Questions about rooting sprint galaxy nexus.

[icewater106]

Do I have to back up my phone before I root ? How would I get all my apps+data if I decide to unroot and go 100% stock ? And I know there is several ways to root the phone, is there a best way to root this phone or it doesn't matter?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[Brettbesa]

Here is a toolkit that does everything for you
[GNex TOOLKIT V7.8] Drivers, Backup, Unlock, Root, CWM, Flash, Mods + MORE [SPRINT] - xda-developers
There are also YouTube videos that show people using it, so doing it after watching the video makes it a lot easier in my experience. To answer your question, unlocking the bootloader and rooting wipes all of your data so I would backup everything on your phone by copying all the files to your computer and the play store shows all the apps you have downloaded so you can re-download them from there.

 

[Paul627g]

Do I have to back up my phone before I root ? How would I get all my apps+data if I decide to unroot and go 100% stock ? And I know there is several ways to root the phone, is there a best way to root this phone or it doesn't matter?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

In order to root your device you need to unlock the bootloader. Problem is when you unlock the bootloader you also wipe the device.

Returning back to stock your apps & data is kind of like when you unlock the phone, there is many hoops and stuff that you can jump thru to save and restore your data once your back on stock but its an awful lot of work for beginners.

Basically unlocking the device, your device gets wiped.
Restoring back to stock, your device once again gets wiped.

Its just the price you pay to play....

You can use such apps like SMS Backup and Restore from the Play Store to save text messages to sdcard when your unrooted and you can restore these at any point (rooted or stock).

You have the backup & restore option under Settings on your phone which will save your free apps downloaded from the Play Store but it won't save your data associated with them.

 

[icewater106]

Thanks im going to root it tonight.... and why the nexus don't have a file explorer and every other skinned android has one ?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[Paul627g]

and why the nexus don't have a file explorer and every other skinned android has one ?

Simple...

Pure Google Android experience my friend... Install what you want and not what the carrier/OEM wants

I recommend ES File Explorer in this situation, it works awesome for unrooted/rooted phones with constant ongoing developer support/updates and its F R E E

 

[icewater106]

Simple...

Pure Google Android experience my friend... Install what you want and not what the carrier/OEM wants

I recommend ES File Explorer in this situation, it works awesome for unrooted/rooted phones with constant ongoing developer support/updates and its F R E E

I have es explorer. I would think it would come with one since its a developer device and made to root and stuff

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[Paul627g]

I have es explorer. I would think it would come with one since its a developer device and made to root and stuff

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

Not the case with Nexus. They leave that option in your hands and since Google themselves don't make a worthy file explorer (that I'm aware of) they aren't going to place any 3rd party applications on your device.