[Galaxy S 4 General] waheedse:
[GUIDE] Unroot/Unbrick, Flash official stock firmware on Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 & I9505

Here is a full guide on how to unroot and back to official stock firmware for Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 & GT-I9505. It is useful also if you soft brick your phone

!!!DONT TRY FIRMWARES OF OTHER VARIANTS!!!

Do it on your own responsibility! if you follow this guide properly u will be on the safe side

Before we proceed, make sure:

1-You have installed your Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500/5 USB drivers on your PC (the easiest way is to install Kies).

2-You need to enable USB debugging mode which is deactivated by default. (you can skip it )

3-Your S4 should have 70-80% charge remaining.

4-Your S4 should be factory unlocked. (for locked phone, flash carrier firmware to stay on warranty)

5-Backup your important data like Call logs, SMS and other data stored in phone memory in case if anything goes wrong, your data is not hurt.

6-Make sure that kies program is not running & disable antivirus.

This guide is only for Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 & GT-I9505. So don’t bother to try it on other devices.

How to do it:​

Step 1) Turn OFF your mobile and go to Download Mode by pressing and holding the Volume Down + Home Buttons together for few seconds followed by Power button then proceed with volume up.

Step 2) Now open ODIN on your PC and connect your Galaxy S4 to your computer.

Step 3) Once your phone is successfully connected to your PC, the ID:COM box on ODIN will turn blue (or yellow) and will show the COM port number.

Step 4) unzip the downloaded firmware (from second or third post), u will get a Home.tar file.

Step 5) click on pda in odin (if odin 3.09 choose AP) and choose the file "Home.tar"

Step 6) check "Auto Reboot" and "F. Reset Time" options and make sure that "Re-Partition" is unchecked

!!!!DO NOT CHECK "Nand Erase All" IN ANY WAY!!!!

Step 7) Click on Start button in ODIN window to start the flashing process. The process will take few minutes to complete.

DO NOT UNPLUG USB CABLE WHILE EXECUTING THE PROCESS, YOU MAY BRICK YOUR PHONE!

Step 8) When the installation is completed, you read a "Reset " then a "Pass". your phone will restart (first boot will take a longer time so don't panic)

It is recommended to make hard reset after flashing to have a fresh official firmware

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Note 1: Personally, i prefer to wipe data and cache before and after flashing the firmware.

Note 2: If you have a corrupted partition table (Odin says: "there is no pit partition" or "Re-Partition operation failed"), flash pit file for your device (attached, dont forget to unzip it) (put it in pit window) with your firmware (some users reported that it worked without firmware), in this case "Re-Partition" must be marked.

Note 3: If you use pit file, and you had an encryption password for your data, the password will reset! so you must hard reset your phone after flashing with pit file with encrypted data.

Note 4: If you want, after rooting with odin, to get official status and reset binary counter ON I9505 for warranty reason, do it before flashing stock firmware, refer to HERE.(dont use triangle away on MGG and up firmwares till updating the app.)

Note 5: To change to the new CSC, just boot into recovery, wipe data and cache, reboot.

Note 6: If you flash I9500 stock firmware for China region, it will flash sboot.bin with it, that leads to have a Chinese bootloader (download mode will be in Chinese language and boot splash name will change). Even if you flash other stock firmware, it will not change the bootloader. So flash "GT-I9500_sboot.tar" (attached) as pda in Odin and it will fix the issue.

Odin troubleshooting: If Odin accidentally gives you "fail" try the following:

- Repeat procedure.

- Make sure that all actions of Kies are disabled from task manager.

- Change usb port.

- Try another usb cable (make sure it is the original).

- Try another Odin version.

- Uninstall and re-install driver.

- Use pit file.

- Try another computer.

Bootloop troubleshooting: Bootloop occurs when a smartphone is not able to boot properly and stuck on Bootanimation and mainly caused by system files interfering with each others which cause instability and/or crash at the boot sequence. How to fix:

- Boot the device either into stock or custom recovery mode, wipe cache then reboot, if still, boot again in recovery and wipe data/factory reset then reboot. If not:

- Restore a nandroid backup with custom recovery if present. If not:

- Flash or reflash the official stock firmware. If not:

- Flash stock firmware with the appropriate pit file, after "pass", unplug usb cable, pull battery out for a minute, insert it, boot into recovery, wipe data and cache, reboot.

Download Links:​

Odin​

For Latest firmwares of (GT-I9500) and (GT-I9505) visit: Samsung Stock Firmwares Download​

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