This is an updated tutorial to root and upgrade the Japanese Sony Xperia A (SO-04E, Android 4.2.2) to Android 4.4.4 and higher. I did not come up with the most important moves here. That was done by others in this thread here. I only updated some steps that no longer work due to files getting lost, software features changing etc. I also broke this down into more detail for people who are less familiar with the process of rooting and installing unauthorized ROMs. I have to warn that this will take an inexperienced person at least one full day, and possibly more. You may want to plan two full days. If you are one of the totally clueless you might save yourself the trouble and simply buy a newer phone.
Anyway, here we go.
1. Cancel all your appointments, hire a dog walker and tell your wife she had best stay with some friends this weekend.
2. Write down all APN settings of your phone – you will need to manually enter them later.
3. Make sure your phone’s Developer Options are enabled, USB debugging is enabled, and Installing from Unknown Sources is enabled (google if you don’t know this stuff).
4. Install the minimal ADB and Fastboot tools from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790
5. Install Flashtool from here:
http://www.flashtool.net/downloads.php . Watch this tutorial to do this and the next steps right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfD9kT1DVz0
6. Power down your phone, hold down the Lower Volume key and connect phone to PC via USB cable. Flashtool will now show your phone as connected in Flashboot mode.
7. Using Flashtool, flash this to your phone:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0m8fzv22mras22/C5503_10.3.1.A.2.67_Hong_Kong.ftf
(or another C5503 Android 4.4.2 firmware – find one on XDA) . In the Flashtool settings, make sure you wipe the APPS_LOG, and check none of the Exclude items; if after this process the phone keeps rebooting, flash the same thing again, this time also wiping USERDATA)
8. Disconnect and reboot. If any trouble, see my comment above in brackets (under point 7).
9. You should now have a clean install of a Sony C5503 stock firmware. Confirm this in /Settings/About Phone.
10. If you check your Storage now, you will see only 4.59GB available internal memory, even though the Xperia A has 32GB total. To fix this, use Flashtool to flash one of the SO-04E firmwares here next:
https://ftf.あんどろいどのこと.みんな/
I used 10.3.1.B.2.13 which worked fine. When flashing this, you must wipe the APPS_LOG (and maybe USERDATA) again, and exclude EVERYTHING except PARTITION. In other words, all items in the Exclude list must be checked, except PARTITION.
11. When this is done, reboot once more and check your storage again. You should now see ~25GB of usable internal space. Yay!
12. Now make sure you have phone network access. For 4G/LTE you will need to manually enter the APN settings from Step 2 above first. Just one of them, the one you usually use is fine (in the case of DoCoMo, the most common one is moperaU) (Or, instead of messing around with the phone settings - which takes time and will need to be repeated several more times if you want to use your mobile network connection for downloads - enable Wifi; this will usually be easier.)
13. Once your phone has mobile network (or wifi) access, go through the process of enabling Developer Options, USB Debugging and Installing from Unknown Sources again.
14. Log into the Google Playstore and install SuperSU
15. Now root your device with this:
http://rootkitxperia.com/
16. Start SuperSU and set it up. Use a root checker from the Playstore to confirm it’s done.
17. Now install custom recovery. Get the file from here:
https://onedrive.live.com/?id=D419E...d=root&authkey=!AFoNJzIdB9lPFY8&action=locate (or presumably the latest dual recovery for ZR from here will also work fine:
http://nut.xperia-files.com/). With the phone connected, run the English language install .bat
18. When done, power down device. Power it back up. As soon as the LED lights up (in other words, when the Sony logo appears) and until after you feel a brief vibration press any button on the phone (e.g. the volume buttons) to enter recovery. You may have to push several times. The Clockwork Recovery service will boot up.
At this point, if you haven’t yet, you need to familiarize yourself with Clockwork Recovery.
Wipe the cache partition, the dalvik cache (under Advanced), and wipe data/factory reset. Once you reboot, you will once again need to reestablish Playstore access etc.
19. Now place the following file on your external SD card
https://mega.co.nz/#!4o0jlQ6b!ZVxOj-7cdvJwUcYyM1uyP9XNlWifX9paCqsR1EQBlGU
20. Boot into Recovery, wipe cache and do a factory reset. Then install the above file from the external SD card (the device has two SD cards, one external and one internal). This will install Android 4.4.4. Once done, power off the device using the according command in Recovery. When I did this, Recovery warned that Root may be lost and asked whether to fix this. I chose “Yes, fix it” and rebooted. The good news was that Android 4.4.4 was installed correctly. The bad news was that Root was lost. WTH??? You may want to try NOT fixing it, see if that goes any better. Anyway, install SuperSU and the root checker from the Playstore and see if you have root or not. If yes, skip to step 22.
21. ONLY if you lost root like I did, follow these instructions to regain Root (you can use the Flashtool we installed in step 5, no need to download the official Sony one)
http://techbeasts.com/2014/09/18/how-root-sony-xperia-z-zr-zl-1051a0283-android-444-locked-unlocked/
After flashing the two firmwares and rebooting, each time a “repairs in progress” type of screen appeared and shortly thereafter the phone seemed to power down. I had to remove the battery each time to get the thing started again. Also, while on the Nordic firmware, the phone kept vibrating for no reason. This problem disappears when flashing back the second firmware from the above instructions.
22. You now have a rooted Android 4.4.4. Presumably you will want to move on to the very latest Android version which is Android 5.1.1. Keep in mind that the Xperia A has a locked bootloader so only ROMs that are designed for a LB will work. I installed this one, works perfectly except for NFC:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-zr/development/rom-purex-z-v1-0-port-rajeev-t3215063
That’s it. Unfortunately, links included in this tutorial are liable to go dead after a while. I am going to upload those that seem most likely to vanish to a Mega account and post separate notice here when done.
