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Question about rooting

djc5223

Lurker
I don't have a pc but I want to root my phone. I do have a Microsoft surface. I went through a root tutorial that told me to download something called ODIN. My surface said it did not have an app to open odin. Am I not able to use my surface to help me root my phone? Is there any other way?


I might add that I am NOT tech saavy by any means. Thank you for any help.
 
No offense intended, but considering your level of technical savvy - or lack thereof - you don't sound like a good candidate for rooting your phone. It's not just a matter of following a tutorial. A few things you should consider before you do...

First, you need to determine if you must root the phone to accomplish a particular thing you need or want to do. Chances are you really don't need root access for anything.

Or, if not then maybe you just want to experiment. Nothing wrong with that, but there's some things you should know and consider first to avoid unnecessary grief.

Rooting grants full administrator permissions to the user, rather than limited user permissions. The good is that this allows you to do basically anything to any files on the device. It allows full control of everything on the device. The bad is that it also means you have full permission to muck up anything on the device. It also reduces the security of the phone somewhat.

I used to root every phone I had. But I no longer root my daily driver phone that I cannot do without. As hardware and software has improved the need to root has declined. Now I do not recommend rooting unless you have a specific need or just want to experiment on a spare device.

If you decide you really do need and want to root, first do a LOT of reading. See if there's a subforum here for your phone. You should check out the XDA Developer forum for information too, but be sure to read first and post later there as it's not a very n00b-friendly site. And as always, for questions this forum and Google search are your friends.

There is some chance a mistake could 'brick' your phone (make it unusable). Make sure you understand why you're rooting, the exact procedures required and all the terminology. And it's absolutely critical to have a recovery plan and backups in case things go bad.

DO NOT try to install a ROM that is intended for any phone except your exact model! If you have questions post back here before proceeding and someone will help.

Don't forget to do backups! Read about nandroid backup.

Until you are confident that you have everything above ready and understood, you're not yet ready to root.
 
I think to root (and install custom recovery) you're gonna need a desktop computer.
These apks that claim to root any phone don't add custom recovery AFAIK and that's very important to have.
Not only does it let you install custom firmware/mods, it also makes a backup of the entire phone (nandroid) that you can go back to at any time WHEN you mess up :thumbsupdroid:
 
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PS I haven't managed to root my new phone yet (im terrible with pcs lol) and I can't say I'm missing much. The stock rom is pretty perfect and I buy most of my apps so don't need an ad blocker so yeah, unless there's something you really need root access for, don't bother.
Also since you mentioned Odin I guess you have a Samsung? If you do anything to modify a Samsung it voids your warranty
 
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