How to Root (and Unroot) the Samsung Vibrant (SGH-T959)

The Samsung Vibrant was a Galaxy S variant that kickstarted the whole Galaxy line, which is very well the biggest cash cow for Samsung currently.  It has been more than two years now since this device debuted on T-Mobile but we are guessing there are some who haven’t succumbed to the charms of the Galaxy S2 or the more recent S3, and are still holding on this device.  This post will help them begin rejuvenating their aging device and infuse some new life via custom ROMs.  Read on then to know how to root the Samsung Vibrant, which is the obvious first step to take if you plan on flashing custom ROMs.

I.  Before You Begin

1.  Back up anything you feel is important.

2.  Make sure that you have at least 75% of your device charged before you begin.

II.  Necessary Downloads

SuperOneClickv1.9.5-ShortFuse.zip [File attached to the first post of this thread]

III.  Rooting the Samsung Vibrant

1.  Extract SuperOneClickv1.9.5-ShortFuse.zip to a folder on your desktop.

2.  Enable USB Debugging on your device.  To do this, go to Menu > Settings > Applications > Developer Options and tick the USB Debugging checkbox.

3.  Connect your device to your PC and if there are any drivers being installed at this point, let Windows 7 do so.

4.  From the folder you extracted above, run SuperOneClick.exe.

5.  Click on Root.

Your Samsung Vibrant should be rooted once the application confirms it!

IV.  Unrooting the Samsung Vibrant

1.  Follow the same steps as in Section IV until Step 4.

2.  Click on Unroot.

V.  Flashing ClockworkMod Recovery (Optional)

If you would like to flash a custom recovery image in order to flash custom ROMs, head to the next procedure to learn how to do that.

If this procedure helped you please thank/donate to the original developers here.

If you need help with this procedure, please ask in the comments below or in the forum.

This is part of our Android How To’s. We have how to’s on rooting, loading ROMs, and tons of other tips and tricks for your specific device or for Android devices in general! For all of our Android How To’s, head here.

7 thoughts on “How to Root (and Unroot) the Samsung Vibrant (SGH-T959)”

  1. Wesley Coleman

    I rooted my Vibrant and installed ClockWorkMod 2.5.1.2. I also have cyanogenmod 10 ROM ZIP file intact (not unzipped) on my phone memory. I can’t seem to boot into recovery mode though, my phone only boots into the standard “android system recovery” screen (options like “reboot system now” and “reinstall packages”, etc.). I have read on other sites to try and reinstall packages, but it always fails. Any pointers as to what I might be doing wrong and why it won’t boot into recovery mode?

  2. vasdgaasdgasdg

    um everytime i try to download superoneclick it just gets deleted by my computer cuz it says it has trojans

  3. Does this not work for Windows? I’m Doing everything your saying but when i go to root the phone it doesnt show up in superoneclick so i figured well why not just try and push root and everytime i do so an error window pops up but gives me the option to push continue and when i do nothing happens…. im confused plz help

  4. according to the Voxer support, the app is recognized to have problems running on Galaxy S (and Vibrant is a variant), so it depends on the devs of the app if there will ever be a solution for it.

    As for rooting it, rooting it will most probably not have any effect at all (good or bad)

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