How to Install CyanogenMod (any version) on Galaxy S5

Do you want to customize, optimize and personalize your Samsung Galaxy S5? Even though your Android smartphone is coming with great in-built features and capabilities, you can still spice things up, as you can anytime improve your Galaxy S5 and its Android OS by choosing to update it with a custom ROM firmware like CyanogenMod. You will be able to flash CyanogenMod (any version of CM on that matter) on your Galaxy S5 by using CWM recovery, or any other custom recovery image, the proper step by step guide being detailed during the guidelines from below.

As you might know the CyanogenMod team hasn’t developed a dedicated CM custom ROM for the Samsung Galaxy S5, which means that the present Android 4.4.2 KitKat software – CM11, isn’t coming with all the stock features that you have on the stock Galaxy S5 Android OS. Anyway, don’t worry, as a new variant of CyanogenMod will soon be released and then you will be able to install the same update by using CWM recovery as showed during the steps from below. Of course, since then, you can anytime install CM11 on your SGS5, the method from this tutorial being compatible with all the CyanogenMod versions.

What is CyanogenMod? Well, at this point you should know that CM is the most popular and used Android based custom ROM firmware. The update is available for both mid range and high end Android smartphones and tablets, but the best is that CyanogenMod is coming with stock and extra (that cannot be found on the default version of Android system) features that can be used for improving the performances of your Samsung Galaxy S5. In a few words, with CyanogenMod installed, the Galaxy S5 will run faster and better. You will be able to remove bloatware, speed things up, upgrade the battery life, personalize the looks and customize the performances.

Now, CyanogenMod represents a free aftermarket distribution of stock Android OS. So, the ROM is developed by third party devs and has nothing to do with Google and in our case with Samsung. Usually, CM can be updated by using CWM recovery, which is a custom recovery image that can be anytime flashed on any Android smartphone and tablet. So, for being able to update Galaxy S5 with CyanogenMod, first you will have to install CWM recovery on your phone. Then, using CWM recovery for flashing the custom ROM is easy and we will talk about the same during the proper guidelines from below.

Unfortunately, when using CWM recovery for installing CyanogenMod on the Galaxy S5, a wipe is being required. Actually, in order for the CM Android custom ROM to properly run on your Android smartphone, you first have to hard reset the Galaxy S5 and to clear cache – don’t worry we will be talking about this in a minute. Now, due to same reasons, a backup is a must have. Basically you should save the contacts list, the market apps, your personal info, data and accounts, internet settings and everything else you might need after updating your Samsung Galaxy S5. In that matter you can anytime use free distributed apps from Google Play.

This is a manual update operation so a computer will be used. You will have to connect your device with the computer so your phone’s USB cable should be near you. Moreover, on the computer you are using the best will be to disable the security programs – do this only temporarily. On your Galaxy S5 you should check the USB debugging feature (you can go to “menu->settings->developer options” in that matter). It is quite important to charge your smartphone before heading to the steps from below because if your phone gets turned off in the middle of the installation procedure, it might also get bricked.

How to Install CyanogenMod (any version) on Galaxy S5

1. First, on your computer download the CM custom ROM file – you can get it from the CyanogenMod official website.
2. Do note that the CyanogenMod firmware isn’t including Google Apps package so download the same separately.
3. Don’t unzip the downloaded files.
4. Plug in the USB cable and connect your Galaxy S5 with your computer.
5. Now copy or transfer the CM ROM and the Google Apps package on your phone’s SD card.
6. Disconnect the devices and power off your smartphone.
7. Enter Galaxy S5 in recovery mode.
8. Wipe the system and clear cache – just select “wipe data factory reset” and “wipe cache partition”.
9. Also choose “advanced” followed by “wipe dalvick cache”.
10. Then, from recovery mode select “install zip from SD card” and “choose zip from SD card”.
11. Install CyanogenMod on your Galaxy S5 and update your phone with this Android based custom ROM firmware.
12. Also, repeat that step and flash Google Apps package.
13. In the end, return to recovery and select “reboot system now”.

So, this is how you can install CyanogenMod on Samsung Galaxy S5. Use the comments field from below for sharing your thoughts with us and with other users who might need a second opinion related to the update procedure that can be applied on the Galaxy S5 when talking about Android based custom ROMs.