Learning To Root A Samsung Galaxy Express 3 (for Dummies Please!)

I got a new Samsung Galaxy Express 3 for real cheap lately, but the system uses up more that half of my 8 gigs of memory and I can only use a few apps. I got a good deal also on a 64 gig micro SD card. It seems I need to root my device so I can download an app that either turns it into adoptable storage, or tricks the phone into swapping and thinking the SD card is internal memory and the internal memory is external. I would also love to get rid of some of the "bloatware" that the phone comes with (ie: I have never used and don't plan to use Hangouts, why should I have it on there? Really, DirectTV? I don't even have rabbit ears on my TV, but I can't uninstall this without rooting/jailbreaking my phone? If I ever use Uber I am capable of downloading an app myself, thanks Google. etc.) I'm a bit nervous about this new territory as I have never rooted a phone before, although I am fairly tech savvy once I learn something. It seems like I need to download some rooting software to my computer and mess with the phone via USB (I see a lot about one called Odin) and then find an app that will do something to use my SD card to expand the memory. I am not really into programming and don't want to get into command prompts where I could mess something up like some tutorials suggest. Not sure I want to go with the adoptable option in case the card fails at some point, but still exploring my options. Not wanting to buy anything new like a faster card or anything (I'm on a tight budget and need to use the tools available to me now). I'm not too concerned about speed as I usually only play a game or two and use a lot of different messaging apps that I keep having to install and re-install when I run out of memory [FB messenger (even though it steals your soul with all the permissions, glad I don't HAVE to tell it my phone number etc lol), Voxer, Zoom, Yahoo mail, SparkPeople and Fitbit apps, etc.] Hoping to find some detailed tutorials or instructions to make sure I have all my settings right, use reliable/well known apps, know what precautions to take, things like is Lookout enough for a rooted phone? etc. Thanks! (Oh, and I use a Mac computer, so instructions for USB transfers with Windows won't be helpful. The specific phone model is a SAMSUNG-SM-J120A Android version 6.0.1) #JustWantToRunMyBasicAppsWithoutHavingToUninstallSomethingEveryOtherUpdateOrToUseAnother

 

Welcome to Major Geeks

Have a look at these two forums threads to try ways of moving Apps to the SD card:
1. Look at the last answer
https://forums.androidcentral.com/more-samsung-phones/703537-can-apps-run-sdcard-sm-j120a.html
2. Looks at the 'best answer'
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130811045821AAWPMuT

If nothing works then Rooting the device is the next step BUT it will break and nullify your warranty for the phone, if it is still covered by one.

 

I have tried manually moving some apps to the SD card, but have not tried the app2sd program, I may try that. I did see one of those threads. I think I'm probably going to have to root it though, as 6.66 gigs of my 8 gigs are bloatware that cannot be moved or uninstalled as they come on the phone (which just proves Google is the devil. I'm joking. ha) unless I can find a way to get rid of some pre-installed apps without rooting. This is just a prepaid phone, and although I did buy it at the ATT store I don't have any sort of warranty, other than perhaps a manufacturer one. I'm not real worried about it though, I only invested about $50 in it, not like an iphone or anything. lol

(I actually already uninstalled all of my apps, moved my pictures to the internal storage and formatted the SD card in anticipation of rooting it. I think at this point that is probably what I want to do unless I can find a way to free up a lot of my internal memory that is eaten by the system.)

 

Short of Rooting the phone - it's actually simpler than it sounds (and I used Kingo on my old back up smart phone and it worked well - see here: https://www.kingoapp.com/root-tutorials/how-to-remove-bloatware-on-android.htm ) but you can also DISABLE many, if not all, the pre-installed bloatware, see here: https://www.howtogeek.com/115533/how-to-disable-or-uninstall-android-bloatware/
For $50 you probably don't care that rooting it will stop any further Android OS updates.

 

Thank you! I will try the Kingo tutorial, it seems well written and I have heard of that app. I have disabled multiple apps in a similar situation on my old phone. It didn't improve performance significantly and I would get messages pop up such as "unfortunately, Hangouts has stopped." (Thank you phone, for recognizing every couple of hours that I have disabled Hangouts. lol)

 

Okay I downloaded and installed Kingo Root and the root keeps failing. Is it common to have to run it several times to get it to work? I made sure to enable USB debugging and OEM unlocking, although I have not been doing it through the computer, as I did not see a Mac version. I downloaded the phone only version.

 

It looks like my only option is to run an ADB program from a computer in order to enable adoptable storage, but I don't use a Windows computer. Ugh. Anyone know of a way to do this on a Mac?

 

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1917237

 

Yeah, the tutorial I was trying to use was for a way older version and that was a new fancy create an app program. Way above my pay grade. I give up on this project.