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Hi guys,
I've been playing around with my Nexus S for about 3 weeks and I've decided to root it, but I have some question, I've been searching the answers in older posts but it's not quite clear yet, hope you can help me.
When I unlocked the bootloader, what kind of data will be wiped? It's just the SD card or also all the apps I've already downloaded? what about SMS, pictures and videos?
Is there anyway I can backup that data considering I haven't root it yet???
Thanks in advance.
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
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Click to collapse
lol what? its nobodys fault but your own. all the resources are available, just because somebody isnt responding to your threads and holding your hand to restore a nandriod backup doesnt make it a "lack of a community".. and your phone isn't bricked, it can be recovered but you are too close-minded and cant install Clockwork Recovery / get drivers working
The data that will be wiped are most likely your SMS/settings/etc. This is standard procedure. And its something you'll go through a lot when you are using custom ROMs.
There are complete instructions for rooting, unrooting and unbricking your phone. It's all here in the forums, and many other places, you just have to look and learn. I read for two weeks before I unlocked and loaded a ROM into my NS.
If you don't have a need to root your phone I wouldn't do it just because you can. I wanted to run the Voodoo app so I had to root and load a ROM. It took a little while but it was painless and I liked learning about the Android system.
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.
It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!
RogerPodacter said:
It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!
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Click to collapse
its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
"brick" describes a device that cannot function in any capacity (such as a device with damaged firmware)
In the strictest sense of the term, bricking must imply that software error has rendered the device completely unrecoverable without some hardware replacement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics)
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I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
Netconn said:
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.
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Click to collapse
What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?
Make a nandroid backup first and foremost! Use Titanium Backup to make a backup of all your apps. If you want a backup of your sms, go sms pro really does a great job of that. Dont forget your contacts as well! Then copy your sd card and place it on the hard drive of your computer. When you unlock the bootloader, it does wipe your sd card. Once your unlocked and rooted, you should be able to restore everything once you replace the copy of your sd card back on the phone. Coming over from a Vibrant, I was nervous about rooting the phone but its an easy process. Just take your time and do lots of reading! Hope this helps!
Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Woops..yeah, your right there. Too quick to reply. I followed this method here..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=895545
and had no problems. Once you get unlocked/rooted and clockwork recovery, then you can make the fore mentioned backups. Export your contacts to the sd card then copy the sd card to the hard drive of your computer before unlocking the boot loader. I do not think apps get affected during the sd wipe unless you have them stored there.
zephiK said:
its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
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i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
may i suggest a noob proof guide|? i postted 1 in the htc desire forum and people love it. yesterday i returned a moto xoom because ti was overheating , got a nexus s and 2day il b returning that because it wont turn on. can any1 help me think of a good idea i can tell the future shop return people?
kmhil said:
I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?
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you are forced to lose your data to initially root your device. then after that point, you can always create backups and never lose data again while you switch between ROMs and flashing etc. but i think to initially root, you have to lose everything. not the sd card though.
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
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Do keep in mind, we don't have an i9020 or an i9023, we have an i9020A So the instruction out there all need to take that into considerations. I rooted mine fine with no "Bricking" I had to follow the instruction for the i9023, but it worked. I figure it took me all of 1 minute to root my phone. Admitedly, the "One click root" for the Galaxy series was easier.
I try to make it a point to never be the "First" person to do something on their phone. Much safer that way.
I also find it very unusual that you've managed to brick two phones, I've also had the pleasure of owning the telus fascinate, and not once did i get it bricked, I tried Bionics, CM7, Darky's and a bunch of other ones. Just never mess with the boot loader. When you went back to stock, did you make sure it was a stock ROM for the I9020A?
Have you tried connecting the USB to a computer, holding the volume up (or in the case of the galaxy, both up and down) While powering on the device? I've had to use that a few times to recover my galaxy (Thank you odin!!).
Now in regards to the OP, I would recommend using a program like Ti to back everything up, unlock the bootloader then restore from Ti, it's a little more hassel, but you can pretty much keep your settings and data. Personally, i rooted my phone before configuring a single thing on it.
kmhil said:
Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
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there is no way to make a good backup without rooting.
basically yes, you will lose all your settings
there are a few apps you can use to backup your apk before unlocing/rooting the phone.
look for App admin on market https://market.android.com/details?id=az.mecid.appadmin&feature=search_result
the stuff backed to SD does not get wiped
only the internal storage stuff
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i took about 12 minutes total to unlock my bootloader, flash clockwork, and flash a custom rom. its not difficult if you pay attention to what you read. youre phone is not bricked. btw, i read your threads. if you werent so demanding, i would have helped. use the pdanet website the next time you need to install the proper driver, and follow the directions that they give you.
When I unlocked I used Astro to back up my apps, I turned on the Google data sync to back up my contacts and I did a back up of my SD on my computer.
When the unlock and recovery was done NS asked for my Google account then it restored all my contacts, Astro restored all my apps and I restored my files from my computer. A few steps but not difficult at all.
You will have to redo your accounts and data, and maybe an app or two won't load but the market will show them installed, just reinstall any that didn't.
Make sure you follow the directions properly in the forum. I had to use two computers to get it to work, but it did work and nothing was damaged.
With all that said.... This was the first time I have ever owned or altered an Android phone. Sure I was nervous... Now I'm hooked.. haha
I wound up using NSCollab .17 so far so good..
First thing I did when I got my phone was fastboot oem unlock.
Even if you don't want to root, use another ROM. Fastboot unlock it so your data doesn't get wiped.
If your hardware and everything seems okay, then flash Clockwork Recovery and do a nandroid backup so you can restore to pre-flashing point if you need it for OEM purposes.
Afterwards, go crazy and flash like theres no tomorrow and find something that you'll like.
And agreed with simms. You've made so made so many threads about this. I would help you step by step but I've been busy so I can't do that anymore. But if you search, you'll find about two or three threads where I did help somebody get their phone to a working state.
The basic idea is... if your phone doesn't boot but you can get to recovery.
- Download a ROM or Nandroid backup
- Install USB drivers
- Fastboot oem unlock (if you haven't)
- fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (or whatever the recovery.img is named) should be in /sdk/tools
- reboot into recovery (adb reboot recovery)
- mount and storage: mount USB, put the nandroid backup or ROM onto phone
- nandroid restore or flash a ROM (wipe factory,dalvik,cache --> flash ROM (if its CM7.. flash gapps afterwards)
- reboot
your phone boots. alternatively, you can use Odin but thats not a popular method but the choice is available if you wish to go towards that approach
in the worse worse possible case scenario there is always ODIN to the rescue
Why did you guys wait at all?
Once i got the phone i immediately plugged it into my computer and rooted it.
I am using a Samsung Galaxy Pocket (GT-S5300) which has Android Gingerbread 2.3.6. I rooted the phone by applying update.zip through the recovery console. I installed titanium backup free, and ROM manager free, but quickly uninstalled them after I saw that I did not really need them on this phone. I never installed clockwork recovery, i never flashed anything. I then unrooted the phone by repeating the steps I did to root, using the unroot.zip (renaming first to update.zip) That worked and Superuser app was removed after reboot.
I never connected to a PC to do any of this, simply did it from the recovery boot.
Now what I want to know is....can Samsung tell my phone has been rooted? If so, what can I do to remove any trace of it?
Thank you. I know this question has been asked before and answered but I could not find an answer which dealt specifically with my situation where nothing was ever flashed.
Get a root checker app and see if it detects root. If you haven't flashed anything you should fine.
Sent from my Xperia Mini Pro using xda app-developers app
I don't know if they can detect rooted phones. But I do know that if you unroot your phone you regain your warranty.
cs098 - I'm sure a Root Checker app would not detect root, as it has been unrooted. But what I am asking is whether Samsung could detect if the phone had been rooted in the past.
Athoomas - How do you know that the warranty is regained if the phone is unrooted? Can you point me to any link online stating this for Samsung company?
Thank you for the replies!
They really can't determine if your phone was rooted before
// sent from a galactic Ars Sss
Recover to factory settings
If you've successfully unrooted your phone it is still possible to see the changes you've made when you phone was rooted. So the best thing you can do is recover to factory settings..
Its very unlikely but if you wanted to be sure a complete factory reset would be your best bet.
Alot of samsung devices have a flash counter that is designed to count the number of times a custom ROM has been flashed, however this is normally by passed anyway (and infact can be reset).
But seeing as you just rooted im sure you will be fine
Sorry guys, I know this has been covered, but I can't seem to find what I need via searching. I read forums more than I post so forgive me if I have done anything wrong. I am def an amateur when it comes to these things but I do okay.
I recently rooted my verizon gs3 4.3 with towelroot. It is actually just an old phone that I wanted to root and sell. Anyway, like an idiot I tried to install clockworkmod recovery from the clockworkmod app, my phone rebooted and I got the "unauthorized software" message from verizon. The phone will go into download mode. I need a little help finding the correct file to download and flash with odin to fix this. I'm sure its been covered but all of the download links for the file I have found have given me download errors. I have never bricked a phone before and I really want to fix this thing and sell it. Any help.
Scottie
Samsung Galaxy GS5 AT&T (finally rooted)
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (rooted)
Iphone 5C (work issued)
Samsung Galaxy s3 Verizon (bricked...lol)
sdevans80 said:
Sorry guys, I know this has been covered, but I can't seem to find what I need via searching. I read forums more than I post so forgive me if I have done anything wrong. I am def an amateur when it comes to these things but I do okay.
I recently rooted my verizon gs3 4.3 with towelroot. It is actually just an old phone that I wanted to root and sell. Anyway, like an idiot I tried to install clockworkmod recovery from the clockworkmod app, my phone rebooted and I got the "unauthorized software" message from verizon. The phone will go into download mode. I need a little help finding the correct file to download and flash with odin to fix this. I'm sure its been covered but all of the download links for the file I have found have given me download errors. I have never bricked a phone before and I really want to fix this thing and sell it. Any help.
Scottie
Samsung Galaxy GS5 AT&T (finally rooted)
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (rooted)
Iphone 5C (work issued)
Samsung Galaxy s3 Verizon (bricked...lol)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Follow these instructions and it should work.
verizon 4.3 gs3 soft brick update.
Okay this is where I'm at now. I finally got the phone to reboot into the regular system, I can boot into odin mode but not recovery mode, recovery mode give me the "unauthorized software" warning from verizon. When this happens I can do a battery pull, boot into odin mode, then press volume down to reboot the phone and the normal system comes up. I still have root with towel root. So when I tried to install cwm recovery from the cwm app that's where my problem started. This is my first time tweaking a phone with a locked boot loader. I can do anything with the phone when it's booted up to the regular system, except a factory data reset, if I try I get the "unauthorized software" screen. I tried un rooting with supersu, which seemed to work, because root checker reported that there was no root access. So I Re rooted with towelroot, reinstalled supersu from Play store. Now I have root access again, but still cannot go to recovery mode, or do a factory data reset.
That being said, since I can boot the phone the system, and i have root access with root explorer and es file explorer (with root files enabled). Is there a way to go in and remove all the files and things that cwm app installed when attempting to install cwm recovery. Basically I'll be thrilled to be able to factory reset and use stock recovery, I can deal with that, as long as I have root access so I can debloat and run root apps. So what can I do to get back to stick recovey, basically the state the phone was in before my dumb self tried to install custom recovery with a locked boot loader.
Sorry the post is long, I am def a amateur phone rooter, but through five devices this is my very first real issue.
Also thanks to all who contribute to this forum, I've been saved several times from info you guys post. So THANK YOU!
@sdevans80 Did you flash the above file that @SlimSnoopOS recommended? That should have fixed your stock recovery.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
Sorry, I meant to update sooner, I tried to flash stock image with odin several times with no luck. Eventually I connected to kies on my laptop, updated the phone from 4.3 to 4.4.2 which fixed every thing, after doing that I reinstalled towelroot apk and rooted the phone again. Rooting a phone by tapping an icon on a screen, and then not even having to reboot, is really cool. Thanks for the help guys.
Sandman-007 said:
@sdevans80 Did you flash the above file that @SlimSnoopOS recommended? That should have fixed your stock recovery.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
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Hello i'm new in here and i think this is an awesome forum
Anyway, i'm willing to root my phone but i just don't want to reach the point where my phone got Hard Brick or useless. So how long does rooted phone live? Would it only take a months? because i can read some topics in other forums that their phone got bricked. Why is that happening? Is that normal? And how to avoid soft brick or hard brick? I will not be downloading some Rooted Apps if i root my phone. I just want to use this Wifikill app, dsploit and etc. but i will not be flashing customized ROM or themes. So would it still "soft brick or hard brick" my phone?
Thanks !!!!
Rooting isn't dangerous if you're careful
Hi there, I'm not sure what you mean by "how long does a rooted phone live", but I'll try to answer as best as I can.
Rooted phones 'live' as long as a non-rooted phone, the only risk of rooting a phone is the flashing part. For todays rooting methodes it's actually hard to hardbrick a phone, espescially when you just follow the steps provided by the rooting process.
Hardbricking a phone means that you messed up the flashing soo badly that there is no way to recover the phone. I actually tried on purpose to hardbrick an old SGS3 and even when I removed the USB cable while flashing the recovery, I was still able to revive the phone.
Softbricking however is much more common, but actually quite easy to revive from. All you need to un-brick the device includes having ADB/FastBoot on your PC or access to the recovery.
This way you can allways reflash the recovery or ROM if this gets corrupted.
You'll need a custom recovery to root your phone. You can brick your device if you pick the wrong recovery, but this is easy to check. Always match up the modelnumer of your phone with the one for the recovery.
After the rom has been installed, you'll need to flash the SuperSU zip to succesfully root your device and after that, you're all set.
So, bottomline is: as long as you make sure your phone is fully charged, and your PC won't randomly shutdown (that's why I always flash from a laptop). There is no way you can mess up.
For the lifetime of your phone: If you aren't planning on overclocking, you don't have to worry about shortening the lifetime of the device.
If you're going to root, always make a backup of your data, just in case something does go wrong!
For the apps you're mentioning: Just make sure you use those apps on your own network!
Flashing
So you mean flashing is the most common reason that bricks your phone? What if i want to play games, listens to music, texting or calling, does it brick your phone(soft or hard?)? And is it possible for the unrooted phone to be brick bit by bit if you keep on flashing wrong recovery file? I hope you can answer all my questions
No it's not possible to brick your phone by playing games, music ect. Flashing (Writing another recovery or updating your ROM) is the one and only way to brick your device.
If you flash the wrong recovery image to your device, it will be bricked. It 'should' be fixable in most cases.
The question about unrooted phones... Well, you can flash an custom recovery on your phone and get it bricked that way, but there is no need to flash another recovery if you're not going to root the device afterwards.
So just to clarify, you're not going to brick your device by normal use, rooted or not. The bricking part is when you're installing the recovery and root. When you succesfully rooted your device, there is no way you can brick it, until you're going to install another ROM on your device.
The worst thing that could happen with installing another ROM is getting stuck in a bootloop, but that can be fixed by going into the recovery and reflash(or install, if you prefer that term) the ROM. Unless it's the first time you're installing a custom ROM, in that case you will be stuck in a bootloop because you'll need to wipe the data, system and cache partition before installing a ROM. This prevents getting in a bootloop after installing a new ROM
Thanks !
Ok so i think i will root my phone tomorrow Im not in a purpose of installing custom ROM or kernel. I just want to use apps like dsploit or wifikill and it needs a proper root access. So its all clear and now i understand how bricky part happen. THANKS !
So, I finally got my phone (SM-J320FN) rooted, thanks to info and downloads on this forum.
But now I have some questions, to which I haven't found the answers to anywhere else on the web.
1. To root, I followed instructions that told me to switch-on OEM unlock and USB debugging. However, there was no mention about turning them off again after root. Should they be on, or off?
2. Part of my rooting process involved installing/flashing TWRP. I did read that TWRP can be removed after root. What are the advantages/disadvantages of leaving or removing?
3. Now my phone is rooted, what is the best app/way to prevent it becoming unrooted by updates?
That's all for now, thanks.
SGJ3 said:
So, I finally got my phone (SM-J320FN) rooted, thanks to info and downloads on this forum.
But now I have some questions, to which I haven't found the answers to anywhere else on the web.
1. To root, I followed instructions that told me to switch-on OEM unlock and USB debugging. However, there was no mention about turning them off again after root. Should they be on, or off?
2. Part of my rooting process involved installing/flashing TWRP. I did read that TWRP can be removed after root. What are the advantages/disadvantages of leaving or removing?
3. Now my phone is rooted, what is the best app/way to prevent it becoming unrooted by updates?
That's all for now, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's better to let them on.
You can remove the TWRP recovery by flashing stock recovery. But TWRP can backup your whole android partitions (nandroid backup) that can restore your android if anything goes wrong.
TWRP can flash custom roms, mods, mount partitions, and many more. So, it's better to you have TWRP(custom recovery) installed.
If you are using SuperSU superuser app then in option you found OTA survival that prevent root from OTA updates.
I think you can't get OTA updates because you are rooted. If you get OTA updates and applied on rooted android then it chances of brick your android.
Hi every one. First sorry for bad grammar I am not so good at english. Now to the problem at hand.
Jester day I bought a smj320fn and realise it is not what I paid for, so I tried to root witk KingoRoot and fail. Then I realised there is a "bootlock" witch prevents root (I think it does that).
So I tried ODIN and installed a custom FMW and it worked, allso I instaled a custom twrp and boot win.rar file. and there is the problem.
Every time I hold the power buton the samsung logo apears for 5 seconds and then goes black. It wont take any commands. I tride the recover meny to open, no it wont, but I can restars it to boot again and fails every time.
I tried to do it from a youtube tutorial and maby I know what I did wrong. I Instaled a Sm-j320h boot on my smj320fn so I think thats the problem. Any whay how do I fix this. All and any solution are good.