How to Root Xperia Z Ultra after Lollipop update 14.5.A.0.242

Sony released the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the Xperia Z Ultra, fondly called XZU, a few days back. If you accepted the OTA, it meant your device was upgraded to Lollipop but you lost root access. Well, we’re sure you’d want to root your Xperia Z Ultra back, on Lollipop, and the good news is that you achieve that easily.

Using the Doomlord’s famous DooMKernel, you can boot into TWRP recovery and root your device effortlessly. Check out below.

What you need:

This method was tested on the Lollipop update version 14.5.A.0.242, on model no. C6802. It could work very well on other models of Z Ultra, but not GPe edition of the device because it has different variant of DooMKernel.

Root Xperia Z Ultra Lollipop Update

This post has been updated with new method, which includes installing the pre-rooted firmware, provided below, that’s already rooted and packs in XZDualrecovery too. This makes the whole process simplest, you only need to flash it using recovery of your choice: either of CWM, TWRP and Philz Touch work.

It also works on KitKat, btw. You Z Ultra will be updated to Lollipop, with root upon following this method.

Downloads

Pre-rooted firmware: Link (Thanks to dandyqb for this!)
XZ Dual Recovery: ZU-lockeddualrecovery2.8.14-RELEASE.installer.zip

How to download recovery: Go to this page, the website of recovery’s developer, Nut. Then from homepage, click on the box containing XZDualRecovery, then XZDualRecovery 2.8.14. Locate the file, click on it, pop-up will appear, click on HERE inside the pop-up to initiate download on your PC.

Guide

Download and install ADB on your Windows PC.
Download and install Sony drivers.
Enable USB debugging:
1. Go to Settings – About phone. Tap build no 7 times.
2. Go back to Settings, scroll down and locate Developer options, tap on it.
3. Locate USB Debugging and tap on checkbox to enable it. Tap on OK to confirm when you see pop-up.
Connect your Z Ultra to PC now. You’ll get a pop-up on your Z Ultra asking permission for USB debugging, select always allow and then tap on OK. Keep the Z Ultra connected to PC.
Transfer the pre-rooted firmware file to your Z Ultra and remember its location.
Install XZDualRecovery first of all. You don’t need to unlock bootloader for this as it works on both and unlocked ones. (Skip this step if you already have a TWRP/CWM recovery, and just boot into recovery mode and then do the next step of flashing the ROM.)
1. Extract the ZU-lockeddualrecovery2.8.14-RELEASE.installer.zip file using a free software like 7-zip on PC.
2. From the extracted files, double click on the install.bat file. This will begin the installation of recovery on your Z Ultra.
3. Device will reboot into recovery mode after recovery is installed.
Factory reset/wipe data of your device from recovery. On TWRP, do this: select Wipe, then Advanced wipe, then select Dalvik cache, System, Data and Cache. Then do the ‘Swipe to wipe’ at bottom.
Select the Install option in recovery and select the pre-rooted firmware file you transferred to Z Ultra in step 5 above. Confirm the action to begin installation.
When done, go back and select Reboot to reboot the system. You’ll have the rooted Lollipop update running on your device.

Problem?

If the above fails at some point, then try again after unlocking the bootloader of your Xperia Z Ultra first. Make backup first, as unlocking would delete everything from your device. For help with unlocking bootloader, check out our guide for Xperia Z, the procedure is all the same for your Z Ultra too.

After unlocking the bootloader, repeat steps 3 to 9 above.

Let us know if you need any help over this via comments below.

OLD DOWNLOADS AND GUIDE

New guide above is preferred, btw.

Downloads (for old guide below)

Old Guide

Make sure you unlocked bootloader of your device. Need help with that? Check out our guide for Xperia Z, the procedure is all the same for your Z Ultra too.
Copy the SuperSU beta file to your Z Ultra and remember where you put it.
Download and install ADB on your Windows PC.
Download and install Sony drivers.
Enable USB debugging:
1. Go to Settings – About phone. Tap build no 7 times.
2. Go back to Settings, scroll down and locate Developer options, tap on it.
3. Locate USB Debugging and tap on checkbox to enable it. Tap on OK to confirm when you see pop-up.
Connect your Xperia Z Ultra to PC. Accept connection on your device about USB debussing when a pop-up shows up, could take some time, maximum two minutes.
Extract the DooMKernel v22 file you downloaded from above. You’ll get boot.img from it.
Go to folder where you have the boot.img
Open command window. Left click on empty white space inside the folder first. Then do a shift+right click to get a pop-up, and from there, select open command window here.
A cmd window will open up, with destination set to folder where you have the boot.img. This is important to have.
Boot Z Ultra into fastboot mode. With the device still connected to PC, type the below in command prompt window and then hit enter key.
```
adb reboot fastboot
```
You’ll see the blue LED light on the Z Ultra. This confirm you are in fastboot mode.
Boot into TWRP recovery. Yes, you can do that without installing it first. Here’s how. Type the below command and then hit enter key.
```
fastboot boot boot.img
```
The fastboot will use the boot.img from your PC’s folder to boot itself into recovery mode, and will open up the TWRP recovery for you for this single time, because we asked it to do so in our command above.
[Recommended] It’s optional but we would say at this point that you create a full backup of your phone, a mirror image, right now using the TWRP recovery. Tap on Backup option for this and do the backup first. IT’s life-save to have a backup from recovery.
Flash SuperSU file to root your Xperia Z Ultra. Come back to main screen and tap on Install, and then select the SuperSU beta file you transferred in step 1 now. Do the ‘Swipe to Confirm Flash’ to confirm flashing.
Once done, go back to main screen of TWRP and tap on Reboot, and then on System.
That’s it. Your Z Ultra will be rooted and will have stock kernel and recovery in place of custom one. So will get OTA updates too without any worries.