Rooting s4

[boyceyisalegend]

Hi, please can you guys help me, i am considering rooting my Samsung galaxy s4! I would like to know the advantages and disadvantages, if you can uninstall it, what you can do with a rooted phone and how to install it. You guys all know a lot more than me haha Thanks Jamie

 

[Brian706]

Welcome to the forums!!

Here are some good threads to check out if you are thinking about rooting:

Root Terminology

What is root or being rooted mean?

Rooting Best Practices

You've went and rooted the phone. Now What???


Those will probably answer most of your questions anyway.


When you're ready to take the plunge you'll want to hit up the root sub-forum for your device to get the specifics: Samsung Galaxy S4 - Android Forums


Hope that will be enough to get you started. Please don't hesitate to keep asking questions.

 

[chanchan05]

My advice mostly is, don't bother unless you find a need for it. Biggest disadvantage is you lose warranty, with the potential to turn the phone into a brick a far second, although distance between then is inversely proportional to the amount of stuff you read on the topic.

Consider this: I've been on Android for approx 4-5 years and only found one reason to root, and that's by the time my device reached 2 years old. It was on my Galaxy S which Samsung didnt give an update to ICS. I rooted and updated it myself. That was it.

 

[kate]

The two main advantages of rooting a phone are being able to put a custom ROM on the phone and the ability to install apps that require root.

The root process is different for every phone, so follow instructions for your version of the Galaxy S4.

Two downsides - there is a small chance you can brick the phone, and if it's newer you will void the warranty as chanchan05 mentioned.

 

[fa1988]

advantages: Nothing
Disadvantage: An increase in the chance of bricking your phone and finally throw it away.

 

[funkylogik]

advantages: Nothing
Disadvantage: An increase in the chance of bricking your phone and finally throw it away.

Ridiculous!!
There are a million advantages. No point rooting though unless you know what they are :thumbup:

 

[chanchan05]

advantages: Nothing
Disadvantage: An increase in the chance of bricking your phone and finally throw it away.

False. There are a ton of possible advantages.

However, the question is mostly, do these advantages matter to you? Some people with lower end phones root to remove huge system apps like Maps, Hangouts, Google+, etc. This allows them to free up space in the system partition, which using root access, they can install apps to. Unrooted devices can't do that. Also, rooting phone can increase their life-span. My Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab Plus have better specs than some current phone being released with ICS/JB, but due to their age have had support stopped from Samsung. However with root, I can give them JB and not spend a thing.

Higher end phones don't normally need that, but root gives them other advatages. Certain automation features now need root access, so if you use Tasker, rooting is quite important. Security programs like Cerberus, Avast, Lookout, etc, also work better with root. You can make it so that a reset of the phone won't erase them, allowing to to trace the phone even if factory reset. Custom apps also have better access when rooted. For example, exDialer can't dismiss the missed call notification if you aren't rooted. You still have to open up the stock dialer.

Then there's a whole lot of other stuff they do over at XDA.

Plus rooting nowadays is just a one click process for more popular phones. Almost absolutely zero chance of bricking if you have one of the supported phones. As I said, you should read properly. You may miss the one click installation instructions, download from the wrong link, etc.