Rooting the Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 means installing custom ROMs, custom kernels and plenty of root-requiring apps from around the web. Installing apps have been usually the main attraction with root, and those same apps can make dramatic differences to your internal system — even increasing the performance of the hardware.

To the contrary, the original Samsung Galaxy Ace arguably has more upside with the custom ROMs. Since the Ace is several years old and one of the more popular devices out there, it has heaps of custom ROMs available. Official software updates have stopped long ago and the only way to update the Samsung Galaxy Ace now is by using the advantages of a custom ROM. A custom ROM is often installed to remove the Samsung stock apps since Samsung is known as bloating a device. In spite of this, a custom ROM can also come with the advantage of updating the Android OS thanks to third-party developers piecing together new features that they have sourced from official builds and given it to your device via a custom ROM.

Samsung Galaxy Ace

Files You Need

  1. Download the universal GB Root tool from this page.
  2. You might be interested in checking out the best custom ROMs for the Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 after you finish the rooting guide.

Rooting the Samsung Galaxy Ace

  1. Download the universal GB rooting exploit to the computer and drag it over to the desktop from its default downloads location. Those using a Windows PC should find that default location is the ‘downloads’ folder.
  2. Connect the Galaxy Ace to the computer using the USB cable.
  3. Copy the universal GB rooting file over to the root of the SD card.
  4. Unplug the Galaxy Ace from the computer and turn it off.
  5. Boot the Galaxy Ace up in recovery mode by pressing the Power and Home buttons together and waiting until you can see the recovery mode option from the Ace’s display.
  6. Use the Volume keys to highlight the “update from SD card” option and browse the SD card for the universal GB rooting package you shifted there earlier.
  7. Follow the prompts on the Ace’s display to flash the universal_gb_root_v25.zip file.
  8. Once you have flashed that GB file, go back to the main recovery menu and highlight the ‘reboot system now’ option.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace smartphone will now reboot back in normal mode, and when it does, you can start installing your root-requiring apps from App Brain and other sources like the Google Play Store. It’s best you go check out some lists of the best apps to install on your rooted Samsung Galaxy Ace device, so you know where to find them and get familiar with great apps. It should also help you avoid any potential malware apps that are hoping you click on them.

You should find that the SuperSU is now available as an application from your Ace’s application drawer. Those of you who do not see the SuperSU should install it from the Google Play Store. The SuperSU is what grants root access to the apps you are installing, or any app that wants root access to your system. It’s impossible for any virus or malware to penetrate this SuperSU by design. However, it largely relies on you not allowing root access to malware manually. Make sure you know the names of the apps you are choosing to install and do not just allow root permissions to any app you have never heard of before.