The Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone is what is known as a flagship device which is always going to be one of the best selling devices. Part of the reason people do not mind laying down lots of money to buy an expensive device is that the way phone plans are set out it gives them a chance only to pay for the plan in many instances and the phone itself comes cheaply. That results in many people looking to end up with some of the best hardware that a phone offers and the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphones are one of those that offers excellent hardware.

The problem is that hardware is only one side of the fence with a smartphone and there is much more to using a smartphone that just the hardware alone. In many respects, people know that already and it shows by how many people are installing custom ROMs to update to newer versions of Android when their phone carrier networks and manufacturers put an end to them officially. People love the software side of things too; they love running the latest versions of the Android operating system possible.

You could argue that software also plays a significant role in getting people to decide what they buy, and there is no denying that flagships continue rolling out software updates longer than cheaper handsets—it is part of what makes them appealing.

One of the other things you can do on your Android operating system that is related to the software but isn’t installing software updates themselves is getting root access to it. There is something called the root user account on the Android operating system, and it is always there but taken away from everybody by default. Android does this because they do not like the chances of you installing an app on your device that is malware, and by taking away the apps chance of having root access, they are also taking away the chance of that malware doing any damage. For that reason, a device without root access is bulletproof from malware because even if you do install it, there is nowhere that it can go and nothing it can do.

While that sounds fun to many people who do not know much about technology and want to use a device safely, it is not fun for a great many people because of the consequences of blocking the root access. Think of it this way: you log onto your Windows computer, and you cannot install or uninstall anything you want because Microsoft has taken away the administrators account because it helps make the device more secure. Technically, yes, it has, but it has also just hindered millions of people from what they wanted to do.

When we root the Android operating system that is running on the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphones, we are opening the doors to becoming the root user which is the same thing as the administrator just worded differently using Linux terms since Android is based on the Linux kernel. There is nothing naughty about it apart from the fact that it is now up to you what gets installed and what gets taken away—that includes any of the apps that are currently stuck on your device from the smartphone carrier networks which is why they do not like the idea of you getting root access.

Notes:

  • Chainfire does let everyone know that he had the MMB29M.G900TUVS1GPG2 firmware build number running on the Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900T smartphone when the version of the CF-Auto-Root tool available in this guide was put together. However, just because he tells us that information does not mean that he is suggesting that you need to be running on the same firmware. He just gives the firmware details so you can use it as an indicator.
  • There is an official CF-Auto-Root tool thread that is set up over at the XDA-Developers web forum for people to leave a message there if they want to know anything. It is also a place where people request for devices to be rooted that do not yet have a version of the CF-Auto-Root tool one-click rooting tool made available. Additionally, it is where you can leave a message if you follow a guide on our site and the file is causing your device not to boot after the flashing. That is a sign that a new bootloader is present and the rooting file needs updating. Before he can do that he needs to know about it and he needs the recovery image file from the firmware running on your device, so leave that in the message too.
  • The following guide is only made for the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone that comes with the SM-G900T model number. If you try flashing the version of the CF-Auto-Root tool found in this guide many of the other model numbers the device gets bricked and need the stock ROM flashed before it starts working again.
  • You need to have a computer that is running on a version of the Windows operating system to follow this guide. The one-click rooting tool by Chainfire can only be flashed from the Odin flashing application, and the Odin app is only available to run on a Windows operating system.

Download Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900T CF-Auto-Root and Drivers

How to Root Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900T on Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) Using CF-Auto-Root

  1. Unlock the Developer Options menu on the Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900T smartphone so you can then enter it and make some changes to the developer options available.
  2. Turn on the USB Debugging Mode on the Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900T smartphone so you can start making changes to the Android operating system which is a requirement for the rooting to work.
  3. Extract the rooting file to the Downloads folder on the computer and then run the Odin flashing tool application that is available from the Downloads folder.
  4. Run the Samsung USB Drivers on the computer so that the flashing tool application is the enable to detect your Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone when you do decide to connect it to the computer with the USB cable.
  5. Boot the Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900T smartphone into the Download Mode and then connect it to the computer with the USB cable.
  6. Check that Odin is showing a blue or yellow color coming from the ID: COM port box or else the Samsung USB Drivers are not yet working.
  7. Click on the AP button from the Odin user interface and then select the rooting file that is available in the Downloads folder.
  8. Click on the Start button from the Odin user interface and the rooting of the Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900T smartphone begins.
  9. Read all of the writing that is now rolling down the display of the smartphone because it is about to let you know what to expect and what is happening on your smartphone.
  10. You may unplug from the computer as soon as the Odin flashing tool user interface shows a pass message inside a green box.

In conclusion, that is how to root Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900T smartphones running on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software updates by flashing the CF-Auto-Root tool by Chainfire from the Odin flashing tool a computer that runs on the Windows operating system. The version you just used is the systemless root version that does not follow through the system partition anymore as it installed and enabled the SuperSU. You get the SuperSU on the smartphone just like you would from other versions of the CF-Auto-Root tool; the only difference is the version of the SuperSU is slightly different. It still does everything the other versions did and allows you to run the same amount of root applications that you always wanted to try and were able to run before. One of the few differences you will notice is now when you take a hard reset it unroots the device whereas before it did not.

Related Tutorials