Lineage OS, the continuation of CyanogenMod has also inherited all of the features of CyanogenMod ROM. The CM’s inbuilt Root System ” Privacy Guard ” is one of them which lets you have root access to your devices without third party Apps like Chainfire’s Supersu and other Superuser Apps. This was very convenient to most of the users and developers as well. The menu to enable root access on a current version of LineageOS is hidden within the Developer Options menu and to access this, all you have to do is enable Developer Mode on your device.
But, while the Root Access was enabled or disabled in the developer settings of the ROM, SafetyNet wouldn’t pass. This would cause a problem for Android Pay, Banking Apps and Pokemon GO players. If they were on the LineageOS or CyanogenMod Official ROMs or ROMs based on them, they wouldn’t be able to pass SafetyNet for Apps that hate Root. Since, I’m a Pokemon GO player myself, I needed a solution for this problem. That’s why i researched and came to know about this. This article will help you to remove LineageOS or CyanogenMod’s Inbuilt Root System Permanently!
Note: You must have the latest TWRP for your device. Also LineageOS/CyanogenMod ROM flashed on your device.
How to Remove LineageOS inbuilt Root System Permanently!
Step 1: Enable the Inbuilt Root on Lineage OS! Read : How to enable inbuilt root on Lineage OS
Step 2: You will need to delete or move or rename the su binaries which are located in the bin and xbin directories of the system folder. For this, the most easy way is to use the TWRP Recovery on your Device. In TWRP Recovery, firstly Mount ” System ” Partition. Go back and then tap on Advanced then ” File Manager “.
In File Manager, you will see a lot of files. You must tap on system folder and then xbin and bin and choose whether to move/delete/rename the su binaries in the destination folder. In my case, I flash a lot of ROMs so i just deleted these su files.
After you move or delete or rename the su files, reboot the system. It should reboot properly on to your OS. Go to Settings and then Developer Options. Click on ” Root Access ” and you will see ” Disabled or ADB only ” options there.
Now that the tutorial is over, You have removed the inbuilt ROOT Access System of Lineage OS completely. Also, Check whether your devices passes the SafetyNet Test. Use the SafetyNet Helper Sample App to check. As for me, My device passed the SafetyNet and I’m using Pokemon GO quite often.
Update :- You can get the above result i.e. removing the lineageOS root by flashing the ” su removal ” zip in the TWRP Recovery. Firstly, know know if you Android device is arm, arm64 or x86 device. Aftet that, Download su removal for arm, arm64 or x86 zip file and put it in your phone. Lastly, Flash the su removal zip and reboot your phone. That should remove the Lineage OS root.
Note: If you want the inbuilt Root back, you can get it by putting the su binaries in the required folders i.e. system>bin/xbin. You can also reflash your ROM to get the inbuilt root back.
Let us know in the comments if this tutorial helped you in any way. Thank you!