Root, Backup TA, Unlock bootloader and more! The ultimate Xperia Z1 guide

== Information ==
On this thread I'll post information about Rooting, Backup of TA, Flashtool, recovering from softbrick etc. So this thread is aimed to provide as much usefull info as possible.

== General information about Xperia Z1 ==

You can check all specifications here: Sony Mobile

== Part 1: Downgrading the Xperia Z1 ==
To be able to root your Xperia Z1 when it has Jellybean 4.3fw or later you need to downgrade it first to be able to use a rooting toolkit, you can succesfully downgrade by downloading this ftf:
- Torrent: 14.1.G.1.534 torrent
- XDA DevDB: 14.1.G.1.534 downgrade FTF

All you need to do to downgrade to a working 14.1.G.1.534 is flashing this ftf in Flashtool. If you don'tknow how to flash an ftf move to the part about FlashTool in this guide

== Part 2: Rooting the Xperia Z1 ==
It seems rooting at the moment will work with a tool called 360rot, you can download it here: 360 root homepage. this tool sadly is in chinese language, I'll try to find out which rooting method it uses ot create an English exploit.

You can also use vroot, I'll discuss this one too

VRoot guide:
- You need to download vroot here: vroot homepage
- Install vroot, I just clicked next, next, next until it finished installation I don't understand Chinese, but I rooted my phone
- Open up vroot and connect your Xperia Z1, you need to get something like this:


- Click the green button to start rooting
- When it finished you're phone will restart and you'll get this:


_ Voila, your phone is now rooted

For now this is the guide I made, thanks to @yeeson for helping me with translating the chinese and giving me screenshots for root 360
- Download and open 360 root
- You'll get a prompt about needing to close the following conflicting service before continuing: adb.exe
- turn on usb-debugging in settings => developer options, and connect your phone
- Open 360 Root again, at this time the upper left corner shows a red font but it isn't to root:
- Click the green button in the bottom right corner, this button is to start rooting your device:



- Progress bar will advance automatically, it can restart a few times, just let it do it's magic!
- When it finished, on top there will be a message: Congratulations, rooting was succesfull:



- To get Root permissions, click the green button in the bottom right corner again now.
- Then the top left corner displays a blue font, this means you are rooted:



== Part 2: Backup TA ==
To backup your TA partition you can use this wonderfull tool created by @DevShaft

You can find it here: [Tool] Backup TA v9.7 for Windows

== Part 3: Unlock your bootloader ==
Unlocking your bootloader means you'll be ablet to flash custom kernels and more roms, like CM, AOKP, PAC and all other source based roms. What you need is a pc with adb acces.
You can download the adb files:
- Windows: Will add these later
- MAC: Will add these later

WARNINGS:
This procedure will wipe the /data partition of your phone, so you will loose all your stored data, settings. SDCARD will BE WIPED!!!

For Xperia™ devices released 2013 or later (for example Xperia™ Z and Xperia™ Z1), the SD card of your device will be formatted and you will lose all content (for example photos, music, videos) when you unlock the boot loader.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

- DRM keys WILL be lost during this process


Unlocking the bootloader isn't a difficult process, just follow the steps:
- Go to the official sony site for unlocking the bootloader and follow instructions there: Unlock Xperia Bootloader

== Information ==
Flashtool is a tool that allows you to flash FTF files on an Xperia device, this is a powerfull toool when your device is bricked. I'll make this a thread for:
- How to install it?
- How to use Flashtool? (2nd post)
- How to recover a soft bricked device? (3rd post)

== Downloads ==
- Download flashtool for you operating system from the official FlashTool site: Download FlashTool
- Download the XZ1 device folder I created: Xperia Z1 device files Will upload this later

== Installation ==
- Run the installer or unpack the archive for Linux and Mac
- [Optional] Windows uers can go to C:/FlashTool/drivers to have a nice wizard to install fastboot & adb drivers and also drivers for other devices
- Copy the downloaded device file archive to C:/Flashtool/devices
- Open up flashtool, go to "devices => manage => import" and choose the device file you downloaded
- Installation finished!

== Some basics before starting ==
- Entering Flashmode:
- Entering Fastboot (bootloader) mode:

== Install an FTF file ==
FTF files are the regular Sony firmware files, installing them is quite easy and powerfull to recover a soft bricked/semi-bricked device.

- You need to put your ftf file in C:/Flashtool/firmwares before flashing it
- You can start by clicking on the "Flash" icon, it's the left icon in the icon bar
- You'll get a prompt asking you to go to "Flashmode" or "Fastboot mode", choose Flashmode
- The following screen should look like this:

- Red: Firmware selector to selct the firmware you want to flash
- Blue: this will display the firmware content
- Green: Wipe options, you can choose to wipe certain things here
- Purple: Exclude options, this is to exclude content like kernel or baseband from flashing
- Orange: verification check, you don't need to edit this option

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

- Click the Flash button to flash the FTF
- Wait for the prompt and connect your device in Flashmode

== Use Fastboot toolkit ==
- You can start by clicking on the "Flash" icon, it's the left icon in the icon bar
- You'll get a prompt asking you to go to "Flashmode" or "Fastboot mode", choose "Fastboot" this time
- You'll get the following screen:

The options you'll use most would be:

- Flask kernel
- Flash a system.img file

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Here is my brand new video showing how to root and install the newest recovery on bootloader locked Android 4.4. Xperia Z1