Installing TWRP onto a smartphone or tablet typically requires you to use a Fastboot command to overwrite your current recovery system. Some people have trouble with the Command Prompt and in turn end up getting a cannot load twrp.img error, or being told there is no such file or directory. But there is a way to fix it.
The reason why someone is getting this specific error has to do with the last part of the Fastboot command. So, for example, a typical command to install a Custom Recovery (TWRP in this case) onto an Android device looks like this: fastboot flash recovery twrp.img. We can break this command down to see what it’s actually doing. . .
Fastboot – this initiates the Fastboot.exe file which is the file doing all of the work
Flash – this tells the Fastboot.exe file we want to install something onto the connected device
Recovery – this tells the Fastboot.exe file that when we install something, we’re installing it onto the recovery partition
TWRP.img – this tells the Fastboot.exe file what we want to install onto the connected device
So what the “cannot load ‘twrp.img’: No such file or directory” error is telling us is what it looked for the twrp.img file in the current directory (which should be where your ADB and Fastboot tools are installed) and couldn’t find it. There are a few ways this can happen but 9 times out of 10 it has to do with the file path of the twrp.img file.
Some people forget to rename the file to twrp.img. Others may forget to put it in the ADB and Fastboot tools folder. They may even have two different installs of ADB and Fastboot tools over the years. There are many reasons but we can eliminate any file path related issues by doing the following.
Time needed: 3 minutes
How to Fix the Fastboot Error No Such File or Directory
- Drag and drop the twrp.img file into the Command Prompt instead of typing out the filename
Watch the video below to show how it’s done.
I received a comment the other day from someone who was receiving this exact error. Again, the only reason why this error would come up is related to the file path of the twrp.img image. There are so many ways this can get mixed up when trying to execute that Fastboot command but the suggestion above should avoid all of that.
It can be a bit difficult to explain over text so you may want to see me do it via the video.
Instead of typing out that twrp.img part of the Fastboot command, we’re going to leave it open-ended right before the file. So instead of the typed out command being fastboot flash recovery twrp.img, we’re just going to type out “fastboot flash recovery “.
You’ll want to make note of the extra space I left after the word “recovery”.
That is very important because we need a space after the word recovery and before the file path of the twrp.img image. If not, we end up with a command that looks like fastboot flash recoveryE:\Images\Xiaomi\Redmi-Note-6-Pro\twrp.img. To the Fastboot.exe file, this command messes up the syntax.
