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How to replace your Android boot animation in recovery

AndroidPIT Nexus 5 boot animation venom
© nextpit

Boot animations – the thing you see when you turn your phone on – are a pretty boring part of the smartphone experience. If you have a Galaxy S5 you see some bright colors swirling around a Samsung logo. If you have a Nexus 5 you get some colored circles having a bit of an orgy. Not really inspiring stuff. But you can switch out those animations with any number of way cooler animations to make turning on your phone a little more exciting. Here's how to do it.

AndroidPIT Nexus 5 boot animation venom
Seriously, who doesn't want Venom in their boot animation!?! / © ANDROIDPIT

As you've probably guessed by now, you need to have root access for this to work. There's another method that is equally as easy where you simply replace the existing boot animation file with the new one in a root file manager. We've covered that process already if you want to customize the boot animation of your Android that way. But if you're the kind of modder that is always in recovery then this method is even faster.

boot animation teaser
Boot animations don't have to be boring. Custom ROMs and modders know this. © NextPit

All you need to do is find a flashable zip of the animation you like. I've used the new comic book hero boot animation to replace my previous one which was the new Android boot animation from the Android L developer preview, but there's so many other cool ones around it's not funny. There's a great Motorola animation with monsters and UFOs from April 1st that looks great. Heck, we've even got an AndroidPIT boot animation courtesy of one of our community members!

installer boot animation android teaser
Easily the best boot animation you're likely to find. Ahem! / © NextPit

Once you've found the animation you like, just download it to your phone, reboot into recovery and flash that baby. For me (on a Nexus 5 with CWM) I switch off my device, press and hold Power and Volume Down to get to Fastboot and enter Recovery using the volume keys to navigate and the Power button to confirm. In Recovery, use the same buttons to ''Install zip'' and locate the boot animation zip you just downloaded and flash it. Then reboot and you'll see the results of your handiwork. If you've got a different phone or recovery the steps will be slightly different, but I'm confident you can figure it out! Here's the process in pictures:

AndroidPIT Nexus 5 CWM Recovery 1
© ANDROIDPIT
AndroidPIT Nexus 5 CWM Recovery 3
© ANDROIDPIT
AndroidPIT Nexus 5 CWM Recovery 2
© ANDROIDPIT
AndroidPIT Nexus 5 CWM Recovery 4
© ANDROIDPIT
AndroidPIT Nexus 5 boot animation superman
And BAM! Superman (amongst others) now grace my startup process.© ANDROIDPIT
AndroidPIT Nexus 5 boot animation captain america
Captain America is also in the mix. / © ANDROIDPIT
  • If you want to find some seriously large boot animation repositories, head to XDA Developers and use that search box!

What's your favorite boot animation? What else do you customize on your Android?

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Kris Carlon

Kris Carlon
Senior Editor

Kris is a former AndroidPIT Editor who came to the team via a lengthy period spent traveling and relying on technology to keep him in touch with the outside world. He can usually be found juggling three phones at once and poring over G+ posts, Reddit and RSS feeds.

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20 comments
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  • Mark Joseph Recosana 1
    Mark Joseph Recosana Aug 15, 2016 Link to comment

    My phone has damage


  • 1
    mohit Aug 22, 2015 Link to comment

    Phone say this may expose the device to fault and hidden troubles


  • 1
    mohit Aug 22, 2015 Link to comment

    My phone was not starded when I installed boot animation what can I do


  • Mayank Jain 1
    Mayank Jain Jul 7, 2015 Link to comment

    When I try to flash the bootanimation.zip in my note3 sm n-900 following code shows up:

    -- Installing: /sdcard/0/Extracted/bootanimation.zip
    Finding update package...
    Opening update package...
    Installing update...
    Installation aborted.

    How can I fix this error?plz help


  • 2
    Eric Rösch Apr 7, 2015 Link to comment

    When I try to flash the bootanimation.zip following code shows up:

    -- Installing: /sdcard/0/Extracted/bootanimation.zip
    Finding update package...
    Opening update package...
    Installing update...
    Installation aborted.

    How can I fix this error?


  • 2
    prasad Sep 21, 2014 Link to comment

    I flashed that file but my screen goes completely blank while booting please help me


    • Kris Carlon 35
      Kris Carlon Sep 22, 2014 Link to comment

      Hey @prasad, you need to make sure you have the correct resolution animation for your phone. If it still doesn't work you can simply find the original boot animation for your device (or another different one) and flash it through recovery. It doesn't actually matter if there's no boot animation, it's just there to pass the time while your device boots up.


  • 2
    Peter deSmit Aug 9, 2014 Link to comment

    how can i change bootanimation on my Note 2.
    the bootanimation does nog work.
    i am using ROM toolbox pro.
    my ROM is 4.4.2 and i am rooted


    • 32
      Deactivated Account Aug 9, 2014 Link to comment

      changing the boot animation through ROM tool box is risky . download the desired boot animation and flash it from recovery mode


  • Iuri Piotrowski da Rosa 3
    Iuri Piotrowski da Rosa Aug 2, 2014 Link to comment

    Do change the boot animation is dangerous? I means, it can cause infinite loop?


  • Luiz Saint 10
    Luiz Saint Aug 1, 2014 Link to comment

    ok,but how can i change bootanimation switch with captain american to superman?


    • 32
      Deactivated Account Aug 1, 2014 Link to comment

      this boot animation contains changing of characters which including Batman, Spiderman, Captain America, Ironman, War Machine, Flash, Gambit, Magneto, Red Skull


  • 1
    Harsha Vardhan Jul 27, 2014 Link to comment

    can I do it on Motorola moto e


    • 32
      Deactivated Account Jul 28, 2014 Link to comment

      the link provided by Adam Fairhurst will not works for you because both phones have different screen resolution.
      Motorola moto e have a lot of bootanimation BUt not sure Android L bootanimation is available


  • 4
    Adam Fairhurst Jul 27, 2014 Link to comment

    This was where I got the boot animation from and its an Android L one. I used TWRP recovery. It might help that I did it through the phone without a computer (Downloaded it from the internet on my phone, I found the file in the downloads folder and flashed it from there).


    • 32
      Deactivated Account Jul 27, 2014 Link to comment

      this boot animation is for 625 x 380 screen resolution phones . are you sure you have choose the right file..
      It is not your problem, There will be a problem with the boot animation .
      try another bootanimation

      This bootanimation may not work on stock Moto


  • Dwarfer66 25
    Dwarfer66 Jul 27, 2014 Link to comment

    I'm using Echoe v27, with the sickness mod that gives me a great boot animation of a Dragon chasing it's own tail, and with a flaming dragon going across the screen.


  • 4
    Adam Fairhurst Jul 27, 2014 Link to comment

    I tried to change my boot animation and did everything you said to do, and it hasn't worked. Any help?


    • 32
      Deactivated Account Jul 27, 2014 Link to comment

      Can you explain more deeply,. the boot animation you used, and the custom recovery

      Things you need
      A rooted device
      CWM or TWRP Recovery


      Do not extract the zip file


    • 14
      Saem Sarguroh Jul 27, 2014 Link to comment

      Does your rom have custom bootanimation support?

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