[Q] [Q&A] why need to root android phone? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi guys!
Anyone can tell me why pls? I dont know exactly what i can do after that.

Subzeromot said:
Hi guys!
Anyone can tell me why pls? I dont know exactly what i can do after that.
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I would recommend reading the official XDA introduction guide to rooting that will answer all your questions and more on root found here. Let me know if you have any additional questions I'll be happy to answer them for you.

Subzeromot said:
Hi guys!
Anyone can tell me why pls? I dont know exactly what i can do after that.
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There are many articles on the internet that explain this. I'll give you the gist of them though:
Debloating. "Bloat" is unwanted/unneeded apps. They take up space, they slow things down, and they bug you for updates. You can't always delete what you don't want because these apps are installed by the manufacturer or carrier as "system" apps, rather than "user" apps. With root access you can uninstall system apps. Be careful in what you delete though, and always do a back-up first.
Back-ups. With apps like Titanium, ROM Tool Box, and Helium, you can do full back-ups of your apps. It's a good idea to do a back-up before updating some apps, as you might prefer the older version vs the new one. Or, you can back-up a game that doesn't save to a server/cloud and you don't lose your progress. And you can back up system apps before deleting them so you can always restore them if things go awry.
Ad blocking. With apps like AdAway you can block ads within apps/games and also ads within your web browsers. Besides making things cleaner and less annoying, this improves load times and reduces data usage because the ads don't have to load.
Customization. Root access can let you use certain apps to customize the appearance and function of your OS. Most notable is the Xposed framework, an extremely powerful tool that utilizes individual modules to not only change how your phone looks, but how it can fundamentally operate.
Performance. Even without a custom kernel, you can still use a kernel controller app to tweak your phone for better performance or better battery life. Exactly what can be done and by how much depends on the phone.
Free wifi tethering. There are apps that bypass your carrier and phone's built-in tether provisioning.
Tasker. Tasker is an app that can automate your phone to do whatever you want whenever you want it to happen. It's nearly limitless.

Related

[Q] Why Root

I was just wondering why is it a good idea to root ?
What do you guys do once you have rooted your phones ?
some people likes their phones as they are.
some people likes to make some changes to their phones, as fonts, battery indicator, delete some idle apps, make device a little bit faster and comfortable for everyday using
I do understand hacking phones, I even used to cook roms back in the day of the omnia 2 but I'm just wondering because I'm new to android, why or should we root the new ones ie, 2.3.3 2.3.4 and what benefits we can gain from it if we don't flash custom roms ?
Oh and I have just re rooted my neo by the way
The biggest benefit is most likely the ability to use Titanium Backup if you're not interested in all the tweaks and custom roms and themes.
SCHUMI_4EVER said:
The biggest benefit is most likely the ability to use Titatanium Backup if you're not interested in all the tweaks and custom roms and themes.
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Ah thanks, is the free titanium on the market any good ?
The Pro version has far more features but yeah the Free version is good enough for a basic backup.
I personally rooted my phone so I can tweak it. I like using the V6 supercharger to alter minfrees and fix OOM-groupings. I also like playing Tegra games with Chainfire3D. My ROM is currently the SE TWEAKEDv0.5 and my Kernel is DooMLorD's (the new one by inteks) i'm on 283 because I don't like updating for no reason... oh and WifiKill (it requires root )
There's also a tool called ROM toolbox. SassiBoB reviewed it. It is quite similar to TB, but the free version offers more features.
Sent from my Xperia Neo using XDA-app
Ah sweet guys thanks I'll look into these.
del1701 said:
I was just wondering why is it a good idea to root ?
What do you guys do once you have rooted your phones ?
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Rooted apps I use:
Titanium Backup: backs up ANY app and app data, even system apps, and more importantly has the power to UNINSTALL ANY APP, even system apps.
EzBoot: reboot your phone quickly (turning it off, waiting and then turning it back on is so dumbphone-like).
Root Explorer: can access hidden system data files in internal memory.
Chainfire 3D: it's supposed to trick hi-end games into thinking your phone has a Tegra chip or simply downscales textures to improve performance, but I admit I'm yet to see a game that needs this.
Script Manager: needed to Supercharge your phone (just did that, I'm not sure if this actually improves performance.
Font Installer: yeah, I changed all fonts on my phone. And yeah, it's pretty useless.
AdFree: promises to block ads on the phone. I was led to believe this is supposed to block ads on all apps, but I notice it doesn't work on some annoying apps with very intrusive ads. It does work on most web pages when browsing the internet though.
FasterFix: it's supposed to get faster locks on GPS satellites. I'm yet to test it properly.
Before I rooted, the only thing I ever wanted with rooting the Xperia neo was definitely Titanium Backup (I can't stand the sight of demos of Let's Golf and Nova HD eating up space from my internal memory). Now I can count 8 rooted apps here. The thing is, phones should all come rooted, period. The user should be able to choose to give away root access on an app-by-app basis.
evilRafael said:
Rooted apps I use:
Titanium Backup: backs up ANY app and app data, even system apps, and more importantly has the power to UNINSTALL ANY APP, even system apps.
EzBoot: reboot your phone quickly (turning it off, waiting and then turning it back on is so dumbphone-like).
Root Explorer: can access hidden system data files in internal memory.
Chainfire 3D: it's supposed to trick hi-end games into thinking your phone has a Tegra chip or simply downscales textures to improve performance, but I admit I'm yet to see a game that needs this.
Script Manager: needed to Supercharge your phone (just did that, I'm not sure if this actually improves performance.
Font Installer: yeah, I changed all fonts on my phone. And yeah, it's pretty useless.
AdFree: promises to block ads on the phone. I was led to believe this is supposed to block ads on all apps, but I notice it doesn't work on some annoying apps with very intrusive ads. It does work on most web pages when browsing the internet though.
FasterFix: it's supposed to get faster locks on GPS satellites. I'm yet to test it properly.
Before I rooted, the only thing I ever wanted with rooting the Xperia neo was definitely Titanium Backup (I can't stand the sight of demos of Let's Golf and Nova HD eating up space from my internal memory). Now I can count 8 rooted apps here. The thing is, phones should all come rooted, period. The user should be able to choose to give away root access on an app-by-app basis.
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Thanks I'll have a look at these ones
I'll mention the most basic and useful thing you can do to a rooted Neo-uninstall all the bloatware that comes with the latest Neo firmware and free RAM. Those useless apps constantly occupy around 30mb of RAM and decrease performance. I for example don't want that intrusive Facebook app spread throughout the entire system running constantly.That,Titanium Backup and Ad Free are the major reasons to root for me.
centavar said:
I'll mention the most basic and useful thing you can do to a rooted Neo-uninstall all the bloatware that comes with the latest Neo firmware and free RAM. Those useless apps constantly occupy around 30mb of RAM and decrease performance. I for example don't want that intrusive Facebook app spread throughout the entire system running constantly.That,Titanium Backup and Ad Free are the major reasons to root for me.
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Yeah, besides freeing RAM, it also frees my blood pressure. I can't stand the sight of demos of "Let's Golf" and "Nova" stuck in my phone.
centavar said:
I'll mention the most basic and useful thing you can do to a rooted Neo-uninstall all the bloatware that comes with the latest Neo firmware and free RAM. Those useless apps constantly occupy around 30mb of RAM and decrease performance.
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I guess +100Mb is no problem to after cleaning
Sent via MT15i Nightly v14®

Dev Idea / Question

Hi Guys,
I have a question/idea. Maybe its already done and you give me a hint on how to install it.
There are a bunch of apps that I really like but I dont like their security requirements like accessing Contacts, System settings, account data.
I agree that some may need it for their functionality, but some apps abuse it or have unnecessary rights.
I wonder if someone could write an app that intercepts those requests and returns dummy or empty data. For example, the app wants access to my contacts, it gets a dummy contact or an empty list returned but not my real list etc. Making the app think its is getting live data. The new app should allow to choose which app will get real and which get blank data or dummy data for sensitive things like accounts, contacts, system stuff.
That way the app would still work but my data is safe.
I guess it would almost have to work like a Rootkit hooking into system functions and figuring out the calling app.
Does this exist? Would this be something for CM7?
I read a lot of ppls reviews out there saying I am not installing this app until you remove such and such security right. This should be the best solution.
Let me know.
spacev said:
Hi Guys,
I have a question/idea. Maybe its already done and you give me a hint on how to install it.
There are a bunch of apps that I really like but I dont like their security requirements like accessing Contacts, System settings, account data.
I agree that some may need it for their functionality but some apps abuse the it or have unnecessary rights.
I wonder if someone could write an app that intercepts those requests and returns dummy or empty data. For example the app wants access to my contacts, or it gets a dummy contact or am empty list etc. Making the app think its is getting live data. The app should allow to set which app will get real and which get blank data for sensitive thing like accounts, contacts, system stuff.
That way the app would still work but my data is safe.
I guess it would almost have to work like a Rootkit hooking into system functions and figuring out the calling app.
Does this exist? Would this be something for CM7?
I read a lot of ppls reviews out there saying I am not installing this app until you remove such and such security right. This should be the best solution.
Let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This should be in Q&A.. And there is an app for this.. LBE or LBE Lite.. Also, yes it is a function of CM7. While I'm answering though, I will say that I block almost all permissions that are unnecessary and I've never had a problem with any of the 125 apps I use.
LBE vs CM7
Well, as outlined above, CM7 and LBE are the two best options. I figured I might as well outline the pros and cons of each.
CM7 Application Permission Removal:
Pros - Built-in, no popups, technically faster.
Cons - Not all-in-one interface per say, more annoying to set a large number of apps permissions.
LBE:
Pros - Available on more phones, popups allow you to decide on a situation by situation basis whether to grant permissions, all in one interface, nice looking UI.
Cons - Not built in, popups CAN be annoying, different color scheme from stock android.
P.S. I'm not sure if this happens for everyone, but it probably does just because of security system conflicts in CM7 and LBE, but LBE doesn't seem to be able to start and run on CM7, so you can't have the best of both worlds
thanks guys for the quick responses!
I am trying LBE and so far like what I am seeing
THANKS!

[Q] Why don't more apps use Android's backup service?

I'm curious for any insights anyone has into this: it seems like most of my apps can only have their data backed up by Titanium Backup (which of course requires root), but Android itself seems to offer a mechanism for apps to backup any of their data to its servers (described here). Why don't more apps use this? It would make life so much easier if I could restore my apps with their data when I get a new phone without needing to worry about rooting. Are there issues with this mechanism of backing up data that is preventing it from gaining more traction? (or is this function used more commonly than I'm thinking it is based on my very un-scientific and anecdotal observation of the apps I have?)
Maybe the data that these apps use are somewhere in a folder requiring root access to view them. Maybe that's why.
Thanks, but I think you're reading my question to be about why users can only backup app data with Titanium Backup (or other programs that require root access).
My real question is: why don't app makers just use the tools that Google has provided for them to backup their data to Google's servers? This would obviate the need for us to worry about backing up our app data at all. It looks to me like this functionality Google has designed (as described here) should make it so that when I re-install an app (or install it on a new phone), all of my settings automatically return from the cloud without me -- which sounds HEAVENLY! Why isn't this being used more?
just realised android has this.. how do I know if an app are using this? is it in the permissions?
djmickyg said:
just realised android has this.. how do I know if an app are using this? is it in the permissions?
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Yeah, that's a good question, and I'm not sure. I don't recall seeing any permissions about this.
I feel like Android's app data backup service is one of the greatest and most underused and under-appreciated features of the OS. How do we get more developers to use this?

Minimalist ROM?

I was wondering if anyone out there has made or adjusted there rom to strip out all the things that aren't used and make it just focused on the core operations (radio, calls, navigation, music, poweramp, dvd with a couple of extras like torque) - the aim would be to make the device as quick as possible.
For example, I don't use the email client or video on this; don't plan to add a reversing camera etc. But all the MTC keys, etc are useful to get it work properly so you would need to do this. So has anyone done this before? Just interested to know if the device/stock rom could be speeded up by any reasonable margin.
If you wish to remove unwanted apps from a MTCB head unit ROM, after rooting (generally it's very easy) you can freely delete all the useless apps you don't need.
I do intend to do that - you can do that using titantium backup right?
Would this speed up the headunit much - or unlikely to that much as most of it is probably not running in any case?
Would be helpful if there was a list of apps you can remove safely and apps you can't. Last year I uninstalled a load of telephony related apps which messed it all up. Error messages everywhere. I had to reinstall Android.
Mr Bigglesworth said:
you can do that using titantium backup right?
Would this speed up the headunit much - or unlikely to that much as most of it is probably not running in any case?
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Yes, you can use Titanium Backup or other root disabler apps.
General speed might be however only slightly increased but it depends on which apps were running automatically as startup.
If you want to try to speed up the boot time you can find some useful information here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3246437

Debloat, save battery and data and improve privacy while we wait for a custom Rom

Hi all, ok so ive done some reading on how to debloat this phone in order to improve the battery life, limit tracking and save data by removing the unneccesary software that runs in the background while we wait for a custom rom to be developed.
Have a look at the following:
Universal Android Debloater
XiaomiADBFastbootTools
Also have a look at F-Droid (and install Aurora Droid) and the Aurora Store if you care about your privacy and the tracking that comes with Playstore apps.
Netguard is also excellent in limiting internet connection to apps you decide (even system apps) in order to save data and to protect your privacy.
If ive missed anything please feel free to post here so all of us can help one another.
Thanks
How I remove system apps without root
Did you try Android GSI (see Phh-usson-GSI)? This is more AOSP ROM type of GSI
>How I remove system apps without root
With xiaomi adbfastboot tools. Working flawlessly
Surendra R sonawane said:
How I remove system apps without root
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Using ADB. Google
janni0077 said:
Hi all, ok so ive done some reading on how to debloat this phone in order to improve the battery life, limit tracking and save data by removing the unneccesary software that runs in the background while we wait for a custom rom to be developed.
Have a look at the following:
Universal Android Debloater
XiaomiADBFastbootTools
Also have a look at F-Droid (and install Aurora Droid) and the Aurora Store if you care about your privacy and the tracking that comes with Playstore apps.
Netguard is also excellent in limiting internet connection to apps you decide (even system apps) in order to save data and to protect your privacy.
If ive missed anything please feel free to post here so all of us can help one another.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are the bloatwares you have removed so far? Did anything malfunction after that?
Which bloatware apps are necessary and should not be deleted?
after a mild debloating - the recorded videos don't play.
otherwise I have a feeling every phone has 90% unneeded garbage

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