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I read the wiki but it only tells you "Why you should" root your phone. Obviously Google removed root from the latest firmware for a reason. If its for security reasons, how can you be "safe" with a rooted phone? Can you still download paid apps from the App store with a rooted phone? How well does the Apps on the SD card work? The main reason I would want to root my phone is for the SD card app feature. The G1 space sucks ass and its constantly telling me I am low on space.
When you root your phone, it automatically installs an app called "SuperUser" (assuming you're using one of JesusFreke's builds). SuperUser allows you to control which applications have root privileges.
Also, Google probably removed root because of stuff like the fact that it enables you to copy protected apps and the like... and even if they didn't know at the time, they probably knew that it would happen
Superuser protects your phone by allowing programs you give permission to that use root. I can still see paid apps in the Market (I haven't bought any yet, but I will). I didn't move my apps onto my SD card because Paragon Partition Manager froze during the partitioning and I had to reinstall Vista .
The only con is that you have to wait for JF's updates
I believe I also read here that rooting your phone voids your warrenty, so if you have a problem with it make sure you switch back to the official firmware before sending it in
androidmonkey said:
I read the wiki but it only tells you "Why you should" root your phone. Obviously Google removed root from the latest firmware for a reason. If its for security reasons, how can you be "safe" with a rooted phone? Can you still download paid apps from the App store with a rooted phone? How well does the Apps on the SD card work? The main reason I would want to root my phone is for the SD card app feature. The G1 space sucks ass and its constantly telling me I am low on space.
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Click to collapse
I'll try to answer your questions the best I can:
-I don't work for Google so be advised this IS pure speculation on my part. With that said, I think they removed root access for the masses to avoid the possibility of folks having their Android handsets compromised by malicious apps.
Though, having root doesn't necessarily mean this WILL happen to you.
So long as you have common sense, and know better to install apps from questionable sources, you'll be fine. Additionally, the JesusFreke firmwares have a "SuperUser Whitelist" app that will ask for escalated privileges whenever a process requires root.
This is provided as another layer of security.
So to say it again, do not allow apps/processes to run unless you KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY DO. Follow that and you won't have any problems.
-Market apps can be installed and used without issue. I have dozens apps installed (and yes, a few paid apps as well) and have had ZERO issues with them. Matter of fact, if you look through the market, you'll see several cool apps that require root (Task Manager, WiFi Tether, etc).
-Far as installing and running apps from the sdcard, I'll defer to someone else because I haven't done it myself. I prefer to wait until an easier, or official method becomes available. Though, I have moved the various caches (Web, Maps, Market, etc) to the sdcard without issue.
That helps to conserve space with the internal memory.
Hopefully that helps you.
Thanks for all the replies. So is it safe to say that if I only install apps from the Android Market I should be safe? Can programs on the Android Market be malicious? Hopefully Google is monitoring the applications for malicious code.
So, what is the "best" guide to use for rooting a RC33 phone?
programs on the market could possibly be malicious, read reviews, i found a game that said it needed the internet, gps, and some other stuff in order to work, but yet the app never used any of those features in the actual gameplay, thus i removed it and reported it as malicious because i frankly don't feel that it should need access to things it isn't gonna use. a general rule is that if a single person said it was malicious then don't install it, and never be the first to install an app. let someone else break their phone first
The only con for rooting your phone is that people who don't know any better usually end up bricking it. "oooh root yay! i don't know what it duz bat it sounds cool! oh no! i brcked it halp plz"
And you can still unbrick your phone pretty easily.
IzzeLing said:
The only con for rooting your phone is that people who don't know any better usually end up bricking it. "oooh root yay! i don't know what it duz bat it sounds cool! oh no! i brcked it halp plz"
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Click to collapse
lol, your quote can be used on a LOL Cat.
i wouldnt say that waiting for the updates is technically waiting, when you have a rooted phone...
at least for me, i must have been on the bottom of t-mobile's randomized IMEI list when it came to updates.. I used to see people all around me have updates for weeks before me. Coincidentally i was the first to have mine... but the updates are released right from the google site, plus the wait time for JF and others to work their magic.
cant complain with a rooted phone, if anyone is skeptical about it... you CAN reverse the process
the.snks said:
-Far as installing and running apps from the sdcard, I'll defer to someone else because I haven't done it myself. I prefer to wait until an easier, or official method becomes available. Though, I have moved the various caches (Web, Maps, Market, etc) to the sdcard without issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've moved my apps and caches to the sdcard and now I never have to worry about running low on space.
I followed one of the tutorials about moving the apps, but when paid apps came out, I had some problems. The solution was to move not only the "app" directory but also the "app-private" directory to the sdcard. Once I did that, everything was fine. I am able to install both free and paid apps with no problems. I'm very glad I did it -- no regrets.
I have an 8gb sdcard and I partitioned 1gb to apps and caches (ext2 format) and 7gb to data (fat32 format).
unknown.soul said:
Superuser protects your phone by allowing programs you give permission to that use root. I can still see paid apps in the Market (I haven't bought any yet, but I will). I didn't move my apps onto my SD card because Paragon Partition Manager froze during the partitioning and I had to reinstall Vista .
The only con is that you have to wait for JF's updates
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting may be safe to people like you all, but rooting is definitely the downside of android. Sd card blank and file recognition errors are the opposition to what android has made. I will not root my phone again because of the unexpected long term damage this has caused to my phone. I will tell my friends not to root their phone unless they want to turn their android to ruins. These kind of problems happen for absolutely no reason at all.
ri123 said:
Rooting may be safe to people like you all, but rooting is definitely the downside of android. Sd card blank and file recognition errors are the opposition to what android has made. I will not root my phone again because of the unexpected long term damage this has caused to my phone. I will tell my friends not to root their phone unless they want to turn their android to ruins. These kind of problems happen for absolutely no reason at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree with the statement "downside". Android is about open source and customization. The downside to root is that you need to spend a bit of extra time playing with your phone when it doesn't end up going the way you planned or there are bugs in a new Rom. Other than the extra time on the phone, I have not run into a downside. I have not looked back since I rooted.
Sent from my Kang Banged Dinc2
ri123 said:
Rooting may be safe to people like you all, but rooting is definitely the downside of android. Sd card blank and file recognition errors are the opposition to what android has made. I will not root my phone again because of the unexpected long term damage this has caused to my phone. I will tell my friends not to root their phone unless they want to turn their android to ruins. These kind of problems happen for absolutely no reason at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I 100% disagree with this statment. having a rooted phone in itself will not cause any errors. even the process of rooting won't brick a phone or cause problems (so long as you understand what you are doing). although there is the way out in right field chance of something going even if everything is done right (very hard to brick a phone if you truley know what you are doing and are sober at the time)
android has always been and (hopefully) always will be open source. the android code it self in pure aosp is in fact rooted. it is the carriers and cell phone makers and such that lock the bootloader and deny privalage. as any linux user knows it is easily possible to damage you phone/pc/etc if you don't know what you are doing, but having root privalage in itself causes no harm - only to the novice.
this stament of unexpected long term damaged caused by root is false, it was caused by someone not knowing what they were doing and shouldn't have root privalages in the first place.
*excuse my spelling errors as rooting a phone doesn't improve my gramar/spelling*
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
demkantor said:
I 100% disagree with this statment. having a rooted phone in itself will not cause any errors. even the process of rooting won't brick a phone or cause problems (so long as you understand what you are doing). although there is the way out in right field chance of something going even if everything is done right (very hard to brick a phone if you truley know what you are doing and are sober at the time)
android has always been and (hopefully) always will be open source. the android code it self in pure aosp is in fact rooted. it is the carriers and cell phone makers and such that lock the bootloader and deny privalage. as any linux user knows it is easily possible to damage you phone/pc/etc if you don't know what you are doing, but having root privalage in itself causes no harm - only to the novice.
this stament of unexpected long term damaged caused by root is false, it was caused by someone not knowing what they were doing and shouldn't have root privalages in the first place.
*excuse my spelling errors as rooting a phone doesn't improve my gramar/spelling*
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
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Click to collapse
To prevent factory reset bricking I had to move to a different Rom. I knew what I was doing. I returned to stock Rom and factory reset, and every zip I downloaded from my computer could not be recognised properly by my phone.
I know that android is based on pure root, but who should I blame if something goes wrong with my phone? Every rooted phone becomes faulty, why should I pay extra just because I can't download anymore roms?
Think about the random percentage of people that have had their phones bricked just because of rooting problems. I am one of them.
Your statement "only to the novice" is something I disagree with.
I remember when I read a thread about someone's Samsung Vibrant getting hard bricked all of a sudden! Or when I read a Sony Ericsson touchscreen refusing to work after light debugging. These people will most likely be paying for their android phones.
In a way, I do not completely disagree with you. In a way I believe that Android should start believing in its roots.
For the moment, I do not know who to blame for the mess my phone is in. I didn't do things wrong on purpose. So maybe it is better not to root. Maybe it is more advisable to complain to the creator of your phone if there is not "enough", or if there is too much bloatware. Maybe Android should be fixing my HTC! I need to stop all this unnecessary refusal from happening on my android. This is why I find the essence of rooting initially bad. When there is no limits, something can go wrong.
Please may I let you know that my touchscreen is mostly unresponsive. I will be surprised if I have got all of my spelling correct! If I still had the advantage of the warranty, I would be sending my phone straight to HTC to get repaired.
Sent from an unusually unresponsive touchscreen on my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app
ri123 said:
To prevent factory reset bricking I had to move to a different Rom. I knew what I was doing. I returned to stock Rom and factory reset, and every zip I downloaded from my computer could not be recognised properly by my phone.
I know that android is based on pure root, but who should I blame if something goes wrong with my phone? Every rooted phone becomes faulty, why should I pay extra just because I can't download anymore roms?
Think about the random percentage of people that have had their phones bricked just because of rooting problems. I am one of them.
I remember when I read a thread about someone's Samsung Vibrant getting hard bricked all of a sudden! Or when I read a Sony Ericsson touchscreen refusing to work after light debugging.
In a way, I do not completely disagree with you. In a way I believe that Android should start believing in its roots.
For the moment, I do not know who to blame for the mess my phone is in. I didn't do things wrong on purpose. So maybe it is better not to root. Maybe it is more advisable to complain to the creator of your phone if there is not "enough", or if there is too much bloatware. Maybe Android should be fixing my HTC! I need to stop all this unnecessary refusal from happening on my android. This is why I find the essence of rooting initially bad. When there is no limits, something can go wrong.
Sent from an unusually unresponsive touchscreen on my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
I'm not trying to sound rude here but the only blame is to ones self if YOU screw up your phone.
yes you can blame a phone company when the hardware fails from normal use, or your cell phone carrier for adding useless apps. or well blame android for creating an operating system that at its heart allows one to have full access to every part of it.
android doesn't write the radio, android doesn't write the bootloader, they are not firmware or hardware only os. they also are not responsible for a bad rom.
I will say again the act of rooting your phone in itself causes no damage, only when you do something wrong during this process is it possible to brick your phone, and as for the percentage of people who did brick there phone 99.99% of them messed up, that means their own fault.
.01% had a major power surge while phone was updating via fastboot and their computer only coppied a portion of the firmware to the phone and then the dog kicked over the phone knooking the battery out leaving no bootoader... or whatever, it is hard to do this wrong
and again having a rooted phone will intself not brake hardware, not damage firmware, will not cause a single issue
the missue of having root, or the improper method of obtaining root is the only problem, and people who don't know what they are doing (fully understand) well just shouldn't root, or should learn to except blame at the very least...
done with my ranting, good day...
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
demkantor said:
I'm not trying to sound rude here but the only blame is to ones self if YOU screw up your phone.
yes you can blame a phone company when the hardware fails from normal use, or your cell phone carrier for adding useless apps. or well blame android for creating an operating system that at its heart allows one to have full access to every part of it.
android doesn't write the radio, android doesn't write the bootloader, they are not firmware or hardware only os. they also are not responsible for a bad rom.
I will say again the act of rooting your phone in itself causes no damage, only when you do something wrong during this process is it possible to brick your phone, and as for the percentage of people who did brick there phone 99.99% of them messed up, that means their own fault.
.01% had a major power surge while phone was updating via fastboot and their computer only coppied a portion of the firmware to the phone and then the dog kicked over the phone knooking the battery out leaving no bootoader... or whatever, it is hard to do this wrong
and again having a rooted phone will intself not brake hardware, not damage firmware, will not cause a single issue
the missue of having root, or the improper method of obtaining root is the only problem, and people who don't know what they are doing (fully understand) well just shouldn't root, or should learn to except blame at the very least...
done with my ranting, good day...
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I have said,one of the problems with rooting is that people have to move off their Rom in case of factory reset bricking.
0.1% have got the limited service error or the bad zip file error with their phone practically in a trap.
Much more than 0.1% have the sdcard blank error
I understand root enough to install roms and unroot my phone.
I did not do this on purpose, I just installed stock Rom and factory reset and my phone did not work as it intended to.
This is why I shall, in the future, ACCEPT things and rant about my rooting experience to those people who would unconsciously root. More ranting is needed.
Sent from my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app
ri123 said:
As I have said,one of the problems with rooting is that people have to move off their Rom in case of factory reset bricking.
0.1% have got the limited service error or the bad zip file error with their phone practically in a trap.
Much more than 0.1% have the sdcard blank error
I understand root enough to install roms and unroot my phone.
I did not do this on purpose, I just installed stock Rom and factory reset and my phone did not work as it intended to.
This is why I shall, in the future, ACCEPT things and rant about my rooting experience to those people who would unconsciously root. More ranting is needed.
Sent from my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
whenever you flash something to your phone expecially firmware you should check the md5sum, its a given and those 0.1% would not have a brick due to a curropt download if they did this so again not the fault of root
having root access WILL NOT cause your sd card slot to quit working, this just has no merrit, having root has just doesn't break hardware in itself, it just doesn't
depending on the phone and how you rooted and if you have an unlocked boot loader and loads of other question need to be figured out before you flash a stock rom, especially from bootloader (if the rom is packaged with a radio, hboot, recovery etc)
once you have true soff you can flash almost anything, including things that shouldn't be flashed. have a security flag is good for this exact purpose, to keep people from flashing what they shouldn't - yes this is how most people brick their phone, they don't fully understand.
and I'm not saying you stupid by I do agree it doesn't take a genius to flash a rom, but knowing the steps that someone has written down is diffrent then undertanding why it works
listen I know you said more ranting is neccessary, but it isn't, the fact is you figured out how to have fun with your phone by following some steps you read in a forum somewhere or watched a youtube video, that's great fun, I know I love it to.
but you didn't bother to figure out why it works or what to do/not to do, because you didn't you made a mistake, it happens, no one thinks less of you.
now you should learn from your mistake and learn to accept blame for making this make, no one told you to do what you did, and you didn't take the time to find out the repercutions of what you were about to do before you damaged your phone.
again root privalages in itself CAN'T harm your phone it just enables you to make a mistake as you have lost some security against it, just as owning a gun won't make you shoot someone but gives you the ability to do so (exuse my analogy as I know it is not apples to apples)
**** happens, get on with your life, no need to rant, no one thinks less of you, learn from mistakes, accept blame when you should... and as always exuse my speeling/grammar errors as root in it self won't make me smarter either
good night
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
demkantor said:
whenever you flash something to your phone expecially firmware you should check the md5sum, its a given and those 0.1% would not have a brick due to a curropt download if they did this so again not the fault of root
having root access WILL NOT cause your sd card slot to quit working, this just has no merrit, having root has just doesn't break hardware in itself, it just doesn't
depending on the phone and how you rooted and if you have an unlocked boot loader and loads of other question need to be figured out before you flash a stock rom, especially from bootloader (if the rom is packaged with a radio, hboot, recovery etc)
once you have true soff you can flash almost anything, including things that shouldn't be flashed. have a security flag is good for this exact purpose, to keep people from flashing what they shouldn't - yes this is how most people brick their phone, they don't fully understand.
and I'm not saying you stupid by I do agree it doesn't take a genius to flash a rom, but knowing the steps that someone has written down is diffrent then undertanding why it works
listen I know you said more ranting is neccessary, but it isn't, the fact is you figured out how to have fun with your phone by following some steps you read in a forum somewhere or watched a youtube video, that's great fun, I know I love it to.
but you didn't bother to figure out why it works or what to do/not to do, because you didn't you made a mistake, it happens, no one thinks less of you.
now you should learn from your mistake and learn to accept blame for making this make, no one told you to do what you did, and you didn't take the time to find out the repercutions of what you were about to do before you damaged your phone.
again root privalages in itself CAN'T harm your phone it just enables you to make a mistake as you have lost some security against it, just as owning a gun won't make you shoot someone but gives you the ability to do so (exuse my analogy as I know it is not apples to apples)
**** happens, get on with your life, no need to rant, no one thinks less of you, learn from mistakes, accept blame when you should... and as always exuse my speeling/grammar errors as root in it self won't make me smarter either
good night
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
I feel more people should know the repercussions and 'cons' of rooting so I thought of involving my situation as it could affect someone's choice of rooting.
What is a security flag? My phone is s on and yet it does not work.
Also, what is 'true soff'?
Sent from my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app
Hi so I just heard that the D3 was rooted two days ago (been keeping up until a week ago). I'm not exactly a pro in this area or have ever rooted a device before but I have spent quite a few hours today reading up on the process and any info I could find.
Basically I just want to know if I should root my D3 or wait out another week or so? I heard that a SBF (?) hasn't been found yet so the stock rom can't be recovered and there is really no recovery net yet so should anything go wrong, there aren't a lot of options.
There is a one-click method to root but I'm going to try the original method using the adb shell (lol still researching what on earth to do with that still, just installed the android sdk :x). I'm not concerned about the process of rooting my droid, it's what comes after that makes me hesitant in doing so.
I read that there is a (seemingly simple) method to unroot the D3 by deleting the su file in some directory and rebooting (can't remember, it seemed legit however). Would "unrooting" have any consequences or would your device be back to the exact same state it was in right before you rooted? I'm not planning to drastically mess around with my D3 should I root it. Just want to take a few screenshots in an app to help out a dev, freeze any bloatware that won't cause problems, do a complete nand backup, and... thats about all that comes to mind right now.
I guess what I'm trying to ask is if rooting my D3 tonight would have any irreversible consequences and if there is any benefit in holding off the root?
Oh! Btw the OTA, I know that rooting won't affect ones ability to receive the update but that it will unroot your device and keep it that way. Would the rooting-discovery process have to start anew for people who update using the OTA (Thinking Verizon might patch the root-exploit) ? I know that updating via OTA isn't too bright anyway because devs just take the update and build on it before releasing it on their own custom ROMs and whatnot, but I feel official updates are somehow more stable (most likely flawed thinking, feel free to correct me on that lol).
Yes - SBF is an important component which would guarantee 100% pre-root configuration.
Removing the su binary and the superuser app would however put the phone back in factory state for this exploit. But anything you do while rooted inside /system is your responsibility to correct. Motorola patches usually verify only file existence/checksums and not creation/modification dates, so you should be fine with simple push of the removed (or renamed) stuff back. I remember I was able to update my D2G without unrooting in the past, but that's not necessarily granted for any other updates of that or any other Motorola phone. Ideally, you want phone in factory state to guarantee update will pass.
Another issue is nand backup you mentioned. Custom recovery isn't yet available for this phone. You can't do nand backups. So even this "safety net" isn't here. Installing custom recovery is a "100% secure way" to have OTA updates fail to apply since it messes up with phone's /system files. Un-doing CWM is a bit more complex than unrooting only and if not done carefully - a sure way for a soft brick. SBF is what we all want before start messing with anything, IMO.
So if an OTA updates fails for whatever reason, your phone will get soft bricked or?
I don't think ill be updating anway, but its good info to know for the future.
Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
I would say root the device and don't worry about unrooting. If you have to return it to the store or something, unfreeze the apps and delete su. Once you mess with it though, it will be very difficult (impossible?) to ever make /system binary identical to the factory image without an sbf. That said, I doubt VZW takes the time to investigate this very closely.
But I don't see any other reason to ever unroot. When the OTA update comes down, just don't install it. In a few days after its first released, the community developers will tell you how to install it with root and not botch anything up.
Dmw017 said:
So if an OTA updates fails for whatever reason, your phone will get soft bricked or?
I don't think ill be updating anway, but its good info to know for the future.
Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
No - fortunately not. It will just say "Update failed" and phone will reboot back to normal.
Regarding updates - you may want to reconsider - updates usually fix bugs, bugs like the bluish camera or the wrong geotagging. Or stuff like phone shooting at max brightness after removal from HD dock.
But as the other poster mentioned - the community would do the hard work for you 'back-porting' the update to a rooted phone. Sure enough - we need custom recovery to be made before we can install any 'backported' updates or other customizations.
But all will come with time.
If you need to use an app that requires root (like openvpn or VPNC), or if you want to remove some of the unwanted apps Verizon stuck on the phone, you should root of course, but if you don't care about such stuff and want to be 'compliant' with stock software - stay as is, until at least SBF comes.
Yeah I rooted already but should an update come, I could always unroot my device. An update would be really welcome too. Yeah the bluish tint on the cam is bad but there are soft fixes for that. What I really really want out of the update is the huge improvement in battery life I've heard about. Im using the extended battery right now and straight up, it sucks. I've heard good things about the extended battery but mine lasts ... maybe 10 hours under light - medium usage, playing music for several hours and having the display on for about an hour. I expected a lot more. Numerous people have reported getting 24-48 hrs of life while others got 15 under normal/heavy use.
There have been a few reports of peope already receiving an OTA update (devs/testers most likely) but have said many pf the d3s current issues were fixed with it, primarily the blue tint on cam and the battery life.
Honestly, with root, I figured my battery would outlast a day like a champ, but there have been no/minimal improvements, even with every piece of bloat frozen. I even froze google Maps because it constantly showed up as using cpu (and therefore battery), have my radio set to cdma, and only have 1 gmail account syncing.
Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
Hi all,
Any easy / straightforward way to roll back to KK? I've tried my best to like lollipop, but ugh
I'd like to get back to KK, with root access and a debloat of sorts but maintaining DRM keys for camera functionality... anyone have a straightforward guide?
Could care less about google apps, but I do use the maps navigation quite alot... but hangouts, google now etc just irritates me.. is this possible?
Im all stock, never modded
Regards
I'm not an expert by any means, but can show you the guide I used. I was really glad I did it - it's involved, but totally worth it, and increased my Android ability/confidence with the Z3C. Losing the DRM keys, uncertainties with the bootloader etc. still make me nervous but my phone is currently the best it's ever been. Am on stock but rooted and partially debloated.
I'm on my phone at the moment but tomorrow at my desk I'll pull up the link for you.
schnidex said:
I'm not an expert by any means, but can show you the guide I used. I was really glad I did it - it's involved, but totally worth it, and increased my Android ability/confidence with the Z3C. Losing the DRM keys, uncertainties with the bootloader etc. still make me nervous but my phone is currently the best it's ever been. Am on stock but rooted and partially debloated.
I'm on my phone at the moment but tomorrow at my desk I'll pull up the link for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be most awesome.. thanks!
Gomezie said:
That would be most awesome.. thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So this is the guide I used:
How-to: root, keep and backup DRM keys, etc. [KitKat/Lollipops]
..and I went from stock Lollipop I'd upgraded OTA, down to a rooted KK. For reference, from that guide, I'm a SIM free UK user so downloaded that .77 firmware and then built my own pre-rooted image when it came to step 26. The guide is, in only a few places, a little bit vague but it it's easy to figure out yourself once you're halfway through the process and actually doing it all.
While the process was involved, I did not find it challenging or frightening. Read it through several times in advance before attempting it, and download all the files you'll need ahead of time to save waiting around once you're actually rooting. Obviously back up all your valuable data before starting, just in case. If you come across any errors, make sure you have ADB debugging enabled, allow mock locations (and I also checked allow unknown sources as well). Also make sure you have all the relevant drivers. These are the most common things that trip people up when rooting on any device, in my experience so far.
Once you've successfully completed the process, I then installed a tool called Debloater. This is very easy to use, and allows you to tick off packages that you want to block, but you can also remove them entirely. What I'm doing right now is running for a week or two with the packages blocked that I'll probably want to remove, and once I'm satisfied everything is safe, I'll then actually remove them down the line.
There's no definitive list of what each package is or does though, so I removed the ones I definitely wanted to get rid of that I knew were obvious plus a few others that I took a safe guess at, or used other a few people's posts and cross-referenced them. Be careful though, some are essential to keep! I have those links bookmarked on my home PC and can dig them out for you once you're at that stage! Or alternatively, compile a list of what I've blocked myself. But I guess some of the fun is customising it to your own needs anyway, and learning along the way
Any questions, please let me know. I'm far from an expert but these boards don't seem to be too vibrant for our phones compared to other devices, probably because it took so long to get us to the point of being able to do this. Still, it's the best device I've ever owned and I'm very, very happy with where it is now thanks to the hard work of those who made root etc. possible.
This is awesome, ive got myself rooted and everything now.. will go ahead and deblot
I also concur regarding the phone.. easily my best too!
Thanks again
I tried an OTA of Android Pie tonight, this was from EE UK.
First the system update couldn't verify, so I had to hard power off the phone, on powering on it re-installed and loaded up.
I unlocked the phone from the lock screen and it went to "Android Starting" and after a few moments rebooted.
Now the phone loads up but I can't unlock it, I just get constant PIN incorrects. It's a software issue because you never get to the limit of pin attempts, or the forgotten password option.
Contacted Sony, they've heard of it numerous times today, can't do anything about it.
They'll tell you to use Sony Companion to backup and restore, which you can't do unless the phones unlocked. So basically demand a full reset all data lost.
Update at your own risk, maybe consider removing device pin before the update if you can.
Same problem here in France.
There's a thread on talk.sonymobile: https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-XZ1-Compact/Can-t-access-phone-after-updating/td-p/1351581/page/2
So far no working solution.
The french sonyxperia twitter account is also useless.
No problem with the update here. Although, I don't have a device PIN, but a password.
After the update, some apps seem to run less stable than before...
zwan33 said:
No problem with the update here. Although, I don't have a device PIN, but a password.
After the update, some apps seem to run less stable than before...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
backup ur photos/videos and make a factory reset, everything works flawlessly for me.
rideti.me said:
So basically demand a full reset all data lost.
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Click to collapse
It's a painful lesson, but backing up everything before doing anything is a must, even when doing something like an OTA update which you expect to work. I'm just waiting for a customized UK ftf to become available and will be doing a complete wipe which alleviates any unforeseen conflicts.
I had full backup, the corruption was in the pincode, therefore encryption control is lost. The backups are encrypted, I've recovered apps, messages, contacts etc.... But none of the appdata was recoverable without de-crypt.
I feel lucky: I used the repair function because I did not want to have all those small issues usually coming with a big OTA update. I did not expect such a big problem though.
Not to shove it in the face of all the people having this annoying issue, but I can confirm that with a fresh install everything is smooth and I haven't experienced any "big" bug as of yet. The phone seems even faster than with Oreo.
To be honest, besides the long process to reactivate the app of my bank, I don't even mind resetting all my apps every now and then, I noticed that it preserves battery life and performances. But I do understand that this may not be an option to some of you...
TechIntrigue said:
Just curious, why wait for the customized UK version? Does that have any benefits over the other firmware releases?
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Click to collapse
TBH, I'm not so sure, about either. Having read yesterday that the Singapore fw only has the Amazon app as bloat I'm going to install it today.
EDIT: Going back to Oreo as Substratum doesn't work without root.
Has anyone affected managed to do a full reset ?
Hi there community,
revolted because of battery life on my pixel (pixel 4 xl) I did few moments ago hard reset, to give it a try. Battery level droped ca. 45% in few hours doing nothing ( I don't have any new apps or somethig new on phone) During this initial setup, I was wondering should we restore our backups 1-1, will this just give us our problem back, or somehow this will be avoided? (to be clear, I am not thinking that HardReset will 100% resolve the problem, just want to give it a try)
I hope you understood my dilemma and my english
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
100kaa said:
Hi there community,
revolted because of battery life on my pixel (pixel 4 xl) I did few moments ago hard reset, to give it a try. Battery level droped ca. 45% in few hours doing nothing ( I don't have any new apps or somethig new on phone) During this initial setup, I was wondering should we restore our backups 1-1, will this just give us our problem back, or somehow this will be avoided? (to be clear, I am not thinking that HardReset will 100% resolve the problem, just want to give it a try)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you mean allow Google backup to restore your apps then YES, it is perfectly safe (and a big time saver). You may have to reset again to get that option. In my experience, once you use the phone and start setting it up, the restore option is not offered again. If you are talking about another type of backup like Titanium Backup, then you would allow Google to restore first and then run TiBu afterwards to restore your remaining user apps. As far as battery performance there are many ways to track down the culprit(s), BUT a fresh start is always a good thing for phone performance and stability. Best of luck! :good:
@v12xke
Thank You for Your clear response. I did restored the apps from the google one, but I thought it would be possible to restore settings also (e.g. app folders and their position, ringtone, widgets and similar).
Maybe now is not such a big deal, I have started from beginning, but is this possible for the future and if it is, should it be done?
and I will check TiBa, thanks once again.
100kaa said:
@v12xke
Thank You for Your clear response. I did restored the apps from the google one, but I thought it would be possible to restore settings also (e.g. app folders and their position, ringtone, widgets and similar).
Maybe now is not such a big deal, I have started from beginning, but is this possible for the future and if it is, should it be done?and I will check TiBa, thanks once again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. I use a combination of Google backup, Titanium Backup (requires root) and Nova Launcher. Nova allows you to backup all your home screen(s) icon locations and widgets. Google restore first, TiBu all the remaining apps, and then restore a recent Nova backup will get me back to 95% of where I was. App settings (and notifications) require a bit more time. As for how long between resets? I usually only reset on a major release 9->10->11, but sometimes things just happen and you either live with it, or reset. Hopefully this reset will allow you to find the app(s) causing the battery drain. Next time boot into safe mode first and try to duplicate the battery drain. If the battery is performing normally in safe mode, one of your apps is causing the problem and you have a smaller problem to deal with. in finding it. Best of luck. :good:
@v12xke
Hey thanks once again. I am sooo unfamiliar with Root and benefits from rooting the phone, it's a nuclear since for me. I bought Nova Launcher but I could not find how to enable "at glance" so I will wait for a bit, just to get bored with this launcher, I think it won't take a lot of time. And just to share, battery is much better today. I have 62% and its almost 12 hours as I disconnected it from the charger.
If you could share with me few links with benefits of rooting or some useful links, I would appreciate it so much.
100kaa said:
@v12xke
Hey thanks once again. I am sooo unfamiliar with Root and benefits from rooting the phone, it's a nuclear since for me. I bought Nova Launcher but I could not find how to enable "at glance" so I will wait for a bit, just to get bored with this launcher, I think it won't take a lot of time. And just to share, battery is much better today. I have 62% and its almost 12 hours as I disconnected it from the charger.
If you could share with me few links with benefits of rooting or some useful links, I would appreciate it so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ability to root is the primary reason I have stayed with Google phones over the past 10+ years. There are many advantages, but the ability to flash firmware (stock or custom) strong ad blocking and the ability to backup offline are a few. I also refuse to be locked out of something I paid for. First you should verify your variant is one that CAN be unlocked. Not all Google phones are unlocked. Where did you buy your phone? If you did not purchase an unlocked phone directly from Google, your phone may be bootloader locked and you will not be able to root even if you wanted to. First, enable developer settings and verify whether the toggle to allow OEM unlocking is NOT grayed out or locked. If you are able to toggle this setting, your bootloader can be unlocked and the phone can be rooted. Note: it is perfectly safe to toggle this setting even if you never intend to root your phone, so feel free to enable if you can. If for some reason you cannot change this setting, your phone has been bootloader locked. Step 2: Determine if the phone is carrier locked which is different from bootloader locked. Do you know if you are tied to using one carrier, or do you know for a fact you can use a SIM from another carrier? Have you tested this already? If not, borrow a SIM from a different carrier and try it. Knowing whether your phone is carrier locked is important, because if your phone is carrier locked, you may still be able to get it unlocked.
@v12xke
Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am able to unlock OEM (and i did it ) regarding the carrier lock, it's unlocked, I am using e-sim from T-Mobile and when visit other countries, I use sim card from other carrier/country and its working.
You have started my curiosity, I would like to give it a try, can you please point me at some good tutorial and will it be ok that I send you some questions if something pops out
thank you very much
100kaa said:
@v12xke
Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am able to unlock OEM (and i did it ) regarding the carrier lock, it's unlocked, I am using e-sim from T-Mobile and when visit other countries, I use sim card from other carrier/country and its working.
You have started my curiosity, I would like to give it a try, can you please point me at some good tutorial and will it be ok that I send you some questions if something pops out
thank you very much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome, and you're lucky to have an unlocked version. My son does not root, but his bootloader is unlocked anyway just in case something happens we can always get it back to stock. The next step I would suggest is to download, install and test the fastboot/adb tools. It is the command line interface that enables you to push/pull files to and from your phone (and unlock the phone). Very simply you d/l the zipfile and extract into a dedicated folder (eg. adb). It makes it easier if you add that folder to your path statement, but this is not a requirement. There are many tutorials on how to install these basic binaries (as opposed to the entire SDK which you don't need). Once you can use the fastboot command "fastboot devices" and get a response from the phone you are ready for unlocking. You can find one of the exhaustive, step-by-step, and well written guide HERE. Lots of time and effort went into that guide by @Homeboy76. :good: Best of luck, and remember even if you decide not to root that's ok, but at least your bootloader will be unlocked and you will have learned some basic fastboot/adb commands. The best time to install and learn the basics is BEFORE you have a problem.