Fingerprint reader delay caused by root - Nexus 5X Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I rooted my deviced on the second day that I took it out of the box, so I didn't play much with completely stock rom. However, I could still notice that after rooting, the fingerprint sensor wasn't as fast as it was. Today I flashed May factory image, because I have been facing some problem and I have to say, that IT FEELS LIKE A DIFFERENT PHONE. In a positive way, of course. With root, when the phones idled for 15mins sometimes it had 2-3 seconds of delay between placing the finger on the sensor and vibration of unlocking. Maybe for some of you it's not of a big deal, but I use it in 99% of unlocks, so it matters pretty much and affects impressions on the phone. Of course, after half an hour I started to feel that anxiety,fear and my hand started to shake, because of not having EXKM. Did you guys noticed those delays? I want to play with complete stock for a couple of days to see how it performs in smoothness and battery life and then I decide what to do.

I thought my mind was playing tricks on me since rooting and going on elemental kernel 4 days ago. But yup, there definitely is a lag in fingerprint recognition after going to sleep for a while.

Hey,
Did it happend with a custom rom like PureNexus ?
Sent from Nexus 5X using Tapatalk.

I haven't tested it with any custom rom yet.

Try before a rom to wipe cache etc.
Then make an backup and flash a rom.
Sent from Nexus 5X using Tapatalk.

I've noticed this too, on stock it was really fast, on stock+elementalx it has some delay

With root and TWRP, all the rest stock, i have not those 2 seconds of delay. It's fast as it should be.

So it must be ElementalX issue then.

Confirming, stock ROM + ElementalX and there's a brief lag here, too.

Might be an ElemantalX issue then yea. No delays with my stock rom + kernel device.

This thread is a perfect example of people that do things to their phones yet have no idea what is happening. It boggles my mind. Its pretty clear that no one here (this thread) knows what root is. If they did, well, they would be the ones posting this.
Simply becoming the root user cant break the fingerprint scanner. That's just ridiculous, asinine, retarded. Being the all-powerful superuser simply means you can make system level changes. It alone cant break things like a gun on a table cant kill someone. If something broke while you were hyped up on root juice, it was your idiot self that did it. Since being root cant just break something, that leaves whatever you did with your newfound godlike powers...or what you blindly flashed with your custom recovery that wields that same power. (READ ME)
So, what did you do with your new abilities? You flashed a glorious, magical kernel (custom kernels are awesome, I'm just dramatizing this a bit). Do you know what a kernel is? Didn't think so. Among other things it contains the hardware device drivers. Yes, you guessed it, the fingerprint scanner is hardware. Its pretty easy to determine that that is the root (lol) of your problem. (READ ME)
The solution is to let the kernel dev know of the issue and help him resolve it, or flash a different custom kernel or the plane jane stock kernel. Problem magically solved.
HERE is a noob oriented article about root you may enjoy reading.
HERE is a slightly more technical one.
I tried not to be to much of a jerk and make it kind of funny yet helpful. If this offended you...go pound sand/salt/crackers/whatever up your delicate a$$. :good:

Related

Sorry but I may be leaving the root community for good

I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my frustrations with the Gnex. I unlocked and rooted on the first day and even though there wasn't much in the way of custom Roms with 4.0 I was excited to try all the different mods that were slowly flooding XDA and RootzWiki.
This wasn't my 1st experience with root either. I owned the Dinc and loved the idea of tinkering with my device. I learned a lot. Mainly that you should ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP. and take the extra minute to wipe everything. I don't even use TI backup anymore because I wanted to start over from scratch any time I flashed a new ROM.
I say this because I know there are ppl in the forums that are smarter than I when it comes to Android. There are also some of those same ppl that will assume that I made some sort of noob mistake and I should try "wiping data" or something. Trust me, I've tried that and it doesn't fix it.
My main issues have been:
*losing data connection for no reason and eventually having to reboot in order to restore data.
*Weak network/WiFi.
Now I know there is a thread on rootz that addresses the bars and how inaccurate they are. But when two identical devices sit down in the same place and run speed test. My Gnex can slow to a snails pace at times. The wierdest thing about this is that it only seems to do it sporadically, which makes recreating it almost impossible. Although it seems most frequent at work, but that maybe because I spend an ungodly amount of time at my office.
*Lag/freezes
I know its not gonna work perfectly all the time and sometimes you have to reboot your phone just to give it a chance to reset itself and that's cool but when you do that and it doesn't fix the sluggishness of the phone then I feel there is a problem.
* problems with certain system functions like Bluetooth or GPS
Now this may be only an issue with particular Roms which may be known to have problems with certain aspects of the system. For instance, it seems pretty common from what I've seen on the forums that GPS is an issue for some on 4.2. I was actually on 4.2 this morning until I went to punch in an address from a text msg to Navigation and it wouldn't lock on my location. I got frustrated and decided to wipe and install the AOKP milestone I had saved and when I set everything back up guess what? Navigation still wouldn't lock on. I ended up having to bail out on some guys because I could find there house. I got home and found a stock ROM online. I wiped, flashed and setup my phone for the second time today. I downloaded Maps and immediately went to find the address and it was insane how fast it locked on a location.
There are other issues but I'm becoming long winded so I'll try to wrap it up.
Now I'm not one to dismiss my own part in my problems. I've certainly tried to address them when/if they arise with what little knowledge I have and the ability to learn what I can. I e emailed devs amd talked to others and sometimes it helps, but sometimes like this morning you just want things to work when you need them to without wasting your time having to revert to a nandroid or doing some other wizardry.
"Well, why don't you just go buy an iPhone then?" you might say
I've actually contemplated it but I do really like android, Google Maps are the **** (I depend on Navigation a lot )and I like to be able to customize. And I also don't really want to pay the money to terminate my contract so I'm kinda just stuck. But I thought about doing one thing.
A couple weeks ago, I unrooted and relocked my phone and flashed stock images for JB on CDMA and from there all I did was unlock and root keeping it stock and I tell you I glad I did because all my problems no longer seem to exist. My battery life might not be what I was getting on 4.2 these last couple days but I think I'm willing to stick with this for now until Verizon gets off their ass and pushes an update to us.
I'm not trying to rant to the Dev community or complain that y'all aren't living up to my satisfaction. Hell, maybe somebody might have a solution I haven't tried yet. I'm just putting this out there in case someone was having the same trouble and could get some help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
On ParanoidAndroid 2.54 + franco.kernel r300. None of the problems you mentioned are present or has ever happened with me. Perhaps if you didn't mod your phone so much as to NOT be able to pinpoint a problem is where you went wrong.
Who knows? I surely don't. Don't know you but I don't think I'll be noticing your absence. Good luck with everything!
automaddux said:
I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my frustrations with the Gnex. I unlocked and rooted on the first day and even though there wasn't much in the way of custom Roms with 4.0 I was excited to try all the different mods that were slowly flooding XDA and RootzWiki.
This wasn't my 1st experience with root either. I owned the Dinc and loved the idea of tinkering with my device. I learned a lot. Mainly that you should ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP. and take the extra minute to wipe everything. I don't even use TI backup anymore because I wanted to start over from scratch any time I flashed a new ROM.
I say this because I know there are ppl in the forums that are smarter than I when it comes to Android. There are also some of those same ppl that will assume that I made some sort of noob mistake and I should try "wiping data" or something. Trust me, I've tried that and it doesn't fix it.
My main issues have been:
*losing data connection for no reason and eventually having to reboot in order to restore data.
*Weak network/WiFi.
Now I know there is a thread on rootz that addresses the bars and how inaccurate they are. But when two identical devices sit down in the same place and run speed test. My Gnex can slow to a snails pace at times. The wierdest thing about this is that it only seems to do it sporadically, which makes recreating it almost impossible. Although it seems most frequent at work, but that maybe because I spend an ungodly amount of time at my office.
*Lag/freezes
I know its not gonna work perfectly all the time and sometimes you have to reboot your phone just to give it a chance to reset itself and that's cool but when you do that and it doesn't fix the sluggishness of the phone then I feel there is a problem.
* problems with certain system functions like Bluetooth or GPS
Now this may be only an issue with particular Roms which may be known to have problems with certain aspects of the system. For instance, it seems pretty common from what I've seen on the forums that GPS is an issue for some on 4.2. I was actually on 4.2 this morning until I went to punch in an address from a text msg to Navigation and it wouldn't lock on my location. I got frustrated and decided to wipe and install the AOKP milestone I had saved and when I set everything back up guess what? Navigation still wouldn't lock on. I ended up having to bail out on some guys because I could find there house. I got home and found a stock ROM online. I wiped, flashed and setup my phone for the second time today. I downloaded Maps and immediately went to find the address and it was insane how fast it locked on a location.
There are other issues but I'm becoming long winded so I'll try to wrap it up.
Now I'm not one to dismiss my own part in my problems. I've certainly tried to address them when/if they arise with what little knowledge I have and the ability to learn what I can. I e emailed devs amd talked to others and sometimes it helps, but sometimes like this morning you just want things to work when you need them to without wasting your time having to revert to a nandroid or doing some other wizardry.
"Well, why don't you just go buy an iPhone then?" you might say
I've actually contemplated it but I do really like android, Google Maps are the **** (I depend on Navigation a lot )and I like to be able to customize. And I also don't really want to pay the money to terminate my contract so I'm kinda just stuck. But I thought about doing one thing.
A couple weeks ago, I unrooted and relocked my phone and flashed stock images for JB on CDMA and from there all I did was unlock and root keeping it stock and I tell you I glad I did because all my problems no longer seem to exist. My battery life might not be what I was getting on 4.2 these last couple days but I think I'm willing to stick with this for now until Verizon gets off their ass and pushes an update to us.
I'm not trying to rant to the Dev community or complain that y'all aren't living up to my satisfaction. Hell, maybe somebody might have a solution I haven't tried yet. I'm just putting this out there in case someone was having the same trouble and could get some help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats cool, you already tried your fair share of roms, if none of them worked for you the stock is the best with unsurpassed stability. Despite whats advertised about the nexus, the stock android firmware is excellent too, specially when you want something that just plain works.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Great story brother. Thanks for sharing.
Sent from my i9250
bk201doesntexist said:
Great story brother. Thanks for sharing.
Sent from my i9250
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep coming..it works if you work it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
goodbye person ive never seen post before. hope you figure out your problems
Stock is the way to go, but you don't have to leave the xda because you no longer run a custom ROM. there is a lot of useful information that is shared here that doesn't necessarily apply to custom ROM.
I am also running stock rom from now on.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
automaddux said:
I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my frustrations with the Gnex. I unlocked and rooted on the first day and even though there wasn't much in the way of custom Roms with 4.0 I was excited to try all the different mods that were slowly flooding XDA and RootzWiki.
This wasn't my 1st experience with root either. I owned the Dinc and loved the idea of tinkering with my device. I learned a lot. Mainly that you should ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP. and take the extra minute to wipe everything. I don't even use TI backup anymore because I wanted to start over from scratch any time I flashed a new ROM.
I say this because I know there are ppl in the forums that are smarter than I when it comes to Android. There are also some of those same ppl that will assume that I made some sort of noob mistake and I should try "wiping data" or something. Trust me, I've tried that and it doesn't fix it.
My main issues have been:
*losing data connection for no reason and eventually having to reboot in order to restore data.
*Weak network/WiFi.
Now I know there is a thread on rootz that addresses the bars and how inaccurate they are. But when two identical devices sit down in the same place and run speed test. My Gnex can slow to a snails pace at times. The wierdest thing about this is that it only seems to do it sporadically, which makes recreating it almost impossible. Although it seems most frequent at work, but that maybe because I spend an ungodly amount of time at my office.
*Lag/freezes
I know its not gonna work perfectly all the time and sometimes you have to reboot your phone just to give it a chance to reset itself and that's cool but when you do that and it doesn't fix the sluggishness of the phone then I feel there is a problem.
* problems with certain system functions like Bluetooth or GPS
Now this may be only an issue with particular Roms which may be known to have problems with certain aspects of the system. For instance, it seems pretty common from what I've seen on the forums that GPS is an issue for some on 4.2. I was actually on 4.2 this morning until I went to punch in an address from a text msg to Navigation and it wouldn't lock on my location. I got frustrated and decided to wipe and install the AOKP milestone I had saved and when I set everything back up guess what? Navigation still wouldn't lock on. I ended up having to bail out on some guys because I could find there house. I got home and found a stock ROM online. I wiped, flashed and setup my phone for the second time today. I downloaded Maps and immediately went to find the address and it was insane how fast it locked on a location.
There are other issues but I'm becoming long winded so I'll try to wrap it up.
Now I'm not one to dismiss my own part in my problems. I've certainly tried to address them when/if they arise with what little knowledge I have and the ability to learn what I can. I e emailed devs amd talked to others and sometimes it helps, but sometimes like this morning you just want things to work when you need them to without wasting your time having to revert to a nandroid or doing some other wizardry.
"Well, why don't you just go buy an iPhone then?" you might say
I've actually contemplated it but I do really like android, Google Maps are the **** (I depend on Navigation a lot )and I like to be able to customize. And I also don't really want to pay the money to terminate my contract so I'm kinda just stuck. But I thought about doing one thing.
A couple weeks ago, I unrooted and relocked my phone and flashed stock images for JB on CDMA and from there all I did was unlock and root keeping it stock and I tell you I glad I did because all my problems no longer seem to exist. My battery life might not be what I was getting on 4.2 these last couple days but I think I'm willing to stick with this for now until Verizon gets off their ass and pushes an update to us.
I'm not trying to rant to the Dev community or complain that y'all aren't living up to my satisfaction. Hell, maybe somebody might have a solution I haven't tried yet. I'm just putting this out there in case someone was having the same trouble and could get some help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you really didn't write all of this from your nexus lol. But just go to stock...simple :thumbup:
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I see how you feel abouyt this. I have had issues as well. It really stems from what Roms are and what we expect from them. The term Night lies have lost a little bit of its worry recently because they are fairly bug free. But that doesn't mean that little tweaks and mods aren't killing battery life and deteriorate over time due to bad patches and coding.
That said I would highly recommend checking out BuglessBeast. They are not night lies by any means. They are highly stable AOSP Roms that perform much better then anything else on the market. He has few commits aside from under the hood tweaks. Reboot menu, emoji and a slight few other things are it. I have never had an issue with them and recommend checking them out. Also they are pretty much the only VZW app compatible ROM. Peter has been building BuglessBeast since Eclair on the Droid1 (almost 3 years now). Always providing an excellent experience.
spjetrovic said:
Keep coming..it works if you work it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashaholics anonymous?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
Stock + root is the way to go for me on Nexus phones. On my last non Nexus (SGS3) I was always flashing new roms trying to look for something that just works, but I am tired of it. On my Nexus S and GNexus, stock rom is amazing, I don't need anything else.
automaddux said:
I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my frustrations with the Gnex. I unlocked and rooted on the first day and even though there wasn't much in the way of custom Roms with 4.0 I was excited to try all the different mods that were slowly flooding XDA and RootzWiki.
This wasn't my 1st experience with root either. I owned the Dinc and loved the idea of tinkering with my device. I learned a lot. Mainly that you should ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP. and take the extra minute to wipe everything. I don't even use TI backup anymore because I wanted to start over from scratch any time I flashed a new ROM.
I say this because I know there are ppl in the forums that are smarter than I when it comes to Android. There are also some of those same ppl that will assume that I made some sort of noob mistake and I should try "wiping data" or something. Trust me, I've tried that and it doesn't fix it.
My main issues have been:
*losing data connection for no reason and eventually having to reboot in order to restore data.
*Weak network/WiFi.
Now I know there is a thread on rootz that addresses the bars and how inaccurate they are. But when two identical devices sit down in the same place and run speed test. My Gnex can slow to a snails pace at times. The wierdest thing about this is that it only seems to do it sporadically, which makes recreating it almost impossible. Although it seems most frequent at work, but that maybe because I spend an ungodly amount of time at my office.
*Lag/freezes
I know its not gonna work perfectly all the time and sometimes you have to reboot your phone just to give it a chance to reset itself and that's cool but when you do that and it doesn't fix the sluggishness of the phone then I feel there is a problem.
* problems with certain system functions like Bluetooth or GPS
Now this may be only an issue with particular Roms which may be known to have problems with certain aspects of the system. For instance, it seems pretty common from what I've seen on the forums that GPS is an issue for some on 4.2. I was actually on 4.2 this morning until I went to punch in an address from a text msg to Navigation and it wouldn't lock on my location. I got frustrated and decided to wipe and install the AOKP milestone I had saved and when I set everything back up guess what? Navigation still wouldn't lock on. I ended up having to bail out on some guys because I could find there house. I got home and found a stock ROM online. I wiped, flashed and setup my phone for the second time today. I downloaded Maps and immediately went to find the address and it was insane how fast it locked on a location.
There are other issues but I'm becoming long winded so I'll try to wrap it up.
Now I'm not one to dismiss my own part in my problems. I've certainly tried to address them when/if they arise with what little knowledge I have and the ability to learn what I can. I e emailed devs amd talked to others and sometimes it helps, but sometimes like this morning you just want things to work when you need them to without wasting your time having to revert to a nandroid or doing some other wizardry.
"Well, why don't you just go buy an iPhone then?" you might say
I've actually contemplated it but I do really like android, Google Maps are the **** (I depend on Navigation a lot )and I like to be able to customize. And I also don't really want to pay the money to terminate my contract so I'm kinda just stuck. But I thought about doing one thing.
A couple weeks ago, I unrooted and relocked my phone and flashed stock images for JB on CDMA and from there all I did was unlock and root keeping it stock and I tell you I glad I did because all my problems no longer seem to exist. My battery life might not be what I was getting on 4.2 these last couple days but I think I'm willing to stick with this for now until Verizon gets off their ass and pushes an update to us.
I'm not trying to rant to the Dev community or complain that y'all aren't living up to my satisfaction. Hell, maybe somebody might have a solution I haven't tried yet. I'm just putting this out there in case someone was having the same trouble and could get some help.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with this guy as well... I upgraded to a stock 4.2 rom (with root, but not a custom build).. and I have been smooth sailing since. It seems with all these custom roms and kernels there are nothing but issues. Sure, they're a TAD faster or offer little tweaks but when you need to use your device in the real world and it f*cking reboots while navigating somewhere because of a stupid tweak you made.. well, I can't see why it's even needed.
This phone runs very well with Stock+Root. I normally root devices because of different apps I like to use, and the ability to make custom backups...but I dont normally try anything bleeding edge...lol.
Partly because of my experience on an HTC phone...hated Sense and bought the GNex because of the AOSP.
akira02rex said:
I'm with this guy as well... I upgraded to a stock 4.2 rom (with root, but not a custom build).. and I have been smooth sailing since. It seems with all these custom roms and kernels there are nothing but issues. Sure, they're a TAD faster or offer little tweaks but when you need to use your device in the real world and it f*cking reboots while navigating somewhere because of a stupid tweak you made.. well, I can't see why it's even needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to bash the custom roms that some devs here work so hard to make, i agree that stock is amazing but android would be a boring scene without the custom roms out there
We would just be like Ios, Wp and blackberry users, stuck with what we've got
Others wouldnt even have the chance to use a newer OS version because their phone has been abandoned by official support.
Or many of u guys would have crappy colors or other issues that custom roms and kernels DID fix
I use stock but i love the fact that there are custom roms around
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
negrobembon said:
No need to bash the custom roms that some devs here work so hard to make, i agree that stock is amazing but android would be a boring scene without the custom roms out there
We would just be like Ios, Wp and blackberry users, stuck with what we've got
Others wouldnt even have the chance to use a newer OS version because their phone has been abandoned by official support.
Or many of u guys would have crappy colors or other issues that custom roms and kernels DID fix
I use stock but i love the fact that there are custom roms around
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I get that, it's good to see support for older devices but c'mon have you counted the amount of 4.1.2 roms that are available for the gnex? If I build android I'm automatically called a developer? Because that's the way it seems here...
I don't know why people keep bringing up the so crappy colors. In reality, the crappy colors are the ones custom ROM offer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Soldier 2.0 said:
I don't know why people keep bringing up the so crappy colors. In reality, the crappy colors are the ones custom ROM offer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its the kernels that offer the colors(the kernels that the ROM developers include too). of all the kernels available, only a very few distinguish themselves from the stock crappy colors.
This is ridiculous... who obligated you to install a custom ROM? F*cking emos.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
automaddux said:
I've suspected for a long time that custom ROMs have been the source of all my...
Blah blah blah.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, please stay! We'll never survive without you! [/SARCASM]
GhoXt said:
This is ridiculous... who obligated you to install a custom ROM? F*cking emos.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright Captain, you keep Franco deep in your throat.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

[Q] To Unlock/S-Off/Root or not

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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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.

Should I update?

Should I update from where im at? I haven't updated my phone since I took it out of the box. All I did was root to install wanam expose, xposed installer and region lock away. What do you guys recommend? What's the easier way to update without installing a custom recovery.
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app
Yes and use my guide here... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=54787998
soulja4187 said:
Should I update from where im at? I haven't updated my phone since I took it out of the box. All I did was root to install wanam expose, xposed installer and region lock away. What do you guys recommend? What's the easier way to update without installing a custom recovery.
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app
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Click to collapse
No i wouldnt stay on jellybean too many problems with kitkat.
The only "problem" i can come up right away is apps using extSDcard issue... which is already solved if root. What other problems are there?
effortless said:
Yes and use my guide here... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=54787998
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Click to collapse
Thanks i updated to NF9 using your method, i then rerooted my phone. Lot faster than before. Thank you very much
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app
Sure there are other problems, in my case I can't get the battery usage under control. I'm rooted and freeze whole bunch of stuff, more so than under Jelly Bean and it's still not what it used to be. I even did full factory reset, which is a huge pain all by itself (car BT pairing took 3 days alone, it wouldn't auto connect, lost few games progress despite restoring from backup, needed to restore AC3 again etc.) and still battery usage is much higher now than before. I really see no improvement whatsoever, oh wait I see that new volte message sometimes popping up, big deal, I can make phone calls just the same as before . Did I mention I lost region unlock? Not sure about SIM lock, I know it got unlocked with region, but now, after update probably locked again. To be fair Effortless method worked great, but for me it was all downhill afterwords and I'm not sure I would upgrade knowing what I know now. Maybe my experience is isolated and due to something particular I did or not do, but the old saying "don't fix it if it ain't broken" rings in my ear over and over again.
pete4k said:
Sure there are other problems, in my case I can't get the battery usage under control. I'm rooted and freeze whole bunch of stuff, more so than under Jelly Bean and it's still not what it used to be. I even did full factory reset, which is a huge pain all by itself (car BT pairing took 3 days alone, it wouldn't auto connect, lost few games progress despite restoring from backup, needed to restore AC3 again etc.) and still battery usage is much higher now than before. I really see no improvement whatsoever, oh wait I see that new volte message sometimes popping up, big deal, I can make phone calls just the same as before . Did I mention I lost region unlock? Not sure about SIM lock, I know it got unlocked with region, but now, after update probably locked again. To be fair Effortless method worked great, but for me it was all downhill afterwords and I'm not sure I would upgrade knowing what I know now. Maybe my experience is isolated and due to something particular I did or not do, but the old saying "don't fix it if it ain't broken" rings in my ear over and over again.
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Click to collapse
If your having issues you might want to try reflash. I didn't loose any apps or games, my car bt connected the same, remember that now your phone uses volte which could be a cause for more battery drain so why don't you try turn it off after reflashing. My only complaint is that while your on a voltle call you can conference as many calls you want but don't have the option to drop a specific line so only option is to end all call. I just went to volte settings and changed it to do not use volte and now i got back my conference call button back when on multiple calls.
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app
soulja4187 said:
If your having issues you might want to try reflash. I didn't loose any apps or games, my car bt connected the same, remember that now your phone uses volte which could be a cause for more battery drain so why don't you try turn it off after reflashing. My only complaint is that while your on a voltle call you can conference as many calls you want but don't have the option to drop a specific line so only option is to end all call. I just went to volte settings and changed it to do not use volte and now i got back my conference call button back when on multiple calls.
Sent from my SM-N900T using XDA Free mobile app
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Click to collapse
Thanks for ideas, but It's not volte, when home i"m always on wifi and for example just last night lost 20% charge overnight, wakelock shows nothing, the only time I had anything like that on JB was when I switched off wifi power save in secret menu long time ago when troubleshooting wifi calling. BT first wouldn't connect at all, then connected, but wouldn't reconnect again next day, finally on third day it held. I think I read somebody was claiming SD card fix breaks BT, or something like that, but now finally seems to be working. I'll probably freeze/disable everything at some point and then start enabling few apps at the time, to see when it starts blowing battery again, but this will take forever.. Update itself went fine, I even verified firmware's checksums, like first time ever and I have no reboots, no crashes, no freezing. Actually let me check that stupid wifi save mode, maybe it turned itself off.
pete4k said:
Sure there are other problems, in my case I can't get the battery usage under control. I'm rooted and freeze whole bunch of stuff, more so than under Jelly Bean and it's still not what it used to be. I even did full factory reset, which is a huge pain all by itself (car BT pairing took 3 days alone, it wouldn't auto connect, lost few games progress despite restoring from backup, needed to restore AC3 again etc.) and still battery usage is much higher now than before. I really see no improvement whatsoever, oh wait I see that new volte message sometimes popping up, big deal, I can make phone calls just the same as before . Did I mention I lost region unlock? Not sure about SIM lock, I know it got unlocked with region, but now, after update probably locked again. To be fair Effortless method worked great, but for me it was all downhill afterwords and I'm not sure I would upgrade knowing what I know now. Maybe my experience is isolated and due to something particular I did or not do, but the old saying "don't fix it if it ain't broken" rings in my ear over and over again.
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Click to collapse
Ok first of all the reason why I'm responding is purely to try and help, and I know some people can be sensitive to criticism so I just wanted to clarify that my intentions are not to flame you. With that being said I know that I don't "know" so I'm only basing this from your post, but you seem to be extremely negative about the entire process in general. I also understand that it may be overwhelming for people who aren't technically "in to" rooting or even customizing their phones, which is why I often consider rooting to be a double edged sword for a lot of people.
This is why basically imo it's a complete waste for someone to "pay" someone else to root or customize their phone for them (I'm definitely not implying that's what you did or anything just to clarify), because it's not in the least bit a one time thing where once it's done it'll just be smooth sailing from there on out. It takes a huge amount of upkeep and dedication to get and enjoy the most out of what rooting and customizing has to offer, and for some people the trade off just isn't worth the overall amount of work which involved with it. It always just depends on the person, how they use and how much they use their phones, the amount of work they are willing to put into it, and what exactly they expect to get out of it, to determine if it's even worth the process to begin with.
As far as what you were talking about with wiping the phone, having to set everything up again, and losing some of your game data, it kinda sounds like that was along the lines of a traumatic experience for you especially when compared to others who might actually go through that same process 10 or more times a day and really enjoy it.
Also as far as your battery life goes there's so many different variables that can determine whether you'll have killer battery life or struggle to make it through the day kinda battery life, but the beauty of root and the ability to customize is that you never have to just settle for one or the other. One thing I'd strongly suggest is to look into different Kernels depending on which rom you're on, because it's amazing how much difference the right kernel for your device alone can make with battery. Every single device is different in it's own tolerances and even if you pull 2 of the same phones that are back to back off of the assembly line, one might work better with a specific kernel/rom combination than another, one could have better stock battery life than the other, and so on. So I always try to take others experiences with certain Kernels or Roms kind of lightly, because that doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to have the same results with my specific device.
Another to keep in mind is that whenever you flash a new rom, kernel, or even flash a new ota, it'll always take at least 3 or 4 days before the kernel will fully settle in and start to show the "true" battery life and performance that you can expect. So if you flash a new rom or kernel and then decide after just one day that the battery life sucks or that the performance isn't what you were expecting and then flash something else, you literally have no idea how that rom or kernel would've truly performed because it didn't even have enough time to settle in. For example I flashed a kernel one time and for the first 3 days the battery life was 10 times worse than what I was getting, and then half way through the 3rd day I started to notice it getting better and better until it wound up literally being the best battery life I had ever had at that point. So if I would've said screw it and automatically decided it was going to be terrible based on what it did at first, I would've screwed myself out of the best battery life I'd ever had up until then. It just takes a lot of patients and I'm not saying this is what you did at all, but I think a lot of people simply don't wait long enough to actually see the "true results" before deciding something is good or bad.
Anyway I waited awhile before doing the update as well because my phone was running almost exactly how I liked it, and when I finally did do the update I wasn't getting the same results at first which can always be discouraging. I'm glad now that I did do the update though because it took some tinkering with but now it's running even better than it was before. Good luck with your phone though and I guess my point is that you don't have to settle for anything if you don't want to, that's the beauty of being able to do all of this on the first place!
Sent from a modified ColecoVision
Thanks for the advice, but to clarify things: there are many posts on this forums and T-mobile forum complaining about poor battery life after updating to KK, so I'm not alone. It's been close to 2 months since I updated and I still can't get my phone to run as efficiently as it was, so I'm frustrated since nothing shows up in wakelock or any other program I tried. One time I can loose 20% overnight, other time 2%, never had anything like that before. I have no idea what are you talking about people paying for rooting their phone, so I just leave it at that. I have few games that have many levels, where you can't go to next level before finishing the lower one, I backed up all programs and data with Titanium and some games didn't restore properly, even with multiple tries leaving me at level one, no big deal since I'm not hardcore gamer, but things like that do happen. As far as updates in general go, I had a lot of bad experiences, once I even lost my desktop computer after updating manufacturer released faulty BIOS and had to buy video card to fix it, even recent Apple's ios 8.01 update was faulty and they had to release update to update, next day, so things not always go as planned. I do not see any visible benefits in KK, all I see is broken SD card access, gone per apps permission settings, patched up root exploit (thank you towelroot for new one, which is already patched in the latest release BTW) and in my case poor battery life, so I'm not impressed and not quiet sure it was worth for me to update. I felt OP should have been warned, that there are some people having some issues after the update. Maybe because I like my Note3 a lot and want it to be perfect, this battery issue annoys me more than it should, but it seems the harder I try, the worst it gets.

Rooting versus not Rooting

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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

Brand new with HTC

Well i recently recieved an upgrade with my provider and I opted for the M9. This is because for the last 4 years ive had samsung and although I havent a bad word to say for them, I just fancied a change. So here I am.
Quite a difference in the way you can obtain certain things like unlocking, rooting etc. To be honest, though it was a bit worrying at first, I soon managed to get things done and It sort of makes you feel like you're more involved with your phone. Rather than just letting a .zip do all the work or a full firmware file through odin do the business.
Ive only had it 2 days and managed to root, unlock and s-off, Flashed a new firmware and rom and very happy with it. I have noticed despite the camera being a higher pixel count it isnt quite as sharp as the samsung camera, still good though. The front camera is definately better.
Having only had it 2 days though i cant really comment on performance etc etc. I need it longer but i'm relatively happy with how its going.
I do have a couple of concerns. 1 being the temperature it reaches when flashing etc.My samsung used to feel very warm but obviously its more noticable with the HTC due to it being all metal and I guess thats good as it sucks all the heat into the shell and away from the cpu's.
Anyway, this was just to say hi, and that I hope to continue to enjoy my htc experience, its definately come on a lot since my last HTC many years ago (Wildfire S).
Any tips / tricks / must haves that I should know about?
Thanks and HI! =)
tomorio said:
Well i recently recieved an upgrade with my provider and I opted for the M9. This is because for the last 4 years ive had samsung and although I havent a bad word to say for them, I just fancied a change. So here I am.
Quite a difference in the way you can obtain certain things like unlocking, rooting etc. To be honest, though it was a bit worrying at first, I soon managed to get things done and It sort of makes you feel like you're more involved with your phone. Rather than just letting a .zip do all the work or a full firmware file through odin do the business.
Ive only had it 2 days and managed to root, unlock and s-off, Flashed a new firmware and rom and very happy with it. I have noticed despite the camera being a higher pixel count it isnt quite as sharp as the samsung camera, still good though. The front camera is definately better.
Having only had it 2 days though i cant really comment on performance etc etc. I need it longer but i'm relatively happy with how its going.
I do have a couple of concerns. 1 being the temperature it reaches when flashing etc.My samsung used to feel very warm but obviously its more noticable with the HTC due to it being all metal and I guess thats good as it sucks all the heat into the shell and away from the cpu's.
Anyway, this was just to say hi, and that I hope to continue to enjoy my htc experience, its definately come on a lot since my last HTC many years ago (Wildfire S).
Any tips / tricks / must haves that I should know about?
Thanks and HI! =)
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Click to collapse
Hello. Welcome. I hope you enjoy your M9 experience.
Yeah, they heat up a little bit when flashing, but I think you're assumption on the metal body is correct.
I think the camera is not awesome in lower light situations. outside, it's fantastic. There's a thread on the camera in this forum you should check out, but some people who have used both the S6 and M9 say that the S6 is better in low light situations, but the M9 is better outside. You can probably get some tips in that that thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/one-m9/general/pictures-m9-t3044267). A lot of people like shooting in manual mode with this phone and can produce some pretty nice results.
jollywhitefoot said:
Hello. Welcome. I hope you enjoy your M9 experience.
Yeah, they heat up a little bit when flashing, but I think you're assumption on the metal body is correct.
I think the camera is not awesome in lower light situations. outside, it's fantastic. There's a thread on the camera in this forum you should check out, but some people who have used both the S6 and M9 say that the S6 is better in low light situations, but the M9 is better outside. You can probably get some tips in that that thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/one-m9/general/pictures-m9-t3044267). A lot of people like shooting in manual mode with this phone and can produce some pretty nice results.
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Click to collapse
Excellent thank you. I'll take a look and see if I can get any tips for improving my pictures. When I was in store chosing my next phone they did mention that it isn't the best in low light, probably due to the smaller aperture but I use take most of my pictures outside or in decent lighting anyway so I suppose it's not an issue as such. I'll definately have a look at that thread though and see if using manual mode will help me out more.
Thanks.
edit - I do have a quick question about firmwares. I have just flashed the 1.40.401.x but also noticed their are some 2.xx.xx something. Which are newer and why the huge difference? lol sorry to ask what is probably a very nooby question.
tomorio said:
Excellent thank you. I'll take a look and see if I can get any tips for improving my pictures. When I was in store chosing my next phone they did mention that it isn't the best in low light, probably due to the smaller aperture but I use take most of my pictures outside or in decent lighting anyway so I suppose it's not an issue as such. I'll definately have a look at that thread though and see if using manual mode will help me out more.
Thanks.
edit - I do have a quick question about firmwares. I have just flashed the 1.40.401.x but also noticed their are some 2.xx.xx something. Which are newer and why the huge difference? lol sorry to ask what is probably a very nooby question.
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Click to collapse
I find it takes pretty decent still life photos in low light, but not great snapshots of people/pets (things that move). I think on auto, the camera isn't aggressive enough in bumping ISO, so it has to use too slow a shutter speed to completely stop movement.
I think 1.40 was kind of a temporary release to quickly address some issues in 1.32 (camera and CPU management mostly)...I don't think it was ever officially released in the US. But 1.40 has issue of it's own, mainly that charging the phone can be extremely slow at times. I don't know how HTC comes up with firmware numbering, but I would guess that part of the big number jump has to do with the fact that 1.xx firmware was for Android 5.0.2 while the 2.7 firmware runs on Android 5.1. I flashed the 2.7 firmware last night and the 1.40 base rom that I use works fine with it so far...I can't say with certainty that your ROM will work with it though. FYI, I'm on InsertCoin.
jollywhitefoot said:
I find it takes pretty decent still life photos in low light, but not great snapshots of people/pets (things that move). I think on auto, the camera isn't aggressive enough in bumping ISO, so it has to use too slow a shutter speed to completely stop movement.
I think 1.40 was kind of a temporary release to quickly address some issues in 1.32 (camera and CPU management mostly)...I don't think it was ever officially released in the US. But 1.40 has issue of it's own, mainly that charging the phone can be extremely slow at times. I don't know how HTC comes up with firmware numbering, but I would guess that part of the big number jump has to do with the fact that 1.xx firmware was for Android 5.0.2 while the 2.7 firmware runs on Android 5.1. I flashed the 2.7 firmware last night and the 1.40 base rom that I use works fine with it so far...I can't say with certainty that your ROM will work with it though. FYI, I'm on InsertCoin.
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Ah I see. I just noticed that most of the roms out at the moment recommend using the 1.40 firmware which is why I flashed that one. I'm currently using Viper which seems good so far, only had it a day. As I was new to everything I thought it best to stick with what is suggested as unlike with my Galaxy s4 the flashing of firmwares and roms seems quite specific. I had noticed it is quite a slow charge process, but I tend to charge overnight if I can and make the phone last the full day so it's not that much of a downer, unless i've had a lot of usage and need a "quick boost" >< then its not so great lol
tomorio said:
Ah I see. I just noticed that most of the roms out at the moment recommend using the 1.40 firmware which is why I flashed that one. I'm currently using Viper which seems good so far, only had it a day. As I was new to everything I thought it best to stick with what is suggested as unlike with my Galaxy s4 the flashing of firmwares and roms seems quite specific. I had noticed it is quite a slow charge process, but I tend to charge overnight if I can and make the phone last the full day so it's not that much of a downer, unless i've had a lot of usage and need a "quick boost" >< then its not so great lol
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Many people have reported that rebooting temporarily fixes the slow charge issue.
MaximusHD is the only rom that uses the new firmware currently. I bet others will be updating soon. The Viper guys have been chatting about Viper 3.0 being released soon and I assume it will be 5.1 based.
Thats good. I'll keep checking any updates and see what happens.
I can't wait for a few more roms to be up and about. I'm used to the countless available for the S4 and forget that device is 2 years old now so there was plenty of time to get things going. I shall just have to be patient.
Thanks for all the help mate.
tomorio said:
Thats good. I'll keep checking any updates and see what happens.
I can't wait for a few more roms to be up and about. I'm used to the countless available for the S4 and forget that device is 2 years old now so there was plenty of time to get things going. I shall just have to be patient.
Thanks for all the help mate.
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Not a problem. Enjoy the device.
Not to hijack your thread tomorio, but how did you decide on which phone? I have the Galaxy S5 now, but I'm torn between HTC M8, M9, or LG G4. Pros and cons to all. My biggest thing is ease of root as I have a couple of frequent use apps that require it. Thanks in advance for any tips on how you decided!
~Vol
Vol4Ever said:
Not to hijack your thread tomorio, but how did you decide on which phone? I have the Galaxy S5 now, but I'm torn between HTC M8, M9, or LG G4. Pros and cons to all. My biggest thing is ease of root as I have a couple of frequent use apps that require it. Thanks in advance for any tips on how you decided!
~Vol
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Click to collapse
Hijack away my friend.
I too was torn but between the S6, LG G4 and htc m9. I was leaning away from the S6 as I really fancied a change, however I think it will always have more options available to it (for custom roms etc) due to the larger fan base and it is much simpler to get to grips with for rooting etc.
the G4 my Partner already has and something about it when I used it I just didn't enjoy, and its nowhere near as pretty as the M9 lol. Try one out if you can just to see for yourself. Unfortunately I have no more experience of it than having a little play of her phone so unsure on the rooting processes etc but imagine it to be similar to the Samsung way.
The HTC M9 was a tough choice. Especially when I looked at how rooting etc is done (this is one of the first things i check with phones flash-a-holic you see lol). Anyway, once i'd read over all the advice given in this forum, the how to's etc and got a small amount of knowledge of the process of rooting using fastboot etc i pushed myself to make the choice. As far as user friendly goes, I think for simpler flashing the Sammy will always win again, as it's processes are far simpler (flashing via odin etc and all the files being ready to flash straight off the bat). However if you're keen for a change then I would recommend the M9. I've only had it a few days really but already i'm glad I did.
Just be sure to look through all the ways of rooting so that you get a better understanding of how its done. I think once the initial unlocking bootloader, rooting and flashing custom recovery is done it;s pretty simple after that. I've got to grips with it already.
One of the main benefits I found with the sammy phones was I was never worried about bricking because there were many different ways to get it back up and running. I dont know how that fares with the M9 but as long as you follow the instructions step by step and have backups available you should be ok.
Sorry for the wall of text, if you need anything else let me know.
Hope that helps.
- edit- also i may have touched on it in a previous post, but i think as far as customizing your phone goes and making it your own, I feel that HTC as a company are much more in tune with "our world" of people who like to change the stock features and put their own touch on things.
Walls of text don't bother me. I'd rather have too much information than not enough. It's going to be the M9 if we can work out the AT&T issues I mentioned in my other thread. I went to the store last night expecting a simple transaction like the bazillion other phone upgrades I've done over the years. Walked out steaming, to say the least. The worst part was the lady helping me majorly projected a "couldn't care less" attitude that is a major pet peeve of mine!

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