If you are someone who is into modding Android devices at root level, you might have come across a file called build.prop found under the /system/ folder. This build.prop file holds a lot of very important information which can be used to customize Android devices. Please note that you will need root access to edit this file because it is present in the system partition. In this guide, we will show you how to edit build.prop file so that you can use it to customize your device when needed.

Edit build.prop with a File Manager app

To edit the build.prop file, all you need is a simple text editor and a file manager that can access the root directory. Most of these file manager apps come with a simple text editor built-in. If you don’t already have a file editor installed, you don’t have to worry about installing one just for editing the build.prop file. MiXplorer, Root Explorer, and Solid Explorer are our official recommendations if you are looking for powerful File Manager apps for your Android. If you have any other file manager that can view root files and has a built-in text editor, you can use the same as well.

MiXplorer is what we have used in this tutorial. Open a file manager of your choice, navigate to the /system/ folder and scroll down to find the build.prop file. Tap on it and choose any file editor that pops up from the list. I will be using the ‘Text Editor’ as shown below:

Make sure that the  /system partition is mounted as ‘Read/Write’.

• On ES File Explorer,  swipe from the left edge of the screen to pull the side menu drawer.
• Scroll down to find Root Explorer under Tools. Toggle it on if it isn’t already and grant the necessary permission.
• Tap on the Root Explorer menu item to open the settings for it.
• Select Mount R/W
• Next to system, choose the radio button on the right in the popup that appears.

Before modifying the actual build.prop file, make sure to take back up a copy of the file and rename it as build.prop.bak, and then move this file back into the /system/ folder. This is to ensure that you can always restore the original unedited file in case something goes wrong. Note that you can easily do this from TWRP recovery: Delete the modified file and remove the .bak from the backup build.prop’s name. Your device will boot properly again.

Edit build.prop with Build Prop Editor

This is an alternate method. The advantage of this method is that the app (which is designed to edit the build.prop exclusively, will automatically pick the right file from the /system/ partition which you edit straight away. We recommend JRummy’s BuildProp Editor which is an app dedicated to editing the build.prop file.

Here are some of the highlights of this app:

• Backup the original build.prop before modifying it.
• Edit the entire build.prop file at once just like on any other normal text editor.
• Increase/decrease the font size for more comfortable reading.
• Search for a particular line of code.
• Add numbers to the lines.
• Change the font style.
• much more.

If you are someone who frequently edits the build.prop file, we recommended installing this app. Personally, I don’t like clutter and keeps things simple. I simply use the File Manager to get the job done.

Please be cautious while editing the build.prop file. It might look like you know what a line of code does but changing the values may produce undesired results. Always know what you are doing.