Rooting is the Android equivalent of jailbreaking, a means of unlocking the operating system so you can install unapproved apps, deleted unwanted bloatware, update the OS, replace the firmware, overclock (or underclock) the processor, customize anything and so on.
Of course, for the average user, this sounds like -- and can be -- a scary process. After all, 'rooting' around in your smartphone's core software might seem like a recipe for disaster. One wrong move and you could end up with bricked handset.
Thankfully, there's a utility that makes rooting a one-click affair: KingoRoot. It's free and it works -- though not with all devices.
KingRoot Application (APK) is a small tool that allows you to Root your Android Device running from Android 2.2 to Android 6.1 in a tap. Here, we have managed to share all versions of KingRoot APK including the latest and the previous releases.
I originally tested Kingo on a Virgin Mobile Supreme and Asus Nexus 7; the process proved quick and easy. More recently, I used it to root a OnePlus One, and this time it was even easier -- because an app did all the work.
However, I couldn't get the utility to work on a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S6. Your mileage may vary, of course, and I definitely recommend checking the compatibility list before proceeding. (Even if your device isn't on it, the utility may work with it.) Here's how to get started.
The app version
The easiest way to use KingoRoot is to install the app version, which literally performs the root process with just one tap.
In fact, the only complicated part is actually getting that app onto your Android device. That's because it's not available in the Google Play Store; instead, you must download the KingoRoot APK and manually install it.
Ideally, you'll just point your device's mobile to the KingoRoot Android page and download it directly. If that doesn't work for some reason, or you're working from your PC, download the APK and email it to yourself as an attachment. Then, on your device, open that e-mail and download that attachment.
To install it, however, you'll need to make sure your device is set to allow apps from unknown sources. In most versions of Android, that goes like this: Head to Settings, tap Security, scroll down to Unknown Sources and toggle the switch to the on position.
Now you can install KingoRoot. Then run the app, tap One Click Root, and cross your fingers. If all goes well, your device should be rooted within about 60 seconds. (On my aforementioned Galaxy S6, the process made it to 90 percent, then the phone crashed and rebooted. Luckily, no harm done.)
The desktop version
Kingo's support pages suggested I might have better luck with the Galaxy S6 if I tried the Windows version of KingoRoot. Here's that process:
Step 1: Download and install KingoRoot for Windows, making sure to leave unchecked the option to 'Install Yahoo powered Chromium browser' and then click Decline to prevent any other adware incursions.
Step 2: Enable USB debugging mode on your phone. If it's running Android 4.0 or 4.1, tap Settings, Developer Options, then tick the box for 'USB debugging.' (You may need to switch 'Developer options' to On before you can do so.) On Android 4.2, tap Settings, About Phone, Developer Options, and then tick USB debugging.' Then tap OK to approve the setting change.
On Android 4.3 and later (including 5.0, though this also applies to some versions of 4.2), tap Settings, About Phone, then scroll down to Build Number. Tap it seven times, at which point you should see the message, 'You are now a developer!'
With that done, tap Settings, About Phone, Developer Options, and then tick USB debugging.' Then tap OK to approve the setting change.
Step 3: Run Android Root on your PC, then connect your phone via its USB sync cable. After a moment, the former should show a connection to the latter. Your device screen may show an 'Allow USB debugging?' pop-up. Tick 'Always allow from this computer,' then tap OK.
Step 4: Click Root, then sit back and wait while the utility does its thing. After a few minutes, my Galaxy S6 got to 70 percent, and then the phone once again crashed and rebooted. Again, your mileage can (and most likely will) vary.
And that's all there is to it. If you decide you want to reverse the process, just run Android Root again, connect your phone, then click Remove Root. (Same goes for the app version, more or less.)
Now, what should you do with your rooted phone? Hit the comments to share your favorite options.
Editor's note: This how-to was originally published on June 10, 2014 and has since been updated to reflect new ways to root your device.
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Rooting the Android operating system is the process of gaining full privilege control and becoming the root user. Having onus of the root user account is the same thing as turning on a computer that runs Windows and logging into the administrator’s account.
You might not know it but when you buy a mobile device that runs Android you don’t have access to the root user account. You are using the equivalent of a Windows account that has set restrictions in place to make it not as compelling as the administrator’s account. For the Android mobile operating system, these set of restrictions prevent you from being able to install many of the apps that are out there and available to install on your device, and they prevent you from being able to remove the existing apps that are running on your device right now.
Google and Android developers never wanted you not to be able to remove the apps that are on the device right now that the manufacturer and the phone carrier networks include. It is swift work from the carriers and manufacturers to embed these apps into the system partition (hence the name system apps) because you cannot access the system partition with the current level of restrictions that non-rooted Android operating systems have. Likewise, Google and Android developers never wanted to stop you from being able to install any of the apps. What they did do was block off any access to the internal system for everything so that malware cannot get access to the root file system. Unfortunately many of the apps available need that same root access before they can run.
Many developers choose to root Android because they need to get root access before they can develop anything. Moreover, millions of people right around the world and choosing to root Android so they can run the thousands of useful apps that they would not otherwise be in a position to run.
Now that you have established the reason for wanting to root the Android OS with a tool like KingRoot let’s briefly run over what KingRoot is and the differences between it and other rooting tools.
KingRoot is a universal one-click rooting tool. We have seen many one-click rooting tools come into fruition, and none of them arrived with the bold statement that KingRoot did (that it would root almost every Android device), but they all do generally make you assume that they will. The reality is that they certainly do not root every Android device and KingRoot would be the one-click rooting tools that root more than any of the others, but it is still a long way away from rooting every Android device. If you aren’t familiar with the term “one-click rooting”, then you might be more familiar with names like Towelroot, WinDroid, PurpkeDrake, Framaroot and Wug’s Toolkit—all of which are one-click rooting tools also.
With rooting Android there are generally two types of rooting methods. One is by installing a one-click rooting tool which doesn’t require an unlocked bootloader or custom recovery, and the other is by unlocking the bootloader, installing a custom recovery and then flashing Chainfire’s SuperSU when your device is booted into the Recovery Mode. People who want to install custom ROMs and custom kernels often prefer rooting with the bootloader unlocked, and a custom recovery flashed because they need those two things for the ROM installation anyhow. Everyone who just want to be installing root apps from Google Play and online like Viper4Android only needs to have root access so they often don’t mind using one-click rooting tool.
KingRoot vs. Magisk vs. SuperSU
The KingRoot tool is perfect for anyone out there looking for a quick and easy way to get root access, but it’s also important to understand that there are some limitations to using it over some other tools available today.
Root access has never been something that Android developers have wanted you to have since technically it can lead to security problems because apps are no longer trapped in their respective sandboxes. That means if you install a malware app, it can move around the operating system easier and read information from other apps.
When Android Pay came along, that extra ability to read other apps data become more impotent because the last thing Android wants to be dealing with is people losing money from hackers.
Android came up with a solution to the problem called “SafetyNet” which stops you from being able to use any application like Android Pay while having root access at the same time. Most tools out there offering root access do not offer a way around this problem, but a couple of them do.
A tool called Magisk allows you to have root access and then toggle it off so you can use Android Pay and then toggle the root access back on again, so you continue with the rooted device after you have finished your Android Pay transactions. There is no way to have root access and use Android Pay the same time so it looks like this type of toggle switch that Magisk provides is the way of the future.
The traditional SuperSU application doesn’t have a way around Android Pay just like KingRoot currently doesn’t either. However, you can install SUHide and pair it with SuperSU so that your root access is temporarily hidden instead of temporarily switched off. Both offer a way to use Android Pay still.
KingRoot doesn’t have anything like that available yet today where you can keep it installed, turn it off or hide it so you can use Android Pay, and then toggle it back on or unhide to again so you can go back to using your device with root access. Android as simple as KingRoot is to use thanks to it being a one-click rooting tool, it’s not really something you want to be going back and installing every day after you’ve made an Android pay transaction.
Download KingRoot APK for Android 7.0 Nougat to Root Android Devices
The KingRoot team has made the KingRoot tool very easy to download and install. But before you can think about doing that, you need to change one of the settings on your Android operating system so that you can install applications from outside of the Google Play Store. The setting is called “Unknown Sources” and unless it’s on you can only install the applications that are available to download from the Google Play Store. Google chooses to do this because they are always looking out for your safety on the Play Store but they have little control over applications from outside of the Google Play Store. As such, you’ll be given a warning when you go to install the KingRoot application and how it’s unsafe to install, but that’s not referring to the KingRoot application itself; it’s just talking about an app that you are installing outside of Google Play. Since we know the KingRoot tool is safe, there is nothing to worry about when you install it. To turn on Unknown Sources, head to the Menu > Settings > Security > Unknown Sources and toggle the switch so that it is now on.
Now that you have the Unknown Sources turned on from the Settings app, nothing is holding you back from getting KingRoot installed. To get started with the KingRoot installation, open up your favorite web browser application—it can be any web browser, so just choose the one on your device that you usually use as your portal t the internet aka that you use to do your web browsing. Next, type “KingRoot.net” into the web browser address bar and then hit the Enter button on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can download the KingRoot APK files from these direct links.
You’ll now see the official KingRoot website loaded on your device’s display. Scroll down just a little bit, and you’ll see the button available for installing the KingRoot APK file. The KingRoot website automatically detects when you visit it from an Android operating system and makes the file accessible. Just tap your finger on the “Download APK for Android” button.
You then get a message thanking you for downloading the KingRoot tool. Tap on the “OK” button available in the bottom right corner of the device’s display.
Swipe down with your finger from the very top of the device’s display so that you pull down the notification shade and then tap on the “Download complete” KingRoot APK file so that it opens up.
Have a quick read of what you see on the device’s display next because it is letting you know all the things that KingRoot wants to have permissions over on your device. You don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing anything other than going back and not continuing with the installation if you aren’t happy with something, but you can at least do that if you see something that you don’t want KingRoot to access. If you are comfortable agreeing to what KingRoot will access, just click on the “Install” button in the bottom right corner of the device’s display and the installation is officially underway.
KingRoot then gives you a message letting you know that it is installing on your device.
It likely won’t go through the first time, and you’ll get a message on the device’s display letting you know that the installation has been locked. Tap on the small arrow next to where it says “More details” so you get to see the extra details.
You should see another link now that says “Install anyway (unsafe)” that you need to tap your finger on now so that the file continues to install. If you don’t do that and you just click on the “OK” button, you go back to square one and would need to tap on the downloaded file from the notification shape again.
The KingRoot application is now installed on your device. All that’s left to do now is open it up and start using it by tapping on the “Open” button that is available in the bottom right corner of the device’s display again.
That is all you need to do to root the Android 7.0 Nougat software updates on your Android mobile device by using the KingRoot one-click rooting tool that can root hundreds if not thousands of devices these days. You can confirm that the guide did the job for you by installing the root checker application also available from the Google Play Store.
The Android operating system never enjoys the fact that you have root access no matter what tool you used to get it with. When you’ve been using the KingRoot tool for a while, you can expect to get the occasional message popping up every so often about how you have the KingRoot tool installed and how it’s unsafe for you to have it. Again, this isn’t a message that’s anything against KingRoot per say. It’s just a message from Android to try to get you to change your mind about having root access. When a device is rooted, it isn’t able to keep apps stuck in their respective sandbox, and that’s why the security technically isn’t what it might have been if you didn’t have a rooted Android operating system. Those message trying to get you to unroot your device will continue in the future as apps like Android Pay involve the use of money and pose a security risk. But apps like Android Pay cannot work when you have a rooted device, regardless of the tool that you used for getting root access. There are tools out there that offer simple ways for you to temporarily disable the root access so you can use Android Pay and then turn the root access back on again after you’ve finished, but there is no way of not tripping SafetyNet and using Android Pay with root access at the same time. Hopefully, the KingRoot tool comes up with a similar solution in the near future where you can toggle a switch like Magisk so you can toggle between having root access and using Android Pay. There are lots of people out there who love KingRoot due to it not requiring a lot of knowledge to use. But for now, there’s nothing to worry about even if you use Android Pay because root access does not affect it other than you not being able to use it.
Now nothing is stopping you from installing all of the apps that would not run on your device before because they needed root access. That means you can choose what is deleted and installed at any time or until you device you would prefer to unroot your device again with the KingUser.
The Google Play Store app that is on your device plays host to most of these root apps we are mentioning, but you need to know the names of the root apps before you can find them because there is no front page in the Play Store available just to showcase the latest root apps like you get to see with the standard apps that run on all devices. We offer support in that area by providing you with at least 60 of what we think are the best root applications for you to install on your Android operating system once you are the root user.
The official KingRoot thread that is posted on the XDA-Developers website suggests for everyone to give the version of the KingRoot tool that is made for Windows PCs a try if you haven’t had any luck with the version that is made for Android. It is the Android version that we have here in the guide above. The Android version is the easiest to install, but the KingRoot developers suggest that it is the Windows operating system version that can have the greater chance of rooting success. To be able to install the Windows version, you should read our other article that goes into detail about how to install KingRoot Android 7.0 Nougat for Windows PCs.
If you have tried using the KingRoot tool and yet it did not seem to work for your device, you might be interested in finding out why that is. There are a few things you can do to enhance your KingRoot experience. And if you need to give up and try other tools, you would be unlucky not to be able to get root access another way. You can check out our article on how to fix KingRoot not working and see how you go with getting it to work or finding out about other tools to assist you in your ultimate quest of becoming the root user of the Android operating system that is running on your device.
Kingroot.net is the official KingRoot website. Beware of imitations, particularly on the Google Play Store, from apps that are labeled ‘KingRoot’ but not made by the real KingRoot team. Those apps likely won’t root your devices and could cause you harm.
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