Does rooting my phone void the warranty?

danfolea

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Questions about rooting my phone and the warranty(SM-G900W8)

Hello, I just joined this community.

I switched from iPhone and got me a Samsung Galaxy S5(Canada model, Rogers carrier, SM-G900W8) a few weeks ago and I want to root it.

My question is, does rooting it void the warranty? And if for example I have it rooted and then after some time It suddenly breaks(hardware failure)
Does making a factory reset/unrooting or whatever leave any traces that it has been previously rooted so Samsung dosen't know and my warranty can still be valid?

Sidenote: On my rooted Asus TF300T, after unlocking the bootloader to install a custom ROM and root, every time it boots there is a message "This device is unlocked." on the top left of the screen...

I'm not very familiar with Samsung devices rooting but from what ive read rooting it could trigger KNOX?
Another thing... Does all of this also apply to switching Kernel?

I already searched a bit on this subject, it does answer on some of my points but partially, so if I broke a posting rule I'm sorry and take the necessary actions

Thanks in advance
 

VDub2174

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Re: Questions about rooting my phone and the warranty(SM-G900W8)

Rooting does void your warranty.

Samsung has gotten smart when detecting rooted devices. Their KNOX counter will trip if you're not careful which shows that the device was rooted.
 

Rukbat

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Re: Questions about rooting my phone and the warranty(SM-G900W8)

I switched from iPhone and got me a Samsung Galaxy S5(Canada model, Rogers carrier, SM-G900W8) a few weeks ago and I want to root it.

My question is, does rooting it void the warranty?
A Samsung phone in Canada, yes. I believe HTC allows both rooting and ROMing (but the warranty doesn't cover damage done by you), and I believe that the EU specifically prohibits voiding the warranty for rooting.

And if for example I have it rooted and then after some time It suddenly breaks(hardware failure)
Does making a factory reset/unrooting or whatever leave any traces that it has been previously rooted so Samsung dosen't know and my warranty can still be valid?
If you can reflash the stock firmware, they'd never know. If the hardware failure was in the ROM chip, they'd never know. Does rooting leave traces? Well ... rooting is basically installing the program su, so if it's there, they'll see it. A good rooting program leaves su, busybox (which is a set of Linux commands that Google left out of the kernel - you can use some of them without rooting) and a superuser app so your rooted apps can use su. It cleans up any traces of other things (like the exploit program it used to gain temporary root) before it finishes. Unrooting generally removes those 3 things, but unless you do a storage wipe (writing garbage to all areas of unused storage), they could find the files if they wanted to take the trouble.

Sidenote: On my rooted Asus TF300T, after unlocking the bootloader to install a custom ROM and root, every time it boots there is a message "This device is unlocked." on the top left of the screen...
Try Xposed Installer and the Wanam module. There's a setting in Security to remove that. (It works on Samsungs, I don't know if it'll work on ASUSs. If it works, you usually have to restart a couple of times before the notice goes away.)

I'm not very familiar with Samsung devices rooting but from what ive read rooting it could trigger KNOX?
The only current way of rooting 4.4.4 does. Previous versions of Android could be rooted without tripping Knox. (Which is why the 4.4.2 ROM I'm currently running has the update function removed. I'm staying at 4.4.2 until someone comes up with an exploit to root 4.4.4 [or 5] without tripping Knox.)

Another thing... Does all of this also apply to switching Kernel?
Yes. (Assuming your bootloader isn't locked, like the AT&T and Verizon versions. If it is the point is moot,since you can't change the kernel.)
 

vannylugo

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Re: Questions about rooting my phone and the warranty(SM-G900W8)

Hello, I just joined this community.

I switched from iPhone and got me a Samsung Galaxy S5(Canada model, Rogers carrier, SM-G900W8) a few weeks ago and I want to root it.

My question is, does rooting it void the warranty? And if for example I have it rooted and then after some time It suddenly breaks(hardware failure)
Does making a factory reset/unrooting or whatever leave any traces that it has been previously rooted so Samsung dosen't know and my warranty can still be valid?

Sidenote: On my rooted Asus TF300T, after unlocking the bootloader to install a custom ROM and root, every time it boots there is a message "This device is unlocked." on the top left of the screen...

I'm not very familiar with Samsung devices rooting but from what ive read rooting it could trigger KNOX?
Another thing... Does all of this also apply to switching Kernel?

I already searched a bit on this subject, it does answer on some of my points but partially, so if I broke a posting rule I'm sorry and take the necessary actions

Thanks in advance
It voids the warranty but its worth it.
 

danfolea

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Oct 22, 2014
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Re: Questions about rooting my phone and the warranty(SM-G900W8)

Thank you for the very detailed reply.

There are some things I didin't fully understand tough...

The part where you say "but unless you do a storage wipe (writing garbage to all areas of unused storage), they could find the files if they wanted to take the trouble." you mean if I do a storage wipe by writing random data to the free section of the memory they wouldn't be able to find the files right?

Also I'm not sure what you said about the Xposed Framework and Wanam Xposed. From what I have read its used to customize pretty much anything in my stock ROM, it could also set the Status to Official? Forget about the ASUS part, I only added that as an example of what traces are left when unlocking the bootloader and/or rooting... my warranty was already void when I flashed and rooted it :p

Here on my SM-G900W8 the latest version is 4.4.2 and ive searched since I got the phone if there are any updates avalaible or when they will be, even asked Samsung custommer support but there is absolutely no official statement on that... Kinda frustrating. Breifly I am on 4.4.2 and I think I will still be for some time LOL so I'm safe on that.

But I'm still not sure... with the upcoming release of Android Lolipop, what would you recommend me? To root now or wait?
 

danfolea

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Re: Questions about rooting my phone and the warranty(SM-G900W8)

A Samsung phone in Canada, yes. I believe HTC allows both rooting and ROMing (but the warranty doesn't cover damage done by you), and I believe that the EU specifically prohibits voiding the warranty for rooting.

If you can reflash the stock firmware, they'd never know. If the hardware failure was in the ROM chip, they'd never know. Does rooting leave traces? Well ... rooting is basically installing the program su, so if it's there, they'll see it. A good rooting program leaves su, busybox (which is a set of Linux commands that Google left out of the kernel - you can use some of them without rooting) and a superuser app so your rooted apps can use su. It cleans up any traces of other things (like the exploit program it used to gain temporary root) before it finishes. Unrooting generally removes those 3 things, but unless you do a storage wipe (writing garbage to all areas of unused storage), they could find the files if they wanted to take the trouble.

Try Xposed Installer and the Wanam module. There's a setting in Security to remove that. (It works on Samsungs, I don't know if it'll work on ASUSs. If it works, you usually have to restart a couple of times before the notice goes away.)

The only current way of rooting 4.4.4 does. Previous versions of Android could be rooted without tripping Knox. (Which is why the 4.4.2 ROM I'm currently running has the update function removed. I'm staying at 4.4.2 until someone comes up with an exploit to root 4.4.4 [or 5] without tripping Knox.)

Yes. (Assuming your bootloader isn't locked, like the AT&T and Verizon versions. If it is the point is moot,since you can't change the kernel.)

Um I didint quote you so I dont think you saw my reply, but if you could check it please its just above this ^^
 

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