What is Rooting on Android? The Advantages and Disadvantages
83“What is rooting? Why should I root my Android device?” These are common questions that I get asked quite often. Today’s lesson is to talk to you about both the advantages and disadvantages of rooting your Android devices. But before we get started, a word of caution: rooting or modifying your phone in any way will void your manufacturer’s warranty and possibly “brick” it. What does “bricking” your device mean you ask? Exactly what you think… It means screwing up your phone software so badly that your phone can no longer function properly and is pretty much as useless as a brick. I do not in any way recommend anyone to root their Android device. This article is simply to introduce you to the subject of rooting and present you with both the pro’s and con’s so that you can make an educated decision on your own.
What is Rooting?
“Rooting” your device means obtaining “superuser” rights and permissions to your Android’s software. With these elevated user privileges, you gain the ability to load custom software (ROM’s), install custom themes, increase performance, increase battery life, and the ability to install software that would otherwise cost extra money (ex: WiFi tethering). Rooting is essentially “hacking” your Android device. In the iPhone world, this would be the equivalent to “Jailbreaking” your phone.
Why is it called Rooting?
The term “root” comes from the Unix/Linux world and is used to describe a user who has “superuser” rights or permissions to all the files and programs in the software OS (Operating System). The root user, because they have “superuser” privileges, can essentially change or modify any of the software code on the device. You see, your phone manufacturer/carrier only gives you “guest” privileges when you purchase your device. They do this for good reason… they don’t want you getting into certain parts of the software on your phone and screwing it up beyond repair. It makes it much easier for them to manage and update the devices if they lock it all down. This way, all the users are running the same unmodified version of the phone’s software. This makes it much easier for them to support the devices. But, for the tech-savvy crowd, only having “guest” privileges on your device is pretty lame and it locks down a lot of potentially useful features.
What are the Advantages of Rooting?
Custom Software (ROM’s)
You may have heard of people loading custom “ROM’s” on their devices. A “ROM” is the software that runs your device. It is stored in the “Read Only Memory” of your device. There are many great custom ROM’s available that can make your Android device look and perform drastically different. For instance, you might be stuck with an older Android device that is stuck on an older version of the Android OS and it is not getting any of the newer updated versions of Android. With a custom ROM, you could load up the latest and greatest available Android versions and bring that antiquated device up to par with some of the newer ones. There are lots of great ROM’s available for many different phones and it is up to you to find the one that best meets your needs. The best place that I have found to find custom ROM’s for Android devices is the XDA Developers Forums. The XDA community is filled with smartphone enthusiasts and developers for the Android platform. Check them out and see if you find any ROM’s that would meet your needs. [Link Here]
Custom Themes
Themes are basically the graphics that appear on your Android device. Rooting your device allows you the ability to fully customize just about every graphic on your device. You can load custom themes that totally change the look and feel of your device. Here are some examples: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=527
Kernel, speed, and battery
There are many custom ROM’s and apps available for rooted devices that will allow you to drastically improve the performance (speed) and also extend battery life on your device. A lot of developers tweak the kernels (layer of code that handles communication between the hardware and software) for added performance, battery life, and more.
Baseband
Rooting your device grants you the ability to update the Basebands on your smartphone. The Baseband is what controls the radio on your device. By updating to the latest Basebands, you can potentially improve both the signal and quality of your phone calls.
Latest Versions of Android
As mentioned earlier, custom ROM’s can allow you to update to the latest version of the Android OS before they are officially released. This is a great feature for those who are tech-savvy and want to stay on top of the latest and greatest software updates before it hits the mainstream crowd. This is also useful if you have an outdated device that is no longer being updated by the manufacturer.
Backing up your device
The ability to easily backup all of your Apps and Data is one feature that is sorely missed on the stock build of Android devices. But if you root your device, backing up everything on your device (both apps and data) becomes a simple task. Titanium Backup is a must have app for anyone who has rooted their devices and wants to backup and restore their phones. [Market Link]
Unlocking Additional Features
By rooting your Android device you also gain the ability to unlock some features that your carrier may charge for. One example is enabling free WiFi and USB tethering, which many carriers charge money for. Now, I’m not suggesting you do this. But I did want to make you aware of the fact that it is possible to do this. However, your carrier may catch on to the fact that you are using your device as a free WiFi hotspot and figure out a way to charge you for it. So use this feature at your own risk!
What are the Disadvantages of Rooting?
Bricking
The number one reason not to root your device is the potential risk of “bricking” it. As mentioned earlier, “bricking” your device means screwing up your phone software so badly that your phone can no longer function properly and is pretty much as useless as a brick. You would likely need to purchase a new Android device since the manufacturer of your device will void the warranty after any attempts at rooting.
Security
There is an increased risk of unknowingly installing malicious software when you root an Android device. Root access circumvents the security restrictions that are put in place by the Android OS. There isn’t really an effective way to tell just what the application intends to do with that “superuser” power. You are putting a lot of trust into the developer’s hands. In most cases, these applications are open source and the community can take a look at the source code to assess the risk. But, nevertheless, the risk is there. Fortunately, malicious software on rooted devices hasn’t really been a problem as of yet. But I thought it was worth mentioning since this could be a potential risk in the future. I’d recommend installing an Anti-Virus and Security App just to be safe. Lookout Mobile Security seems to be one of the best ones available at the moment. [Link Here]
Can I Unroot my device if I change my mind?
Yes. You would need to do some research for your specific type of device. As mentioned earlier, the XDA Developer Forums is the best place to start. [Link Here]
How do I learn how to root my device?
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to teach someone how to root their Android device. Each device has a unique method to rooting and some research most be done on your part. As I mentioned earlier, the best place to start would be the XDA Developer Forums. [Link Here] Another option is to simply Google your model phone and the term root (ex. “HTC EVO root”). Have fun and good luck to all of you! I hope you found this lesson on rooting to be helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Great post John, super helpful. Thank you!
Thanks. Lovelly explanation.I did not not know what “rooting” meant.
OMG! You’re a great teacher. I’ve been researching Droid phone rooting for 4 days now and couldn’t find a clear answer. You answered it in a paragraph! Will you to a tutorial on rooting and unrooting your Droid? Thanks again for the clear and concise lessons!
Thanks for the kind words! I plan on adding more lessons on how to root and unroot specific devices in the near future. Stay tuned!
I definitely agree fully with this post. very informative. I am 3 for 3 with rooting so far. Havent bricked anyone yet lol
Good explanation. Thank you. Can rooting enable me to block various apps from running in the background? Advanced Task Killer will stop them once started, but how to stop them in the first place! I do not really want to root but is this the only way to control this continual drain on battery? Thanks much.
well..a to-the-point explanation of rooting..really it is worth reading..quite helpful article..great!!
excellent article
good explanation
easily understandable to beginners
thanx alot
keep rocking
Is there a way to root a Froyo 2.2.2 phone, such as the Gigabyte Gsmart G1310? I have one and couldn’t root it using either z4root or universal androot. Thank you!
Your explanation is so concise. You appear to have a wealth of knowledge and the willingness to share it. I thank you.
Very nice explanation on pros & cons of rooting. Thanks a lot.
Thank you very very much, i am googling about android and rooting, etc.
Ur info is much helped for me.
I am going to buy LG p500 in couple of days..
Before seeing ur post, I thought to root the phone after buying..
But after seeing ur info, I have no dare to root my device…
As u said, it may become brick…if any failure occurs..
thank you
Great, fantastic
Thank you very much, I am very poor of mobile knowledge
thanks so much this was very helpful too ^_^ I have a question about the unrooting part. If i unroot my phone for whatever reason does that mean it will go back to normal? Normal in the sense that the warranty will be restored?
No problem! Glad you found this article to be helpful. In regards to your question… yes, if you unroot your phone then that would restore it back to its original state. BUT, unrooting isn’t always a simple step and just like when rooting your device… it is very possible the device can be bricked and the warranty voided. So I would recommend doing some research on your specific model phone first before proceeding.
Amazing Article !
I just known whats rooting, and I meet these !
I will start researching on my HTC Incredible S !
I will come back to you John, if there`s a problem !
Hope everything goes well !
By the way, Thanks !
thank you sooooooooooo much….
gr8 info…was very useful…keep up the good work!!
thanks for this john. informative and unbias. great article really.
also, can you kindly make a article on how to share internet from PC to android usb. been googling it all day but no avail.
thanks in advance for your help.
No problem! Glad you enjoyed the article.
I’ll work on making a lesson for sharing internet on Android this week. Thanks for the idea!
terrific article. I am new to the droid market and this made a very confusing subject clear and easy. thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks Steve! I appreciate the kind words. Hope some of the other lessons on the website can help you as well!
Thank you John for the information.
I was soo going to root my phone until I read your article about “bricking” a phone.
However, I have a question.
In case I do manage to “brick” it, and the warranty gets void, does it mean the phone gets completely uselles, or can I get it repaired by paying some money.?
No problem, Aditi!
Yes, it is possible to “unbrick” devices. But it doesn’t always work and it may be a complicated procedure depending on what is going on with your device.
Great article!!! I’m new to Android (ex-iphone user) and do not know all the terms used in Droid language. Thanks for keeping it in English
Thanks Fred! Welcome to the world of Android. Glad I could help you learn some of the terminology. Hope you find the rest of the site helpful as well!
what about phones that are flashed when their rooted will i lose the flash
Thank you very much for the crystal clear explanation. Keep up the good work !
I wanted to know when you root your phone can you call from it when your phone service is cut off is there a way where you can call from it
good afternoon sir. Your website has been really really helpful to me. I don’t have an android phone yet, i’m still planning to buy LG Optimus 2x, and i’m doing a research about android. i have few question though. i hope you answer them. How do I know that to use a particular application, I need to root the phone first? Do I need to root the phone to change the user interface? If i’m going to download a game, do i still need to root the phone? if somehow the android gingerbread OS come out for LG optimus 2x, would the LG automatically update the phone for us or I have to do it myself manually? thank you so much. I hope to hear from you soon.
1) Most apps don’t require you to Root your Android device. They will usually tell you in the description of the app if it does require Root access.
2) You don’t have to root your device to be able to modify the user interface. There are lots of apps available that can do that for you such as: LauncherPro, GoLauncher, Beautiful Widgets, and many others.
3) Games are available via the Android Market on both rooted and non-rooted devices
4) OS updates are handled by the manufacturer/service carrier you are with. They usually provide OS updates for recently launched devices… although eventually the device you own will no longer be supported and then you can count on the great Android Dev Community to provide the latest OS updates for rooted devices.
wow. thank you so much sir. you’ve been such a great help and you’ve answered my questions perfectly. you and your site is now my official support when it comes to android. thanks again and more power.
No problem!
Thanks for visiting the site and hope you enjoy the other lessons!
ohkayyy!!! but i seriously am still confused!! i do not know whether i shud take an android coz its cool or if a normal os phone shud do!! im an animation and vfx student. and my general use would be surfing the net, a lil downloading here n there (u know apps,images n other stuff)
could you help me choose between an android (sony ericsson xperia mini pro) and a smartphone ( samsung galaxy wave 2)?!!!
thanx!!
Definitely go for an Android! You can do so much with these smartphones. What carrier will you be using? Sprint/Verizon/AT&T? That will help us recommend a certain model for you.
this all seems sooo complicated! carrier?!! vodafone i think….
dont u think an unlocked/normal gsm phone should do?
though i didnt root my droid still the way you narrated shows clarity on the subject n your patience to share it to all
simply awesome…
keep doing ..
Thanks Abhi! I appreciate the kind words!
Dear John A.
untill now i still not decide which i need to root droid or not, can u give some advice, my problem i want to root because my internal storage was low due to so many factory app taht cannot be deleted.. Pls help me mr John A..
Great question. Head on over to the Android forums to discuss with our community! http://www.droidlessons.com/forums
I have a Q:
if i root my phone, can i set a password like with linux / unix i’ll have to enter?
can i choose for it to run normally under guest privileges, and only when i need it to run as root?
does it mean that new applications don’t need to request permissions when installing?
Yes, you can use an app named SuperUser. It can manage what apps are allowed to access protected areas of your system. Discuss this and any other questions with our community! http://www.droidlessons.com/forums
Hi John,
First of all, I ‘d like to say I’ve read a lot and your post is by far the best and most helpful.
However, I’m stuck that’s why I never stop researching. I’m not a tech savvy, but I managed to read enough to find out that with 2.3.3 I cant root my phone unless i unlock bootloader.. So i did that successfully.
One problem, I cant seem to root my phone through GingerBreak, seemed like an easy process but mine took 20 minutes everytime, They said its not supposed to take more than ten and to reboot it.
So i did. But still didn’t work, Lost my mobile data connection. had to reconfigure through optus. It’s now working, not as well as it used to, dropping signal here and there.
As i said i’m not a tech savvy and about to give up because I’m not brave enough to go further and try the other ways. So i was wondering that if i leave my phone boot unlocked will it do the phone any harm ?
Thank you so much in advance.
Hi Pani,
Thanks for the kind words and visiting our site! In regards to your rooting questions, please visit our forums so that we can discuss your issues over there: http://www.droidlessons.com/forums. There is a section dedicated to rooting issues & questions. Please list what specific model device you have and we’ll see if there are any ways to root or undo some of the steps you’ve taken.
Will rooting my phone interfere with future OS upgrades from my carrier? They are in the very slow process of rolling out Gingerbread.
Yes, it can interfere with future Android updates for your device. But, in general, there are lots of ROMs available that can bring your phone up-to-date with the latest versions of Android (Gingerbread included) before your carrier even offers it. This is a great thing for older phones that no longer get updates. The Android community continues to support them even when the carriers won’t.
This is a very good article to understand rooting. The Indian subcontinental users are disappointed with not supporting devnagiri script in android. why android lacks full unicode ? Do you have any idea of getting devnagiri support or full Unicode so that every language can be read.
very very very good post dude
great article
thank you for sharing it.
Great article. I’m considering rooting my new bionic (my first android phone) but I’m thinking it may be better to wait until the bugfix is released in November. (I’ve heard it may be difficult to get such updates while rooted). Do you have any information on the Bionic (and 2.3.4 in general for that matter) ?
Thanks Nicholas! Yes, we have an article on rooting the Droid Bionic here: http://droidlessons.com/how-to-root-and-unroot-the-droid-bionic/
Hope that helps!
Great explanation! It is so refreshing to see tech talk in plain English. I may or may not root my Droid 2 but, thanks to your article, I understand fully the pros and cons. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Pat! I really appreciate the kind words and I’m glad you found it to be helpful.
Hi,
Thanks for great article.
Can you suggest a site to learn on how to Root the device in-spite of using the apps available in Google search.
Thanks so much for an informative read. The world needs more people like you….hahaha…am serious. Am about to root my ideos. Would you recommend it? Coz am thinking the ads are so vast. So what do you think. Your answer will determine everything. Thanks so much
No problem, I’m glad I was able to help you learn about rooting!
Which Ideos model do you have? Rooting the Ideos might unlock alot more features… like newer versions of the Android OS and better ROMs. So it might be worth it. It just depends what you are interested in. Check out the Rooting section of our Forums and we can discuss it in more detail.
What a great article John..!!
Because of you i leaned so much about rooting, this is extremely helpful for someone who doesn’t know much about the Android world yet. Thank you
thanks very much for such a great lesson
can anybody help me to use hindi language on samsung galaxy sII
plz. mail on akhilsood2007 AT gmail.com
thanks and regards
akhil
Good detailed work. Keep it up.
Thanks a lot for such a useful & easy explanation for a newbie like me in Android market. I was about to root my LG GT540 Optimus phone, then I came across this article of yours. This is being of very much help to me.
Thanks, thanks a lot!!!
thx 4 da awesome article jz learned lots of things!!
hey bro is rooting compulsory for updating
Thank you sooooo much john. I’m gonna buy myself a Samsung galaxy player 4.0 and i saw this and learned what rooting is and that I don’t want to root it. One thing tho can I get apps for free if I root it?
No problem! Thanks for visiting the site, I’m glad you found it helpful.
Free apps are available whether you root the device or not. But just be careful when dealing with pirated apps… they may have malicious code in them. I always recommend users to stick with apps from the Android Market. Even if you have to pay for an app, most apps don’t cost too much and you are supporting the developers.
Thanks again,i have an ipod touch,so do u think i should go buy myself a samsung player 4.0? I hear it rocks more than the ipod. thanks in advance,and plz tell me what ur next lesson is!
John A: While many have already thanked you, I also want to express my thanks for this very helpful article. I now have a much clearer understanding of the tradeoffs (pros/cons) with rooting !! I do still have a question: If I root my android phone, will the “Market” app continue functioning the same way? For example, if I launch Market on a rooted phone and select “My Apps” option, will Market continue to show all my installed apps (previously installed via Market), as well as, show any available updates for installed apps? Thanks for your reply in advance !! — Regards, DaveH
Yes, rooted devices can still have access to the Android Market. Rooting Android devices does not disable that feature. Thanks for visiting the website and I’m glad you found this article helpful!
great article.. very informative …
thank you very much
Hello John ! Its an awesome article. I just want to know regarding the bricking issue. Does that bricking problem occurs only while the process of rooting the device (or) even though after the device has been routed and its in use for some days ?
Hi Vamsi, the “bricking” issue would generally only occur during the rooting process. Once you are successfully rooted, you don’t really have to worry about it anymore. There are also many tools out now that help users to “unbrick” their device.
Thanq very much John, it helped me a lot. And if you dont mind, will you please let me know whether there’s an upgrade for Motorola Charm MB502 with 2.1 os to 2.2 or not. I’ve tried in many websites, but nowhere i can find it. (I’ve already rooted my mobile)
Very welcome!
From what I found, the Motorola Charm will be staying on 2.1. You can check out the Motorola Support page here.
nice , thanks
Excellent explanation john !! can you pls tell me by which app (eg: z4root) i can root my lg optimus one (android 2.2.3)
1)i’ve updated my lg p500 officially from 2.2.1 to 2.3.3…..if i root my mobile,will it cause any problem.?????..
2)after rooting a smartphone successfully ,is there any chance of BRICKING??
Rooting has the potential to cause issues. Just review the Advantages & Disadvantages in the article above and determine whether the risk is worth it for you. Once you are successfully rooted, you don’t really have to worry about it anymore.
Dear sir, not only your explanation was brilliantly helpful, but also you are a very kind hearted, respectful, knowledgeable, and extraordinarily patient man. Just on behalf of everybody i’d like to thank you from the bottom of our heart. We all love your work, your other articles including this one,as well as your habit of writing replies to almost every comment. Salute to your hardwork.
Thank you so much for the kind words!
I’m really glad this article has been so helpful for you and others. It makes running this website very rewarding.
Thanks to your,I have decided to buy my family and I android products and possibly root them! I have never read any other articles you wrote,but certainly will! Also you reply instantly to all people who write a comment. Thank you my dear friend and I’ll cya later,for sure. So you will be seeing a lot of me
worthy words for android device holders and I’m one of them. thanks man.
hey just wondering, i bout a droid and the person before me had it rooted and stuff, but he told me he was going to restore it and take it all off. everythings stock, but it has the app superuser. does this mean its allready rooted? i was going to root it myself but im not sure if it already is rooted
Having the Superuser app does not necessarily mean that you are rooted. I would suggest trying to use a root-only app to see if it works. Search the Android Market for apps like Wireless Tether or Titanium Backup and see if they work. If they do, then you know the rooting process was successful on your Droid.
Very nice explanations.. its useful too..