How to Gain Root Access to the OnePlus 3

If you want to gain root access on your OnePlus 3, I have laid out an easy step by step tutorial for exactly how it is done.

3rd-party applications from Google’s Play Store can let us customize and personalize a number of different aspects of our OnePlus 3. Sadly though, these applications can be limited in various ways. Thankfully though, we can root our OnePlus 3 and that will give us a deeper level of control over our smartphone.

With root access, we can customize and personalize our device even more and that’s what I want to show you today.

To gain root access on the OnePlus 3, you will first need to have a custom recovery installed. Last week, I did a tutorial about how to install TWRP on the OnePlus 3 so you can check that out if you are not sure how that’s done. Once you have a custom recovery installed, you do have the option to keep TWRP installed or just have it temporary. I keep the TWRP modification installed but it is up to you. You can keep it temporary if you’d like, and still maintain root access on the OnePlus 3.

So now that you have TWRP installed on the OnePlus 3, let me show you how to root it.

OnePlus 3 Root

1. Download SuperSU to the OnePlus 3
2. Reboot the OnePlus 3 into Recovery Mode
3. Tap the ‘Install’ Button
4. Tap the ‘Downloads’ Folder (or where ever the SuperSU.zip file is)
5. Tap on the SuperSU ZIP File
6. Swipe the White Arrows at the Bottom to Confirm
7. Wait for the SuperSU Binaries to Install
8. Tap on the ‘Wipe Cache/Dalvik’ Button (not required)
9. Tap on the ‘Reboot System’ Button
10. Then Wait for the OnePlus 3 to Reboot Twice

Explanation

As long as you’re familiar with installing ZIP files via TWRP, then rooting the OnePlus 3 is a fairly straight forward process. Not everyone is familiar with this though, and that is why I like to go over it step by step and include as much detail as possible. If you’d like, you can follow along with me it the embedded video above. Before you get started though, you will need to have the OnePlus 3 Bootloader unlocked, and you will need to have a custom recovery installed on the OnePlus 3.

Once you have all of that done, you can download the SuperSU ZIP file from the link above, and then go ahead and boot the OnePlus 3 into Recovery Mode. Once you’re in Recovery Mode, tap on the Install button at the top left so you can browse to and tap on the SuperSU ZIP file you just downloaded. When you tap on the ZIP file, you’ll be asked to confirm if that’s what you want to do by swiping the white arrows at the bottom of the screen.

After you swipe the white arrows, you’ll see a lot of text scroll up the screen as TWRP starts to install the SuperSU binaries onto the OnePlus 3. It shouldn’t take more than a few seconds, and then you’ll see two buttons appear at the bottom. Out of habit, I like the wipe the cache so I will do that (as shown in the video above) before I reboot the OnePlus 3. Either way, when you’re done, tap on the Reboot System button to reboot the OnePlus 3 back into Android.

As the warning mentioned, the first boot cycle can take longer than normal, and it can loop for you as well. In the video above, my OnePlus 3 rebooted once during the first boot process. This doesn’t happen anymore though. It’s only the first boot up after you have installed SuperSU that you’ll see that reboot it like this. So be patient and don’t be scared into thinking your OnePlus 3 is caught in a bootloop.

Once the OnePlus 3 reboots, it will complete the boot process and you’ll be taken directly into the Android OS. From here, you can launch the App Drawer, scroll down to the bottom and see there is a SuperSU application icon waiting for you to launch it. This is the application that manages and controls which of your other apps have root access and which do not. When an application asks for root access (the first time), you’ll see a dialog box appear and it’s from here (and the main application itself), where you can allow or deny which apps have root access.