Update: Manual Update SONY Xperia SP with Kitkat 4.4.2 Android Firmware

Some of the smartphone manufacturers are more friendly to the developer community while some are not. So, one of the friendliest to the dev. community is of the SONY which comes with the ability to unlock the boot loader. So in this article we will be talking about the SONY Xperia SP smartphone which can be updated with the Cyanogen Mod Slimkat flavors which can rope in the goodness of Kitkat 4.4 firmware using the Cyanogen Mod 11 firmware. The best part is that this one can also be applied to the locked boot loaders which otherwise is not possible with most of the smartphone manufacturers. This firmware comes with all the capabilities of Kitkat 4.4.2 firmware and also has the look and feel as that of the Nexus 5 smartphone.

After checking out on what are the quick pre requisites, let’s check out on what are the instructions with which you can apply this firmware update in your device.

Disclaimer: We should not be held responsible or liable in any manner for any damage caused due to not following the instructions mentioned in this article.

Quick Pre Requisites:

• All the data in your SONY Xperia SP should be backed up with the help of below mentioned steps manually and not with the SONY PC companion as it may not help you restore the data.

SMS – Use “ SMS Backup & Restore app”,
Contacts –  Sync with the Gmail application,
Call Log - Call Log and Restore
Images, Songs, Videos, Files – Copy to internal / External SD Card,
APN and MMS Settings – Note down from the path “Applications > Settings > Wireless and Network > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names”

• Make sure that your device is left with the minimum battery of 50% so as to make sure that device doesn’t get turned Off in the middle of firmware update. Also, you need to make sure that USB Debugging in your Xperia SP should be enabled.

• Check on whether your device is rooted or not which is a must before we further proceed. Rooting status of the device can be checked with the help of “Root Checker” app which can be downloaded from Google PLAY Store.

Assuming that you are done with the above mentioned steps, you can then head over to the next step to install this latest version of Kitkat 4.4.2 with the help of Cyanogen MOD 11.

Procedure to install Cyanogen Mod 11 firmware in Xperia SP:

• Download the Cyanogen Mod 11 Firmware package and Google Apps Package for Xperia SP and place the same in your device by connecting your device to the computer using original USB cable.

• Now, you need to enter your device in the recovery mode with the help of ROM Manager. You can install the ROM Manager app from the Google Play store and install the latest version of CWM image in your device.

• In recovery mode, select “Wipe Data/ Factory Reset” option for clearing all the cache. Alternatively, also select “wipe dalvik cache” from the advanced option so that all the data in your device gets refreshed.

• In recovery mode, select “choose zip from sd card”. Using your volume keys, navigate to the Cyanogen Mod 11 zip file and Google Apps package that you copied to your SD card one after the other using the Power button to select the same. Please note that it may take more than 4 -5 minutes for applying the zip file. Once done, you need to either manually reboot or the phone will be rebooted automatically.

• You can check on whether the firmware has been successfully applied or not from the About Phone section which will be shown as the below screen capture.

Note: If the device gets into the boot loop sequence or say gets stuck in the welcome screen, just re insert the battery and re follow the above instructions so as to update the device firmware.

So there you go, you have now successfully learnt on how to apply this update in your phone. Do let us know in the comments section or on out Facebook / Google+ Page if you face any issues as we will be more than happy to help you out.