[UNROOT] Unroot any android device

HOW TO UNROOT (ALMOST) ALL ANDROID DEVICES (SIMPLIFIED)

Firstly, in order to unroot your android device, you need:

1) An update available for your phone or an old nandroid backup that has a previous version of your phone android version

2) A nandroid backup done before you attempt the following steps below

Once the above conditions are met, you are ready to UNROOT your phone!

Before you read the procedure, read how it works
below and get a better picture:

HOW

Firstly, one known method of unrooting is to install an available system update. However, stock updates are signed with official keys and custom recoveries only accept updates signed with their custom keys.
So, to unroot, you need to have stock recovery installed. One way to get your phone`s stock recovery back is contained in the update zip.

The update zip is the key, literally. Look through it and you will find (usually in the system folder) a file called recovery.img, which will be used as your new stock recovery.

By flashing in the image into recovery, you can now install updates, keep your previous applications, enjoy being unrooted and updated.

There are other unroot options that tailor to specific android phones and versions, but this solution should work on all android phones.

Why unroot? Because sending in a rooted phone for repair will void your warranty. Also, by having a rooted phone, you run the risk of a rogue rooted application that does unwanted stuff to your phone.

PROCEDURE

Step 1) If you still have your original stock recovery that came with your phone, continue. Else search for my previous thread: "[RECOVERY] Reverting to original(STOCK) recovery" and follow the steps there. You can use the update file you used to revert to stock recovery here as well or vice versa

Step 2) Reboot you phone

Step 3) Check for system updates and download them

Step 4) Wait until phone reboots. All your applications and user settings will be retained.

Step 5a) Open up a terminal emulator on your phone and enter "su" (Check if unroot)

Step 5b) If you cant turn your phone on to check if unrooted, boot into recovery mode, open up adb enter:

Step 6) If you get "permission denied" or something like that from step 5a/5b,
CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR PHONE HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY UNROOTED!

Step 7) If you don`t want to void your warranty, you should unistall applications that require root, especially Superuser

To date, I have rooted and unrooted my phone (Backflip) 3 times without any problems. In case your phone can`t be booted up, only to the bootloader or recovery, DO NOT WORRY! You can use the adb (android debug bridge) to flash in the stock recovery, push/pull the updates and reboot the phone into recovery mode or normal mode!!!

Useful ADB commands

Reboot Phone

Reboot Phone into recovery mode

Flash a new recovery image temporarily (resets when rebooting)

Flash a new recovery image that does not reset when rebooting

Push file to sdcard

Push file to sdcard

Here`s wishing you good luck and a belated happy new year!

The main point

ok, i think you guys dont understand what my point on unrooting is...

What im trying to say is:

Updating your phone software with an original OTA update on the original rom the came with your phone will automatically reset root. However, custom roms and recoveries dont accept OTA updates, so you need to flash back your original recovery first, nevermind if you have a custom rom.

If you don`t meet the requirements, then i`m sorry, you`ll just have to wait for an available system update like me. However if you get one, be sure to come back here if you want to unroot.

Creating a one/two click-unroot application

Actually, you may be right. The unroot procedures can also be carried out by adb alone , not by user interaction. So a desktop application can be created that automates the process

1) Open adb shell
2) Enter su
3) Pull the update zip from the phone
4) Recursive/y search the zip for the file recovery.img
5) Run 'flash_image recovery recovery.img'
6) Run 'adb reboot' to reboot phone
7) Phone will install update on stock update when rebooting complete
8) When update installed, root will be removed and your phone will be updated as well!

We can send keystrokes to the adb for the adb shell.

Different definitions

Sorry people, when i mean ota update, i dont just over-the-air updates, i am referring to original updates for your original android system that came with your phone.

not as easy as it seems

jonathongrigg said:

Can someone please clarify that this would work (as an unroot script):

1. Opens ADB shell
2. Enters su
3. (User) Supply script with stock update.zip - in case it's not on phone (correct if this is unnecessary)
4. recovery.img extracted from update.zip
5. recovery.img flashed to phone via 'flash_image recovery recovery.img'
6. Reboots phone via 'adb reboot'

That installs stock recovery, but what if there was no OTA update to install for that particular device? That's the only problem I can see with such a script, so I'm hesitant to make it right now (besides, I don't have my Nexus with me at the moment, so I couldn't test it).

Dumb question but would flashing a stock update.zip from the stock recovery remove root? Or does it have to be OTA? Never having done it before I'm not sure.

Edit: If it did have to be OTA, maybe you could find the original update.zip (ie. no updates before it) and flash that, so there would be a higher chance of an OTA update?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

You cant make an unroot script that easily. Im halfway working on a .net application that does it on desktop.

Also, almost all great things come with a *catch*. In this case, you need to wait for an ota update to be available. Or if you took a nandroid backup some time back and updated your version, you can revert back to the old verison and update again.

dont know

my phone (Backflip) isnt a very popular phone and there`s only one rom for it. to date, i`be only tried unrooting via stock updating. Stock roms may work too, but im not sure...

adb shell

jonathongrigg said:

Oh well, I didn't realise I figured you could do it all from the command line, so a script of some kind might do. That said I wasn't entirely sure as I couldn't test the theory (no phone )

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

actually, i did mention that the unroot procedure can be done entirely from the adb shell, which is also in command line. im just making a program to enter those lines in automatically. normal batch scripts cant write to the adb shell as it is a separate shell in the command prompt...