AT&T is now finally rolling out the Android 5.1.1 update to its Note 4 and Note Edge variants. The update is coming as an OTA which means it’ll break root on your device (if you have), like OTAs always do. But there’s more to it.
If you plainly install the Android 5.1.1 OTA update on your AT&T Note 4 or Note Edge, then chances are you’ll never get root access again on your device.
Samsung’s 5.1.1 update requires a custom kernel to get root. And of course, on your bootloader locked AT&T devices, you can’t flash custom kernels. So your only way to get root on 5.1.1 update would be to not install the OTA update for now, and wait until the holy folks over at xda come up with a root safe way to update your Note 4 and Note Edge to 5.1.1.
Also, you can’t downgrade your AT&T Note 4 and Note Edge back to 5.0.2, once you’ve installed the 5.1.1 OTA update. So if you care about root, please make no mistake of installing the OTA update that your phone may have already downloaded for you.
We’ve good faith that knowledgeable folks will soon come up with a root safe way to update your AT&T Note 4 and Note Edge to 5.1.1. But you may have to wait for a few weeks for that.
So until root doesn’t happen for 5.1.1 update, why not just pretend that it never hit your AT&T Note 4 or Note Edge. After all, being on AT&T, not getting a software update isn’t so surprising. Is it?
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