Install Unofficial CM12 Android 5.0.2 Lollipop ROM on Samsung Galaxy Grand 2

Samsung has been rolling out the Android 5.0 Lollipop updates to its high-end Galaxy smartphone range over the past few weeks but none of the mid-range smartphones from the company's stable have been confirmed to be updated to Android Lollipop yet. Announced in the year 2013, the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 is one of the company's popular mid-range smartphones in the Asian market. Since it is now more than one year old, there are no chances that Samsung will be rolling out an official Lollipop update to the Grand 2. Thankfully though, the smartphone has received some developer love on XDA developers forum and an unofficial CM12 ROM is available for the Grand 2.

The Android 5.0.2 Lollipop Unofficial CyanogenMod 12 ROM for the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 has been posted by XDA senior member mukulsoni. The ROM is stable and can be used as a daily driver ROM for owners of the Galaxy Grand 2 SM-G7102 model. Surprisingly almost everything works with this ROM except for incoming voice on the second SIM and FM Radio. For most people these two issues are not likely to be that important, so you can install this ROM and enjoy Android 5.0.2 Lollipop on your device. A few other Android 5.0 Lollipop ROMs may be available for the smartphone later on, but until then this is the only option you have to get Lollipop right now. You are also likely to be pleased with the performance with the ROM as it is based on AOSP and doesn't include any bloatware like the stock Samsung firmware and is much lighter than the heavy TouchWiz UI Samsung uses. However, for some people this might not be a good thing. So if you love TouchWiz for some reason or simply can't live without some of the Samsung features or apps present on the official firmware, you should probably not be installing this ROM on your Grand 2.

In this tutorial I am going to show you how you can install the Unofficial CM12 Android 5.0.2 Lollipop ROM on your Samsung Galaxy Grand 2. I suggest that you follow each step listed in this tutorial correctly and make sure that all the prerequisites are met before proceeding to the installation process. If you do not follow the guide correctly or use your own judgment to do something differently, you may end up with a bricked device.

Before we get to the installation process, you will need to take care of all the prerequisites for installing this ROM on your Samsung Galaxy Grand 2. The first and most important of all is to make sure that you take a backup of your important data. For this, you can download a backup and restore app from the Google Play Store or use the Samsung KIES PC application. Along with the backup of your data, I also suggest that you perform a Nandroid backup of your current ROM so you can easily switch to your current ROM if you find yourself dissatisfied with this custom ROM. A Nandroid backup makes it a lot easier for you to go back to your current ROM as you will simply need to restore the ROM from custom recovery.

CyanogenMod 12 is based on AOSP and as such you will require an unlocked bootloader to be able to flash the ROM on your Galaxy Grand 2. If you do not have an unlocked bootloader, you will first have to unlock the bootloader and only then will you be able to flash the ROM on your device. However, I must warn you that unlocking your bootloader will void your warranty. So if your Galaxy Grand 2 is still under warranty period, you may need to think twice before deciding on unlocking the bootloader. Along with an unlocked bootloader, you will also require a custom recovery to be installed as the ROM needs to be flashed via recovery. You can choose any of the popular ROMs like TWRP, CWM or PhilZ recovery. The developer of the ROM has made a custom recovery as well. If you want to install his custom recovery, you can download it from this link.

Whenever you flash a custom ROM, it is very important to make sure that you have at least 60% charge remaining on your battery. It could be extremely risky to install a custom ROM when you're running out of battery. If the battery runs out completely before the ROM can be installed on your device, it will end up getting bricked. Since the warranty is void after unlocking the bootloader, you will need to pay for service if it ends up getting hard bricked.

One last thing that you need to make sure is to see if the USB Debugging option is enabled. For this, you will need to go to Settings – Developer Options – USB Debugging. Make sure that the option is checked.
Now that we have taken care of all the pre-installation requisites, we can now proceed to the ROM installation process.

How to Install CM12 Android 5.0.2 Unofficial ROM on Samsung Galaxy Grand 2

1. The first step involves downloading the ROM ZIP file from thislink and saving it on your computer. Since the CyanogenMod 12 ROM is based on AOSP, it doesn't include any Google apps by default. So you will need to download the GAPPS (Google apps) package separately from this link and save it to your computer as well.

2. Once both the files have been downloaded to your computer, connect your Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 to the computer using the USB cable. Now transfer both the above ZIP files to the internal storage on the Galaxy Grand 2. Make sure that the files are transferred to the internal storage only and not the external SD card. If you transfer the files accidentally to the external SD card, you will not be able to flash the ROM. I also recommend that you move both the files to the root directory of your internal storage as this will make it much easier for you to find them when you will have to flash them in a later step.

3. Disconnect your Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 from the computer once the files have been transferred. Now turn off your device and boot it into recovery mode by tapping on the volume up button repeatedly before you see the boot logo.

4. In recovery, tap on 'wipe data factory reset' option to perform a factory reset. Once the factory reset is done, tap on advanced options. Now clear cache, dalvik cache, data, and system partitions. This is a very important step and ensures that you do not face any issues post installation. If you flash the ROM directly without clearing everything, you may face certain issues as you avoided a 'clean' install.

5. Once you are done clearing everything, tap on the 'Install zip from SD card' option and choose the Unofficial CM12 ROM ZIP file that you transferred to the internal storage of your Galaxy Grand 2 and flash it to install the ROM.

6. When the ROM ZIP file has been flashed successfully, flash the GAPPS file as well to install Google apps on the ROM.

7. Once you are done with flashing GAPPS as well, return to the main recovery menu and tap on the 'reboot system now' option to reboot your Samsung Galaxy Grand 2.

That's it. You will now have the Unofficial Android 5.0.2 Lollipop CyanogenMod 12 ROM running on your smartphone. The first boot is likely to take a few minutes, so do not worry if it takes longer than usual to boot once your reboot it. To check for future updates and to report any bugs or other discussion about this ROM, be sure to follow the official thread of the ROM at this link.

Have you installed this ROM on your Samsung Galaxy Grand 2? If yes, let us know what you think of the ROM by leaving a comment below.