How to Completely Remove Root, SuperUser and Related Files


Getting your Android device rooted with KingoRoot (or any other root tools) surely has its benefits, and yet with risks and consequences as well. One of them is failing to update through OTA. Rooting, in fact, is a process of tampering your Android system, which will lead to OTA update failure. Because when you try to update your system via OTA, it will first check your system and make sure it hasn't been altered at all.

After rooting, what has been added to your Android System?

KingoRoot, along with any other one-click root tools, are all exploit-based. It means that your device is being rooted by them exploit certain system vulnerabilities. After having accessed to your system partition, certain su binary files and superuser app will be placed in it. Normally, they will be placed in:

  • /system/bin : su binary
  • /system/xbin: tmpsu, daemonsu (may not be necessary)
  • /system/sbin: su binary (may not be necessary)
  • /system/app: superuser.apk or the apk of any other management tool

It is not necessarily in all of these directories. It depends on the tool you have used to root your device. So basically, if you want to update your device via OTA, you may need to completely remove the residual files (including all su binary files and superuser apk). Or you just want to have a clean slate.

There are two ways to completely remove root-related files and all.

Remove Root via Kingo Android Root (PC Version)

  • Pro and Con:
    1. Reliable and Thorough: It takes all popular rooting tools into consideration and remove all leftovers of them.
    2. A bit of touble: It requires you to connect your device to computer via USB Cable.
  • How?
  • A summary of steps. For more detailed tutorial, please visit: How to remove root from Android?

    1. Free download Kingo Android Root
    2. Double click desktop icon to launch.
    3. Conenct your device to PC via USB Cable. Have USB Debugging enabled.
    4. Accept any prompt window poped up on your Andorid device.
    5. If KingoRoot detects root permission on your device, it will show both "REMOVE ROOT" and "ROOT AGAIN" buttons.
    6. Click "REMOVE ROOT" and wait a few.
    7. Most of the time, it will succeed in less than a minute with "REMOVE ROOT SUCCEEDED" on the interface.

Remove Root via Kingo SuperUser

There is a "Remove Root" function built in Kingo SuperUser settings menu. If you are using Kingo SuperUser 2.1.1, you will be able to completely remove root and related files. If the version of your Kingo SuperUser is under 2.1.1, you will only be removing/deleting supersuer apk (with su binary and any other su related files left in your system partition) via this function. So if you want to completely remove root by superuser, please do update to the latest version.

  • Pro and Con:
    1. Convenient, easy and fast: No need to connect to PC and all done on your Android.
    2. May have leftovers: Due to technical reasons, sometimes the files may not be completely deleted.
  • How?
    1. Open Kingo SuperUser app on your Andoird.
    2. Click three dots upper right, find settings menu.
    3. Click "Remove Root".
    4. Your device will be rebooted.
    5. It's done.

If the files are not completely removed in this way, please refer to the first method and removing root via Kingo Android Root.