Why is rooting relatively difficult/manual-labour intensive?
I assume phone-sellers would like to
- keep collecting data (for themselves or others)
- and keep the users safe.
- Be sure that warranty calls are not activated due to damaging homebrewn software.
So I assume that is why most manufacturers make it quite difficult to root an Android phone. Based on my experience, the following steps are required for rooting most Android phones:
- Enable developer mode.
- (Allow unlocking oem/bootloader)
- Enable ADB
- Find a TWRP/bootloader that works for that specific phone
- Use some leaked/hacked tool like ODIN (for Samsung) to push that TWRP/bootloader over the existing recovery mode, whilst rooting the device.
- Or an open source tool like Heimdall.
- Or using some rooting app, which I assume use some security exploit in the factory-default phone/OS.
Because if the issue were merely point 2 and 3, decent support for rooting may be provided with a simple prompt asking the user: "Are you sure? Are you really really sure?"
I think there is quite some consumer value to be reached in rooting phones automatically, so I would like to better understand how this ecosystem works, and what the perspectives of the manufacturers are on rooting.
fastboot oem unlock
process so they can track which device was ever unlocked.