It means getting access to parts of an operating system that you usually don’t have access to. This allows you to improve the performance of your phone, increase its battery life, browse protected files, change the boot animation, customize the UI, change certain behaviors, set a battery charging limit, use v4a (an amazing equalizer app), uninstall system apps, and much more
The process of rooting is a little convoluted and depends on the phone, but you should be able to find a guide for your phone if you look for one. Things can go wrong if you don’t follow the steps perfectly, but there’s always a way out
Your phone will be wiped, so you need to back up your data
Your warranty will get voided in the process, but can often un-void it by unrooting
Your phone will be no less secure, as long as you use a good superuser app (everyone recommends Magisk) and only give root access to apps you trust. Think of it as “run as administrator”
Your phone will be no less secure, as long as you use a good superuser app
This is factually incorrect and a dangerous statement. Your phone will be insecure, because you will have your bootloader unlocked - anyone can boot into that subsystem and access/alter the OS. It’s not a deal breaker for most, but some countries can become dangerous. Tread with caution.
anyone can boot into that subsystem and access/alter the OS
Right. I was looking at it from a malware point of view, since OP’s question “is it safe” is vague and can have one of at least three meanings. If your phone is rooted and the wrong person has physical access to it, they can bypass factory reset protection, among other things
However, most phones nowadays encrypt their user’s data using the lock screen password as the encryption key. I think this would limit an attacker’s access to user data, but don’t quote me on that
GrapheneOS is the extremely paranoid security-above-literally-anything-else ROM so of course they’d say it’s a bad idea.
The TLDR is that, without special protection (bootloader relocking, which is the reason why Graphene only supports the extremely limited amount of devices it does), rooting and bootloader unlocking intentionally punches holes in Android’s security model in exchange for greater control.
It means getting access to parts of an operating system that you usually don’t have access to. This allows you to improve the performance of your phone, increase its battery life, browse protected files, change the boot animation, customize the UI, change certain behaviors, set a battery charging limit, use v4a (an amazing equalizer app), uninstall system apps, and much more
The process of rooting is a little convoluted and depends on the phone, but you should be able to find a guide for your phone if you look for one. Things can go wrong if you don’t follow the steps perfectly, but there’s always a way out
Your phone will be wiped, so you need to back up your data
Your warranty will get voided in the process, but can often un-void it by unrooting
Your phone will be no less secure, as long as you use a good superuser app (everyone recommends Magisk) and only give root access to apps you trust. Think of it as “run as administrator”
This is factually incorrect and a dangerous statement. Your phone will be insecure, because you will have your bootloader unlocked - anyone can boot into that subsystem and access/alter the OS. It’s not a deal breaker for most, but some countries can become dangerous. Tread with caution.
Right. I was looking at it from a malware point of view, since OP’s question “is it safe” is vague and can have one of at least three meanings. If your phone is rooted and the wrong person has physical access to it, they can bypass factory reset protection, among other things
However, most phones nowadays encrypt their user’s data using the lock screen password as the encryption key. I think this would limit an attacker’s access to user data, but don’t quote me on that
Why are people saying it’s a bad idea? Especially in the grapheneos circle. You won’t get info on their forum about rooting it.
GrapheneOS is the extremely paranoid security-above-literally-anything-else ROM so of course they’d say it’s a bad idea.
The TLDR is that, without special protection (bootloader relocking, which is the reason why Graphene only supports the extremely limited amount of devices it does), rooting and bootloader unlocking intentionally punches holes in Android’s security model in exchange for greater control.