new files, hold the Shift key and right-click an empty spot in that folder to reveal a new menu.
8. Choose to open a new command window here from that new menu.
9. Type your first command: “adb reboot bootloader”
10. Now type the following commands one at a time:

• “adb reboot bootloader”
• “fastboot -S 256M flash system system-rooted.img”

11. Now finish by typing the last command: “fastboot reboot”.

There; that should be all you need to root Sony Xperia Z5 Compact devices. Those of you stuck in a boot loop can reboot to the recovery mode and clear the caching options you will find inside. If that doesn’t fix the problem, access the recovery mode again and this time take a factory reset. Do not reset the device unless you are aware that doing so does result in wiping the data clean. That means effectively returning your device back the way it was when you first opened it out of the box.