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Does factory reset remove root based application ???

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doublewhammyx

Lurker
I've been looking for this information for quite some time now.

Device:
I recently bought this android tablet and wanted to get myself into the android world as I'm sick and tired of iOS and its shenanigans.

Problem:
To improve battery life and performance, I installed couple of programs from google play store and next thing I know, various unknown software that I didn't even select/opt to install started to appear on main screen. This made tablet way too much laggy. Application I installed (the one I remember)

1. Rootdim
2. Battery
3. Dolphin Browser
4. anTuTu Cpu (does removing app removes cpu speed profiles ???)
5. Brightness Level
6. 3D Flip Clock and World Weather
7. Brightness Level
8. GO Power Master
9. GO Task Manager Ex

Tried solution:
I tried factory reset (menu>settings>backup&reset>factory data reset). Though it removed all installed application, still the performance is laggy as hell.

My Question:
1. First of all, these apps didn't ask for root permission, so I'm assuming that root access is already allowed ???
2. Does factory reset removes all system apps as well as root apps?. My fear is that one of the culprit app might have installed some trojan app or virus app in system or rom. If not then how to remove the root apps as well as system apps the ones I manually installed from google play store.
3. Is there a way to unroot the device or set user password, so root dependent software will ask for permission before installation.

Please help :(
 
1. Do you have an app called superuser or supersu? If not then no user apps root access. If you do have root access superuser or supersu should ask you if you want to allow root permission the first time an app tries to access root.

2. A factory reset will remove everything from the /data & /cache partitions but not from the /system partition.

3. The only way to unroot is to Apply a ROM Upgrade Utility. You would need to consult your device specific forum for advice on RUUs.
 
In answer to your other question removing Antutu CPU may remove control over you CPU profiles if controls are not built into the ROM settings. You can reinstall it from google play or try others like SetCPU Or No Frills CPU.
 
doublewhammyx said:
My Question:
1. First of all, these apps didn't ask for root permission, so I'm assuming that root access is already allowed ???
2. Does factory reset removes all system apps as well as root apps?. My fear is that one of the culprit app might have installed some trojan app or virus app in system or rom. If not then how to remove the root apps as well as system apps the ones I manually installed from google play store.
3. Is there a way to unroot the device or set user password, so root dependent software will ask for permission before installation.

Please help :(
Click to expand...

1) As mentioned above, do you have an app called Superuser or SuperSU? If not then apps cannot gain root access. If you do, you can go into that app and it will list which apps have access.
2) A factory reset doesn't touch the system folder. You can uninstall system apps through the use of Titanium Backup, available on the play store for free. This all assume that you actually are rooted successfully.
3) Unrooting can be done a couple of ways, but is usually very device specific. It can be done manually through the command line, through a RUU, or flashing a factory image through the bootloader. Again this is very device specific. There is no way to set a password for allowing access, but apps should normally ask permission for root access before gaining it.

If you can tell us which tablet you have, I can move this topic to it's device forum to help you find that specific information.
 
Hi doublewhammyx, and welcome to AF :)

What type of tablet is this?

Stuff appearing that you hadn't installed sounds like push advertising. You can learn more about this, and how to identify the culprits, in this thread. However, those extra apps were probably only shortcuts, in which case they themselves would not be the cause of a performance problem.

An app has to ask for root permissions even on a rooted device - an app called "Superuser" acts as a gatekeeper to grant (or deny) such permissions, and these have to be granted app-by-app (though you can grant them permanently). Do you know whether your device was rooted? Normally you have to root it yourself, i.e. modify the ROM so that it is possible to grant system privileges to apps, but some off-brand tablets come pre-rooted. In the latter case you still generally need to install superuser before an app can be granted system privileges. So unless it came with superuser not only installed but also set to automatically grant all root requests (which it can be set to do, but is neither the default nor advisable) none of these apps would have system access.

Since rootdim requires root, there's a simple test: did you run it before doing the reset? And if so, did it complain that it needed root (I assume not, as you'd have mentioned it). If it ran without asking or complaining that would imply that you did indeed have this very strange setup. If so, do you still have a superuser (or superSU) app on the tablet? Check its settings, as this is the answer to your question 3: this app can be (and normally is) set to ask for confirmation before granting any app root rights.

A "factory reset" is really a "factory data reset" - it will remove all user-installed apps and clear all user data and settings, but does not affect system apps (which are part of what people call the ROM). So anything that was installed to system would still be there after a reset.

The other question is where you got these apps from. If it was the Play Store it's extremely unlikely they contained the sort of malware you are worrying about. anTuTu cpu could cause lag, but I'd have thought that removing it and rebooting would undo it (never used it myself though, so cannot be 100% sure, just basing this on how SetCPU works). So I might suggest instead reinstalling that one an setting it to system defaults, and see whether it makes any difference.

You could also use a system monitoring app (e.g. System Panel) to check whether there is anything using a lot of resources.

Good luck!

Edit: multiply ninja'd!!
 
You guys have been massive help, thanks for your time and great insight into my problem with this tablet Model: Twintab T7238g.

Thanks, nicka3200, jhawkkw and Hadron for giving concise and indepth information related to my questions.

However as Hadron suggested, I checked "Settings>App>Running/All" section, I couldn't find any software that is remotely close to name of SU or SuperU or SuperUser. I installed "Antutu CPU" and "SystemPanelLite Task Manager" again, none of them asked me about SuperUser permission and simply got installed on this tablet, however "Antutu CPU" did show me a information box that there will be a need for SuperUser Access and tablet has to be rooted, but as said before, it didn't ask me to grant access to root.

Can you please give me name of any other software that I can use and be certain that some hidden superuser app not only installed but also set to automatically grant all root requests.

Thanks.

PS: I will post the result as soon as you guys gimme name of application to test for SU Access with auto grant permission.
 
When I tried RootDim the first thing that happened was that superuser asked for permission. When I declined, Rootdim informed me that it would need root to work.

If you don't have superuser or supersu in your app drawer then there will be nothing to ask for root permissions, which on any rooted system I've met would mean that nothing can get root access.

There are also apps like Root Checker in the Play Store that can be used to test root access.
 
Well, now it is confirmed, I installed Root Checker and checked for "Verify Root Access".

And the result was following.
"Congratulations!, This device has Root Access".

So now the next question is, how to restrict the access of app to the root, and most importantly, how to find a particular program that is allowing the superuser/root access to the device.
 
What happens if you install superuser? Does it then ask for permission?

If so that should give you control.

Unrooting is usually done by flashing stock (unrooted) firmware, but if the stock firmware for the device is rooted that won't help.
 
Well thats amazing, using superuser program and selecting option "temp unroot" does inform the following.

"Need root privileges
You need root privileges on your device for RootDim to work. (or maybe your device is not compatible with RootDim?) yada yada."

So it seems that SuperUser is definitely working, which is good. Thanks.

And as you said
"Unrooting is usually done by flashing stock (unrooted) firmware, but if the stock firmware for the device is rooted that won't help."

It seems that I'm out of luck then, because firmware for this device is already super and rooted. Now here I'm trying to think outside of box, does this mean that I'll never be able to install Jelly Bean on my own ... till manufacturer of this device releases it own version or I can install it by my own after backing up this device's stock firmware?
 
What you need to flash an alternative ROM is a Recovery program that will allow you to install a custom ROM from a zip file. The best place to get more information on that is in the device specific forum for your tablet.
 
Although I haven't read this thread from start to finish, what I have read so far is very informative to me, a newbie to android. I have had fair success, over the years, with fixing my windows OS on the desktop and laptop but, I'm going to also need some help and will start another thread untitled: Help with my Tablet- trojan app or virus app in system or rom. Thank you, contributors, to this thread...very helpful, so far. I'll start my thread after this post.
 
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