What does "rooted" mean?

I am trying to recover a photo i accidentally deleted and all recover apps want the device to be rooted... what does that mean? and how do i do that?

It means that you are able to gain administrator access to the file system, which would allow you to access/edit/delete anything. There are no known methods for rooting BB phones, so unfortunately, that isn't an option for you.

As a general rule, you should never assume that the data on a mobile device is "safe" - there are countless ways to lose or break a phone or otherwise experience data loss, so if you aren't using cloud backup, then you must implement a manual backup process and you must backup on a frequent and regular basis. This is even more important if your device's storage is encrypted, which is the default on all devices from the last few years.

Originally Posted by Troy Tiscareno

It means that you are able to gain administrator access to the file system, which would allow you to access/edit/delete anything. There are no known methods for rooting BB phones, so unfortunately, that isn't an option for you.

As a general rule, you should never assume that the data on a mobile device is "safe" - there are countless ways to lose or break a phone or otherwise experience data loss, so if you aren't using cloud backup, then you must implement a manual backup process and you must backup on a frequent and regular basis. This is even more important if your device's storage is encrypted, which is the default on all devices from the last few years.

I don't assume it's safe. The folders that need to be backed up to cloud are, this was truly a mistake, a mis tap of a finger on a wrong thing. As can happen even to the most diligent person. So I'm trying to get that picture back somehow.

Originally Posted by wiz9

I don't assume it's safe. The folders that need to be backed up to cloud are, this was truly a mistake, a mis tap of a finger on a wrong thing. As can happen even to the most diligent person. So I'm trying to get that picture back somehow.

I understand - but given that the file was encrypted, even a recovery app, if you were able to get it to run (you can't) wouldn't be able to recover that file. That's by design.

Yes, of course, we all make mistakes. I've deleted things by mistake before - it sucks. At least it was a single photo. On a mobile device, it's pretty easy to lose everything, for a number of reasons, which is why backups are so important. I say this a lot because most people never really think about this stuff until it's too late, and they don't realize the implications of encrypted file systems and locked-down devices until they need to do something like this and find out it can't be done. People (not just you, but everyone reading) NEED to understand this so they can take the appropriate action - and hopefully they do. Data loss is a terrible thing.