Development [RECOVERY] TWRP for ZenFone 8

[Captain_Throwback]

*** Disclaimer ***

All flashing is done at your own risk!
While nothing from this thread should break your device,
don't come back here blaming anyone if it does!

Introduction

Team Win Recovery Project 3.x, or twrp3 for short, is a custom recovery built with ease of use and customization in mind. Its a fully touch driven user interface no more volume rocker or power buttons to mash. The GUI is also fully XML driven and completely theme-able. You can change just about every aspect of the look and feel.

Images


Prerequisites

• Unlocked Bootloader

Installation instructions

Fastboot Install Method:
You will need the platform-tools from the Android SDK on your computer. Find the Android command line tools section on the page linked and install the SDK tools package. From the SDK Manager, download only the platform-tools to get adb and fastboot binaries.

Windows users will need proper drivers installed on their computer. You can try the Naked ADB drivers or the Universal ADB drivers if you don't already have a working driver installed

On your device, go into Settings -> About and find the Build Number and tap on it 7 times to enable developer settings. Press back and go into Developer Options and enable USB debugging. From your computer, open a command prompt and type:

adb reboot bootloader

You should now be in fastboot mode.

Download the correct image file and copy the file into the same folder as your adb and fastboot binaries. Rename the image to twrp.img and type:

fastboot boot twrp.img

Now you are booted into TWRP, but it is NOT permanently installed. To install it permanently, use the "Flash current TWRP" option in the Advanced menu. This will install the currently booted TWRP permanently to both slots. NOTE: If you were previously rooted, you will need to re-install the root apk/zip as the TWRP install will overwrite it!

Alternate Installation Method (requires prior TWRP installation, or if fastboot booted into TWRP already, start at step 3):

TWRP Image Install method:
Most devices can be updated quickly and easily within TWRP if you already have version 2.8.4.0 or higher installed.

1. Download the latest version of TWRP appropriate for your device/firmware
2. Reboot to TWRP
3. Hit Install and tap the "Install Image" button in the lower right
4. Browse to the location of the TWRP image on your device and select it
5. Select "Install Recovery Ramdisk" from the partition list and swipe to flash
6. (Optional) If previously rooted, re-install root apk/zip, as the TWRP install will overwrite root.

Device Changelog

Current version: 3.6.0_11-0:

• Initial version

Older Device-specific versions:

3.5.2_11-2:

• Add vendor_boot to partition list

3.5.2_11-1:

• Update super and qti_dynamic partitions size

TWRP Official Change Log

Downloads

Download
Latest Official versions

Sources
TWRP
Device tree
Kernel source

Known Issues

Device-specific

• USB-OTG not working
• Battery Status not working

TWRP Upstream

• Android 12 decryption only works if no password/PIN/pattern is set (i.e. only default password)

Bug Reporting

If you have an issue, the first step is to post a recovery log so we can determine the cause of the issue. This is done in recovery using Advanced -> Copy Log, or adb pull /tmp/recovery.log. Once a log is uploaded we can determine how best to proceed. NOTE: Posts that are reporting bugs or issues without an accompanying recovery log will be ignored! Additionally, providing details about your device setup, including variant, firmware version, and exact steps to reproduce your issue will also be helpful in diagnosing the problem.

If your issue is determined to be a bug, please consider posting it to our github issues log. It's pretty much impossible for us to keep up with the more than 40 threads that we have for the devices that we "directly" support. If you have a significant problem that cannot be answered in this thread, your best bet is to contact us via our website. If you see someone that's struggling, feel free to point it out to us. We need your help to help us keep track of all of our devices! Thanks!

Additional Help/Support

Live support is available on Zulip.

 

[Captain_Throwback]

mine

 

[Captain_Throwback]

I'll take 2

 

[Captain_Throwback]

Maybe 3 to be safe

 

[Hollyca]

Thank you for this! Great to see a twrp thread

 

[Undead_Son]

Pinch me, I must be dreaming!

Edit: it works, but how to enter it again?

 

[dron39]

USB-OTG not working

Is it temporary? Or at the moment it can not be fixed?

P.S. Thank you for your release!

 

[Captain_Throwback]

Is it temporary? Or at the moment it can not be fixed?

P.S. Thank you for your release!

It seems you asked the same question twice, but the answer is that the OP has the current status. If there are any changes in the future, it will be updated.

 

[Captain_Throwback]

Pinch me, I must be dreaming!

Edit: it works, but how to enter it again?

Once you're booted into TWRP, you can use the "Flash current TWRP" option under Advanced to install it permanently. If you were rooted, you'll then have to re-flash the root apk/zip.

 

[dron39]

If you were rooted, you'll then have to re-flash the root apk/zip

What is partition to where it should be flashed?
You wrote that we will need to reflash root (.apk or .zip). But what if I have also custom kernel installed (Kirasakura) ?
Shuld I "permanently" install recovery on stock kernel or it doesn't matter ? I just want to clarify, because as far as I understand magisk patches boot.img ?
And each time after firmware update we will need to reflash twrp, correct?

And I haven't found information about our device on twrp.me (Devices->Asus). Will you add it there later?

 

[Captain_Throwback]

What is partition to where it should be flashed?

I don't understand your question. When you flash the root apk/zip, it'll take care of flashing where it's supposed to go. You don't have to worry about any partitions.

You wrote that we will need to reflash root (.apk or .zip). But what if I have also custom kernel installed (Kirasakura) ?

I don't know about custom kernel, but you can always flash it again after you re-flash the root zip to make sure it persists if you're unsure. Flashing it again won't hurt anything.

Shuld I "permanently" install recovery on stock kernel or it doesn't matter ? I just want to clarify, because as far as I understand magisk patches boot.img ?

It's up to you whether you want to install TWRP permanently, but the instructions focus on fastboot booting. I'm not sure how Magisk is relevant here, as that has no effect on TWRP.

And each time after firmware update we will need to reflash twrp, correct?

Yes, but if you install the update in TWRP, you can choose the option to "Automatically install TWRP after zip" to keep TWRP if you have it permanently flashed.

And I haven't found information about our device on twrp.me (Devices->Asus). Will you add it there later?

This is a prerelease version. The Android 11 TWRP tree hasn't been officially released. The ZF8 page will be there once the release is official. There's already a markdown patch ready for that time.

 

[Undead_Son]

What does "unable to locate storage device" mean?

 

[HyperCriSiS]

Hi,

I unlocked my device with the asus unlocker and rooted succesfully.
But when I try flash TWRP with fastboot I get:

Sending 'boot.img' (98304 KB) FAILED (remote: 'Download is not allowed on locked devices')
fastboot: error: Command failed

Has anybody an idea whats the issue here?

Regards,
Hyper

 

[Captain_Throwback]

Hi,

I unlocked my device with the asus unlocker and rooted succesfully.
But when I try flash TWRP with fastboot I get:

Sending 'boot.img' (98304 KB) FAILED (remote: 'Download is not allowed on locked devices')
fastboot: error: Command failed

Has anybody an idea whats the issue here?

Regards,
Hyper

Are you sure you're in bootloader, and not fastbootd? Also please confirm that you're attempting to fastboot boot as per the OP instructions.

 

[HyperCriSiS]

Are you sure you're in bootloader, and not fastbootd? Also please confirm that you're attempting to fastboot boot as per the OP instructions.

Yes, I was in fastbootd
Thank you so much, it is working very well

 

[Captain_Throwback]

New test version uploaded. Thanks to @micky387 for his help with the TWRP tree!

 

[HyperCriSiS]

With newest version MTP does not work anymore.
I deleted the device and the new detected device name is different. It was "Zenfone 8" before and now "Asus_I006D"

 

[Captain_Throwback]

With newest version MTP does not work anymore.
I deleted the device and the new detected device name is different. It was "Zenfone 8" before and now "Asus_I006D"

I changed absolutely nothing related to MTP, and it continues to work fine here.

The device name in TWRP was always ASUS_I006D. If you happened to connect the device to your PC in Android first, then that's probably why it showed up as "ZenFone 8". But when you deleted it the TWRP default got set as the name.

Can anyone else confirm whether MTP is working for them on the latest version? If you're using Windows, it's possible some update broke something on your end.

 

[HyperCriSiS]

Yes, Microsoft often messed with the MTP drivers. In the device manager I deinstalled everything related to the Zenfone and reinstalled, but still does not work.

TWRP throws some errors. Maybe this is the issue? I also reinstalled it again.

 

[Captain_Throwback]

Yes, Microsoft often messed with the MTP drivers. In the device manager I deinstalled everything related to the Zenfone and reinstalled, but still does not work.

TWRP throws some errors. Maybe this is the issue? I also reinstalled it again.

That looks very broken. But a screenshot is very unhelpful to determine root cause. The OP makes it clear that logs are required to get assistance. So please provide a recovery log and logcat so that I can review the problem.

Is Android working okay? Seems like something else is going on there. Did you install anything? I'm going to need more details of how exactly you got to this point.