Last Updated on July 18, 2022 by Mathew Diekhake
The SM-G850FQ variant of the Samsung Galaxy Alpha smartphone might not be as popular as some of the others, but it can still run all the same root apps once you unchain the system internals using the guide below. Once you have that mastered, you can instantly install many of the same apps you always hear about like Titanium Backup, Greenify, ROM Toolbox, ROM Manager and the Xposed Framework just to name a few.
While those apps deserve to be at the forefront of many people’s root application lists, there is one thing none of those names do: improve the performance of your device by overclocking. It’s normally not a cheap thing to do when you think about going to install something like the SetCPU application. Either that or go to the effort of installing a custom kernel and a custom recovery. There’s one application that can help you change the way your CPU performs and it does it all for free. That way is by using the CPU Tuner application.
The CPU Tuner app can tweak the way your CPU is set to increase battery life or increase the performance. When you increase the performance you are agreeing to take away from the battery life and vise versa. It pays to take care and research what your hardware can handle before you install the CPU Tuner app on the Samsung Galaxy Alpha smartphone so you do not break it, but it’s a great app for those who are advanced Android users.
Files You Need
- Download the CF-Auto-Root file for the SM-G850FQ version of the Alpha smartphone from here.
- The firmware build ID that Chainfire basis this rooting file off is LRX22G.G850FQJVU2COH3 firmware. Chainfire tells us that you do not need to be running that same firmware on your Samsung Galaxy Alpha smartphone. You just use it as an indicator. The guide should work for any version of Android 5.0.2 Lollipop.
Rooting the Samsung Galaxy Alpha SM-G850FQ running on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop
- Enable the USB Debugging Mode on the Galaxy Alpha so it can connect to the computer.
- Extract the CF-Auto-Root tool to the desktop of the computer and you will find the Odin flashing tool and the rooting file.
- Right-click on the Odin executable and choose to run it as an administrator.
- Do not adjust any of the default settings from your Odin application.
- Turn off the Samsung Galaxy Alpha smartphone by visiting the Power options menu or by long-pressing the Power button instead.
- Reboot the Samsung Galaxy Alpha smartphone in download mode and connect it to the computer in that mode.
- Give it around ten seconds and then look to see if your drivers are working by observing a yellow or blue ID: COM port available from the Odin application. No light means that your device is not picked up properly and you will need to install the universal Windows ADB driver instead.
- Click the AP button once you have your device detected by the flashing application.
- Browse the desktop for the Galaxy Alpha’s rooting file ending in the tar.md5 extension.
- Click the Start button and then wait for the pass message.
- Once you see the green box with the pass message inside, turn your attention to the display of your Galaxy Alpha device.
- Wait until you see it is about to reboot in ten seconds and then watch as your device makes it into recovery mode automatically to complete the rooting process.
In conclusion, that’s how to root the Samsung Galaxy Alpha smartphone with the SM-G850FQ model number running on the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop software updates. Any Alpha handset that does not automatically make it to recovery mode will need to be booted to recovery mode manually after the pass message is displayed.
Those of you still facing problems with getting the rooting file to flash and you are sure that the drivers are working and the device is detected properly can try installing a different version of the Odin flashing application. It comes in a few versions that are popular, namely the Odin 3.07, 3.09 and the 3.10 version.