Rooting (Android) – how expanded Android access works

Android and iOS are the most-widely used operating systems worldwide for smart­phone and tablet devices. Even if the two Unix-like systems are fun­da­ment­ally different in their user ex­per­i­ence, they share a few basic sim­il­ar­it­ies. The most important shared aspect is the user’s limited access to the file system as default. This is mainly for security reasons. If you want to lift these re­stric­tions, you have to root the tablet or phone at your own risk, as many man­u­fac­tur­ers don’t look kindly on this kind of modi­fic­a­tion to the operating system.

The following article explains the ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages of rooting Android, what exactly we mean by rooting, and how rooting works in detail.

Rooting refers to the user taking control of extended access rights on devices with Unix-like operating systems. The term can be traced back to the name of the main ad­min­is­trat­or account, which is called “root” in Unix and related systems. It is precisely this account that is available to users on a “rooted” device, giving them full access to the system and allowing them to make changes not possible with the normal user account. This includes the ability to delete pre-installed apps or to carry out system updates in­de­pend­ently.

In the context of tablets and mobile phones, the topic of rooting is ever-present. That’s because a majority of mobile devices are delivered with either Android (based on Linux) or iOS (based on BSD), both of which restrict user access. In com­par­is­on with rooting Android, rooting iOS is made even more difficult by ad­di­tion­al blocks, which is why the process on iPhone, iPad and other Apple devices is also called jail­break­ing.

Rooting a smart­phone or tablet also modifies the un­der­ly­ing operating system, which is generally not envisaged by the device man­u­fac­turer. First and foremost, this re­stric­ted mode is actually meant to protect the user from these kinds of changes, which put the stability and security of the system at risk. With full user access and in­ex­per­i­enced use of the system software, this kind of scenario is certainly not uncommon.

There are, however, plausible reasons to root Android because the increased level of security is also always linked to limited func­tion­al­ity. As opposed to a standard smart­phone or tablet, a rooted device offers the following ad­di­tion­al setting options and features, among others:

• User-defined system recovery: Android can be secured via Root in case the operating system ever needs to be recovered. The user will have to provide a back-up mechanism for this.
• Manual system updates and app in­stall­a­tion: With ad­min­is­trat­or rights, it’s possible to update Android yourself using so-called custom ROMs, which can be useful es­pe­cially if newly released versions are not actually available for the device. You can also install apps by third-party providers that do not appear on the Google Play Store.
• Modifying system files: By default, system files cannot be seen or changed by the user on Android. After rooting the tablet or phone, however, this option is a pos­sib­il­ity.
• Deleting pre-installed apps: Man­u­fac­tur­ers and providers sell mobile devices with an in­stall­a­tion-ready operating system including different standard apps, which can generally only be disabled. If you root your Android, you can also uninstall these apps.
• User-defined moving of apps to an SD card: Moving apps to external SD cards can save valuable storage space, but often only works after rooting an Android device.
• Changing boot animation and system font: Root access gives you the pos­sib­il­ity of replacing the boot animation after starting the mobile device, as well as the general system font, with one of your own choices. It’s also possible to adjust the volume.
• Over- and un­der­clock­ing the CPU: With Root priv­ileges, you can overclock the CPU of your mobile device to improve its per­form­ance, or un­der­clock it to increase its battery life.

If you always wanted more freedom ad­min­is­ter­ing your Android, you’ll really get your money’s worth with a rooted mobile device. However, unlocking the ad­min­is­trat­or account comes with an array of risks. In­stalling and updating Android and apps yourself can lead to the device no longer working as desired. This is known as a brick, which can be split into a soft or semi-brick (re­pair­able damage) and a hard or full brick (write-off).

Ac­tiv­at­ing Root on Android also means that spyware and malware can cause greater damage. If criminals gain access to your device, they will also have access to the extended ad­min­is­trat­or options and therefore more scope to ma­nip­u­late the device.

Finally, rooting a tablet or phone can result in a warranty or guarantee claim being voided, although specific cases vary depending on man­u­fac­tur­ers. In most cases, though, the re­spect­ive dis­trib­ut­or also has to prove that the device defect can actually be traced back to the Android being rooted. If, for example, you rooted your smart­phone and the on/off button then comes loose because of a material defect and without wilful damage on your part, then the guarantee or warranty is still valid as normal despite the modi­fic­a­tion to the device software.

The dis­ad­vant­ages and risks of rooting smart­phones and tablets include:

• Rooting Android and in­stalling or updating software on one’s own always comes with the risk of a soft or hard brick.
• Cy­ber­crim­in­als can cause greater damage with malware and spyware by taking advantage of the expanded ad­min­is­trat­or pos­sib­il­it­ies.
• If ac­tiv­at­ing the Root account or a sub­sequent Root action, like over­clock­ing the CPU, leads to a device defect, in many cases a warranty or guarantee claim will be voided.

Do you want to root your mobile device to get full access to organise the system? On the internet, you can find the most varied tools that serve the sole purpose of making Root available on Android. Generally, most of the solutions for the ac­tiv­a­tion process require you to connect your mobile device to a desktop PC, but some pro­grammes allow you to root a tablet or phone without a PC. Al­tern­at­ively, you can manually root the operating system, which works reliably, but requires a certain level of knowledge of the device model at hand.

How do the different methods work exactly, and what fun­da­ment­al pre­cau­tions should you take before ac­tiv­at­ing Root, re­gard­less of the solution you choose?

Before rooting your tablet or phone, you should first secure your personal data, such as photos or videos. You can use cloud storage or a separate device to back-up valuable in­form­a­tion. When ac­tiv­at­ing the ad­min­is­trat­or account, these files won’t get lost. The rooting process requires a lot of battery power, which is why you should ensure your device’s battery is fully charged. Al­tern­at­ively, you can connect your tablet or smart­phone to the mains during this process.

If you wish to activate the Root account on Android with the help of a desktop PC, you have to ensure that your mobile device is set to debugging mode (the mode for access to certain system com­pon­ents) as soon as you connect it to the PC with a USB cable. Before rooting, activate the option “USB debugging” or “Android debugging” in the Android developer options (these can be found in “Settings” -> “System”).

To activate Root via your PC, first, activate the debugging option mentioned above, and then connect your Android device and the desktop computer via USB cable. In some cases, it may be necessary to install ad­di­tion­al drivers on the PC for it to recognise the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) interface that is used for data exchange in the debugging mode. You can find a list of ap­pro­pri­ate drivers for a range of devices in the official Android developer forum.

If all the con­nec­tion details have been dealt with, you just need the right software, also known as a rooting toolkit. Re­com­men­ded toolkits include: WinDroid Toolkit, VRoot or wugfresh.com: Nexus Root Toolkit for Nexus devices. After you’ve down­loaded and installed your chosen kit, simply follow the programme-specific in­struc­tions to root your tablet or your phone.

Besides toolkits for desktop PCs, there are also various so-called one-click apps for Android with which the root ac­tiv­a­tion can be carried out directly from a mobile device. Of course, these apps are not available on the Google Play Store, but you can download the practical pro­grammes that make Android rooting possible from the re­spect­ive app and project pages as an APK file (Android Package) and then install them manually.

Because Android blocks such apps from foreign sources by default, you have to first allow them. In Android 8, this can be done by accessing the security settings of the system software by ac­tiv­at­ing the option “Allow apps from unknown source” or “Install unknown apps”. In newer editions of the system, you have to allow specific apps – usually the re­spect­ive browser – to obtain apps from outside the Play Store. For Google Chrome, for example, this works as follows:

1. Open the settings for your mobile device.
2. Click on “Apps and no­ti­fic­a­tions”.
3. Search for the Chrome entry in the list of apps (“Show all apps”) and click on it.
4. Scroll down to the section “More” and click on “Install unknown apps”.
5. Move the slider for the entry “Trust this source” to the right.

There is a wide selection of solutions for rooting a tablet or smart­phone without a PC. Always be careful that the app you choose supports both your device and the version of Android that is currently installed. Two of the best-known Root Android apps are the following:

• KingoRoot: KingoRoot has been one of the most popular rooting apps for all con­ven­tion­al Android systems since it was released in 2013. Alongside the APK version, there is also a Windows edition for rooting via PC.
• One Click Root: The app One Click Root does exactly what its name suggests. According to the developer, more than 1,000 different device models can be rooted in just one click. Op­tion­ally, they can also be unrooted.

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