Database Users

Questions regarding the Note 4

Hello XDA!
I'm about to purchase a note 4 tomorrow from Wind mobile here in Canada. I would have preferred the nexus 6 but its just not available with wind as of yet.
So my questions regarding the note 4 are:
1) The Note 4 variant would be SM-N910W8, will it allow rooting?
2) Does Samsung allow unlocking the bootloader to install custom roms or is just a root sufficient to do that.
3) I've heard of something called knox, and how it will trigger once you root the note 4. Will this have any adverse effects on app functionality such as tap2pay etc..? I know the warranty will be void, but if something goes wrong with the device its a 50/50 chance of getting it repaired replaced.
4) My reason of preference for the N6 was stock android, is there a ROM currently that is AOSP based?
5) Is there a specific thread i can go to find roms for my variant?
5) Is there a way to return back to a virgin note 4 (unrooted, stock ROM)? And even when that is done, will knox still reflect the trigger as 0x1?
6) Lastly, i havent been much of a fan of samsung because i felt they were pushing out "cheap phones" And i must admit, ever since they came with the metal band with their alpha and note 4. Ive taken a great liking to them. So my question (I do only expect general replies) , How are you guys/girls liking your note 4 so far?
Thanks in advanced!
(P.S sorry if some of the questions are stupid, i researched and dug around as much as i can but couldnt find definitive answers)

Rooting restriction is carrier based. Some carriers lock down from rooting, others dont.
Knox is a one way trip. Once tripped it stays that way. It is effectively a fuse.
Had my N4 for two weeks and am loving it. Came from a rooted S4. Not really missing root that much. Wish I could still turn GPS on and off with Tasker and wish I had better access to the SD card. Not big deals though. There is another thread here about non-rooted solutions to many things people want root for.
Might become more an issue in a couple years if Samsung/Verizon fails to do timely updates.
Best advice to new N4 users is learn to use the S Pen. It is what makes the N4 stand out.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

1. No it doesnt allow rooting. get a 910U - so far it seems the least hassle.
2. no rooting.
3. yes once you try to root your warranty is void. for all purposes assume you will never get root. then again, you dont need root. in fact having no root and knox is much better. you can have a dual personality phone which works very well.
4. irrelevant. if you get the note 4 expect to run factory.
5. no. you cant have root.
6. you need a full case to hold it. its a thin glass panel. ive got an iblason armorbox for it. also would recommend buying the wireless back and wireless chargers. cables are too much of a hassle on this phone.

My recommendation would be little biased towards Samsung given my last four phones were all galaxy. I never had to root Note 3 but I rooted Note 4 in few days of owning it. Google must have thought let's give some punch to Samsung by disabling write access to external SD giving excuse of security as Samsung is the only high end phone manufacturer that still has it. And one of the most used function that was very important to me was copying files off network share to SD which no longer worked. Only for this I rooted.
I buy Note series not for amoled or big screen or good battery life or running AOSPs. I buy for SPen. I snap, print screen, doodle and write catchy text and share, adds that special touch. And that Microsoft One Note supported inking in android, I am loving it even more.
Note 4

Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated!
While it seems most of you use the note 4 for its main purpose of being a multitasking phone. I on the other end just need the good camera, screen and battery. Everything else is gimmicks (for me atleast). However, this opinion of mine could be due to the fact that ive never owned a note before.
I did see some guides of being able to root the SM-N910W8 with CF auto root, as well as a way of bringing devices back to stock as i can see form this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/general/ref-stock-firmware-kernel-modem-recovery-t2920452
Now, is that really the case or is there somehting im not seeing?

you can NEVER bring it back to stock. the efuse blows once you root. Do NOT root a note 4 until youre familiar enough with knox to make the choice

By stock i dont mean resetting the knox fuse. I mean, if I am on a cusotm rom, i can bring it back to stock for warranty purposes (which I know after the knox fuse is blown, is a hit and miss)
So my question still stands, will I be able to root my phone based on the thread i mentioned above and be able to return it to stock afterwards, or is there something im not seeing there.

qwertyman007 said:
Hello XDA!
I'm about to purchase a note 4 tomorrow from Wind mobile here in Canada. I would have preferred the nexus 6 but its just not available with wind as of yet.
So my questions regarding the note 4 are:
1) The Note 4 variant would be SM-N910W8, will it allow rooting?
2) Does Samsung allow unlocking the bootloader to install custom roms or is just a root sufficient to do that.
3) I've heard of something called knox, and how it will trigger once you root the note 4. Will this have any adverse effects on app functionality such as tap2pay etc..? I know the warranty will be void, but if something goes wrong with the device its a 50/50 chance of getting it repaired replaced.
4) My reason of preference for the N6 was stock android, is there a ROM currently that is AOSP based?
5) Is there a specific thread i can go to find roms for my variant?
5) Is there a way to return back to a virgin note 4 (unrooted, stock ROM)? And even when that is done, will knox still reflect the trigger as 0x1?
6) Lastly, i havent been much of a fan of samsung because i felt they were pushing out "cheap phones" And i must admit, ever since they came with the metal band with their alpha and note 4. Ive taken a great liking to them. So my question (I do only expect general replies) , How are you guys/girls liking your note 4 so far?
Thanks in advanced!
(P.S sorry if some of the questions are stupid, i researched and dug around as much as i can but couldnt find definitive answers)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Note 4 with Bell so to answer your questions:
1) Yes. This is true for all Canadian carriers AFAIK.
2,4) Should be sufficient with just a root. I haven't been around for a week so I haven't caught up on new developments yet. I didn't see much in the way of AOSP last I looked.
3) This I can't answer but I know for example there is an XPosed module that will allow applications like GOOD to continue to work even with KNOX tripped/removed.
5) The W8 is similar to the 910T. I'm actually running DynamicKat with the KTNote4 Kernel. When you install DK part of the install script checks if your phone is a 910T or a 910W8 and installs the correct kernel. I had an issue with my initial flash of it bootlooping but I used the Stockish kernel from twistedumbrella that I had flashed when I still running stock rooted and backed up the boot image so I restored that boot image and it booted, then I flashed KTNote4 myself. Check here http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-tmobile/development and here http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-tmobile/orig-development for roms/kernels.
6) Yes you can just flash a stock rom (should be floating around somewhere) but Knox will still be tripped.
7) Overall I'm absolutely loving it. I came from an S3 that I was running CM11 on with KT's kernel (seriously, his kernels are amazing!) and I liked it for a really long time but it started to get really sluggish and it just can't handle multitasking the way I'd like it. I do still notice slow downs, and the phone does still get pretty hot sometimes, but that's the price you pay for multi-tasking. KTs kernel certainly isn't perfected (granted I'm on a build from 2 weeks ago) and sometimes it will randomly reboot and bootloop at the splash screen but once I clear cache it boots right up. Usually only does this once it's been pretty hot for a while. I love the multitasking windows, that's exactly what I want. The one thing that threw me off the most was the DPI. It's a big phone, I don't need everything on it to be gigantic. So I did end up using the XPosed module App Settings to scale the DPI down to 480 from 640. There are a couple quirks when doing that, like the task switcher is smaller (since it was designed for 640 DPI) and there are a couple apps that you have to set back to 640 as well like the camera but you can always fix those as you find them.
I'm a firm believer that Android is a dev's playground. I could not use this phone happily without root. In fact, I rooted it the same night I got it within a couple hours. I bought the phone outright since I would have had to change my plan if I wanted to early upgrade and my plan is too good to do that. Happy modding!

Just use Autoinput. Can trigger GPS.
Sent from my SM-N910F using XDA Free mobile app

Disadvantages of rooting S7 Edge?

I know the advantages of rooting a device. But I want to know what the disadvantages are there in specific to S7 Edge if I root the device.
So far I have rooted all the android devices but I'm a little hesitant to root the S7 edge. Suggestions are welcomed

1. Trip Knox
2. Void Warranty
3. Cannot use Samsung Pay
that's all! enjoy my root edge lolz

Samsung Pay is the only one that is stopping me at the mo. Although I am on the fence...
Knox will trip but if you are in the UK or some other countries that will not void your warranty anyway.

n.praveen13 said:
I know the advantages of rooting a device. But I want to know what the disadvantages are there in specific to S7 Edge if I root the device.
So far I have rooted all the android devices but I'm a little hesitant to root the S7 edge. Suggestions are welcomed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tripping knox really. No samsung pay if and when it ever comes to international devices. Tripping knox also tends to create a memory leak when flashing newer firmwares via ODIN which won't allow the phone to deep sleep. You wouldn't see this issue if you had never rooted. That said, developers have found ways around this bug within days of new firmware releases, so it's not a huge concern in my mind. (this was the case with both the S6 and Note5 when MM was first released)

Great thanks for the responses. What about OTA updates? Would we receive OTA updates if rooted, I do not think so. Heard that any changes made to the OS files would make the phone unflashable via ODIN as well is this true?

No OTA either but that is not something that I would find as a disadvantage tbh

agreed
i rooted mine the same day i got it, and haven't looked back
1. Trip Knox - pft, no great loss there lol
2. Void Warranty - oh well, i'm uk side, and couldn't give a toss anyway lol
3. Cannot use Samsung Pay - again, i'm uk side... it's not out here yet, and i wouldn't use it if it was lol
4. No OTA - in exchange for custom roms and customisation? not even a contest lol

1. No Samsung pay
2. Unencrypted internal storage (no one mentions this, kind of a big deal imo)
3. No Knox
4. Slower boot time
5. Random reboots
6. Memory usage and leaks
7. Incompatible or poorly tested xposed modules can cause a myriad of bugs.
8. Compromised warranty
9. No OTA updates
---------- Post added at 12:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 PM ----------
chippyuk said:
No OTA either but that is not something that I would find as a disadvantage tbh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not getting updates isn't a disadvantage? You must have some mental deficiency.

sc2ascend said:
1. No Samsung pay
2. Unencrypted internal storage (no one mentions this, kind of a big deal imo)
3. No Knox
4. Slower boot time
5. Random reboots
6. Memory usage and leaks
7. Incompatible or poorly tested xposed modules can cause a myriad of bugs.
8. Compromised warranty
9. No OTA updates
---------- Post added at 12:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 PM ----------
Not getting updates isn't a disadvantage? You must have some mental deficiency.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well had you put a wink or smiley face after that comment then I would not have taken offence! Who are You to state that I have a mental deficiency?!?
In all honesty, you are in the wrong forum if you find all the above a disadvantage, this whole place is pretty much about modding our phones!!!
Also, after years of using custom roms I actually find the opposite to most of your points when compared to carrier roms. The devs on here are extremely talented and tend to improve speed, stability, reliability and fix memory leaks and or other issues on delivered roms way before the carriers actually get round to fixing them.
I get the updates, but I get them by either side-loading or baked into custom roms!

chippyuk said:
Well had you put a wink or smiley face after that comment then I would not have taken offence! Who are You to state that I have a mental deficiency?!?
In all honesty, you are in the wrong forum if you find all the above a disadvantage, this whole place is pretty much about modding our phones!!!
Also, after years of using custom roms I actually find the opposite to most of your points when compared to carrier roms. The devs on here are extremely talented and tend to improve speed, stability, reliability and fix memory leaks and or other issues on delivered roms way before the carriers actually get round to fixing them.
I get the updates, but I get them by either side-loading or baked into custom roms!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like modding and I'm probably going to root my edge at some point. I am just sick and tired of the misinformation and bias that is spread around here. You know not getting OTA updates is a disadvantage, don't play dumb. People should know ALL of the advantages and disadvantages of rooting and this community seems incapable of doing that (looking at root objectively and factually not as a gift from the android exploit gods).

sc2ascend said:
I like modding and I'm probably going to root my edge at some point. I am just sick and tired of the misinformation and bias that is spread around here. You know not getting OTA updates is a disadvantage, don't play dumb. People should know ALL of the advantages and disadvantages of rooting and this community seems incapable of doing that (looking at root objectively and factually not as a gift from the android exploit gods).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So now you are calling me dumb?!?!
With all due respect please kindly DO ONE!
My last word to you on the subject... I yet again beg to differ, I have found that OTA updates can actually cause more problems than they solve, these updates are generally sent out by the carriers to fix specific things but they do not spend enough time regression testing and inevitably end up causing other issues or forcing people to factory reset etc...
Please don't bother replying with any further insults, you are really not helping yourself!

sc2ascend said:
1. No Samsung pay
2. Unencrypted internal storage (no one mentions this, kind of a big deal imo)
3. No Knox
4. Slower boot time
5. Random reboots
6. Memory usage and leaks
7. Incompatible or poorly tested xposed modules can cause a myriad of bugs.
8. Compromised warranty
9. No OTA updates
---------- Post added at 12:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 PM ----------
Not getting updates isn't a disadvantage? You must have some mental deficiency.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This guy is trolling everyone rooting with his misguided information. Just ignore and proceed.
Sent from my Star-Tac
---------- Post added at 06:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:11 PM ----------
chippyuk said:
So now you are calling me dumb?!?!
With all due respect please kindly DO ONE!
My last word to you on the subject... I yet again beg to differ, I have found that OTA updates can actually cause more problems than they solve, these updates are generally sent out by the carriers to fix specific things but they do not spend enough time regression testing and inevitably end up causing other issues or forcing people to factory reset etc...
Please don't bother replying with any further insults, you are really not helping yourself!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. He has issues.
Sent from my Star-Tac

sc2ascend said:
1. No Samsung pay
2. Unencrypted internal storage (no one mentions this, kind of a big deal imo)
3. No Knox
4. Slower boot time
5. Random reboots
6. Memory usage and leaks
7. Incompatible or poorly tested xposed modules can cause a myriad of bugs.
8. Compromised warranty
9. No OTA updates
Not getting updates isn't a disadvantage? You must have some mental deficiency.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think you're the one who is deficient in these points. first, i don't know who's custom rom you have been using, but custom rom's are faster, not slower. they boot faster, and do almost every other task faster than the stock. why do you think everyone uses them? why do you think people are willing to forego their warranty to use them? BECAUSE THEY ARE BETTER. knox is a problem, NOT a solution. memory leaks...? it seems as if you have NEVER USED A CUSTOM ROM, because you are taking about things that rarely exist. not with the good custom roms anyway. no one cares about ota's, when you can get custom roms, which are ten times better anyway. AND, whenever there is an ota, almost all of the dev's are going to port anything worth while into the new custom roms update. so, i think you are extremely short sighted here. screw the manufacturers, as they try to keep control of your device. you don't really own your device, they do. because they are the real ones controlling it. go join the flock, and start grazing...

stevae said:
i think you're the one who is deficient in these points. first, i don't know who's custom rom you have been using, but custom rom's are faster, not slower. they boot faster, and do almost every other task faster than the stock. why do you think everyone uses them? why do you think people are willing to forego their warranty to use them? BECAUSE THEY ARE BETTER. knox is a problem, NOT a solution. memory leaks...? it seems as if you have NEVER USED A CUSTOM ROM, because you are taking about things that rarely exist. not with the good custom roms anyway. no one cares about ota's, when you can get custom roms, which are ten times better anyway. AND, whenever there is an ota, almost all of the dev's are going to port anything worth while into the new custom roms update. so, i think you are extremely short sighted here. screw the manufacturers, as they try to keep control of your device. you don't really own your device, they do. because they are the real ones controlling it. go join the flock, and start grazing...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you [emoji106] [emoji122] [emoji119] [emoji112]
Sent from my Star-Tac

chippyuk said:
Samsung Pay is the only one that is stopping me at the mo. Although I am on the fence...
Knox will trip but if you are in the UK or some other countries that will not void your warranty anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can still use Android Pay if you unroot, while you can't use Samsung Pay at all if you trip Knox. But, only difference is that you can use MST with Samsung Pay, which is really no big deal. But well, everyone got their priorities.

Okay so I have rooted my phone and I am not able to use my galaxy app now. This is required for redeeming the free vr. Any help or suggestions?

I'm rooted and I have no issues with galaxy app or samsung member. (THO on samsung member I am prompted when opened that I've altered my device or such that may cause issues they can't resolve, or something along those lines)
Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

stevae said:
i think you're the one who is deficient in these points. first, i don't know who's custom rom you have been using, but custom rom's are faster, not slower. they boot faster, and do almost every other task faster than the stock. why do you think everyone uses them? why do you think people are willing to forego their warranty to use them? BECAUSE THEY ARE BETTER. knox is a problem, NOT a solution. memory leaks...? it seems as if you have NEVER USED A CUSTOM ROM, because you are taking about things that rarely exist. not with the good custom roms anyway. no one cares about ota's, when you can get custom roms, which are ten times better anyway. AND, whenever there is an ota, almost all of the dev's are going to port anything worth while into the new custom roms update. so, i think you are extremely short sighted here. screw the manufacturers, as they try to keep control of your device. you don't really own your device, they do. because they are the real ones controlling it. go join the flock, and start grazing...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every single custom ROM I have used so far (on my old phone) has had some kind of bug/problem things like the phone trying to deep sleep while I'm still listening to music, connection with my watch cutting out for no reason, more battery drain from Android OS or some other stuff I can't turn off. Etc.
The brute fact is, the engineers at Samsung are just as talented if not more, and they have way more resources to do what they do. The only difference being they take more consideration for the general user where as devs here are only worried about the hard core geeks who will actually go through the trouble of flashing a custom ROM.
And no, there is no way custom ROMs can be more secure or reliable than stock. They may be faster, true, and have more geek features even I don't use like busybox or whatever, but normal people don't really care about that.
Also, most devs have a terrible sense of design, just the icons of the extra apps they introduce are horrible to look at. Sure you can download an icon pack and so on, but man! Do I get to have time to do anything else other than fiddle around with my phone?

jacobgong said:
Every single custom ROM I have used so far (on my old phone) has had some kind of bug/problem things like the phone trying to deep sleep while I'm still listening to music, connection with my watch cutting out for no reason, more battery drain from Android OS or some other stuff I can't turn off. Etc.
The brute fact is, the engineers at Samsung are just as talented if not more, and they have way more resources to do what they do. The only difference being they take more consideration for the general user where as devs here are only worried about the hard core geeks who will actually go through the trouble of flashing a custom ROM.
And no, there is no way custom ROMs can be more secure or reliable than stock. They may be faster, true, and have more geek features even I don't use like busybox or whatever, but normal people don't really care about that.
Also, most devs have a terrible sense of design, just the icons of the extra apps they introduce are horrible to look at. Sure you can download an icon pack and so on, but man! Do I get to have time to do anything else other than fiddle around with my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, you've obviously made some very poor choices with the custom roms you have experienced. because not only me, but thousands of others write in on alllllllll of these threads about different custom roms, and the consensus is that these rom's are better than stock, in almost every way. and one fact you seem oblivious to, is that those engineers of samsung are constrained to the wishes of samsung, which is rarely in the favor of the user, but always in the favor of samsung. the favor of almost any titan company on the planet, is almost always at the detriment of the consumer. they are mutually exclusive. the private dev's can work FOR THE PEOPLE, and not for the mega corporation, and that is why they make much better roms. the FACT is that mega corp's like samsung, put apps on your device which KEEP IT FROM COMPLETELY going into deep sleep, because other companies pay them to. companies which want their sw front and center in all you do, whether you do or not. and yes, trhe dev's can make better security, more efficient i/o pathways, and an overall nicer experience, because they are not hampered with the requirements of all those paying corps. finally, you might be surprised at the size of the so called "hard core geeks" compared to the "normal users". it's probably different than you think. in any case, for many years i have bought new phones, used them as stock for a month or so, and ultimately always root them, because i prefer to actually own my device, instead of the manufacturer. you have little control over what happens on your phone if you are not rooted. they can force any update on you, and can change anything they will to. but if you are rooted, they have very little power over your device, and you have almost total control over it. after paying that much money for something, why be a bystander? why allow the large corporation dictate to your what happens on your own device? you are just a sheep in the flock. you might as well be on a CRapple device.

stevae said:
yes, you've obviously made some very poor choices with the custom roms you have experienced. because not only me, but thousands of others write in on alllllllll of these threads about different custom roms, and the consensus is that these rom's are better than stock, in almost every way. and one fact you seem oblivious to, is that those engineers of samsung are constrained to the wishes of samsung, which is rarely in the favor of the user, but always in the favor of samsung. the favor of almost any titan company on the planet, is almost always at the detriment of the consumer. they are mutually exclusive. the private dev's can work FOR THE PEOPLE, and not for the mega corporation, and that is why they make much better roms. the FACT is that mega corp's like samsung, put apps on your device which KEEP IT FROM COMPLETELY going into deep sleep, because other companies pay them to. companies which want their sw front and center in all you do, whether you do or not. and yes, trhe dev's can make better security, more efficient i/o pathways, and an overall nicer experience, because they are not hampered with the requirements of all those paying corps. finally, you might be surprised at the size of the so called "hard core geeks" compared to the "normal users". it's probably different than you think. in any case, for many years i have bought new phones, used them as stock for a month or so, and ultimately always root them, because i prefer to actually own my device, instead of the manufacturer. you have little control over what happens on your phone if you are not rooted. they can force any update on you, and can change anything they will to. but if you are rooted, they have very little power over your device, and you have almost total control over it. after paying that much money for something, why be a bystander? why allow the large corporation dictate to your what happens on your own device? you are just a sheep in the flock. you might as well be on a CRapple device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Consensus of random people don't mean anything, I only believe in scientific studies and simple logic.
I have yet to see a scientific comparison show custom ROMs being faster or more battery efficient in any way. Personally I don't see a difference so there is no reason for me to believe that there is.
But I have experienced bugs and instabilities in almost all the custom ROMs I've used. And no it makes no sense to say that I have poor choice because poorly chosen custom ROMs are still custom ROMs, at the very least it shows that there are bad apples.
Do I hate bloatware? absolutely, it's been the reason I have rooted my devices. But I also know deleting them doesn't really do much other than freeing up storage space. I see no difference in battery life. Again, don't tell me that it does, I won't believe you. Show me a scientific comparison, with two identical phones one rooted one not rooted going through the identical battery life test.

Rooting and warranty?

I just purchased a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge today and I'm already inclined to start customizing it. I am the type of people who get obsessed with the variety of custom ROMs, tweaks, modifications, etc. and I was a die-hard development fan on my M7 and M8. I went for an iPhone 6 Plus for a while but now I am back and more eager than ever!
I had a Galaxy S5 for a little while (one of the worst phones I've owned, to be quite honest) and I remember there was something called "knox" or similar, which is triggered whenever you use ODIN to root or install a custom ROM, therefore voiding your warranty; is it the same case with the S7? I'm currently doing research about its development and how things work with it, but it's just an important question I haven't found an answer to yet.
With the HTC, for instance, you could do everything then just run a RUU and go back to fully stock without voiding anything.
And by the way, are there any custom ROMs you'd recommend? I was a huge fan of Viper ROM on all my HTC devices (One X, M7, M8) but I don't see that team developing for the S7.
Thank you for your time!

I can only give you info from my experience. I rooted my S6 the day I got it but after a few weeks had issues with reception. It was sent to samsung for repair who promptly returned it as the Knox counter was tripped and would not repair it under warranty. Even tried using the old EU Directive and sales of goods act but they would not budge. This was in the UK. I would say here its completely hit and miss if they will repair it so just be cautious.

Marshall1975 said:
I can only give you info from my experience. I rooted my S6 the day I got it but after a few weeks had issues with reception. It was sent to samsung for repair who promptly returned it as the Knox counter was tripped and would not repair it under warranty. Even tried using the old EU Directive and sales of goods act but they would not budge. This was in the UK. I would say here its completely hit and miss if they will repair it so just be cautious.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although I'm a huge fan of rooting and customizing, I'd rather be on the safe side in case anything happens. I doubt the Samsung service center technicians are actually very 'savvy' over here, however I don't think I'd like to take the risk. Am I going to be missing on a lot if I just remain stock? I'm curious.

TarekElsakka said:
Although I'm a huge fan of rooting and customizing, I'd rather be on the safe side in case anything happens. I doubt the Samsung service center technicians are actually very 'savvy' over here, however I don't think I'd like to take the risk. Am I going to be missing on a lot if I just remain stock? I'm curious.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ad-less Youtube, Viper Audio + Dolby + Bests Audio, Xposed and if you're into learning about how it all works; rooting will only improve your understanding and overall enjoyment of your phone!

Voiding your warranty can be very country dependent. Where I live, if I root my phone, then if I have a hardware issue then legally they have to honor the warranty. Samsung will still try and tell you that it's not covered but will fold when pressed. On the other hand if I rooted and bricked the phone permanently, then I am on my own.

Evil-Santa said:
Voiding your warranty can be very country dependent. Where I live, if I root my phone, then if I have a hardware issue then legally they have to honor the warranty. Samsung will still try and tell you that it's not covered but will fold when pressed. On the other hand if I rooted and bricked the phone permanently, then I am on my own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your replies, gentlemen. I'm assuming the way to go would be either TWRP > CF-AutoRoot (or whatever is available right now) to root stock ROM or TWRP > Custom ROM, correct?
And is Xposed fully compatible with the latest firmware? 6.0.1 that is.

TarekElsakka said:
Thanks for your replies, gentlemen. I'm assuming the way to go would be either TWRP > CF-AutoRoot (or whatever is available right now) to root stock ROM or TWRP > Custom ROM, correct?
And is Xposed fully compatible with the latest firmware? 6.0.1 that is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of samsung phones are rootable using twrp>cf auto root.
Flash xposed.zip from twrp.
Sent from my SM-G925F

Evil-Santa said:
Voiding your warranty can be very country dependent. Where I live, if I root my phone, then if I have a hardware issue then legally they have to honor the warranty. Samsung will still try and tell you that it's not covered but will fold when pressed. On the other hand if I rooted and bricked the phone permanently, then I am on my own.
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Hey,
I noticed your in Australia. I used to have the same understanding as you.
I have an interesting thread on Whirpool on the exact subject, and have a current pending NCAT case before the court against Samsung for this exact same issue! They have refused to fix my S7 Edge display with what they have admitted to being a manufacturing defect, because the knox counter is tripped. And no, they haven't folded....Yet

MementoM said:
I'm not so much worried about the warranty as I'm worried about these mobile games. A lot are specifically looking for the root access in your phone and blocking it or simply just banning you based on having root even if you don't cheat. Xposed, Xprivacy, Root Cloak no longer work to hide it. It's depressing especially if you pay some of these game companies and log in one day to find you've been banned for nothing. It's their game you agree to their ToS but it really sucks because I've always loved changing my phone up. Now my hands are tied /sigh and it looks like my rooting days are over if I want to continue playing these root detection games.
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That's really weird, though. What if you're a developer who roots their device for development or whatever other purposes that are 'legal'? Do they still have the right to block your access? I've honestly never heard of that before. However, on iOS you cannot really play Pokemon Go if your device is jailbroken, unless you install a masking tweak like Masterball, so you may be right.
I'm not much of a gamer on mobile phones so I am not really focused on that, however I am thinking about the warranty issue.

ih8un said:
Hey,
I noticed your in Australia. I used to have the same understanding as you.
I have an interesting thread on Whirpool on the exact subject, and have a current pending NCAT case before the court against Samsung for this exact same issue! They have refused to fix my S7 Edge display with what they have admitted to being a manufacturing defect, because the knox counter is tripped. And no, they haven't folded....Yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was some time ago that I dealt with Samsung and Knox was not involved so their stance might have changed. Still was not a pleasant experience.
Are you taking the case to court directly yourself or is it going via the ACCC?
Let us know how it goes. I'm interested to hear the results.

Pixel 2: To root is moot...?

I've been reading posts on this forum for some weeks now and have a question/discussion of sorts I'm hoping relevant users can reason out for me.
A substantial segment of Google Nexus/Pixel users are people who hate bloatware and OEM skins. That's fair enough. What I don't quite understand however, is why some/many of these users seek to root the Google products and install custom mods.
By that standard, what exactly is wrong with using any random OEM phone if the things that are so undesirable can be removed via root anyway? For example if one criticizes Samsung for TouchWiz/Samsung Experience, why not remove it with a custom rom? It's like the real problem is the name Samsung itself.
I'm not opening this line of inquiry to try and insult anyone for reference, rather I'd like to understand the thinking behind (my) confusion. At face value however, it kind of seems like there are people who absolutely must have a Google device because Google "made" it, not because they actually want Google's Android experience.

TokyoGuy said:
I've been reading posts on this forum for some weeks now and have a question/discussion of sorts I'm hoping relevant users can reason out for me.
A substantial segment of Google Nexus/Pixel users are people who hate bloatware and OEM skins. That's fair enough. What I don't quite understand however, is why some/many of these users seek to root the Google products and install custom mods.
By that standard, what exactly is wrong with using any random OEM phone if the things that are so undesirable can be removed via root anyway? For example if one criticizes Samsung for TouchWiz/Samsung Experience, why not remove it with a custom rom? It's like the real problem is the name Samsung itself.
I'm not opening this line of inquiry to try and insult anyone for reference, rather I'd like to understand the thinking behind (my) confusion. At face value however, it kind of seems like there are people who absolutely must have a Google device because Google "made" it, not because they actually want Google's Android experience.
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Click to collapse
It's easier to root a pixel/Google device over a Samsung device. If you get the SD variant and root it you lose Sammy pay permanently, not to mention battery is capped at 80%. Most phone companies deny warranty for root, Google doesn't. (Think one plus doesn't either). Another bonus is if one day I'm tired of rooting my 2 xl I can just get the latest Android version. That's not the same with most other phones after a year.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Another thing is the custom ROM support. Google actually releases sources that are able to be used by developers to make custom ROMs, where as Samsung doesn't release/release the most up-todate sources. Leaves developers with nothing to work with.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I can only speak for myself but my routine with every new phone includes these and others I'm forgetting in no particular order...
Root, TWRP, custom kernel, custom Rom, theme, viper, titanium backup, change to default Wi-Fi calling. Lux, others.
Some of the features i desire:
Full strength vibration
Unlock phone with fingerprint after reboot
Kill wakelocks
Center clock
Complete nandroid backups
Backing up apps with data in TBU
Removing camera sound (available stock now)
Advanced reboot menu
Color profiles
I definitely see rooting as a necessity for me.

Viper4android is a must for me so I root.

ADDS!....ADDS!....ADDS!
Fonts
TiBu
KCAL
V4A
Kernel control
Wake locks
Just because I can
Oh....and ADDS!
That's why I root :good:

I use Root for many of the above! It's a XDA addiction!!

Most us phones now come locked tighter than a virgin. The bootloaders use to be unlockable with most carriers unfortunately that is not the case anymore. I will never buy another Samsung phone as long as I live because of the bootloaders being locked. Google phones are easily unlockable as they are geared towards developers and it makes things easier for them having root.

I've been away from Samsung for a few years now. I guess Safe-strap is no more?? Man there was some mad skills on the S5 verizon forum. Lol

CyberpodS2 said:
I've been away from Samsung for a few years now. I guess Safe-strap is no more?? Man there was some mad skills on the S5 verizon forum. Lol
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Safe-Strap was flippin awesome on the S5! I still have mine as a backup with all kinds of good stuff on that bad boy. Thanks for the memory! :good:

TokyoGuy said:
I've been reading posts on this forum for some weeks now and have a question/discussion of sorts I'm hoping relevant users can reason out for me.
A substantial segment of Google Nexus/Pixel users are people who hate bloatware and OEM skins. That's fair enough. What I don't quite understand however, is why some/many of these users seek to root the Google products and install custom mods.
By that standard, what exactly is wrong with using any random OEM phone if the things that are so undesirable can be removed via root anyway? For example if one criticizes Samsung for TouchWiz/Samsung Experience, why not remove it with a custom rom? It's like the real problem is the name Samsung itself.
I'm not opening this line of inquiry to try and insult anyone for reference, rather I'd like to understand the thinking behind (my) confusion. At face value however, it kind of seems like there are people who absolutely must have a Google device because Google "made" it, not because they actually want Google's Android experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting a google device does not void the warranty.

TokyoGuy said:
I've been reading posts on this forum for some weeks now and have a question/discussion of sorts I'm hoping relevant users can reason out for me.
A substantial segment of Google Nexus/Pixel users are people who hate bloatware and OEM skins. That's fair enough. What I don't quite understand however, is why some/many of these users seek to root the Google products and install custom mods.
By that standard, what exactly is wrong with using any random OEM phone if the things that are so undesirable can be removed via root anyway? For example if one criticizes Samsung for TouchWiz/Samsung Experience, why not remove it with a custom rom? It's like the real problem is the name Samsung itself.
I'm not opening this line of inquiry to try and insult anyone for reference, rather I'd like to understand the thinking behind (my) confusion. At face value however, it kind of seems like there are people who absolutely must have a Google device because Google "made" it, not because they actually want Google's Android experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because I don't want to have to fight with questionable hacks to unlock the bootloader, and I don't want to have to depend on someone else (who probably doesn't know what they're doing) to help out with writing the software that isn't being provided as AOSP needed to make the device fully functional.
I want a no-hacks UNLOCKED device that is PROPERLY supported by AOSP. No 2-bit mickey mouse code that crashes and randomly reboots.

Who the hell wants to pay for a device to have it come loaded with crap you never asked for or wanted??? Not me. Who wants to run these heavily modified launchers with extensive frameworks that slow down your device??? If you pay for something shouldn't you have full control of said item??? The bloatware over the years has become unbearable and the storage usage keeps increasing year by year it's insane that you cannot uninstall Facebook without root on 95% of these devices. I don't care 1 single bit about Facebook and most of the other crapware they attempt to push upon us. Google gives you options for a pure AOSP experience. I am glad I stuck with the pixel I almost passed it up because of poor customer service from Google but this device is everything I want and need. Fastboot is essential to me. I went from the s6 edge with an unlocked bootloader to the S7 edge and that absolutely sucked. The only option was package disabler or using the engineer bootloader to obtain root. It sucked so bad the kernel would chew right through the battery in no time flat I had no choice but to roll back to stock and disable things. I cannot imagine going back to that it was terrible. The thing that burns my bridge is the US variants only came without an unlock method the international variants we're easily unlockable. I will never buy another Samsung phone ever they suck.

Why is the Verizon S7 Edge root so crappy (serious, not being mean)?

Hey all,
First off let me just say great work to everyone involved with rooting this now "ancient" phone, especially klabit87 and jrkruse. Additionally, I do not mean to be ungrateful with this post, nor suggest that rooting a phone is easy, especially one with a locked bootloader, or that the users here are entitled to such a feature.
With that out of the way....
I haven't looked into rooting this phone EVER until now. Haven't even peaked at XDA or Googled anything, I didn't even know it was possible until yesterday. I've re-ROMed all my previous phones but was actually satisfied with the stock S7 experience other than a Launcher swap and dealing with the always laggy Google maps. Well recently I got a new car and got fed up with the obnoxious list/action limit that Android Auto has as the voice search can be quite unreliable, the letter search is somewhat bugged on the media player I use, and in the end all it does is encourage people to just use their phone to change songs/settings and send messages, thereby completely failing at its goal of being safer. So, I really wanted to get Xposed installed to use the module that makes AA a lot more usable; however, now that I've looked back into the scene a bit, I'm not so sure I want to move forward.
To preface my question: Every Android device I've had before was essentially either rootable or not and ultimately banked on a security exploit that was eventually found. There were never really any concerns about major issues unless you were changing ROMs, kernels, or testing major CPU behavior changes. Just rooting itself was almost always issue free other than a small bug or two or the need to reapply at reboot.
From what I gather, it seems to me that they only way currently to gain root privileges on this device is to install this ENG kernel that's talked about in a lot of more recent posts. Is it truly the case that someone had to write a kernel from scratch that was pre-rooted and as of right now there is no way to root the device as it is stock? Is it that the only known exploit is how to flash another kernel, and the stock kernel is still locked up tight? It sucks that the current root seems so unstable/slow. I know there are a plethora of fixes but there really is no one major fix (other than potentially reflashing the stock bootloader that for some reason seems to work), and its a matter of installing a boat load of CPU and resource management tweaks and even then the performance/battery life isn't quite stock. Additionally it seems like its definitely a YMMV kind of thing as some users seem to still have significant battery drain or slowness/heat even after trying tons of fixes.
Since I am just now getting familiar with the "homebrew" the phone I've had for 3+ years and know nothing about the work that's been done, I genuinely just want to know the technical implications that got in the way of a cleaner root and why the current root method is stuck as sort of a work-around so to speak. The people that manage these breakthroughs rarely post about the process they went through unless its pertinent to a guide on how to root, so I was just curious why the root for this device is in the current state it is.
I would really like to root my Edge so I can be done with the AA nonsense but after just getting a new battery put in I really don't want to go through ****ty battery life again haha.
Thanks to all who weigh in.

Verizon requires most if not all manufacturers to lock the bootloaders. This is also Samsung choice as well. The T-mobile S7/edge and newer have locked bootloaders as well. Difference is T-mobile leaves it up to the OEMs whether they want to lock it or not. With some U.S. businesses and enterprises using Samsung Galaxy devices. They focus on being "enterprise ready" which makes sense from a business standpoint.
Believe it or not, Samsung used to be developer friendly when the S II came out. They even gave away Galaxy S2 devices to some XDA devs.
So, if you want a Samsung device with an unlock able bootloader. Get one that has an Exynos SoC or the Chinese Snapdragon variant.