Root?

[John Jason]

I have Note 3 (originally USA), which I am interested in replacing with a Note 10+, but I have a few questions first.

I bought my Note 3 from a local fellow on Craigslist. At the time I had a T-Mobile phone, and the Note 3 he was selling was also with T-Mobile. Sitting in his living room we called T-Mobile to handle the swap. I asked the T-Mobile lady if his IMEI was clean, and she assured me that his phone was paid in full, so I gave the seller the cash. Four months later I discovered that the T-Mobile lady and the seller had both lied to me, when T-Mobile shut my phone off without even a warning. With help fom here I discovered a fellow who would replace the motherboard in my dead Note 3 with a replacement (from outside the USA), and in the process he agreed to root the phone and ship it back to me overnight. When I got the phone back a few days later it was working perfectly, and has continued to work for the past five+ years.

I've loved my Note 3, but a few weeks ago I cracked the screen, and 5G is all the rage these days, so maybe it's time to move on. But I don't really want to give up having a phone that is rooted. One of the first things I did when I got my Note 3 back from the guy who installed anew motherboard was to uninstall the texting apps. What? I don't do texts? How can that be? Well, I have no young friends who believe that the purpose of being alive is to do texting and social media. The only text messages I ever got were robo-texts or advertising from T-Mobile. Worse, even with the phone volume on zero, every time I got a text message the phone would emit a loud beep, and it was impossible to turn the feature off. Bah.

I have never rooted a phone myself. I could probably do it, but it is a bit scary. However, while poking around the net I discovered this site:

https://r1.community.samsung.com/t5/others/how-to-remove-samsung-bloatware-without-root/td-p/5817510

Which gives me some options for removing Samsung bloatware without being root. All I really want to do is disable texting, so if I can do it without root, maybe I don't even need to root my new Note 10+. But if I do need to be root, are there people who would do it for me for a price?

Opinions? Suggestions?

 

[ocnbrze]

its really better that you learn to root the device yourself. it will teach you skills that will help you if you need to troubleshoot something. rooting, flashing and removing bloatware all require skill that you can learn from rooting the device yourself. if you do not bother to learn the skills and you do something, you could easily brick your phone. but if your learn the skills, and learn how to back things up properly, you could avoid such situations......just saaying.

so on that note here is what you will need to do with links to guides and additional info:
1. unlock your bootloader:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...unlock-for-samsung-us-canada-devices.4215101/

2.flash twrp:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...axy-note-10-5g-n976u-u1-w-snapdragon.4184135/

3.flash magisk:
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-install-magisk/

4.make a nandroid backup before you do anything else:
https://twrp.me/faq/whattobackup.html

 

[ocnbrze]

sorry i forgot a step about flashing magisk which i added in to my previous post.

also keep in mind that you need to read each step thoroughly before jumping into rooting.

and please feel free to ask questions here.

good luck

 

[Bodestone]

I have had the Note 1,2,3,4,8 and 10+

The 10+ is the one I didn't need to root to get the functionality I wanted due to dark modes and Samsung aps to mod the phone to remove notification bar icons and make other modifications that would previously require root.

Both Android and Samsung have progressed a long way since the 3 and there are other, non-root options for many of the root necessities I had in the past.

If you say what you are looking for maybe we can help with other apps to reproduce the functionality.

I Killed a Note 8 by missing a step in the Magisk root intructions. I read it but my fingter came off the button early.
Got it up and running but it was tripped to not receive software updates from then on.

 

[John Jason]

I have had the Note 1,2,3,4,8 and 10+
If you say what you are looking for maybe we can help with other apps to reproduce the functionality.
I killed a Note 8 by missing a step in the Magisk root instructions. I read it but my finger came off the button early.
Got it up and running but it was tripped to not receive software updates from then on.

The big thing that I want is that it not receive text messages. I don't want it to receive them and then auto-delete them (because then it would beep on receiving the message), I want it never to receive the text message at all. On my rooted Note 3 I accomplished this by deleting the text application. This did not make Android/Samsung happy, and ultimately I lost the Play Store. But I already had all the apps I ever wanted, so I just shrugged. If there is some way to accomplish this without root (like through my link above), that would solve my problem.

As for rooting and screwing it up, that worries me. I'd be happier with attempting to root myself if I knew I could just reinstall from scratch and start over. I could do that on a Linux computer, but Android is a different kind of critter. If I had yours or ocnbrze's knowledge I'd root it in a heartbeat.

 

[Techemma]

I try to root my Samsung with custom ROM but accidentally damage it, not its not even booting up. So my advice do it with care and proper guide.

 

[ocnbrze]

The big thing that I want is that it not receive text messages. I don't want it to receive them and then auto-delete them (because then it would beep on receiving the message), I want it never to receive the text message at all. On my rooted Note 3 I accomplished this by deleting the text application. This did not make Android/Samsung happy, and ultimately I lost the Play Store. But I already had all the apps I ever wanted, so I just shrugged. If there is some way to accomplish this without root (like through my link above), that would solve my problem.

As for rooting and screwing it up, that worries me. I'd be happier with attempting to root myself if I knew I could just reinstall from scratch and start over. I could do that on a Linux computer, but Android is a different kind of critter. If I had yours or ocnbrze's knowledge I'd root it in a heartbeat.

well the good thing about sammy's that are rootable, most attempts at rooting can be fixed by flashing a firmware update and any issues should be fixed. just have the firmware update already downloaded onto your computer and also have odin setup as well. odin is a samsung software that allows you to flash firmware updates

......so its pretty hard to brick a phone. like i said read read read and then read some more. we are hear to help youu if you need us.

 

[John Jason]

I now have a new Note 20 Ultra. I have spent the last two days trying to get it as usable as my old Note 3 was. Today, somehow, it suddenly started massive downloading, and icons for new apps started appearing, apps that I definitely do not want - Spotify, Samsung Pay, Linkedin, Outlook, Samsung Global G..., and YT Music. I have no idea what made it suddenly do this.

Sometimes I can uninstall an app by holding down the icon which causes some options to pop up, but these new ones cannot be uninstalled. Some of them I cannot even move around.

And this morning, while trying to get my university e-mail account accessible via IMAP (like I do on my computer) there was an option to delete my Gmail account (which I have never used, although it contains hundreds of junk e-mails), so I deleted it. Now I can't get into the Play Store. Options pop up to restore my Gmail account, but they don't work. There is a window to enter my password (which I did), and below is a Captcha, but I can't read the Captcha (too distorted) and there is no 'refresh' for the Captcha. I have to start all over again. A couple of times I got a good Captcha, but when I clicked on Done it just asked me to re-enter the password, and this process just repeats over and over. A couple of times I got past these two windows, and then it asked me to verify who I was by entering my favorite food. WTH? I don't have a favorite food.

Right now I really need root, but I doubt that I'd be successful doing it myself. I'm beginning to wish that I had never bought this phone. Clearly I'm not smart enough to operate it.

Sorry for my rant.

 

[John Jason]

I now have a new Note 20 Ultra. I have spent the last two days trying to get it as usable as my old Note 3 was. Today, somehow, it suddenly started massive downloading, and icons for new apps started appearing, apps that I definitely do not want - Spotify, Samsung Pay, Linkedin, Outlook, Samsung Global G..., and YT Music. I have no idea what made it suddenly do this.

Sometimes I can uninstall an app by holding down the icon which causes some options to pop up, but these new ones cannot be uninstalled. Some of them I cannot even move around.

And this morning, while trying to get my university e-mail account accessible via IMAP (like I do on my computer) there was an option to delete my Gmail account (which I have never used, although it contains hundreds of junk e-mails), so I deleted it. Now I can't get into the Play Store. Options pop up to restore my Gmail account, but they don't work. There is a window to enter my password (which I did), and below is a Captcha, but I can't read the Captcha (too distorted) and there is no 'refresh' for the Captcha. I have to start all over again. A couple of times I got a good Captcha, but when I clicked on Done it just asked me to re-enter the password, and this process just repeats over and over. A couple of times I got past these two windows, and then it asked me to verify who I was by entering my favorite food. WTH? I don't have a favorite food.

Right now I really need root, but I doubt that I'd be successful doing it myself. I'm beginning to wish that I had never bought this phone. Clearly I'm not smart enough to operate it.

Sorry for my rant.

 

[ocnbrze]

just factory reset and start over

 

[mikedt]

I now have a new Note 20 Ultra. I have spent the last two days trying to get it as usable as my old Note 3 was. Today, somehow, it suddenly started massive downloading, and icons for new apps started appearing, apps that I definitely do not want - Spotify, Samsung Pay, Linkedin, Outlook, Samsung Global G..., and YT Music. I have no idea what made it suddenly do this.

My Note20 Ultra already had Samsung Pay and Outlook pre-installed, as well as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (Samsung has a partnership with Microsoft). I don't use Samsung Pay, but I do use Outlook, etc. Samsung Pay can't be uninstalled on mine, but all the Microsoft apps can be deleted. As for Spotify, Linkedin, and YouTube Music, I don't think those would have been installed on my China version phone, which did come with Taobao, WeChat, TikTok, Weibo, Bilibili, Iqiyi, etc. All of which I deleted, except for Taobao and WeChat.

Was your Note20 Ultra locked to and supplied by carrier, or is it an unlocked one?

Sometimes I can uninstall an app by holding down the icon which causes some options to pop up, but these new ones cannot be uninstalled. Some of them I cannot even move around.

And this morning, while trying to get my university e-mail account accessible via IMAP (like I do on my computer) there was an option to delete my Gmail account (which I have never used, although it contains hundreds of junk e-mails), so I deleted it. Now I can't get into the Play Store. Options pop up to restore my Gmail account, but they don't work. There is a window to enter my password (which I did), and below is a Captcha, but I can't read the Captcha (too distorted) and there is no 'refresh' for the Captcha. I have to start all over again. A couple of times I got a good Captcha, but when I clicked on Done it just asked me to re-enter the password, and this process just repeats over and over. A couple of times I got past these two windows, and then it asked me to verify who I was by entering my favorite food. WTH? I don't have a favorite food.

Right now I really need root, but I doubt that I'd be successful doing it myself. I'm beginning to wish that I had never bought this phone. Clearly I'm not smart enough to operate it.

Sorry for my rant.

When you say you deleted your Gmail account, would that have removed your Google Account from the phone? In which case it wouldn't be able to get into the Play Store. As for the Google CAPTCHAs, I've NOT seen them at all on this phone. However on China version Samsungs here in China, there's no Google login by default. And I had to sideload the Play Store apk myself from APKmirror.

I assume you got a Snapdragon variant Note20 Ultra(you're in the US?) rather than Exynos. Snapdragon variant Samsungs can be quite difficult, maybe impossible to root(like Note20).

FYI Exynos is Samsung's own processor that they usually use for most countries and regions, but the US, China, and Japan have Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors instead, because of CDMA carriers in those countries.

As for me actually needing to root a phone, the last time I did that was with an Oppo Find7 back in 2015.

 

[John Jason]

The new Note 20 Ultra is surely a Snapdragon phone. I bought it on eBay from a seller in Texas, brand new in factory sealed box, factory unlocked.

As for the gmail account, it was set up when I got my Note 3, many years ago. I never used it, or even looked at it, but when I looked at it today it had hundreds of e-mails in its inbox, all of which were either spam or dire warnings from Google or my carrier that I was missing out on wonderful new features, that surely I would be delighted to pay for. Deleting it seemed like a good idea, carrying out the trash. Unfortunately, I didn't know that that account was what gave me access to the Play Store. But all is well now. I have long had another Gmail account that I do actually use, so I used Google's mail app to log into it, et voilà! Play store is working again.

And I found a place in Settings > Apps where installed apps are listed, including delete options for a lot of them, including most of the noisome new apps that something installed this morning. (I still don't know how or why that happened.) I still have problems with moving the icons for some apps to a different page or elsewhere, and lots of other smaller issues, but my frustration level is now tolerable.

As for root, right now I'm willing to let it go. But I'd do it in a minute if it wasn't so scary. Maybe someday I'll be able to buy a blank phone where I can install a real free, open source operating system.

 

[mikedt]

The new Note 20 Ultra is surely a Snapdragon phone. I bought it on eBay from a seller in Texas, brand new in factory sealed box, factory unlocked.

As for the gmail account, it was set up when I got my Note 3, many years ago. I never used it, or even looked at it, but when I looked at it today it had hundreds of e-mails in its inbox, all of which were either spam or dire warnings from Google or my carrier that I was missing out on wonderful new features, that surely I would be delighted to pay for. Deleting it seemed like a good idea, carrying out the trash. Unfortunately, I didn't know that that account was what gave me access to the Play Store. But all is well now. I have long had another Gmail account that I do actually use, so I used Google's mail app to log into it, et voilà! Play store is working again.

And I found a place in Settings > Apps where installed apps are listed, including delete options for a lot of them, including most of the noisome new apps that something installed this morning. (I still don't know how or why that happened.) I still have problems with moving the icons for some apps to a different page or elsewhere, and lots of other smaller issues, but my frustration level is now tolerable.

Not had that problem myself with moving icons around to anywhere I like using the stock One UI (3.1) launcher. Maybe try an alternative launcher, like Nova? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details/?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher

As for root, right now I'm willing to let it go. But I'd do it in a minute if it wasn't so scary. Maybe someday I'll be able to buy a blank phone where I can install a real free, open source operating system.

I have read on AF, that possibly Google's Pixel phones are most suitable for rooting and custom ROM support. Others may know more details. As I said the last phone I rooted was in 2015, however if I ever did want to play around with rooted devices and custom ROMs, I have a spare Galaxy S7 with Exynos, that originally came from the UK.