How To Root Your Android Phone With SuperSU and TWRP

Have you ever been on the Playstore looking for a new app to download, probably to increase battery life or perfomance, after minutes of searching, you come accross one very very perfect app with great reviews and the exact functions you need but then one small problem prevents you from downloading the app. That problem is that the app needs your phone to have Root access before it can work or function....  Rooting has become less necessary over the years, but it’s still useful if you want to run certain types of apps. Here’s the most widely supported method for rooting your device.

What Is Root, Anyway?

Android is based on Linux. On Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems, the root user is equivalent to the Administrator user on Windows. The root user has access to the entire operating system, and can do anything. By default, you don’t have root access to your own Android device, and certain apps won’t function without root access. Like other modern mobile operating systems, Android confines apps to restrictive security sandboxes for security purposes.

The root user account always exists in Android; there’s just no built-in way to access it. “Rooting” is the act of gaining access to this root user account. This is often compared to jailbreaking an iPhone or iPad, but rooting and jailbreaking are fairly different.

Technical aspects aside, root access allows you to do a lot of useful things. With root, you can remove bloatware that came on your phone, run a firewall, enable tethering even if your carrier is blocking it, manually back up your system, and use a variety of other tweaks that require low-level system access.

Apps that require root aren’t hard to find–they’re available in Google Play, but they won’t work until you gain root access. Some apps have features that only work on a rooted device.

You only need to root your phone if you want to run a specific app that requires root access. If you don’t plan on actually doing anything with that root access, don’t bother. You can always root it later if you need to.

Warnings

Android devices don’t come rooted for a reason. In fact, some device manufacturers go out of their way to prevent you from rooting. Here’s why:

• Security: Rooting breaks apps out of Android’s normal security sandbox. Apps could abuse root privileges you’ve granted and snoop on other apps, something which isn’t normally possible. In fact, Google prevents you from using Android Pay on rooted devices for this reason.
• Warranty: Some manufacturers assert that rooting voids your device’s warranty. However, rooting will not actually damage your hardware. In many cases, you can “unroot” your device and manufacturers won’t be able to tell if it’s been rooted.
• Bricking: As usual, you do this at your own risk. Rooting should generally be a very safe process, but you’re on your own here. If you mess something up, you can’t just expect free warranty service to fix it. If you’re worried, do a bit of research first and see if other people report success rooting your device with the tool you’re planning on using.

How to Flash SuperSU to Your Phone and Gain Root Access

Alright, so you’ve unlocked your bootloader, and you’ve installed TWRP. Great! You’re actually almost there. To gain root access, we’re going to use a program called SuperSU, which gives you the ability to grant root access to other apps.

SuperSU is available in the Google Play Store, but that version doesn’t actually give you root access–in fact, you need root access to use it in the first place! Thankfully, SuperSU is also available as a .zip file that we can “flash” with TWRP. Doing so will grant you root access along with the management features of SuperSU’s Android app.

So, to start, head to this link, which will take you to the latest version of SuperSU available for download. Download the .zip file to your computer, plug in your phone with a USB cable, and drag the SuperSU zip to your phone’s internal storage or SD card.

Next, reboot your phone into TWRP recovery. Doing this is a bit different on every phone–for example, you may have to hold the Power and Volume Down buttons simultaneously, then use the volume keys to boot “Recovery Mode”. Google instructions for your specific model to see how it’s done.

Once you’ve done so, you’ll be greeted with the familiar TWRP home screen. Click the Install button.

Head over to where you downloaded the SuperSU.zip file and touch it, then swipe to install. It should take only a few minutes to finish.

Next tap the Wipe Cache/Dalvik button and swipe to confirm

Next tap on Reboot System

NOTE: If TWRP asks you to install SuperSU app, tap on DO NOT Install. It is always better to flash the latest version of SuperSU which we just did.

Let me know in the comments if you want to see a video tutorial.

See Also:

• Systemless Root? What is It