The easiest and secure way to root Android at the moment is to install Magisk via TWRP Recovery. Magisk will help you grant and manage Super User access to apps. Magisk also brings a lot of additional functionality in the form of Magisk Modules.

Magisk is currently the most popular Android rooting solution and is also the most widely used one as well. SuperSU has enjoyed a monopoly in the world of Android rooting for a significant time period until Magisk made its debut. Magisk has quickly become the preferred choice for those who are looking to root their Android devices. There are many advantages of rooting Android with Magisk and we shall discuss the same in a short while. One of the most important among them is that Magisk also offers several other functionalities such as hiding root from apps that will not work on rooted Android devices.

In this article, we will show you how to install Magisk Zip along with Magisk Manager APK. which will help you manage root access on your Android.

Steps to Install Magisk and Root Android Device

There are two ways to install Magisk on an Android device and we shall see them both in detail below.

Method 1: Flashing Magisk Zip using TWRP Recovery

1. Download the latest Magisk Zip file from here: Magisk Zip
2. Transfer the downloaded Magisk Zip file to your phone’s internal memory.
3. If your device is connected to your PC, disconnect the same.
4. Reboot your device into TWRP Recovery. If you do not know the button combination to boot into TWRP, you can use the following ADB command:

   adb reboot recovery

   Note: You may need to enable USB Debugging before using the above command.

5. Once you are in TWRP Recovery: Tap on ‘Install‘ and select the downloaded latest Magisk Zip File and ‘Swipe to confirm flash‘ to install Magisk Zip file.
6. Once the above process completes, reboot your device.

Once the device reboots, you should have the Magisk Manager app installed on your device.

Method 2: Flashing Magisk Patched Boot Image

If your device does not have TWRP recovery, then you can follow the below method to root your device with Magisk.

1. Download the latest Magisk Manager APK from here: Magisk Manager APK. Install the downloaded APK file.
2. The second thing you are going to need is the stock ‘boot.img‘ file of your device. You can get it from the official stock firmware images of your device. Where to download them? If you are using a Nexus or a Pixel device, you can get it here. For other devices, check the official support channels.
3. Once you get hold of the stock ‘boot.img’ file of your device, copy it to the internal storage of your device.
4. Open the Magisk Manager App > Tap on the menu icon in the top right corner and select ‘Settings‘. Tap on ‘Update Channel‘ and make sure ‘Beta‘ is selected.

   

5. Go back to the Magisk Manager main screen: Tap on ‘Install’  > Again tap on ‘Install’ > Select ‘Patch Boot Image File’.

   

6. You will be asked to select the ‘boot.img’ file of your device. Navigate to and select the ‘boot.img’ which you had saved in the internal storage of your device previously.
7. Magisk Manager will take the things from here. Wait for the process to complete.
8. The ‘patched_boot.img’ file will be present in the ‘Magisk Manager‘ folder on your device. [Check both Internal and External Storages.].
9. Copy the ‘patched_boot.img’ file to the folder where ADB and Fastboot are installed on your PC.
10. Open a command window on the folder where ADB and Fastboot are installed.
    1. Go to the folder where ADB and Fastboot are installed.
    2. Hold down Shift Key + Right Click > Select ‘Open Command Window here’ or ‘Open PowerShell Window here’.
11. Reboot your device into Fastboot mode by executing the following command in the command prompt:

    adb reboot bootloader

12. Execute the following command to install Magisk 16.4 Beta update:

    fastboot flash boot patched_boot.img

13. Once the flashing process completes, reboot your device using the following command:

    fastboot reboot

14. Done!

When the device reboots, go to Magisk Manager and make sure that magisk is properly installed.

These are the two ways by which you can install Magisk on your Android device.

Getting to know Magisk

What is Magisk?

Magisk is a popular Android rooting solution that comes in the form of ZIP file which is used to root Android devices. It was developed by the developer topjohnwu in 2016 as an alternative way to root Android devices other than the famous SuperSU by Chainfire.

The Magisk comes in the form of a zip file that can be flashed via custom recovery such as TWRP in order to achieve root on Android devices. Once you have flashed the Magisk Zip file via TWRP, you can handle the front end activities, including but not limited to manager root access, via an App called Magisk Manager.

Magisk –  A Magic Mask to Alter System Systemless-ly

Before getting to know what Magisk is, let me introduce top players in the game Chainfire’s SuperSU, phh’s SuperUser, and topjohnwu’s Magisk. So let me explain what Magisk is? with these root methods.

SuperSU is the most popular rooting method for Android by Chainfire, but it lost its popularity after Chainfire sold it to a Chinese company and they stopped the SuperSU development. However, topjohnwu’s started to work on Magisk and it became the most popular rooting method. Magisk popularity is by its massive features.

The main goal of these root methods is to manage which installed apps have root access. Not all apps are made to have access root. System apps like Google, Gmail and others will not have benefits from having root privileges. There are apps which are designed specifically keeping the root in mind.

When you install this kind of apps with Magisk root your device, then you will see a prompt from these apps for root access. The prompt is poped within the app to make sure only the required app gets the permission and doesn’t want other apps to have root access (this may lead to insecure setup and the device may be compromised by malware).

You can even choose how these apps have the root access either permanently or temporarily. Thus making sure only allow the trusted app to have root access.

All Rooting methods offer very much similar functionality, but Magisk and the way you can use any application without any issues makes it stand out from other root methods. Suppose having SuperSU and want to run a banking app is not possible, unrooting is the only way to use the bank app again.

Every time you want to use the app, it’s not possible to unroot the device. Magisk has a feature that hides the rooting from these apps and no need of unrooting the device by hiding root from your device. Unlike SuperSu it doesn’t modify or alter system partition, which means we are not messing with the system files.

What We Can Do with Magisk and Root?

Magisk a very powerful tool to run modifications (modding Android) without messing with the system. That’s the reason it is referred to as the “systemless” method. Using the Magisk manager you’re going to take advantage of Magisk features.

With the ability to install “modules” from the Magisk manager app we can use handy modifications without the need for root apps. These modules allow you to install different handy modifications. Here are some of the best modules for Magisk.

Few modules which I personally use with Magisk:

• Substratum: For to apply system-wide themes on my Android.
• Dolby Atmos: For Dolby Atmos sound enhancements to my device.
• Kernel Manager: Tweak a variety of things of my device to boost performance.
• Greenify4Magisk: For saving battery life by putting my device on hibernate.
• Xposed Framework: For modding my device for other changes to the UI.

Now, I know most of the phones out there have the ability to theme the device, but the substratum is more useful for the stock Android phones. I know most devices support Substratum without root. Phones which are on Android Pie or higher require root to apply the theme. Dolby Atmos is not integrated by every phone manufacturer, by giving root access to the app we can enjoy audio enhancements on our phone.

Not all the kernels of the phones, use the full capacity of the phone. Kernel manager will be able to tune certain parameters or even install custom kernels on the device for improved performance and saving battery life.

So here we go, there are a lot of things we can do with the root access. My examples are just small things that we can do form root access. There is so much more we can do from root access.