Does Rooting Your Android Phone Always Void Your Warranty?

One of the few downsides to rooting your Android device is that you typically void your warranty.

But contrary to what some people believe, your warranty isn’t automatically voided as soon as you root your device – at least not on all phones. Here’s what you need to know about maintaining your warranty during a root:

Rooting Voids your Warranty, But Unrooting Re-Enables It

If you send a manufacturer a rooted phone and ask for warranty coverage, you’re probably going to get rejected.

Fortunately, you can trick many manufacturers into re-enabling your warranty coverage simply by unrooting the device.

Android rooting software like One Click Root not only roots your device in a single click, but it also unroots your device with a single click.

So you can enjoy the benefits of rooted Android as long as you like, and then simply unroot your device and restore factory settings to make it seem like a brand new smartphone.

Samsung KNOX Security Cannot Be Fooled

One of the problems with unrooting your Android device is that Samsung’s KNOX Security app is difficult to fool. That app keeps a flash counter that tracks the full history of your device.

So even if you root and then unroot your Galaxy S4, S5, or S6, Samsung will know and will likely reject your warranty claim. This is a problem Android rooting developers are struggling to solve.

Why Do Android Manufacturers Void your Warranty?

After rooting, your phone is in a compromised state. You can access the root files of your device and perform all sorts of actions that your manufacturer doesn’t want you to perform.

Manufacturers provide warranties to protect users from built-in defects. This warranty assumes you’re using the phone in a controlled environment.

When you root your device, there are simply too many variables for the manufacturer to consider. If they provided warranty coverage for rooted devices, they’d be

Yes, it’s unfortunate that you can’t claim warranty coverage on your rooted Android. But you can see where the manufacturer is coming from.

New Galaxy S6 Rooting Tool May Let You Root Without Voiding your Warranty

A new rooting tool called PingPongRoot has been making headlines over the last few weeks. That independently-developed tool claims to be able to root the Samsung Galaxy S6 without voiding the warranty.

PingPongRoot claims to work by rooting without touching the flash counter. Typically, the flash counter is the tool Samsung uses to check if you rooted or not (which means you can’t simply unroot to re-enable your warranty).

Thanks to the methods outlined in PingPongRoot, you may be able to root your future Android devices without Samsung ever knowing – which means your warranty will be completely intact.