Rooting the Android operating system on your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone is going to open up new avenues that you have not had until now. There is nothing childish or naughty about rooting an operating system. Rooting is the term we know and use to describe using a device with full privilege control or what people who use other operating systems like Windows and Mac might know already as administrator permissions. When we use a computer that is running Windows and Mac we need to have administrator permissions to do things. Most of us have come across a time where our computers have asked us to sign into an administrators account because it will not do what you want it to do unless it knows you are the one who should have master control.
With our smartphones, there is no such thing as having master control when we first buy them because Google and Android had no choice but to take it away. The biggest threat to people when using a smartphone malware hiding in-app found on the Google Play Store and other sources online. It is incredibly difficult to stop malware before it enters these App Stores to the point where Google in a way just threw in the towel. That does not mean you should be fearful of malware being everywhere because it is not. Most people will head to the app stores and download the apps they already know the names of because they have heard about them before and they will install it, and everything will be okay. However, for a small percentage of people, there will be times when they decide to click on apps that are not legitimate apps, and they can easily be deceiving because that is what they are designed to do.
The reason we do not hear about malware as much from a mobile phone in comparison to our desktops is that we have a way to isolate the malware so that even if it does get on your phone it cannot go anywhere. You do not even have to worry about it because this is the state your device comes in when you open it out of the box. However, the downside to having an OS that automatically isolates apps is that you are not using it will administer permissions. You do not have full control, and that means some people out there will not be able to do what they wanted to do. For all those people there is a choice to be made.
The options you have is to either keep the device with the same security and give up on whatever it is that you were hoping to do, or unlock the operating system by following a rooting guide like we have here. The downside with rooting your operating system is that it no longer isolates malware if you happen to install it which is the main reason why people say rooting is reserved for the experienced Android users among you.
The CF-Auto-Root package in this guide for the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone is based on the MMB29K.G925LKLU3DPB2 firmware build number. That means Chainfire created the rooting package for this device on that same MMB29K.G925LKLU3DPB2 firmware. It does not say that you need to flash that firmware and run it on your phone before you use this guide, however. Chainfire just reveals the build number that his roots are based on so you can see the rough date of when it was created. The reason he does that is that some Samsung devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone will not boot old images.
Files You Need
- Download the newer version of the CF-Auto-Root package made for the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge phone with the SM-G925L model number that works on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software updates from here.
- Download the Samsung USB Drivers from here.
The CF-Auto-Root package in this guide is made for the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone that comes with the SM-G925L model number. You cannot use any other model number on your device because it will get bricked. Chainfire develops unique packages for each model number. You can double-check the model number of your Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone by tapping on the Menu > Settings > About Device > Model Number.
The Odin flashing app is made by Samsung developers to work on Windows computers only and will not run on MacOS or Linux based operating systems. Therefore, you need to be running a version of Windows PC to follow this tutorial.
There may be some software updates that roll out over the air the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone that brings new bootloaders with them. Those software updates are usually only the larger software updates that update the files to newer versions of Android. That means it should never be a problem for our guides because we only create our guides for each unique version of the Android operating system such as the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow updates found in this tutorial. Nonetheless, you should know that Chainfire asks for people to submit the new recovery image files to the official CF-Auto-Root tool thread made over at the XDA-Developers website so he can see your messages and use the information to update the rooting files on his end. Once Chainfire makes any changes, they will be automatically reflected in out guides since we link directly back to the Chainfirefire repository.
Rooting the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge SM-G925L smartphone running on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software updates
- Unlock the Developer Options menu on your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone so you can use all of the settings found inside.
- From within your Developer Options menu that you just unlocked, enable the USB Debugging Mode option so you can connect your phone to the computer with the USB cable and use the apps on the computer with your phone connected.
- Run the Samsung USB Drivers on the computer, so your PC has them installed before you start using the flashing tool package.
- Extract the rooting file to the desktop of the computer and you will see the flashing app and the rooting file.
- Double-click the Odin flashing application file that is on the desktop and wait for the flashing tool’s user interface to open.
- Pick up the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone and then hold the Power button down and choose the option from the display that says it will turn the device off completely.
- Connect the Edge smartphone to the computer in download mode with the USB cable that you would usually use to charge the battery.
- Give it some seconds and then check to make sure you can see the blue or yellow ID: COM port coming from the Odin user interface which is letting you know that your phone is connected securely.
- Do not change any of the default settings you get from the Odin user interface.
- Click the AP button found on the Odin user interface and then browse the desktop location for the rooting exploit file that you can quickly identify thanks to the tar.md5 file extension.
- Click the Start button from the Odin user interface and then check out the display of your phone in a few seconds.
- Make sure you can see your phone telling you that it is getting the SuperSU flashed, then cleaning up the cache partition and then flashing the stock recovery.
- Check that you can see a green pass box from the Odin user interface on the computer.
In conclusion, your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge phone with the SM-G925L model number is now rooted. You can disconnect from the computer as soon as you see your phone reboot back into the normal mode.
Anyone waiting to check out whether the smartphone is in fact rooted or not can try to install one of the root checker apps that is available from the Google Play Store. Just download the root checker app and then open it up and follow the on-screen commands which will check whether your handset is rooted or not. Those without a rooted phone can follow a few points to find out why that is; we are rolling through them now after the break.
The first thing you should try if the root checker app gives you a negative response is holding the hardware button combination for the recovery mode once you have completed the flashing during the guide. Chainfire, the developer of the CF-Auto-root package, clearly states that every device needs to is getting into the recovery for the SuperSU to be adequately installed and enabled on the Samsung smartphones. However, it does not matter if your device goes into the recovery mode manually or automatically like Chainfire initially programmed.
You should be aware that there are numerous versions of the Odin flashing tool also, and they all will allow you to flash files for your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone. You can check out our on downloads page to get the other versions of the app—all of which are easily identifiable because the income with unique numbers. The developer of the CF-Auto-Root tool, Chainfire, only gives one version of the app for people to use when he bundles it up in the rooting package. However, there are many reports of one version not working for some people, so they need to try another version and then it works. These cases are known to be completely random, so try another version and see if that helps fix your problem.