Anyone hoping to check out some of the custom ROMs available for the Xiaomi Mi4i smartphone from the XDA-Developers forum will need to install a custom recovery image first. A custom recovery image, better known as just a custom recovery, is what we use to upload our ROM files. To this day, there is no other way you can change your stock ROM for a custom ROM or aftermarket firmware unless you upload the zip file from a custom recovery.

As far as custom recoveries go, there is a clear leader in the race today with TWRP Recovery having little to no competition. ClockworkMod Recovery — the first and pioneering custom recovery developed by Koushik Dutta — is no longer being developed or maintained. You can still find some ClockworkMod Recovery files available for newer devices, but they aren’t being developed to be compatible with newer custom ROMs. Unless another custom recovery pops up, soon it will be TWRP Recovery that is the only choice as custom ROMs start getting updated to newer versions of Android that require a unique custom recovery images. That’s why when you open something like the TWRP Manager application or the official TWRP website, you can see there are several versions of recovery images available for many of the devices.

REQUIREMENTS

• The guide is written for those with the Xiaomi Mi4i in mind. The same toolkit should work for most devices in the Xioami range, but no guarantees it works for every firmware version those devices are running. That said, we do know the guide works for the Mi4i device.

BEFORE WE BEGIN

• Unlock the Developer Options menu on your Mi4i smartphone if it is hidden so you can go on to enable the USB Debugging Mode. You can unlock it by tapping on the Settings > About Device > Build Number at least 7 times. You know it’s unlocked when it tells you that you are using the Mi4i smartphone as a developer.
• Enter the Developer Options menu that you juts unlocked by tapping on the Settings > Developer Options and enable the USB Debugging Mode by checking the box for the same.

HOW TO INSTALL TWRP RECOVERY ON XIAOMI MI4I

1. Make sure you are logged into your computer with an administrators account.
2. Download the Xiaomi root toolkit directly to your computer from here.
3. Click the small triangle from the right side of the download once it completes and choose the “show in folder” option.
4. Drag or copy the toolkit file over to the desktop of the computer.
5. Right-click the toolkit and choose to “extract here” from the menu.
6. Double-click the toolkit’s executable file and wait for it to open on the desktop.
7. Connect the Xiaomi Mi4i smartphone to the computer with the USB cable you would normally use to charge the battery.
8. Click the “TWRP” button from the Xiaomi toolkit’s main user interface.
9. Wait for a while until it installs the custom recovery on your Mi4i device.

In conclusion, that’s how to install TWRP Recovery on Xiaomi Mi4i smartphones using the Xiaomi toolkit and a computer. Anyone wanting to take things a step further can find out how to root the Xiaomi Mi4i smartphone so you can start installing your root apps and custom ROMs.