Verizon’s Galaxy S5 update is breaking root access for some

Galaxy-S5-TouchWiz

Verizon is currently rolling out a relatively minor over-the-air update to all of its carrier-branded Galaxy S5’s located in the United States. Although this upgrade’s reportedly aimed at ‘updating stock applications on the handset and fixing a selection of known bugs,’ it looks like Big Red may have an ulterior motive for pushing it out, too.

Since users started downloading and installing the update this morning, there have been reports popping up all over the internet claiming that software version KOT49H.G900VVRU1ANE9 is breaking root access. This could just be a coincidence, or Verizon may have teamed up with Samsung to prevent users from downloading and installing custom ROMs on their smartphones. So if you’re planning on rooting or already have rooted your smartphone, it’s best you give this update a wide berth for the time being, at least until everything is cleared out and developers create a bypass for the preventative code.

As for added functionality, Verizon’s Name ID, Cloud and Message+ applications have all received updates with the latter now supporting closed captioning. Several issues have been resolved, including the annoying bug which caused connectivity to drop when music was being streamed via a third-party service, such as Spotify or Rdio. The full changelog for this update can be seen below:

Added support
  • User selectable video application when uploading to YouTube
  • Message+ now supports closed captioning
  • Emergency Mode has been updated
  • Contact Menu stability has been enhanced
  • Easy Mode Settings now includes images
  • ‘Downloaded Apps’ field added to searchable file types in My Files
  • Web Search has been added to S Finder
Resolved issues
  • ‘Search’ icon has been removed within Memo when there is no memo
  • Favorite ‘Contact’ information background is now more readable
  • Visual Voicemail works when S-View flip cover is closed
  • Connectivity has been improved when streaming music
  • Stability has been improved for Samsung Gear Manager
  • Text alert improvements for select factory installed car kits
  • “Primary Contacts” label has been changed to “Emergency Contacts” when in Emergency Mode
  • Power On password

If you own a Verizon-branded Galaxy S5 and you have no intention of rooting your device, then head into ‘Settings’, ‘About Device’, and tap ‘Check for Updates’ to manually install the upgrade.