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On my device, I have a bunch of stock applications. Some of them I don't need. Some of them are outdated. Here's what I want to do:

  1. Root my device.
  2. Uninstall all my unnecessary apps (no changing of roms).
  3. Install the updates that my other stock apps need (like Facebook). Note: I meant I want to overwrite where the older version will be replaced. This is a common problem with stock applications. You can upgrade them but the older version is still around (possibly because of lack of root access), thus eating up unnecessary internal space.
  4. Add some more other apps.
  5. Secure some of the newly added apps so that they are uninstallable when I go back to being unrooted.
  6. Unroot the phone.

As you can probably tell by now, I just want to overall change the applications on my phone. I also want to secure some new applications that I will be installing (e.g. make them act the same as the Facebook app wherein I can't uninstall it unless I have root). I don't want to install another rom, I don't want to overclock or anything. I just want to change the phone apps then return it back to being unrooted and be on my merry way.

Is this possible?

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1 Answer 1

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Absolutely. Well...almost. Just make sure you set the partition from rewritable to read-only once you're "unrooted". However, once you are unrooted, binaries like su and the SuperUser apk will in all probability removed, so you will in effect be dropped to a lower privilege level. This will have the side-effect of having the apps installed in the system partition as being uninstallable.

A workaround is to remove/uninstall apps from the system partition, remove root and then add the apps as user apps - this will ensure that they can be updated in the future without the need for root.

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  • I was also wondering about that. Some of the apps such as Titanium backup, will it work if I install it while I'm rooted then I unroot the phone with it still being installed, will it still function the same way? Or is root really needed by it as well as other apps?
    – Propeller
    Jun 18, 2012 at 6:22
  • @ShedoSurashu. No. I've done it once (by mistake). Titanium asks root permission at every launch. If superuser is not available titanium can't works (or works with very limited features, I don't remember if it closes without root).
    – Axeman
    Jun 18, 2012 at 7:53
  • You haven't mentioned which device you're running, but as an example Siyah Kernel on my S2 can restore/unrestore root with a reboot. Perhaps there's a kernel or an app that can restore/unrestore root access easily for your device.
    – Sparx
    Jun 18, 2012 at 10:51

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