Are there any valid reasons to NOT root your phone?

[Kingfisher]

I must say that when I first got my S3 I was a bit nervous about rooting it, but after doing it I can't find any valid reasons to not root your phone. Plugged a few security holes and got rid of ads.

 

[Retief]

A question mostly, I think, of whether or not you care about getting customer support from your vendor. If you are comfortable with supporting yourself, I see no downside. If you care about vendor customer support, then be prepared to "unroot" whenever you request support.

 

[Kingfisher]

That makes sense. I never had a need to use customer support so I guess I am OK with it..

 

[Retief]

That makes sense. I never had a need to use customer support so I guess I am OK with it..

I guess the only other issue, maybe a take off of my prior post, is if you completely brick your phone. The acronym SOL then comes to mind :biggrin:

 

[Scorpio1]

I guess the only other issue, maybe a take off of my prior post, is if you completely brick your phone. The acronym SOL then comes to mind :biggrin:

Exactly. Just happened to my buddy's S4 and now he's trying to fix his phone.......

 

[Pete]

I had rooted my Android tablet before sending it back to Motorola for an upgrade. They had no issue with it and it was unrooted when it came back.

 

[JMontes]

I bricked my iphone 3GS when I first got it (used wrong version of jailbreak software). I went back to the apple store and they just gave me a new one, no questions asked. It's no big deal. There are a lot of good apps on the jailbreak store that I wish were on the app store.

 

[Rich Gibson]

I've had my S3 for almost a year. I had originally jailbroken all my "i" devices to get to/from mass storage and make it play nice with other devices but every time a new release came around the exploit was closed and I was back to square one. I haven't found a reason TO root my S3. There isn't any function I've not been able to perform yet, and I use my S3 for just about everything except making phone calls.

GPS
Photography
Heart Rate Monitor
Surfing
Emails
Voice from ebooks
Calendar
1Password
Home Theater controller
Live 365 bluetooth car music streaming
CNBC
Fitness apps

 

[JMontes]

I've had my S3 for almost a year. I had originally jailbroken all my "i" devices to get to/from mass storage and make it play nice with other devices but every time a new release came around the exploit was closed and I was back to square one. I haven't found a reason TO root my S3. There isn't any function I've not been able to perform yet, and I use my S3 for just about everything except making phone calls.

GPS
Photography
Heart Rate Monitor
Surfing
Emails
Voice from ebooks
Calendar
1Password
Home Theater controller
Live 365 bluetooth car music streaming
CNBC
Fitness apps

Android users get a lot more freedom and "free" stuff than iOS users as I'm sure you've found out. iOS users need to jailbreak to get stuff like "call blocking" free where it's given to Android users. iOS people need to pay their carriers like $5/month extra to do that.

 

[Palmguy]

I guess the only other issue, maybe a take off of my prior post, is if you completely brick your phone. The acronym SOL then comes to mind :biggrin:

Really not much of an issue if you are capable of following directions. For a mainstream device, stick to the stickied threads on XDA and you are unlikely to have irreversible issues.

Of the devices that I've owned and been on forums for, a lot of the permanent damage came from things like flashing GSM radios on a CDMA device or something like that.

I'm not a programmer or anything, but I've had seven different Android phones and four Android tablets and haven't bricked anything when following the directions.

 

[Rich Gibson]

I think it depends on one's innate understanding of what's going on. I've played with electronics since vacuum tubes and built a Heathkit television (which worked on the first try no less). Yet, I was continually flummoxed with our organization's phone system. Computers and electronic devices follow a pattern which, to me, makes sense. Some folks see that and have no problems. A phone button system is an artificial construct based on someone's ides of where selections should be placed..I never got the 'hang.'

My wife, who is a national level bridge player with over 6000 master points who has played with and against Bill Gates, Omar Sherif and with Supreme Court Justice Stevens and his wife can't even change the 'source' of cable signal on the TV in the kitchen. The controller button says 'source' and you use either the up or down tab on the rosette in the center of the controller. "WHO CHANGED THE CABLE BOX FROM THE BEDROOM?" (as if she didn't know...we live alone) So I come upstairs and switch it...for the one hundredth time. :actions1::actions1:

 

[drr1531]

I guess I'm the only one who thought "rooting" meant throwing it on the ground in frustration and stomping it into the turf :redface: From personal experience I can say they don't replace them for free after that form of rooting...

 

[Retief]

Really not much of an issue if you are capable of following directions. For a mainstream device, stick to the stickied threads on XDA and you are unlikely to have irreversible issues.

Hmm, I AM a programmer, 40+ years now, and having rooted numerous devices, including Barnes and Noble Nooks, I am pretty familiar with the XDA site. Perusing said site, you will find plenty of threads where people have followed directions and still had issues. One could say they did not follow them directly, others, myself included, would say that in some cases the directions are rather cryptic and lend themselves to misinterpretation. One issue that occurs not infrequently is that some "trible knowledge" is required to have the correct interpretation.

My favorite example was a friend who bought a computer for his business, in the "way back" days. It was a Radio Shack TRS-16, one of the early Unix boxes. He could not get it running. I sat down, turned it on, bingo everything worked. After several go-rounds I finally sat him down and asked him to try. He did, no go. I watched closely as he typed:
Ctrl
Alt
Delete

just as it said on the screen. Unfortunately he did not have the tribal knowledge at the time that you hold them all down AT THE SAME TIME!

Same thing occurs on XDA and with most pieces of complex software I use on a daily basis.

Hence the disclaimers, "At your own risk".

I think it depends on one's innate understanding of what's going on. ....
My wife, who is a national level bridge player with over 6000 master points who has played with and against Bill Gates, Omar Sherif and with Supreme Court Justice Stevens and his wife can't even change the 'source' of cable signal on the TV in the kitchen. The controller button says 'source' and you use either the up or down tab on the rosette in the center of the controller. "WHO CHANGED THE CABLE BOX FROM THE BEDROOM?" (as if she didn't know...we live alone) So I come upstairs and switch it...for the one hundredth time. :actions1::actions1:

Rich, MY wife is not a Nat'l Level Bridge player, but she works with very complex medical equipment, and has for years. Blood gas analyzers and such. She has EXACTLY the same issue with remotes, and even with things like CTRL-C for "copy" in email. Drives me nuts, as she is most certainly more than technically competent. You sure hit the nail on the head, in my opinion, with your first statement regarding "innate understanding".

 

[Retief]

I guess I'm the only one who thought "rooting" meant throwing it on the ground in frustration and stomping it into the turf :redface: From personal experience I can say they don't replace them for free after that form of rooting...

THAT's a bit extreme, don't you think? At first I thought it meant that if you cheered for your device enough, it would just happen .... :wink:

 

[Rich Gibson]

... One could say they did not follow them directly, others, myself included, would say that in some cases the directions are rather cryptic and lend themselves to misinterpretation. One issue that occurs not infrequently is that some "trible knowledge" is required to have the correct interpretation.

...

Amen. I gave up asking Photoshop questions on photographic web sites years ago. Every single answer omitted critical understood (tribal knowledge) sub-processes the explainer assumed you knew. Sort of like saying "We'll do some flying together. I'll meet you on the 270 TACAN radial at 10,000 feet." Of course the recipient of the instructions would have to know how to start, taxi, get takeoff clearance, and fly the plane to that location.

:tongue:

 

[Chris101]

Isn't tribble knowledge knowing what to do with small, hungry aliens that purr?

 

[Retief]

Isn't tribble knowledge knowing what to do with small, hungry aliens that purr?

I believe you are correct, and when they live in tribes, then is non-trivial tribble tribal knowledge, I would think.

 

[liamtoh1]

I must say that when I first got my S3 I was a bit nervous about rooting it, but after doing it I can't find any valid reasons to not root your phone. Plugged a few security holes and got rid of ads.

I have 1 valid reason not to root my S3 -- I have installed Good (for corporate emails) and my employer will revoke access for rooted devices. But as others have said, I have no reason to root my S3 as I can install all the apps that I need for my use.

 

[Randy]

I don't even know what the term means and I really don't want to know
For me any phone has to perform out of the box, w/o making unauthorized changes.
So far my S4 is great but I suspect wild west android apps will contaminate it, much like windows and when and if that happens my plan is to reset the phone.

 

[Rich Gibson]

Roughly the equivalent of jailbreaking an iOS device. I used to JB all my iOS gear but found it unnecessary. I also do not root my Android devices. So far the S4 is a significant improvement over my S3. I use the S3 as a cycling computer on my bike since it still receives GPS.

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