How To Flash Stock / Custom Recovery Using SP Flash Tool

Having problems with flashing recoveries on your device? Android users like you might get some interest on today's article. As most of us, android users, who wants to tweak their phones, we can say that the mostly-used region when applying modifications is the recovery partition. But what if you can't get your recovery installed in your device? That's the question that we will going to find a solution.

Flashing a recovery is easier with the use of apps such as Mobile Uncle Tools, Rashr Recovery Tools, and other utility apps, also, we can perform image flashing through ADB or through terminal emulator but for Mediatek, there is one method which supposed to be the best method of flashing images but somehow quite took for granted, through SP Flash Tool is the method I am talking about. Some apps might not work in an MTK device, but with Mediatek's very own SP Flash Tool, it works like a charm!

Below is the complete guide how to flash a stock or  a custom recovery for any Mediatek device, but though from that fact, you must provide the proper image to be flashed to your device or else it will mess it up. We made up all the steps to make it easier for you to do this successfully. All you need is focus and a little brain.

How To Flash Stock/Custom Recovery Using SP Flash Tool

Only follow the steps provided. Applying the procedure means you are fully responsible for the possible outcome of your device. If you are confused, read the steps again, if you hesitate, do enough research.

Things you need:

• PC/Laptop running Windows
• MTK-based device: MT6595, MT6592, MT6589, MT6582, MT6577, MT6575, MT6572, MT6573
• Scatter File for your MTK device - Get it here
• SP Flash Tool - Get it here (download the recommended or latest version)
• Drivers - Download here
• USB Cable

Preparations:

Download and install the Drivers (click the Install bat file and wait for it to finish the installation so don't close it). Create your own scatter file if you don't have one, it differs from each MTK device. Download and extract SP Flash Tool. Finally the recovery (stock or custom/CWM/TWRP) which is made for your device (make sure it is named as recovery only not cwm_recovery, etc.), don't flash recovery that is not made for your device.

Instructions:

1. Open SP Flash Tools and click Scatter Loading, now select the scatter file of your device.

2. Make sure all boxes are NOT checked, if there's a check, remove it by clicking the check.

3. Now, click RECOVERY from the list. A new window will appear, find the recovery image that you want to flash or install and click Open.

4. It will now look like the image above. The RECOVERY is the ONLY one checked on the list and you can see the location of the recovery image that you are going to flash.

5. TURN OFF your android phone. When it is already off, click the Download button on the SP Flash Tool, then click Yes. After that, connect your switched-OFF phone to your computer using USB Cable.

6. The tool will detect your phone and flash the recovery, if your computer can't detect your phone, re-install the Drivers that I have provided. Wait until a prompt with green circle will appear, that means the flashing is done successfully.

Congrats! You are done flashing the stock/custom recovery for your MTK-based device.

How To Backup / ROM Dump MTK Android Devices

ROM Backup or ROM Dumping?

Backing is always in the precautionary measures in modding, that is why there are several ways which are created to be used on certain situations to backup or dump any ROM.

This article will be discussing another way to backup and do ROM dump for Mediatek (MTK) android phones and tablets. Lucky you if you have an MTK android phone.

How To Fully Backup or ROM dump any Mediatek (MTK) Devices (Phones and Tablets)

For all Mediatek devices such as MT6595, MT6592, MT6589, MT6582, MT6577, MT6575, MT6573, MT6572 and hopefully for all other MT65xx in the future as long has having a EXT4 block type, I suggest you follow the method of making a backup or ROM dump by using tools made for Mediatek itself, MTK Droid Root and Tools as well as SP Flash Tool. So, what are we waiting for? Let us begin.

NOTE: Please carefully follow the instructions to avoid problems.

For those who want to backup or dump STOCK ROM, I have a separate, more informative article which linked here.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Computer running Windows 
• MTK USB Drivers - Download it here (credits to the developer from XDA for this tool)
• MTK Droid Root and Tools - Get it here
• SP Flash Tool - Get it here (download the recommended or latest version)
• Scatter file of your device – make your own in a very easy way.
• Notepad ++ - for opening scatter file. Download it here.
• MTK Device having EXT4 block type and USB Cable
• How to know if you have a EXT4 block?
• If you have other type of block, I have a separate article for that on how to backup / romdump

Preparations:

Download and install MTK USB Drivers to detect your device even on preloader. Download and extract SP Flash Tool and MTK Droid Root and Tools to any location in your computer. Put your MTK device on USB debugging mode, go to your device Settings – Developer options to enable it. Don’t forget to prepare for the scatter file for your device. Please carefully follow the instructions below, GOODLUCK!

INSTRUCTIONS:

The first thing that we need to do is to open SP Flash Tool application, run it as administrator. From the tool, you’ll see a button Scatter-loading, click it and open the scatter file of your android device.

After opening the scatter file, it will load the regions or the partitions of your android device. If you are curious why it was unchecked, it was because you haven’t backup or dump them yet.

Click on Read Back tab then click ADD once. It will add one row, click N/A on the first row. The tool will ask you where to save the file and what file name, don’t ever change the filename (if it was named as ROM_0 or ROM_1, leave the name as it is). Just go to the folder where you want to save it then click SAVE.

Now, you need to enter the proper Hex values for the Start Address and the Length. How? Find the scatter file which you have made previously and open it using Notepad ++.

What you see next to the partition names are actually the Address of each partitions. If you want to get a partitions individually, then their length values can be found on the block info size that can be found on the MTK Droid Root and Tools. I have a separate article about this linked here.

Since our goal is to back up the whole ROM, we don’t need to get the length value from the block info, instead, use the values from the scatter file itself.

What we do now is to find the Preloader line from the scatter file and copy its value which in my case, it has a value of 0x0. We will put the Preloader’s value to the Start Address field on the SP Flash Tool.

The next step is to find the value to be entered in the Length field, this will be your option. If you want to backup or dump the ROM from Preloader down to the android system only (no user-data), then, select the value of the Cache line on the scatter file and enter it in the Length field (in my case, I have a value of 0x227e8000). Otherwise, if you want to fully backup or dump the whole ROM, select the FAT (NODL_FAT) value, in my case its 0x810e8000, then enter it in the Length field. Review the values you have entered. Click OK.

Since I want to get a complete, whole, full ROM backup / dump, then I’ll choose FAT.

Turn OFF your android phone or tablet. From SP Flash Tool, click Read Back button and immediately connect you switched-OFF android device via USB cable. The tool will detect your device and it will start backing up and dumping your current ROM. It may take 20 minutes to 1 hour depending on the ROM size and the specs of your computer (mine is 1.6 Gb which takes around 30 minutes on a Dual Core processor, be sure your not running any apps aside from this tool so you won't have any interruptions).

After the download is done, you will see the sign like the image below.

Preparing the ROM backup / dump for flashing

Since we are done getting a ROM backup / dump, the next step is to prepare it and make it flashable.

Open MTK Droid Root and Tools application, run it as administrator. From the tool, click the root, backup, recovery tab. You need to disconnect the USB cable from your phone or tablet and turn it ON, when it is powered ON already, connect again your device. The tool will recognize your device and the button To process file ROM_ from Flash Tool will be enabled. Click on that button and select the ROM that we have made earlier which in my case "ROM_0".

Wait for the process to be completed, if you will be asked To automatically create CWM recovery, click YES. Read the status messages and wait for the task to complete.

If the process is done, you will now have your ROM backup or dump at the Backup folder on MTK Droid Root and Tools folder. The backup that we have processed has a filename with ForFlashtoolFromReadback, mine is Neer-A848i_130416_ForFlashtoolFromReadBack_140526-112330. Open that folder and you'll see the partitions are copied and dumped.

Restoring the ROM backup / dump

To restore or flash the ROM dump which we have made, simply open the SP Flash Tool app (run as admin), and click Scatter-loading to load the scatter file from the processed ROM, see the image just right above.

Now, all the regions and partitions are loaded ready for flashing.

DANGER! Don't try to flash the Preloader and the DSP_BL because it will brick your device. Uncheck it.

Disconnect your USB cable and turn OFF your phone or tablet, when it's already OFF, click the Download button from SP Flash Tool and immediately plug-in your switched-off device via USB cable.

Wait for the download to finish and it the image prompt will appear. Disconnect the USB cable and turn on your device, now it will be back to your ROM's previous state.

Done!

How To Backup / Restore Stock ROM with SP Flash Tool

Looking for a Flash-able Stock ROM for your Android Phone?

After reading the comments and suggestions from this blog's previous articles, there are a lot of android users who are looking for a flash-able Stock ROM for their device, however, I don't have their kind of device in hand and it's impossible for me to create you one. But hey, I have an idea how will you able to get a Stock ROM for your MTK devices and you, yourself can make it on your own.

There's a lot of MTK smartphone users out there most especially on local-branded smart phone users who have lots of worries on damaging their devices from tweaking it. Why? Lack of developers corresponds the number of development available for the device and we know for the fact that without backup such as ROM or a stock ROM, fixing most android problems such as soft bricks, boot loops, or even hard bricks are too difficult to handle.

Create your own Stock ROM for your MediaTek (MTK) Android Smartphone

Thanks to XDA members who contributed to MTK development, Mediatek smartphone users can now be able to create their own Stock ROM and use it as a backup whenever serious matters occur to their loved devices. With the use of prepacked tools, MTK android users no longer needs much developer for their device because they can be one.

How To Make, Backup and Restore Stock ROM Flashable with SP Flash Tool

On this article, AndroidHow will be guiding you how to make your own Stock ROM, use it as your own backup and restore it through flashing from SP Flash Tool. Why from SP Flash Tool? With SP Flash Tool, even a corrupted, hard-bricked android device can still be revived and fixed which was considered the best method of repairing any android software problem. 

On this tutorial, we will be using SP Flash Tool and MTK Droid Tools to successfully make a flashable Stock ROM for our MediaTek devices.

Requirements:

• Any MTK android device running a Stock ROM. (Note: if your device was rooted, then you'll get a rooted Stock ROM, otherwise if your device does not have root access, you'll get unrooted Stock ROM):

MT6595, MT6592, MT6589, MT6582, MT6577, MT6575, MT6572, or any MT65xx

• Computer with Windows operating system
• USB Cable
• At least 500 Mb free phone storage
• MTK USB Drivers - Download it here (credits to the developer of this tool)
• MTK Droid Root and Tools - Get it here
• SP Flash Tool - Get it here (download the recommended or latest version)
• ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery
• For rooted device (follow how to flash CWM Recovery for rooted device)
• For unrooted device (follow how to flash CWM Recovery without root)

Preparations (Please Read):

Make sure to prepare all the necessary requirements before proceeding or else, proceeding below is just a waste.

You must have the device in hand with CWM recovery. Download and install the MTK USB Drivers in your computer, it contains 6 other USB drivers needed to detect your device. Also, you must download MTK Droid Tools and SP Flash Tool, extract them to any location or folder you are comfortable of accessing. If all are ready, let's proceed to the instructions.


Instructions:

Creating Stock ROM Backup

First, reboot your MTK android device into CWM Recovery and connect your device to your computer using USB Cable.

From your computer, Open MTK Droid Tools.exe, run it as administrator. Wait for your device to be detected since you have installed the USB drivers. You will notice that color on the lower-left corner of the tool will turn cyan-blue.

On MTK Droid Tools, click on root, backup, recovery tab and click the Backup button to start full stock ROM backup.

Wait for the tool to backup your whole Stock ROM. You can see that the ROM backup will be saved on \MtkDroidTools\backups.

Wait until a prompt will appear asking you "Pack-up the backup" or something like that, press NO, it will just compress the backup you have made and what we need is the uncompressed ROM backup.

Check the status message and check is the task is completed. "Task ended".

It is not done yet, we have to prepare this backup to make it flashable through SP Flash Tool. To do it, click on To prepare blocks for Flash Tool.

A new windows will appear asking fol a .md5 file of the backup. So navigate to the MTK Droid Tools folder where your backup is found. Open the backup that your have created earlier and select the files.md5 click OPEN.

Wait for MTK Droid Tools to copy the files for SP Flash Tool, check the status messages until the copying is complete.

When the tool is done, you have now created the Stock ROM backup of your device!

How To Restore the Stock ROM of your MTK device?

Open SP Flash Tool.exe, run as administrator. Load the scatter file (click scatter-loading) which you have prepared from MTK Droid Tools to be flashable through SP Flash Tool. It can be found in the !Files_to_FlashTool folder of your Stock ROM backup (only if you have just made a backup) or from where you have saved or placed the Stock ROM. But in my case, I saved it on !Files to FlashTool folder.

After you loaded the scatter file, it will look like the image below. All must checked except for Cache and User Data, and most importantly, do not check Preloader and DSP_BL or else you'll brick it. Those checked partitions will be restored, make sure not to touch or move the backup files so that your phone will be restored in your previous stock ROM, also to avoid boot loops and bricking.

As you can see, the Stock ROM partition backups are found on its specific locations under location column. If the locations do not appear (except for CACHE and USRDATA), the backup stock ROM is not in the proper place. To fix that, you must move the files of the stock ROM to the same location where the Scatter file is stored.

To restore or flash the Stock ROM backup, first, turn OFF your MTK android device and remove the USB cable. If your phone was already turned OFF, click Download from SP Flash Tool, a prompt will appear, just click YES. Immediately connect your turned OFF device to your computer via USB Cable.

Wait for the tool to detect your device and restore the Stock ROM that you have made. An alert with a green circle appears after successfully downloading the ROM.

Done! You have successfully restored the stock ROM.

How To Make / Flash CWM Recovery Without Rooting

Can't get ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery for your MediaTek device?

Getting a locally branded smartphone neither a tablet relatively gets a low number of developer for our device, that's why most android users can't really enjoy much of there devices. But thanks to XDA developers who contributed a lot to MediaTek device development,  we at least solve some of our problems like getting root and porting a custom recovery like ClockworkMod for our own devices.

Going back to your problem, if you can't find a good resolution to your problem of getting a CWM recovery ported for your device, now, I have a way to fix your problem. Even though I have created an article previously regarding how to flash CWM recovery to any device with root-required, this article that I will show you does not require you root access anymore which is great!

You can create / make your own CWM recovery to any of your MediaTek device!

Well, with this guide that I will provide you, you will learn how to make your own and flash ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery to any of your MediaTek devices. All you have to do is to carefully follow the steps so you can successfully do it well without problems.

How To make your own CWM Recovery and flash it without rooting your MTK android device using MTK Droid Tools and SP Flash Tool.

Requirements:

• Any MediaTek android device with ext4 type of block (rooted or not rooted, it doesn't matter):

MT6595, MT6592, MT6589, MT6582, MT6577, MT6575, MT6572, MT65xx

• computer running Windows operating system
• USB Cable 
• MTK USB Drivers - Download here recommended
• MTK Droid Root and Tools - Get it here
• SP Flash Tool - Get it here (download the recommended or latest version)
• Scatter File for your MediaTek android device - Get it here
• Stock Boot image - if you don't have one, follow my separate guide how to get stock boot image

Instructions:

First, you have to prepare all necessary requirements and place it to the location where you are comfortable with. Download and install the MTK USB Drivers, wait for it to close itself because it includes 6 kinds of MTK USB drivers. Also, extract MTK Droid Tools to where you want it. You also need the scatter file for your device, you can easily make it yourself by just following the guide from the link and most importantly, make sure that you have your stock boot image for your device which we will use for creating the CWM recovery. If you don't have it, you have to follow the link above.

Make sure that USB Cable is disconnected or unplugged. Open MTK Droid Tools.exe (run as administrator) and go to root, backup, recovery tab. (if UBIFS warning appeared in the status message, this process will not work for you. Only ext4 supported.)

From the root, backup, recovery tab, the radio button To choose the boot.img file was selected by default. All you have to do is click on Recovery and Boot button.

After clicking Recovery and Boot button, a new windows will appear asking where is your existing boot.img. In my case, I placed it on my Tools folder. Now, select and open the boot.img of your android device.

Wait a few seconds and a prompt asking To make CWM recovery automatically will appear. Click YES.

Wait for the task to get completed, read the status messages on the right pane. If the task was successful, go to MTK Droid Tools -- recovery folder to check if the patching was done well. There will be two files, first is the patched boot image and the second is the recovery image which is the ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery.

Now that you have the CWM recovery already, we will proceed to flashing it through SP Flash Tool. Why? if you don't have root access, then use SP Flash Tool, otherwise if you are already rooted, use mobile uncle to update your recovery image.

To flash CWM recovery without rooting your android device, open SP Flash Tool.exe (run as administrator). Click on Scatter-loading, then find and open the Scatter file of your android device.

Now, the regions of your device will be loaded. You are only to flash the CWM recovery that you made earlier so click on Recovery. Navigate to MTK Droid Tools -- recovery folder and select the recovery image which is the CWM recovery that we have made earlier.

Make sure that RECOVERY is the only one that checked. Now we will start flashing the recovery.

Also, make sure that the USB Cable is unplugged from your device. Now you nee to turn off your android device (shutdown or remove the battery). When your device was already powered off, from SP Flash Tool click Download , select YES then immediately connect your device to your computer via USB Cable.

Your device must be detected even it is turned off since you have installed the MTK USB Drivers from the requirements. You'll notice that your android device was detected after you'll see the blue and red color loading on SP Flash Tool's status.

Wait for the download to be done. If done, it will look like the image below:

To verify if you have successfully flashed CWM Recovery on your unrooted android device, unplug or disconnect the USB Cable from your device and try to reboot to recovery (use the combo keys or rebooter app).

Congratulations!! You have successfully flashed ClockworkMod recovery on your unrooted android device.

How To Make / Backup Stock Boot and Recovery Image

Can't get stock Boot and Recovery image for your MediaTek android device?

Optimizing your android device takes a risk which either may improve your device a lot more or either make it perform worst. Now, most of the android users who encounter problems with their android device have difficulty to fix it. Why? Most beginners on android tweaking has the lack of knowledge on the proper way to backup their android devices' software, so whenever they encounter such issues to their device, they have the hard time looking of for a resolution especially if their device doesn't have much developers.

Good news for MediaTek android users because this article will provide you the way how to solve your problems with your android devices' Stock Boot.img and Recovery image which you could use if something bad might happen, and you can use it to create a CWM recovery to do flashing stuffs and do full ROM backup.

You can create / make your own stock boot.img and recovery.img for your MTK android device and use it as backup!

Yes, you don't have to depend for others or ask for them how to make one 'cause you can create your own stock boot.img and recovery.img for your MediaTek (MTK) devices by just following this long but simple steps that I will provide you.

Usually, you can't access the root system without Superuser rights that is why I made this article to help you with that.

How to get Stock Boot and Recovery image for any MediaTek device without root using SP Flash Tool and MTK Droid Tool

Will work any MediaTek device such as:

MT6595, MT6592, MT6589, MT6582, MT6577, MT6575, MT6572, MT65xx

Requirements:

• Any Not Rooted or Rooted MediaTek-based device
• Windows computer
• USB Cable for your android device
• MTK USB Drivers - Download here recommended | mirror link 
• MTK Droid Root and Tools - Get it here
• Smart Phone Flash Tool - Get it here (download the recommended or latest version)
• Scatter File for your MediaTek device - Get it here
• Notepad ++ - Get it here

Instructions:

Let us prepare for our tools first (that you have downloaded above). Install MTK USB Driver, you have to install all drivers included there, also, extract MTK Droid Root and Tools, SP Flash Tool to any location you are comfortable. 

Make sure that you have made the Scatter File for your device (create your own using the link from the requirements above)

Connect your android device to your Windows computer, make sure you have installed properly all the drivers from MTK USB Drivers to avoid interruptions during this process. From your device, you must also enable USB Debugging on your device Settings -- Developer options, now your device must be auto-detected by your computer, if not, please properly install the USB drivers. It is also better if you set your android device to Airplane Mode.

Run SP Flash Tool.exe as administrator (right-click on it). After opening, click Scatter-loading.

Locate the scatter file of your android device. In my case, I have MT6577 from MyPhone a848i. Open and load the scatter file of your android device to the SP Flash Tool.

It will look like the image below. Now, click Read Back tab.

From Read Back tab, click ADD twice so that we can add two tasks. Why? One is for getting the boot.img and the second one is for recovery.img. We can use them as stock backups and we can also use it as a basis for flashing CWM custom recovery and making a full ROM backup or dump.

Now, we will start the process. Let's start with the boot.img, double-click the first N/A.

A new window will appear asking to save the file. Name it as boot.img then click Save it to where you want to put the stock boot.img.

This is the most crucial part. You must enter the proper hex valuse for the Start Address and the Length for the boot image or else all you have done will not work. 

To find out what to enter on the Start Address, first, find the scatter file that you have created before and edit/open it using Notepad ++ editor. Enter the hex code of BOOTIMG, in my case, my hex code is 0xf88000.

To find out what to enter on Length, connect your device to your computer via USB cable, make sure to enable USB Debugging from your device, then open MTK Droid Tools.exe on your computer and wait until your device was detected. From MTK Droid Tools, click Block Map.

Find the row for bootimg and you'll notice that it has the same start address "0000F88000" from what we have from the scatter file above "0xf8800" (you'll see that the first 4 zeroes are replaced by "0x"). 

Now to get the Length, length is equal to the Size but what we will enter is the significant digits only. In my case, since the size is 0000600000, the significant digit is 600000 and we have to replace the first 4 zeroes with "0x", so what we will enter in the Length from the SP Flash Tool is 0x600000

Now, in my case, it will look like this:

Make sure that the Start Address and Length has the same count or number of characters, otherwise, add a zero. For example you have a start address of 0x1234567 and you have a length of 0x123456, since they are not the same in count, you have to add zero on the length, so the length now will be 0x0123456. We have to add zero just in order to have the same character count.

If you are done getting the hex values, press OK.

Setting for boot.img is done, next will be for the recovery.img.

Double click on the second N/A, name it as recovery.img and save it to where you want to store the stock recovery.

Again, we have to enter the proper hex values for Start Address and Length.

You have to open again the Scatter file of your device and load your device from MTK Droid Tools to check the block map just like what we did on the boot.img.

In my case, my recovery has a Start Address 0x1588000 as you can see from the notepad, and I have the size of 000060000 from the block info, we will replace the first four zeroes with "0x" to get the Length, so my Length will be 0x600000.

Since you have got the values, you have to enter it on the SP Flash Tool then press OK. Refer to the image below:

Now it is all set upped, you can see the locations where your boot and recovery image will be stored after we do the process. 

Unplug the USB cable from your device and turn off your android device (you can do proper shutdown or remove the battery). When your phone is already turned off, press the Read back button from SP Flash Tool and immediately plug-in your phone with USB Cable.

Wait for 3-5 seconds and SP Flash Tool will detect your android device and it will load and create the stock boot and recovery image for your device. An OK alert message with a green circle will popup when the process is successful.

Navigate to the location where you have set the files to be store. In my case, you can see below that I have done it well. The boot image and the recovery image has the same file size.

Why they have the same file size? Let's check the block info from the MTK Droid Tools.

As you can see, both boot and recovery image has the same file size around 6mb therefore our file is correct.

We are now done from creating Stock images and we can use it to create a ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery and do full Stock ROM backup.