The Samsung Galaxy A5 sure is a sweet smartphone coming from Samsung over the last few months. It comes out of the box with Android KitKat which was part of the reason why they managed to sell them so cheaply since Lollipop was just around the corner when they hit the open market. There’s little doubt Lollipop will eventually come, but for now it’s all about the KitKat. If you are done with everything KitKat has to offer and wish to explore some root-requiring application from the Google Play store and other third-party sources it’s about time you opened up the ports with root access. Only then can you unlock the phone with it’s true potential.

REQUIREMENTS

1. There are a few different model number variants of the Galaxy A5. You should follow the guide only if you are using the A500H smartphone. The others should not attempt to flash the file we have below.

2. You ought to be running the latest version of Android 4.4.4 KitKat on your phone with the firmware build number XXU1ANL1. You can double check your firmware by navigating to the About Device menu coming from the Settings menu.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

1. Understand that applying the following steps on your handset does automatically void any warranty you have remaining. Since this handset is fairly new still, they likely means yours if you paid for the warranty.

2. You can get the warranty working again by unrooting the smartphone. There’s a few different ways to do the same. The easiest and quickest method is to search for unrooting applications available from Google Play. However, they often come at a premium price.

3. Download the latest Samsung USB drivers for Mobile phones from this link.

4. Charge the battery of your Samsung Galaxy A5 enough so that it doesn’t shut down before the flashing is complete. Doing so may cause soft bricking to occur.

HOW TO ROOT THE SAMSUNG GALAXY A5 A500H IN ANDROID 4.4.4 KITKAT XXU1ANL1 FIRMWARE

1. Download the CF Auto Root package from here.

2. Download the Odin 3.09 version you need from here.

3. Download both the folders to the desktop of your computer.

4. Extract the folders and notice the executable file for rooting you’ll need to upload in a minute.

5. Run the Odin application so it’s running.

6. Boot your Sammy A5 in Download Mode by pressing and holding the Volume Down, Power and the Home buttons at the same time.

7. Connect the A5 to the computer using the USB cable that comes out of the box. You probably use it for phone charging daily.

8. Click the AP button and upload the tar.md5 file from the extracted rooting package on the desktop.

9. Click the start button when you are ready for the flashing.

10. It will give a pass or a fail message on the display in around ten minutes or less. Most fails mean that you don’t have the up to date drivers. See our downloads page for the drivers above.

11. It should automatically reboot the phone since the Auto reboot box is checked inside Odin.

Sweet! Your XXU1ANL1 firmware is now rooted and you are ready to start installing some root-requiring application on your phone that you couldn’t use before. You can also start thinking about flashing custom ROMs.