Samsung S6 and S6 Edge get root without tripping KNOX

There’s a method now for Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge owners to achieve root on their handsets without breaking Samsung’s KNOX security protection.

We posted a guide a little while ago on how to root the S6 range when it first came out. That process, which was largely the same as that used to root many a Galaxy S variant before it, has been tried and tested, and is very reliable, but with one catch: Samsung’s KNOX protection was broken with that method, and KNOX working is required to gain access to the My Knox security application (which may be important if you use your handset for work) as well as Samsung Pay (if it makes it to Australia).

Basically, gaining root using the existing method really isn’t ideal unless you’re pretty sure what you’re doing, and that you won’t need or want the KNOX features down the line.

The new method, called PingPong Root, is actually fairly straightforward. It doesn’t use the ODIN flashing method which has been used in the past. Rather, it involves downloading an APK and then following a fairly well laid out process. Put simply, this root method uses an exploit to obtain root once the system has booted, rather than pre-rooting the system partition like the ODIN method.

At the time of writing, not all Australian Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge variants will be supported. You need to check in Settings -> About and compare your build number against the supported list here. Our Galaxy S6 has the build number G920IDVU1AOC4 which isn’t yet on the supported list (though it will be in the next release). Jason’s Galaxy S6 from Singapore, though, is supported with build number G920IDVU1AOD1.

Now, for our standard warning.

With any modding, if you do decide to try this method out, we recommend checking out the XDA-Developers thread thoroughly and asking any relevant questions over there first. For more visual instructions, you can check out video instructions on YouTube.