[YotaPhone] TheArt.:
This thread aims to provide every useful information about YotaPhone2 YD201 & YD206. I would like to make this post as the REFERENCE for what a user should know about this device and all the possible guides available. Unfortunately we don't have a dedicated forum for the second model of YotaPhone, so all the threads are still in Yotaphone1's forum. The guide is divided into sections hidden in the spoilers.

NOTE: I suggest to read the post entirely, because some sections depend on previous ones.

1. Overview​

[IMG="Yotaphone 2"]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2449859/%5Bimmagini%5D/%5Byotaphone%5D/yota_banner.jpg[/IMG]

Hardware specifications:

Front-display: Samsung 5.0" 16M-color 1080p AMOLED touchscreen, 442ppi. Back-display: Always-on 4.7" 16-level grayscale e-Ink display (540 x 960 px, 235ppi). Gorilla Glass 3 on both screens.

144 x 69.5 x 8.9 mm, weight: 140g. CPU: Snapdragon 801, Adreno 330, 2GB RAM, 32GB ROM, 2500mAh battery, QuickCharge 2.0, Wireless charging

8MP autofocus camera, LED flash; HDR, panorama; 1080p@30fps video capturing, jack 3.5mm

Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, OTG, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac dual-band. SAR: Head -> 0.49 W/kg. Body -> 0.96 W/kg. Simultaneous transmission: 1.16 W/kg. Nano-sim, LTE cat.3, supported bands differ between YD201 and YD206. The first is sold internationally while the second only in Asia. To see the supported frequencies and to check if your mobile operator works with YD201 & YD206, click here -> Comparison -> FrequencyCheck. UPDATE: unlocking additional bands is possible! Check the last section for more details.

Software: Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Previous software: Kitkat and Lollipop. More detailed specification can be found on the official website.

2. Getting to know your Yotaphone 2​

YotaPhone 2 is based on stock Android, meaning that YotaDevices developed some apps and functionalities and integrated them to the stock Android OS. Hence, there are no personalied UI like TouchWiz (Samsung), EMIUI (Huawei), MIUI (Xiaomi), Flyme (Meizu), etc. YotaDevices adopted a cleaner approach, like Motorola-Lenovo style, and this keeps the devices fast and with less bloatware. On the other hand, YotaDevices, for example, is not able to implement a black settings theme because of this.

Regarding the additional software, I highly suggest you to open the app

"YotaHelp"

and learn what are the main features of the YotaPhone 2, its main YotaApps and what can be accompished with the back screen. Clearly, open that app once you have the latest OS version that you want (MM, LP, KK).

This is the link to the presentation of the device with some of its features shown off: MainPage. Remember to read the manual, too; choose your language accordingly.

How to check if you have a YD201 or YD206

Don't look at the info section in your phone because those values can be overwritten when flashing a different firmware or even by yourself with a simple edit of build.prop file. The best way to distinguish between YD201 and YD206 is looking at the IMEI:

First 8 digits of Chinese model: 35969406 -> YD206

First 8 digits of International model: 35643106 -> YD201

The Chinese YD206 version seems to work better with its own baseband modem ("radio"), expecially on 2G band, see the the next sections for more details. UPDATE: a hybrid RU-CN baseband has been created, permitting to YD206 users to have strong singal, fully working 2G on RU firmware and without the always blinking proximity sensor issue. More details below.

3. Changing/Updating/Flashing firmwares​

Depending where you have bought your device, it may come with different firmwares. Generally, it is advisable to install manually the latest firmware, except if you bought a YD201 (check IMEI to verify) which comes already with RU or EU version of Lollipop and will be automatically updated to Marshmallow. If this is your case you can

skip this section

. If, for some reason, you have a YD201 with HK or other firmware, it is advisable that you flash manually RU or EU firmware following the procedure below. Personally I advise those with EU firmware to flash the RU one, the are no differences in terms of language (except stock dialer letters), thus the latest updates will surely come as soon as possible.

The process of flashing, rooting, etc is very similar to other Android devices, hence those who have already done this modifications, will have no big issues. There are different firmwares for different markets.

UPDATE: Official FTP servers are down and can't be accessed neigher by browser nor by YotaFlasher. To download firmwares use the yotaphone.torrent file provided at the end of the post, big thanks to Alfonso in the International Telegram group. Please keep the torrent alive, for those who can, let's help each other :). There is also another torrent of the full FOTA package of Marshmallow update (About MM, more information can be found in its dedicated thread). Please note: FOTA packages can't be installed using YotaFlasher, but only with adb sideload command, putting the phone into recovery mode.

The official list can be found on the YotaDevices FTP server, from where I suggest you to download firmwares for your use. [In these weeks the link doesn't work, this is an alternative: ftp://5.200.42.210/YotaPhone2/. Thanks ercicalone.]

Be aware that the access to that server is limited to 50 users simultaneously. When the limit is reached, downloads can be unsuccesful or interrupted (Try again in another moment). There you can find the official program to flash the firmware, called "YotaPhone2Flasher.exe" and all the firmwares ever released. Moreover, ftp://yota.hi-p.com/ is where Singapore firmwares for China market can be found, but it isn't useful for our purposes.

The flasher can download the firmwares, too, but sometimes it gets stuck or it doesn't tell you when it has finished. Since that program is really basic and I discourage you to use it because of its problem of flashing big .img files (due to lack of available RAM). Instead, a better option is the reworked version released by a 4pda user, which flashes system with -S 512M command (this solves RAM problem) and makes you choose whether to flash: system, radio, userdata. This version is attached here in the post at the end. Using this version covers you from a lack of physical memory, as the system.img is sent to the phone with 512MB blocks.

ReworkedYotaFlasher, hence, is better with respect to the official one.

How to use it?

Just download the official flasher, install it and then copy the files found in the reworked flasher into the folder of installation of the official one, substituting the old files. Basically you perform the normal installation and then just put the reworked files into the main folder.

Of course all the flashing process can be done via manual fastboot commands (because this is exactly what the flasher does in the background). To understand how the flasher works, a good starting point is learning more about fastboot here.

Step-by-step procedure to flash a firmware.​

[Linux users please refer to this post]. Set-up your PC. adb and fastboot packages must be on your computer, but you don't need to install the whole Android SDK to get them, just install this. Next step is installing the drivers for Yotaphone 2 and getting it recognized properly when connect to Windows. You can find them on this site: http://gsmusbdriver.com/yotaphone-2 with video-instructions included. Another source of getting the drivers is the YotaPhone2Flasher folder. Once you download and install it, you will find the .inf file in the drivers folder. Right click on it and choose install. NOTE: If you have Windows 10, you must disable driver signature verification prior to installing the .inf file. Another way of installing it is to install drivers from C:\Program Files (x86)\yotaphone_flasher\Driver\Google (the folder where you have probably installed your YotaPhoneFlasher).

To do so, go to Device Manager control panel, right click on the start button and select "Device Manager", then right click on your "Computer name" choose "Add Legacy Hardware".

Next -> Install the hardware manually -> Show all devices (Next) -> Have Disk and select the C:\Program Files (x86)\yotaphone_flasher\Driver\Google\android_usb. inf -> "OK" -> "Next" -> "Next.

Set-up your YotaPhone2. Go to settings/About phone, and tap 7 times on the build number, you will activate the developer options which now can be found in settings. Go there and enable USB-Debugging. Charge your phone at least at 70%.

Now you need the firmware files. Download via ftp-server the desired firmware (5.0.0-RU1.1.134.zip or 5.0.0-EU1.1.124b recommended as those are the only firmwares still officialy updated; RU versions receive updates faster), check its integrity using 7-zip or WinRar, and extract the various files in it to a new folder called firmware in the root of YotaPhone2Flasher directory. You will have there drivers folder, firmware folder, adb.exe, etc. files. The firmware folder must be exactly in the root directory of yotaphone_flasher. In the firmware folder you must have: radio, system.img, userdata.img, etc..

Turn off your device, press and hold VOL DOWN + POWER buttons until the you see on the screen "Downloading". Connect the phone to the USB cable, and connect it to the PC. Wait a few seconds to see if Windows install some additional drivers. To check if the device is recognized properly, open the YotaFlasher folder, press and hold SHIFT and right click an empty space inside that folder, then select "Open window command here". Once the black window has opened, type:

fastboot devices

Some numbers must appear, like:

56614627	fastboot

In case nothing appears, then it means that the fastboot drivers aren't installed correctly and the procedure WILL NOT WORK. There are many solutions to this: if you are sure you have installed the drivers, try to change usb port, reboot your PC or check if you installed them properly going back in this topic. (Another way you can try installing the drivers is letting Windows recognize them: remove any drivers you already installed, connect the phone in "downloading mode" and let the PC install the drivers when it sees the device connected, then check if everything is ok running the command above).

Then, open YotaFlasher running it as an

administrator

, and press 1. Remember that for a clean and complete flash you have to answer Y to all the question prompted within the flasher.

Look if the flasher writes some errors during the flashing process, if everything went smoothly, wait until it finishes and reboot the device. Keep in mind that the flasher needs up to 1 minute generally to flash any partition (system.img, userdata.img, etc), so if your flashing process completes itself within few seconds, it means that it wasn't able to load the necessary files into your RAM. Try to close every program on your PC and/or expand virtual memory using your hard disk or a usb-stick.

After a clean flash you

HAVE TO WAIT A WHILE

. You should see its beautiful bootanimation for 10-30mins, until it finally boots up. To clarify, the boot-animation is the "Yotaphone" writing in the center of blue-grey-white animation. In case it is stuck to "Powered by Android", then something went wrong. Download and verify the integrity of the firmware again, make sure that you selected "Y" in YotaPhoneFlasher and make sure you used the reworked version of it.

That's it! You succesfully flashed the firmware. When you connect to Wi-Fi the phone might download a few OTA updates (it depends of what firmware has been chosen).

How to adb sideload an update (no data loss)​

[MENTION=7359957]hpnhannghia[/MENTION] created a video-guide to update to latest MM build starting from latest RU Lollipop 134, using adb sideload. If you find it useful, you may thank him in this post.

4. Changing only the radio&modem part​

YD206 users are advised to change their modem components to the hybrid RU-CN baseband version created by unkernet, in order to have all the available bands working (2G mostly) with a RU firmware. [PLEASE NOTE: a YD206 with CN firmware works perfectly, no modification needed]. RU modem can also be used, but with the existence of the modified version, it performs worse in the reception and 2G availability. The modem version is written in "About Phone", under "baseband version". The list of all existing official baseband-radio versions is in the spoiler, and they can be found in each downloaded firmware in the "radio" folder, composed by 4 files each.

S01_003_3034_RU1_M11_P2 found in : 4.4.3-S01-003-APC.0.3.56C ; 4.4.3-S01-003-HK1.0.3.56A ; 4.4.3-S01-003-EU1.0.3.56A; 4.4.3-S01-003-RU1.0.3.56A
S01_003_3034_RU1_M15_P2 found in : 4.4.3-S01-003-EU1.0.3.61A ; 4.4.3-S01-003-HK1.0.3.61A ; 4.4.3-S01-003-ME1.0.3.61A
S01_003_4240_RU1_M05 found in : 5.0.0-APC.1.65 ; 5.0.0-RU.1.1.112 ; 5.0.0-HK.1.1.66
S01_003_4240_RU1_M04 found in : 5.0.0-APC.1.44; 5.0.0-EU.1.1.39 ; 5.0.0.-ME.1.1.45
[B]S01_003_3034_CN1_M05 found in every CN firmware, in the oldest there's the 3032 version.[/B]

There are many ways for installing official basebands using YotaFlasher. If the phone you bought, already has the baseband you need, before flashing the entire RU firmware you can just delete the "radio" folder in the firmware folder of YotaPhoneFlasher, once you copied your downloaded and extracted firmware to this folder. In this way the flasher will not change your baseband. Please note that future OTA updates might change your baseband, I'm talking about big OTAs like the one which upgrades from 4.4 to 5.0. If this is your case there is a simple solution below.

During the flashing process you will see some errors due to the fact that the flasher can't find the radio files, this is expected behaviour and proceed without fear. NOTE: Using the reworked YotaPhoneFlasher, just say N when it proposes you to flash radio.

If you are using actively your phone and have set-up all your things or you already flashed the firmware you needed and now you want to change just the radio, do the opposite process. That is, download a CN firmware, extract it, put just its radio folder inside firmware folder, open the flasher and press 1. Within a few seconds you're done because you have flashed only the radio part. No wipes/erases needed. You can change the radio as much as you want without loosing anything. If you use the reworked flasher, answer Y when "flash radio" is prompted and N to every other questions.

IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR YD206 ​

Hybrid RU-CN

modem makes the use of CN baseband on RU/EU firmwares obsolete. With CN baseband it has been registered battery drain, proximity sensor blinking, and other connectivity problems. Moreover, a RU baseband on the RU/EU firmware made unavailable most 2G bands and a low signal. The new baseband created by unkernet solves all this! Hence, YD206 users with a firmware different from CN are advised to use his baseband to restore full signal funcionalities of their phone. The hybrid baseband can be downloaded here TWRPHybridModem and flashed like other zips in TWRP; Instead, YotaFlasherHybridModem is designed to be installed with YotaFlasher like any other baseband (extract the .zip and place the radio folder inside the firmware folder, as usual). This baseband will be displayed as S01_003_3034_CN1_M05 in the "About Phone" menu.

5. Root, custom recovery (TWRP), unlocking bootloader, xposed​

In order to root your device, you must first unlock your bootloader. This process will WIPE ALL YOUR DATA.​

Unlocking bootloader:

Go back in the downloading mode using VOL DOWN + POWER, connect the phone and open the command prompt windows (shift + right click in the yotaflasher folder).

Type:

fastboot devices

to be sure that the phone is recognized.

Then, the command to unlock is:

fastboot oem unlock

To confirm the operation, the phone will reboot in the stock recovery, there you have to select "Yes" using VOL UP and DOWN to navigate and POWER to confirm. Then, let the phone boot up again (it will take a while).​

Once unlocked, a custom recovery can be installed. You can also lock it back again.​

Install or boot TWRP Recovery:

I suggest you the latest TWRP recovery which is attached to this post. Download the zip, extract the .img file in the YotaPhoneFlasher folder along drivers, firmware, adb.exe, etc. you should have twrp-v5.img.

Go to downloading mode, same command window as above, and type the below code to install TWRP upon the stock recovery:

fastboot flash recovery twrp-v5.img

Moreover, TWRP can be used without its installation, booting it without overwriting the stock one, with the following code:

fastboot boot twrp-v5.img

Once flashed (or booted), you have to enter the recovery, otherwise it won't stick. You can turn off the device and press VOL UP + POWER, or better: right after the flashing process type this command while pressing and holding the VOL UP button on your device:

fastboot reboot

It will reboot into the recovery! From here you can root the device, sooner or later. The recovery is always accessible pressing VOL UP + POWER when the phone is turned off.
​

How to root:

Download the latest SuperSU (attached at this post), copy it into the internal storage of your phone (when it is connected normally or when it is into recovery mode, it's the same).

Once copied, enter TWRP (POWER + VOL UP), go to "install", select SuperSU-v2.79-201612051815.zip and swipe right to flash, then reboot. Done! If SuperSu app is not present in the phone after the process, there is a lack of system space and the .zip can't be installed. Continue reading to solve the problem.​

Xposed Framework:

To install xposed, you can simply flash it the same way you rooted the device. Copy xposed-v87-sdk23-arm.zip (this version is for Marshmallow 6.0.x) attached to this post and flash it in the TWRP recovery. After that, install XposedInstaller_3.1.1.apk on your phone, which is also provided here. (KitKat 4.4.x users must download this version, Lollipop users must install xposed-v87-sdk21-arm.zip available here).

An error that usually occurs during flashing is the lack of space in /system partition for xposed to be installed. To solve this issue, a good choice is the guide of [MENTION=7982975]TurbanGuy[/MENTION] (link), starting from point 19. For convenience, I will quote it here in a spoiler:

19. in TWRP: Mount>System>Back
20. Do backup of system+data+boot (to be sure), going to Backup>Select>Swipe
21. There is nto enough space in system (<10MB). We need to remove application which will be updated anyway to latest version from Google Play. Will have >300MB
22. Click: Advanced>File manager
23. go to /system/app
24. Find Books click on it. Now you see apk file for built-in "Google Play Books application"
25. Click bottom (Google Play Books) icon, then delete, then swipe, then back.
26. Continue with these folders:
/Books
/CalendarGoogle (Calendar)
/Chrome (Chrome)
/CloudPrint (Cloud Print)
/Drive (Drive)
/Galaxy4 (some animated wallpaper)
/Hangouts (Hangouts)
/HoloSpiralWallpaper (...)
/Keep	Keep
/Lingvo-release (ABBYY Lingvo)
/Maps (Maps)
/Music2 (Google Play Music)
/Newsstand (Google Play Newsstand)
/OfficeSuite_Free (OfficeSuite)
/Videos (Google Play Movies & TV)
/YouTube (Youtube)

27. Go to main menu in TWRP, click Install
28. Find your prepared files and install them (xposed or supersu and xposed).
29. Reboot to System
30. Install XposedInstaller_3.1.1.apk
31. Update SuperSu in Play store
32. Run SuperSu, it will try to update its binary by script in TWRP
33. Later find Xposed application, download your programs and use

If you already have root permission, you can also free system space by using this app or this one to remove some applications from /system partition which you don't need. Moreover, a file manager with system access can do the job, too: in this case you have to find the apps manually. [Be careful of what you remove using the apps or file manager]. A simple option is just removing some basic apps from there (like those pointed out by TurbanGuy) and then reinstall the same app from Play Store. (For example: removing Chrome from system apps and then reinstalling it from Play Store; it will be installed into /data partition). Xposed doesn't need many MBs in /system, so removing a few apps is enough. (Root is advised to use the installed Xposed)​

6. Various tips & topics​

Official topic about Android Marshmallow MM 6.0.1.

Suggestion to mitigate the memory leak in Android 5.0 with xposed: just install FixLollipopMemoryLeak using the xposed app.

Discussion about unlocking band, frequencies and improving modem signal can be found clicking here. In particular, now it is possible to UNLOCK B20 LTE 800MHz of YD206 by following this procedure.

Useful tools and SDK for who wants to develop an app for the e-ink screen: SDK 2.0 for MM.

Grey EPD or too much ghosting? There are several solutions. This is one: Battery discharging. Another possibility is entering the YotaHub app, and delete all the panels, then putting them back again. Eventually, a solution (if flashing firmwares doesn't work) is to heat the EPD screen for some minutes using a hairdryer for example. Be careful not to heat the phone too much!

How to get out from hard-brick [code 9008 or 9006] situation: Download the files from this 4pda guide, use QFIL as described in the screenshot in that link, then flash with yotaflasher your firmware.

How to use custom fonts with stock e-reader app YotaReader: XDA thread

Android hidden codes available through the dialer app, useful to diagnose and change many parameters, are listed in this website.

GPS issues? Refer to this thread, post #11 in particular.

Telegram users who want to join the discussion about YotaPhone2, here are the groups:

Russian group (Russian and English languages used): YotaPhone Club

Italian group (Italian & English languages used): YotaPhonisti Or in telegram search function: @yotauser

Spanish group: YotaUsuarios

International group created by [MENTION=7927842]Planx66[/MENTION] : YOTA Users

Portuguese/Galician group: Invite link

Sources:

rovo89 xposed / various xda threads in the YotaPhone 2 section / 4pda / ChainFire for SuperSu