Cannot continue this operation on a Rooted Device
By Wilson Smillie, 13th December 2015
Eh?
It’s a growing problem in the Android phone handset world particularly as banks and financial services companies (and Apple and Google) push for more retail payments by mobile phone.
The fug of angst rising from the GeekSphere chokes me so much I can’t stop laughing, but only because I’ve experienced it myself and fixed it the permanent and proper way; by unrooting my Nexus 6.
For the unworldly out there its banking speak for ‘Your phone is rooted so you’re attempt at payment is fucked and I’m not letting you (potentially) infect my systems with your viruses’.
If you’re reading this wondering what to do to get Barclay’s Pingit, Google Pay or another mobile payments app working on your rooted device, then you’re probably not a Geek and are wishing you’d never let your mate (now ex-mate) talk you into rooting Android in the first place. You might even be considering buying an iPhone!
In Dungeons & Dragons speak ... ‘You face two options ...’
1. Wrangle the damn thing to fudge it so that the fact it’s rooted isn’t exposed to Apps like Pingit. This option is also known as ‘keep digging until you hit bedrock, then start drilling’. It’s also the option of choice for the introverted Geek who relishes the days and weeks spent chained to his computer coding a work-around.
2. Unroot your device permanently.
Easy choice, eh?
Not really, but its time to bite the bullet. Unrooting will scrub all your personal data. Everything. All of it. Even if the tool you choose to use to unroot says ‘Preserve personal data?’ Nope. Gone.
Take a backup first, but don’t use tools like Titanium Backup (only restores on rooted devices), so find a proper way. Also, think just how vital is that personal data to you? Many Apps, like email, store your stuff on servers, so once you reconnect your account to the newly unrooted device, it all comes back. Push the vital files up onto DropBox, or Google Drive and get it off your phone. Married with some sexy texts from the girlfriend you like to wa ... sorry, pour over in the bathroom? Rooting your phone will wipe them forever. Have to keep them? Don’t.
Re-boot your life buddy. Stop trying to kid on you’re a geek and admit it to yourself; you’re not. Don’t tell anyone else though.
The Geekerati will saw their way through this until Barclays work out what they’ve done and block them, then the cycle will repeat ... endlessly. The custom ROM folks like ClockworkMod will survive but if you’d wanted their ROM you’d have bought that ROM in the first place. Why buy an Android phone if you don’t want Android ... to put a custom ROM on because you can? Fine. Fill your boots, knock yourself out, use cash.
To get yourself completely out of the hole you’re in, look up #WugFresh and see if he’s developed his Root Toolkit for your device. If he hasn’t, well ... iPhones are OK I suppose.
