The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!
Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.
🔗Universal Link: !android@lemdro.id
💡Content Philosophy:
Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.
Support, technical, or app related questions belong in:
!askandroid@lemdro.id
For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: !lemdroid@lemdro.id
💬Matrix Chat
💬Telegram channels / chats
📰Our communities below
Rules
Stay on topic:
All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports:
Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to !askandroid@lemdro.id.
Describe images/videos, no memes:
Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to !androidmemes@lemdro.id.
No self-promotion spam:
Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
No reposts or rehosted content:
Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
No editorializing titles:
You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
No piracy or unverified APKs:
Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways:
Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
No offensive or low-effort content:
Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
No affiliate links:
Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
Quick Links
Our Communities
+ !askandroid@lemdro.id
+ !androidmemes@lemdro.id
+ !techkit@lemdro.id
+ !google@lemdro.id
+ !nothing@lemdro.id
+ !googlepixel@lemdro.id
+ !xiaomi@lemdro.id
+ !sony@lemdro.id
+ !samsung@lemdro.id
+ !galaxywatch@lemdro.id
+ !oneplus@lemdro.id
+ !motorola@lemdro.id
+ !meta@lemdro.id
+ !apple@lemdro.id
+ !microsoft@lemdro.id
+ !chatgpt@lemdro.id
+ !bing@lemdro.id
+ !reddit@lemdro.id
Lemmy App List
+ See thread
Chat and More
+ Android Chat
+ Lemdro.id Chat
+ Mods Chat
+ Lemdro.id Admin Chat
+ Reddit
Moderators
List of root availability status and guide if available
Some of these may not be as comprehensive as you like, but most of them seemed relatively simple. Also don’t get discouraged by me not being able to find any info about them. If you put more effort in you might have better results.
BE CAUTIOUS! There are plenty of fake TWRP and Magisk websites, but the only place to get Official TWRP is twrp.me, or if it’s not supported on your device, you can get a community build. The only place to get Magisk is on the Github page. It comes as an APK, but can be converted to a zip and flashed.
Wow! Thank you that’s a ton of info to work from. I really really appreciate it!
Folks are so negative here. I think some of em should be on reddit where all you’re expected to do is piss on each other lol.
Seriously if we had rewards in Lemmy - though it’s good we don’t - I’d give you gold. You went above and beyond that is very much appreciated. 💙
Thank you! Unfortunately I was one of the negative commenters. Didn’t mean to be rude, I just wanted to ask that you do a bit of searching before asking questions, I’m sorry if I came off as an asshole.
No worries it’s just I had done research literally for weeks. I just could not find anything that was written as comprehensively as I’d hoped. I will spend some time looking at the links you provided which again, I really appreciate. I think online it’s easy for any of us to just provide what help we can rather than look at what could have been done without us. Bottom line is someone’s asking for help even if no more than just to tell them seek and ye shall find and all that. But I had gotten frustrated with how many of the XDA folks post their instructions.
Anyway, not the most important things in life, by any means :-)
Yeah check out my edited comment, some of the links I provided weren’t accurate
Ok thanks. I will look.
Of course, it’s understandable. You’ve got a pretty solid selection of devices to start your Android modification journey. Eventually, you won’t need any guides, It’s just a matter of experience. I think I tried rooting or flashing new OSes to three devices before I really got the hang of it. Also, I’ve just reviewed a few of my links and some of them aren’t the highest quality or the most comprehensible, so I’ll edit my comment soon.
You are way nicer than I am. It is better to have people google stuff before posting.
OP did google, just didn’t find good guides.
Check the Lineage website first, they may show up there. It’s a good, easy start, though not definitive.
If you can unlock the bootloader, it can most likely be rooted (I’ve never had a phone with an unlock able bootloader that I couldn’t root).
Rooting today us largely done with Magisk. The sequence is:
Extract the boot image from a rom (I’ve always done it with a rom zip I’ve downloaded, usually Lineage or Divest). So this will be dependent on ability to get the boot partition image (not sure if it can be extracted from the phone, I would think there’s a way).
Copy the boot image to the phone along with Magisk. Install Magisk, use it to patch the boot image.
Copy boot image back to PC, flash the boot image to phone. Now it’s rooted.
Run Magisk and configure root options.
Check xdadevelopers.com for latest info on Magisk, I believe it’s pretty well documented there.
Edit: If any of them are Verizon phones, it’s less likely to be rootable, though I’ve found the Vzw Moto’s tend to be unlockable.
Many thanks!
Most of the rooting processes these days is done via unlocking the bootloader and patching the boot image with Magisk. I’ve never had luck with any of the “one click” root tools, and they just seem to install junk on the device. So I would avoid those even as a last resort.
I would start with the Motorola e4 you have there and seeing if you’re even able to unlock the bootloader on it. If so, you will have your foot in the door, so to speak, and can at least try your luck luck with a GSI version of a newer Android.
If any of them are retail models (ones that were sold through a carrier), they may not be bootloader unlockable without jumping through a lot of hoops. That usually involves converting it to the OEM firmware and then enabling bootloader unlock (varies by device/manufacturer).
The Samsung Galaxy J7 had previous support for Lineage, but not that exact model number. You may still find the instructions useful (perhaps supplement those with XDA) and use them as a starting point. That might be a carrier model, and perhaps you can convert it to an OEM model (which have different model numbers) and go from there.
Thank you!!
I assume that you can forget about any oft the LG ones, as they stopped providing unlock keys for the bootloader. Check the lineage vor /e OS pages for the devices for a first glance of info.
Thanks!
I hate to say this, but lemmy is not your search engine. If you need help rooting, feel free to ask here, but it’s a tad bit inconsiderate to ask for directions on every single device, or ask people to do research on every single device. Not to mention, you didn’t specify the carrier or lock status of the devices.Edit: I misunderstood the post
I mean, he’s not asking for help rooting directly, or for people to feed him instructions on every one of these devices. His question is intentionally left open for any pointers people can give, from a “I rooted the Samsung and its pretty easy to do”, to links to other webpages (which are exactly the sort of resource someone would have bookmarked while also being a nightmare to find on Google), to -yes- full step by step instructions for those willing to provide. He’s asking for direction, not demanding someone do the work for him.
Omg absolutely yes. Thanks. I just replied to him nearly word for word. Just wanted to know if anyone could say they’ve done one of these and it was easy and/or hey this website is usually very clear. That’s all.
Sheesh :-)
It’s kind of a blanket question, and OP hasn’t shown they’ve done any homework.
If they said “I have this device, the bootloader is unlockable, but I can’t find rooting instructions for it” would at least be something.
(And I gave them directions on next steps, but not specific to any phone).
OP has CLEARLY done homework if he’s complaining about the instructions he did already find. If OP had done no homework then OP would not have spent time pointing out the very specific problems he had with existing directions. That would be a paradox.
I’m OP.
Also, you did give me a great response and pointed me what to look for. Thank you! That was very helpful and I appreciate it.
Deleted by author
I posted a reply to you that was meant for someone else. I really appreciate what you provided for me; that was far more than expected and it was very kind and generous of you.
I actually have done a massive amount of research but most of the instructions I’ve found are vague in some respects, sometimes they’re outdated, and sometimes they just assume too much. I’ve literally seen ones that say like “1. Unlock boot loader. 2. Load new rom. 3…. Etc” I was like “uh… how about any clue on how to do those things? Even a link to sub-procedures where it’s already documented.
Sometimes someone happens to have experience with one or has a great tutorial that helped them, and that’s what I was looking for.
I’m kinda coming from the era back when we were hacking the roms of windows mobile phones, or the old Nextel phones using Java tools to sneak in our own ringtones when the phones were all locked tight so the carriers could penny pinch you for $2 for a ringtone. Instructions back then were extremely comprehensive even had fucking photos lol. I don’t need that much but a lot of what I find today is just unintelligible. I pretty much assume it’s meant for someone who does this all the time.
Thank you, again. I appreciate your help.
I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had issues like that, I can imagine how that would be upsetting. If you do hit a roadblock like that, I’m sure that people can help if you post here. I only said my original comment because I didn’t understand the question right. I misinterpreted and thought that you were asking for something like my second comment, with every single device listed and a guide or something on how to root it. Guides really do vary in quality, and your mileage really will vary with them.
I’m confused. What are you trying to accomplish? Anyway you shouldn’t use root on Android as that breaks the security model.
I would look to see which of those devices officially support Lineage OS if any. They all look ancient so don’t be surprised if they are either not supported or support was dropped.
wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
Also please spend a little more time before posting. This post is fairly low effort and you are asking others to do basic googling for you.
Root would be for the older units which aren’t getting any updates anymore and where I just want to tinker.
I’d be interested in any of the roms available such as Lineage, Havoc, /e/, or others.
I’m not asking others to Google for me. As I’ve explained to others, I have done a ton of looking for weeks actually. It’s just most of the instructions I find are not very clear at all. I stated this in my post which precludes the possibility of my not having done any prior research. That’s something everyone seems to have missed except one guy.