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Rooting? -good or bad?

K

kos

Newbie
Hi,

I've been reading and trying to understand what rooting is for. If I've understood correctly, rooting allow access to the system files of the Android OS.

I've also read that the Android OS is very secure and that is what makes is virus proof.

Is my understanding correct that when we root our Android OS, this will open up the risk of having the Android system attacked by viruses/malware/etc...?

What is the advantage of rooting the Android OS?

Some apps that I wanted to install (ie Battery Calibration) required me to root my Android OS. Is this the only reason to root? Or are there other reasons to root?

Many thanks and apologies for the stupid sounding questions as I'm new to the Android OS.

Thanks.
 
1. No Android is not virus proof. (technically they arent virus but malware and spyware, but some people tend to call everything viruses).

2. Not exactly. Even with root or without root, installing malicious software will cause problems. The best way to avoid such is to download only from reputable markets (Amazon, Android Market, AppBrain, GetJar...) and avoid installers from file sharing links, etc.

3. Full customization, ability to make a full backup among others, and apps that need superuser access, like the one you mentioned. One of the most common reason why people root their phone is to replace the ROM with a cleaner and optimized one, as well as removing the crapware that OEMs and carriers install. Its like, when you buy an HP laptop. There are a number of HP bloatware in there. So you reformat the laptop and install the Windows OS without all the HP bloatware.
 
Thanks Chanchan05, so I guess next step will be to start understanding how to do the actual rooting. Yup, I did find that there seemed to be a lot of bloatware.

I also read that with the custom version, performance and battery life can possibly improve.
 
Depending on phone model, there are 1click rooting methods for some phonea which makes the entire process easier.
 
kos said:
What is the advantage of rooting the Android OS?
Click to expand...
Rooting itself doesn't really do much. It's like having admin rights on your PC. What you can do once you're rooted is a massive list and it isn't reasonable to expect people to spoon feed you every possibility. "What is root?" and "What are the advantages?" are some of the most commonly asked questions on every Android forum site. Have you read existing threads and guides?

The short answer is more control over your Android device.

kos said:
good or bad?
Click to expand...
Neither.
 
make sure you read and understand how to root your phone. if you dont know what you are doing you could end up bricking it. also once you root your phone the warranty on it will be no good in most cases
 
Rooting does not make you more susceptible to malware.
There were malware apps that gained super user permissions via a root exploit to compromise your data.

Also, downloading from reputable sites don't prevent malware, the android market has removed quite a few malicious apps.
 
PhillySteve said:
News to me since Verizon shut it down on my Tbolt when I was unrooted. I was never able to find a free wireless tether app before I was rooted..
Click to expand...

Probably depends on what carrier and what country you are. When I first got my data plan, I asked my carrier what if I tethered my internet to my PC/laptop. They told me its fine because the access point used by my phone is the same access point used by their USB-type modem thingies (you know those little USB sticks that gives you access to 3G internet if your laptop doesnt have a sim slot?). They told me they couldn't care less if I was able to download 1tb of data in a month via tethering to my PC as I've already paid for unlimited data. By the way I'm not even using an app, I just go to menu>settings>wireless>mobile ap> turn it on.
 
Depending on what you want to do with your phone and what your unrooted phone is able to do, you may not need to root. I happen to like what my unrooted phone is able to do. I haven't wanted to do anything that my phone is unable to do or feel that it is worth rooting to do so.
 
Stuntman said:
Depending on what you want to do with your phone and what your unrooted phone is able to do, you may not need to root. I happen to like what my unrooted phone is able to do. I haven't wanted to do anything that my phone is unable to do or feel that it is worth rooting to do so.
Click to expand...

If you haven't been rooted, you can't really say whether rooting would be beneficial to you.

As for my personal preference, I root because of Adfree Android. It's amazing how much faster websites load when you don't have to deal with ads. Secondly, I like to flash new ROM's, which can do anything from increase functionality to cooling your phone down.
 
lrv said:
If you haven't been rooted, you can't really say whether rooting would be beneficial to you.

As for my personal preference, I root because of Adfree Android. It's amazing how much faster websites load when you don't have to deal with ads. Secondly, I like to flash new ROM's, which can do anything from increase functionality to cooling your phone down.
Click to expand...

I am aware that there are many avenues to customising my phone. I certainly do not have the time to explore all options. I'm sure that if I do, I may be able to make my phone work better for me than how it is working now. The fact is that I am fairly happy with my phone and have no desire to explore the rooting option. I can spend forever tweaking my phone, but there comes a point where the phone works well enough and I just want to use it more so than tweak it further.
 
Stuntman said:
I am aware that there are many avenues to customising my phone. I certainly do not have the time to explore all options. I'm sure that if I do, I may be able to make my phone work better for me than how it is working now. The fact is that I am fairly happy with my phone and have no desire to explore the rooting option. I can spend forever tweaking my phone, but there comes a point where the phone works well enough and I just want to use it more so than tweak it further.
Click to expand...

I can respect that decision, because frankly, keeping up with some ROM's currently are a bit of a headache. In fact, I'm back completely stock, not rooted, in preparation for the GB OTA the D2 should be getting momentarily.

It's not that stock isn't capable of doing everything I need it to do, but it's more that it's overloaded with apps that I don't use, and will never use. Not only are they installed, but the majority of them are setup to run constantly, although they're not being used. Killing these processes is a good reason to root, because they use RAM, which we all know to kill the battery life of the handset.
 
lrv said:
It's not that stock isn't capable of doing everything I need it to do, but it's more that it's overloaded with apps that I don't use, and will never use. Not only are they installed, but the majority of them are setup to run constantly, although they're not being used. Killing these processes is a good reason to root, because they use RAM, which we all know to kill the battery life of the handset.
Click to expand...

Which apps do you find are running constantly on your unrooted phone? My understanding of Android OS is that it manages apps by keeping most often used apps in memory. If you don't use those apps, Android would not keep those in memory and would keep others in memory that you use more often. Also, most apps should not actually be running constantly. They may be in memory, but if they have nothing to do when not in the foreground, they are just suspended and are not using any system resources except for memory.

On my phone, there are an number of pre-loaded apps that I don't use. I just pretty much ignore them. They take up a slot on the app tray and may use some storage, but I don't use the app tray much and I'm not so tight on storage that I want to removed some pre-loaded apps. Some pre-loaded apps include the weather app, a news app, a demo to a game, a GPS navigation app. As far as I can tell, they are not running and are not loaded in memory because Android realises I don't use them.
 
Stuntman said:
As far as I can tell, they are not running and are not loaded in memory because Android realises I don't use them.
Click to expand...

uhhh... not so much...

I have bloat apps constantly trying to start up and run- which I have to constantly kill. Very annoying!

The Android has to by now realize I do not use or want these apps, yet they still try to run...:(
 
ghostvet said:
uhhh... not so much...

I have bloat apps constantly trying to start up and run- which I have to constantly kill. Very annoying!

The Android has to by now realize I do not use or want these apps, yet they still try to run...:(
Click to expand...

Which ones are they?

If you manually try to kill the apps, it may confuse the Android memory/app manager. Sometimes apps try to restart themselves if they are abruptly killed. I find that sometimes when something force closes, the app tries to recover itself. Using an app manager to kill the app may make the app think that it needs to recover and thus will try to reload and resume to a stable state.

Have you just tried not killing them for a few days and just use the other apps you normally use? After a while, this will train Android that those bloatware apps are not being touched for a while and over time, Android will no longer think they are often used apps.
 
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