Guide to Rooting your Android

Hola amigos!

A bunch of my friends recently expressed their curiosity to know about rooting and the potential advantages and disadvantages that this could cause to your device. And for them, I dedicate this post. A lot of you out there, I know, would definitely be having an Android phone, especially in India I'm sure. And I'm sure you must've heard of rooting and doing miracles to your phone once you do this. Well, the 'miracles' part depends on how you utilize your device after you root it and don't expect miracles as soon as you root your device.

SetCPU allows you to increase
clock speed of your device.
Rooting refers to the process of attaining full-control over the device, i.e, your smartphone or tablet or any other device you have. This is very similar to jailbreaking on iOS devices or getting administrative rights on a Linux system. Now, some of you may think -- "I have no full-access to my device?". Well, obviously  No. You are always restricted to use your android phone as made by the manufacturer and your carrier and thus, you always have limited access to your phone, i.e, you are not exploiting the total potential of your device. Thus, in order to overcome these limitations, you can root your device to attain full access to your device and the OS.

Basically, there are many stuff you can do after root which can be treated as the phone's advantage. Normally, people root to do different stuff on their phone rather than make it look normal with the stock OS or stock rom,we can say. To live with an android which looks just like when it was first shipped is quite boring and normally, people do get bored with their android device after a month or so -- it doesn't change it's look. And even if you update your phone to a higher OS, still the manufacturer will put limitations for the OS on your phone and modify it according to their perspectives. So, even if you download a UI changer from the Play Store, it won't do much change to your phone to make it look different nor it changes the performance. But rooting can do a great lot of "miracles" to your phone to make it look totally different. However, there are a few disadvantages you should be worrying about. For your sake of readability, let me categorize the merits and demerits of rooting for you below.

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+ Advantages
  • Gives you full control of the device and the OS. With this, you can tune up your specs, i.e, increase clock speed and thus optimize the performance of your phone according to your needs.
  • Allows you to install custom ROMs or OSs on your device. This includes the custom made ROMs of Android versions or you can even install a ROM from another manufacturer on your phone which allows you to access the specific manufacturer's special features for their device. If your stock ROM is laggy or doesn't meet your tastes, once rooted, you can always vouch for a different rom and access the features of the rom.
  • Allows you to move apps to sd card. No, not all apps can be moved to your sd card IF you are not rooted. However, once you root, you can move the apps which couldn't be moved before to your sd card freeing up your device's internal memory big time.
  • Allows you to install apps that requires administrative privileges  that is root access to tweak your phone or which needs to access restricted areas of your phone.
  • Rooting process involves the installation of a recovery which replaces your stock one and gives new options including wiping your cache, tweaking your android and even doing a full backup of your device. So, in case the device doesn't boot, you can go to recovery and reset your phone or try a different rom.
- Disadvantages
  • Rooting voids your warranty. However, you can always unroot your device anytime you want to restore it back to it's factory settings but you cannot do it directly. Thus, if your phone gets into trouble anytime, you cannot depend on your manufacturer to fix it for you. But this is not a big deal.
  • Rooting rarely, very rarely, bricks your phone. I've heard it a many times but in my lifetime, I've never bricked a phone by simply rooting it. However, in case if it did damage the recovery, it will be hard to fix the phone.
  • Rooting may make your OS or any apps unstable. This is also a rare case as I've only seen a performance boost in most apps after rooting.
Now, as mentioned above, the main problem with rooting is that it voids warranty. But as mentioned above, you can always unroot it by simply googling on the internet or go back to your stock rom. I'd always recommend rooting as it can give you features which are sometimes, necessary for every droid user. Now, the process of rooting involves fairly a few steps.

The steps to root Android phone
Installing ClockworkMod Recovery is very essential for rooting.
  1. Changing the stock recovery to clockworkmod recovery or any other trusted recoveries using a third party app called ODIN. Now, mobileODIN is also available for download via Play Store. However, using the traditional ODIN is recommended. This is the only process which requires you to connect your phone to your PC.
  2. Now, once clockworkmod is installed, you move your root files to your device.
  3. Now, using the installed recovery, install these root files (basically, this one is named update.zip or superuser.zip) and then reboot your device. Now, your device is rooted.
Since the files involved for rooting, i.e, clockworkmod and update.zip varies, there is no single universal file that applies to all devices during rooting. Therefore, it is recommended you get the specific root files for your device and the clockworkmod recovery before rooting. For example, the root files for an android phone and a tablet varies greatly as both devices vary in several aspects including screen sizes and the specs. Thus, the specific files for the particular device must be used to to a clean root of your device. However, the process of rooting is similar for almost all devices.

Once you root your device, the Superuser icon appears on your menu which allows you access to restricted areas of your system. Credit: DroidLife
For this reason, I cannot provide the specific files for rooting as the files vary for different devices. But you can get the files for your particular device which are 100% tested from the XDA developers website. Head over to XDA forums, and select your device and you will get the instructions to root your device from there. Alternatively, XDA provides mods and patches for your device and custom roms which are compatible with your device. XDA also provides noob-proof video tutorials so that you can do it without any worries. You can also check out Android Authority as they provide noob-proof guides to rooting for various devices as well as tuts to mods and patches. Various One-Click Rooters are also available, however using the traditional method is best recommended. I recommend XDA as almost all the stuff for android comes from here and it is better to follow them than to follow other websites on the internet.

That's all about rooting. I hope you guys are now aware of rooting and understood the concepts and aspects behind it. If you are having any doubts, you can clear it by simply leaving a comment below. You can also ask me if you are having any difficulties in rooting your device.

Till next time, Adios!


References: XDAAndroid AuthorityWikipedia


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