Perks of rooting Nexus 4/is it worth it?

[Daanyyaal]

So, I have had my Nexus 4 for almost 2 months now. I previously had a GS2. Now what I want to know is, what exactly rooting is. What benefits does it bring to my daily life of using my Nexus 4. I only got the Nexus 4 for the pure Android experience, which is what people root for, right? So why do I need a further purer experience? Or is that completely wrong?

I have heard a bit about Cyanogenmod and that it is used for your Nexus 4.

So my final few questions:
What is rooting an Android device?
What are the perks of rooting an Android device?
Is it worth it?
If you no longer want the root, can you revert back to the stock OS?

Thank you!

 

[CoolBeit]

Firstly, you need to realize there is a difference between rooting and unlocking your bootloader. Unlocking your bootloader is required before you can root and will wipe your phone. A quick summaries:
-Unlocking your bootloader allows you to install or fastboot a custom recovery. From the custom recovery, you can install the SU binaries (which will ROOT your phone). Having root has some pros and cons. The pros are that you can install some powerful apps, mods, and roms. The cons are that, once you mod, you are probably not going to be able to install ota updaes. You will have to either wipe your phone or flash a factory image. Another (less likely) con is that granting an app root access could potentially make your phone more vulnerable.

It is possible (and common) to unlock the bootloader and root AND remain on the stock rom. This is how my phone is right now. But rooting also allows for mods and custom kernels. I am using Franco Kernel on stock 4.2.2.

My last bit of advice is this: Do your research and don't be afraid to ask questions. You have the right phone to learn about this stuff on. It's virtually impossible to brick it. If you get stuck I'm sure someone can help you get things working again.

 

[Rizy7]

Rooting is like getting extra permissions to control your device. Its a bit like having administrator access on a pc. You get to access and change files that you were not able to get to before.

To me it is worth it and some really cool apps need root such as titanium backup. Rooting itself does not really change anything but its what you do after that really makes a difference. You can completely change your phone how you want by changing your kernel settings, custom kernels, customs roms and a lot of other mods. With all these you can also get better performance and battery life from your phone.

Unrooting your device is just as easy as rooting your device in the first place. I recommend doing a bit of reading to get familiar with rooting and other terms and also take a look at 2defmouze's guides, they are really good.

 

[torana355]

The main reason i think it is worth rooting is for the battery saving mods you can do once rooted. My stock N4 ws lucky to get 3 hours on screen time, with the Rasbeanjelly Rom and Trinity kernel im getting over 6 hours! There are also many apps that require root access that you are missing out on without root access. Its also very easy to do with the Nexus 4 toobox. I was a complete android noob 2 weeks ago and now im flashing stuff all over the place lol.

 

[TheDonJ77]

The main reason i think it is worth rooting is for the battery saving mods you can do once rooted. My stock N4 ws lucky to get 3 hours on screen time, with the Rasbeanjelly Rom and Trinity kernel im getting over 6 hours! There are also many apps that require root access that you are missing out on without root access. Its also very easy to do with the Nexus 4 toobox. I was a complete android noob 2 weeks ago and now im flashing stuff all over the place lol.

I also use rasbeanjelly. Love the clean and simple look with the few added customizations it brings. Battery life has been simply superb! This is my first ROM I tried after rooting and I love it. I may try a few others just to see what they offer.


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[torana355]

I also use rasbeanjelly. Love the clean and simple look with the few added customizations it brings. Battery life has been simply superb! This is my first ROM I tried after rooting and I love it. I may try a few others just to see what they offer.


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah i like how rasbean does not overwhelm you with to many customization options, it just has the bare essentials to make the phone great to use. I love the blue theme aswell.

 

[chubb]

Since you are asking the question. Unlock your bootloader now. Don't wait 6 months then decide you want to unlock to root. You WILL LOSE EVERYTHING when you unlock (did that with my Galaxy Nexus and lost all game progress witch can be a pain). But I have gotten over flashing roms personally. I unlocked mine and my girlfriends and had mine rooted untill the ota to 4.2.2. These days I only root to save progress and data in apps so if an app gets updated and I don't like it, it won't work now, or would have to get a new phone, I can install the previous version where I left off. Once you are unlocked you can root and lose root all you want and will not lose any data, only the unlocking will wipe everything. On my Galaxy Nexus AOKP worked the best overall for me, but it can get time consuming flashing different roms all the time. It was fun for a while for me, but now I need to focus the few short hours a week after work that I get to other, more grown up things than my phone.

Oh by the way, Wugs toolkit is great. You can revert back to factory state easily if need be. Also can unlock, relock, root and unroot all recent nexus devices easily and quickly. But if you do go down that route, learn to use ADB and how to flash things manually. Worst case senario, the only way to bring your nexus back from the dead is flashing images manually, without help from Rom Manager (Which I would only use to download roms on your phone, nothing else). Learn the hard way first, then enjoy the easy one click methods later, it will be worth it in the long run. 2defmouze has great stickies, read them.

 

[Rob Roosen]

So if I root my phone and I stay on the stock launcher I can do still OTA updates?
I would like to remove some stock apps only.
If I remove some stock apps can I still do the OTA updates?

I don't want a custom rom I would like to edit the official launcher a little bit.
I want to remove some home screens and make the app drawer background transparent and edit the quick settings.

 

[Ben K Lee]

No. If you're rooted and unlocked you won't get OTA updates, regardless of launcher.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[2defmouze]

So if I root my phone and I stay on the stock launcher I can do still OTA updates?
I would like to remove some stock apps only.
If I remove some stock apps can I still do the OTA updates?

I don't want a custom rom I would like to edit the official launcher a little bit.
I want to remove some home screens and make the app drawer background transparent and edit the quick settings.

No. If you're rooted and unlocked you won't get OTA updates, regardless of launcher.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Yes, you will get OTA updates if you are unlocked and rooted. They will usually break root, but re-rooting takes 5 seconds, lol. If however, you remove stock apps or otherwise alter your stock system, then the OTAs will likely fail to install.



Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[greydarrah]

So if I root my phone and I stay on the stock launcher I can do still OTA updates?
I would like to remove some stock apps only.
If I remove some stock apps can I still do the OTA updates?

I don't want a custom rom I would like to edit the official launcher a little bit.
I want to remove some home screens and make the app drawer background transparent and edit the quick settings.

If you've got no interest in running a custom ROM, I see no need for you to unlock/root your phone. Just leave the stock apps as is (they don't hurt anything being there and they don't take up enough space to matter) and install a custom launcher like Nova to do what you want with your home screens.

 

[icpu]

Humm.. I don't care much about looks, well i'm gonna do it when i got bored, changing home screen, launcher etc..
but for now I really want to do rooting because there are some apps that require rooting (and usually they are quite useful..)

and another thing i want to ask is.. are there any restrictions, i mean things you can't do after rooting so the phone doesn't have any OS fail? (or even hardware)
like i've read that you can't factory reset your phone after rooting cause that will cause you some troubles..
after doing some research i'm going to do root with stock ROM, cause i think it will cause less trouble for beginner like me..

 

[avis19]

The major reason I root my Nexus 4 is to install Adblock on it.

I can live with a shorter battery life - but not ad banners all over my screen..!

To each his/her own...

 

[sean cahill]

The main reason i think it is worth rooting is for the battery saving mods you can do once rooted. My stock N4 ws lucky to get 3 hours on screen time, with the Rasbeanjelly Rom and Trinity kernel im getting over 6 hours! There are also many apps that require root access that you are missing out on without root access. Its also very easy to do with the Nexus 4 toobox. I was a complete android noob 2 weeks ago and now im flashing stuff all over the place lol.

How in the world are you getting 6 hours of screen time? I'm running the same set up and getting like 2hrs which is pretty frustrating.

 

[Andrw]

Being able to use Rom toolbox pro to backup my apps on a single click is great. Any ad blocking app is a must when rooted. I don't know if it's worth rooting for nexus 4, I'm staying the advantages when it comes to having a rooted device.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Karan Mahajan]

Hi
I just bought a nexus 4 a few weeks back. I just want to root my device for using some apps like touch control. Can i still get updates from google after rooting? what is mod? What is the benefit of using frenco kernel?

 

[digitalslacker]

Hi
I just bought a nexus 4 a few weeks back. I just want to root my device for using some apps like touch control. Can i still get updates from google after rooting? what is mod? What is the benefit of using frenco kernel?

yes you can still get updates if you've rooted assuming you haven't installed a custom recovery. There are some that say you can even install the OTA with a custom recovery but I haven't tried that yet. when you take the OTA though you'll probably be unrooted so be prepared to reroot.

a mod is a "modification" i guess, not sure that's the context you are using it in

franco is a good all around kernel. Nice mix of performance and battery life. so basically it's faster and lighter on battery usage (just by a little) than stock . it also has some nice color controls to change the RGB and gamma settings on the N4

Sent from my EPAD using Tapatalk HD

 

[Meleagru]

Even if you root and install a custom ROM, it's not a one-way deal. You can always go back to stock and un-root. Rooting just gives you a lot more options. It's up to you if you need those options though.

 

[avidberry]

The main advantage, for me, is the ability to flash custom kernel for better battery life. I did also flash custom rom for fun but it's not really necessary if you don't want to.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[kalchas]

I think the main reason I rooted my older Android phone is to install Droidwall, a tethering app, and to install a mod with a more up to date Android system. I like the idea of making backups, but rarely ever do. However, like you said, the Nexus 4 should already have the updated system, and it already has a good tethering system. I just purchased a nexus 4 yesterday, and plan to root to install DroidWall and to make occasional backups.

I have a plan with limited data and need to keep the apps from going behind my back