Last Updated on May 13, 2023 by Mathew Diekhake

You might hear the occasional person say that rooting the Android operating system is no longer necessary because most of the features are built into the Android stock ROM now anyhow. Those myths are vastly overstated, and there are still oodles of reasons why millions of people right around the world are choosing to root the Android operating system that is running on devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone. It’s not likely that there will never be any reason to root the Android OS because there are complications with rooting. You have to remember that there is a reason why Google choose to give you a device that is not rooted, and they had to do work to make it that way. The Android operating system naturally gives you the chance to become the root user as soon as you start using it, but there are security reasons for why Android developers decided to block that off. It doesn’t make sense for everyone in the world to be a root user, but it does make plenty of sense to allow the millions of people who understand what they are doing to choose to become the root user if they wish.

One of the reasons why rooting will never be acceptable when you first buy the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone off from the shelf is because the manufacture and phone carrier networks will never want to make it easy for you to remove the systems applications that they put on the device. And if a day does come where they decide to be so friendly, it’s unlikely that they will ever want you to have the chance to replace the stock ROM for a custom version. True, there is smartphone being sold out there today which offer the like of the CyanogenMod custom ROM as stock, but these cases are rare. We’ve seen OnePlus do it; YU do it, and even one of my favorite personal smartphone manufacturers from out of the United Kingdom in WileyFox do it. However, it would be surprised to see the largest manufacturers and phone carrier networks in the world wanting that because they usually make additional money from the system apps that are running on the devices after you buy them.

Nevertheless, just because these brands do not want you, for the most part, removing their system apps, doesn’t mean that you cannot do it. We know that it is easily done once you are the root user on the Android operating system. There are a few apps you can install which make it easy to remove system apps for good, and there is no other way to remove system apps. There are ways you can freeze them from the Android operating system options, but you can’t freeze all of them, and you cannot uninstall any of them. The reason you cannot uninstall them isn’t a coincidence either. It happens because they installed the system apps so that they were deeply embedded into the system partition which is a place that you cannot get to unless you are a root user. You might know the name system partition already of you know rooting the Android operating system because the system partition is where the old versions of the CF-Auto-Root tool before Lollipop used to have to get into for it to install the different recovery which would then install and enabled the SuperSU before reflashing the stock recovery again and leaving your device back the same way it was with the added inclusion of the SuperSU being available from the app drawer. Note that getting the SuperSU installed on your smartphone or tablet from the CF-Auto-Root tool is not the same as getting it installed after just downloading it from the Google Play Store. The app is installed when you downloaded it from the Google Play Store but it is not yet properly enabled, and that is why when you downloaded it normally you don’t yet have a rooted device.

Notes:

  • Chainfire was running the MMB29K.N920KKKU2BPAG firmware build number on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 TD-LTE SM-N920K smartphone when he created the CF-Auto-Root package that is available in this guide. You do not have to flash that same firmware build number on your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 before starting the guide here. The guide should work for any versions of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow no matter the firmware build number. All you need to do is make sure you have the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 that has the SM-N920K model number.
  • You must have a computer that is running on a version of the Microsoft Windows operating system to use this guide. The Odin flashing application is how to flash the CF-Auto-Root one-click rooting tool, and it only runs on Windows. You can try running a Microsoft Windows virtual machine on the computer if you only have a Mac or Linux computer.
  • You must have the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 TD-LTE SM-N920K smartphone if you flash the versions of the CF-Auto-Root tool that is available in this guide. Any other model number will get bricked flashing this file. You can find out the model number of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone if you don’t already know by tapping on the Menu > Settings > About Device > Model Number.
  • There are sometimes new bootloaders that arrive in new versions of Android, and they can stop the CF-Auto-Root tool from working. Those cases should not happen very often in our guides because we only give them for an Android version (in this case Android 6.0.1), but just in case the rooting file does stop working Chainfire wants to know about it. You can let him know by leaving a message with the new recovery image file found in the new firmware creating the problems to the official CF-Auto-Root thread made by him over at the XDA-Developers website. He sees the messages and then applies the changes to make the rooting file start working again. The changes will always update real time in our guides because we link directly to Chainfire’s repository.

Files We Need

How to Root Samsung Galaxy Note 5 TD-LTE SM-N920K on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow Using CF-Auto-Root

  1. Log into the Microsoft Windows PC using the Windows administrators account so you can use the flashing tool with the administrator pre=bledges which are required for flashing files.
  2. Unlock the Developer Options menu on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone if it is not unlocked already.
  3. Turn on the USB Debugging Mode from the Developer Options menu that you just unlocked so that you can connect the Note 5 to the computer and it allows for the software to be developed.
  4. Install the Samsung USB Drivers on the PC so the smartphone can connect with the Odin flashing tool which then allows for the flashing to take place.
  5. Extract the rooting file to the desktop of the computer and the Odin flashing app and the CF-Auto=-Root tool are then available on the desktop.
  6. Double-click on the Odin flashing tool executable file so that the flashing tool user interface opens.
  7. Boot the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 SM-N920K into download mode and connect it to the computer with the USB cable after it is in the download mode.
  8. Check the Odin user interface lights up the ID; COM port with a yellow or blue color which is there to let you know that Odin is detecting your device and that the Samsung USB Drivers are working.
  9. Do not make any changes from the Odin flashing tool user interface and all of its buttons or else you might wind up losing data.
  10. Click the AP button from Odin and browse through to the desktop where the rooting file is and select the MD5 file to upload to Odin.
  11. Click the Start button from the Odin app and the rooting begins.
  12. Read the text that starts rolling down the display of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone and the in particular important notices that tell you what to expect.
  13. Check the Odin user interface lights up wit ha green pass message before unplugging from the computer.

In conclusion, that is everything you need to root the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 SM-N920K smartphone when it is running on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software updates by flashing the systemless root versions of the CF-Auto-Root tool. The systemless root versions of Chainfire’s CF-Auto-Root package unroots now every time you apply a factory reset from the recovery mode. That means you do not have to download a stock ROM from the Sam Mobile website anymore.

Rooting the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 smartphone means you now have the extra ability to install the apps that say ‘root required’ in the description and just any root apps in general that are also available from outside of the Google Play Store. The Xposed Framework is an example of a trusted app that most people love to use that are not available from the Google Play Store. There are also many apps available from Google Play that run now like the Titanium backup app. For a longer list of root applications, you all can install try checking out our list of the best root applications of the Android operating system. You need to learn some names before you browse for them because Google Play does not have a dedicated area that is devoted to rooting apps.