Does Rooting or Unlocking void your Android Phone Warranty
Does Rooting or Unlocking void your Android Phone Warranty
It is warm you to that you will void your warranty by Android tweaking and hacking. Is it there such a situation, if you have rooted or unlocked your bootloader? Through this article we will concern about the warranty terms provided by the manufacturer and how it enforces in front of the court.
NOTE: In here we focus on, how it works for when rooting your device or unlocking its bootloader. This is not regarding the unlocking of your carrier. The unlocking of your carrier is not to be a reason for void your warranty. Because of, to use on another network, most carriers will unlock your phone. There are two scenarios, which are unlocking carrier and unlocking bootloader.
What does the manufacturer say?
Unapproved software modification will avoid your warranty and it mentions in the fine print. But, these rules are not applicable for Nexus devices or “Developer Edition Devices”, if really spell it out. A Motorola representative incident will provide an example for you.
It is not a developer edition which is the new (2015) Moto Xpure, so it also voids warranty through unlocking the bootloader.
Summary and clarification of the situation:
It shows that avoid the warranty of your device through unlocking the bootloader. But they have to cover your device, if the phone shows no signs of physical abuse such as unrelated physical material failure should occur, like bad volume rocker or failed speaker. The main issue is it cannot be traced to software or abuse. The policies may be differing from country/ region and the above scenario happens in the US.
There are introducing the official way to unlock the bootloader by the manufacturer for most of model. But they still said, it may be a reason for void your warranty, though this kind of customization. With the developer edition device, they are more lenient and designed to hack around with it.
With time, it has been changed the language of the Google Nexus device. The older Nexus device uses the term “yes” for “unlock bootloader” (and avoid your warranty), but new devices use the “Yes” phrasing to indicating “yes, unlock bootloader” (may void your warranty). One of the Reddit users asked from a Google support representative, it’s not void warranty through rooting and installing a Custom ROM on his Nexus 6P. But the answer was, it is only one support representative and officially it is not noticed anywhere.
What actually happens when you need warranty service?
Because manufacturers also nervous about their policy, there is doubt about what happens, if you need a service. The rules are not hard and fast to fix the issues related to hardware without any fuss.
As an example, the problem, which you have, is it related to the screen or your hardware button is not working properly. In such a situation, the manufacturer moves on your problem without any fuss. Original Motorola Droid, such as a problem is a well-known issue. Because of that, that kind of issue can be identifying clearly as hardware issues. And rooting or installing a Custom ROM is not to be a reason for causing that kind of issue.
In other cases, it is not difficult to find out them, if you rooted your device. If your device dies and not won’t boot. In such a situation, we can’t imagine that manufacturer will attempt to perform forensics on and try to find whether your bootloader was unlocked. Then they move to repair your device or replace it under the warranty condition. But it is a little courtesy and long way.
On the other hand, it makes perfect sense manufacturer and cellular carrier, if you purchase your device from a carrier, it is no need to deal with customers, who have rooted their phones or installed a Custom ROM and have gotten themselves into trouble. For such a scenario, AT&T representative of your local, not try to answer why such hardware features do not work under CyanogenMod and it is not necessary to do like it.
If you caused the problem, you are out of luck
However there is no difference between hardware defects and a problem you caused. If they try to boot your device and before it fails to boot and if they see the logo of Custom ROM. Then they have a good opportunity and they will say you are your own. (However you have a chance to fix the device yourself with a bit of research, if you see the Custom ROM logo when you boot the device.)
If you are done rooting and flashing process of Custom ROMs in an improper way, it may arise sort of dangerous. We can indicate, if you flash a Custom ROM in an improper way, it may be erased your wireless radio. Or you did something wrong, it leads not to boot properly. If you wish to take your device to the manufacturer or carrier doesn’t think that they will fix your problem. They will avoid providing the service; they will say that you are on your own. It’s the same scenario such as install the Linux program on your PC which comes with Windows. Manufacturer doesn’t support to solve your problem which arises due to software which you downloaded by yourself.
In a rare case, it can be brick your phone through this kind of tinkering. It cannot completely unbootable. In such a scenario, if you told the manufacturer that you trying to Custom ROM, the manufacturer will avoid fixing your problem. Keep mind that it is rare to bricking your phone. But it may be the least turn off your device. Because of that you have to solve that issue with the right research.
Through this root access, there is a possibility to do some damage to your hardware. As an example, it may be overclocked your device’s processor a little too hard and overheated it. Those kinds of issues are not covered by your warranty condition. Although it covered the accidental damages such as dunking your phone underwater or dropping it face-first on the pavement.
If you need service, unroot your device first
The serious hardware issues such as mention in the above section, if your device also has that kind of issue, you can cover it through warranty by the unrooting process. If you have rooted your device, we are lucky because of the warranty of our device covered although we used rooted or previously run a Custom ROM.
If your device is still mostly working, before sending it for repairing to the manufacturer, make sure to unroot your device and also make sure to restore the original ROM, if your device has Custom ROM and relock the bootloader.
But some devices have a feature called “flash counter”. Through that feature, it becomes a trigger, when you unlocked the bootloader and flash a Custom ROM. When you go to the manufacturer with an issue of your device and if the manufacturer feels this hardware issue arises due to some modification of the device, then the manufacturer can check the flash counter and have an ability to find whether you have done this kind of modification to your device.
But if there is a hardware problem, it can clearly define as the manufacturer’s fault. Specially, if your device is not rooted, unlocked, or running a Custom ROM. In such a scenario, they cannot avoid the warranty.
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