[Galaxy Note5 General] terradune:
After sending my Note 5 into a bootloop (first one ever in my history of flashing & rooting 6+ Android devices ... first time for everything but not a record I wanted broken!!) following a "guide" posted by another user here, I figured I'd try to throw something a little clearer out here for all us n00bs looking to rec 'n' root their rockin' phone.

IMPORTANT STUFF BEFORE YOU START!!!

1. These steps worked for the Malaysian variant of the Note 5. *** IT MAY NOT WORK FOR YOU. *** (In theory, it should work for any phone with similar basebands; but then again, it may not.) This guide works perfectly for Note 5s with the following specs (Settings > About device > Software info):

Android version : 6.0.1

Build number: MMB29K.N9208XXU2BPD4

2. I'm just an amateur trying to eke a little more mileage out of what is (by most standards) an already decent phone and because I do have a love (and patience) for tinkering around with this stuff. *** I AM NOT A DEVELOPER, LET ALONE A PROFESSIONAL *** and I take no responsibility for your phone bootlooping, getting bricked, bursting into flames, or infecting patient zero. Fixing your phone will almost always take 100^ longer than the amount of time you spent messing it up in the first place - terradune's law.

3. Samsung has gone out of their way to be extra douchebaggy this time by hard-baking in bloatware that can't be removed/frozen even with TiBu, such as Smart Manager (com.samsung.android.sm, which is not visible in TiBu). If you think that rooting is going to be the answer to all your bloatware woes on the Note 5 (as it once was), this is your only warning that this time, it

won't

be.

-- BEWARE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE --

-- LAST CHANCE TO EXIT THIS THREAD --

-- NO SERIOUSLY, I STAYED UP TILL 5AM TRYING TO FIX THE BOOTLOOP AND WAS SOUNDLY REMINDED WHY I'D BEEN SO WARY OF GETTING A PHONE WITH A NON-REMOVABLE BATTERY (my first, to boot ... ) --

Still here? Fine, here goes nothing:

GUIDE:

Part A - Rooting:

1. Backup, backup, backup. I started with a Note 5 fresh out of the box and updated straight away to Marshmallow before rooting, but if you didn't, then there may be apps / data you want to save & carry over. Once you're done with your backups (and have a copy of those backups somewhere safe like on your PC, in case things really go south), go on to Step 2 below.

2. {OPTIONAL STEP} Find and download the stock firmware applicable to your variant at Sammobile so that in case things go wrong, you'll have it close at hand to quickly restore your phone to working order.

3. At this point, if you're on Lollipop (Android version 5.1.1), you can decide if you want to update to Marshmallow. Because, in case you skipped the whole section of "IMPORTANT STUFF" above, this guide is for an N9208 on Marshmallow ONLY.

4. Head over to Chainfire's website and search for "nobleltextc".

5. Check (again) that your Build number matches the Build ID (MMB29K.N9208XXU2BPD4) - if it does, go ahead and hit Download.

6. Boot your phone into download mode (Power off completely, then press and hold Vol Down+Home+Power buttons all at the same time).

7. Extract the zip {CF-Auto-Root-noblelte-nobleltextc-smn9208} that you just downloaded into a folder.

8. In the folder, right-click on "Odin3-v3.10.6" (or whatever Odin version was included) and select "Run as Administrator".

9. Plug your phone in. One of the panels on the left side of the Odin window should light up blue. (If it doesn't, Google for a solution as you have an issue quite unrelated to this guide.)

10. Click on the "AP" button (DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE!!), navigate to the CF-Auto-Root folder and select "CF-Auto-Root-noblelte-nobleltextc-smn9208.tar".

11. Hit the "Start" button.

12. Wait for phone to reboot (this may take a while).

13. Enjoy rooted goodness.

14. {OPTIONAL STEP} Donate to Chainfire for being The One True Rooter of your Note 5.

Part B - Recovery:

*** If you don't know what recovery is, you probably don't need it. Rooting is often enough for most users' needs so you can stop right here unless you know what you're doing next. ***

1. Noblelte is the applicable TWRP version for the N9208 Marshmallow, so head over here and download {twrp-3.0.2-1-noblelte.img.tar}. There may be a newer version, but this is what's working for me. YMMV.

2. Go back to the CF-Auto-Root folder, right-click on "Odin3-v3.10.6" (or whatever Odin version was included) and select "Run as Administrator".

3. Plug your phone in. One of the panels on the left side of the Odin window should light up blue. (If it doesn't, Google for a solution as you have an issue quite unrelated to this guide.)

4. Click on the "AP" button (DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE!!), navigate to the folder where you downloaded {twrp-3.0.2-1-noblelte.img.tar} and select that file.

5. Hit the "Start" button.

6. Wait for phone to reboot (this may take a while).

7. Power off and boot into recovery.

8. Wipe cache and Dalvik cache. Reboot.

9. Enjoy your brand-spanking new Team Win recovery.

SOME DON'TS TO FINISH OFF:

1. Many N9208 rooting guides out there advise that you need an app called "CROM services" to unlock your phone, and that it is downloadable from the Galaxy Apps store. If you do a search in the Galaxy Apps store on your phone and come up empty (as I did), YOU (PROBABLY) DON'T NEED IT. Enabling OEM Unlock and USB Debugging in Developer Options is enough to allow you to gain root. Don't go Googling for the CROM services apk (as suggested) as the few sites providing a download link look somewhat dodgy and there is no guarantee that it would be a verified apk download of this app (translated: you might wind up downloading malware).

2. If you've followed this guide exactly, you have SuperSU and you DO NOT need to flash it separately (as some other guides advise). As such, DO NOT flash over SuperSU even if the TWRP recovery offers to do it. SuperSU was already installed when you rooted the phone in the first part of the guide above. (If you'd read the scrolling phone logs while CF-Autoroot was being installed, Chainfire provides the same warning.)

I hope that at least some of you Note 5 owners out there found this guide useful. Toodles!