Android in depth: what is a deodexed ROM?

Those of us who are a bit involved in the subject of development for Android and we like to fiddle with different ROMs, testing versions that are not yet fully functional, and keeping up to date with all the news regarding Android software, we find a whole series of terms and elements that are totally strange to us. Today we are going to focus on what is a ROM deodexed. You will come across this word a lot when looking for unofficial applications that can only be used with modified devices.

Una ROM deodexed It is one in which a series of files has been modified to optimize the internal memory consumption of the device. As you know, many smartphones, especially those that were launched before 2012, fill up the internal memory very quickly, causing crashes, unexpected application closings, instability, and the malfunction of the notification system. To somehow solve this problem, one of the procedures to carry out is to get the firmware of our device to be deodexed. But what is deodexed?

What does deodexed mean?

Deodexed is a word that comes from English, and that is the result of joining three elements, the term «odex», the suffix «ed» in English, and the prefix «de», which corresponds to the Spanish «des». Actually, deodexed ROMs are those from which all the "odex" files have been removed.

How to know if our ROM is deodexed?

They are files that we can find in the internal memory. If we have the smartphone rooted and we have superuser permissions, along with a file explorer that allows us to access the root folders, such as Root Explorer or File Manager, we only have to access the / system / app folder. If here we have a file with .odex format, it is that the ROMs are normal, if we do not have them, it is that it is deodexed.

What does a deodexed ROM imply on a technical level?

.Odex files are parts of applications that allow applications to run faster. They are loaded into dalvik-cache memory at system startup. However, they take up a considerable amount of space in our internal memory. To fix the problem, a rom deodexed it takes all these files and puts them all together in one common. In this way, not all of them are loaded prior to system startup, and internal memory is saved. On the other hand, speed is lost in the first execution of the applications.

Thus, when you find on the Internet that certain functions or applications are only compatible with Deodexed ROMsYou already know what it is and how you can check if the ROM you have installed is of this type. If you have any questions about Android terminology, functionality, or any other element that you do not know, we invite you to contact us through our Twitter social profile, or our Facebook page.