How to change your boot animation [Root]

Love it or hate it, you can’t deny that Android is the king when it comes to customization. While other people choose to have a phone that allows you to only change the wallpaper (no names here), I’m sure most Android users love the ability to change almost every aspect of their phone. One of these is the fact that you can change your boot animation (that animation that shows when you start your phone up). Granted you have root and a bit of common sense, this can be easily achieved by downloading an animation, and replacing your old one with it. As there’s root involved, there is a small chance something could go wrong in this process and damage your phone, although that chance is remote.

DISCLAIMER: AndroidGuys accepts no responsibilities for any phones damaged in this process.

Step 1: Find an animation that you like

You’ll have the ability to chose from several different animations that you would enjoying seeing on your phone. These come in the .zip format and contain many images that make the animation. Don’t worry about this part though, just choose one that suits you. Also, try choose one that fits your screen resolution, otherwise it may end up being small or not fitting your screen. There’s some available here:

http://androidbootanimation.com/

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=42849451

You can also search Google for more, obviously.

Step 2: Download and replace your old one

Once you’ve downloaded in the .zip  format, don’t try open it. This won’t damage the file, but you don’t need to see what’s inside. With a root browser, find the file you just downloaded. It should be called ‘bootanimation.zip’, and you find it under Storage>Emulated>O>Download. Rename it something like ‘bootanimationnew.zip’. Copy it and find your way to the directory where the original lies.

The original will be under system>media, and be labelled ‘bootanimation.zip’. The file with this name is the one that the phone runs, so paste the new one here.  Rename the old one to something suitable, like ‘bootanimationold.zip’. Now rename the one you just downloaded to ‘bootanimation.zip’. Make sure the file is the same name as the old one.

Make sure the one you want to use. Although most phones use this setup, you might have to do further research if your phone works a bit differently.

Step 3: Reboot your phone

Shut down your Android and start it up. If you followed the steps, you should now see the new animation! If you did something wrong, it’s likely to show an animation that simply glows ‘android’. You can’t really brick your phone doing this, so it’s actually a relatively safe tweak.

Enjoy!