ASUS is apparently killing the ability to root present and future Zenfone, Updated

SeaJ@lemm.ee to Technology@lemmy.world – 584 points –
ASUS is apparently killing the ability to root present and future Zenfones
androidauthority.com

Update from Asus

The service team reply misunderstood the situation. Unlock tool is unavailable at this moment but we are allowing the possibility to unlock, please stay tuned.

**TL;DR

  • ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.
  • As per the company’s technical support team, Zenfone 10 and Zenfone 9 users won’t be able to root their phones.
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Tbh, it has been years since I last rooted a phone. There is hardly any reason left to do it tbh.

Plenty of reasons.

  • System wide adblock
  • Advanced permission management
  • Backups and exports of system apps
  • Full uninstall of bloatware (instead of mere hiding them with adb)
  • Enabling screenshots system-wide

And a bunch of other stuff I need in order to have a fully functioning device.

  • Advanced permission management
  • Backups and exports of system apps

Two things previously possible in stock android (via appops & adb backups), but no longer possible to any realistic extent (particularly ADB backups, as most devs disable this for their apps). These are the main factors for me rooting personally

It doesn't remove them, it uninstalls the app from the current user profile, but they persist on system level. That's what I meant with the comment in brackets.

It's the best you can do if rooting is not an option, but I prefer a full removal.

Ah, I see. Would the app still run and consume resources? Or is it just sitting in whatever is a phone's equivalent of a hard disc?

It would just sit there and be dormant.

Yes there is.

If you want a cfw, which you do because your phone either comes with 2 years of updates or has touchwiz.

If you run cfw you NEED safetynet. Even the witzair app crashes without it. If you cfw and need safetynet, you have to have magisk. Magisk needs root for the safetynetfix.

I have been using an old samsung tablet with lineage os (android 12), but the last stock rom was android 6.

So yeah, for me the ability to unlock the boot loader is a must. And that's not even mentioning getting away of spooky-ware I got as a gift a Huawei phone, really good phone but when I tried to search an app using the sistem laucher it fucking asked for a lot of data, fingerprints, etc. I was sorry to this person but I just sold it ASAP since I wasn't able to install a Custom Rom to get away from all that crap.