Basic Android rooting question...

[corwin]

I know this is probably well understood by most but I've never done it and have a simple question...when you root an Android phone do you have to basically wipe it or do you get to keep all the currently installed apps? Long story short I am looking at installing Mobile Spy for a concerned parent and in order for the social media monitoring to work it has to be rooted, needless to say they don't want the kid to know it was done so if it wipes the phone that would be a dead giveaway...

 

[vshah]

there is sometimes a way to root the phone without wiping the phone. it depends on the phone.

on some phones, root requires an unlocked bootloader, and the process of unlocking the bootloader wipes the phone.

what phone are you using?

 

[corwin]

what phone are you using?

Verizon Droid RAZR XT912, not sure what OS version but it's a couple years old, thinking it's ICS

 

[Zaap]

See if there's an xda-developers forum for that exact carrier model of your phone and if so start reading up on the root methods. Read read read and see I there are any easily avoided pitfalls before you jump in and try a root method. Because its a Verizon phone, its likely that it matters a lot that you use a method specific to your exact phone and OS version, not some more generic method. Its been my experience that Verizon phones need a specific root method by model.

I've personally never had to wipe a phone just to root it. (To ROM it, of course).

 

[corwin]

See if there's an xda-developers forum for that exact carrier model of your phone and if so start reading up on the root methods. Read read read and see I there are any easily avoided pitfalls before you jump in and try a root method. Because its a Verizon phone, its likely that it matters a lot that you use a method specific to your exact phone and OS version, not some more generic method. Its been my experience that Verizon phones need a specific root method by model.

I've personally never had to wipe a phone just to root it. (To ROM it, of course).

Thanks...found a root utility for the Verizon XT912 that I'm downloading now...so long as it's JB and not ICS