yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] indymx:
http://technoblimp.com/2013/08/28/android-jelly-bean-4-1-4-2-and-4-3-compared/
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] ra4013:
Think I'll hold off for a Knox fix.

Thanks

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] ConeyKiller:
I'm still on 4.1.1 I could never get the 4.1.2 update to install. Kept saying I was missing apks because I debloated. Being first isn't always best. :) lol
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
Oh now I hear about this...

I hate Samsung now for creating all of these extra blocking "features"...

Why would they want to make the phone brick when trying to downgrade from 4.3?

That sounds like something Apple would do but I expected more from Samsung.

I guess now I can't send it in for my scheduled warranty. sigh.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] norbarb:
That what I think Samsung will loose some more clients
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] RegBuckley:
Just curious but why would you want to go back?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] shortydoggg:
Nandroids, along with some Roms might not be compatible with the new bootloaders.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
Like the other guy said Nandroids, ROMs, etc. Plus the bugs are really immense on 4.3. The number one reason is because it's my phone and I want to run 4.1.2 not 4.3 but unfortunately it soft bricked when I tried to downgrade. I don't know why samsung added these features that are causing bricks.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] 1ChesterD:
Answer is actually quite simple. Security, Most people with phones could care less about root, no bloat etc. All they want is to use the phone, and protect their info: IE bank and credit card data. And 2nd, here's the big thing, Blackberry is dying. They dominate the corporate/ government world. In that world security is high priority, and the OEMs to get there and keep the fruit company out have to enable security.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
I understand that Blackberry is being replaced and there's high amounts of competition between companies but Samsung just "forgot" about the developers and their testers suddenly? I don't understand why they didn't mention the bricking capability of the new download mode.

I'm going to have to wait for a fix for my soft brick because they are panting after government contracts.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] SkVergil:
I just bought this phone yesterday, went home and it persistently asked for the 4.3 update over WiFi. Which I did because I thought "heck, if I don't like I'll just Odin back to 4.1.1" well, nope. Stuck here. Managed to get cwm recovery and tried CF-Root but a Security app keeps blocking SuperSU when I boot up.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] cputoys:
Thanks all. Without thinking about it too much I initiated the update late Sat night. It was so horribly slow that I aborted the download (so I thought). I soon found out sw update was persistent and insistent that I finish! Checking xda and finding this and some other warnings I had to find a way to quit the update. Titanium to the rescue! I froze the update mid-download and rebooted. All is well in rooted 4.1.2 land and that's where I'll stay until I hear it's safe to proceed with a plan to quickly root again. Thank you all.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
I'm happy to hear that someone escaped the clutches of 4.3. I'm thinking of flashing 4.4 and seeing if the phone becomes operable again.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] SkVergil:
Which 4.4 ROM will you flash?

And what happened to your phone, why it's not operable?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
I installed 4.3 OTA and then, unknowingly, bricked my phone for trying to Odin back to 4.1.1 to send it in for warranty repair.

The phone still turns on and I can access the custom recovery and download mode but flashing always fails and restoring nandroids do nothing.

I'm looking at the 4.4 Beta in original android development by the way.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] SkVergil:
Oh, that's the CM11 one, I saw it.

I managed to get cwm recovery and root on the 4.3 OTA. Can I flash a different ROM from there? Or this whole issue with the bootloader would brick my device?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] amfractal:
I successfully used this:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2539313
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] SkVergil:
Thank you! Did you go with the Slim ROM or did you flash another one?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] amfractal:
I went with SlimRom and I like it a lot, specially the privacy guard settings.

The only thing I changed was instead of using minimal gapss package linked there, I used AIO (All in One) which has all the google apps like google search, and email. I wanted to use my exchange email and used other apps that are not in the minimal package.

http://www.slimroms.net/index.php/downloads/dlsearch/viewdownload/383-addons/6372-slim-aio-gapps-4-3-build-2

You can also use the minimal package and later if you need all the packages decide flash them later (or use the selectable version). In any case, the ROM works great, and the instructions there are very detailed so you can safely follow them.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] SkVergil:
Yeah, the ROM looks great and the instructions are very detailed indeed. I'll give it a try and report. Thanks again mate.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] wrenhal:
only lose root???

If I let the OTA go through, is the only thing lost is root?? Won't lose any files or have a problem because of triangle counter (I never reset mine to 0) and all that right?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] -Mr. X-:
I just debricked successfully, one i'm done fixing this damn network printer ill fill every one in on how i did it in the bootloader thread.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] gc84245:
Thanks for the warning, I think I'll stay on 4.1.2. No problems here and I see no reason to upgrade. The fact that downgrading may not be possible is a dealbreaker for me. Is Samsung turning into Apple? If it wasn't for the removable battery and microSD slot I don't think I'd buy another Samsung phone, those are the only things keeping me from switching to a Nexus.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] -Mr. X-:
Ifi had to guess, I assume the block the downgrade to prevent people from moving away from a Knox enabled rom. I guess for security reasons. Samsung is trying pretty hard to take over blackberries secure corp market.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] MrSimmonsSr:
Has anyone figured out how to successfully downgrade? I don't mind the update overall, but it breaks PDANet+ (FoxFi) and that just ticks me off!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] -Mr. X-:
I downgraded to the 4.1.2 bootloader flashing everything but the aboot.mbn it seems flashing the 4.1.2 aboot is what causes the bootloader bricks. You could downgrade to 4.1.2 with out flashing the 4.1.2 bootloader that should work fine.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] sabrinaela:
Successfully unbricked with Odin 3.09 + SamMobile 4.3 firmware

I foolishly tried to downgrade from OTA 4.3 to 4.1.1, resulting in the brick in this thread.

After much experimentation, I was able to un-brick it by flashing 4.3 from SamMobile (Rogers in my case) using Odin 3.09. All other attempts to flash other versions gave the "Fail (auth)" error.

So I now am back to functioning 4.3. Better than bricked. However, I'm still looking for an unlock method (which is why I tried to go to 4.1.1 in the first place). Are there any known 4.3 unlock methods or safe revert to 4.1.1 methods yet?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
***UPDATE*** I just realized that if you running the stock 4.3 recovery it wont boot. You have to flash TWRP for it to boot because the stock says to do an emergency firmware recovery in Kies.

Here is where I figured it out how to fix it: http://xdaforums.com/show....php?t=2539313

The files I used in this walk through below are in the link above.

I just unbricked my phone, finally, after flashing Slim ROM and Slim Gapps then flashing UCUEMJ2 in Odin 3.07.

Here's how:

1. Download/open Odin 3.07

2. Flash TWRP.tar

3. Download Slim ROM and Slim Gapps and transfer to micro SD card, might need a micro SD card adapter.

4. reboot to recovery and wipe then install Slim ROM/Gapps

5. If successful then good, keep slim rom if you want, if not I suggest you try another 4.3-4.4 ROM and when successful in flashing continue.

6. Open Odin then click PDA and flash UCUEMJ2.md5

7. It will flash everything but aboot.mbn and will say FAIL! (Auth) but it will boot up into stock 4.3.

Here is what the Odin Message box said:

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> MJ2.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..

<OSM> Leave CS..

<ID:0/012> Added!!

<ID:0/012> Odin v.3 engine (ID:12)..

<ID:0/012> File analysis..

<ID:0/012> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/012> Initialzation..

<ID:0/012> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/012> Firmware update start..

<ID:0/012> boot.img

<ID:0/012> NAND Write Start!!

<ID:0/012> cache.img.ext4

<ID:0/012> NON-HLOS.bin

<ID:0/012> persist.img.ext4

<ID:0/012> recovery.img

<ID:0/012> system.img.ext4

<ID:0/012> aboot.mbn

<ID:0/012> FAIL! (Auth)

<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

<ID:0/012> Removed!!

After this I'm sending it in for warranty and a software reinstall from Samsung so it can be like brand new.

I hope this helps someone.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] thawte:
I got the ota update, rooted my phone, installed cwm touch, then installed quantum and his kernel. I can't be happier with performance now :P
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] theramsey3:
You do know that KNOX is going to snitch you out to Samsung right? Boot to download mode you can run triangle away all you want but you can't yet reset KNOX. It is the second line from the bottom on my phone. It says "warranty bit 1" in red letters. Before I flashed TWRP and removed KNOX to get root it said "warranty bit 0" in gray letters.

I apologize if I have misunderstood what you said. I interpreted that you are going to send it in for warranty repairs and have 4.3 on it which means KNOX in the bootloader and it is a snitch.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
How do you reset it? I have to send it in for warranty and I can't have them tell me they can't repair it because of that.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] theramsey3:
As of right now you can't reset it. I'm sure someone will figure out how to eventually but right now I'm not aware of anyone who can defeat the "warranty bit" yet.

You might have to source another repair facility aside from Samsung. I cannot guarantee they will deny warranty repairs on your device, however that is one of the purposes of KNOX (to save them money on warranty repairs after the device has been modified).
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
I guess I'll try and find a 4.1.2 without the bootloader which people are saying works to downgrade from 4.3.

If I'm in 4.1.2 they can't see the "warranty bit" hopefully so I can send it in.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] theramsey3:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2321310
try the end of this post for information on Bootloaders and bricks.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] -Mr. X-:
If you want to be shady..... dd 0's to mmcblk0 the first 16mb it will trash the bootloader/sbl's/aboot where that info is kept and any "warranty" info in it. It will also never boot again.

who is to say these devices dont call home. since they all state "modified" in the system info and refuse ota's when they do. so you may be out of luck already if they keep a database of this.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] shortydoggg:
Ok, someone said in another thread said that they were able to downgrade from 4.3 back to 4.1.1, without changing the bootloader, by using mobile Odin, which does not flash bootloaders, and was clever if it works. Does anyone know if it will work with the official 4.1.1 software?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
No one can reset it. Even Chainfire said it was not possible. This is more like a fuse than a breaker. Once blown, you can't reset it.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] sabrinaela:
Confirmation that Mobile Odin downgrade from 4.3 method works

I can confirm that you can downgrade from 4.3 to 4.1.1 using the official 4.1.1 ROMS (SamMobile) by using Mobile Odin.

Here's the step by step:

1) From stock 4.3, get root using http://xdaforums.com/show....php?t=2538991 (Method 2 worked for me)

2) Install Mobile Odin Lite and the separate flash pack for your specific model from here: http://xdaforums.com/show....php?t=1347899

3) Copy a stock 4.1.1 rom to internal memory or SD and flash it using Mobile Odin

4) Bootloader 4.3 will remain (bootloader isn't touched by Mobile Odin) but the rest will be 4.1.1 (or any other version you might have chosen).

Potential problem: At present, once I downgrade to 4.1.1 (I've tired both AT&T & Rogers 4.1.1 stock roms on SamMobile), in About Phone, the Band shows as "unknown".

When I attempt to use the unlock method posted here: http://xdaforums.com/show....php?t=2014982 - when I get into the Service Mode screen, there are NO options (instead of the 3 visible in 4.3 or the 4 required to complete the unlock that are supposed to be visible in 4.1.1).

dstruct2k suggested that the modem might need to be re-flashed. However, my attempts at flashing modems from this thread: http://xdaforums.com/show....php?t=1831898 have not been able to get the band to show anything other than "unknown" and still no options in the Service Mode screen. I'm still testing and will report back.

Bright side: If you downgrade to 4.1.1 and lose the band like I did, you can just use regular odin to flash the whole stock 4.3 rom overtop again to get back to a functional (if still SIM locked) state. I've started a separate thread to discuss currently available methods for SIM unlocking a phone that is already on 4.3 bootloader: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2547386

Additional WARNING: There is currently no 4.3 ROM availble from SamMobile for AT&T phones, only for Canadian (i747M) phones. So if you use the method I describe here to do the partial downgrade (with the 4.3 bootloader remaining) and you have an AT&T phone, you may not be able to go back to 4.3 easily if you have baseband problems like I did. (thanks to theramsey3 for pointing this out)

Hope this is helpful to some people. Suggestions welcome!

(Credit for all methods goes to the OPs of the linked threads)
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] theramsey3:
It should be NOTED that currently there is no 4.3 Odin tar that can be flashed for AT&T only for Rogers as of right now. So use caution on AT&T you can easily hard brick your phone like I did lastnight, Which is completely user recoverable now as long as you have a 16GB micro SD card.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] amfractal:
Thanks a lot for this info. I was just thinking about flashing back to 4.1.1 and using this method to see if I can unlcok the phone. Saved me a lot of trouble. Please do post if you find a way to unlock the phone.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
Please forgive me for my skepticism, but this goes against everything we've saw so far concerning the ota and downgrading.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] aybarrap1:
This would mean that you are the first and only person able to do so without bricking from all that I have read. I am assuming you came from 4.3 OTA update from AT&T directly.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] -Mr. X-:
agree on that. every other possible way of flashing the bootloader i have tried, odin, dd, flash_image and extract_package all brick it. the ONLY time i have ever downgraded was flashing the 4.1.2 boot loader WITHOUT the aboot.mbn. then it still boots but i wouldn't call this a full downgrade. since i still have to use the 4.3 aboot.mbn. And the bottom line is, why are people still purposely still trying to downgrade? There is no benefit what so ever. the new bootloader still allows everything the previous did.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] gregthomas129:
I may have misunderstood the issue here. I did NOT come from the 4.3 OTA update. I updated my bootloaders and upgraded to 4.3 through the leaked version in this thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2498233

After doing so and having various issues, I was able to flash back to this rom: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2252932 but was unable to flash any CM based roms because of assert failures. My baseband version showed I747UCUEMJ2 at this point.

I will delete my post, I wouldn't want to mislead anyone, especially when bricks are involved. I just assumed this was the same issue that was being caused by the OTA update. Carry on... ;)
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] BaSingSe:
I have the rooted 4.1.2 (MG2). OTA 4.3 is not even available to my phone. When I connect it to Kies, it says the phone's ROM is not supported to update. So I can't even update to 4.3 OTA if I want to.

So I figure most of you have the unrooted phone to start with?

With the lessons learnt from the S4, I just want to stay at the current 4.1.2 and prevent the OTA. With the S4, people use programs to freeze the OTA update programs to preserve the old ROM. It works fine.

On the other hand, if you fool around and brick your phone, you should not just try to dump the phone to Samsung for warranty. You should try to fix the phone :rolleyes:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] brayhanrd:
it is esea to ROOT. i have done in diferent i747 and i747M phone
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Threezees:
Some people on Chainfire's Google+ page have stated Samsung can indeed reset warranty bit to zero in ten minutes We don't know for sure an eFuse is involved.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] sabrinaela:
The point of downgrading is to SIM unlock

The benefit is SIM unlocking the phone using the Service Mode menu (described here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=34661189) that only has the right options in 4.1.1 (with certain modems). There are no known (free) ways to SIM unlock once in 4.3.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] iMackshun:
Trouble Returning to Stock

Could you elaborate as to how you returned to stock after that. I am having serious issues returning to stock, and it seems almost impossible to get this working again. I dislike the update (osu!droid doesn't work correctly(Mostly game's fault) Wiimote Controller don't work anymore(for the most part, as bluetooth changed in 4.2+), and etc

I followed your instructions hoping that I would be able to boot into 4.1.1 and simply install a bootloader/modem and everything would be okay. This obviously failed, and I was aware that it was failing. Knowing this, I attempted to return to stock before it was too late. I booted into recovery and flashed the bootloader/modem and the stock rom image and it hard bricked. I frantically searched the net and found a solution to a hard bric via Sd Card. I was able to use my stepbrothers S3 running 4.3 to get the debrick.img and burned that file to the sd card.(PM me if you want the debrick.img) With that, I am able to boot into Download mode, recovery and attempted to boot into the stock rom, but it hanged on the At&t boot logo. Using recovery, I installed Slim Bean 4.3 and flashed its Gapps and was able to boot into it normally. However, it only boots when I have the sd card in(The one with the burned debrick.img) I tried flashing the bootloader/modem for the 4.3 update for the i747 via Mobile Odin, but it is still not able to boot without that sd card. I also have an "unknown" baseband version, thus no data or cell signal. Could someone please tell me how I could fix this? I am at my wit's end, as I flashed the modem/bootloader. Why is the baseband still unknown? Strange...

Odin is out of the question because not only does it give me a Auth(fail) or something like that, it accepts .tar and md5's, not .zip which is the only file type for the 4.3 firmware package. I believe. Mobile odin works as long as I keep the sd card in.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] -Mr. X-:
No sure why you're telling me this. i know the hidden menu in 4.1.1 is the needed one i was referring to the bootloader in my post.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] theramsey3:
Go here to this thread I had the same issues read everything and start flashing your heart out.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
Well I have some unfortunate news. After flashing this rom successfully I have no access to audio or videos. The audio just doesn't work on anything and no video service or video app plays videos. I know it's not the rom because I've used it before so I'm assuming that the brick screwed up some hardware or software that is major. A lot of problems after bricking the phone. I cannot restore nandroids, flash any ROM but Slim ROM, or flash anything in Odin but recoveries. I don't know what to do.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] theramsey3:
Sorry wrong person on my first response

You have an I747 or I747M? Have you tried to flash roms in TWRP?

---------- Post added at 08:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 PM ----------

Have you reflash boot loaders? Kernel? Rom? Don't think modem would affect it but that too? I hard bricked mine and recovered it it is working as though nothing even happened. Cleared the cache and dalvik ?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
I have the AT&T Galaxy S3 I747. I've been using TWRP for everything but I haven't tried CWM. I tried to flash Quantum ROM 4.4 but it failed at "partition" or something like that. It always fails at partition except with Slim ROM.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] theramsey3:
I flashed the stuff from the link below after I bricked mine and all is well. I flashed all of it with TWRP from the 2nd link below

Rom Bootloader etc.http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2540998

Where I got TWRP from Perhaps you have a different version??? mine is working flawlessly.http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2538991
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] BaSingSe:
This has been discussed for along time with Verizon and AT&T S4 phones. Both Verizon and AT&T locked the bootloaders several months ago and we still can't figure out how to unlock it.

There are some successful rooting methods. At least two of them work fine.

Visit the forums there and they should help solve some of the problems here.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
Well weird thing is I'm running the same TWRP and when I tried to flash CM11 it said "checking partition details..." and then failed and said getprop ro.bootloader: T999 and a whole list of other models that say the same including my I747.

After it failed I tried to factory reset and that failed, and then restore nandroid and that failed. I rebooted the phone and it's still a working Slim ROM with a factory reset. I'm confused. =P I guess I'll try to do the bootloader thing.

---------- Post added at 08:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:55 PM ----------

Well the insecure kernel didn't change anything unless I did it wrong.