Last Updated on July 17, 2022 by Mathew Diekhake

While we have seen some apps attempt to offer people the unique chance to keep root access after rooting and then applying software updates, most people do not bother with them because they require significant learning coupled with risk factors. Most of those tools available which can sometimes be worthwhile and reliable are only available for some devices and not all devices. There isn’t much hassle in rooting the Android operating system the traditional way by using a guide like this and just updating your device by downloading the firmware file from a reliable source like the Sam Mobile website and then flashing it using the Odin flashing tool.

What the Odin flashing tool offers with being able to update to new firmware builds manually, and the ability to flash rooting files and custom recovery files with ease is much of the appeal about covering Samsung smartphones and tablets for me. I own a Samsung myself not necessarily because I liked the brand better than the others, but a combination of the looks of the device and the Odin flashing tool for meeting my every need.

Samsung Galaxy S6

So while we always try to give people an unbiased view on what is out there for people to use, we still recommend going to the effort of spending a few minutes to download the latest firmware file that you would like to update to manually and flashing it with the Odin flashing tool. Then, so long as you have your correct firmware, use the appropriate CF-Auto-Root tool to root it and the proper custom recovery image available to install a custom recovery and pick up where you left off. The use of apps—while intriguing, to say the least—is still a risk you should not bother taking. It is near impossible not to believe that the use of apps is not just there for the app owner to create some revenue. Of course, you could easily argue that for me as well as I am directing you to use these traditional how-to guide, but if you brick your device because you did not know the app was not for you, then you will be sorry.

Once you have rooted the Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone, you can head over to the Google Play Store and start installing your root apps that you wanted to install. Some of these apps can handle things like taking NANDroid Backups by themselves, so there is no need to install a custom recovery image on your Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone just for the sake of being able to take NANDroid backups. The NANDroid feature that is coming from your custom recovery image should be reserved for people who need to wipe data and factory reset before applying a new custom ROM–the main reason as to why the custom recovery was invented in the first place.

The rooting tool in this guide was developed based on the MMB29K.G920W8VLU3CPC5 firmware by Chainfire. Just because he has based the rooting tool from that guide does not mean that you need to be running that same firmware build on your smartphones. It just means you can use it as an indicator should you need it in the future. The developer states that some of the older Samsung smartphones will not boot old images, and that is why he includes the build number for you to see.

Files You Need

  • Download the new CF-Auto-Root tool for the Galaxy S6 with the SM-G920W8 model number when it is running on the Android 6.0.1 software updates from here.
  • Download the Samsung USB Drivers directly to the Windows computer from here.

The following guide is made for the Bell Canada Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone that comes with the SM-G920W8 model number when it is running on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software updates.

You must have a computer that is running a version of the Windows operating system before you can use this guide that makes use of the Odin flashing tool. The Odin flashing tool is only done for the Windows operating system so attempting to flash it on another operating system will not work.

You can only follow this guide if you have the SM-G920W8 model numbered variants of the Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone–which we now know is for Bell Canada subscribers.
There will be some Android OTA updates and firmware files that become available for your Bell Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone in the future that can update it to newer versions of Android apart from the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update that is running now. When that happens, the updates can bring new bootloaders with them, and those new bootloaders present a problem for the CF-Auto-Root tool in the sense that Chainfire–the developer of the CF-Auto-Root tool–needs to update the rooting files, so they start working again. To get that done fast as possible, people submit the new recovery image files to the CF-Auto-Root thread at the XDA-Developers forum so that Chainfire can see the messages. Chainfire will then use the information you have left for the model number along with the recovery image to update the rooting files with the necessary updates on his end, so they start working again. Those updates that Chainfire applies to the files will be automatically reflected in our guides, so you never have to worry about whether we are showing you the latest editions or not.

Rooting the Bell Samsung Galaxy S6 SM-G920W8 running on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software updates

  1. Unlock the Developer Options menu on your Bell Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone so you can get access to it and turn on your USB Debugging Mode from the settings available.
  2. Enable the USB Debugging Mode from the Developer Options menu that you just unlocked on your Android operating system.
  3. Extract the Bell S6’s rooting package to the desktop of the computer so you can see the rooting exploit and the flashing tool on the desktop.
  4. Run the Samsung USB Drivers on the computer so your smartphone can be detected by the flashing tool otherwise it will not work.
  5. Double-click the Odin executable file on the desktop and run the Odin flashing tool, so the user interface is open.
  6. Turn off the Bell Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone and reboot it by holding the hardware button combination for the download mode and then connect it to the computer with the USB cable.
  7. Check that you can see the “added” message coming from the Odin user interface and that the ID: COM is lighting up yellow or blue which is letting you know that your phone is detected, and the drivers are working.
  8. Do not make any changes from the default settings that you can see from your Odin user interface or else you might cause some problems.
  9. Click the Start button and your S6 phone will get rooted.
  10. Look at the display of the Bell Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone and wait until you can see it saying that you have a phone that is getting the SuperSU installed, cleaning up the cache partition and then reflashing the stock recovery.
  11. Once your phone has taken care of those things, check that the Odin user interface is stating that your device has passed by giving you a pass message inside a green box.

In conclusion, that is how to root the Bell Canada Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone when you have it up and running on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow updates. The rooting tool should work for all versions of the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow updates that are applied to your Bell Canada smartphone unless it needs to have the new recovery image installed as explained in the files section above. All you need to do now is install one of the many root checker apps that you will find from the Google Play Store and other various app stores around the world. You will find a free version of the root checker app that is available for you to install that will offer you everything that you need to check that your phone is correctly rooted. The root checker app varies rarely tells lies, so if it is saying your device is not rooted, you might be best doing some troubleshooting to find out why that is. There can be times when your Odin flashing app gives you the pass message but your device does not have the SuperSU correctly installed and as such as the root checker app will say that it does not have the root access you wanted.

One of the things you can do with your Bell S6 phone if you are struggling to get the SuperSU working is to try manually rebooting the phone into the recovery mode. Part of the way the CF-Auto-Root tool works is that automatically gets into the recovery mode in the closing stages of the rooting procedure. However, even Chainfire admits that people who do not get it into the recovery mode will need to boot it manually to recovery mode instead for it to work.

Once we have established that the device is getting into the recovery mode, and it is still not rooted, you should try the same steps but use another version of the flashing tool. Typically speaking, when we say different versions of the flash tool we are talking about one of the other numbered versions of the flash too Since this is the Galaxy S6 we are talking about, the version you get packaged is the latest version available–Odin 3.10. However, Odin comes in many numbered versions and it the 3.10 doesn’t work, try using the others versions like the Odin 3.07 and the Odin 3.09. One of the versions will eventually work.