How to Root the Samsung Galaxy Gear (Tizen)

If you are still a proud owner of the original Galaxy Gear, you would have noticed Samsung decided to go with Tizen instead of Android in its recent update.  This is not entirely a bad thing as Sammy wants to keep all its wearable OS in the same line, but for those who rooted the Gear before, you might be left wondering if Tizen capable of giving you root privileges like Android did.  Well, it does and yes, now you can get root privileges on the Galaxy Gear with the guide below.

Rooting is the process of gaining administrative rights on your Android device. Once we root our Android device, we can then make changes to it to customize it well beyond what it normally can do.

Once you have root access on your original Samsung Galaxy Gear, you’ll be able to:

  • Remove apps that were preinstalled by your carrier/manufacturer from your device.
  • Free up storage space (because of the above benefit).
  • Increase battery life (apps that might have been running constantly can be removed).
  • Increase performance (after removing apps that are always running, the device will be less bogged down and run smoother).
  • Update to a new version of Android (by flashing a custom recovery/ROM, see the end of this procedure for more info on that).
  • Tons of other customizations when you use your new found administrative rights to flash a custom ROM (again, see the end of this procedure for more info on that).

Interested? Here’s how to root your Samsung Galaxy Gear:

 I.  Before You Begin

1.  This procedure is only for the original Samsung Galaxy Gear running Tizen (not Android, as it was previously running).

2.  Make sure you have the necessary drivers installed before you start.

II.  Necessary Downloads

1.  v700_rootfs.img.tar [Download link available in this post]

2.  Odin_v3.09.zip

II.  Rooting the Galaxy Gear

1.  Extract the Odin_v3.09.zip file you downloaded above to a folder on your desktop.

2.  From the extracted folder, double-click on Odin3 v3.09.exe to run the tool.

3.  Put your device into Download mode.  To do this, power down your device; turn it on, and as soon as you see the Galaxy Gear logo, press the power button five to six times until it enters Download mode.  Now, connect your device to your Windows PC using a compatible USB cable.  The ID:COM field on Odin should now light up yellow and you should see the “ADDED!” message to signify that your device is connected and recognized properly.  If not, reinstall drivers and try again.

4.  Click on AP button, locate v700_rootfs.img.tar you downloaded above and click on OK to load it on Odin.

5.  Make sure that the Re-Partition and Flash Lock are unchecked; this is important as you might brick your device if these options are ticked!

6.  Click on Start.

7.  Once done, reboot your device.

24 thoughts on “How to Root the Samsung Galaxy Gear (Tizen)”

    1. What does this root actually do, does it give you SuperSU, gravitybox, Xposed, because when i used this method all that came was the normal factory setting apps on my gear.

      1. Alejandro, rooting the Gear with Tizen actually gives you the ability to turn off the camera shutter sound, add custom ringtones, etc. Check the original thread for sdb commands to make this happen!

  1. Yea I used the same method! Didn’t do anything just like Alejandro said, does it like give you sort of command to like delete the shutter sounds of the camera? I’m not sure, but if so how do I do that?

  2. Hi guys. If i root the gear, will appear the SuperSu apk ? And then, can i install the null_rom even if the device running tizien ?

    1. No, look at what Dax Krishna posted on the other comments below. So basically you can remove the camera shutter sound and change ringtones (thats it) Maybe in the future they’ll find more ways to like add SuperSU and Gravitybox to your gear but now the things i mentioned are the only thngs you can do to a rooted gear Tizen.

  3. If I install Tizen can I go back to the Android version If Tizen doesn’t please me. I have a Nexus 5. So I would like to get the better Os to work with my Galaxy Gear.

  4. Hi, I rooted my gear 1 before and it was brilliant.
    I then installed the Tizen update and rooted again using these instructions (above) -worked fine but i see no benefit. Previously i could use wondershare to sideload apps but this no longer works.
    How can i unroot please?
    OR, what do i need to be able to sideload apps and have web access as before

  5. How can i reverse the root on galaxy gear 1 with Tizen? It worked fine but find no advantage and would like to revert back to the Tizen OS without root.

  6. My gear is stopped…
    First job was done with 2 files but second(2_recovery.img.tar) not worked!

    How do I fix it? showing only “Downloading….”

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