Hi,
I wanted to know experiences of people with rooting/jailbreaking their phones.
Rooted my Galaxy S3 3 years ago on the first day it came and its been good since. Absolutely love the control. Recently,I'm getting a Galaxy S7 and thinking of rooting that. Anyone here done that already?
Well rooting is somewhat related to piracy so I guess there's the pirates option.
Getting bikies to root your phone for you is SO hardcore. Its like triple the law breakage, triple the fun!
rooting your phone will prevent your Samsung from being able to use Android Pay or Samsung Pay. Certain banking apps also cannot be run, if they detect traces of root.
http://www.howtogeek.com/241012/safetynet-explained-why-andr…
Just a heads up before you go ahead and root it, because you'll be disabling one of Samsung's key features.
On the plus side you can get rid of touchwiz
Wouldn't using your own launcher avoid this? (Lots of apps on store)
I don't get why people say they will root and room throw phones as soon as they get themto rods of touch wiz but running another launcher foxes the problem without hassles.
Launcher is only going to make things worse (another layer on top of touchwiz), which is fine if all you want is to change the looks.
If touchwiz is slowing the phone down, the only way to fix it is to flash a Rom without touchwiz, or simply buy a non-Samsung.
I don't get why it's so hard to understand, have to repeat again and again and again and again when there's a touchwiz thread.
@clse945111: Maybe because people haven't been following you everywhere and reading all your comments, then forcing themselves to forget everything you just wrote?
Wow that auto correct.
So what I was saying is, why do people go to so much trouble to root and rom a device when simply running a different launcher will change the way your mobile looks and feels.
@clse945111: install a second launcher, go into app manager and delete touch whizzzzzzz simple to do and works.
@Hotkolbas: phew, thought you were having a stroke or something.
Gonna try that second launcher thing though. Does it help get rid of some of that bloatware?
@lolbbq: No it won't get rid of the bloatware (there's an app on the playstore that can do some of it without root though) but it will get rid of the ugly skin.
@lolbbq: newer handsets have bloatware that can be uninstalled except for a spash screen during loading….
I know my s3 had bloatware that could be removed and same for my note 2, my s5 has no bloatware.
A launcher like nova launcher will change the appearance of your UI. It will be highly customisable from the ammount of rows and collums to gestures for a unique interface.
When you install a launcher from the play store and press the home button you will be asked to select which launcher you want to use. Select nova for example and you will have a new look.
Note. No apps will be removed they just need to be set up again if the settings from one launcher can not be moved accross.
thanks scrimshaw… still weighing the pros and cons for the new s7 edge.
combank app work on my rooted s3 though.
Not all banking aps check for this I'm sure, but many do.
Thanks to OZB credit card deals, I've used ANZ, WPAC, Bankwest, Citi, Amex, Ubank, RAMS with no issues on a rooted device. I'm not really fussed about Samsung Pay so will happily root.
More important than rooting is installing ADAWAY (sometimes it works on unrooted devices). It would be a totally different (better) experience. I can't believe most people put up with shitty ads and banners.
I am in the same situation as you.
Give it a few Months at least I say
Custom roms not well developed yet
Warranty issues may come up
There are work arounds to adblocking, and you will break your phones security features, which will be an issue if lost with all your personal data.
Root cloak (xposed) resolves this.
That'd not work with Samsung Pay though (That thing uses KNOX, so it checks KNOX counter). Also as the developer says it, that module does seem to have some limitations.
Good point, it does work with ANZ Mobile Pay and ANZ goMoney on my G4. This (and many other reasons) is why I don't want a Samsung phone!
@OZB Al: I kinda see it as a positive, since it does mean that the approach they take for security is harder to tamper with. Though it kinda made me curious why rooting the device makes some apps to refuse to run, probably security issues/hacks for games I assume (as two types of apps that does check root seem to be finance/banking and games).
@CheapRichGuy: not possible with a bootloader locked Marshmallow, but when you go back to Lollipop it's easy(ish). http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/general/815-taiwan-v10f-t…
As a plus everything actually works as it should in Lollipop and battery life is twice as long.
With the right Xposed module, you can still use banking apps (and most apps that usually wont run with root access). At your own risk of course.
Still no way to use Android Pay with an unlocked bootloader though.
Wear protection.
i giggled at the word root as well.
I was playing doodle jump when my 5 year old cousin asked what i was playing. I told him it was doodle jump and he laughed like crazy. Humans are very corrupt at a young age.. Friggin weak asses
I root and jailbreak every devices I have in the first day I got them.
On the side note I heard there is an app that can make other apps see the mobile as not rooted device. Something like hiding the root status…
There are many aps that do this, but they will have varying levels of success depending on how the banking aps, or others, have been developed.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2574647
Clack root I haven't try.
I just want the official opal card apps to be working! I like the NFC feature…
Root cloak works with opal
It depends on the app finding root, some people claim Hide My root doesn't work for some apps not sure about Opal
Same. I would never use a phone that wasn't only rooted but further levels of customisation such and choping up stock ROMs, installing open source ROMs & things running things like Xposed.
Yeah that's why I stucked with galaxy note series. Samsung for many custom roms, and note series for the spen.
Problem is with Samsung's custom SOCs there is no non Samsung based ROMs :(
Bring back Samsung Qualcomm devices I say! Their hardware is so good but the software is not great, its is better than it used to be though…
I kinda think rooting is not a requirement on recent TouchWiz. Whether you want to do it or not would be up to you but for me, I think recent TW is light enough to not consider rooting + a lot of features that required rooting that I used to use don't really require rooting now.
Besides, you will find it harder to tweak things around compared to S3. I remember Lollipop TW (probably Marshmallow as well, given how it was related to tweaks done on ART Runtime, so I've heard) being finnicky with Xposed + I doubt you will be seeing any stable AOSP based ROM anytime soon.
I have the s7 and TW is ok (light enough) . The phone itself is lighting quick too. Best phone I've had in ages.
I kinda think recent TW is OK (coming from S6). I do have few irks here and there like speed of the animations and few other things, but they are minor ones that I can look past. They are either easy to fix or are not that big issue for me to consider rooting.
I've tried on 2 of my last 3 phones. Worked well on my HTC, got rid of the horrible UI and pre-installed bloatware. Tried it on my Samsung Note 3 and I thought I had bricked it, just went into a reboot loop. MAnaged to save it somehow, but can't remember how, put me off for good.
As mentioned above it can cause issues with banking aps and payment aps, unless you really need to, I wouldn't bother. I found the benefits to be pretty minimal.
When you say you "absolutely love the control" do you mean:
a) I have no idea what jail breaking is or does to my device
b) I have a legitimate need to alter system files / use system binaries that would otherwise be unavailable
c) Everyone else was doing it and some apps that do cool things need it
d) a & c
You forgot option e) my phone is running an ancient version of Android and rooting / installing a ROM is the only way to get the latest software and advanced features of Android.
In any case I just recently rooted my LG G2 because the device never got any OTA updates past Android 4.4.2. It now runs a custom Lollipop ROM which is still outdated..
LG G2 got Lollipop though (not OTA with Australian model but still, it's easy to find them, I believe one of the US models even got Marshmallow?) and I am sure they had Marshmallow CM (earlier this year, I saw them giving out Marshmallow CM updates, so I assume it'd be stable at this point?).
My phone is an international model, the D802. Purchased it from Kogan and it was packaged with some chinese booklets.
It was just my phone. No matter how many times i tapped 'software update' it said that it was already up-to-date.
LG software on the PC also said the same thing, so I just went with an unofficial ROM.
@scrimshaw: I had to manually download the firmware and flash it with with kdz tool or whatever it was called. I can't remember what website I had to go to for the firmware (since new one haven't come out in aeons, I mentioned US variant, but those are so different and I don't think you can flash firmwares those firmwares to other LG G2 models), that said, I think D802 had lollipop firmware for it.
Rooting first of all helps me put in a decent firewall… i use an older version of Avast mobile security which still has the firewall and it works well. Im sure some of you use firewalls, which one have you used, and have you used it on a rooted or unrooted phone and how well did it work?
your opinions and comments will be most appreciated.
So you use an older version of a security application by attackers on a rooted device.
Can't think where that's going wrong.
First thing i do whenever I purchase a new phone is to root it. I do this for multiple reasons:
1. If I want to unlock bootloader/root sometime in the future, it will require backing everything up, rooting, then restoring
2. Adblocker + Adblocker for youtube ads (This is the main reason) + Youtube Background Play
3. Custom Kernel, Greenify and amplify to improve battery life + performance
4. Gravitybox to modify the phone and add additional settings (e.g. holding down status bar to control brightness)
5. Emoji switcher so I can use the iPhone's emoticons. They do not compare one bit to the ones on Android…
6. Titanium Backup (One of the best ways to back up your phone)
Also, I don't really care about Android Pay as I just use the Commbank Tap & Pay if i have to use my phone.
Pretty much the same as me, I'd add xposed, Protect My Privacy (xposed), 3C Toolbox and f.lux.
Apparentally c.lumen is better because f.lux just puts a layer on top of the screen.
Did know about Gravitybox and Emoji Switcher how useful is it really?
Gravitybox is pretty good but it doesn't work for all devices because it requires using an xposed module. I can change the controls of my navigation bar (e.g. what holding back does) and a lot of other tweaks.
Emoji switcher works flawlessly besides not having the latest emoticons. It's great for texting 😃
I tried Emoji switcher it tells me the default emoji is unknown on my LG G4…hmm
What to do?
My last phone i rooted was my note 2.
Ran into massive problems with the newt version of android so o went back to 4.1.2 and all was good again.
Really if it aint broke dont try and fix it because the next thread on here, whirlpool and xda usually start with HELP
I find ASOP roms always have issues on my galaxy s4. I don't bother with them anymore
I rooted a Samsung GS4 a while back and I remember the photos it took from then on didn't have the same vibrancy.
This is a possible explanation. For Sony users that is, but it could apply to Samsung as well.
Unlocking the bootloader of your phone may disable certain post-processing algorithms in your camera app.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/10/rooting-your-xperia-z3-wil…
On the HTC website:
http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader
it also says that some devices will have missing features once the bootloader is unlocked. This is to prevent people from ripping out their proprietary code and reverse-engineering / plagiarising it.
That is quite interesting, another reason to stay on stock if possible
Not a reason at all. The algorithms you lose are just part of the software in the SONY photo-taking app for taking photos under extreme low-light conditions. Just use a different app to take photos with the camera instead and the post-processing is back again. There's basically no noticeable difference. I mean, it's only a phone camera we are talking about here anyway, this isn't proper DSLR standards of photo quality or anything.
I have never been happy with the quality of photos on the GS4, I struggle to get a shot in focus.
I do highly recommend the superwiz cyan rom. Touchwiz based so there are little bugs. I recently got a score of over 40000 on antutu vs the stock score of 28000.
I root for Adaway and a few other apps that require.
It is stupid to root your phone "for the hell of it" since it greatly lowers the barriers to attackers owning your device.
Ive tried googling and finding solid information but why is rooting so popular for your android phone?
I've jail broken iphones before and basically, get some apps for free, get some stupid apps that are not available on app store and make your phone extremely slow. Is rooting an android phone similar?
Ive tried googling and finding solid information but why is rooting so popular for your android phone?
Take a look at the role of users, roles and permissions. These allow a structured defence against malicious parties.
and to a lesser extent but a natural extension RBAC
Basically any system file or binary (application) that has the capability to usurp control from the intended operator will be considered owned by the Administrator (root in the case of *nix based OS). Your phone, by default, disallows you from accessing/executing/altering these files as they can compromise the security of your system. Your account on your device only allows access to user level binaries, files and their locations.
Jailbreaking / Rooting your device will give you Administrative/root access but as a consequence … anyone pretending to be you also.
^ in a nutshell.
Practical example: In *nix based OS (including iOS) there is a binary responsible for deleting files named rm. Now we note that these operating systems don't have a C:\ but instead an equivalent named /. So we know C:\ == / for the purposes of this example. Generally C:\ contains the Windows directory. / contains the equivalent for your device. If your phone isn't rooted and you download a dodgy app that promises to do foo but instead calls rm -r / (remove files recursively … start at / and go through each and every folder and file) it will fail. The binary executed with user level permissions isn't allowed to alter these system files. It will return something along the lines of insufficient privilege. If your device is rooted it will delete every file and folder and you're sh!t outta luck.
thanks for taking the time to respond! it helped me.
It is not the same as jailbreak on iPhone.
If you want to install pirate apk apps, you can already do that on Android out of the box.
Root is required for apps which can completely control the device. There are many uses, and allows features not available on a unrooted Android or iPhone
Eg
Block ads at the hosts file level using adaway. Ads will be blocked in every app on the phone.
Take a complete backup of apps with Titanium Backup - including the exact version and all the current settings.
If an update comes out which you don't like, you can load the previous version.
Complete control of what your apps have access to with Xprivacy.
If you want to block access to your phone number and address book by the Facebook app, it may refuse to run. Xprivacy allows you to send a fake or blank data to still allow you to use the app.
You can fake your gps location to a place of your choice in any specific app.
Anything a computer can do, it is possible to do on a phone
thank you for the info! i understand now.
Rooting will likely void the warranty.
"The only phone which you can root without voiding it's warranty is the Oneplus One. Unless there's hardware damage, it's all good. Yes, you can always unroot your phone. But Samsung has a security feature called knox, which gets tripped right after you mess up with the phone."
"Unlocking the bootloader will show your warranty as void. However, if an unrelated physical material failure should occur, such as a bad volume rocker or a failed speaker, it will be covered if the phone shows no signs of physical abuse."
You should add a poll here… to root or not to root?
I hear this all the time, but I've never heard of anyone having warranty issues from modifying the bootloader.
I've had to have phones repaired both with operators and manufacturers, and I've never had any issues with a modified/unlock bootloader.
This was also in the days where you had to actually 'hack' the device - now many phone's bootloaders can be unlocked with support from the manufacturer.
As a power user, I always wanted to root an Android phone. This was because of some features I couldn't find in either the Android operating system or the applications like AdAway or Xposed etc. Also custom roms aren't possible without rooting/unlocking your phone. But over time, I have only mostly needed root for blocking ads.
There are solutions out there to get rid of ads on a non rooted phone now, so I'll probably not root new phones until they get outdated. If you're a developer, then that's another story.
I root because of essential apps needing it. Titanium backup, Adaway, firewall, G4 tweaks and even the modification to get apps to write directly to sdcard requires root. There's just no way to backup apps and restore offline in a batch and allow you to disable bundled bloatware or uninstall then
None of these functionality came with stock.
IMO my G4 with root beats S7 with knox anyday and half the price too.
I haven't even mention Tasker, which is awesome along with Greenify and Xposed modules for youtube etc
I'm a power user since HTC desire days been rooting since 2009. Before that was jailbreaking iPhones until I got sick of it moved to Android for the better.
If you can unlock the bootloader the best thing is you can use nandroid to image your phone on sdcard means you can restore to exact state.
There are solutions to block ads without root however it requires you to connect to a proxy etc and let the app filter your traffic.
There was a situation before when Vodafone sent a phone to my sis which was Sim locked but they couldn't help her unlock on contract. I end up rooting the phone use some hacks and turn off Sim locking permanently and happy as ever to use overseas.
Also there was a sudden death issue on Samsung Galaxy S3 which eventually I installed custom rom and fix the issue which was out of the 2 year warranty period.
So many advantages of rooting as you see.
I used to root all my phones asap after buying, but I've stopped since S6 due to the samsung knox counter.
I would still like to root but losing samsung pay (forever) and OTA is not worth it at this stage.
I miss the old days when we didnt have knox counter.
that's why I don't buy Samsung. Stuff Knox and its counters
True but I'm still loyal, I think they produce the best phones build and feature wise.
Rooted phone once but I never really felt the need to utilize the apps that came with it. A phones a phone to me, there's no must-have rooting feature that I need.
I'd say that rooting is best when buying budget phones from Asia. The ones with high spec value for the money, but have horrible UI's due to all this ridiculous bloatware. I honestly don't trust using mobile pay or even bank apps from a network that isn't my own (prefer to use it on a computer browser on my own network).
Short Answer: I used to root but now I feel it's no longer worth it.
I've had Nexus 4, now own Nexus 5x and I've also had an iPad 1 and still occasionally use an LG Gpad (like an iPad for Android). From what I've read, of the android devices, the Nexus's were the easiest to root (see Nexus Root Toolkit). I'm very pro Nexus for their pure Android experience. I don't like bloat.
Overtime, Android's updates have included features that were previously only possible through root only apps.
eg. Quick Settings are now available stock from the notification bar.
Around the same time that they did this, they blocked 3rd party apps from being able to turn on and off the high accuracy mode of GPS. So you still may have reason to root if you want say a Profile Scheduler to manage your GPS, or a custom widget to manage your GPS.
They also blocked 3rd party apps from manipulating the mobile data toggle. So rooting is an option to fix this.
So you may still have personal bug bears that motivate you to root and unlock options that solve those, but overall, the OS updates may start to introduce features that outweigh your desire to root.
In android 5.0, Block updates making updating a rooted device a longer process. You'd have to unroot, update, re-root.
This was the main killer for me. I did it for a while on the Nexus 4 but by the time I got the Nexus 5x, I just couldn't be bothered.
I recall, when I still used my Nexus 4, android transitioned from the Dalvik Runtime to the ART runtime. I was enjoying the features of the Xposed module (requires root) at the time. But when the Android update switched to ART runtime, Xposed was no longer compatible. It probably has been updated since. But I had to do without the luxury I had become accustomed to with Xposed.
The point is, there is a lag time where root app developers need to play catchup and you're left wanting. So even though I could still iron out some annoyances by rooting my 5x, I could be left waiting again as OS's change significantly, and developers play catchup.
The plus side of having a nexus is that you will get the OS updates first. This is good for security and new features. If you do have a device that tends to receive Android updates much much later if at all, I guess you'll benefit from the slow roll out and it wont disable root features as fast.
I jailbroke the iPad to provide much more customisation options and conveniences but this was so long ago, I think it's hardly relevant anymore and not worth going into detail. Suffice to say, at the time, it was easy and opened up alternative app stores.
Very comprehensive reply. I agree that jailbreaking the iPad gives more freedom on customization, but that also makes upgrading to a newer iOS a painful process (backup files, and whether there is new jailbreak available). However, since the new iOS release has a built in f.lux mode, I have stopped jailbreaking my iPad.
I have rooted phones based on mass hysteria at times. At the end of the day you need to decide what you want to get out of it. I have rooted samsung phones that have knocked over the Knox counter and then you go Oh Sh.t! what Have i done, i am not even going to install 3 applications that are worth the root and void my warranty.
have a clear plan of what you plan to do after a root and have no regrets that you have voided your warranty and scrambling on the net on forums trying to unroot the root ;-)
I've been rooting all my phones (and my wife's) since my first android phone (HTC desire). Every phone I've had since then I've rooted. However, every phone I've rooted I knew I could restore back if I had to for warranty purposes. The only phone I've had where there wasn't a way to reset the root counter was the Note 2 when one of the software updates upgarded it to knox security. But by this stage my phone was out of warranty anyway.
However I'm finding I rely on root apps or other hacks less and less now and probably don't require root. Pretty much the only app I use now that requires root is titanium backup. But because I've always been doing it, if there is root method available on a phone, I will do it just for the sake of it. However, if I just bought a brand spanking new s7 edge, i probably wouldn't. Most the phones I buy are sub $500, and are more "root friendly".
One thing that also is annoying about having a rooted phone, is you need to be kept up to date in the forums. Whenever there is a software update (if you stay on stock firmware), you need to research how this will effect your root, or how to install the update, because usually OTA updates dont play nicely with a rooted phone.
I personally don't root my main mobile device as I don't really need to use the root features.
I've rooted all my tablets and ipod. Mainly for to run tinbckup, access to app data, and access to the devices memory address is also useful. Fake gps locations is handy.
No longer using xposed seems to make my devices more unstable under certain circumstances which required a recovery boot, wipe of caches and rom reinstall to fix.
No bikies option?