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Warning: You may not want to root your Android phone after installing Lollipop

Published Nov 14th, 2014 9:30AM EST

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While regular smartphone users who choose an Android device might not be as interested in customizing their mobile experience as more hardcore Android fans, there are plenty of buyers who chose Android over iOS or other mobile operating systems exactly because they have the liberty of doing more things on Android than on anything else, including rooting the device. However, this particular type of Android experience might forever change starting with Lollipop, as Google has made some important changes in Android 5.0 in the way Android is updated.

FROM EARLIER: The dirty secret Apple and Google don’t want you to know about iOS 8 and Lollipop

As Android Police reports, instead of Android over-the-air (OTA) updates patching each file on a system partition individually as before, in Lollipop the OTA script now updates the whole system as an “enormous block”.

That means that any modifications made to such files will practically disable future Android updates on the device. Therefore, Android tinkerers should always make sure they revert back to a clean stock version of Lollipop before applying any updates, and only then get back to rooting and/or customizing it once the updates are installed.

Even so, Android Police says Google’s way of applying updates is a step in the right direction.

“From a technical standpoint, the reason behind the change has to do with verified boot, which was first introduced in KitKat,” the publication says. “Even though Google has yet to enable this feature on a Nexus device, this move seems to indicate that the company could be preparing to go that route in the future. Even outside of verified boot, though, it makes all the sense in the world to do OTAs this way. Patching the system block directly is far faster than trying to patch a lot of individual files.”

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.