I want to Root my LG G4

[Gabe Luculescu]

But I am a heavy user but what to do more with my phone. If I root it, would it damage my phone in anyway? Would it effect my performance? Anyone tried rooting the phone?

Thanks!

 

[Mooncatt]

I haven't rooted mine, but I have rooted other phones. The process of rooting does have some risks, and you should find a method specific to your phone version. For example, rooting the international version may be different than a carrier specific model (assuming the carrier model can be rooted in the first place). So make sure any method you try is verified to work for your exact model.

Once rooted, it's still operationally the same, so it won't affect performance by itself. It will allow you to make other changes that will affect performance. Some of the possibilities can also harm your phone, which is why it can void your warranty.

 

[tube517]

http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...ote-4-root-not-root-question.html#post5098443

 

[JGLdn]

It's not a case of rooting may invalidate your warranty, it's a case of it will. Keep that in mind as the G4 is a risky handset as some have the boot loop issue. If you root it and you get boot loop you'll have to pay for your repair. In my opinion rooting is not worth it.

 

[Mooncatt]

HTC doesn't void the warranty simply for rooting (not on the M8 at least), so it's not 100% across the board. I wasn't sure about the G4, which is why I worded my post like that.

 

[jlbattagli]

I'll throw my two cents in, since I've had two g4s.

First off, you may or may not be *able* to root, depending on which firmware you have. My first G4 came with Android 5.1, which was rootable. I received a warranty replacement (hardware issue) about a month ago that came with Android 6.0; that one is not rootable yet and probably never will be. This means you will likely have to forego any security updates for your phone. My warranty replacement has had two security updates since I received it.

I do not notice any particular performance difference between the two phones observationally. I never ran any type of benchmark on either one so I can't say for sure that their isn't a slight performance difference between them, but it certainly isn't obvious in normal usage. I use Nova Prime as my launcher, and it runs just as smoothly on the new phone as on the old one.

The main advantages of rooting for me were de-bloating and ad-blocking. You can run Greenify without root, but it does a better job on a rooted phone. And you can't use Titanium Backup to remove bloatware without being rooted. I'm still a little shocked at how many ads I get now that I'm not running an ad-blocker; I guess I've lived a sheltered life for a few years now

One major disadvantage I noted about being rooted is that you cannot use Android Pay. This may or may not be an issue for you; I mostly used Google Wallet for loyalty cards and rarely for actually purchasing stuff, so it wasn't much of a problem for me. I just used an older version of Wallet for my loyalty cards, that worked as long as I didn't attempt to use a payment option.

That's pretty much it from my perspective. There are a few other things you can do with root, but for my personal use case they were all minor. I never felt the need to install custom ROMs on my phone; I'm not sure it was actually possible with this device. I'm pretty sure that once you update past 5.1 you can't roll back, meaning you are stuck without root. So basically, you need to first determine if your phone is capable of being rooted, then decide which features are most important to you. Everyone's opinion will be different on that last point.

 

[jlbattagli]

And I should probably point that my above remarks refer specifically to the Sprint variant of the G4 (I keep forgetting that this is pretty much a generic G4 forum). I don't know how it applies to other variants. XDA-Developers has forums devoted to the the G4 in general and also several specific variants. They would likely have more information on the specifics of rooting your particular phone.

Good luck.

 

[JGLdn]

HTC doesn't void the warranty simply for rooting (not on the M8 at least), so it's not 100% across the board. I wasn't sure about the G4, which is why I worded my post like that.

HTC may not, but your carrier may have something to say about it. Remember, when you send your handset off for repair it sometimes goes to your carrier repair centre, not back to the manufacturer.