Android Tip: Boot into twrp or cwm recovery without flashing

Yes, that’s true. You can boot into any recovery of your choice on your Android phone by following this guide. No need to flash and replace the stock bootloader. Though I have tested this method on Nexus devices only but I am pretty sure that it’ll work on other phones as well. Custom recoveries give you a lot of options for performing some important tasks, like backup and restore your phone and wiping out caches.

Prerequisites

• An unlocked bootloader – It is just a command away on Nexus devices. Google will give you very useful links depending on your device type.
• ADB with Fastboot – Check out this link: http://www.jailbreakeye.com/android/install-adb-fastboot
• A custom recovery image – TWRP or CWM (check the Download recovery or Download touch recovery columns)

Guide

1. Copy the downloaded recovery image (.img file) to the folder where you have placed your ADB and Fastboot.
2. Launch terminal (or command prompt on Windows).
3. Navigate to the directory where you have placed the ADB, Fastboot and .img file together.
4. Shut down your phone and reboot into boot loader. For nexus devices, simply hold volume down + power to start up the phone.
5. Connect your phone to your computer.
6. On terminal (or command prompt) window, write fastboot boot <img file name>, e.g. fastboot boot twrp.img.
7. Your phone will restart and will boot into the recovery mode.

That’s it. As simple as it can get!

HTC Hero: Changing Your GMail Account

Planning to change your primary GMail account on an older Android powered device? (having Android version 1.5 or below). I recently faced this scenario where i had to change my primary account on my Android handset and it wasn’t a very user-friendly experience. So here, i am sharing some possible ways through which this can be achieved.

1. Hard-Reset and Start All-Over again:

Yes, that’s right! And that was what I did after other solutions didn’t work for me. In this case, there are two applications that did the trick for me to backup my otherwise non-backup-able data i.e. Text messages and Downloaded Apps. For backing up your applications, I recommend using ASTRO File Manager and for the SMS backup, you can use SMS Backup software. The SMS Backup software can also be downloaded from http://code.google.com/p/android-sms/ in case you have cleared your data and are not able to access the Market. Before downloading and installing the software from this link, you need to enable the Unknown Sources Check by going to Settings > Applications.

2. Clearing Google Apps Data and Logging Into Android Market

Another way that i found while researching over this matter is, clearing the Google Apps data through Android Application manager and then signing in to any Google application like GMail, GTalk and Market. You will see the same Account setup wizard where you can configure your new Google ID. In addition to this, some people posted that you would need to ‘root’ you device and then clear the contents of folder “data/data/com.android.providers.settings”.