Phone warranty lost due to "adb root" command on unrooted phone

[pandaehmon]

Hello,
Though I am very far from being an Android expert, i still wanted to learn to create an app by myself over an year ago (on an LG Q7 phone).
All was good with the resulted app and the concepts i have learned, but somehow i managed to lose my warranty for the LG Q7 phone.

Lg are claiming that it was lost due to a "adb root" command that was executed at that time. It is true that i have used usb debugging for fast deployment and that i dont remember perfectly everything i did, however my phone surely wasn't rooted (i use banking apps daily). Isn't using this command on a phone that isn't rooted equal to nothing, like this screenshot suggests?

In your opinion is this an abuse from LG or it is completely my fault?
Thank you very much!

 

[ocnbrze]

Not sure how they could tell. Lg does not have anything like Knox on Samsung. Never heard of adb water marking a phone as rooted before...... Are you sure the phone is not rooted?

 

[pandaehmon]

Not sure how they could tell. Lg does not have anything like Knox on Samsung. Never heard of adb water marking a phone as rooted before...... Are you sure the phone is not rooted?

I have never had a reason to root a phone in my life, ever.
And from what i've read in the last couple of days, it is impossible to root a phone just by mistake as it's not a basic 1 minute process, right? Also, never lost access to banking apps, or had to do something special to get that access back.

Down below is the screenshot of what the authorised LG Service to which the phone was sent to has given me as a reason not to fix the phone. It seems like LG has some Global Service Software that can tell if a IMEI should have it's warranty voided due to commands used on phone. So yeah, they track stuff like these also. In my case, it seems to be a false positive, if that command couldn't have affected the phone in any way and i was just a mobile newbie trying to learn to make an android app.

 

[ocnbrze]

well you can run root checker on your phone just to be sure as well as provide proof that your phone is not rooted. i would definitely talk to somebody from LG about this.

in order to run adb root, your phone would need to be rooted.

 

[pandaehmon]

well you can run root checker on your phone just to be sure as well as provide proof that your phone is not rooted. i would definitely talk to somebody from LG about this.

in order to run adb root, your phone would need to be rooted.

The authorised LG service didn't want to do anything else after that general LG service website said a "adb root" command was executed by my IMEI and it shouldn't have a warranty anymore. Someone else also suggested inspecting the bootloader, but it was too late.

Today, I sent a very clear an argumentated email to LG support and they simply replied with: "We talked with the service and stand by their decision".
Hopefully they will understand with my recently sent second email that the problem is with what that website concludes regarding the warranty, not the service that follows it blindly.

Logically, I'm thinking that if i am wrong, then there needs to be someone employed at LG able to tell me what my error of judgement is, right?

 

[ocnbrze]

they should......but you should double check and see what Root Checker says as well as SuperUser. if they come back that the phone is not rooted or does not have root access, then you have more proof that the phone was never rooted.

 

[pandaehmon]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not an expert, but aren't people able to hide that a phone was rooted? If so, LG might say, "yeah you're phone isn't rooted but who knows what happened in the past".

 

[ocnbrze]

It depends on how the phone was rooted. I have not rooted an LG phone so I'm no expert on it. But there are a few ways phones can be rooted generally. The main ways are either from SU (SuperUser) or from Magisk which does not touch the system partitions. Magisk will allow certain apps like banking to work despite being rooted. SU will not work with banking apps.

So with Magisk..... there's a possiblity. With SU no you can't hide it. You can use any root checker and you will know about SU or not.

 

[pandaehmon]

Thanks for the info. I will do more research for rooting on LG phones.

Update is that LG customer support was totally indifferent to my complaint and said that i cant challenge the automated software decision, neither do i deserve an explanation for my arguments. This means i'm contacting the consumer protection authorities.

 

[mikedt]

I have never had a reason to root a phone in my life, ever.
And from what i've read in the last couple of days, it is impossible to root a phone just by mistake as it's not a basic 1 minute process, right? Also, never lost access to banking apps, or had to do something special to get that access back.

Down below is the screenshot of what the authorised LG Service to which the phone was sent to has given me as a reason not to fix the phone. It seems like LG has some Global Service Software that can tell if a IMEI should have it's warranty voided due to commands used on phone. So yeah, they track stuff like these also. In my case, it seems to be a false positive, if that command couldn't have affected the phone in any way and i was just a mobile newbie trying to learn to make an android app.

View attachment 157277

FYI it used to be possible to root a device like that, prior to Android 6 I believe. Someone only had to install and run a malicious app, and the device could be pwned. Also things like Kingroot could do the same. Of course the LG Q7 that came with Android 8.1 isn't one of those.

 

[pandaehmon]

FYI it used to be possible to root a device like that, prior to Android 6 I believe. Someone only had to install and run a malicious app, and the device could be pwned. Also things like Kingroot could do the same. Of course the LG Q7 that came with Android 8.1 isn't one of those.

That's interesting and good to know. Thanks

 

[ocnbrze]

Thanks for the info. I will do more research for rooting on LG phones.

Update is that LG customer support was totally indifferent to my complaint and said that i cant challenge the automated software decision, neither do i deserve an explanation for my arguments. This means i'm contacting the consumer protection authorities.

just curious have you tried running root checker?

 

[pandaehmon]

just curious have you tried running root checker?

Not yet. The phone is still in the process of being delivered back to my home from service.

 

[Unforgiven]

Unfortunately with LG exiting the market, it sounds like their warranty service is already checking out.

 

[pandaehmon]

Unfortunately with LG exiting the market, it sounds like their warranty service is already checking out.

LG exiting the market actually motivated me to send the LG Q7 phone, that i was already using only as backup in case my other phone broke, to a service for some ocasional sd card reading problems. Little did i know what was going to happen

 

[pandaehmon]

This is for the root checker request, as i finally got my adventurous phone back today

 

[puppykickr]

If the only reason you sent the phone back was for 'SD card reading problems', then why not try a new SD card first?