Many people take a lot of time to get their phone running exactly as they want it to do. They remove the things that they either don’t want or that cause them problems by slowing down their hardware, and they find the perfect games and apps that run well on their phone. Everything works great, until it’s time to update the system software. Suddenly they find that their beloved apps are no longer installed, and a number of others are. Why is this?
It takes time to customize your phone. Downloading and installing the apps, and changing all other settings to your liking is something that you don’t want to do more than once. So when your cellular provider releases an update for the operating system on your phone, and it resets your phone to the factory default (as is often the case) it can be somewhat upsetting.
More frustrating for some people is that the new software may come with a number of annoying apps that you don’t want, and that run in the background, slowing down your phone. The biggest problem is that they cannot be removed-they are there permanently. These are sponsored apps for the cell phone provider.
When you are stuck with a number of apps that cannot be removed through the normal process, they can be uninstalled by removed the phone. This process is automated with many of the phone models, thanks to the hard work of of amateur coders. Once rooted there are apps that will allow you complete access to all of the files on your phone, including file managers and command line emulators that allow you to delete files at will (including system files that may permanently break your phone).
The problem is that rooting your phone almost always invalidates the phone’s warranty, and tends to be against the terms of service of the majority of cell phone providers. For this reason it is inadvisable to do so, no matter how tempting the benefits may be.
There can be other problems when installing operating system updates. Although the software is tested extensively before release, there may be problems. Users may lose their phone contacts, alarm clocks may fail to operate and other niggly problems may arise.
Given the problems that may be associated with installing operating system updates, you may wonder whether it is worth taking the risk of installing them at all. But choosing to not install them can cause even more problems or may rob you of useful, new features.
When an operating system is first released it tends to not include all of the features that the phone is capable of supporting. These are instead released over time with operating system updates, as and when they are able to be incorporated. Only by keeping on top of new updates will you be able to take advantage of all new features.
Perhaps more importantly there may be security problems with the system that are only fixed with these software updates. Patches are released periodically to fix known problems, and this means that you will have to weigh up the annoyance of dealing with unwanted software, and sometimes reinstalling your chosen apps again, against the far greater risks of a security flaw that may give someone unauthorized access to your phone.