Safest Way To Root Galaxy On5 Using PC?

[Hemorr Droid]

Hi,

I'm the new guy. I've been using Android phones since I got the original Motorola Droid the day it came out. I've always been interested in rooting my phones, but have always been afraid of bricking them. Recently, I got the Samsung Galaxy on5 through T-Mobile, and I didn't realize their modified version has only 8GB of Internal storage AND you can't set it to save to the SD Card by default. Does anyone know if this phone can be successfully rooted and set to save all data to the SD card? Also, I've read that once rooted, you can access the source code for the mixer/volume settings and increase the values (I've watched a few instructional videos on this too, looks simple) and I'd love to do this as well, but I've never rooted a phone before and wanted to ask expert advice before I just "wing it." Since the on5 is new and ridiculously limited with the storage and SD card capabilities, I wanted to check if it's even possible... once rooted, should I be able to somehow unlock the storage limitation of setting the SD card as default, or is it that my phone is perhaps running a modified version of Marshmallow 6.0.1 And I Would still need to install/update my OS? I'd like to root using my PC and if someone could explain how to create a back up first, and how I would roll back to my phone's previous state if things blow up in my face, I'd greatly appreciate it. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR TIME AND INPUT.

Take Care,
Brian

P.S. I'm a web developer so I know my way around a computer and understand the rooting concept... I just don't know the process and with all the different options/methods I've read about online, I wanted to ask what is the safest way to go and what should I know before proceeding? Thanks Again!

 

[scary alien]

Welcome to our AndroidForums, Brian!

Well, the good news is that you're asking the right questions and wanting to be careful and make a backup and do the "CYA" things that you should do . You certainly do NOT want to root and change anything on your device without knowing you can restore / fix it.

Unfortunately, I don't see that we have a dedicated forum area for your particular device and I'm not familiar with the root methods for it...

I do see a couple of references to the On5 at xda-developers.com in a Google search, but the links are loading for me at the moment. XDA would be a good reference place for answering most of your questions--assuming that there actually is a development effort for it.

"Simply" rooting with a tool like King(o)Root or towel root (not sure if those actually apply to your device, though), etc. are ways to get your device quickly rooted, but do absolutely nothing to ensure that you can recover from an issue were you to change something in your /system partition and causes a bootloop or soft-brick.

I hope that helps somewhat...

Cheers and again, welcome!

 

[Hemorr Droid]

Welcome to our AndroidForums, Brian!

Well, the good news is that you're asking the right questions and wanting to be careful and make a backup and do the "CYA" things that you should do . You certainly do NOT want to root and change anything on your device without knowing you can restore / fix it.

Unfortunately, I don't see that we have a dedicated forum area for your particular device and I'm not familiar with the root methods for it...

I do see a couple of references to the On5 at xda-developers.com in a Google search, but the links are loading for me at the moment. XDA would be a good reference place for answering most of your questions--assuming that there actually is a development effort for it.

"Simply" rooting with a tool like King(o)Root or towel root (not sure if those actually apply to your device, though), etc. are ways to get your device quickly rooted, but do absolutely nothing to ensure that you can recover from an issue were you to change something in your /system partition and causes a bootloop or soft-brick.

I hope that helps somewhat...

Cheers and again, welcome!

[/QUOT

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR RESPONSE!

I REALLY Appreciate you taking the time to be respond with such a detailed and thoughtful response... I apologize for my delay in getting back to you. I'm out at the moment and want to respond in more detail soon with a few more questions and I still need to check out the links you provided, Thank You for those. In the meantime, if you could share what you know about options to set the SD Card as internal storage without rooting (though that is my ultimate goal long term) that be awesome. I looked into two methods, "Adoptive" where you set a partition or all of the SD card to serve as internal storage, which from the tutorials I've read, it is possible on my Marshmallow 6.0.1 OS, though I have read where people have said this method can corrupt your SD Card, so the preferred method I'd like to do, is where I've read you can simply set the default location for storage as your SD card using a command to set storage location to 2 (adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2) if the previous command finds your device... I understand both of the methods require you to install files on your PC... I'm wondering what you know of each method mentioned, and which you'd recommend more? The second method seems the better of the two, but are there risks with that that could corrupt my card or brick my phone? I'm also not sure if this method is even possible on Marshmallow, as the tutorials I have seen are for older versions of Android... Any insight you can offer would be greatly appreciated...

Thank You Again for Everything...

Take Care,
Brian

PS. I like your screen name! I've been an alien and UFO enthusiast since I was like 8 years old (anything mysterious, supernatural or unexplained... Ghosts, Sasquatch, Loch Ness Monster, etc.). I didn't have many friends as a kid HAHA Are you from England, Australia, Scotland, Ireland or New Zealand by chance? I ask because of the "Cheers", I've Always liked that. I'm from the U.S. where we don't say cool things Cheers!

 

[scary alien]

Hey Brian .

Yeah, the "Cheers" thing came mostly as a result of hanging-out with my British soccer 'mates from several years back--it kind of sticks on you, in a very good way . I'm a native Hoosier (from Indiana).

Regarding using your SD card as internal storage--are you asking about moving apps to the SD card? If so, then you can only move the apps that you're given an option to in the Settings app -> Apps (or Manage Apps). Its the individual app (and the app dev) that determines whether or not it's allowed to be moved--or, if your device is already using an emulated SD card on the /data partition, then there's really no need to support moving apps-to-SD.

I'm actually not too up-to-speed on adoptive storage...I do believe the adb shell pm command you gave is to specify the SD card as the default install location--if possible. I think that does make it a permanent setting for any subsequent app install, done via the Play Store or manually via adb install, etc.

As far as corrupting the SD card or bricking your device--that seem unlikely on a non-rooted device.

That's all I got...hope that helps a bit and maybe some others can help fill-in any blanks I might have missed.

Cheers!

 

[Etraquair]

Hi guy, I'm looking for some help in rooting my android spot i7
Any help would be much appreciated thanks Elaine