The Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-A5009 is the mid-ranger smartphone that’s part of the newfangled Sammy A-series. Originally dubbed as the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, the A-series as quickly separated into three devices and it was clear none of them truly rivaled the current flagship S5 phone. That said, as far as press renders go, it was arguably one of the juiciest stock images around.

Regardless of the specs, this is still one device that you should want to own. If you’ve had enough fun with the current Android 4.4.4 KitKat stock ROM which comes with the phone out of the box, you might be interested in opening the ports to some custom ROMs. If so, you’ll need to have root access. Follow the steps below for gaining root so you can add a custom recovery, custom ROM and more.

REQUIREMENTS

There is several different variant of the A5–all with different model numbers. use the following steps for the SM-A5009 model number only. Turn on the phone and navigate to Settings > About Device to check the model number of yours.

The current Android 4.4.4 KitKat update is the one this rooting file is specifically made for. It might not work for Android Lollipop once it starts rolling out over the air to selected devices because Google may patch the current exploit.

BEFORE WE BEGIN

• Make sure there’s enough battery power. Save up at least 50% to avoid unwanted shut downs.
• Enable USB Debugging Mode from the Developer Options menu.
• Download the latest USB drivers on the computer for Samsung mobile phones. You’ll find that from the official Samsung website under the downloads section.
• If Odin is failing that’s likely because of the USB drivers. try updating them by following the idea above.

HOW TO ROOT SAMSUNG GALAXY A5 SM-A5009 IN ANDROID 4.4.4 KITKAT

1. Download the SM-A5009 rooting file here.
2. Download Odin 3.09 here.
3. Open the Open app after extracting the zip file.
4. Extract the content of the rooting file and place it on the desktop.
5. Boot the A5 in download mode.
6. Connect the smartphone to the computer with the USB cable.
7. Click the AP button in Odin.
8. Choose the CF-Root file from the desktop.
9. Click the Start button in Odin
10. Wait until a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ message comes up on the screen.
    – the flashing can take ten minutes so be patient.
11. If you get the pass message you are safe to disconnect and enjoy the phones new opportunities.
12. Those with the fail message should try updating the USB drivers, turn the computer off and on again, connect the phone and try again.