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I know all of this has been covered but when searching all the threads I found were from last year at some point so I figured I would see if there was any new news that I just wasn't finding with my search terms. I apologize in advance if I put this thread in the wrong place or didn't follow the forum format in some way.
Basically, is the Verizon version of the Xperia Play, R800x with 2.3.3 still locked and there is no way to root this phone now? Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought the Supreme Court or something had ruled that we were legally able to do what we wanted with devices we owned? Does that not apply here or am I crazy? Let me guess, I inadvertently signed all my rights away by clicking something that automatically means I agree with whatever restrictions they wish to put on me, am I getting warm? Lol.
I knew I should have done this earlier but I honestly wanted to give my phone a good run stock before tinkering with it. Now that I am having to delete just about every app I have downloaded on my phone, including games I paid good money for, just so I don't get continuous memory warnings mostly due to updates for the preinstalled software that I never use that Verizon saw fit to saddle me with, I decided to look into rooting it only to find that this is no longer an option. Honestly, I am fed up with this phone, Verizon, the whole nine yards. Excuse me while I rant a bit but I wish I have never upgraded to a "smart" phone and I am seriously considering dropping back to a normal plan without all the data and use my old, reliable Samsung Flipshot. It was a phone and a camera and it did both very well. My Play is supposed to do all sorts of things but it does nothing well and even when I am inclined to surf the 'Net or play a typical game or even txt I am constantly bombarded with the popup that the app has stopped responding and do I want to Wait or Force Close. It honestly smacks of the Windows 95 and 98 days when nothing seemed to work right and the BSOD was a common, everyday thing. Ok, rant over, I apologize.
Seriously though, is there anything I can do to stop the slow, inevitable death of my phone? I have uninstalled the largest of the updates for most of the programs I don't use like the Kindle app, some sort of "office" app and a few other updates that were over the 10mb mark but is this a viable solution? Are these apps just going to update again later or harass me with notifications to update? What the hell happened to the 250mb of extra space I had before and why can't I get it back by deleting the apps I downloaded myself? When my phone was new I had all kinds of room to do stuff and had many apps installed that I rarely used but were very handy when I needed them, now I find that I have to delete anything non-essential just to get my phone to operate on a somewhat normal level. Is there anything I can do to fight this and get back enough memory to make my phone fun and somewhat useful again? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I guess I am just very disappointed with my first foray into the "smartphone" world. I honestly feel they are pushing the technology too far to fast since it seems almost like your phone is only something cool when it's new sitting on a shelf, then when you get it home and use it, it turns to crap in you hand. I suppose I am just angry over the whole situation and I feel sort of cheated. Maybe I misunderstood something somewhere but I thought these cool little gadgets were supposed to make life better and actually be useful. Then again, maybe I am just getting old.
So is there any hope or am I stuck with this for the time being or as long as I am stuck with Verizon in my rather remote area?
Read my sticky thread on "R800x Users: You've got Custom ROM questions? I've got answers." It still applies, at least until May 1st when you get an update.
In short: you can root your phone. There is something else called a bootloader that remains locked that controls whether you can use certain custom ROMs and kernels. There is a paid way to unlock it which gives you more access. There are quite a few custom ROMs you can use with a locked bootloader that will improve your phone's performance, and even more if you unlock the bootloader.
About the locked bootloader thing, Verizon can do that because they subsidize the cost of the phone in your contract. So, technically, they "own" the phone for the contract period and can dictate what you can do to said hardware.
You need to do a bit more digging. You can do a LOT more than stock.
Sent from my R800x using xda premium
Thanks for the info. I skimmed through the thread but I wondered if it still applied, good to know that it does so I'll go back and read it in detail. I guess I understand the Verizon thing. This is the real cost of buying my phone for a penny off Amazon, lol. Again, thanks for the info and I will definitely check out the info on rooting my phone, even if it's not totally unlocked. As long as I can get rid of most of the bloatware, I will be satisfied with that. Not really looking to make my phone do anything more than it does now, but improving it's performance and storage is definitely my motivation so hopefully something along those lines is still possible. Thanks again!
netizenmt said:
About the locked bootloader thing, Verizon can do that because they subsidize the cost of the phone in your contract. So, technically, they "own" the phone for the contract period and can dictate what you can do to said hardware.
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Well, I paid the unsubsidized price for my Play (~$500 if I recall) so I wouldn't have to sign a contract, and they still won't let me unlock it, not that that stopped me...
Mogul345 said:
Well, I paid the unsubsidized price for my Play (~$500 if I recall) so I wouldn't have to sign a contract, and they still won't let me unlock it, not that that stopped me...
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Technically you pay for the device but Sony holds the rights to what is contained within. You don't own EVERYTHING in the phone. Just the right to use it. Sure its in the Terms and Conditions
Sent from my R800i using xda premium
Well even with Verizon's meddling I was able to root my phone even without unlocking the boot loader. I got Titanium Backup installed and was able to remove a lot of the bloatware on my phone and free up a lot of memory. I wasn't able to delete all that I wanted but I was able to get back about 100mb of phone memory with just the things I did delete and that is good enough for me. The phone is acting normal so I guess I did everything right and didn't do any damage and I got the space I needed so I am pleased. Maybe down the road I will want to do more to the phone and workarounds will exist then but for now I am happy with what I have achieved.
Thanks again to Netizenmt and all the people who posted the information listed in your sticky. It was a great help once I calmed down, dug below the surface and did some more research.
Just as a preface, wasn't sure if this should go in this section or the general section, but figured since this was Q&A I'd pick here. Anyways, I just got my HTC One today and am coming from Samsung Galaxy S3 (droid 3 and OG before that) and had them all rooted with custom roms, but have been reading about the process to unlock/root/s-off this device. I downloaded rumrunner and tried to run the program once already and got a "........f******" error and it closed without working, but that's not what I'm making the thread for. I'm really terrified of messing up the phone because I'm broke and can't afford to pay the insurance deductible if I break it and have to claim it was stolen. All of this back story to ask the question of: Is this one of those phones that NEEDS to be rooted to be worth using or can I expect acceptable battery life, speed, & use by simply disabling as much bloatware as possible and keeping the phone stock? Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it!
Coste5a9 said:
Just as a preface, wasn't sure if this should go in this section or the general section, but figured since this was Q&A I'd pick here. Anyways, I just got my HTC One today and am coming from Samsung Galaxy S3 (droid 3 and OG before that) and had them all rooted with custom roms, but have been reading about the process to unlock/root/s-off this device. I downloaded rumrunner and tried to run the program once already and got a "........f******" error and it closed without working, but that's not what I'm making the thread for. I'm really terrified of messing up the phone because I'm broke and can't afford to pay the insurance deductible if I break it and have to claim it was stolen. All of this back story to ask the question of: Is this one of those phones that NEEDS to be rooted to be worth using or can I expect acceptable battery life, speed, & use by simply disabling as much bloatware as possible and keeping the phone stock? Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it!
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Honestly, based on what you wrote I'd say just disable the apps you don't want showing up and call it good. The Sense based ROMs are actually quite nice and HTC has been good about timely updates. Turning things off like Facebook notifications, weather updates, location service, and Google Now if you don't need it will all help. Enjoy your new phone.
I agree with mmuzy. I got my One right after they blocked HTCDev on this phone and the phone it worked perfect with out root. Speed was good, battery life was ok considering the size of the battery. My only reason for being hell bent on rooting this phone was ads on YouTube lol Pretty sure you already know this but disabling the animations in the developer settings speeds up the phone just a tad as well.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk
Coste5a9 said:
Just as a preface, wasn't sure if this should go in this section or the general section, but figured since this was Q&A I'd pick here. Anyways, I just got my HTC One today and am coming from Samsung Galaxy S3 (droid 3 and OG before that) and had them all rooted with custom roms, but have been reading about the process to unlock/root/s-off this device. I downloaded rumrunner and tried to run the program once already and got a "........f******" error and it closed without working, but that's not what I'm making the thread for. I'm really terrified of messing up the phone because I'm broke and can't afford to pay the insurance deductible if I break it and have to claim it was stolen. All of this back story to ask the question of: Is this one of those phones that NEEDS to be rooted to be worth using or can I expect acceptable battery life, speed, & use by simply disabling as much bloatware as possible and keeping the phone stock? Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it!
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First things first, with the latest 4.3 update rumrunner doesn't work so even if you wanted to root and s-off it wouldn't be possible yet. Second, unlike Samsung devices, this thing is buttery smooth with or without the bloat so honestly your experience will still be excellent either way. I had an S4 before this phone that was rooted, all bloat removed, ad blocking, greenify, etc and I can tell you right now that right out of the box the HTC One was STILL way smoother than the S4 with NOTHING done to it. I'm running BoneStock at the moment which is basically just a stock rom, so I think HTC did an excellent job with Sense 5 on this phone.
I'm not going to try to sway you one way or another, just sharing my story. I've had the VZW HTC One since launch (Aug 22nd) and never saw a need to root or unlock it out the box. Everything was running great, the phone was smooth.
Suddenly, the 4.3 update arrived and my previously (close to) perfect phone has been plagued by issues. Multiple FCs from core and basic apps, piss poor data connectivity, and worst of all, terrible battery. Since accepting the update, my phone radio has been sucking roughly 45-60% battery at all time. Now I'm growing desperate for a way to unlock my device and control it. I went from around 14-16 hours of medium to heavy usage to barely getting 8 hours from light use. Once again, this is only my story, but, I know that having more control over my device will give me the ability to change my radio and fix my issues. So I vote yay to unlock/root.
LightAeterna said:
I'm not going to try to sway you one way or another, just sharing my story. I've had the VZW HTC One since launch (Aug 22nd) and never saw a need to root or unlock it out the box. Everything was running great, the phone was smooth.
Suddenly, the 4.3 update arrived and my previously (close to) perfect phone has been plagued by issues. Multiple FCs from core and basic apps, piss poor data connectivity, and worst of all, terrible battery. Since accepting the update, my phone radio has been sucking roughly 45-60% battery at all time. Now I'm growing desperate for a way to unlock my device and control it. I went from around 14-16 hours of medium to heavy usage to barely getting 8 hours from light use. Once again, this is only my story, but, I know that having more control over my device will give me the ability to change my radio and fix my issues. So I vote yay to unlock/root.
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Try a factory reset. I was running the 4.3 OTA rom for a few days and I didn't experience any of the issues you just mentioned. I'm now on 4.3 BoneStock with zero issues as well.
Crawshayi said:
Try a factory reset. I was running the 4.3 OTA rom for a few days and I didn't experience any of the issues you just mentioned. I'm now on 4.3 BoneStock with zero issues as well.
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I agree with this. OTAs are nice in that we don't lose all our apps and settings but they're kind of like dirty flashing a custom ROM. If you have a gremlin infestation with the OTA then I'd start with a factory reset and see if things run better when you clean install your apps.
Well, after a few days of time to test after the full wipe and manual restore I'm still experiencing terrible battery life. As I stated before, it was mainly phone radio taking the brunt of the battery, and that still seems to be the case. On the positive side of things, I do have twice the free space available now.
Just a friendly reminder that there aren't many of us smart enough to figure out how to root this beast. If we throw a bunch of cash at them that might motivate them to work even harder. Plus, it's totally worth it! What's $50? Too much? Fine, give $5. Whatever you can afford! I bet if we got that pot up to 100k it would get solved pretty darned quick. Let's do it! Don't be a cheapskate!
Thanks for reading. I promise not to tell you what to do other than this one time. Ha!
I agree man
Just sucks so sad that ATT screwing us like this, while T-Mobile gets all the root Recovery love they want, and even Sprint is better, and dare I say Verizon not as bad as ATT is lately
I remember just two years ago, the ATT Note 2 had root and Recovery immediately after release, and the ATT XDA Note 2 forums were jammed packed with ROM's and kernels. Why did ATT make such a drastic change to lock it down so hard now ? Where as T-Mobile allows it to be unlocked with ease ?
ATT allows HTC to still be unlocked, you can buy the ATT One M8 and root it and install custom Recovery out of the box with ease. But no way is that possible with the ATT S5 or Note 4, but why ATT ?
tfpHumorBlog said:
Just a friendly reminder that there aren't many of us smart enough to figure out how to root this beast. If we throw a bunch of cash at them that might motivate them to work even harder. Plus, it's totally worth it! What's $50? Too much? Fine, give $5. Whatever you can afford! I bet if we got that pot up to 100k it would get solved pretty darned quick. Let's do it! Don't be a cheapskate!
Thanks for reading. I promise not to tell you what to do other than this one time. Ha!
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Just thinking out loud...but at this time shouldn't you all wait for Lollipop to be released on this beast? Word is that it has more security and will be even tougher to root. So say someone roots KitKat..claims the Bounty, then Lollipop comes along and kills root again and those buying new phones with Lollipop preinstalled would be SOL. JM2C...but I also know it takes time to build up pledges.
Umm.. iiif we gain root I'm sure people would be smart enough not to upgrade to Lollipop but wait for a dev to make a Lollipop ROM.
Android300ZX said:
Umm.. iiif we gain root I'm sure people would be smart enough not to upgrade to Lollipop but wait for a dev to make a Lollipop ROM.
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That won't help people buying phones after the update with Lollipop preinstalled though. They will be stuck without root and have to start another bounty...just thinking out loud. And you would be surprised how many just hit that "update" button while rooted and get stuck in a boot loop.
Assuming root is achieved and someone bought a new note4 it came w 5.0.. couldnt one of those just take the official NIE firmware and flash it via odin.. then they could root and install a 5.0 custom rom?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app
xlr8shun said:
Assuming root is achieved and someone bought a new note4 it came w 5.0.. couldnt one of those just take the official NIE firmware and flash it via odin.. then they could root and install a 5.0 custom rom?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app
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In theory..however Samsung has been matching bootloaders, basebands and OS release. So as seen on other models not having the 5.0 bootloader and baseband will cause the 5.0 ROM to be stuck in a boot loop. So it may be some time before developers crack that. Even an unlocked rootable phone like the Sprint S3 required you to Odin 4.4 before running any stock 4.4 ROMs...the wrong baseband there caused a hard brick. So it is not as simple as it sounds.
Zorachus said:
I agree man
Just sucks so sad that ATT screwing us like this, while T-Mobile gets all the root Recovery love they want, and even Sprint is better, and dare I say Verizon not as bad as ATT is lately
I remember just two years ago, the ATT Note 2 had root and Recovery immediately after release, and the ATT XDA Note 2 forums were jammed packed with ROM's and kernels. Why did ATT make such a drastic change to lock it down so hard now ? Where as T-Mobile allows it to be unlocked with ease ?
ATT allows HTC to still be unlocked, you can buy the ATT One M8 and root it and install custom Recovery out of the box with ease. But no way is that possible with the ATT S5 or Note 4, but why ATT ?
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Probably has everything to do with Gov't contracts... Samsung has been singing the praises of it's KNOX system to businesses and the Gov't, to to truly make KNOX effective, it needs to be locked so that you can't disable or remove it. This way if one of their phones gets lost or stolen (and they are using the enterprise security packages) it is even more difficult to get to the data.
Why not allow the folks who want them locked and secure buy special ones so the rest of us can have free and open devices you ask? Because it costs more (time as well as money) to divide up your inventory that way. you'd have to forecast how many of the secured phones you will need and order them that way. But what if that big gov't contract falls through? you are now sitting on potentially thousands of phones that your general users won't want given that they can choose to get the unlocked version. OEM won't simply take them back, unless you pay some sort of restock fee. You could re-flash them yourself with the unlocked ROM, but now you are talking about manually unboxing, flashing and then re-sealing thousands of phones. (Not optimal,)
In the end, you're better off buying an unlocked device up front as opposed to hoping that someone can crack the bootloader later on after the release. It's obviously getting harder and harder for even the truly talented DEVs to crack these bootloaders. I honestly doubt that root will be achieved on this thing prior to Lollipop beginning it rollout. There is a build for it being tested right now with very few issues remaining.
Clock is ticking.... Me? I personally could care less for root at this point. I get un-Godly battery life and performance as it is based upon my usage. Not a popular view with many in this forum, I know. I used to long for root and flash ROMs like crazy myself. It was almost like an addiction.
Hey guys, is rooting really worth it on this phone. I mean just look at all the threads of this issue and that issue after somebody roots. I mean for me the phone is awesome as it is with exception to it's poor SPARK speeds. But that can't be fixed by rooting. I have yet to see any real gain posted by anyone other than removal of Sprint bloatware which is much less than any other carrier. So really is the gain worth the hardship and potential issues this phone seems to have after rooting?
All I see is this phone has X issue and then next line is always the same I rooted or I installed Y ROM. It seems to me that Samsung has done something to make this phone unreliable/unstable once the Factory integrity has been compromised either through rooting or ROM replacement. I did root mine using CF auto root before seeing all these issue posted. I can say now after rooting that I as well am seeing little bugs with touch screen response, as well as other little bugs it did not have before rooting. So this just strengthens my hunch about Samsung somehow making this device less stable once it is compromised.
I don't think I am going to fool with it any further. I don't want to become one of the many help I rooted and my phone won't boot post popping up around here lately.
You dont have to install ROMs to better your device, you can root stock odexed and it will be fine.
It unlocks more capabilities the phone cant do when its pure stock, such as Freezing wake locking apps that drain battery, or enabling etc mods that make the device better under certain circumstances.
You will run into issues whether rooted or not.
Is it worth it? Depends on user opinions. Does it have more problems than usual, Sure from time to time.
The peoples reviews of custom roms are there for a reason. There are things that are fixable and others that cant be fixed or modified upon.
Its more about exploring the full capabilities your device can do when it is rooted.
How far this device has come is massively huge because of the help brought from the community and devs.
You will typically find best performance and reliability with stock android with very few modifications. I use to flash a lot of roms/kernels on my Epic 4G and 4G touch and wouldn't call either of them reliable. I stay with mostly stock roms with my GS4, just Knox removed and everything is real stable.
Solarenemy68 said:
Hey guys, is rooting really worth it on this phone. I mean just look at all the threads of this issue and that issue after somebody roots. I mean for me the phone is awesome as it is with exception to it's poor SPARK speeds. But that can't be fixed by rooting. I have yet to see any real gain posted by anyone other than removal of Sprint bloatware which is much less than any other carrier. So really is the gain worth the hardship and potential issues this phone seems to have after rooting?
All I see is this phone has X issue and then next line is always the same I rooted or I installed Y ROM. It seems to me that Samsung has done something to make this phone unreliable/unstable once the Factory integrity has been compromised either through rooting or ROM replacement. I did root mine using CF auto root before seeing all these issue posted. I can say now after rooting that I as well am seeing little bugs with touch screen response, as well as other little bugs it did not have before rooting. So this just strengthens my hunch about Samsung somehow making this device less stable once it is compromised.
I don't think I am going to fool with it any further. I don't want to become one of the many help I rooted and my phone won't boot post popping up around here lately.
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I have both rooted and unrooted, stock roms and custom roms on a few devices at home. Does JUST ROOTING cause any additional problems? No. Its essentially like installing any other apk. Where majority of the bugs and problems come in is user error and custom roms. Don't get those confused as they typically are. Most "I rooted any my phone isn't booting" posts are from people that do things improperly. Or sometimes things just don't stick and you have to try again. CF Autoroot didn't work the very first time I flashed it on my wifes device (last night) after I had used it more times than I can count on my own since 1 week after device launch. I flashed it again, worked great. She didn't like stock, so I flashed my own custom rom on her device.
Custom Roms come with their own bugs if they aren't just simply stripped stock. Want less chances of bugs? Use the completely debloated and no-knoxed ones. They just make things simple by removing both carrier bloat and added items (can also be buggy themselves). Also keep in mind that the software shipped isn't always bug free . We saw some big changes to the actual code from NIE to NK2, we aren't 100% sure why they changed things in some places but I'm not an expert there at all. Ever wonder why Tmobile or verizon may have a feature thats actually turn off or locked on our device? It could be buggy for a specific carrier and the carrier just decided they wouldn't include it for their customers.
Samsung perposely sabatoging our devices because they are rooted...... eh they did have nexus devices at one point in time. So I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say this isn't the case. You may have just experienced bad results. I don't go a device without rooting, if not only to remove carrier bloat. MY last 3 devices I did not even let sprint reps boot before I took it home and rooted (literal first boot is rooted stock) I have been to the sprint techs LESS than when I had stock devices. This also allows certain users to fix their own problems themselves, and not leave device issues in the hands of carrier techs who by default will generally do a software reset and send you out the door.
Pros vs cons of rooting? Completely down to each specific user.
Yes rooting is absolutely worth it. For hotspot tethering, and Xposed. But you do need to add a fix to Xposed if you do decide to install it on this device.
Sent from my SM-N910P using XDA Free mobile app
beezar said:
Yes rooting is absolutely worth it. For hotspot tethering, and Xposed. But you do need to add a fix to Xposed if you do decide to install it on this device.
Sent from my SM-N910P using XDA Free mobile app
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If you have hotspot tethering included in your plan like I do why would you need to root to have it? Unless you are trying to get it for free?
Solarenemy68 said:
If you have hotspot tethering included in your plan like I do why would you need to root to have it? Unless you are trying to get it for free?
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reguardless if you pay for it or not, it limits the amount of devices you can connect/tether to. Who's to say I only want to tether 4-5 devices? What If I'm traveling and have 6 devices?
If you don't like rooting, this certainly isn't the place to try and shun it. If you are looking to be convinced to root again? Still the wrong place. You root because you want to, or you want to do something that you can't without root. Plain and simple. Rooting is essentially controlling your own device while you OWN IT. Not owning a device someone else has complete control over.
millerboy3 said:
reguardless if you pay for it or not, it limits the amount of devices you can connect/tether to. Who's to say I only want to tether 4-5 devices? What If I'm traveling and have 6 devices?
If you don't like rooting, this certainly isn't the place to try and shun it. If you are looking to be convinced to root again? Still the wrong place. You root because you want to, or you want to do something that you can't without root. Plain and simple. Rooting is essentially controlling your own device while you OWN IT. Not owning a device someone else has complete control over.
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I root everything I own that can be rooted. My question has about the N4 as it seems like I said it has more issues after a root then it did before and that seems fishy. The way Sprint and Samsung are handling the poor data speeds is already a screw job when they are both aware it is a real problem. Add to that the more mods you do to the phone the more unstable it gets that just seems shady. I was not asking to root or not to root so much as I was asking is THIS device worth the trouble?
Solarenemy68 said:
I root everything I own that can be rooted. My question has about the N4 as it seems like I said it has more issues after a root then it did before and that seems fishy. The way Sprint and Samsung are handling the poor data speeds is already a screw job when they are both aware it is a real problem. Add to that the more mods you do to the phone the more unstable it gets that just seems shady. I was not asking to root or not to root so much as I was asking is THIS device worth the trouble?
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Seems you aren't running the right rom. I haven't had any major instabilities.
It's not the rooting that causes the problems, its what they do after they root.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
Solarenemy68 said:
I root everything I own that can be rooted. My question has about the N4 as it seems like I said it has more issues after a root then it did before and that seems fishy. The way Sprint and Samsung are handling the poor data speeds is already a screw job when they are both aware it is a real problem. Add to that the more mods you do to the phone the more unstable it gets that just seems shady. I was not asking to root or not to root so much as I was asking is THIS device worth the trouble?
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As we all have said before, its user opinionated and what they do regarding with root in general.
I go with rooting because of extra battery saving features such as Greenify + Xposed, Underclocking GPU and CPU. To top that off, force lower dpi resolution and tablet mode on specific apps to see more on the screen. Modifying files such as build.prop and user key controls for enhanced performance, and like everyone, changing Sounds and boot anims, moving apps from user to system to help with stability etc.
If its unstable doing certain things well thats the bummer downside to the Apps or devices capabilities. But as long as you can get more out of the device ( which you can! ) with all the freedom of not being locked to user specific controls. It makes it better!
Thats how i feel.
I mean you can root the device and just install twrp and just keep it like that just until something catches your eye. I personally say if you rooted your previous devices. You should root the note 4. I am rooted and I am just plain stock cause I almost bricked my device. So I am going to wait until 5.0 gets to our phones before I flash anymore roms but until then I'm going to be completely stock.
Root your phone immediately.
Root your phone immediately. My god, what are you thinking going around unrooted?
Oh, you want details?
Open the hidden stuff if you want details.
Just kidding. I too suffered from doubts and waited several months before popping my phones warranty cherry.
Root is nice, even on the Note 4. But:
If you don't need root for anything special and you are perfectly happy with stock without root, DON'T ROOT!
If you need superuser authority (titanium backup?), if you want to disable Exchange Security so you can have work email but still use the fingerprint scanner, or you just like having better/different looks than stock in some way not achievable without root, ROOT.
That advice is general and applies to all phones. If you don't need/want it, why ask?
I can vouch that rooting the Note 4, installing custom Recovery and operating the custom ROMs is the similar to any other Samsung phone of recent vintage both in manner and difficultly (e.g. S3, S4, S5). (not the same though so do your research)
I have nothing against any ROM but, from personal experience, the ROMs from Pongoface and co work extremely well and look really nice. Make sure to wipe data and let them have 10 minutes or so to settle after first boot.
Those are:
[PORT] BoBCaTROM
and
[Port] Sprint Xnote (The time to settle was important on this one for me. Else, I got forced closes, not sure
Everything is stable on my phone after rooting and a LOT of Xposed mods. It just makes my phone much better.
If you have rooted all your other phones, then really why are you asking this question? You already know the benefits and risks of rooting so there is no need for us to tell you what to do.
Sent from my SM-N910P using XDA Free mobile app
Solarenemy68 said:
I root everything I own that can be rooted. My question has about the N4 as it seems like I said it has more issues after a root then it did before and that seems fishy. The way Sprint and Samsung are handling the poor data speeds is already a screw job when they are both aware it is a real problem. Add to that the more mods you do to the phone the more unstable it gets that just seems shady. I was not asking to root or not to root so much as I was asking is THIS device worth the trouble?
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False. False. False. What's shady is the lack of knowledge on behalf of a user which these issues are caused by. There is no "shady" business going on that would cause instability issues upon rooting your device. Instead of a carrier or Samsung playing shenanigans with it's customers by introducing bugs and instability issues if a user roots their device, it would be more logical for Sprint and Samsung to simply lock down the bootloader and take measures to prevent root in the first place... such as all the Verizon and AT&T customers who are still crying about not having root. If you want to believe otherwise that's up to you.
As already mentioned by millerboy3, rooting doesn't cause the instability issues you or anybody else might be having. The more mods you do the more unstable the rom??? That's just plain and simple ignorance my friend. Yes it could be true that a rom might be "buggy" but if a rom is well planned and time taken to ensure everything is right, then there will not be stability issues. There are roms out there with tons of mods that are 10 times more stable and faster than the stock rom. I happen to have a rom that fits that criteria along with a few other people. With that said, I do agree with you on the fact that the Note 4 is perfectly awesome straight out of the box without the need to root it. This is the first phone I've owned that I really don't feel the need to change anything because everything works great stock. There are a few mods that I find are well worth the effort and definitely worth rooting the phone for.
tx_dbs_tx said:
False. False. False. What's shady is the lack of knowledge on behalf of a user which these issues are caused by. There is no "shady" business going on that would cause instability issues upon rooting your device. Instead of a carrier or Samsung playing shenanigans with it's customers by introducing bugs and instability issues if a user roots their device, it would be more logical for Sprint and Samsung to simply lock down the bootloader and take measures to prevent root in the first place... such as all the Verizon and AT&T customers who are still crying about not having root. If you want to believe otherwise that's up to you.
As already mentioned by millerboy3, rooting doesn't cause the instability issues you or anybody else might be having. The more mods you do the more unstable the rom??? That's just plain and simple ignorance my friend. Yes it could be true that a rom might be "buggy" but if a rom is well planned and time taken to ensure everything is right, then there will not be stability issues. There are roms out there with tons of mods that are 10 times more stable and faster than the stock rom. I happen to have a rom that fits that criteria along with a few other people. With that said, I do agree with you on the fact that the Note 4 is perfectly awesome straight out of the box without the need to root it. This is the first phone I've owned that I really don't feel the need to change anything because everything works great stock. There are a few mods that I find are well worth the effort and definitely worth rooting the phone for.
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He said it much better than I.
i'll also throw a vote in for rooting. i've come to consider AdAway & Xposed as must-haves, which both require root.
The N4 was the first phone I considered not rooting, it was that good straight away. However, then I remembered why I rooted, besides custom ROM's, and it was 2 (now 3) main reasons.
1- AdFree: After seeing ads all over a bunch of my favorite apps, I remembered I didn't have AdFree installed, which requires root. This is my biggest quality of use reason, if you've ever went to tap something in an app only to have a ninja ad come out of nowhere right as your finger hit the screen and redirect you to a website or the app store, you know what I mean.
2- TWRP + Titanium Backup - The ability to backup ALL my apps and settings to a separate SD card was huge, plus all the other features of TB.
3 - Lastly, I found Xposed: I'd never used before, but now, I couldn't imagine not having it. It's allowed me to tweak things that irritated me, like color schemes on the contacts and dialer screens, without the worry of installing custom ROM's or RW editing mods.
Just my feedback, your requirements may differ.
Sent from my SM-N910P using XDA Free mobile app
Newbie, who wants to have better use of ExtsdCard
I am looking into rooting, for the first time. After an update to my, prior, S4, I couldn't edit my ebooks, about 700, delete photos, several thousand, or remove duplicates, on my extsdcard. I just got a new Note 4, and a 128G extsdcard. If there is anyway to restore my control of the sdcard that I paid for, other than rooting, please tell me. Otherwise, Android and Samsung are forcing me to root. Am I wrong??
Thank you very much,
Randy "Pugmeister"
Pugmeister said:
I am looking into rooting, for the first time. After an update to my, prior, S4, I couldn't edit my ebooks, about 700, delete photos, several thousand, or remove duplicates, on my extsdcard. I just got a new Note 4, and a 128G extsdcard. If there is anyway to restore my control of the sdcard that I paid for, other than rooting, please tell me. Otherwise, Android and Samsung are forcing me to root. Am I wrong??
Thank you very much,
Randy "Pugmeister"
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I'm a little fuzzy on what your saying. Are you saying that you can't edit or delete the contents of your external SD card in the note 4? If so, that's not a problem root could solve, as you should have full control over everything on the external card. Rooting would allow you access to edit the main android system files on the internal storage.
Sent from my SM-N910P using XDA Free mobile app
I've recently rooted my phone and now I am questioning why I did it. The first phone I rooted was my Nexus One and I've been a member of this site since the release of the Galaxy S2 so I am no novice. It used to be a necessity to root for the increased control it gave, but now all I seem to be doing is finding solutions to get back functionality that I've lost through tripping Knox. Please, can anyone give me a reason or list the advantages of rooting the current generation of phones because I'm struggling to justify keeping the bootloader unlocked and not going back to stock?
No. I wouldn't... for you though the cat's already out of the bag.
If running on Pie I definitely wouldn't update to 10 or worse 11.
mckeowngoo said:
I've recently rooted my phone and now I am questioning why I did it. The first phone I rooted was my Nexus One and I've been a member of this site since the release of the Galaxy S2 so I am no novice. It used to be a necessity to root for the increased control it gave, but now all I seem to be doing is finding solutions to get back functionality that I've lost through tripping Knox. Please, can anyone give me a reason or list the advantages of rooting the current generation of phones because I'm struggling to justify keeping the bootloader unlocked and not going back to stock?
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Like you, I've been rooting since my HTC-Hero way back in the early days of Android. It was necessary for better kernels, better battery life, better RAM and CPU management, better file systems (Early days of ARM and EXT4) and of course those cool themes and apps that only work with Root (Titanium Backup, Gosh I miss you!!). Not to mention what was my favorite, MIUI!
The last phone I rooted was the Nexus 6. It was a powerhouse! I still have it in a drawer full of old devices in my desk and miss it! Someone once told me when checking out my N6, "Your phone is like a muscle car!"
I miss rooting and I hate that carriers have locked the Bootloaders down. Android was founded on and was expanded by the Amateur Development community. Look up Cyanogen for details!.
I just bought my daughter this device outright - first, one I've ever bought that wasn't through my carrier and I'll be doing the same with the Pixel 6 for myself later this year which means I can finally go back to rooting and hopefully back to what earned me the RC title, but I also wonder, do I really NEED to root these??
My daughter isn't a power user. She's probably happy with whatever native settings and Samsung themes she can find on her own. My Pixel 4 XL has been great as is. so I applaud your question because I also wonder if rooting is still necessary or is it just a way to feel rebellious and outside the fray?
I also own a Pixel 4, bought to scratch an itch when I wanted to try out GrapheneOS.
I think I will go back to stock, which is sad as I enjoyed the process of modifying the phones software. If there was a net gain or increased functionality to keep the phone rooted, I would but unfortunately there isn't a compelling reason to keep the bootloader unlocked.
Am I wrong? Is the scene, at least for Samsung phones, dead and this forum obsolete?
Root is a must for me. Just being able to debloat. Either way I bought a unlock token
I understand the debloat of carriers useless apps, but since I found that ADB can basicly remove the programs I don't need root for that. But I still like root for change hosts files and such.