Last Updated on May 13, 2023 by Mathew Diekhake

For many people who love to customize their mobile devices, Chainfire is a household name and rightfully so. While finding out how to root your Samsung Galaxy J5 smartphone might prove challenging, Chainfire’s combination of the CF-Auto-Root tool and the SuperSU are both used by millions of people and there is nothing in Android rooting that comes close to the popularity of them both.

Most people like to get root access the most traditional way of installing a custom recovery image and then flashing SuperSU from the custom recovery. That was are done using the ClockworkMod Recovery by Koushik Dutta for many years before today, but these days it is Team Win’s TWRP Recovery that is by far the better choice even though many are installing searching for the CWM Recovery name that they have always known. In fact, ClcokworkMod Recovery is not even being developed at all anymore, and Team Win’s custom recovery is thriving. It is by far the better choice.

The reason people are choosing to flash the SuperSU from the custom recovery is because it makes them feel as though they have worked to get the root access themselves instead of letting a one-click rooting tool achieve this for them, but there is more to meets the eye with something like Chainfire’s CF-Auto-Root—which you should probably have expected since Chainfire himself redevelops it.

Those who are installing the CF-Auto-Root tool are not just doing it because they want to get root access fast bur rather because they do not want a custom recovery image installed on the smartphone. A custom recovery image helps with installing custom ROMs, taking NANDroid backups and installing custom kernels, but there is no reason t have a custom recovery installed if all you are doing is installing root applications.

Notes:

  • Chainfire had the MMB29M.J500HXXU1BPG8 firmware build number running on the Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J500H smartphone when he created the rooting file that is found in this guide. It does not suggest you need the same firmware flashed on your smartphone before you begin this rooting process. He gives that information for when it becomes relevant as an indicator only.
  • There is an official CF-Auto-Root tool thread set up over at the XDA-Developers web forum and Chainfire can see the messages that people post there. You can send in new requests for rooting files for devices that don’t have them yet, and you can also let him know when a file needs updating. If your device is not booting after flashing the rooting file then, it needs updating. You need to send the recovery image from the new firmware to him in a message and post it on the thread for him to see. He then uses that file to update the rooting tool so that it starts working again. These cases are very rare in our guides because we only base our rooting methods in particular software versions and the new bootloaders that cause the issues usually only come in new software versions of Android.
  • You need to have the Samsung Galaxy J5 smartphone that comes with the SM-J500H model number to flash the version of the CF-Auto-Root tool found in this guide. The CF-Auto-Root tool is made in many different versions, each made for a unique model number for a device. Flashing the wrong file on the wrong model number often bricks the device, and it takes a flashing of the stock ROM to unbrick it again. You can find those ROMs from the Sam Mobile website if you ever need them.
  • The CF-Auto-Root tool is an Odin-flashable file and the Odin flashing tool only works on Windows operating systems. In other words, it does not run without assistance on Mac or Linux computers, so you need to be running on a version of Windows to use this guide.

Download Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J500H CF-Auto-Root and Drivers

How to Root Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J500H on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow Using CF-Auto-Root

  1. Unlock the Developer Options menu for the Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J500H smartphone so you can turn the USB Debugging Mode on inside it.
  2. Enable the USB Debugging Mode on the Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J500H smartphone, so the Android software that is running on your device allows you to make the necessary changes to it for the rooting to work.
  3. Install the Samsung USB Drivers on the computer so that the Samsung Galaxy J5 smartphone can get detected by the flashing tool when you have it running.
  4. Extract the CF-Auto-Root tool to the Downloads folder and the Odin flashing tool executable file and the rooting files both become available.
  5. Boot the Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J500H smartphone into the Download Mode and then connect it to the computer with the USB cable.
  6. Run the Odin flashing tool app that is inside the Downloads folder and the flashing tool user interfaces opens.
  7. Check that Odin shows a blue or yellow ID: COM box and the added message is showing up in the Log box or else it means your Samsung USB Drivers are not yet working.
  8. Click the AP button and browse through to the Downloads folder and click on the MD5 rooting file to upload it to Odin.
  9. Don’t make any changes to the default settings that Odin has from its Options tab.
  10. Click on the Start button that is available in Odin, and the rooting of the Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J500H smartphone begins.
  11. Read the information that is now rolling down the screen of the Samsung Galaxy J5 phone which is there to fill you in on what is happening and what to expect throughout the rooting process.
  12. Wait for the Odin app on the computer to show a pass message inside a green box.

In conclusion, that is how to root Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J500H smartphones running on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software updates by flashing Chainfire’s systemless root version of the CF-Auto-Root tool. The systemless root version of this tool gets its name because it no longer runs through the system partition. About the only thing that you will notice that is different is that you can now take a hard reset to unroot. All of the same root applications are still out there for you to use as soon as the smartphone reboots back into the normal mode.

You can often overhear people talking about why they want to root Android, but only a handful of those reasons are related to rooting itself. Anything that is to do with a custom ROM does not require root access at all. Similarly, a custom kernel doesn’t need a rooted device either. There are root apps that can help with things like custom ROM such as the ROM Manager app, but the act of installing a custom ROM in itself does not require you to be rooted beforehand. That said, there is a great deal of things you can do when the Android operating system is rooted, you just need to find out what they entail. You can do that by checking out our other article that goes into great detail about the sorts of things that people are doing with the rooted Android operating system.

Once you start learning more about rooting Android, it won’t be long before you have found out that just about everything you do is by installing applications. Even to remove the system apps that are acting as bloatware to you now on the operating system need to be removed by installing an app to help you do that first. The only thing is that most of the root apps are available from the Google Play Store but the Google Play Store doesn’t promote the root apps that allows you to see which ones you might want to try. You need to get stuck into that research yourself instead. You can start by checking out our guide that goes into great detail about what some of the best root applications for Android are and how to install them. It will help you understand the app names that do the things that you wanted to do thanks to the helpful description available with the download links.

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