Why can't I enable System UI Tuner (Android 6.0.1)

[AC Question]

Re: Enabling System UI Tuner
Hardware: ZTE 831, 8GB onboard memory
Android OS: 6.0.1
Kernel Version: 3.10.49-g52d2d07
Build Number: Z831V1.0.0B17

Greetings!

I’m running out of onboard memory because I can’t save apps to my SD card.
I’ve read several versions of the instructions for enabling System UI Tuner. None works. However, I can enable and play the hidden Flappy Bird game.
In order to enable System UI Tuner, do I have to:

• Unlock the phone?
• Root the phone?
• Install a SIM? (I would prefer to configure the OS without the SIM.?
• Flash hardware and or software?
• Boot in a different mode?
• Enable WiFi or another data connection?
• Enable Developer Options?
• Enable OEM Unlocking?
• Enable animations? If so, which ones?

Except for the lack of OTG functionality, I like and don’t want to replace my hardware, which runs Android beautifully. And I would gladly pay a reasonable sum to upgrade the OS if there were an easy, legal way to do so.

Right now, though, I’d settle for being allowed to use more of the operating system I’ve already paid to license.

 

[Rukbat]

1. The System UI tuner gives you a bit of control over your status bar and its pull-down menus. It has nothing to do with storage. ("Onboad memory" is RAM, which you have 1GB of - you can't run out of it, unless you're running a much older phone. Apps aren't written to need even a whole 1GB - yet.)

"UI" is "user interface" - that's the screen you see, and that's all System UI Tuner changes.

2. The phone has had 6.0.1 written for it - that's as far as you can go in updating the OS. There won't be further updates.

Rooting before installing a new OS is a waste of time - it's the OS that's rooted, so if you install a rooted OS, you'll have a rooted phone, and if you install an unrooted OS, you'll have an unrooted phone - whether it was rooted or not before you install the new OS.

You have to install a SIM in order to make and take phone calls and use mobile data. Without the SIM, the phone won't connect to the network.

You can't flash hardware - flashing is installing a new OS, and that's what you'd have to do if you find one written for your model phone. (But back up everything first - flashing a new ROM gives you an out-of-the-box phone - all the changes you've made since you got it aren't in the new ROM.)

Short answer - at best, you can add an SD card and let it format as adoptive storage, so you'll have more space for apps and data. (But then it becomes part of the phone's storage - even system apps can end up on the card - so you can't remove the card and expect the phone to work. It may, or it may not.)