Root [Boost Mobile] Remove APPS or BLOATWARE without TRIPPING KNOX!

[elchulo28]

I'm NOT RESPONSIBLE for what you do to your phone, proceed at your own RISK.

This method WILL ROOT your phone but will not change CURRENT BINARY, SYSTEM STATUS or the WARRANTY BIT also known as TRIPPING KNOX. If you want to know your phone current status, look up "HOW TO PUT PHONE IN DOWNLOAD MODE". To get out of download mode just hold power button down for 5-10 seconds.

1. On your phone home screen go to SETTING--> MORE--> SECURITY--> and check mark UNKNOWN SOURCES.

2. Open your phone web browser and type TOWELROOT by geohot, open website and tap on RED LOGO, download will start automatically. Once download is complete close browser and go to APPS--> MY FILES--> DEVICE STORAGE--> DOWNLOAD. Tap on the RED LOGO and install app. When app finishes installing open it and tap on MAKE IT RAIN, once installed restart your phone just to make sure everything installed smoothly.

3. Go to PLAY store and install ROOT CHECKER, open app and tap on VERIFY ROOT, it should say that your phone is rooted.

4. Go to PLAY store and install SUPERSU, open SUPERSU and if a screen comes up saying KNOX has been detected do you want to disable, just hit cancel. DO NOT try to disable KNOX, that might trip it.

5. Go to PLAY store and install TITANIUM BACKUP, open app and give it superuser permission. Use this app to delete bloatware or unwanted apps. Use this app with great caution, deleting a SYSTEM app can mess up your phone. Look up "HOW TO USE TITANIUM BACKUP" to get a better understanding of how this app works.

This web link --> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1913428 provides a list of system apps and bloatware that should be safe to delete from your phone. Courtesy of xda-developers.

 

[smith058]

great post elchulo28, welcome to AF...

just a suggestion... the title says remove apps or bloatware, maybe you can list a few safe system apps that can be removed or better yet frozen, since removing one wrong system app will put the phone into a boot loop, thus making someone trip Knox by installing custom recovery to flash a working ROM to get there phone working again... or maybe at least link/point to a list of safely removable bloatware already made.

other than that great writeup!!!

.

Edit...
Here is an older list of removable system apps... I'm sure the majority of them still apply.

List of Safe-to-Remove System Apps (or, How to De-bloat Your Boost Mobile Galaxy S3)
http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?t=778877

 

[wetbiker7]

great post elchulo28, welcome to AF...

just a suggestion... the title says remove apps or bloatware, maybe you can list a few safe system apps that can be removed or better yet frozen, since removing one wrong system app will put the phone into a boot loop, thus making someone trip Knox by installing custom recovery to flash a working ROM to get there phone working again... or maybe at least link/point to a list of safely removable bloatware already made.

other than that great writeup!!!

Good point Smith.

Nice tutorial Elchulo.

 

[oopsibrokeit]

Just wondering if anyone had given this a try and was it successful. My computer is dead and I would truly prefer not to brick my phone

 

[elchulo28]

Just wondering if anyone had given this a try and was it successful. My computer is dead and I would truly prefer not to brick my phone

Hey oopsibrokeit, i performed this in mine and my wife's S3 running new update of KK. I was skeptical at first cause i did not want to loose the warranty on the phones cause they are brand new. I did not want to use ODIN or CWM cause that would've tripped knox. This way worked perfectly on both phones.

Backup everything before deleting anything from your phone, look up "How to backup your phone using TITANIUM BACKUP", just in case you later want a app back or if your phone stops responding after a deletion.

 

[elchulo28]

great post elchulo28, welcome to AF...

just a suggestion... the title says remove apps or bloatware, maybe you can list a few safe system apps that can be removed or better yet frozen, since removing one wrong system app will put the phone into a boot loop, thus making someone trip Knox by installing custom recovery to flash a working ROM to get there phone working again... or maybe at least link/point to a list of safely removable bloatware already made.

other than that great writeup!!!

.

Edit...
Here is an older list of removable system apps... I'm sure the majority of them still apply.

List of Safe-to-Remove System Apps (or, How to De-bloat Your Boost Mobile Galaxy S3)
List of Safe-to-Remove System Apps (or, How to De-bloat Your Boost Mobile Galaxy S3) - Android Forums

THANK YOU SMITH058.:thumbup:
I added a link to the original post of apps and bloatware that should be safe to delete, provided by courtesy of xda-developers, even though he provides a list for a SPRINT phone most apps listed are the same for the BOOST phone. I only deleted apps and bloatware that I would not use. So far everything is working fine and no signs of glitches.

 

[smith058]

Towelroot does work... I had a friend that does not have a computer try it out and all went well... I actually wonder if we can get custom recovery without tripping knox if you did the towelroot then put the custom recovery image on the SD card and use terminal explore to push it to the recovery partition using the dd command.... download mode would never be touched so the download mode flag would not get ticked for sure an maybe knox can be passed too...

 

[oopsibrokeit]

Titanium backup and I are old friends from way back and my experiments with my old prevail taught me to be cautious.I read the op, dled towel, found it in the folder and remembered I have no way to recover from a bricking. I appreciate the responses

 

[MellonHed]

Followed the big blue words from the original post on a newly unboxed Boost S3 and worked just fine ... as far as I can see no KNOX problems.

 

[smith058]

Titanium backup and I are old friends from way back and my experiments with my old prevail taught me to be cautious.I read the op, dled towel, found it in the folder and remembered I have no way to recover from a bricking. I appreciate the responses

That is absolutely correct without custom recovery you are at high risk of soft bricking your phone... using Titanium Backup if you delete or freeze one wrong app then your phone will bootloop and you'll be forced to trip Knox in order to fix the issue... caution must be used!!!

 

[alpha2k]

So this will root the phone.
Couple of questions. ...

1: I am guessing, looking at all the TB usage posts you can use TB like you could before? Aside from the system apps a smith mentioned of corse

2: Can I say transfer stuff to the system/apps folder with this method once its rooted? I have a TW volume mod I wanna add in called viper4android, but it requires the apk file to be placed in the system folder.

3: Just out of curiosity, can this be undone.......Is it as easy as removing the apk file? If you were to wanting to return it for repair you definitely would not want to be rooted.

 

[wyelkins]

So this will root the phone.
Couple of questions. ...

1: I am guessing, looking at all the TB usage posts you can use TB like you could before? Aside from the system apps a smith mentioned of corse

2: Can I say transfer stuff to the system/apps folder with this method once its rooted? I have a TW volume mod I wanna add in called viper4android, but it requires the apk file to be placed in the system folder.

3: Just out of curiosity, can this be undone.......Is it as easy as removing the apk file? If you were to wanting to return it for repair you definitely would not want to be rooted.

1: Yes

2: Yes. I use Root Explorer.

3: Supersu has an option to unroot.

 

[alpha2k]

1: Yes

2: Yes. I use Root Explorer.

3: Supersu has an option to unroot.

So the super su way won't trip Knox?

 

[smith058]

Nope, not with towelroot and downloading an su app from play store

 

[wyelkins]

BTW, OT but related. I just installed Viper4Android 2.3.3.0 on Conquest Singularity and I did not have to manually move it to a priv folder. It did everything itself.

I have had to move it in the past on other Roms.

Also. Wicked-X has it pre-installed.

 

[alpha2k]

BTW, OT but related. I just installed Viper4Android 2.3.3.0 on Conquest Singularity and I did not have to manually move it to a priv folder. It did everything itself.

I have had to move it in the past on other Roms.

Also. Wicked-X has it pre-installed.

Wow. Nice to know. Wonder if they changed it in the app or if tw does it somehow. I'm however using a slightly older version. ......I'm using version 2315 so it's possible they finally fixed where it installs so we don't have to move it now.

I just got rooted. Kinda cool.

So is there a tw toggle add-on that can be used now without using a modified recovery? I miss my data toggle.

 

[jamstewonline]

Does anyone know if this will work for the virgin mobile s3?

 

[wetbiker7]

Does anyone know if this will work for the virgin mobile s3?

What works on the Boost version should work for VM too.

That's goes for just about everything. Sometimes you will have to replace the a Boost specific zip with the VM equivalent though.

This should work as is for VM.