To start and get it out of the way:
DISCLAIMER: Typical legal stuff. Use this guide at your own risk. Author makes no claim as to guarantee, or warranty any software described in this document. The author cannot be held liable for any damages caused to your device or any other harm as a result of attempting to do anything described in this guide or anything that you choose to do with your device whatsoever. USE THIS GUIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK! MODIFY YOUR DEVICE COMPLETELY AT YOUR OWN RISK!
This is a basic guide for those wanting to root their brand new Galaxy S4 and get it to what I call general working condition. This is specifically written for and tested on the SPRINT Galaxy S4 (sph-L720) preinstalled with and running the MK2 firmware, and the links provided are for the sprint model listed. Although these basic steps may work on other galaxy S4 variants, the software specific for your model of phone will need to be downloaded. The relevant threads do link "main" threads where you can find information and downloads specific to your device model. Again, be careful.
what I call "general" working condition includes:
Root access (using CF-Auto-Root found here)
Advanced recovery (in this case using PhilZ CWM found here)
I know this is all basic stuff, however I have found that the guides so far are either overly complicated or too specific for a certain step. Don't misinterpret this as an attack or insult to the other authors of those guides. They are all very well written and great resources in their own right for their own purposes, and I had referenced many of them myself before taking the steps I chose to take. However I found that many of them are written for older stock ROM versions migrating to MK2 or again very specific for just rooting or just installing CWM. What I was looking for was what to do if you just bought an S4 a week ago preinstalled with the latest MK2 official ROM. I found that the procedure was far simpler than what I was worried about.
First, what you'll need:
samsung usb drivers, I got them directly from samsung's website and you should too. Download here.
When it comes to drivers I am far too paranoid about viruses and such to download them from anybody but the device manufacturer and I highly recommend sticking with official drivers only. Use downloaded drivers from other sources AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Odin (download here)
CF-Auto-Root (found here)
The next ones are optional and are required ONLY if you want a custom recovery installed. Currently I only have instructions for PhilZ CWM however at this point I think TWRP or any other custom recovery should flash just fine assuming they work well for your Galaxy S4.
(optional, required for custom roms, etc)PhilZ CWM found here).
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What I used (for reference): AMD A8 on Windows 8.1. Not sure if OS/System type has anything to do with it, but it is conceivable and is there for reference and possible troubleshooting. For example if this doesn't work as well on windows XP systems, we may want to know that. For now until a reason develops, assume this works well on all MODERN versions of windows (I will laugh if you fail on windows 9x/ME, seriously, laugh hard. Don't try to flash your phone on *old* OS's!)
Before you start, verify your phone is on MK2. I got my phone brand new with it preinstalled but if you got it from the store for example, it could've been sitting on a shelf for the last 3 months and not on MK2 yet. Again I wrote this guide and tested it using a phone with MK2 preinstalled and not having even seen a connection to a PC yet, root, custom flash, or anything outside of normal stock usage. This should theoretically work on a completely stock phone upgraded to MK2 however that's not what I tested with. Results may vary with variables changed. To verify your current build version, from your home screen: menu button > settings > more > about device. Look at both "software version" and "build number". if the last 3 characters in both are "MK2" then you're on the latest and greatest and can proceed. Otherwise do a system update and take your chances once your phone is finished doing its stock update. DO NOT TAKE AN OTA UPDATE IF YOUR PHONE HAS BEEN MODIFIED IN ANY WAY WITH ROOT, CUSTOM ROMS, RECOVERIES, OR ANYTHING FLASHED THAT DIDN'T COME OTA FROM SPRINT!!!!!! You may end up with a very expensive paperweight.
FIRST PART, ROOTING:
Now let's get to business. First thing, make sure you downloaded all the files listed above, including PhilZ CWM if you want a custom recovery. Most people who want root also want a custom recovery, and I like it for the backup capabilities but since it's not *absolutely* necessary I listed it as optional.
1. Install the samsung USB drivers. Your computer needs to know how to talk to your phone before we can do anything. I reccommend the official ones from the samsung site as I am incredibly leery of downloading device drivers from anywhere but the manufacturer for ANY hardware ever. Call me paranoid but that's why I don't end up with viruses and malware on my systems either I'm not saying that all of the non-samsung site downloads are bad, I'm sure others have reuploaded the official drivers to other mirrors but like I said I'm paranoid when it comes to "system modifying" type of files like drivers.
1a. reboot your computer. Yes I shoehorned this step in and didn't want to renumber everything. I didn't reboot because I was lazy but you probably should. Really, don't be lazy like me, even though it worked for me. Ok, be lazy, but at your own risk.
1b. Also, at this point if you're at all familiar with ADB and are so inclined (or paranoid) you may want to consider making a backup of your phone, however to be honest I'm not certain how well this works since ADB doesn't get root access by default. I'm sure there's a guide somewhere if you really want to make a backup of your original phone prior to flashing anything. I should do this step myself but I generally opt to wait until I get a custom recovery installed and make a nandriod backup that way because I'm lazy.
2. take a deep breath, it really isn't that scary. Take it from a guy who's now on his 4th rooted samsung device (T-Mobile Galaxy s4, Sprint Samsung Conquer, Sprint Galaxy S3, and now Sprint Galaxy S4). As long as you follow instructions CAREFULLY you should be just fine.
3. Extract the CF-Auto-Root zip file you downloaded. Again use windows explorer for two reasons: it handles zip files just fine, and it also DOESN'T handle .tar.* files so you don't run the risk of accidental double unzipping. Just copy the .tar.md5 file from the zip and place it somewhere you can find it, like your downloads folder. At this point you may want to consider moving all your downloaded and extracted files to a folder just for Galaxy S4 stuff, but that's a suggestion to help manage things easier.
4. Power off your phone if you haven't already. FULL power off, don't reboot. You may want to drop the battery to be absolutely certain, or wait another 15-20 seconds after you think it's off if you don't feel like it because you have an otterbox or something. Once you're 100% certain your phone is off, boot into download mode. This must be done *somewhat* carefully, read the following procedure completely before attempting. it's not hard but you can get frustrated by accidental aborts if you're unfamiliar with this. To boot into download mode: hold down the volume down button and press power until you feel the phone vibrate and the very second the screen lights up. RELEASE BOTH KEYS. You should see a screen come up with a warning about downloading a custom OS and asking you if you want to continue. Press Volume UP on your phone to continue. (volume down aborts and reboots the phone, now you see how this can be frustrating....). In some cases you may see the samsung logo first, but in my case it goes straight to the download screen. If you have problems going into download mode and see the samsung logo when the screen lights up instead, try holding volume down until you see a "recovery booting" or something similar message in tiny letters in the upper left corner of your screen with the samsung logo, then release volume down. DO NOT CONNECT YOUR PHONE TO YOUR COMPUTER YET!
5. Extract and open ODIN (I used odin V 3.07, it seems to work just fine). This should work fine in typical windows explorer. Just open the zip file, copy the ODIN v3.07 folder (not the exe file in that folder) to a directory of your choice. I just slapped it in my downloads folder with the zip because I'm lazy like that.
6. Now that ODIN is open, connect your phone. If you have already connected your phone prior to this, go back to step two and reread that part about following directions CAREFULLY
Assuming everything is going well, you should see a box that sasys ID:COM something light up like 0:[COM3] Don't be alarmed if it's not exactly the same com port, as long as there is one. The important part is that it has a valid com port, which will only happen if it detects your phone properly.
7. Click PDA and select the CF-Auto-Root...tar.md5 file you extracted. By default "auto reboot" and "F. Reset Time" are selected. Leave them checked. MAKE CERTAIN THAT Re-Partition IS NOT CHECKED!!!!!! Also, make sure everything else is unchecked besides PDA, auto reboot, and F. Reset time. Take a deep breath, then click "Start"
At this point your phone will reboot and do some automated stuff. You will see a big box light up in odin, ending up with "PASS!" if everything flashed well. Keep your phone connected until the phone reboots to your normal start screen. If your device goes as smoothly as mine did, it should flash the file, reboot the phone, do it's auto root process, reboot again, then go to the normal start screen. Essentially you end up with your phone exactly as you had it before, but with root. So root is *mostly* installed but we require one additional step to make sure things work smoothly.
8. open your app drawer, and then open the SuperSU app. It will load then it should inform you that KNOX is detected and ask you if you want to disable KNOX. Select yes. If you select NO and try to use root with KNOX enabled, root may not work well if at all, cause the earth to fall out of orbit, and god to punch your favorite cute furry animal. Also, you can disconnect your phone at this point, and should before continuing on.
Now you should be done. That's it. Really simple, You have root. Go forth and try not to destroy your phone with your newfound power, or read on and get a custom recovery installed and really do some stuff.
SECOND PART, INSTALLING PhilZ CWM RECOVERY:
1. READ ALL DIRECTIONS LISTED BELOW THOROUGHLY FIRST BEFORE ACTUALLY DOING ANYTHING!!! Also, this should only be done AFTER all the above steps are completed. Place phone into download mode as described in step 4 above. Quick reference: hold volume down, then press and hold power until the phone vibrates and screen lights up. Press volume up to continue.
2. Close ODIN from your previous flash if you haven't already. Once it's closed re-open it. This is in here to make sure we have a fresh ODIN window and aren't accidentally flashing root again. Once we have a nice and clean ODIN window, connect your phone. You should see the lovely COM box light up.
3. This process should look familiar to what we just did, since it basically is the same thing. This time click PDA and select the philz_touch...tar.md5 file. Also make sure "Auto Reboot" and "F. Reset time" as well as "PDA" are all checked. PDA should automatically get checked when you click the button and select a file. Make sure nothing else is checked ESPECIALLY MAKE SURE RE-PARTITION IS NOT CHECKED!!!
4. Click start. Again ODIN will send the file, and end up with "PASS!" in the big box above the COM:x box. Once it's done the phone will reboot. The original directions say it should go to recovery but my phone rebooted as normal. Disconnect your phone. To get to recovery at this point you should simply just need to power down the phone completely. Then press and hold Volume up and then press and hold power until you see "recovery booting" in tiny letters in the upper left side of the screen with the samsung logo. MAKE SURE you hold volume up before power as this makes booting into recovery MUCH easier. If you see a custom CWM looking recovery (if you have never seen cwm before, the "philz options" menu option in recovery should be a great clue that the flash was successful). If you see a charging icon come up when powering off your phone, disconnect it from your computer.
So now if everything went as smoothly as it did for me, you should have a rooted galaxy S4 with a custom recovery at the ready to help with installing fancy ROMS, firmwares, modems, mods, etc or simply making really good nandroid backups. I HIGHLY suggest that you boot into recovery and make a nandroid backup of your rom before you play around with it too much, preferably saving your backup to your external SD card. Also be sure to follow any additional instructions for any further customizations.
IMPORTANT NOTES: DO NOT take an OTA update once this is done. From what I have read it *may* brick your phone. Typically in the past on other devices it just fails and reboots but other devices didn't have things like KNOX for example. Just don't risk it. However this shouldn't be an issue as your phone should already have the latest MK2 firmware installed as of the date of this article, at least until the next update comes up. it is highly recommended that you disable the "system update" notification, and there are guides available here on XDA on how to do that. Maybe one day I will find and link them, or someone nice may find and link it for me in the replies ;p This will keep you from "accidentally" trying to install an OTA update and bricking your phone.
Any problems? You probably didn't follow a step properly, but it is possible that I forgot something or left something out. I thought I was pretty thorough however I am human and make mistakes. Just reply here and I will do my best to get back when I can, however I do have a full time job and a personal life so no guarantees on how soon replies will come.
THANKS goes to:
The entire XDA community, for all the help, resources, and everything else over the years despite my less patient moments.
Chainfire for his work on the CF-Auto-Root utility and instructions contained therein, which were included here and expanded upon. Also for his work on SuperSU which not only helps manage root access, but is nice enough to have the ability to disable KNOX automagically for us.
Phil3759 (aka PhilZ) for his work on his modified version of CWM for the galaxy S4 and other devices, and instructions (adapted for flashing the S4 specifically)
Spiricore for his reference material. I didn't use much, if any of it, here however it was very helpful in researching the galaxy S4 and rooting options. It is a great resource for those having issues flashing their phone for one reason or another. Some of the steps I *think* may be superfluous however if you REALLY want to make sure things will work, it should help. It's a nice alternative and can be found here.
daerragh for posting the download and info for ODIN, and possibly writing it unless I am misinformed. Otherwise thanks to the author of ODIN as well.
Unknownforce for more reference material, modem firmwares, kernels, and cool GS4 ROMS. Only researched his material for this article much like spiricores work, but worthy of a thanks nonetheless.
runwithme for more reference used for research in rooting for this article and my phone, and for the stock roms.
Anybody else I may have forgotten, or who have contributed to the works described above or used in this article.
reserved for future use
Another guide on how to root your S4!! Yeah!! And way to complicated again. Let me give you my simple guide and easiest method. This method also doesn't trip the knox warranty counter.
1. Turn on usb debugging on your phone.
2. Install Samsung USB drivers. If not already installed.
3. Connect your phone to your Windows PC. (No need to enter download mode, just connect as an MTP device.)
4. Run Safe Root .bat file found here & attached below(unzip the bat file from the zip file): http://www.droidviews.com/root-verizon-galaxy-s4-sch-i545-on-android-4-3-vruemk2/
(This file works on Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T so don't worry about the Verizon reference)
5. Follow instructions on screen and profit.
If you want a custom recovery installed, WHICH WILL TRIP THE KNOX WARRANTY FLAG, download goo manager from the play store and install TWRP.
Now that was easy!
cruise350 said:
Another guide on how to root your S4!! Yeah!! And way to complicated again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude cut OP some slack, I got my s4 about a month ago and can honestly say that after reading all I can about rooting an out of box s4 with knox/4.3 and mk2, no mod has set a sticky in place to explain a simple way.
All I hear is all the prior MK2 people whining about how we should read.. Guess what, we do, it's not as clear cut as pre-knox, and I can promise you, if you recently came from another phone, you would be in our boat.
Ive read where your safe root gives all your private info to someone other than nsa. Oh, that sounds like something I want to do.. Is it true? No clue, but I'll pass to be safe
All the countless posts, threads would go away if a mod would simply put a sticky near qb77's, that way we wouldn't be posting and whining to drive you all nuts!
By the way, thank you to the OP for taking your time to do this, it's more than most would do
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
ibcenu said:
Dude cut OP some slack, I got my s4 about a month ago and can honestly say that after reading all I can about rooting an out of box s4 with knox/4.3 and mk2, no mod has set a sticky in place to explain a simple way.
All I hear is all the prior MK2 people whining about how we should read.. Guess what, we do, it's not as clear cut as pre-knox, and I can promise you, if you recently came from another phone, you would be in our boat.
Ive read where your safe root gives all your private info to someone other than nsa. Oh, that sounds like something I want to do.. Is it true? No clue, but I'll pass to be safe
All the countless posts, threads would go away if a mod would simply put a sticky near qb77's, that way we wouldn't be posting and whining to drive you all nuts!
By the way, thank you to the OP for taking your time to do this, it's more than most would do
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well now there are 4 threads on the first page of the general section on how to root MK2. Besides the fact that cf autoroot works on all versions of the software and is the reason why the mods haven't stickied another thread since qbkings method is still valid. Safe Root is not the Chinese method and is safe to use. And if this forum didn't need another simple thread that is actually way over complicated. As others have said, a little searching will turn up the answers. I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade but at least when I added my post, I offered a truly simple method to root opposed to the OP.
cruise350 said:
Well now there are 4 threads on the first page of the general section on how to root MK2. Besides the fact that cf autoroot works on all versions of the software
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many people have reported issues with chain fire method on newer preloaded 4.3 phones, so how can you say it works on all..
Others have reported safe root, not safe
It's just way to many threads, to many people reporting different issues with (after mk2) newer phones, to say that what's on the 1st page works for everyone
So my 02 cents worth, a sticky of after mk2 newer phones root method would be very helpful.... Ask anyone who has a newer preloaded phone
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Saferoot and Kingo app are very easy to root. You literally click one button.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Safe root is easy, but can I flash a recovery simply by installing goo manager and flashing from inside the app? I've been flashing and rooting since the g1, and honestly this mk2 update is difficult to figure out. There are a lot of mixed answers out there. So I appreciate this post very much. Thank you sir.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Installing recovery will trip Knox.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
princebabyeater said:
Safe root is easy, but can I flash a recovery simply by installing goo manager and flashing from inside the app? I've been flashing and rooting since the g1, and honestly this mk2 update is difficult to figure out. There are a lot of mixed answers out there. So I appreciate this post very much. Thank you sir.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this is correct, can I just do this to flash custom rom without having root first? Not really worried about knox, as surely there will be a fix..eventually?
slothicka said:
If this is correct, can I just do this to flash custom rom without having root first? Not really worried about knox, as surely there will be a fix..eventually?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Goo manager requires root.
Sent from my icrap 2 using Tapatalk HD
slothicka said:
If this is correct, can I just do this to flash custom rom without having root first? Not really worried about knox, as surely there will be a fix..eventually?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, a custom recovery is still required to flash a different rom. In order to first flash a custom recovery, root is required.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Related
hi, i recently acquired my sweet DROID 3, its my first smart phone and i would like to know the very specifics of rooting it.. im very tech savvy so dont hold the info back, i know how to root it (thanks to google) but am just very wary on what all i can do with a rooted phone (compared to an unrooted one) all replies are welcome. thank you
also, if i were to root, what apps (stock apps) should i get rid of to further enhance the performance of my phone?
Sorry if the title is misleading guys, if you want to know the easiest way to root your droid go to redmondpie.com
Custom firmware is the biggest reason to root. Others would include free tethering and removing pesky bloatware.
Honestly until you start playing with bootloaders and stuff it is hard to mess up a rooted phone. The worse you will have to do is a factory reset.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
accophox, i am aware of the benefits of rooting, and i know the steps to take, but in what order? and do you know the easiest way to get rid of all those crappy stock apps?
Another newbie here....
I know the usual answer to this question is to search around this site and learn before we try these things. However, if someone could direct me to some general guide for new people for initial backing up I'd really appreciate it. It's really hard to keep all the jargon straight with all these great answers. So many assumptions are made with your abbreviated descriptions, just want clarification. This is maybe the silliest of questions and apparently the answer is obvious to most people on here because I can't find the answer.
Question:
Is there is a mostly bulletproof way of saving an image of my current D3 so that if I brick it then I can fully recover where I am now (or just back to factory once I use titanium backup)? Is that what 'safestrap' or clockwork recovery does?
I want to know if I can backup my current un-rooted state and restore it with very little risk. After that then I will just learn from poking around on here. What I THINK I want to do is this (if someone is still reading this far I will forever be in your debt if you let me know if I'm missing a step).
1. Fully backup unrooted phone in current state.
2. One-click root (I've been tempted to just do that but am afraid of doing any such thing until backup is done)
3. Buy titanium backup to always be able to restore my apps and data independent of the system files.
4. Try to debloat, see if that gets it to snappy enough...if not...
5. Probably install liberty rom...if this disables things like my corporate exchange sync then do the walk of shame back to step 1....
I really want to play with this thing, I'm willing to deal with the glitches and learn what you know....just need to know if there's a point of no return!
nathanb131 said:
I know the usual answer to this question is to search around this site and learn before we try these things. However, if someone could direct me to some general guide for new people for initial backing up I'd really appreciate it. It's really hard to keep all the jargon straight with all these great answers. So many assumptions are made with your abbreviated descriptions, just want clarification. This is maybe the silliest of questions and apparently the answer is obvious to most people on here because I can't find the answer.
Question:
Is there is a mostly bulletproof way of saving an image of my current D3 so that if I brick it then I can fully recover where I am now (or just back to factory once I use titanium backup)? Is that what 'safestrap' or clockwork recovery does?
I want to know if I can backup my current un-rooted state and restore it with very little risk. After that then I will just learn from poking around on here. What I THINK I want to do is this (if someone is still reading this far I will forever be in your debt if you let me know if I'm missing a step).
1. Fully backup unrooted phone in current state.
2. One-click root (I've been tempted to just do that but am afraid of doing any such thing until backup is done)
3. Buy titanium backup to always be able to restore my apps and data independent of the system files.
4. Try to debloat, see if that gets it to snappy enough...if not...
5. Probably install liberty rom...if this disables things like my corporate exchange sync then do the walk of shame back to step 1....
I really want to play with this thing, I'm willing to deal with the glitches and learn what you know....just need to know if there's a point of no return!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, there really is no way to back up your phone without rooting it in the first place. If you do mess up badly, like bricking it, you can always use a program called RSD (found in the Droid 3 Android Development section) to restore the stock ROM.
If you aren't 100%, a ROM is basically the OS of your phone. Think of it as different versions of Linux (which is exactly what it is).
Second, as stated earlier, by simply rooting your phone, it's hard to mess it up. Rooting merely gives your phone additional permissions. Unless you start deleting stuff in Titanium backup, you are fine.
Third, One Click Root is very idiot proof. But I will run you through a very brief guide: Download and install the driver for your respective computer's OS here and download the latest version of Pete's One Click Root. http://www.psouza4.com/droid3/ Then, enable USB debugging by going under settings-> Applications-> Development, and checking the box. Assuming you have the correct drivers installed on your computer, you should plug your phone in and allow it to recognize the device and such. After it's all done, open up Pete's One Click Root and simply click Root My Phone. Let it do it's thing, then you are done.
Fourth, I never use Titanium Backup. To make a perfect back up of your device, download Rom Manager from the app marketplace. Then download the droid 3 bootstrap at http://goo.gl/b4b6L visit that link on your phone and make sure you have "Unknown Sources" checked under application settings on your phone. Open up Rom manager and Click the top option to get the correct version of ClockworkMod Recovery for your phone. Once that is done, open up the bootstrap application you just installed and click the top option (bootstrap recovery) wait for it to say Success! then click the second option. Your phone will reboot. Using the volume buttons on the side of your phone as up and down and the power button to select options, scroll down to Backup and Restore on CWM menu that popped up (it's blue). Select Backup. Note: Make sure your battery is at least 75%. Allow it to do it's thing, it will take a while. When it is done, click Reboot Now. You now have a perfect backup of your current system.
Fifth, Debloating your phone is kind of risky, at least in my opinion. A safer option is to install an app called Script Manager and download and run the script found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1238472 Instead of removing your bloat, it simply renames it and prevents it from starting up. It also comes with an option to reverse the changes if you want bloat back.
Finally, I would recommend following this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1278056 to installing Steel Droid V3. Steel Droid is a simple Rom that doesn't require you to wipe all your data and is still pretty neat. I would run the script I mentioned earlier AFTER flashing to Steel Droid though.
Looking back, that is a **** load of text. I typed it all for you so I hope you get some use out of it
Have fun customizing your phone!
It may sound a little mean but go start reading threads. If someone tells you step by step, great you've done it but do you have any idea what you've done. All the info is in these threads. Its ridiculous how much I've learned reading every thread I can since I joined in august. When you don't understand what it is you're doing, that's when you goof **** up and post help me threads
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium
Thanks. You guys are awesome!
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
Slayer621 - a thousand thanks for the baby steps! Best walkthrough I've seen and exactly what I needed to know!
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
No problem! Just make sure you are careful. Don't do anything without checking on these forums for the possible outcomes. Deleting a seemingly useless file could make your phone a paper weight!
This is my first post and I'm going to try my best to not break a rule. If I do, I apologize in advance.
Thread thread is a sort of, "This is how I updated my phone from 4.2.2 to 4.4.2 and rooted it but your mileage may vary."
First, thanks goes to Sunderwear for his directions on how to push KitKat to the Samsung S4 Active as well as ROOT it. I rooted my 4.2.2 phone a few months ago and didn't realize doing so would prevent OTA updates. I went to the AT&T store to have them put 4.4.2 on the phone only to be told that the store didn't have the image (or whatever they said) and couldn't put it on my phone. Instead, they put 4.3, which turned out to be great because the directions pretty much have you going back to 4.3 in order to root.
BTW, if you are uninitiated, you may want to read this glossary page.
After having root in 4.2, I knew I wanted it in 4.4.2!
For the most part, I've been hesitant to flash the phone. I tried like hell to flash my first Android (Samsung S2 Skyrocket) only to brick it. (FWIW, if you can tell me how to fix it, I'd be gracious! It buzzes once and then twice and repeats.)
Anyway, I started in the thread above only to find that I now needed to download Odin. This, surprisingly, was difficult. I found this site (http://odindownload.com/) which I am convinced is some sort of hacked version of Odin because when I tried to install from there, my Symantic warned me. When I disabled it, the file tried to install a bunch of bloatware/spyware. It EVENTUALLY gave me Odin.
FYI, this thread was of no use. No download links.
Later on, after searching for something unrelated, I got to a "better" site. Unlike the link above, this site has a zip file compared to the bloat-ridden executable.
I learned that I had to use Odin 3.07 and NOT Odin 3.09. Odin 3.09 did not have the PDA button that would be central to me flashing the ROM to the phone.
I started my journey on the thread for the Stock AT&T Firmware Collection. I learned that the thread uses the last three characters of the build name to identify the build. For example, 4.3's build name is I537UCUBML2 but was referred to as "ML2". This was a bit confusing but I got the hang of it. I then went over to the 4.4.2 rooting thread. It was there that I read Sunderwear says that you need to downgrade to 4.3 to root 4.4. I was grateful that AT&T only updated me to 4.3!
Sunderwear's second post described how to root 4.4.2 if you had a rooted 4.3. Since I hadn't done that yet, I proceeded back to the firmware collection and found the thread to root my 4.3 phone.
I downloaded the files and loaded up the first file to flash. I made the mistake of keeping my phone plugged in while trying to put it in download mode. It was when I stumbled upon this page that gave me the clue that my phone had to be disconnected first before going into download mode.
Once done, I clicked Start and Odin flashed my phone! It took about 2-3 minutes.
The next step was to do saferoot. The thread didn't link it so here it is.
SafeRoot requires your phone to be in USB debugging mode. Directions were found by googling. You go to Settings, About Device, and click Build Number until you get a message saying you have enabled developer mode. Then go back out one screen and go into Debugging options and enable USB debugging.
One installed I rebooted the phone and everything worked...except for wifi and "some other stuff". The thread warned you about this so I didn't worry. I flashed the next file and rebooted. Updated SuperSU and everything worked!!
I verified that I had root by installing Root Checker.
All was great with 4.3! Now for what turned out to be the more agonizing part: Upgrading to 4.4.2.
Going back to the 4.4.2 rooting thread, I learned that all I needed to do was install SafeTrap to update to KitKat and then flash a couple more files. I downloaded pwnedkitkat.zip (link in the thread) and then installed SafeTrap. I presume that SafeTrap is some sort of bootstraping method of updating the firmware.
I copied the SafeTrap apk file, along with pwnedkitkat and the updated superSU zip files to my external SD card. Once everything was copied, I installed SafeTrap and then opened it. SafeTrap then offered me the option to install Recovery Mode. Once done, I restarted my phone.
I noticed a new splash screen after the Samsung splashscreen. I clicked the Menu button (left of home) to start the recovery process. I clicked "Install" and pointed it to the pwnedkitkat.zip file. This took the longest. Probably took 15 minutes but felt like an eternity. I wasn't sure if my phone bricked when the screen turned off! But upon turning it back on, it was still going.
The bar moved very slowly. But remained patient. After a long 15-20 minutes, it updated! SafeTrap gave me the option to reboot there but I followed the directions and installed SuperSU from the SD card. It was a quick install.
I restarted the phone! I was done!! Right?
My phone got stuck on the AT&T splash screen! I started to panic! What did I do wrong?!
I missed Sunderwear's step five:
5.Put your phone in download mode and flash the 4.4.2 stock boot.tar.md5 kernel and your phone will boot after a few minutes with root access enabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Goes to show you to read everything. I missed it due to the line break. I downloaded the boot.tar.md5 file and put the phone back into download mode and push it via PDA in Odin (I presume PDA. It wasn't explicit.)
After a few hours of chewing my nails and wondering if I bricked it:
http://imgur.com/a/UFg6u#F5qFTdq
So thanks to everyone! Now if I could only unbrick my Skyrocket!
Outstanding instructions! Thank you for this. I wish all the instructions were as clear and detailed as this is.
:good:
I tried like hell to flash my first Android (Samsung S2 Skyrocket) only to brick it. (FWIW, if you can tell me how to fix it, I'd be gracious! It buzzes once and then twice and repeats.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you mean it vibrates every 2 seconds and doesn't turn on?
:good:
Great instructions and great story. Sounds like what most people like me go through every time we try to do something like this.
jimmietilt said:
do you mean it vibrates every 2 seconds and doesn't turn on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. The last time I looked into this was almost two years ago. It just sits in my drawer now.
dajabec said:
Great instructions and great story. Sounds like what most people like me go through every time we try to do something like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think what got me was all the new terminology and unfamiliarity of flashing. Jailbreaking an iPhone (which I've done before I had an Android) is pretty simple. It's pretty much point and click. But ROMs, flashing...these all have definitions which can be a bit overwhelming, even to a technical person such as myself. I've compiled Linux kernels from scratch!
But there's something about making your phone unusable. Something that I cannot live without, especially as I'm searching for a job.
It's nerve-wracking and I especially got nervous when I was putting KitKat on since it took so long. But overall, I'm glad I did it.
Mike, I wish everyone's instructions were like yours. I am in a similar boat as you, currently on 4.2.2 rooted and unable to do an OTA. I am not really sure what to do as I do not want my phone to be wiped. Did you bring your phone to an ATT store or a Device Support Center? And when they flashed 4.3 did your phone lose anything?
Agent. said:
Mike, I wish everyone's instructions were like yours. I am in a similar boat as you, currently on 4.2.2 rooted and unable to do an OTA. I am not really sure what to do as I do not want my phone to be wiped. Did you bring your phone to an ATT store or a Device Support Center? And when they flashed 4.3 did your phone lose anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Backup using Samsung kies and go find the 4.3 Odin package. Hell I just use the Google backup feature which is good enough for me.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
rdh28 said:
Backup using Samsung kies and go find the 4.3 Odin package. Hell I just use the Google backup feature which is good enough for me.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want to go through all of the trouble of reconfiguring all of my settings, restoring all of my app specific stuff, and just getting everything back the way I had it. Does Kies backup every little thing or just app data and contacts etc?
Agent. said:
I don't want to go through all of the trouble of reconfiguring all of my settings, restoring all of my app specific stuff, and just getting everything back the way I had it. Does Kies backup every little thing or just app data and contacts etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure but if you really want to upgrade it's worth the thirty minutes it takes to reconfigure
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Agent. said:
I don't want to go through all of the trouble of reconfiguring all of my settings, restoring all of my app specific stuff, and just getting everything back the way I had it. Does Kies backup every little thing or just app data and contacts etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Titanium Backup. Just make sure you don't restore system apps and you'll be fine.
rdh28 said:
Not sure but if you really want to upgrade it's worth the thirty minutes it takes to reconfigure
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, I will probably do it this summer, I'm just really busy right now and can't afford to risk anything happen to my phone
Devo7v said:
Use Titanium Backup. Just make sure you don't restore system apps and you'll be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The system apps are one of the primary issues as that is what needs to be reconfigured, other apps can be backed up and restored easily.
Agent. said:
I am not really sure what to do as I do not want my phone to be wiped. Did you bring your phone to an ATT store or a Device Support Center? And when they flashed 4.3 did your phone lose anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I took mine to the AT&T device support center. I called before going in and they pretty much told me it was going to be destructive. I had previously wiped my phone earlier that day in the hopes that it would receive the OTA update.
I'm not going to lie: it's nerve-wracking, but straight forward. I know sometimes it helps to have someone hold your hand while you do it. And for me, it was definitely in the camp of, "What am I going to do if my phone craps out on me?"
But like what someone else said: you can back up your settings within Keis. I didn't. I just did a wipe. I backed up my photos but that's about it. Everything else was in the cloud. The one thing I should have done was transfer my Authenticator keys to another device because I couldn't log into AWS (which does not give out backup codes like Google). I did end up switching to Authy (I can't link to it since I'm such a new user but you can find it in the Play Store) which allows you to have more than one device. It shares your secret key between devices so it's technically less secure. But I needed the flexibility in case my phone crapped out on me again.
Pro Tip: to install all your apps again, go to the Google play store on your device and click "My Apps". Long hold one of the apps and then select the check boxes of the apps you want to install.
And hey if you run into anything there's plenty of people who check this forum regularly. I've managed to root 4.2.2 , 4.3, and 4.4.2 while retaining full functionality, just from this forum...the information is out there good luck!!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Agent. said:
I know, I will probably do it this summer, I'm just really busy right now and can't afford to risk anything happen to my phone
The system apps are one of the primary issues as that is what needs to be reconfigured, other apps can be backed up and restored easily.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What system apps need to be reconfigured? I can't really see that many that it would take you more than 15 to 20 minutes.
Thank you guys, I need to get my phone serviced anyway as there is a yellow dot in the top left of the screen that won't go away. So if AT&T sends me a new phone I can do all of the dirty work and then transfer everything side by side from the old device. If they won't for whatever reason I will do what you guys suggested. So just to be clear I should follow the instructions to Odin to 4.3, root, then follow the upgrade/root instructions to 4.4.2?
Agent. said:
So just to be clear I should follow the instructions to Odin to 4.3, root, then follow the upgrade/root instructions to 4.4.2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally thing this is better since if you have 4.4.2 already, you have to downgrade to 4.3, root it and then put 4.4.2 on it.
So this is my first Nexus device. I'm coming from and S4 followed by a Note 3 so I'm kinda used to the samsung environment and don't want to screw anything up. I have a couple of questions.
First, if I root with CF-Auto Root, does the tool wipe all of the current data?
Second, how will rooting the phone affect the OTA updates and their availability?
Third, are the root apps already compatible with 5.0/Nexus 6?
Thank you!
Cf auto root does not remove all data per se, but unlocking your phone will if it is not.. And it's part of the process.
Rooting probably doesn't affect OTAs, and if it does, can easily be undone.
Yes, I haven't found a common root app that isn't compatible.
Dankchild said:
So this is my first Nexus device. I'm coming from and S4 followed by a Note 3 so I'm kinda used to the samsung environment and don't want to screw anything up. I have a couple of questions.
First, if I root with CF-Auto Root, does the tool wipe all of the current data?
Second, how will rooting the phone affect the OTA updates and their availability?
Third, are the root apps already compatible with 5.0/Nexus 6?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. No it does not wipe your data unless your bootloader was locked.
2. It has no effect. You'll be able to accept the OTA and lose root (you can enable a survival script).
3. Yes.
Dankchild said:
So this is my first Nexus device. I'm coming from and S4 followed by a Note 3 so I'm kinda used to the samsung environment and don't want to screw anything up. I have a couple of questions.
First, if I root with CF-Auto Root, does the tool wipe all of the current data?
Second, how will rooting the phone affect the OTA updates and their availability?
Third, are the root apps already compatible with 5.0/Nexus 6?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
some people here are wrong, will it wipe data? for the first time (when unlocking the OEM) yes. Lollipop now has a different way to check ROOTING, once it detects you modified ANY file in the system core files, it aborts. To work around this, either use a ROM and upgrade via FLASHING (which i do) or use NEXUS ROOT TOOLKIT. Using the toolkit (which is very noob friendly) allows everything to be done by a click. BUT, to upgrade via toolkit, (ota) you need to flash stock which in the toolkit completely wipe system, then unroot, then update, then reroot and flash whatever ROM you want, which would again wipe your device. the way i do it is easier, it requires no wiping and i get to keep my ROM at all times and i get earlier versions (depending on ROM creators) then OTA, i currently have 5.0.2 on my nexus 6, which isnt ven out yet OTA. :fingers-crossed:
TheSkillfulTroll said:
some people here are wrong, will it wipe data? for the first time (when unlocking the OEM) yes. Lollipop now has a different way to check ROOTING, once it detects you modified ANY file in the system core files, it aborts. To work around this, either use a ROM and upgrade via FLASHING (which i do) or use NEXUS ROOT TOOLKIT. Using the toolkit (which is very noob friendly) allows everything to be done by a click. BUT, to upgrade via toolkit, (ota) you need to flash stock which in the toolkit completely wipe system, then unroot, then update, then reroot and flash whatever ROM you want, which would again wipe your device. the way i do it is easier, it requires no wiping and i get to keep my ROM at all times and i get earlier versions (depending on ROM creators) then OTA, i currently have 5.0.2 on my nexus 6, which isnt ven out yet OTA. :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People modify the OTA zip to remove the abort of installation if any system files are modified/removed. Of course this can lead to problems, but can also be successful most of the times. Depends on what the user modifies.
Nexus Root Toolkits, I highly do not encourage users to use this. As easy as they are, they prevent users from learning about fastboot and adb. They are essential things to learn and relying on a program to do them for you is not good practice especially when it is quite easy to do it manually. If everybody used the toolkit then no body would understand how its done.
The part about custom ROMs, I recommend using custom ROMs. There are many to browse through, it depends on what you're looking for. Its very exciting to look at all the ROMs to select one to try, just to be eager to try another ROM for fun.
You can read more about toolkits @ http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/dangers-tool-kits-one-click-root-t1469909
Very good read.
zephiK said:
People modify the OTA zip to remove the abort of installation if any system files are modified/removed. Of course this can lead to problems, but can also be successful most of the times. Depends on what the user modifies.
Nexus Root Toolkits, I highly do not encourage users to use this. As easy as they are, they prevent users from learning about fastboot and adb. They are essential things to learn and relying on a program to do them for you is not good practice especially when it is quite easy to do it manually. If everybody used the toolkit then no body would understand how its done.
The part about custom ROMs, I recommend using custom ROMs. There are many to browse through, it depends on what you're looking for. Its very exciting to look at all the ROMs to select one to try, just to be eager to try another ROM for fun.
You can read more about toolkits @ http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/dangers-tool-kits-one-click-root-t1469909
Very good read.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the toolkit helps alot of new comers who have no idea on what to do, sure they can try the manual way, but doing so can end up very bad as its not easy to revert, while the toolkit helps by being able to bring you back from bricks. i started off using the toolkit and now i just use flashify for rom installations, if anything goes wrong (a brick) i just have tbe option to use the toolkit to set me back to pure stock and factory condition.
TheSkillfulTroll said:
the toolkit helps alot of new comers who have no idea on what to do, sure they can try the manual way, but doing so can end up very bad as its not easy to revert, while the toolkit helps by being able to bring you back from bricks. i started off using the toolkit and now i just use flashify for rom installations, if anything goes wrong (a brick) i just have tbe option to use the toolkit to set me back to pure stock and factory condition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its very easy to do manually, if it was a long and tedious step such as G1 rooting or manually exploiting a phone then a toolkit is reasonable.
For Nexus 6, its as simple as.
1. install drivers & fastboot.
2. bootloader mode (vol down + power)
3. fastboot oem unlock
4. fastboot flash recovery <name-of-recovery>.img
5. flash supersu
A very good sticky guide is posted, http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/how-to-nexus-6-one-beginners-guide-t2948481
And we all know that regardless if you use a Root Toolkit, you MUST read before you do anything.
Toolkit doesn't really help you bring you back from bricks, in fact I would argue that it does the opposite. You're relying on a program to do what you're supposed to do. In my experience of helping people in XDA forums, they've used toolkits and got themselves into bad positions and wasn't sure how to fix their problem or the toolkit soft-bricking their device. They had to learn fastboot / adb to resolve their issue.
Read the dangers of toolkits, they're not as fancy as people view it to be. Its not difficult to do the tasks manually. Very easy to do. I was able to root/unlock my N6 in a minute since I already had the environment set up.
Think of it this way, you have math homework. You can either go input it into the calculator and have the answer. Congrats, you have the answer but did you understand how they got to that step? No not really.
Its imperative for any user on XDA to learn the fastboot/adb step, its not difficult as I've mentioned time and time again. It takes some reading, but it'll save you time because later down the line you'll understand why you did what you did and you can get yourself out of situations instead of going to Q&A and asking for someone help on how to get back to factory or a soft-brick situation.
A snippet from the link above,
The people who are using these scripts aren't learning what is actually happening when they press 1 on their keyboard. Boom, their phone is unlocked, su-binaries and cwm recovery installed. Then, they flash a rom without creating a nandroid. What happens if something goes wrong and they didn't place any safety nets to help them? They post a thread saying their phone is bricked. People take time out of their day to help these people out, but since the user doesn't understand what the helper is talking about, they can't fix it.
Just last weekend I spent 30 minutes replying to a PM with step by step instructions how to flash stock images and including links to files and resources. The person replied back. Instead of fixing his phone himself, he said he "claimed his phone as stolen and will be getting sent a new one lol". WTF?! Not only is that morally wrong, it's also insurance fraud. And we wonder why carriers and OEM's are trying as hard as they can to lock down non-nexus phones.
Please, take the time to learn how to get yourself out of a mess before you are in a mess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If someone can't take a couple minutes out of their time to follow a step-by-step guide then they shouldn't be tinkering with their device.
For information sake (I have already rooted via TK) your post actually does prove a point. For myself and maybe others, would you be willing to P.M me the instructions to do it via ADB/Fastboot just in case , I , myself get screwed over. Thanks Z
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
flash you phone manually you will learn a lot about how the toolkits work.
I find it faster to flash manually than to use a tool kit.
once an OTA is available you can grap the image from the google site and flash the files manually.
There is a way to manually flash you phone and save userdata so you keep all your apps.
One you learn and get a little practice It will be so easy you will be able to flash like it is second nature. (I was a noob that came from iphone and jailbreaking)
I can actually flash the files manually faster that an OTA can update a phone and I type with maybe a total of 6 fingers. because i never took a typing class
zephiK said:
Its very easy to do manually, if it was a long and tedious step such as G1 rooting or manually exploiting a phone then a toolkit is reasonable.
For Nexus 6, its as simple as.
1. install drivers & fastboot.
2. bootloader mode (vol down + power)
3. fastboot oem unlock
4. fastboot flash recovery <name-of-recovery>.img
5. flash supersu
A very good sticky guide is posted, http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/how-to-nexus-6-one-beginners-guide-t2948481
And we all know that regardless if you use a Root Toolkit, you MUST read before you do anything.
Toolkit doesn't really help you bring you back from bricks, in fact I would argue that it does the opposite. You're relying on a program to do what you're supposed to do. In my experience of helping people in XDA forums, they've used toolkits and got themselves into bad positions and wasn't sure how to fix their problem or the toolkit soft-bricking their device. They had to learn fastboot / adb to resolve their issue.
Read the dangers of toolkits, they're not as fancy as people view it to be. Its not difficult to do the tasks manually. Very easy to do. I was able to root/unlock my N6 in a minute since I already had the environment set up.
Think of it this way, you have math homework. You can either go input it into the calculator and have the answer. Congrats, you have the answer but did you understand how they got to that step? No not really.
Its imperative for any user on XDA to learn the fastboot/adb step, its not difficult as I've mentioned time and time again. It takes some reading, but it'll save you time because later down the line you'll understand why you did what you did and you can get yourself out of situations instead of going to Q&A and asking for someone help on how to get back to factory or a soft-brick situation.
A snippet from the link above,
If someone can't take a couple minutes out of their time to follow a step-by-step guide then they shouldn't be tinkering with their device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you provide to me instructions on a manual way? Like the other poster said I would like to learn to manually flash OEM unlucks and root and Roms (if possible) thanks Z! P.M ME if you decide to thanks!
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
if you have drivers installed already from first link above then you can follow these steps:
Download the required factory image files to your computer and extract them
1) Create an empty directory. All of the files that are required, need to be in one (i.e., the same) directory. It does not matter what it is called, but all the files need to be in there, with NO subfolders. EVERYTHING needs to be extracted into this one directory; (it is easier this way)
2) If all you want to do is unlock your bootloader, skip to step 6 in this section.
3) Download the version of Android you want to your new directory. Make sure you are using a nexus 6 image.
4) Extract the files from within the .tgz file which you downloaded in step 3 using 7-zip, not WinZip or WinRAR or whatever.
5) Make sure you have extracted ALL the files (including extracting any files in any archives inside the .tgz file). You should have six (6) files ending with .img in the directory you created in step 1. The other files you extracted from the .tgz are not necessary;
6) Reboot your device into bootloader mode (by turning it off, hold volume down, and press and hold power) and plug it into your computer;
7) Open a command prompt in the same directory (i.e., make sure you are in the same directory as your files are located). You can hold the shift key when you are in the folder in Windows explorer and right-click in a blank spot and it will open a command prompt. In Ubuntu just cd to the directory.
Type in the commands into the command prompt
1) Make sure your computer recognizes your device by typing: fastboot devices
2) Unlock your bootloader (if you have not already done so): fastboot oem unlock
3) You will see a prompt on your device. This will wipe your entire device (including the /sdcard folder). Accept. Note: you use the volume keys to change the option and the power button to accept. You cannot use the touch screen.
4) Reboot by typing: fastboot reboot-bootloader
5) Flash the bootloader: fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-some-description-number.img (or whatever the name of the bootloader image that you downloaded).
6) Reboot: fastboot reboot-bootloader
7) Flash the radio: fastboot flash radio radio-some-description-number.img (or whatever the name is of the radio image that you downloaded).
8) Reboot: fastboot reboot-bootloader
9) Flash the system partition: fastboot flash system system.img
10) Optional, but read note. Flash the data partition: fastboot flash userdata userdata.img Note: this command will wipe your device (including /sdcard), EVEN if your bootloader is already unlocked.
11) Flash the kernel/ramdisk: fastboot flash boot boot.img
12) Flash the recovery partition: fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
13) Erase the cache partition: fastboot format cache
14) Reboot: fastboot reboot
15) Done! The first boot will likely take quite a bit longer than you are used to, as Android builds the cache.
Now you have a fully stock image on your device. The only thing that is different from out-of-the-box condition is that your bootloader is unlocked.
No you can root or decrypt. Search for directions on the forum or the internet.
I'm not the original writer of these instructions, but I found these helpful to people wanting the step by step instructions.
TheSkillfulTroll said:
Can you provide to me instructions on a manual way? Like the other poster said I would like to learn to manually flash OEM unlucks and root and Roms (if possible) thanks Z! P.M ME if you decide to thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read the first couple of posts of the following threads. The first talks about how to root, and the other, about how to flash the factory images. Very detailed.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/how-to-nexus-6-one-beginners-guide-t2948481
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/guide-flash-factory-images-nexus-6shamu-t2954008
If someone can't take a couple minutes out of their time to follow a step-by-step guide then they shouldn't be tinkering with their device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How true. I certainly don't want a paper weight...
Larzzzz82 said:
How true. I certainly don't want a paper weight...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, and if they believe that everything is magical and click on a button "yay I rooted, unlocked my bootloader." Sure you saved time by clicking a button rather than following a step-by-step guide which is quite easy, what happens when you encounter a problem like a soft brick? Questions on whether or not you can flash a older radio etc?
A toolkit can't do that for you, by finding out why something works this way will be better in the long run. I don't mind answering questions but what I do mind is when people use toolkits for something that is already so easy. For Samsung and other manufacturers that lock down their bootloaders, I fully understand why toolkits are needed because they are not unlockable via bootloader mode (unless its HTC, OnePlus, and some other exception) and requires a exploit to obtain root access (e.g. Towelroot).
For Nexus devices (and HTC/OnePlus/etc) devices where the company gave you a "fastboot oem unlock." Use it very simple to do. The hardest part is installing a driver and fastboot executable, which if you have a mac you don't even need the driver. Once you do it once, you're set for life on that computer. When I unlocked my N6, I just literally plugged it in... activated the OEM unlock via developer options and went into bootloader mode and typed fastboot oem unlock.
Finished that all in one minute.
zephiK said:
Exactly, and if they believe that everything is magical and click on a button "yay I rooted, unlocked my bootloader." Sure you saved time by clicking a button rather than following a step-by-step guide which is quite easy, what happens when you encounter a problem like a soft brick? Questions on whether or not you can flash a older radio etc?
A toolkit can't do that for you, by finding out why something works this way will be better in the long run. I don't mind answering questions but what I do mind is when people use toolkits for something that is already so easy. For Samsung and other manufacturers that lock down their bootloaders, I fully understand why toolkits are needed because they are not unlockable via bootloader mode (unless its HTC, OnePlus, and some other exception) and requires a exploit to obtain root access (e.g. Towelroot).
For Nexus devices (and HTC/OnePlus/etc) devices where the company gave you a "fastboot oem unlock." Use it very simple to do. The hardest part is installing a driver and fastboot executable, which if you have a mac you don't even need the driver. Once you do it once, you're set for life on that computer. When I unlocked my N6, I just literally plugged it in... activated the OEM unlock via developer options and went into bootloader mode and typed fastboot oem unlock.
Finished that all in one minute.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree the hardest part for me was on windows trying to get the stupid drivers to work correctly.
Dumped windows for Linux and followed the manual steps i found on XDA and never looked back.
No drivers needed in Linux either.
TheSkillfulTroll said:
some people here are wrong, will it wipe data? for the first time (when unlocking the OEM) yes. Lollipop now has a different way to check ROOTING, once it detects you modified ANY file in the system core files, it aborts. To work around this, either use a ROM and upgrade via FLASHING (which i do) or use NEXUS ROOT TOOLKIT. Using the toolkit (which is very noob friendly) allows everything to be done by a click. BUT, to upgrade via toolkit, (ota) you need to flash stock which in the toolkit completely wipe system, then unroot, then update, then reroot and flash whatever ROM you want, which would again wipe your device. the way i do it is easier, it requires no wiping and i get to keep my ROM at all times and i get earlier versions (depending on ROM creators) then OTA, i currently have 5.0.2 on my nexus 6, which isnt ven out yet OTA. :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is my main concern. Back in my Samsung days, i remember flashing ROMs everyday, but the whole wiping got really annoying. When i got my Nexus 5 i just kept it stock. Now I do want to root to use the double tap to wake and the LED, but i don't want to wipe everytime there's an update. From what I remember, whenever you flash a ROM you have to wipe the phone. So is there a way around having to wipe your phone completely everytime there's an update?
miike1106 said:
Yes, this is my main concern. Back in my Samsung days, i remember flashing ROMs everyday, but the whole wiping got really annoying. When i got my Nexus 5 i just kept it stock. Now I do want to root to use the double tap to wake and the LED, but i don't want to wipe everytime there's an update. From what I remember, whenever you flash a ROM you have to wipe the phone. So is there a way around having to wipe your phone completely everytime there's an update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Say you flashed SimpleAosp which is currently 5.0.2, whenever 5.0.3 comes out you need to Download it on your phone, open flashify and boot into TWRP, in there you need click install then DONT WIPE, find the updated version and flash over the current one, reboot and bam, you have new version and you didn't lose anything. Only do this method if you are transition from the same ROM to a new one, if you decided to go from SimpleAosp to liquidsmooth you need to wipe.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
TheSkillfulTroll said:
Say you flashed SimpleAosp which is currently 5.0.2, whenever 5.0.3 comes out you need to Download it on your phone, open flashify and boot into TWRP, in there you need click install then DONT WIPE, find the updated version and flash over the current one, reboot and bam, you have new version and you didn't lose anything. Only do this method if you are transition from the same ROM to a new one, if you decided to go from SimpleAosp to liquidsmooth you need to wipe.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah ok, this is what i was looking for.
miike1106 said:
Ah ok, this is what i was looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or... You could live dangerously and try a dirty flash first every time... Worst case... You go back and wipe in recovery
miike1106 said:
Yes, this is my main concern. Back in my Samsung days, i remember flashing ROMs everyday, but the whole wiping got really annoying. When i got my Nexus 5 i just kept it stock. Now I do want to root to use the double tap to wake and the LED, but i don't want to wipe everytime there's an update. From what I remember, whenever you flash a ROM you have to wipe the phone. So is there a way around having to wipe your phone completely everytime there's an update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can dirty flash but this is only the case when you update from the same ROM to a newer update of the version.
When we say wipe, it only wipes the OS not internal storage.
I have a nexus 6. The sound quality is horrible with headphones and the speakers. I unlocked the bootloader, rooted the nexus 6. A lot of the custom roms I have tried freeze during installation and soft brick the phone. The only rom that works is the stock rom.
alucke
That's a rather non-descript post. Who's your carrier, what Rom's are you talking about, any custom kernels, did you perform a wipe before installing? As far as the Audio goes, I've got no complaints from the speakers nor using headphones (both hardwired and BT headphones). You do realize that the first boot after installing a fresh Rom can take several minutes, some as long as 8 minutes while everything is set in place. More info so that we can help, please.
alucke said:
I have a nexus 6. The sound quality is horrible with headphones and the speakers. I unlocked the bootloader, rooted the nexus 6. A lot of the custom roms I have tried freeze during installation and soft brick the phone. The only rom that works is the stock rom.
alucke
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol your doing something wrong.
i have flashed most of the available roms, in total hundreds of times, never failed to boot, not even once.
i know i say this often, but ill say it again(even if im wrong this time).. i bet you used used a toolkit to root your device. too bad that you learn absolutely nothing from a toolkit. what you should do is put your phone down, and not touch it until you do some serious research into your device. how you do things properly, what can you flash, etc. these are things that you have to do before you ever root your device.
Is this a rant or are you asking for help? This is a development forum, so not really the place to rant. If you want help, please ask specific questions whilst supplying relevant information
Need education
simms22 said:
i know i say this often, but ill say it again(even if im wrong this time).. i bet you used used a toolkit to root your device. too bad that you learn absolutely nothing from a toolkit. what you should do is put your phone down, and not touch it until you do some serious research into your device. how you do things properly, what can you flash, etc. these are things that you have to do before you ever root your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct. Where do I go for help and advice upon this phone OS? I am willing to learn but know of no courses or clubs to join. I am taking lessons online at the Google developers site. This is a start but slow go. As an update, my soft bricked Nexus6 is back in order. I some how managed to use the Root Tool Kit and "pushed" the factory to the phone. I assume this restored my ABD and debug thereby establishing USB connection between PC and phone. I then wiped Cache, system and Dvalick. and loaded Cyanogen Mod 12.1 and Gapps. For a while there I lost debug and was never able to open the phone and enable it.
Still,I would like to know the alternate way such as sideload ABD and commands, Fastboot, Bootloader, etc.. Thank you.
---------- Post added 21st September 2015 at 12:09 AM ---------- Previous post was 20th September 2015 at 11:59 PM ----------
simms22 said:
i know i say this often, but ill say it again(even if im wrong this time).. i bet you used used a toolkit to root your device. too bad that you learn absolutely nothing from a toolkit. what you should do is put your phone down, and not touch it until you do some serious research into your device. how you do things properly, what can you flash, etc. these are things that you have to do before you ever root your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct. Where do I go for help and advice upon this Android phone OS? I am willing to learn but know of no courses or clubs to join. I am taking lessons online by self at the Google developers site. This is a start but slow go. As an update, my soft bricked Nexus 6 is back in order. I some how managed to use the Root Tool Kit v2.0.4 and "pushed" the factory, I downloaded from Google, to the phone. I assume this restored my ABD allowing debug thereby establishing USB connection between PC and Nexus 6, I then wiped Cache, system and Dvalick. and loaded Cyanogen Mod 12.1 and Gapps. For a while there I lost debug and was never able to open the Nexus 6 bootloader or Fastboot.
Still,I would like to know the alternate way such as sideload ABD and commands, Fastboot, Bootloader, etc.. Thank you.
This is the most idiotic post I've seen here all day. Seriously sell your nexus 6 and go buy a different phone if you don't like the phone or face the fact that you either don't know how to use a nexus device or you have a defective phone. But I'm almost entirely convinced this is 100% user error
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
ray6279 said:
You are correct. Where do I go for help and advice upon this phone OS? I am willing to learn but know of no courses or clubs to join. I am taking lessons online at the Google developers site. This is a start but slow go. As an update, my soft bricked Nexus6 is back in order. I some how managed to use the Root Tool Kit and "pushed" the factory to the phone. I assume this restored my ABD and debug thereby establishing USB connection between PC and phone. I then wiped Cache, system and Dvalick. and loaded Cyanogen Mod 12.1 and Gapps. For a while there I lost debug and was never able to open the phone and enable it.
Still,I would like to know the alternate way such as sideload ABD and commands, Fastboot, Bootloader, etc.. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here is a good place to start
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/how-to-nexus-6-one-beginners-guide-t2948481
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/noob-read-adb-fastboot-how-help-t3006500
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/guide-flash-factory-images-nexus-6shamu-t2954008
good luck!
Android documentation is kinda lacking
Its not terrible... Its just not entirely coherent, well organized or complete. A lot of poking around and learn by doing, patching together threads that document how things work ect...
Here is my suggestion:
Follow the second link posted by simms22 above, this one here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/noob-read-adb-fastboot-how-help-t3006500
Go here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images?hl=en
And download the latest image for your phone (shamu, the images at the bottom of the list are most recent. All carriers currently use same build, unless your on tmobile or Fi)
Use some kind of unzipping program (not sure if winrar can do .tgz, if not just google "Windows .tgz") to decompress the image you download. This will have a few .img files in it and a .zip Unzip the .zip for the rest of the partition images for the phone.
With these you can use fastboot to re-format partition to stock.
Here is an older guide, while devices may vary a little... and things have changed since 2011, were still mostly talking about system, boot, recovery, data....
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile...plained-boot-system-recovery-data-cache-misc/
I would say read through the above guides thoroughly, then manually update your phone to stock.
You will notice the stock flash-all script will
Code:
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-shamu-moto-apq8084-71.10.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
ping -n 5 127.0.0.1 >nul
fastboot flash radio radio-shamu-d4.0-9625-02.101.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
ping -n 5 127.0.0.1 >nul
fastboot -w update image-shamu-lmy48m.zip
You probably don't want to do all this... You will notice the last command I showed is fastboot -w update image-shamu-lmy48m.zip (assuming you downloaded the lmy48m image)
We already unzipped this, so rather then flash it in bulk (flashing userdata.img will wipe device) lets flash everything but leave data in place.
So get fastboot working, go to bootloader, and as the script does
With fastboot:
Flash the bootloader
then use fastboot to reboot, to the bootloader
flash the radio
then use fastboot to reboot to the bootloader
then fasboot flash system, recovery, boot and cache images, skipping userdata to avoid wiping the sd card.
At this point reboot. It may take a while for the first boot as android sets itself up and optimizing applications. If things appear to be hung give it 10 minutes before forcing a reboot checking your images and trying again. Pay attention to the output of the commands and make sure there are no errors. If there are read them, and google them.
Now you should be able to boot, and you will be fully stock. This is what it takes to recover from almost any situation. Often you can just flash system to update. Boot will overwrite your kernel, so it is often skipped when custom kernels are used... particularly when not encrypted.
Now find the website for twrp and find the image for your device, then go back to bootloader mode and flash recovery, after flashing reboot directly to recovery.
Also find chainfire's website with the recovery flashable supersu (should be a .zip)
Make sure the supersu install zip is on your phone, and the recovery is on your computer.
Reboot to bootloader and fastboot flash twrp to your recovery partition, then immediately reboot to recovery mode to finish the install.
In recovery make a backup of your working stock system.
After that install supersu
Reboot, and you should be stock and rooted with a backup of your completely stock system.
From here if your want to install a rom reboot to recovery, wipe caches, system and data. On future upgrades backup first, and try only wiping system and caches, then flash the new version of the rom and you wont have to set anything back up. You will have to reinstall xposed if your use it, as well as supersu if your rom does not include it for some reason.
If you do all that, read those guides to the point where you understand each step, and read the thread or at least the last hand full of pages of any rom or utility that you use... Things should work pretty good.
It so easy for some to assume user error, the phone might be a defective I know hate the layout of mine, and out of 13 android phones currently this d*m thing is the only one that freezes on me and will not show up in Linux (two versions) or windows 7 and it still stock. I have hated the phone from day two and tried very hard to use it stock for as long i could. I finally said screw it and went back to my old lg g flex till just died.. I wish i could sell this...but I am stuck trying to make it work. still cant even make it show up in any os and that makes it a bit hard to do anything (and yes my USB ports and drivers and cables are fine i have checked)
And likewise to this post , useless as well
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app
nevermind
simms22 said:
nevermind
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:laugh: :laugh:
Was going to post, and had this thought also....
btw JJD loves his N6 and his speakers Rock!
#nuffsaid
Nexus 6 ftw!
disturb1 said:
It so easy for some to assume user error, the phone might be a defective I know hate the layout of mine, and out of 13 android phones currently this d*m thing is the only one that freezes on me and will not show up in Linux (two versions) or windows 7 and it still stock. I have hated the phone from day two and tried very hard to use it stock for as long i could. I finally said screw it and went back to my old lg g flex till just died.. I wish i could sell this...but I am stuck trying to make it work. still cant even make it show up in any os and that makes it a bit hard to do anything (and yes my USB ports and drivers and cables are fine i have checked)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is user error.
SOME hardware is bad... But people like to view their phones as these temperamental beasts that "need to settle" and "all have their own intricacies"
Its a computer. Is this the way we look at laptops?
Two, or two hundred version of linux... Doesn't really matter because linux is a kernel and MTP implementation is handled separately. Not Nexus' fault that you didn't configure linux correctly, or that you expected someone else to do it for you for free, and they didn't do it either.
What file manager do you use, and did you have gvfs-mtp or kio-mtp installed?
What utilities were you using to mount the mtp drive?
These instructions are for arch linux, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MTP#simple-mtpfs (I use simple mtpfs), adapt them to your distro, find your distros documentation.
But then you don't really need it to show up in the OS? Does fastboot recognize it? Have you installed udev rules for it?
ok, thanks for all the input. I will give the nexus 6 a try again, root it. Can anyone point me to a custom rom that is somewhat close to stock?
I like Pure Nexus
scryan said:
It is user error.
SOME hardware is bad... But people like to view their phones as these temperamental beasts that "need to settle" and "all have their own intricacies"
Its a computer. Is this the way we look at laptops?
Two, or two hundred version of linux... Doesn't really matter because linux is a kernel and MTP implementation is handled separately. Not Nexus' fault that you didn't configure linux correctly, or that you expected someone else to do it for you for free, and they didn't do it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if I just have issues with lollipop or the hardware and lollipop
I have it rooted now and also still hate it I don't have the sound issues that some have but freezing was a constant with nexus T-Mobile stock ROM or maybe I have a lucky lemon ether way
I don't blame others or look to others to do my rooting rom installation or themes nor do I assume that it the phone every time all I am saying is we need to stop blaming every confused user as noob and assume people are not trying to learn
I been here 3 years but I lurk and learn and move on but I constantly see issues of flaming it is sad ...I see your reply and that fact that you offered help is what I like to see what I would offer if I knew an answer..
Honestly I am just not a fan of the phone but I made my bed and in it I must... hack at it till I am happy...
Coming from an iPhone I'm used to connecting the phone to iTunes via USB, downloading a fresh version of the OS and restoring the phone. Then I have the option of setting up as new or restoring a backup.
I would like to know if there's a way to do something like that with my Note 8. I realize I can reset everything from within the settings app but I would like to wipe it clean and install a fresh copy of Nougat 7.1.1.
Is this possible? Also just in case it comes up I'm not interested in rooting at this point in time.
Thanks!!
rocknblogger said:
Coming from an iPhone I'm used to connecting the phone to iTunes via USB, downloading a fresh version of the OS and restoring the phone. Then I have the option of setting up as new or restoring a backup.
I would like to know if there's a way to do something like that with my Note 8. I realize I can reset everything from within the settings app but I would like to wipe it clean and install a fresh copy of Nougat 7.1.1.
Is this possible? Also just in case it comes up I'm not interested in rooting at this point in time.
Thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure there is a ton of posts on here discussing Odin and what it is used for, as well if you look under guides I have posted the stock firmware and links to odin.
Go here for that stuff: https://forum.xda-developers.com/sp...stock-restore-odin-recovery-software-t3668888
Basics : Odin is like ITunes , you select the firmware to install to the device and push it to phone, it wipes phone and installs the software selected.
There are only a few limitations of ODIN, that being that if the firmware is set to Anti-Rollback you can not go back to any version older then the 1st revision of that rollback version.
Example : N950USQU1AQI5 This is the latest version for sprint currently there are 3 parts of this explained below.
The QI5 is the version identifier.
N950U is the variant the software is designed to be used with.
The number 5 spots from the end determines the bootloader revison and will be the Anti-rollback version. All versions matching that number can be flashed without bias, so any version labeled ( 1 ) can be flashed to the note.
Now hypothetically if this was the software that comes next: N950USQU2AQL9
Once you were to install this version you could NEVER flash anything lower then ( 2 ) to the device, the bootloader on the phone will refuse it and tell you the version is older and will not install.
Thank you for the detailed reply. Your right in that I've seen a lot about Odin. What I'm somewhat concerned about is that whatever I've managed to find and read about doing this is that it will void the warranty? Is this accurate or am I misunderstood something?
Also, the reason I wanted to do this is because something screwed things up after I moved apps to the SD card. And yes I moved them using the built-in settings app. So obviously I was only able to move apps that the OS allowed me to. Basically even though it showed that the apps were on the external storage they just disappeared. If I tried to reinstall Google Play would immediately crash.
So my thought was that if I did a clean install it would wipe out any crud that might be left behind by doing a hard reset built into the phone. Am I completely wrong about this or is it possible some stuff might be left behind?
Thanks again for taking the time to post your reply.
rocknblogger said:
Thank you for the detailed reply. Your right in that I've seen a lot about Odin. What I'm somewhat concerned about is that whatever I've managed to find and read about doing this is that it will void the warranty? Is this accurate or am I misunderstood something?
Also, the reason I wanted to do this is because something screwed things up after I moved apps to the SD card. And yes I moved them using the built-in settings app. So obviously I was only able to move apps that the OS allowed me to. Basically even though it showed that the apps were on the external storage they just disappeared. If I tried to reinstall Google Play would immediately crash.
So my thought was that if I did a clean install it would wipe out any crud that might be left behind by doing a hard reset built into the phone. Am I completely wrong about this or is it possible some stuff might be left behind?
Thanks again for taking the time to post your reply.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odin does NOT effect the warranty bit, even with the new root method the Knox warranty status does not get effected.
I actually had mine rooted, some pixels in my screen were messed up ( not related to root ) used ODIN to go back to stock and sent it in to Samsung for a warranty repair and it was approved, fixed and sent back for free so no fret.
The warranty status shows up when you put your phone into Download mode ( Holding Bixby + Volume Down and power button together during a boot up ) It shows warranty bit 00x00
If it were to effect it the status would go to 00X01 and so on as you continue to modify things. The status only changes if the phone is compromised with custom boot files witch we do not have access to due to having the bootloader locked.
This is a routine process to recover the phone if it wouldn't boot,
furthermore you can essentially do the same procedure using Samsung smart switch on desktop, but i'm not fluent with using it as ODIN is a better method and more robust and less dumb ware.
as for moving apps to sd, you could also try deleting them off the sd, or possible that the sd card is messing up and not fast enough for the device to read and run those apps so if you redo and it happens again id avoid putting them on sd if you can.
hope this helps. No fret on using odin, just take your time and pay attention to the options you use. Do not confuse NAND ERASE ALL ( that is the same has a hard reset) with ERASE EFS ( this deletes the serial number and should never be done! )
Again, thank you so much for the detailed reply. Just one more thing. Can you please supply me a link to the correct stock ROM. I apologise for all the noob questions but it's been more than 7 years since I've messed with Android. Some of the links I found took me to download did where I had to pay or else the fire was too big for free.
I believe this is the exact one I need for my Sprint Note 8
N950USQU1AQI5. This is what I have on my phone now.
As for the SD card issue there were just a few apps I found. The others just seemed to disappear. In any case I bought a new 256GB U3 card by Samsung so there should be no questions now on whether it's too slow or bad. I moved a couple apps and so far so good.
Thanks again and best regards!!
rocknblogger said:
Again, thank you so much for the detailed reply. Just one more thing. Can you please supply me a link to the correct stock ROM. I apologise for all the noob questions but it's been more than 7 years since I've messed with Android. Some of the links I found took me to download did where I had to pay or else the fire was too big for free.
I believe this is the exact one I need for my Sprint Note 8
N950USQU1AQI5. This is what I have on my phone now.
As for the SD card issue there were just a few apps I found. The others just seemed to disappear. In any case I bought a new 256GB U3 card by Samsung so there should be no questions now on whether it's too slow or bad. I moved a couple apps and so far so good.
Thanks again and best regards!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 1st link I sent you at top is the link to find most current firmware for the Sprint note 8. QI5 is the latest as of today. The one you posted is the correct one. The post also has Odin available to dl as well.
But here is the direct link to QI5: https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=745849072291677290
Pretty much with Odin
Take the firmware zip and unzip it.
Then put phone into dl mode as explained above holding power, volm down and bixby. Once on green screen click up to start dl mode and it's ready.
Side note:
That key combo is also soft reset. Holding vol up instead would bring you to recovery where you can do a full hard reset as well. If you accidentaly get into dl mode trying to soft reset because phone got frozen just soft reset out of it and you'll be back to booting up as normal.
Plug phone in and open Odin.
Odin should show the phone and it's com port once driver on pc have installed.
Click each box ( bl, ap, cp, csc) and select the matching files.
The csc you'll use is the one with OYN in it's name.
Under options have f.reset time.. auto reboot and nand erase all checked. Nothing else. Again I say nand erase all.. remember what I said about the efs one and never checking it....
Once each loads up.. ( ap will take forever it will act like it has gotten stuck and may show it's not responding ) this is normal just wait it out as it's a huge package being loaded...
Click start and drink a coffee..
Once done, it will auto reboot, wipe and then boot up
Re setup and test. Just be aware all data on device will be gone.
Otherwise you will be good to go!
I added to generic photos of what it looks like when phone is connected and com port is showing up. As well what options are to be selected. I put a big pointing finger to the correct erase all option as well lol
Thank you for all the detailed replies!!! You rock dude. Things are slowly coming back to me. The EVO 4G was the last Android phone I had before jumping to iPhone. I used to install different ROMs almost weekly and tried all sorts of stuff back then. Had no fear
I guess after being away for so long it just takes time and reading through all the different threads.
Thanks again!!!
Team DevDigitel said:
Plug phone in and open Odin.
Odin should show the phone and it's com port once driver on pc have installed.
Click each box ( bl, ap, cp, csc) and select the matching files.
The csc you'll use is the one with OYN in it's name.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay so I was all set to do this but when I unzipped the firmware.zip and there are more files in there that I'm not sure what to do with.
First there are 2 CSC files and both have OYN in the name.
First one is : CSC_OYN_N950UOYN1AQI5_CL12173876_QB14907525_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar
Second is: HOME_CSC_OYN_N950UOYN1AQI5_CL12173876_QB14907525_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar
There's also a file called USERDATA_SPR_N950USQU1AQI5_CL12173876_QB14907525_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar
Is there anything I need to do with this particular file?
Also all the files are xxx.tar.MD5. Am I right in guessing that Odin with verify the MD5 checksum?
Thanks again!!!
rocknblogger said:
Okay so I was all set to do this but when I unzipped the firmware.zip and there are more files in there that I'm not sure what to do with.
First there are 2 CSC files and both have OYN in the name.
First one is : CSC_OYN_N950UOYN1AQI5_CL12173876_QB14907525_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar
Second is: HOME_CSC_OYN_N950UOYN1AQI5_CL12173876_QB14907525_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar
There's also a file called USERDATA_SPR_N950USQU1AQI5_CL12173876_QB14907525_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar
Is there anything I need to do with this particular file?
Also all the files are xxx.tar.MD5. Am I right in guessing that Odin with verify the MD5 checksum?
Thanks again!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use the CSY OYN, i touched this in a earlier response, and dont worry about the user data one and yes they are verified by md5 before a push occurs, this can be turned off in odin if you wanted and skip md5 verification.
Team DevDigitel said:
use the CSY OYN, i touched this in a earlier response, and dont worry about the user data one and yes they are verified by md5 before a push occurs, this can be turned off in odin if you wanted and skip md5 verification.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once again...thank you!!!
If you don't mind I have a question about restoring from backup. If I backup to Samsung cloud then it will restore the apps that I currently have installed, is that correct?
If I backup to Google and then restore from Google backup it will only restore data and if I install an app that I had prior to the wipe/restore it will then restore the data for that particular app. Is that correct?
Also is it possible to choose which apps to restore if I restore from Samsung backup?
Thanks again!!