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Rooting (Android) Android Devices Android Application Development Android Applications
How do I edit the "build.prop" file in Android
without Rooting it?
14 ANSWERS
Harshit Raghuvanshi, Custom ROMs and OS feature
developer
Answered Nov 21 2015
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I have edited build.prop on my android one this way when there was no
root for marshmallow
Why can't you do it normally?
Because you don't have permissions to or your system is read only. Root
provides you with root permissions, which lets you modify those system
files and/or make system read write system
How to
Here's how to do it.
You need permissions. But you don't want root.
Alright so move to somewhere where you won't need those permissions or
you have enough permissions to do so.
I'd recommend recovery mode. You have full access to system files in
recovery mode, but only if it is mounted.
Many stock recoveries don't have option to mount system partition or don't
have adb access for commands. You might want a custom recovery for this.
And no, you don't need root for custom recovery. I'll talk about this in next
part
So now all you need to do is, boot into recovery (custom preferred), mount
system and then using adb, pull the build.prop file
adb pull /system/build.prop <path to save file>
Now edit the file you just extracted and save it
Push it back to your phone via adb
adb push <path to your file> /system/build.prop
You're not done yet. You need to set permissions too
So open she'll via terminal
adb shell
Now from shell, set the right permissions
chmod 644 /system/build.prop
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And you're done
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Reboot your phone and see the changes
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Well, there are two ways to do so
1. Install custom recovery
Simply install custom recovery via fastboot and boot into it.
P.S this requires unlocking bootloader
2. Temporarily boot into recovery
So you need recovery image for this
Boot into recovery via fastboot
fastboot boot recovery.img
Where revocery.img is path to img file of recovery
P.S some phones might require unlocked bootloader even for this
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Dharmendra Singh, AN_Droid
Answered Jun 4 2016 · Author has 227 answers and 1m answer views
Build Properties aka “build.prop” is a file in system folder of your phone
which defines the A-Z details of your phone, model, brand, android version,
etc. You can tweak build.prop to change the way your device behaves. You
can boost internet speed, change phone specifications, increase system
performance, make almost all apps compatible or trick websites to display
a tablet interface. So here’s how to edit Build.prop file. This are only a few
things you can do if you edit your build.prop. In this tutorial I am going to
teach you how to edit LCD density by editing build.prop. You can follow this
tutorial for tweaking almost everything inside the build.prop file. Before
we start, note that we need a rooted android device to edit this file.
Changing the LDC density will result like you’ve changed the screen’s
resolution. You’ll have the ability to easily read small text or see small
images clearly. You can also make things like icons smaller on screen while
still making it clear and legible. Here’s how we do it.
1.Using Root Explorer:
Note: download “Spareparts” before you continue.
https://play.google.com/store/ap...
Open Root Explorer and allow superuser access and you should be
at the root partition.
Scroll down and select “system”
Select “Mount R/W” button located at the top. Clicking the “r/o”
button should change to “r/w”.
Long press “build.prop” and select “Open in Text Editor”
Scroll down and find the line “ro.sf.lcd_density=240” and change it
to the value like 167, 180, 200, 220.
Press the “Menu” button on your phone and select “Save Changes”.
Open Spareparts and make sure you uncheck “Compatibility
Mode”.
Reboot your phone
2.Using ES File Explorer:
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Open ES File Explorer and press your “Menu” button and then
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“remember”
Check “Mount File System” and press your back button.
When in sdcard partition, select the sdcard image in the top left
and it should change to home image. You are now at root.
Scroll down and select “system”.
Press “build.prop” and select “ES Note Editor”.
Scroll down and find “ro.sf.lcd_density=240” and change it to a
value like 167, 180, 200,220.
Press “Menu” button on your phone and select “save”
Open Spareparts and uncheck “Compatibility Mode”
Reboot your phone.
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Amit Lakhmani, Owner of a enterprise mobile apps
development company
Answered Apr 23 2016
You can do it without root, but only from custom recovery if you have an
unlocked bootloader.
Usually a locked bootloader is the only thing keeping people from rooting.
So yes, you can do it without root, but only if you do almost all of the steps
required to root (and at that point you might as well root).
.Using ES File Explorer:
Open ES File Explorer and press your “Menu” button and then
select “Settings”
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Scroll down and check “Root Explorer” and select “Yes” for
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Check “Mount File System” and press your back button.
When in sdcard partition, select the sdcard image in the top left
and it should change to home image. You are now at root.
Scroll down and select “system”.
Press “build.prop” and select “ES Note Editor”.
Scroll down and find “ro.sf.lcd_density=240” and change it to a
value like 167, 180, 200,220.
Press “Menu” button on your phone and select “save”
Open Spareparts and uncheck “Compatibility Mode”
Reboot your phone.
If you messed up your build.prop, follow the steps below.
In command prompt:
Adb pull /system/build.prop
Edit the file and restore the changes
Save the file
Adb shell mount –o remount rw /system
Adb reboot
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John Smith, Android Security Engineer, Spyware evaluator
Answered Aug 17 2017
/ system/build.prop is read-only in any device. infact whole /system
partition is read only. if / system/build.prop is writable there will be lot of
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