I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 through Verizon. It is still active but the contract is done. I presume this means the phone is mine now.
If I were to root this phone and install a new rom, would it still work as intended with my account, or would Verizon (or any other carrier) detect the change and block it?
If they let it be, what would the benefits be to installing a different rom?
I realize getting rid of bloatware, and possible better battery life are the top two, any others?
Any good sites that talk in depth, not just “How To” but also “Consequences Of”?
I have an older phone, No carrier, just a tiny wifi tablet now, that I could practice on if I really want to. I would rather have a really good idea of the good, bad, and ugly before I even think about rooting that one.
I’ve done this many times with Google phones on AT&T. They don’t care what phone or OS you use, as long as it is not locked to another carrier. I’ve gone from the original OS to Cynogenmod, and back on my phone without any issue.
With one exception. I tried to take a SIM card from a non-smart phone and put it in a smart phone. That didn’t work, but that was because I hadn’t bought a data plan. Once I added a data plan, it worked fine.
I rooted my S4 Mini not too long ago and the path I took was through xda developers. In addition to what you have mentioned, there are features like call recording and profiles tat change how the phone behaves depending on how it’s connected (via wifi at home, bluetooth in the car, etc) that simply didn’t exist on the standard ROM. Additionally, I’m running Lollipop on my s4 which isn’t even being offered by Samsung and they have no intention of doing so.
Prepare to spend some time reading and researching before you plunge in. Chances are, someone has addressed an issue you have.
Depending on the developmental maturity of the ROM, you may lose features temporarily (or even permanently). Stuff that’s hard to replicate in a truly open ROM is features like full-feature HDMI capability (since that’s encumbered with DRM that has been resistant to reverse-engineering).
For me, I won’t rom my Droid4 because I use the HDMI too much (dock for external display with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse) to give it up. Also because it’s pretty complicated to rom (locked bootloader, requires workarounds that make me nervous).
If I relegate the phone to second-class status (like your old “mini tablet” phone), I might take that step. But probably not if Cyanogenmod can’t get the HDMI port working fully.
ETA: I am rooted on the Droid4. That’s an important point: rooting and romming are technically separate, although in practice if you do the latter you get the former pretty much for free.
I’m not sure about that. I always thought rooting was a prerequisite to installing custom ROMs. It isn’t that you get something for free, it’s just that you have to be rooted to install ROMs, but you don’t have to install a new ROM just because you’re rooted.
OP, the carrier doesn’t care what OS you use, nor whether your phone is rooted, even if you’re still on a contract (it might void your warranty though). They won’t block it[sup]*[/sup]. So if you have trouble after installing a ROM, chances are very high that your trouble is with the ROM itself and not the carrier.
For example, a few weeks ago, I installed a cyanogenmod nightly build on my Nexus 6 and lost my signal. No mobile data, no texts, emergency calls only. I knew it wasn’t the carrier or signal availability because my phone worked fine with a stock ROM. So I reinstalled a stock ROM and it got my data back. I switched back to CM today and there are no problems. So something happened with CM where it didn’t work for my phone, but they updated their software and now it’s fixed.
If you update ROMs often or install new ones regularly, you’ll run into little problems like this frequently. Know what a nandroid backup is, know how to backup and restore your phone, and always have a working backup handy in case your new ROM breaks something.
[sup]*[/sup]I’ve heard that if you use the mobile wifi hotspot feature in a custom ROM like CM, your carrier can detect that the packets going over the network are from a computer and not a phone, and have been known to block that data if you didn’t buy a wifi tethering plan. I have not run into that problem on T-Mobile though, nor back when I had AT&T either. But I suppose it’s technically possible.
Rooted phones have access to more apps. For example, AdAway updates my hosts file to block ads. It requires root access. There are other privacy apps that require root. Cerberus requires root for tracking a lost phone, remotely taking a picture of a phone thief and remotely wiping the phone.
Wifi tethering. If your phone has a signal and you want to use your laptop, just turn on the wifi hotspot feature on your phone. Instant wifi anywhere.
A huge number of really helpful non-stock features are included. For example, I’ve got my phone set up to show me a little clear bubble wherever my finger touches. Touch feedback, it’s called. I find it really handy. I have a screenshot feature right in the phone. I just press power and volume down, no need to install and navigate a separate app. I can adjust the brightness by sliding my finger across the status bar. No need to navigate to settings. I have an “advanced reboot menu” which lets me choose between rebooting normally, a soft reboot, rebooting into recovery or the bootloader. It’s nice to be able to do that without having to turn it off and then turn it on again while holding a particular key code.
There are a lot more settings you can configure. Notification counts, instead of a million facebook logos in the status bar, just have one with a number by it. You can change themes, the size of your app icons, the transition animation as you slide between screens, etc. There is privacy guard, the settings that let you change the permissions you grant your apps (rather than just declining to install it because you don’t want to grant it all those permissions). And you can finally delete all the apps you don’t want!
There’s a lot more, but ultimately I now feel like I own my phone rather than vice versa. Try it and see. But don’t forget to make a backup first!
At this point in time, I am just curious. Not planning to do anything yet. All the
Goggling and reading I have done hasn’t instilled any confidence in me yet. I have taken old laptops and installed Ubuntu, Puppy Linux, Dual booted, blah blah blah. A lot of stuff is pretty easy, once you have a small idea of what you are doing. Fixing problems that come up after are the PIA. I am just trying to learn, and if it ever comes down to it, I hopefully will be fully primed and ready for the problems that may arise.
Can I ask where a noob like me can learn about this stuff? Is there an “idiot’s guide” out there, or is this just something you’ve picked up by trial and error?
To learn more, go to the aforementioned xda-developers and look up your device. Very helpful people.
Note that there are layers of rooting a device.
Simple rooting just gives you more access. You can get rid of that horrible bloatware, add apps that require root access, etc.
Replacing the OS with something like Cyanogenmod is another level of difficulty and gives you a lot more control over things. Esp. it can give you a newer version of Android.
If you’re a newbie, do a simple rooting first. Backup the old ROM so that you can restore it in case it doesn’t work right.
Some apps try to detect rooting. E.g., some media players/video streamers want to preserve DRM lock-in and aren’t happy if you replaced the ROM. As in, won’t play. Some workarounds exist, but not completely. So it isn’t a win-win in all cases.
(It is a major headache for devices that ship with Cyanogenmod. The players think it’s been rooted when it came that way.)
Thanks for the tips. Like everything, there are always drawbacks to something, so it is helpful to know that some things won’t work any longer, and to be prepared for that.
Here is a question that I am sure most folks that are digging around have asked, but I will anyway…
Once you root the phone, and start loading software that you want, how can you be sure there isn’t imbedded spyware in that software? Are all apps/programs/etc. scanned properly to remove this possibility, or is it a community-driven standard, with no official oversite?
What exactly does a rooting program do to the phone to root it? Is there a root password that the phone manufacturer knows and that the rooting program cracks?
Do any phone manufacturers offer phones that come with the option to enable root access built-in?
Last one first: Yes, there are a few phones available that come set up for the user/owner to have full control. Most of these are installed with Cyanogenmod. (A community supported suite of Android OSes.) Since they sell in small numbers and don’t come with all the bloatware (which kicks money back to the phone makers), they are more expensive for a given set of features. Also, the development cycle is slower so you don’t get the latest hardware all the time.
The most common way to root a phone is to install a new ROM. The firmware that starts up the device on boot up. Typically, you load the new ROM on a memory card, insert into device, go thru a certain sequence of power on/button presses to get to a control screen for the software on the card. You first back up the old ROM, install the new ROM, etc.
Many devices try to prevent this. But nothing is perfect. So a flaw is found in the OS somewhere, root access or some such can be gained by running the right program, and then that can be used to install a new ROM as given above. (You can just run the exploit each time you need root access, but installing a ROM prevents things like the hole being patched and losing the access.)
As to the earlier question asked about whether apps can be bad:
You have absolutely no sure fire way to be certain in the least! There is no perfect method for detecting malware in software. All you can do is try to be careful.
Only install apps that have been out there a while. Only from companies that have been around a while. (Which might mean at least a year in this context!) Etc.
But stuff happens. One common trick is to buy up a popular app that’s been around a while, add some malware, and presto: bad stuff on a million devices when they get the upgrade. (Auto upgrade is dangerous for applications.)
Note that what Google or Apple thinks is malware and what you do are completely different. E.g., a lot of apps want access to your contact list, your location, etc. even though these aren’t relevant to the app at all. The app stores are fine with this.
Apps that want extra privileges should be killed during install. Who knows what’s going on with them.
One benefit of rooting is you can more finely control such privileges.