[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Guides, News, & Discus] Minionguyjpro:
Root Instructions for SM-T290 (Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 2019)​

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Welcome! This is my first guide on XDA Developers. This will tell you how to root a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 2019, specially for the SM-T290 model of it. I hope you like it and it works! It has exactly 30 steps.

Disclaimer​

UPDATE YOUR TABLET TO VERSION T290XXU3CVG3 AND NOT HIGHER!!!​

Please update your tablet to the version listed above and NOT higher. Make sure it is fully upgraded to Android 11, so that you can use the better version of TWRP. BUT NOT HIGHER THAN THE VERSION ABOVE, AS THE DEVICE WILL LIKELY NEVER BE ABLE TO BE ROOTED AGAIN. Update by flashing T290XXU3CVG3 with Odin. Download the firmware for your country. Soon I might will update this guide so that TWRP will work on the latest firmware, but for now, DO NOT GO HIGHER THAN T290XXU3CVG3!!! If you have bootloader version 4, it is impossible to flash any of the stuff described here and your device won't be able to have a downgraded bootloader, making it currently impossible to flash any custom stuff when you have bootloader version 4!

MAKE A BACKUP!​

Be sure to make a complete backup first of all important stuff you have! When you have TWRP (and likely also ROOT), you are able to make a COMPLETE backup of your tablet, including partitions like boot and data and allows apps with complete data to be restored, be sure to use this feature when you have installed TWRP.

Known issues​

Charging the device while it is powered off will power it on again. The device will always be on when charging.

Sometimes, when you wipe and/or format data, the storage space is seen as 8GB, while it has 32GB. You can find the fix here.

The battery may drain fast. If this is your case, check this fix.

You may get a black screen after you have flashed TWRP. This means that this method likely doesn't work for your device, because your device came with Android 10 instead. This means that the Android 9 bootloader doesn't work properly on this device. We know the device can be used by using screen mirroring from ADB, but we need more research.

Issue tracker​

You can report issues here. This repository is used to report issues for all my XDA threads. You MUST add the label 'Root Instructions For SM-T290', so I know where to post this issue.

Instructions for ROOT​

1. Power on your device.

2. Open the settings app.

3. Go to 'About device/phone/tablet'

4. Click on 'Software info'.

5. Tap on the build number for 7 times until a message pops up saying "You are now a developer!".

6. Go back to home menu of settings app and click on 'Developer options'.

7. Enable the OEM unlock switch.

Optional: Unlock the bootloader using the steps below, go through setup, enable developer options and check if the option is still enabled.

8. Turn your device off and reboot into download mode by plugging the device into a PC using an USB cable and holding Pwr+VolUp+VolDown after being plugged in.

9. Disable the OEM lock and enable bootloader by holding VolUp for 10 seconds and then follow the instructions.

10. After that, you should see a download icon saying (downloading...).

11. Download Odin Flash Tool 'Odin3-v3.14.4.zip' from the files below.

12. Extract the ZIP file.

13. Open the ODIN executable.

14. Connect your tablet with a micro-USB to USB-A adapter (Your charging cable).

15. Download TWRP recovery image by clicking here. It should work with any version on your tablet. (TWRP XDA Thread)

16. Go back to ODIN, click OK.

17. Go to 'options' tab.

18. Disable 'Auto Reboot'. (not required, keeping enabled may be needed if you can't install and/or use the device.)

19. Click the check box before 'AP'.

20. Click on 'AP'.

21. Select the TWRP file 'twrp-3.7.0_11-0-T290XXU3CVG3-20221120.tar.md5'.

For users with auto-reboot enabled: read step 22, 23 and 24 first to do it correctly.

22. Click 'start'.

23. Wait until you see 'PASS' in the left upper corner.

24. READ THIS WHOLE STEP BEFORE YOU EXECUTE IT! On your tablet, hold the Pwr+VolDown button for 10 seconds until it reboots. From then, you need to be fast. When you see the logo, hold Pwr+VolUp. When you see a warning, IMMEDIATELY press ONLY Pwr for once. After that, hold Pwr+VolUp again as fast as you can until you see the TWRP logo. You successfully managed to install custom recovery! If you fail, you must redo step 16-18 until you get into TWRP.

25. Swipe the box to the right so that you can make modifications and can install Magisk (App for ROOT) and Multidisabler (Disables VaultKeeper, so that ROOT and TWRP will not be uninstalled after normal boot).

26. On the computer, download 'Magisk-v25.2.apk' from here and 'multidisabler-samsung-3.1.zip' from below (under thread), and copy these 2 files to the root directory of the tablet's internal storage by selecting the tablet in Windows Explorer, selecting 'Internal Storage' and pasting them there. If you see weird directories, you may need a SD card connected to the tablet and paste the file there, which was my case. For SD card, you are going to select 'SD Card' instead of 'Internal Storage'.

27. Press 'Install' on tablet.

28. If you have an SD Card, click 'Select storage' and click on '(micro)SD Card'. Select 'Magisk-v25.2.apk' and then swipe to install. Wait until this is done. After that, repat step 21-22 for 'multidisabler-samsung-3.1.zip' and do the same, but this time, also click 'Wipe cache/dalvik' afterwards to make sure it can build new, fresh cache.

29. When you are done, click 'Done'.

30. Click 'Reboot' and then 'System'.

Hooray! You have rooted your SM-T290 tablet successfully. You can close/exit everything now! The app for root is 'Magisk', so verify that you have root completely by opening it, and looking at the 'Installed' column in the 'Magisk' section. If it says 'Installed 25.2 (252XX)', and ROOT is succesfully installed! If it doesn't say this, reboot into TWRP and repeat step 21-22.

(Maybe edited so please stay tuned.)

TWRP image could not be upload here due to XDA not allowing me to upload it due to the .tar.md5 file extension.

Recommended TWRP flashable ZIPs​

Open Gapps - Replaces/Installs more up-to-date apps from Google: https://opengapps.org

Samsung Game Services (by me) - Installs Samsung Game Booster + Launcher + Optimizing Service on any Samsung device with OneUI: https://github.com/minionguyjpro/Samsung-Game-Services-Installer

Troubleshooting​

Problem: 8GB on a 32GB device

Fix: Turn your device off, boot into TWRP by holding Pwr+VolDown, pressing Pwr once immediately on the warning prompt, and pressing Pwr+VolDown again, until you boot into TWRP. Then go to Wipe > Advanced Wipe > Select System > Repair or Change File System > Resize File System > Swipe to the right. If that doesn't work, you can also try the Data partition, and/or the other option 'Repair File System'.

Problem: Fast battery drain

Fix: Turn your device off, boot into TWRP by holding Pwr+VolDown, pressing Pwr once immediately on the warning prompt, and pressing Pwr+VolDown again, until you boot into TWRP. Then go to Wipe > Advanced Wipe > Select Dalvik / ART Cache > Swipe to Wipe. If that doesn't work, try to factory reset the device, look for apps that may cause a fast battery drain or use a Custom ROM that is faster and has a better battery life.

Offline instructions and data​

The offline guide and data are also available below: