[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Note from rootsu:

XDA staff have transferred ownership of this thread to me so that I can update the rooting methods. The reason for this is because the rooting method contained within is outdated and since identified as unsafe.

I have PM'd the original OP [MENTION=4872062]Stormlister[/MENTION] to update the thread but unfortunately have received no response.

I aim to keep the structure of the thread in tact. I am only here to edit out / replace outdated and unsafe methods contained within this thread. The work below is not my own.

Disclaimer:

This guide is for total noobs (I am one myself). Until the information here can be confirmed by an experienced person please don't bet on the fact that this information is 100% accurate. I studied and put together bits and pieces of information that I found everywhere, tried it and it worked. I will mention the sources. Even though its probably not a good idea for a noob to write any sort of guide, these were taken from working sources, I have tried it myself and all works flawlessly.

About me:

I write open source software and also write documentation.

Why:

I wrote this tutorial as I found the scattered information all over kinda confusing on the subject of flashing, wiping and ROMS.

Who's it for?

You already know what you want to do, but don't know where to start.

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS.

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Getting Started - Rooting

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Root means you are opening the operating system to allow a user or application full read and write access. This is needed by some special applications to change operating system files. For example the "Adfree" application changes system files to block certain domains which completely stops ads from showing up on your phone. Unlike other systems like in the iOS, all the root applications are available in the Google Play store, I think Google is great for allowing this.

The main thing I root first even though it is not needed to flash a rom is the fact that you ALWAYS need to make a backup, if something goes wrong you have a something to fall back on and the friendly xda community can help us get things running again.

The easiest way I found to quickly and safely root was by using the following software:

ODIN (Desktop software) (Incorrect usage may make your phone unusable.)

Before you start using Odin, make sure all the Kies* services on your desktop is stopped. (On Windows, you can press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, go to task manager, services and stop it from there). Infact you should consider uninstalling Kies altogether as it is really not needed if you are going to root. There are more than enough backup software that does not add the bloatware.

This piece of genius is a tool to flash among other things a new ROM to your phone.

We will be using this piece of software twice, first to root it, and then to flash your S3 with a new ROM.

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<rootsu insert>

Recommended methods to "root" depending on your requirements...

1) You want root only. No custom ROMs, kernels etc. Just root, just to use root apps.

CF Auto Root Via Odin

Why? Tried and tested method, simple to use. No need to choose what exploit you want to use as it's tailored for your device.

What does it do? It gives you a stock recovery (so can't flash things) and roots the Android OS

The Steps:

1) Download the Latest Odin

2) Download CF-Auto-Root for your model

3) Follow These steps to root

2) You want to flash custom ROMs / Kernels

If you want root on your existing Android ROM, you can do 1) first. Then flash a recovery of your choice (CWM, Philz, TWRP) via Odin

However, if you immediately plan on flashing a ROM, there's no need to root your existing ROM. Simply skip straight to installing a recovery. Backup then flash what you like.

The Steps:

1) Download the Latest Odin

2) Download recovery of your choice CWM, Philz, TWRP

3) Follow The steps to Flash Philz recovery (But for the recovery of your choice)

These steps can also be followed to update recovery to newer versions

</rootsu insert>

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Difficulty: Easy

After you have completed the tutorial your phone should be rooted and ready to go to the next step.

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Backing up

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The next thing we will need to do is backup our current apps, settings and even ROM. Now that the phone is rooted we can install a few applications to help with this process. Lets do this now.

In Google Play Store, search and install:

Titanium Backup (Google Play)

With this tool, you will be able to backup application and settings of your current installation.

To do so;

Open Titanium Backup

At some point it will ask for root access, you will need to allow it root access.

Click on Backup/Restore.

It will show you a list of software.

Click the ok tick top right.

It will now show a list of actions you can take.

You will now [ RUN ] Backup all user apps+ system data.

It will flip to a new screen, click top right ok tick again.

The backup process will take a few minutes.

After the backup completes, we will need to copy it to a safe place, just in case something else goes wrong.

With above explained, there are more optimized Titanium Backup methods, this is a must read:

http://checkrom.com/threads/titanium-backup-explained.433/

You could also backup your whole system from the boot menu of ClockWorkMod / custom recovery - which you will already have if you used the rooting method above. Have a look at this short yet very informative video to do just that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPvNr7LqP30&feature=related

Difficulty: Easy

Bear in mind that custom recoveries vary, they all work pretty much the same. The backup is referred to as a "nandroid" backup, but in the recovery menus, it may well be referred to as simply "backup and restore".

To boot into whichever custom recovery you have installed, power off the phone. From off, hold Volume Up + Home then press and hold Power until the S3 splash screen shows. Release power. Once in recovery, find the backup and restore menu and take a backup.

There is one more place you need to manually write down some settings, the APN for your data and MMS, this is the only area besides the branding when another countries stock rom might affect you if you chose to use it. So head over to;

Settings->More Settings->Mobile Networks->Access Point Names.

Click on each and write down its settings.

Backing up EFS folder

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The EFS is a filesystem folder which contains important information like for instance your IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number, even though I cant find any evidence that anyone lost their EFS folder yet, I think it is probably important enough to back it up. First open your favorite file browser like ASTRO and click on your internal build in sdcard0 and see if you have a efs_Backup folder. If you have such a folder its is probably backup up inside already. To be honest, I dont know what backed mine up, but it was there, and it will be likely there if you followed the procedures listed in the collection of this tutorial.

However, the folder is only 6mb, if you don't have such a backed up folder, using an application like KTOOL, gives you the ability to backup the whole "/efs" folder to wherever you like. The external SSD and also your PC would be a good idea to back it up to.

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Difficulty: Easy

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ROM - Hunting for a new rom

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My ROM is not YOUR ROM

But I have an S3, wtf is this? Note that when hunting for a ROM that you make sure it is either based on your models ROM or supports your models ROM. The reason this should be noted is because the models are so profoundly different, from Dual Core to Quad Core, from 1GB memory to 2GB memory etc. This means each ROM is optimized of based on a specific model. If you have the GT-I9300, you have the most popular model which has a lot of custom ROMS.

Read more about the differences here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1870827

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This is where I got confused, I did not know if I had to match the code base of my factory stock rom to the rom I wanted. I was afraid that it might flash my modems software making my phone unusable with my service provider. It seems that the rom file is only to flash the actual OS and wont include the modem flash too.

So what ROM to pick, there seems to be very good ROMS out there, but know, the further you go away from the stock rom, the more difficult things become. You might just want to upgrade to the latest Jelly Bean and not worry about an improve stock Samsung rom. Or you might want to take it to a whole new level and perhaps install a pure Android rom (however, I noted a few people having trouble with the pure android rom, you really need to know what you are doing). But as I say, it seems things gets kinda tricky the further you move away from the Stock Rom.

Lets look at a few examples of solid roms:

At this stage we only have one stock rom available in Jelly Bean, this is most probably the safest bet when you only want to upgrade to Jelly Bean (If you do decide to just go with the safest rom, you can just root again after the rom was successfully flashed) [INTERNATIONAL GALAXY S3 ONLY] [DONT USE THIS ROM ON ANYTHING ELSE THAN INTERNATIONAL VERSION (IT WONT WORK)]:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1646610

Now we can start looking at roms based on stock roms that was improved by a linux guru, very good example of such a rom which is very solid is Android Revolution HD, if you have other Samsung devices I would recommend sticking to this one as it comes stock with Allshare Play:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1797334

The most popular OMEGA rom for the S3 international, pure awesomeness:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1663656

Then you get completely customized roms like Cyanogenmod, this is next level roms and should probably only be tried once you are more confident with flashing ( . Y . )

Note that Cyanogenmod is very controversial for the international version of the S3, there are technical issues, and newer stable version is always behind, I would NOT go for Cyanogenmod at the moment..

http://www.cyanogenmod.com/

For a very nice list of roms and some explanations have a look at:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1674286

Now that you have your rom, lets continue.

Difficulty: Easy

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Wiping & Flashing - Cleaner Flashing Method

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[I will try and confirm all my findings below]

When people refer to the term wipe, it is my understanding that it means to delete the old ROM from various locations. This ensures a more clean installation, almost like its better to install Windows afresh instead of an upgrade. However, this is not Windows, its Linux, I am sure the logic behind this is because the way Linux works, it has certain files in certain directories, that if the file is there, the service is loaded automatically. Now if you had to replace a stock rom with something completely different, some of those auto loaded files will be left behind and you will be stuck with loaded services that should not be there. But this is just my experience, I am not sure if this completely accurate.

This is where things might start becoming slightly confusing. Many people seem to argue that when upgrading from a stock version to another stock version that you don't need to wipe, I completely agree with this, as this will almost be the same upgrade process the default upgrade will follow.

However, if you upgrade to a very different ROM, start paying attention, as things might just get slightly more complicated. This I have not tried myself yet, but it seems that for this to work you wont need Odin.

Some people also recommend formatting and not just deleting, I will even advice against this, this is the EXT4 filesystem, not some NTFS filesystem. I cannot see the real benefit of formatting.

At this stage I don't know how to wipe the phone if you are going to use the alternative Odin flashing method explained below, this I have done, tried and tested, working fine:

[Below method I use to flash my own international S3]

This is what you will be doing to install a custom rom while wiping it for a fresh install (make sure you have your titanium backups handy ;)):

Copy your ROM inside an easy locatable phone folder by browsing to it, from your PC and copying it to your phones folder using your micro USB cable. I strongly recommend using your External SD card as some roms may wipe your internal SD card leaving you without any ROM to update.. that will be very sad. :crying:

Boot into recovery (Vol up + Home + power from off)

You will see a new Unix like screen appear, use volume + and - to navigate up and down, home button is enter, and soft touch back button back is back.

Next we will wipe the phone (if your ROM does not have special instructions on wiping this is a standard method).

Goto Wipe Data/Factory Reset -> Yes

Goto Wipe Cache Partition -> Yes

Goto Advance -> Wipe Dalvik Cache -> Yes

Next Select Install Zip from SD Card (You may also mount External SD card and load ROMS from external SD card (I can recommend this))

It will take a while...

Reboot, and hope to god all is good.

I can confirm above works perfectly, I have flashed HD Revolution ROM successfully using above method.

BUT PLEASE BE WARNED: HD Revolution recommends using Super Wipe, the instructions are unclear, it says you must copy it to the your sd card, if you do this and copy it to your internal sd card all will be wiped including your images, I think you are screwed then. Rather copy them to your EXTERNAL SD card and choose zip from EXTERNAL SD card.

Or you can see a very clear example video of how to wipe data from your phone in preparation of a new rom;

Be aware, this video shows that you should UNLOCK your bootloader, some phones wont boot after this, don't do it except if you know you have to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJUCOtX1cUk

Difficulty: Medium

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ALTERNATIVE Flashing - With Odin

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If you have not followed the wiping method and you will just be going for the stock updated rom, you should not be needing any wiping, you can just download the stock rom as linked and follow this great guide:

STOCK ROM:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1646610

ODIN GUIDE

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1671969

Difficulty: Medium

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Restoring your data

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After you have are done with a successful flash, we want to recover our apps, but its not just a matter of recovering everything, it will be a mess if you do that.

Read more detail here:

http://checkrom.com/threads/titanium-backup-explained.433/

Difficulty: Easy

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Getting rid of bloatware

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If you went for a stock based ROM, you might want to get rid of all the SAMSUNG bloatware that sits in memory and really never gets used.

This is mostly all the "S" software like "S Suggest", I believe not a lot of people is going to use this for instance. And one can't simply uninstall it as it is hiden from uninstalling.

There is a very easy way if you are rooted though (another reason to root). Simply install the little greatness called "Nobloat Free" from the Play store.

Now select those bloatware you dont want and simply uninstall. But make sure it might not be useful for yourself. To give you an idea, "AllShare Play" might sound useless, however, if you have a XBMC media pc, by simply enabling "PNP" in the configuration, you can display photos and videos instantly from your G3, does not matter where you are in XBMC.

Difficulty: Very Easy

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Unrooting and getting back your Warranty!

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At some stage you might want to sell your phone or it is giving you hardware issues that has nothing to do with software. At this stage you want to reset the phone to it 100% factory state and status. It is completely possible, unfortunately it wont work to just update the rom to the stock factory rom as there are built in counters and status writes who flags the phone as modified. However, by following these tutorials, you can quickly reset your phone.

You will need the factory rom for your country, this can be downloaded here:

http://www.sammobile.com/firmware/

Then watch both of these tutorials and decide which one you feel the most comfortable with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEI_c1R0_nQ&feature=related

And another approach to regaining your warranty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEsBwtqY2xE&feature=related

Oops, if you are stuck on a crossroad and you think you might have bricked (term used to define the fact that you made your phone unusable) your phone, following this tutorial will help you out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypmqJbZqOaU&feature=related

Difficulty: Easy

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Thanks to everyone

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I just want to say thanks to the wonderfully smart people who makes rooting possible. It is amazing how much more fun some people can make the life for other. I truly appreciate every bit of it.

Also special thanks to xdadevelopers who keeps an awesome community together.

Odin Greatness!

CF-Root

SuperSu

CWM

CWMManager

ClockworkMod (WTF, this is omg awesome!)

Titanium Backup

Adfree

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Congrats on your new firmare!

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FAQ

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It all depends what ROM you loaded, if its not the default factory ROM or based on it, you will have to follow the instructions of the CUSTOM rom provider on how an upgrade should be achieve. Else simply use the newest default rom and simply re-root, should be a very quick to do. Also, dont use KIES if you have already rooted, rather use ODIN and follow the instructions. NOTE: KIES, if left running will make ODIN behave incorrectly.