Database Users

[Q] Rooting Sprint's Galaxy S7

I haven't been active (posting or lurking) since the S4 days, so I'm a little out of touch. I've been scouring the forum (this one and others) all night, and given the KNOX changes, locked boot-loader, non-removable battery, etc., made to the Galaxy S Series, I'm a little uncertain about the current state of affairs.
Long story short, I dropped my phone today and shattered the display. Phone still works and all, but it's hard to see anything. I, like everyone pretty much I guess, am eligible for a free upgrade. (I already paid for my current [broken] phone, so no issues there. I already called and asked.) April, or longer given the confirmed delay, is a long way off to wait for the S8 (though I probably will), but if I were to get my S7 tonight, here's my question:
If I'm not interested in new ROMs or anything and just want to root my phone so I can have full control (mainly just to delete bloat, but also to edit some various system cfg files... it's okay--I'm a professional ), is that still doable on the the S7 without much hassle?

~Zach~ said:
I haven't been active (posting or lurking) since the S4 days, so I'm a little out of touch. I've been scouring the forum (this one and others) all night, and given the KNOX changes, locked boot-loader, non-removable battery, etc., made to the Galaxy S Series, I'm a little uncertain about the current state of affairs.
Long story short, I dropped my phone today and shattered the display. Phone still works and all, but it's hard to see anything. I, like everyone pretty much I guess, am eligible for a free upgrade. (I already paid for my current [broken] phone, so no issues there. I already called and asked.) April, or longer given the confirmed delay, is a long way off to wait for the S8 (though I probably will), but if I were to get my S7 tonight, here's my question:
If I'm not interested in new ROMs or anything and just want to root my phone so I can have full control (mainly just to delete bloat, but also to edit some various system cfg files... it's okay--I'm a professional ), is that still doable on the the S7 without much hassle?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can root, but it's more difficult on Bootloader 4 to root and keeo activation. It's all luck of the draw on whether the phone you get will come with a firmware on a earlier firmware. If you're on the APH firmware or below I believe, you can downgrade to APE1 and root pretty easily while keeping activation. I'd personally recommend it only if you want to root and are fairly experienced. Glad the first device I rooted was an S3 and not this.

YMNDLZ said:
You can root, but it's more difficult on Bootloader 4 to root and keeo activation. It's all luck of the draw on whether the phone you get will come with a firmware on a earlier firmware. If you're on the APH firmware or below I believe, you can downgrade to APE1 and root pretty easily while keeping activation. I'd personally recommend it only if you want to root and are fairly experienced. Glad the first device I rooted was an S3 and not this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I got my start on the S3, too. S4 was easy, too, thanks to all the hard work to some very proficient devs here, at least until that update Samsung pushed to tighten KNOX and whatnot.
Anyway, about the S7, I've seen a couple of guides here and there about rooting the S7, but more prevalent are the "OMG... I've lost all my services!" or "OMG! My phone deactivated!" follow-up replies, and then those followed up by "hacks" to maybe get things working again. All in all, though, there really isn't much internet chatter (messages, videos, guides, etc.) about rooting the S7 compared to the S3 and S4, hence why I get the feeling it's not really recommended until you are extremely determined.

~Zach~ said:
Yeah, I got my start on the S3, too. S4 was easy, too, thanks to all the hard work to some very proficient devs here, at least until that update Samsung pushed to tighten KNOX and whatnot.
Anyway, about the S7, I've seen a couple of guides here and there about rooting the S7, but more prevalent are the "OMG... I've lost all my services!" or "OMG! My phone deactivated!" follow-up replies, and then those followed up by "hacks" to maybe get things working again. All in all, though, there really isn't much internet chatter (messages, videos, guides, etc.) about rooting the S7 compared to the S3 and S4, hence why I get the feeling it's not really recommended until you are extremely determined.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're fairly experienced with android rooting, go ahead and try it. I'd recommend backing up your pit file before you try anything though. Rooting and getting activation back on bootloader 3 is quite easy, but with the new FW's it's slightly more difficult. An XDA user has rooted the latest U firmware from sprint and has everything working from voice to data to all else. I'd recommend PMing @vegoja for help with bootloader 4 rooting, but anything with bootloader 3 rooting I can help you with. Good Luck!

Hello fellow s7 users..... i was wondering if i could possible get some help on this hellish root process that ive been waiting to gain. I have successfully rooted my device via pc, odin and that other stuff. However, my root access failed to keep activation as quick as it was to gain root. I was in the middle of disabling all the unwanted bloat ware and out of no where, my phone kicked itself into a reboot and fell victim to a bootloop. I managed my way out of it and was able to boot all the way through only to find out that a majority of the stock apps would "suddenly stop" itself. Took me a min to sort out that dilemma but after doing so, i realized that i no longer had root access but my device was still rooted...?? Ive done the uninstall, reinstall and clear data steps but still haven't been able to successfully grant superuser permissions. So maybe, i missed a step or misunderstood a thread but i cant seem to work my way around this predicament....... could someone please help me??
I apologize if I'm not on the right thread to ask for help.... worth trying at least.
Thank you

Root only/ keep stock bootloader

I've been reading the various rooting threads for a couple of days and overall the process seems pretty complicated with many different Nokia 6 versions, and different tools to use, etc.
Is there a way to get root with just the stock bootloader? I only want to do a few sudo operations once in a while, not flash any ROMs. Is this possible somehow? I'm using TA-1003 with 8.0.0 + April security update.
Thanks

leekohlbradley said:
I've been reading the various rooting threads for a couple of days and overall the process seems pretty complicated with many different Nokia 6 versions, and different tools to use, etc.
Is there a way to get root with just the stock bootloader? I only want to do a few sudo operations once in a while, not flash any ROMs. Is this possible somehow? I'm using TA-1003 with 8.0.0 + April security update.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet is to return the phone. Nokia has made a really, really bad bet by locking the boot loader. I think that by getting burnt by windows, they decided to jump back into the frying pan again. They don't understand what "OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE" is. If they had a clue, they would not lock the boot loader. I returned mine because there will not be any active development or roms. I wanted the phone so I could root it, like you, and then unlock the sound features from the sound chip. So, don't bother rooting the phone, just return it or keep it stock.
In a year or two, Nokia will flop or get the idea that they want active development so people will buy their phones. It is a bad way to enter the market.

In principle I agree but I've used the phone for almost a year lol and sadly the power user community is really very small and so there's not much motivation for Nokia to make open phones. This seems especially true to me, since they're offering the phone as an Amazon prime adware phone, for example, so there is in fact a motivation to not open the phone, since it might let users remove the adware from their subsidized hardware... My 2mBTC

First 1+ phone, been a while since I've been in this community

Hello All,
This is my first 1+ phone in general, and first phone in a while I might need to root/bootloader unlock. Just wondering how everyone has been liking this phone, and the difficulty (at least just rooting) for unlocking/rooting this phone under T-Mobile. I might be done with flashing ROMs, but at least root would be nice again. After the S5 on Verizon I've basically been done with this, but did root my LG G5/v10/20 back when they came out. Coming from the LG G6 that I've been trying to wait until May to upgrade, but this ridiculous moisture sensor issue has forced me to upgrade since I can't even charge my phone.
Thanks in advance!

Welcome back friend and follow the guides to root. I have the international version and the experience has been pleasurable so far. People are willing to help and what not

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.

Significant risk of bricking

I may be spoiled because all my previous phones were various versions of Nexus phones (and tablets), all rooted and with various stock and/or other ROMs installed. But Nexus phones were originally designed for developers, easy to root and mod.
Moto G7 is my first non Nexus phone. So what I write may not be unique and perhaps apply to other non-Nexus phones. I don't know.
Despite all my modding I never bricked a phone until I got the Moto G7. And I've read of many others who have hard bricked their Moto phones too. Moto certainly does not want you to root or modify their phones and punishes you if you do.
If you wish to root the G7:
—unlocking the bootloader requires you to first contact and get a code from Moto
—you then get an annoying persistent warning at every boot that tells you this is now an untrusted phone (as if you did not know)
—rooting this phone is fraught with many problems along the way (but it is a new phone with little development)
—if you make the error of later installing an ota update from Moto (even if officially announced on the phone as available and even after unrooting the phone) it can irretrievably brick your phone without warning (as I've done)
That said, the unrooted phone is excellent value despite some problems like occasionally dropping wifi. But in my experience it is not particularly suited for rooting and modding.
Fwiw
(Does anyone know what Moto charges to repair a phone out if warranty?)

maybeme2 said:
I may be spoiled because all my previous phones were various versions of Nexus phones (and tablets), all rooted and with various stock and/or other ROMs installed. But Nexus phones were originally designed for developers, easy to root and mod.
Moto G7 is my first non Nexus phone. So what I write may not be unique and perhaps apply to other non-Nexus phones. I don't know.
Despite all my modding I never bricked a phone until I got the Moto G7. And I've read of many others who have hard bricked their Moto phones too. Moto certainly does not want you to root or modify their phones and punishes you if you do.
If you wish to root the G7:
—unlocking the bootloader requires you to first contact and get a code from Moto
—you then get an annoying persistent warning at every boot that tells you this is now an untrusted phone (as if you did not know)
—rooting this phone is fraught with many problems along the way (but it is a new phone with little development)
—if you make the error of later installing an ota update from Moto (even if officially announced on the phone as available and even after unrooting the phone) it can irretrievably brick your phone without warning (as I've done)
That said, the unrooted phone is excellent value despite some problems like occasionally dropping wifi. But in my experience it is not particularly suited for rooting and modding.
Fwiw
(Does anyone know what Moto charges to repair a phone out if warranty?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought mine used but mint xt1962-1 on eBay for $110. Prob $150 for repair by Moto. Blankflash is avail on Tele$ram for qld 9008 brick

maybeme2 said:
I may be spoiled because all my previous phones were various versions of Nexus phones (and tablets), all rooted and with various stock and/or other ROMs installed. But Nexus phones were originally designed for developers, easy to root and mod.
Moto G7 is my first non Nexus phone. So what I write may not be unique and perhaps apply to other non-Nexus phones. I don't know.
Despite all my modding I never bricked a phone until I got the Moto G7. And I've read of many others who have hard bricked their Moto phones too. Moto certainly does not want you to root or modify their phones and punishes you if you do.
If you wish to root the G7:
—unlocking the bootloader requires you to first contact and get a code from Moto
—you then get an annoying persistent warning at every boot that tells you this is now an untrusted phone (as if you did not know)
—rooting this phone is fraught with many problems along the way (but it is a new phone with little development)
—if you make the error of later installing an ota update from Moto (even if officially announced on the phone as available and even after unrooting the phone) it can irretrievably brick your phone without warning (as I've done)
That said, the unrooted phone is excellent value despite some problems like occasionally dropping wifi. But in my experience it is not particularly suited for rooting and modding.
Fwiw
(Does anyone know what Moto charges to repair a phone out if warranty?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. The reasons you cite are probably why there is so little development activity on this device.
A big THANK YOU to the TWRP and LineageOS teams for the work they have done on the G7.

I cannot agree more! A huge thank you to the few developers who have helped us, including Alberto97 who gave us the unofficial TWRP early on, the twrp team who recently provided an official version, and the few brave helpers who helped us in XDA.
But, one problem non-expert users face when seeking advice by 'searching first' (as recommended) instead of asking 'again' in the threads is the *outdated advice* found. Take for example something as common as how to root the Moto G7. Advice found by searching for rooting advice include:
If your phone channel is "US Retail", download RETUS (retail US) on pc.
Copy the image to your phone and use Magisk to patch the image. After that, copy the output image to your host computer.
(This spawned numerous queries of 'how do you use Magisk to patch the.....)
Now turn your phone off, press and hold power + volume down to enter bootloader, connect your phone to host computer, and enter
fastboot flash boot
Press space once and drag and drop the output image file to command window.
If everything goes well, restart the phone and confirm it is rooted with Magisk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rather complicated! Actually rooting the Moto G7 with an unlocked bootloader is as simple as:
—install Magisk Manager and use it to download Magisk zip.
—in TWRP, install Magisk zip
That will root the phone.
(besides, many versions of Magisk would patch boot.IMG in ways that don't work correctly for the G7)
I don't know that there is much that can be done about outdated or incorrect advice but it explains the frustration of non-expert users. ?

Tele$ram has much better support these days than XDA

HueyT said:
Tele$ram has much better support these days than XDA
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Click to collapse
You are correct. XDA is were I go first but Telegram solved several of my most stubborn problems.

I had zero problems following the directions in these forums, just my two cents.

HueyT said:
Tele$ram has much better support these days than XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It absolutely does. XDA is a fantastic library. I see it as a central hub where the best and the brightest Android people congregate. But if you have a question to ask or feel like helping someone who does, TG can fix you up right away.
Instant gratification - it's what's for dinner.

SmilingPerson said:
It absolutely does. XDA is a fantastic library. I see it as a central hub where the best and the brightest Android people congregate. But if you have a question to ask or feel like helping someone who does, TG can fix you up right away.
Instant gratification - it's what's for dinner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You said it perfectly.
Rapid, knowledgeable answers on Telegram.
XDA is a fantastic library — but that means search finds old advice messages that are no longer valid and can create more problems for you.