A Concise Guide to Android Rooting

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We all are familiar with iOS jail breaking procedure, where user tries to modify actual Operating System to get the root access of it. Android rooting, somehow, is the same mechanism where user try to crack the open hood to access the restricted OS root parts like Flash Memory, ROM, pre-installed android apps etc. In layman’s term Android Rooting is cracking the open hood of parts of operating system which were intense ally locked to prevent you from being accessed for avoiding mess things up. In technical term Android Rooting is giving yourself root access to android OS lower level so that you can control the actual behavior of Android OS.

 

Following are some tips for you if you are doing android rooting or android jail breaking first time. These tips may prevent you from doing unhealthy accidents or completely destroying your Android Phone permanently.

 

Android Rooting or Jail breaking security tips

 

Why Rooting Android?

The purpose of rooting your android device is to make the most of the device that you own by getting around the limitations that the manufacturer or carrier has put in place – and again, many of those barriers were put in place to prevent you from accidentally destroying your own device. Following are some examples of what a root user can do –

 

1) Access the flash memory chip, which you need to do if you want to modify the Android OS or replace it with a customized version.

 

2) Make the apps on your phone run faster.

 

3) Remove pre-installed apps to free up space.

 

4) Turn the phone into a 3G/4G WI-Fi hotspot without paying an extra fee.

 

There are many more reasons to root too; the ones listed here probably the most popular.

 

Tips for Android Rooting

1) Be phone specific – This tip comes first for a reason. It’s crucial that you look up information for your phone and not just for Android across the board. Look for tutorials that are specific to the make and model of your phone, as well as any common problems. The rooting process varies by phone, and following the wrong procedure could cause irreparable damage. Just as important, not every rooted phone will be able to do want you might have been hoping it would.

 

2) Read or Watch How to before applying – make sure to read or watch the entire tutorial before you begin, because there are often steps that are crucial that may appear out of order. For example, sometimes you need to disable antivirus software on your computer at a certain step for rooting process to go smoothly.

 

3) Learn how to un-root – Rooting is reversible on most of the phones, again, check whether yours is before you even begin. So before you root, make sure you know how to undo it. Just as it’s important to read the complete instructions before you start rooting, it’s a good idea to figure out how to reverse it before doing anything, because rooting may void your phone’s warranty.

 

4) Power up – never tinker with anything less than a full battery. One of the most devastating things that can go wrong while in root mode is running out of battery midway through installing a custom OS or ROM. If your Android dies before the new system is installed fully, it’s extremely difficult to repair and restore the phone.

 

5) Stay away from extremes – Root users will be enticed to push their phones past its previous limits for maximum performance – a phone that works faster. But remember, that phone makers put limits on your phone for a reason, in this case, to prevent the phone’s processor from overheating and burning out. Root users who know what they’re doing bypass these limits, but should set new limits or other failsafe measures to keep the phone from overheating.

 

6) When in doubt, ask for help – if at any point during rooting or un-rooting you get stuck, search for help because you’re likely to find it, Android root users have been known to hang around a few helpful hacker forums. Such as xda-developers.com and rootzwiki.com, where you can find answers to your questions and solutions to your problems. While these online resources will be invaluable, do bear in mind the other tips outlined in this article. Remember that even the most helpful guy on a forum isn’t necessarily a technical writer, and his tutorial may be out of order or not specify which specific phone model he has in hand, or take for granted some other assumption. With these tips in mind if you are looking for tutorials to walk you through rooting, try Lifehacker’s guide to rooting Android Phones.

 

Warning

If you haven’t picked up on the clues above, rooting is not for everyone and can have serious repercussions. While it’s perfectly legal, it can void your phone’s warranty, if you don’t know what you’re doing or aren’t careful, you could potentially destroy your phone. Rooting also opens up more security risks because you can download apps that have access to files that would normally be hidden from them. So if you are happy with your android phone as it is, there is no reason to root it.  For more information on these dangers, you can check out ExpressVPN’s article on the risks of jailbreaking and rooting.

 

Apps for Root Users

Deciding to root your phone should not be split-second decision. But ultimately it’s your phone, you own it, and you can do what you want. So if you do root your android phone, here are five starter apps you’ll want to download.

 

1) SuperUser – lets you manage super user or root user permissions; this is the first app a newly rooted phone needs on it.

 

2) Root Explorer – Shows you the files you can now access as a root user; this is the second app a newly rooted phone needs on it.

 

3) Titanium Backup Root – backups all your apps, removes bloat ware, and help you manage apps.

 

4) ROM manager – lets you manage and install ROMs from your SD cards, and organize and perform backups and restores.

 

5) AdFree Android – removes most ads from your browser and apps.