How to flash Cyanogen OS 12.1 on YU Phones

flash Cyanogen OS 12.1

A couple of weeks ago, we had covered a story about the availability of Cyanogen 12.1 Android 5.1 OS OTA update on YU Yureka and Yureka Plus devices.

In the comments, many of the YU Yureka and YU Yureka Plus users seemed to be facing issues with Cyanogen 12.1 update.

According to some of our readers, upgrading to Cyanogen 12.1 crashes the UI very frequently, and things stop working all of a sudden.

Some readers even complained saying they have not been able to upgrade to Cyanogen 12.1 so far. YU team responded to these issues on our email by saying that the testing team is looking at all the issues raised.

We will update our previous story as soon as we hear anything from YU.

This segment will be focusing on the alternate method of upgrading your device to Cyanogen 12.1. This process involves flashing. “Flashing” a ROM means loading a version of an Android OS, which is different from your stock Android OS.

For flashing the Cyanogen 12.1 on YU devices, it is crucial that your device should be running official Cyanogen 12.0 OS. The Cyanogen 11.0 users who want to update their devices to 12.1 will need to update their devices to Cyanogen 12.0.

Initially, you have to download the ROM from the download link. The ROM is about 674MB in size.

Download Links:

  • ROM Download
  • Check MD5

However, there are two different procedures — one for a device having stock recovery and the other for a device having a custom recovery like TWRP.

For devices With Stock Recovery:

  1. Choose the directory and copy the ROM to your device storage.
  2. Reboot your phone into stock recovery. You will need to switch off your device and then press the Volume UP, Volume DOWN buttons and Power button together.
  3. Wait for your device to boot into recovery mode. Once it is done, Apply Update > Choose install from internal storage or choose install from external storage. In the case of internal storage click on 0/ and then navigate to the folder where you have placed the ROM and then to the ROM.zip file.
  4. Wait for the installation to get over and then you will be back to the recovery.
  5. After this select reboot to system.

For Devices With Custom Recovery:

  1. Choose the directory and copy the ROM to your device storage.
  2. Reboot your device into recovery mode. You will need to switch off your device and then press the Volume UP, Volume DOWN buttons, and power button together.
  3. Select wipe and go to advanced wipe and select Dalvik cache.
  4. Go to System>Data>Cache and swipe to wipe.
  5. Go back and select install and then navigate to the folder that has the ROM.zip file and install.
  6. Wait for the installation to finish and select reboot to system.

Before you initiate any such process, it is always recommended to make a backup of all your data. For users with root access, Titanium Backup is a recommended app for making a backup.

If you don’t have root access, there is no compulsion. You can just copy all your personal files to your PC or the external SD card.

Also, make sure that at the time of initiation of this process, your device is at more than 60% of battery charge.

About the author

Nitika

Nitika Munshi

Nitika is an MCA graduate and works as an all-around news writer at PC-Tablet. In free time, she works on Photoshop and plays GTA V on her Xbox. A tech-enthusiast at heart, she explores ways that businesses can leverage the Internet and move their businesses to the next level.