Top 10 reasons to root? - About xda-developers.com

Hi Folks - I'm trying to find the top 10 reasons why phones are rooted. I want to change the way Android is distributed, software is managed and patches are applied. Please list all your reasons that you think are important

There is only one reason to me. Because I own my device and I want the ultimate root control over it. However, I and probably most other people on this site are not representative of the normal population of phone owners that absolutely do not need root access since for them it would be dangerous.

So far, I only have two, but they are important enough to me. I like having free wireless tethering without paying my carrier anymore. Also, I like the ability to backup my apps and other data to my SD card in case I must wipe my phone or transfer it to another phone. Its a shame there is still no official method to do this on Android phones, whereas Apple can do it with their iPhones and iTunes.

Rooting gives me the power to tweak my phone however which way I want and it may also give me access to features found only other phones like S-Voice for example.
The other major reason is performance. I really care about performance and is willing to squeeze out every ounce of performance the hardware is capable of. Of course, a balance of performance plus great battery life is crucial. Rooting allows me ultimate control of my phone.

stevep2007 said:
Hi Folks - I'm trying to find the top 10 reasons why phones are rooted. I want to change the way Android is distributed, software is managed and patches are applied. Please list all your reasons that you think are important
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some of my main reasons (in no particular order) are:
Custom ROMs (although I'm not sure how it works on phones outside of the HD2 )
Ad blockers
Backup/restore abilities (i.e. Titanium Backup)
SetCPU
Market Enabler
A2SD/Link2SD
CF3D
ICS Launchers which can add widgets from the app drawer
Ability to uninstall system apps/bloatware
Generally having full control over my phone and what I do with it

Some of my reasons are
* Custom Roms
* Custom Kernels
* Mods - such as 15 bar toggle e.t.c
* Learn how to theme and cook roms

Excellent extended functionality -- That's what smartphones are for -- FUNCTIONALITY
Titanium Backup, and all the other root apps XD
Breakaway from bloated stock roms -- we WANT SPEED in the custom roms
Updates to the latest OS version -- enjoy the best of Android
That's why I rooted

Only one reason for me: Freedom!

customization
control
superior speed/battery life
less clutter
less intrusive (phoning home)
titanium backup
easy flashing of custom recovery
that said a good oh *bleep* button in case I mess up my phone.

I rooted to install custom ROMS and hopefully get better battery life by getting rid of bloatware. So far much faster, but I'm yet to see battery improvements. Changing kernals is really fun tho.

.for me allways about improving battery life and improving performance with after market mods that the manufacturers don't see as important ie, by debloating and removing all unwanted apps, updating radio firmware to improve cell phone reception, improving kernel optimization and tweaks running new launchers and widgets make to work faster on new os and software versions.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

ROOT ? Own your phone

Destroy bloatware! Free up precious internal memory! Overclock that sucker! Tether my laptop! Plus its excellent to do stuff correctly and NOT brick your phone!

if you have to ask question like that, you shouldn't root your device... but for me, the reason why to root is to gain ultimate control over my device, because it is MY device

For me its just a way not to use google account. I think its unacceptable that they would require personal info and collect such on their costumers. Especially since I payed for a SE product and would like atleast to have a File Manager Installed or be able to use calendar WITHOUT sincing it to some random server. Its just that I red the Terms Of Agreement and I don`t agree some times.
Not that it changes anything in the end....

The ladies appreciate it..?

I just want to full control my device..
and I think it is save because we can reset our phone if it is crashed.. :laugh:

Ad free, titanium Backup, droid Wall, div. Roms, backlight notifications

Now with Verizon including work teather with shared everything why root.... I unrooted mine because of that.....
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium

If you don't know what you do its safe not to root your phone. If you delete system files you phone will not start. I have my phone rooted because i am the boss. Not my phone.

Related

What are the advantages to rooting my Desire?

Presuming it's possible. I've not come across anything I've not been able to do so far.
Also, is there any cases of anyone bricking their Desire doing this? I've never rooted a phone before.
Thanks
No one has done it so...none, no, and no.
Im pretty new to all this myself, but......
at the moment you cannot root the desire, so i doubt anyone has bricked the desire trying.
some of the advantages of rooting the desire are that it will allow people to design custom roms that will be tweaked for better performance or longer battery life or what ever they want, it will also allow apps to be installed on the SD card there for you will not be limited on the size of the rom on the phone. Also i believe it can allow people in countries that dont have access to paid apps the change to access them.
Like i say im quite new to android and this is what i've picked up while having a read.
http : // twitter.com/ paulobrien (minus the spaces created) is your one stop for news about the rooting in progress!!!
When you can Root you have access to system files, which means their will be potential fixes for low volume, and you can also choose the speed that you run your CPU.
Also Rooting enables you to run unsigned ROM's which means you can install. say a custom Nexus Rom on the Desire There is plenty of fun to be had by Rooting your phone))))))))
JD
Great am following that twitter account now, fingers crossed the device gets rooted before the next version comes out
Thanks guys. That's some pretty fun stuff. Better battery life would be good (without removing Sense UI, which is ace). I've no problem with the volume.
That fact you cannot install apps on to the SD card is also just nuts. Most apps are small but those language apps (i.e - Learn Spanish etc...) can be 10Mb+

never rooted before. read the quide. what are the pros/cons?

I've never tried modifying software on phones before, I've done wii's, xbox (original), ps3, ds, etc, and had success with them all, so I'm sure I will have no trouble with the actual process, but my question is simple, why?
right now, the only thing I really want to do that I cannot with a stock rom is change my boot animation. I've seen the "fresh" rom that I hear is one of the more common and liked roms out, and I see little visual difference from the stock one besides removal of some sprint apps (some that I could do without, and some I would have to go and reinstall).
excuse my ignorance, but what exactly would I be gaining out of this besides removing some useless nascar apps and being able to change my boot animation? also, will I have to reinstall all the apps I have downloaded/installed, the settings I've changed, etc? will I have compatibility problems with new apps that I download? will the performance be better or worse, and what about the battery usage?
I tried to look around first and some up everything I had to ask in one general post so others can learn from my curiosity. thanks in advance.
You will gain (in no particular order)
Read/write acess
acess to rooted apps like Titanium backup and wifi thether
Free wifi (with wifi thether and no longer having to foot a 30 dollar add on every month)
change/alter most aspects of the phone , boot animations and other stuff
flash awesome roms including a almost done froyo rom and a host of others
Increased battery life on all of them ( VERY SIGNIFICANT battery life)
Just having the choice to have your burger your way.
Oops , I meant phone.
howdyace said:
You will gain (in no particular order)
Read/write acess
acess to rooted apps like Titanium backup and wifi thether
Free wifi (with wifi thether and no longer having to foot a 30 dollar add on every month)
change/alter most aspects of the phone , boot animations and other stuff
flash awesome roms including a almost done froyo rom and a host of others
Increased battery life on all of them ( VERY SIGNIFICANT battery life)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did it because I was reading about the battery life. I don't know what read/write, boot animations, etc are but I NEED the nice phone to work atleast some of the day on a battery, and with root... it was like night and day for battery life savings on the damagecontrol mod.
howdyace said:
You will gain (in no particular order)
Read/write acess
acess to rooted apps like Titanium backup and wifi thether
Free wifi (with wifi thether and no longer having to foot a 30 dollar add on every month)
change/alter most aspects of the phone , boot animations and other stuff
flash awesome roms including a almost done froyo rom and a host of others
Increased battery life on all of them ( VERY SIGNIFICANT battery life)
Just having the choice to have your burger your way.
Oops , I meant phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have found by simply adding widgets to one of my home screens (wifi, 4g, gps, hotspot, bluetooth, and mobile) and keeping them off when unneeded, in conjunction with using task manager to kill apps after i am done using them, that i have a much better battery life than before. usually i can go through the day without charging it at all now. that is not a major concern now, more battery life is always a good thing though, but i assume that the rom would achieve this much like the way i do.
i duno. maybe i dont know enough about what you can do with read/write access and the other roms, i've seen some pics and info on froyo and while it looks slightly different, its not enough inspiration to root. it has an update all button for apps which is nice, but i really didnt see anything else completely a must have or really convenient. i guess ill have to look into the roms more to decide if it's worth it
most of the stuff you see and that the average user would care about...do not require root. just using different launchers (adw.launcher, helix, launcherpro, etc) and things like "smart shortcuts" and "Flikies HD" and "digital clock widget" allow me to get my visual layout...none of them require root.
this was my screen before root...it's not much different now.
hxxp://forum.xda-developers. com/showpost.php?p=6780015&postcount=219
why climb mt everest?
why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?
i like being able to take an 'image' of my phone (ie: like ghost for computers)
titanium backup is really quite handy...but really only for those that reload the phone's os on a regular basis.
i like seeing the # prompt in the cli. (but really, how many folks do?)

[Q] Reasons to root?

Hey guys, this had been posted in other forums, but I wanted some specific answers from play users.
I've been wanting to root my play for a while in order to freeze apps/control the cpu for improved battery life, and now that there is that great guide from typikal, it finally seems do able.
My question its, beyond freezing/deleting bloatware, what do you guys do with your rooted phones? What features do some of the more popular roms offer? I really like stock android, would that be a mistake to root and just run a vanilla 2.3.3 rom?
Thanks for all the responses and information, I think I'm getting a handle on this android stuff finally.
My only reason for Rooting was because the memory sucks and I needed to move my games to the SD card. I don’t pirate and I don't just install anything do to the high malware rates.
I only do it so I can get rid of all the useless pre-installed crap that comes on the phone
I hate having stuff I don't use
And so I can use quick reboot apps
Thanks for the replies. What can you guys tell me about the more popular roms, like Cyanogen? What extra features would this rom bring to the table that I would presumably want?
And, is it even possible to flash to a stock 2.3.3 rom on the R800x?
I haven't tried the ROMs yet. I'm waiting for them to be more complete.
Rooting means to have complete control about how your OS works (note: OS, not device). It is something that we as users should demand to have toggled/toggleable by default, at least if we have bought the phone without carrier subsidies. After all, we have root access over the personal computers we buy, and we buy them without subsidies either. Smartphones are personal computers with phone capabilities, so they should not be any different in that aspect.
Extra features usually allowed by rooting, plus customised ROMs are moving all apps to SD, overclocking, wifi tethering, system-wide backups (that is, to safely back up all your phone's data) and so on. Note that you need to unlock your bootloaders as well, for custom ROMs to be installed.
Note that you don't need root to pirate anything.
I agree with logseman that we should have full access without worrying about warranties.
But on the other have there are a lot of noobs that will screw everything up. lol
Although screwing things up is how we learn in the first place.
Edit: Something as simple as taking a screen shot or disabling the auto brightness should not require root access. (Root access is basically the Administrator account in Linux.)
We screw up our PC's in a daily basis and noone will close the software. The reason why people have no control over their device is that the one giving the subsidy (the carrier) is the real end customer of the phone.

[Q] Complete Noob Need Help

Basically I've been a iOS user since the 3GS and I'm now switching to android via the Play.
The apps I'm not worried about as I'm sure they're on the andoid marketplace what I want to know is can I run emulators (I'm not interested in custom ROMs etc atm) and maybe try out different themes without rooting?
If not and I have to root will I still a) have access to PS Pocket and play optimized games and b) receive ICS from SE in the middle of this year?
Cheers.
You can run emulators without root, but for some theming you will need to root, you can customise things like the launcher without root though..
If you do root, it wont affect ps pocket, play optimised games or future updates.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk
I believe that sums it up Andro.
[q] can root avoid to upgrade / playstation pocket?
i wish to corroborate
I am readed different information about this matter, some people say that rooting avoid to upgrade the system while other says otherwise.
So, is it "safe" to root?.
Thanks.
Rooting is relatively safe proceedure I rooted my phone ith thereto of allessandro and some cash easy peasy. with rooted phone you get a lot of swell features that speed up the phone and improve game play. my inability to read directions has caused causedto break my phone but and this is huge because I outed it I was able to fix all the problems ive encountered and learn in the process. I strongly suggest rooting the phone and reading directions. there is a lot of benefits tohaving a rooted phone personally getting rid of the bloat ware was a good enough reason for md. there are tweaks that improve graphics increase cpu speed enable you to have more control of your phone and you will be able to update your phone with firm ware xda geniuses release I knows they even have a nearly full functioning icecream sandwitch firmware out. I too switched from iphone and im never going back because now i hav full control my phone. mupen is a great emulator. Anyway sorry about rambling butill I hope this helps make up your mind you'll love this phone f&$# iphone and their frivolous lawsuits over embedded phone numbers technology impeading mother #[email protected]$rs
manwhosoldtheworld said:
Rooting is relatively safe proceedure I rooted my phone ith thereto of allessandro and some cash easy peasy. with rooted phone you get a lot of swell features that speed up the phone and improve game play. my inability to read directions has caused causedto break my phone but and this is huge because I outed it I was able to fix all the problems ive encountered and learn in the process. I strongly suggest rooting the phone and reading directions. there is a lot of benefits tohaving a rooted phone personally getting rid of the bloat ware was a good enough reason for md. there are tweaks that improve graphics increase cpu speed enable you to have more control of your phone and you will be able to update your phone with firm ware xda geniuses release I knows they even have a nearly full functioning icecream sandwitch firmware out. I too switched from iphone and im never going back because now i hav full control my phone. mupen is a great emulator. Anyway sorry about rambling butill I hope this helps make up your mind you'll love this phone f&$# iphone and their frivolous lawsuits over embedded phone numbers technology impeading mother #[email protected]$rs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note: Before he started rambling, he was actually talking about unlocking the bootloader, not rooting the phone (big difference.)
Rooting is done to give yourself administrator privileges on your phone, so you can edit system files (useful for fully restoring apps, memory tweaks, and just all around control of your phone)
Unlocking the bootloader is what allows you to flash kernels and custom roms that require kernels. Big difference.
i am a noob also
i am new to android also ,and i strongly recommend rooting, you get only benefitsfrom it ,and there is no problem with OTA if your dont delete system apps(bloat)...if you do delete system apps make a backup with titanium(root) before.
you can also install a recovery(CWM) and make a nandroid ...to me android makes no sense without root... here are a couple of apps that require root
adfree...block ads
change shoulder button...activates s button for media ,net and camera
droidwall...android firewall enable/disable 3g or wifi on selected apps
root explorer...superuser file browser
script manager...runs scripts like supercharge
titanium...makes backup of apps and data
SystemeCleanup...i use it to change system apps to data and vise versa
wireless tether...lets you use your 3G network for other devices(laptop,PSP)
sorry i dont usually write alot but i just cant sleep

Rooting this phone, what's the point?

As the title asks, whats the point of rooting this phone? It doesn't help that unlocking bootloader isn't free, it doesn't have a lot of roms/kernels for it either? And in a performance stand point, would those kernels/roms improve performance even? Hence this is on stock android, youd automatically assume its optimisation would be A+, tho, not for this phone in terms of ram management, but what about CPU and GOU performance? Ive asked on kernel posts and none have answered, leading me wondering, and I'm obviously no pro and just want to really know what's going on with "improved gpu effeciency" sort of updates to kernels, like, i get what it means, but in what way? Does if give more fps to games or something? . Granted that rooting gives you more freedom to do anything, but theres a big draw regarding to privacy, which is no problem to me, of course, but some apps like bank apps disable access to rooted devices, does exposed work for pie or is it still in development?
Tldr
All I'm asking is it worthit?
Do roms improve performance?
Do the kernels improve performance regarding games and such?(on my good ol phone the zenfone 2 it did, quite a lot)
Is exposed fully working for pie?
I've not bothered to unlock this phone. I will, however, say that even if the custom roms only have comparable performance, it would be worth it just to be rid of the Evenwell task killer Nokia allowed to be bundled into the stock rom, as long as the custom roms are problem free.
I just unlocked cuz it's cool to have root, themes etc. Regarding roms look here
Plenty of development for treble enabled devises.
Downside I guess is when u got twrp installed one will no longer recieve system updates untill one installs custom rim.
You right, root gives you more freedom that stock on any phone ever made will never provide, sadly.
Sent from my Nokia 6.1 using XDA Labs
I am unlocked since July 2018. Sadly, custom roms are not bug-free and I was lacking important features for day-to-day usage (alot of issues with treble roms and hotspot for instance, which is mandatory for me since it is my only internet access point). Every time I try roms (aospex/treble) I finally come back to stock because at least, almost everything I need is working.
Imo, it would be better to stay on stock. Magisk (+xposed if you want this specific module) is working on Pie. You just gotta uninstall Magisk partly before applying Nokia's OTAs (but as of now, with the improved system-as-root support, it may not even be necessary in a few updates, who knows).
Btw, you still get otas when unlocked, + never flash twrp and just boot the image using fastboot when needed, that way you'll avoid lots of trouble
If you have to ask about it then just don't do it
I couldn't imagine how bored I'd get with my 6.1 without root. No themes, no modules, no way to downgrade etc

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