So you followed my guide and you went through all the trouble of rooting your Android phone. But now, things just aren’t the same. Things have changed and you just don’t know who your phone is anymore. You lie in bed at night wishing that things could just go back to the way they used to be before the operation.

Good news, they can. Just like tattoos, nothing is permanent. Fortunately, unrooting your phone is a lot less of a hassle than laser tattoo removal.

Everyone’s Different

Unfortunately, this guide won’t be quite as in-depth as the previous rooting guides. Whereas with rooting there are a few key methods that work for a wide variety of phones, when you’re unrooting a phone, the process tends to be slightly unique for each device. However, depending on what model of phone you have, I can certainly point you in the right direction. Keep in mind, this will return to your phone to the state it was in when you first purchased it. Not only will you lose everything, but if you’re on a CDMA provider like Verizon, you’ll even have to re-activate your phone.

Another thing to keep in mind, which I’ve mentioned in the rooting guide, is that tinkering with your phone in a way unintended by the manufacturer could cause some nasty business and may in extreme cases cause you to brick your phone. This isn’t meant to scare you (well, maybe it is), but to inform you of the potential dangers of modifying your device.

HTC Phones

If you own an HTC, like my beloved Droid Incredible, you can flash a stock ROM right from your phone’s bootloader (which should look something like the image above). These ROMs, known as RUUs, are unique to each phone so you’ll have to rely on Google to find the specific file for your phone. Find the RUU, download it, saving the ZIP to your SD card and following any instructions that the download site may have. Once it’s on the card, boot up your phone and HBOOT should automatically flash the stock ROM and you should be good to go.

Motorola Phones

If your phone is of the Motorola variety, you’ll need RSD Lite, which will only run on Windows. For legal purposes, I won’t link to the program here, but a quick Google search should bring up plenty of results. And while you’re there, Google for your phone’s SBF file, which is the original stock ROM. Once you’ve got the program installed and the appropriate SBF file downloaded, it should be as simple as plugging in your phone via USB, opening RSD Lite (possibly as administrator by right-clicking), selecting the SBF file and hitting the start button. Once it’s done, it should reboot your phone and it’s good to go. Apparently the program has been known to give an error message once it hits 99%. If this happens but your phone still restarts, then it worked anyway. If you get the error message and your phone doesn’t restart, then that means it did fail. Just hit the start button again to start the process over.

Samsung Phones

If you’re on a Samsung Galaxy phone, things are a little more complicated. as each Galaxy phone seems to have a different unrooting method. For most you’ll need Odin, another Windows program. Again, for legal reasons, I’m not going to paste a link here, but Google is your friend as always. And you’ll also need your specific phones OPS file, so Google for that too. From there, Unlocker’s YouTube video is a good start. You may want to view it only as a jumping off point, however, as the video is well over a year old and only shows one kind of phone.

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