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[Q] Should I root my samsung captivate?

So I've been reading all these articles about rooting the Samsung Captivate and they all seem to say that rooting gives you the equivalent of admin access and basically its really useful.
What I want to know is if it is safe? I'm not really good at these things and I'm afraid that if I root it I might just screw up my phone because I don't understand what I'm doing. Also I've read that rooting your phone can sometimes render your phone unusable...is that a serious issue for the captivate?
I mainly want to just be able to have a complete backup, and be able to download apps from third party websites. (I have AT&T) I think rooting lets you do all that.
Also, I see all this talk about ROM's or something and I really don't understand what that is.
If i root my phone, will it wipe any data I have stored on my phone, like contacts and apps or something? Will I still be able to receive software updates from AT&T?
Please help...Thanks sooo much!!!

Hello there,
In first place, ROMs it's the name we usually call for the OS images that you run in your phone. You have the manufacturer ROM, with (probably) operator stuff in it. You can have a very different OS image, with different layout, more options (there are beautiful things around like CyanogenMod), etc. So, installing new ROMs sometimes is like installing a new Android OS on your phone (not exactly but something like that).
Rooting your phone doesn't clean your data, but it's always a good practice to do an application/data backup. Backup software: Titanium Backup (i use it and i really like it).
By adding an Android Recovery loader, you will have the possibility to make a nandroid backup which really allows you to keep EVERYTHING! (that happens after you root the phone, of course).
Advantages of having a rooted phone:
* removing operator applications you don't like in the standard ROM
* run 'root-only' software
* installing new ROMS
* upgrading the OS version of your phone to higher than supported by the manufacturer (some features may not work in this case)
Disadvantages:
* you may void your warranty
* you may brick your phone
* you can be messing around for a long time before having your phone stable once again (if you are curious to keep trying different ROMS, and app2sd and other add-ons)
Bricking your phone may happen if in the procedure to root your phone you need to flash it. In my case, I have a LG P500 and had the Android 2.2.2 - to root it I had to flash a 2.2 version and that was the risky part (some people say that 1 in every 4 phones get bricked in this procedure which I find very exagerated!)
So read the procedures carefully and have your phone with battery full before doing any rooting procedures. Do things calmly, follow every single step and if your get unsure of something, stop, ask, and after that move forward. You will be really happy when your phone is rooted !!

thank you!

The previous responder was a little zealous with the warnings. I have a Captivate, which is rooted and running a custom ROM (CyanogenMod 7).
First, rooting will not brick your phone. In theory, you void your warranty by doing so, but it's really easy to restore to factory state.
I don't recommend a custom ROM for someone who has basic questions like you've just asked. I'd reccommend first trying to get root, and run apps like Titanium backup, SGS Tools, etc. Be careful, research what you're doing, and make lots of backups. So long as you can enter download mode, you can flash back to factory.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App

I was right where you are last August. I agree with ADT who says that you should root first and then work with apps that require root. Titanium Backup has been the most valuable for me out of all of those.
The chances of bricking your phone when you only root it is minimal. I guess it's possible, but honestly, I cannot see how. There are 2 files that are required called Bootloaders. Think of these as the AT&T screen and then the Samsung screen in a stock Captivate. If you do anything that changes/replaces these, you stand a great chance of bricking your phone. You don't do this when you root, only when you do something like try a custom ROM.
When you root your phone, you won't really notice anything different at first. However, if you look at your apps you will see a new one called Superuser. It is the app that is needed to run "rooted" apps. Also, once you root your phone, you will be able to take advantage of Amazon's market which has a free app a day.
If you decide to "unroot", it can be done rather easily, and you will lose the ability to do things like run rooted apps and Amazon apps (including any you downloaded).
I would recommend that you read as many posts about rooting as possible before you finally make the plunge. Read, read and read again. Make sure you know what you are doing before you do it and the risk of damage is minimal. I have bricked my phone many times, including the power button not working and was lucky to get it back. I learned the hard way by not knowing to read, read and read again.
Good luck!!

One other quick point. If you decide to play with custom ROMs, I recommend you stick with the ones that run Froyo, not Gingerbread. The Gingerbread ROMs are just starting to come out and I believe are not for someone just starting out. The instructions are a bit more complicated and the chance of bricking your phone are much greater.
The Froyo ROMs are much easier to install. However, as said in my last post, I'd get used to rooting your stock phone first before going that way.

stick with froyo and play with custom roms. To install custom roms just flash the custom rom in the recovery mode.

You're right guys. I mean, changing the bootloader is the risky part of the process, not the rooting itself. But the risky part is flashing a ROM (if that's needed to root the phone)...
In my case I had to downgrade my phone (LG P500) before applying root, so it was risky from the start - anyway, depending on the phone model, rooting / installling bootloader can be more or less risky...

Samsung. Couldnt he always ODIN back?
Sent from my ADR6300

[Q] Rooting for dummies

Hey guys,
First of all I'm a n00b here (so please bear with me). I've been reading all the info that I can about rooting but I still have a couple of questions.
Basically the process (high level) for rooting as far as I understood, basically consists of -> unlock bootloader -> install custom recovery image -> NAND backup -> install custom rom -> joy
I have a Nexus S i9023 but I have a few questions regarding the process above:
1) When I do the fastboot oem unlock, do I immediately lose the warranty of the phone ? If so, should I wait before rooting to make sure any problems with the phone show up and can be dealt with the warranty ? And bearing in mind that Samsung just handed out free GSII to the developers of CM7, how true really is this voiding the warranty thing ? If you do fastboot oem lock again, is there any traces of the root process ?
2) I already have apps and their settings installed. If I install a custom rom, or a custom kernel, am I going to lose those apps and settings ? Would be a pain to configure everything again.
3) When installing a custom rom I lose the OTA updates. If I reflash a NAND backup of my stock 2.3.4 unrooted Nexus S, will this bring me back to the same state as before rooting ? (with all updates coming in, etc).
4) Can I just flash a custom kernel instead of a custom rom ? For example, could I just flash NetArchy to benefit from the BLN notifications without needing a custom ROM altogether ?
5) I'm really interested in knowing what these guys are actually doing when they develop custom kernels and roms (which programming languages, etc). Do you have to be a real linux geek to do it ?
6) Is it better to use windows to do the flashing of roms ? I'm using Ubuntu right now and makes sense to me that using a Linux system to deal with another Linux system is the most appropriate as opposed to using Windows to deal with flash
Thanks a lot for any hints guys.... once again please bear with my n00bness

First of all you should have used google + search function more exensively.
Second of all watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmvCpR45LKA
Third of all:
1) It is really true, as this are the rules, if they want to bend you over during warranty for rooting your device they can, if they even care about it depends on the moon phase and how the technicans breakfast was. I don't know what fastboot is but undoing rooting is usually not traceable.
If you should wait rather depends on if you want to wait. Problems can show now, later or never, who knows.
2) Custom Rom yes, Custom Kernel usually keeps settings. But this all depends on the included scripts in the flash files. You can use a backup tool of your choice to restore settings of apps. Restoring system app settings can cause problems though.
3) Yes, i believe so.
4) I don't know NetArchy, but yes you can only flash a custom kernel. Read the kernel developers thread and all infos though.
5) Your mixing two very different things, Rom developers ( or Rom cooks) usually repack firmwares with different apps, different start up scripts, partitions, themes etc. usually not too much in deepth work in the code going here.
Kernel developers change flags, driver support, include an extra library (like backlight notifications) or enable overclocking through flags/extra loaded moduls.
6) Doesn't really matter.
I can bare with n00bness, i'd just like everyone to invest more than 10min into the search/google.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated
I think I now have a clear picture about all that's involved and the risks.
Main reason I want to root is to be able to have backlight notifications and to have a rom/kernel that can tell me what has been keeping my phone in keep-awake state for no apparent reason in the 4636 history (stock Gingerbread doesn't show the keep awake page). Being able to lower the CPU speed when not using the phone would be quite a nice addition as well.
I did see the n00b video and I did research rooting for quite a few days. But there's so many information around and so many people say what they will that in the end it becomes difficult to see between the noise.
Thanks for clearing up the bits for me!

Q: XT925 Bootloader, Root, JB, etc..

Sorry if this is a request for a lot of other threads out there but I can't find anything definitive, specifically since the release dates for JB are scattered by region and there's not always a clear answer to my situation because of that.
I have an XT925, the international RAZR HD. I got it recently her in Australia on the Telstra network with ICS preinstalled and with JB already released as an upgrade. I did save my root from ICS and still have root currently on Jelly Bean. It does, however, annoy me that I have to pull apart CWM packages, move all the files, and set permissions. In addition to that I've seen some talk about lag and people doing a factory reset to fix that. I have tremendous lag in folders in the default launcher and occasional noticeable lag in Nova launcer (which I prefer to use) window animations. My experience with Android has been with the Galaxy S II, which is still a great phone, however it is a phone that's easy as pie to root and deal with.
I have a lot of questions, some answered elsewhere but not necessarily in a context that applies to the situation I'm thinking of (and all the ins and outs would be too much to list), nor specifically for JB. Things get obscure given the
Please don't ask questions about why I'd want to unlock the bootloader, be rooted, etc. These are things I can decide for myself. Also, I'm aware I need to backup all my apps and app data to the SD card and pull the entire SD card contents. Please don't answer any of the questions unless you have first hand experience; I really would rather not get well intentioned misinformation that leads to a problem.
1. Can root survive a factory reset of JB. I presume it formats everything needed but still have to ask.
2. If the bootloader is unlocked, and I'm on JB, can I flash SuperSU by sideloading? If not, has anyone done it on a bootloader unlocked XT925 with CWM?; I've read some posts that involve a lot of confusion about the ease of installing CWM and using it on this phone. I should mention that I'm not familiar with TWRP and would like to stick to what's more familiar for the time being, assuming I go down this route.
3. Is there some advantage of TWRP over CWM? Honestly I don't even know what TWRP is; is this something I should learn since I have a Motorola phone? Also, is CWM well written for the device so far? Has anyone done a Nandroid backup and restore with it? Does it perserve time stamps (for OTA updates later given that system files have a 2010 timestamp on my device, for example)?
4. Has anyone had any of the more seemingly unlikely problems stated on the unlocking page of the Motorola site that you "may" have and for example, phone calls not working, apps not working anymore etc? Also, it specifically says "You will not be able to watch any movies you downloaded". Does this apply to videos purchased from google or does it mean that videos I've put on my phone will be unplayable? (I'm not even sure we can purchase Google movies from Australia).
5. There's a thread about disabling the unlocked bootloader warning, at boot, by replacing the file that provides the warning with one that does not, however I recall that the thread discussion was before the JB update (in my locale). Is this something that can still be disabled using the same tools in JB (assuming the original discussion was indeed for ICS)?
6. Does a factory reset wipe the system partition?.. specifically asking this because I've been keeping track of all files put to my system partition so that if there's another OTA at some point, it hopefully won't fail because I can remove everything added but if resetting wipes everything it would be easier to just do that.
7. Did anyone with an unlocked bootloader on ICS have a problem with the JB update, or more specifically if you had an unlocked bootloader on ICS, did it interefere with the OTA update to JB?
8. You know when you wake up to an alarm and have responsibilities but you'd rather just go back to sleep, but you get up anyway and it takes time before you accept the day ahead; doesn't that suck?
Any help here is appreciated.
It would be great if we had a master sticky FAQ thread for all the noob questions that one could conceive of. I hope that someone is able to write one.

[complete guide to rooting/flashing your zte engage]

---------- I have personally done this on my ZTE ENGAGE V8000 ---------
--------------------- IT IS ALSO A LOT EASIER THAN YOU THINK ---------------------
Now let's just start this out by saying that there are A LOT of resources for all the information you would ever need to root your device, and where to go from there... But, as I am sure you are finding out, EVERY phone has to be treated differently, and there is no -1-way-is-THE-way-for-every-phone scenario. ESPECIALLY for the wonderful ZTE ENGAGE v8000. So this is just how i made it happen on my phone, starting from knowing absolutely NOTHING about rooting, to having it done and finished now and working FANTABULOUSLY. I went through a lot of headaches trying to figure this out and read and read for DAYS, ruling out non-credible sources like that link that always pops up 'SUPER EASY ROOT FOR ENGAGE v8000' blah blah, i read that that method had bricked all kinds of phones, so i decided to stray away from all that nonsense and talked to different people and am compiling all of that info into this one post. HOPEFULLY it makes it easier for you. Your use of anything here is done at your own risk. I nor anyone else is responsible for your phone. And rooting your phone will void your warranty. Having, said that and gotten it out of the way here are the steps you will need to take:
BASIC INFO LINKS (that i found helpful starting out as a NOOBY NOOB! haha):
Now just an FYI, this way DOES NOT REQUIRE YOUR PHONE TO ALREADY BE ROOTED, but you can always go that route if you'd like but dont ask me how haha.. i've included some links below for your benefit though...
Rooting and Roms Explained
Lifehacker How-to Flash/ROMs
Custom ROMs Info
Re-done EASY Root Method for ZTE Engage
Tips to Not Brick Engage
ZTE Engage Roms
GOOGLE SEARCH
How to Root ZTE ENGAGE
SEARCH AND READ THE HELL OUT OF XDA DEVELOPERS
anyway, the list goes on and on... you get the point. I will also include links in each section that is necessary.
Now don't get overwhelmed... once we start this thing, and you being doing it, it is a piece of CAKE, really...
****REQUIREMENTS****
Cricket ZTE Engage V8000
(this is NOT for the Engage LT N8000)
The only other requirement is you can boot your phone into recovery.
Yes this can be installed in stock recovery.
No you don't need to be rooted.
BE PREPARED FOR A LONG JOURNEY, this will take time.
****READ THROUGH THIS AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE YOU DO IT****
**WARNING**
This rom will wipe all data upon install so make sure you have a backup or don't care if data is lost
Also, this will most likely VOID your warranty, continue at your own risk
There is a RISK of 'bricking' your phone, as with ANY rom, but is HIGHLY UNLIKELY
STEP 1​
BACKUP EVERYTHING on your phone, send contacts to SD card, PICTURES, Any text messages you need to keep, Documents, GAME SAVES, make a list of ALL the apps you have installed (or back them up using your own method of choice), Be prepared for your phone to be SET BACK TO FACTORY DEFAULT meaning *****EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ERASED*****. so back up whatever you want to keep and/or think you want to keep. Now I am a perfectionist, so i made 2 Backups, this was my PRE backup-backup. haha. If you are fine with just trusting that the CWM backup will keep everything then wait til later when you will do an entire phone backup in case anything goes wrong, and also to prevent bricking using CWM, or any other backup app of your choice. I literally just copied EVERY file from my phone to a folder on my computer AND did a phone backup.
I used an app called MY BACKUP (get it from PLAY STORE) because it allowed me to backup NON-ROOTED, so i could backup BEFORE i wipe my phone, which will make this a lot easier for me in the long run.
Guide to Backing up/Restoring
LOOK AROUND and figure out what ROOT apps you would like to have on your phone. Make a list so you know what you want BEFORE you erase/Backup your phone, or download them and put them on SD card, so you will have them afterwards. im referring to apps like ROM Toolbox, My Backup, NANDroid Backup, Titanium Backup, ROM Manager, GooManager, some sort of ANTI-VIRUS, SETCPU, etc...
30 Best Apps for ROOTed Devices
----- check and double check you have saved everything, there is no going back once you've started -----​
STEP 2​
DOWNLOAD CWM [Clockwork Mod](for your specific device, this guide is for the ZTE ENGAGE V8000 SPECIFICALLY)The following link brings you to the main thread which has more information, INSTRUCTIONS and a Q&A posting... feel free to READ EVERYTHING, its better to know too much in this subject than too little. Now you want to get the Unofficial_CWM-v6.0.3.3-V.zip because the official is just the image, not a zip and you need zip to install and the stock one is just if you later decide you dont like whatever you have done and want your phone to go back FACTORY DEFAULT. Like, if you dont like the new ROM on your phone and want your old normal -android- OS (4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) back. The difference of those confused me at first. Now, do not skip ahead, this part is for DOWNLOAD only, do not attempt to install yet!!
CWM & Stock Recovery Thread: Download and Instructions
More Information and Instructions for ClockwordMod Recovery
*Save .zip for later
ALSO DOWNLOAD the Stock ROM, just in case you want it later, if you dont like the ROM we're gonna install on your device, you have this incase you want to go back to the stock settings. Now, do not skip ahead, this part is for DOWNLOAD only, do not attempt to install yet!!
CWM & Stock Recovery Thread, Download and Instructions
*Save .zip for later
Download S420 ROM. This is going to be the ROOT ROM. It's the main custom rom that we are installing on the phone, the one that will REPLACE the ICE CREAM SANDWICH ANDROID OS and VOID your warranty. It is still based off of Ice Cream Sandwich 4.04 or whatever, because ZTE has not (and probably will not) release an update for their devices to go to jelly bean, or any higher. (kitkat, etc). SORRY GUYS, we're stuck with ICS. Now, do not skip ahead, this part is for DOWNLOAD only, do not attempt to install yet!!
S420 ROM Thread: Download and Instructions
*Save .zip for later.
Copy downloaded files to SD card "Computer > Removable disk > ______ "
we are only using CWM right now, save others on SDCARD for later use
Now, BEGIN installation of the CWM .zip
INSTRUCTIONS: link, SAME AS ABOVE
STEP 3​
AFTER CWM is installed and working CORRECTLY: We need to do the PHONE BACKUP. You have a few options here, you can either GO INTO CWM AND RESTORE IN THE RECOVERY MENU or Go to following link, and follow instructions: (IT HAS PICTURES)
Creating and Restoring NANDroid Backups using CWM
Other Options for Backup
Or you can just use the default backup tool provided by CWM, which is what I did.
------ Now that your ass is covered... we can continue ------​​
STEP 4​
Now, getting a ROM on your baby.... THERE is only ONE that i found for the ZTE ENGAGE, which, you guessed it, is also by senor Stedman420... what on earth would we engage users do without this guy? haa... NOTHIN that's what... He's got a ROM called S420 for our device, and as far as i can tell, it is the only one that is modded in any way. YOU DOWNLOADED THIS EARLIER.
Now, just follow his INSTRUCTIONS for installing
BOOM your done!!! Now just restore all your stuff and you are one rooted mofo.
*If you have any suggestions for improving this post, please comment below.
***CREDITS AND LOOOVE TO THE FOLLOWING***
ALL ROMS AND INSTRUCTIONS BY Stedman420 <3 and also a big thanks for answering my questions!
(seriously, if you need help don't be afraid to ask and make sure you say your thanks to him as well! )
BIG THANKS TO ALL THE ABOVE links and websites that helped me rap my mind around this
Khaoticking and Android Addict for helping me out and answering my questions.

Cricket Engage LT n8000
I have a Cricket Engage LT n8000 and need a custom ROM like CyanogenMod. I heard this is the number one custom ROM. What do you think I should do?

brassass said:
I have a Cricket Engage LT n8000 and need a custom ROM like CyanogenMod. I heard this is the number one custom ROM. What do you think I should do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, So with older phones its kinda tricky because, ultimately, it depends if anyone else has modded that ROM to work with your device... please DO NOT just install any ROM on your device it will most likely brick it or make it unusable. I havent had my ZTE engage for quite some time now so I am not sure as to what has been done since then, but this forum might help you http://androidforums.com/threads/roms-for-the-zte-engage-v8000-or-lt-n8000.722734/
My best suggestion would be to google the heck out of it and see if you can find someone who made CyanogenMod compatible with your ZTE Engage, but it might not be possible so you might have to use one of the ones in the forum i posted (the roms i posted in here will not work, but you can still take advantage of the help links i posted they will take you to VERY useful sites that might be able to answer your question)
Good luck and happy rooting!

[Completed] Help! LG Sunrise 4.4.2 kitkat! Need help rooting!!

I am not very experienced with phones. I have tried a few roots unsuccessfully. I can use the command prompts and copy+paste into adb. 1)Can you tell me how to just simply root without having to flash the rom to be able to uninstall the factory bloatware apps. 2) IfIf I need to install TWRP? 3) How to disable OTA updates. 4)Where i can find a good rom for gaming to flash when I can. 5) Would it be easier and how to do a 4.3 Jelly bean onto my phone to make it easier to root...if that's possible.
I know this is asking a lot and I have seen answers for these questions for other phones and this low end phone isn't listed on hardly any list. My only other option is Buying a another samsung galaxy (not 3) maybe 5 or 6. Please be detailed in your answers. I tend to get to a single step that messes me up completely.
Thanks in advance

XDA Visitor said:
I am not very experienced with phones. I have tried a few roots unsuccessfully. I can use the command prompts and copy+paste into adb. 1)Can you tell me how to just simply root without having to flash the rom to be able to uninstall the factory bloatware apps. 2) IfIf I need to install TWRP? 3) How to disable OTA updates. 4)Where i can find a good rom for gaming to flash when I can. 5) Would it be easier and how to do a 4.3 Jelly bean onto my phone to make it easier to root...if that's possible.
I know this is asking a lot and I have seen answers for these questions for other phones and this low end phone isn't listed on hardly any list. My only other option is Buying a another samsung galaxy (not 3) maybe 5 or 6. Please be detailed in your answers. I tend to get to a single step that messes me up completely.
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, and welcome to XDA!
Sadly there is no resources on your device on site. No rooting methods, no TWRP (or any custom recovery), no custom ROM's.
1) Since there is no established method, you are left trying other methods until you find one that works, while documenting progress here in a new thread (so others can benefit - maybe even you - as it creates a circle of device experts):
> General discussion > Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking
You have probably have seen this already as well...leaving it here just in case.
2) Probably not. LG has a habit of having no fastboot to be able to unlock bootloader or flash recovery (rather, you would flash recovery, once available, once rooted), so the classical way of rooting need not apply.
3) Accessible by the LG Hidden Menu...how you get there depends on your device config. Sorry I cannot be of more help there.
4) Too subjective of a question. Don't bother asking for such, even if a ROM did exist.
5) May make a difference. Due to Heartbleed bug in 4.3, I wouldn't bother though.
Any other questions you have, can go in that thread you have created (once you have made an XDA account, so you can post in that forum).
Hope this helps, and good luck!