Nexus 5 is a brilliant smartphone and is the former flagship of Google manufactured by LG. One thing which makes these nexus smartphones edge on other smartphones is the quick availability of latest android updates. After the 5.0 and 5.0.1 updates, the Nexus 5 recently received the new 5.1 update and just few days after this phone got exploit to gain root permissions. Today we are going to guide you to root your Nexus 5 and install cwm recovery on it. This guide consists of two parts, first we will unlock the bootloader then in second we will install the cwm recovery and will root it through supersu package. So now lets move to the steps.
Note: This procedure will wipe all your data so before you start, take a complete backup of your important data. Also make sure you are ready and smart enough to do these steps as this include some risk, neither MGeeky nor myself will take any responsibility for your bricked devices so follow below tutorial on your own risk.
Unlock Bootloader
- Make sure you have full battery charged and have a backup of your phone.
- Download drivers from here and install them on your computer.
- Now enable Usb debugging on your phone. For enabling just go to Settings > About Phone and here tap on build number until you see developer options enabled message on screen. Now just come one step back and go to developer options and there enable Usb debugging.
- Now download Adb Tools from from here and extract them on desktop. Navigate to the extracted folder and press Shift and right click on empty space and select “open command window here”.
- Again make sure Usb debugging enabled on your nexus 5 and now turn it off.
- Press and hold power + volume down button for booting into fastboot mode.
- Now connect your nexus 5 to computer via usb cable.
- Now on your pc, type “fastboot oem unlock” in command window and now on your nexus 5 screen, you will be asked to unlock the bootloader, just scroll down by volume key and select Yes by pressing power key.
- Once it completed all the procedure, just type “fastboot reboot” to reboot the device.
- Done. Make sure you don’t disconnect your phone and Now move on to next part.
Root & Install Cwm Recovery On Nexus 5 Running Android 5.1 Lollipop
- Now make sure you have fastboot in your Adb tools folder, if you don’t have it just download it here and place it in adb tools folder.
- Download Cwm recovery for hammerhead from here and copy/paste it to Adb tools directory.
- Now just turn off your nexus 5 and boot it into fastboot mode by pressing and holding power and volume down. Also make sure your nexus 5 is correctly connected to pc via usb cable.
- Download SuperSu zip package from here and transfer it to your phone’s internal storage.
- Now type “fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-touch-6.0.4.5-hammerhead.img” in command window and hit enter key.
- Once it done flashing recovery, use volume key to highlight and select Recovery mode and press power key to boot into it.
- Now you will be in Cwm recovery menu, first select “Install zip” then select “Choose zip from sdcard”. Now locate to SuperSu zip file and hit power to install it.
- Once it got completed, just select reboot to start the system.
- Now it will take some time to boot so don’t panic and don’t do anything, just wait for a complete boot-up.
- After the boot-up, install root checker app and verify root access. Now disconnect your nexus 5 from pc and enjoy root privileges.
If you have followed all the above steps correctly then congrats as you have successfully rooted and installed cwm recovery on your nexus 5. That’s all from our side and you are now ready to start exploring your android. You can now install custom roms, mods and all the things which are exclusive for rooted users.
If you have any query about this tutorial, feel free to comment and we will try our best to solve and answer your queries. You can subscribe to our daily newsletter for getting updates directly in your inbox.