yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] bkong:
I got the OTA but I can't install it, I know OTA updates won't install if you have modified system files but I unrooted and restored the stock recovery, and it still won't update. Maybe its because I removed knox or the warranty bit is tripped I don't know. I do have xposed modules but since I unrooted I thought that wouldn't matter.

Is there anyway to update without wiping the phone? I thought that usually unrooting and restoring stock recovery would let you take the OTA, but the install always fails. I will try and use OTA snatcher and upload the file, and maybe someone can modify it and make it flashable w/ custom recovery and everything?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tejajuloori:
share the downloaded OTA file here so that the devs can look into it :good:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] bkong:
I had to redownload because I couldn't find the file in /cache, I think it deletes after it fails, anyway its at 60% now and I will try and upload it somehow but it is a huge file, 400mb, I don't know anything besides torrents that I can upload that big of a file for free.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tejajuloori:
anything will be good! upload to a torrent, I or someone else can try to download it & upload it to a server the devs want :)
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] bkong:
Uploading now, its a cfg not a zip file but I'm sure its the OTA update.

According to this: http://www.android.gs/flash-official-android-4-4-2-kk-update-for-att-galaxy-s4/

All you need to do is rename the cfg file to update.zip and flash it but I'm not certain. (Apparently the recommended way is to adb sideload but I have never tried it)

edit: Mega Link

https://mega.co.nz/#!PJ40jDCY!I2A0DiIAfcA-4t1Z3WR4EhFCn0vo7381MaXx3_0dl8I
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tejajuloori:
thanks! could someone on stock unmodded i747 check if this works?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
What's unmodded stock? Hahaha
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] joachim123:
Can't change back battery cover. Need original. =D
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tailgunner9:
S3 Kit Kat

Guess you loose your Root with this Update? Correct????
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] joachim123:
IIRC yes, but also look here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2787466
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
Official ota will (historically) wipe root out.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] jfishel:
Its probably too much to hope for a Odin Flashable .tar file at some point either from Samsung, or from XDA devs. Would be nice to be able to flash back to 100% stock 4.4.2 with data wipe when time to trade up phones.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] davenrai:
Would I be able to go from 4.4.2 Touchwiz to Cyanogenmod if I update OTA?

And I'm assuming I will have to go back to stock kernel+recovery and unroot if I want to update OTA?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] DocHoliday77:
I can try to make one, but will need someone who updated via ota and rooted using towelroot to dump the recovery for me. Someone's trying to get everything else for me now.

Don't see any reason you couldn't flash cm after updating. And yes you'd have to be full stock uprooted to take the ota.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] robertlewisca:
I can confirm on an unmodded stock ATT GS3, that this method wipes everything, including all data on the internal SD card. Not fun.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] indymx:
I tried.. I get an assert failure..

---------- Post added at 03:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:01 PM ----------

Why would you update to the stock rom just to go to CM??

Just install CM..
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] davenrai:
Doesn't this OTA update lock bootloaders?

Also are devs creating a rom from this OTA so root is not lost? If a dev does, will you still have to have stock recovery+kernel?

Thanks :)
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] talkingmonkeys:
Enewman17 or docholiday77 said they will be working on this and probably will have it up for us sometime this weekend. Then its time to redo everything I did for sprints build to add into our releases
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] davenrai:
I think that's what I'll end up doing.

I like certain aspects of touchwiz yet dislike others.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] indymx:
Either way, doing the OTA to just end up on CM is pointless..

Unless you just want to try out the new features of the stock rom..

Personally, I don't use this S3 for anything other than an alarm clock these days.. Stock rom is fine for that.

I like my HTC One M8 much better for a daily driver.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Laugher19:
You should try the new multi window in kitkat. It actually is useful
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] stratatak7:
Languages are super easy. They are already in the ROM, the languages.xml file in CSC just needs to be modified to add them. I made a promise to get started on the new ROM once there is a release. You should release something.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] DocHoliday77:
I was going to try to get a rom out this afternoon but had to puck up my daughter a few hours earlier than expected. I should be able to get it later tonight though. But everyone, PLEASE be patient. In the end, you know you will get a rom, but constantly asking for it does not make anything happen any faster.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] talkingmonkeys:
Thanks to enewman17 for releasing the deodexed rooted base. I'm going to be rebasing what I did for the sprint port to tide people over if you guys want to take your time with yours like I will with the full att one. Feel free to use anything from it you guys want to. It may be tomorrow around this time until I get it out because I can't stay up all night.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
Personally, I'm sticking with the ND8 port. It's running too good to screw with.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] srnoth:
The AT&T OTA does NOT lock the bootloader. Was immediately able to flash TWRP via ODIN and then root.[emoji1]
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] talkingmonkeys:
Not what a locked bootloader means. It means that you can't return to older ones after being in it. It is locked.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] srnoth:
Actually a locked bootloader is what the AT&T GS5 users have to deal with... Where you can't flash anything custom at all. There was some speculation that we would suffer the same fate with the kitkat update.

Edit: In terms of down grading bootloadera I'm guessing it's not worth trying. What's the advantage of being able to downgrade though?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] talkingmonkeys:
Its not worth it no unless you know what you're doing. Some people prefer ics over jelly bean and now kit kat. I am fine being locked in but since I waited and found out I didn't need to I stayed on one that was open.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] DocHoliday77:
Srnoth is right about locked bootloaders. We are still unlocked since we can flash custom recoveries and kernels. Its when Odin does the SW Rev check that it blocks downgrading.

I don't like the idea of not being allowed to downgrade firmware, but its not enough to prevent me from updating. Never had to downgrade before and ive always felt everything runs better when coupled with the firmware it was built to run on.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] KDKid:
I've been following the thread since updating to 4.4.2. Am I correct in assuming none of the Odin's (3.09) will root the phone? Towelroot is also useless. Stock 4.4.2 is awful. CM11 was too buggy for me. But, now that I'm on stock 4.4.2, I'd give anything to go back to CM10 or CM11
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tejajuloori:
Towelroot works on 4.3 and 4.4.2, what are your complaining about? You need to install superuser from play store to grant permission to specific apps or else it allows any app to have free root access
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
sounds like you need to factory reset and start over on the root attempt
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] KDKid:
Couldn't get towelroot to work. Tried a few things. The magic combo was Odin 3.07 (said 'passed', but failed 'root checker'), downloaded SuperSU, tried towelroot again (passed 'root checker'). SuperSU kept saying the 'binaries' were missing, but then said it had to disable KNOX to continue. Everything is good now. Currently running Gummy's 4.4.3. My phone is back to being amazing. Screw stock firmware.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] philhouse:
Hello,

I have a Rogers i747m running stock 4.3, rooted and unlocked with Xposed.

I am interested in upgrading to 4.4.2 but do not want to lose root. I am also interested in using a ROM that is debloated. Does something like this exist yet?

I have been following ROMs for a long time but have never upgraded except through OTA.

Since I rooted, I cannot OTA to 4.4.2.

Thank you!!!!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] DocHoliday77:
There are ota's you can use manually in 2 threads in this section. Rooting now shouldn't be an issue for anyone. See towelroot.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] philhouse:
Thanks. Do you know if someone is planning on making a stock rom that is debloated etc? Is that common?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] matrixzone:
Talkingmonkey had created sick debloated rom. You can find that in the Android development section..
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] _LEM_:
Could you post a link to that? I'm not sure if the one that I saw is the right one. Thanks.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] nysom16:
att

At&t is so slow with the updates I'd be surprised if this is really ever released especially having the SV out already.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
Dude, rollouts started already. Ppl are getting it ota now
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tailgunner9:
4.4.2 OTA

I have AT&T S3 with CWM recovery and Rooted 4.3 Build JSS15J.I747UCUEMJB Thu Oct 31 01:05:53 KST 2013. There got that out of the way. It will download the new OTA Update but will not install it after rebooting, guess because it is rooted or not Stock Recovery.

So how do I get the Update to 4.4.2?? What do I need to do??? Thanks Guys...
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] DocHoliday77:
Follow instructions in enewman17's How to Update thread.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tailgunner9:
Stock Recovery

Do not see enewman17 thread. Can you send link for it Please? Thanks
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] DocHoliday77:
5 threads below this one.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2789917
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] davenrai:
does this update of kitkat improve battery life and wakelocks from jellybean?

Thanks!

Not sure if I should just jump to a custom rom or just go to TW 4.4
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] jack man:
I got really good battery life on 4.3 which was not common from what i read. I'm on official 4.4 now and it was really bad the first week or so. Now it's better. As far as wakelocks go, i'm not sure - havent really spent time checking. For me, Ive stayed on stock simply because i need the warranty since i got the S3 last August. But mark my words, as soon as my warranty is out, I'm going custom rom. They most always have better battery life and more features. I was on custom roms pre 4.3 (before Samsung implemented the warranty bit in DL mode) so I know without a doubt it's the way to go.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] davenrai:
My battery life on the s3 is garbage on 4.3 even with a new battery. Can really only get 2h onscreen time. I have everything optimized for battery life too :(

How much do you get with 4.4?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] sameog:
re: AT&T updates

AT&T would rather have you *buy* another device than release OTA's. Don't fall for it. If my phone still works, I'm going to wear it out or unless someone wants buy it -- just my .02
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] jack man:
On 4.3 I was getting anywhere between 18 & 30 hours total with around 5 hours screen time. I dont know how I did it with 4.3 getting such bad reviews. Now, on 4.4 stock I'm getting around 4 hours screen time with about 15 to 20 hours total, maybe up to 24. and it's getting better on every battery cycle.

And I hate the new settings for location.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] nysom16:
I hear you there. I came from the HTC Inspire they promised updates then never delivered. Thanks to the community though I was happily running the latest Android version still.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tara.jatt:
Since I updated to 4.4.2 stock, all my apps which requires location access are not working without keeping Location setting "ON", Example, Gasbuddy wont show nearest gas stations, Google Now wont show nearby places suggestions, AccuWeather app only shows the towns i added and wont show the town i am in currently.

Earlier, in stock 4.3 , there was no "Location" setting, there was a GPS setting which I kept OFF and still these apps would work fine. '

Can someone please help me understand if this Location (in 4.4.2) and GPS (in 4.3) are same setting with different name or actually different settings? Is there a workaround for getting these apps to work properly without keeping the location setting off? I dont want battery to drain quickly with keeping location on all the time.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tejajuloori:
set location to power saving, you will get location related updates, set it to high accuracy if you want gps location too
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Kansas_32:
My phone says that a system update is available...I don't know if that's the one! I will keep you posted.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] srnoth:
Any update? Flashed my T999L back to stock, but no update pending.

Edit: just realized this is the AT&T kitkat thread. We have had kitkat on the I747 for several weeks now.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] DocHoliday77:
Could be an update to Samsung's apps. I heard they'd be pushing out updates soon and will be renaming them to Galaxy Apps on all Galaxy devices.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] RoryB:
New rumor of 4.4.4

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/559205/20140715/3-big-deals-android-4-kitkat-update.htm#.U8aUgfldUwF
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] ThreeofNine:
Well I'm not waiting for AT&T any longer - especially after I read this: http://www.androidorigin.com/samsung-galaxy-s3-kitkat-update-android-4-4-2-delay/

So hello custom Rom, but which one? Decisions decisions.....
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Danny 0311:
4.4.2 is coming out for SGSIII....the second Tuesday of next week. By the time it's released, Lollipop, Lime, or whatever will be out already. I say, root and rom.:p
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] adelvillar:
The international version of the GS3 is based on a Samsung Exynos SoC and the LTE version is based on Qualcomm SoC. Samsung LSI, the chip maker is terrible at supporting their chips, and for proof you have the Galaxy Nexus which didn't receive the latest version of Android.

Exynos 4 based devices got short changed on the update department, Galaxy S2, Galaxy Nexus and Intl Galaxy S3, to name a few. Exynos 5 seems to be a bit better supported, but I would stay away from any Exynos SoC if I were you.

The LTE variants will most surely receive the update, but it will depend on carrier validation. The Note 3 already received the update and it is based on the same SoC as the GS3. This one should be the last update that you will see for the GS3 as the phone will be 2 years old.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] ThreeofNine:
I went to CM11 d2lte. Running the 20140408 Nightly with the full gapps. NICE!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Jakeuten:
Texas Instruments made the TI OMAP chip in the Galaxy Nexus, and the S II did receive jellybean (4.2) in some markets.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Laugher19:
re:

if you check at&t's website, then you see that they say its upgradeable to 4.4
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lordmorphous:
View attachment 2679244
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] aybarrap1:
That is the most promising thing I have seen yet...and surprised AT&T would even do that.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Laugher19:
Has anyone tried to update with any success?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] codemonkey98:
If someone hasn't leaked the OTA, then you cannot update. You'll have to either wait for an OTA leak or until your carrier pushes it out.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] sja44:
Tuesday?

I am looking for the week with two Tuesdays, Honest.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] patate331:
I called Bell yesterday and they confirmed me the update is coming soon but they don't have a date... So I guess AT&T will update it around the same date... I hope so...
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] shirogeek:
Hopes this comes soon

Can't wait for kitkat to arrive folks
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] xhozt:
dont know If ill actually update but im waiting for it ;)
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] shortydoggg:
Well let us know how the new toy, I mean update goes. I'll likely have my S5 before At&t releases the update, in June maybe.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] C4M3R0N808:
Yepp ^, I agree!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] philliedbz:
Really hope it comes out for the i747m
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Laugher19:
Maybe kitkat is on the retail devices in the store. I just read that the verizon note 3 retail devices have kitkat. Soes anyone know if thats the case for us?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] laughingT:
Current ATT web details for S3 says

“ Android™ v4.3; upgradeable to v4.4”
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] TheBot7:
Still not available =\

Time to CM this damn thing.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] rnagam1:
CM 11 is highly unstable. Lot of problems with Camera and Bluetooth. I installed CM 11 and then went back to CM 10.2.2
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
I just checked on the mobile site and it straight up said 4.4.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] jjfoshay:
The description on their store says 4.4, too! This, plus the list of devices being updated in Samsung's FAQ, means it's definitely coming.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] talkingmonkeys:
http://www.sammobile.com/2014/04/26...-test-firmware-for-galaxy-note-10-1-gt-n8000/

Yea seeing a leaked firmware for such an old device makes me wonder if it will be this week we get to play around with this update :silly:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] sigmarelax:
The source for kitkat on the sprint gs3 (SPH-L710_NA_SPR) has been posted to samsung's opensource site. Hopefully their OTA and our OTA will be released soon
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Candy[MAN]:
Sprint OTA now live. Now just waiting for the others to post their update.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] matrixzone:
Keep it coming Samsung
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
At this point it had to do with each carrier, not Samsung. I would speculate that att will be next to last on pushing this out, with only Verizon waiting longer.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] rnagam1:
Current AT&T website for Samsung Galaxy S3 says v4.4 (KitKat).. Hopefully OTA arrives soon:laugh:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
Someone should call and ask customer service why it advertised kk online and when they are going to push it to current devices.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] srnoth:
Got the sprint rom installed on my D2ATT from here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2738533

1) Extract the ZIP file.

2) Extract the TAR file.

3) Use ext4_unpacker_exe to extract the system.img.ext4 to a regular system.img

4) Copy the new system.img file and the boot.img previously extracted to the root of your external SDCard

5) In recovery (I used TWRP) wipe all partitions and reboot recovery.

6) In recovery, using ADB, run the following:

dd if=/external_sd/system.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p14
dd if=/external_sd/boot.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p7

7) Reboot and enjoy 4.4 (hopefully everything went smoothly, takes a few minutes to boot).

Note that I am on MJB bootloader/modem. Also wifi is not working on this ROM (usual occurrence when using kernels/boot.img from a different version). Mobile data is working though.

Not really sure this is usable as a daily driver, but hope this helps others begin playing around with it.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] vanderville:
Finally! The wait is almost over, hope this update help improve our S3
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lemonboi5:
CNexus has a odex and deodexed version released now.

You could use the sprint 4.4 kernel but not radio right?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] srnoth:
Correct. Only install the kernel (boot) & system images.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] MrFhenix:
So exited!!!! AAAARRGGGGGGGG

---------- Post added at 03:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:18 PM ----------

Lemon thi is your Qeu :)
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lemonboi5:
Yes, but I repeat! and tell everyone! Do not install CNexus' Deodexed/Odexed 4.4 ND8 Roms on any other carrier! It will not boot, some even suffer a Bricked device. Wait for one of us to release a respective ROM. something about this Update is deadly.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] fr3d0x:
I9300I is getting kitkat today lol..
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] talkingmonkeys:
Tried warning people to just wait I had a feeling knox would give issues just like it did when we got 4.3. Not to mention you guys are trying to use a kernel that isn't made for us. It probably can be edited to work but you're better off waiting.

Only use for that rom for our devices would be to get a head start on themes because the same images are used across all the s3s. It shouldn't be too much longer guys. Just enjoy all the great 4.3 and custom roms for a few more weeks.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] shahrozeumar:
Hey guys,

Can I update to any better stock ROM from 4.1.2? I got it unlocked and it has the root with stock recovery.

Thanks ahead!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] OKAstro:
I use this 4.3 ROM and have been with them since 4.12. Best Stock ROM in my view. But read all of the OP before you jump in

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2252932
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] audit13:
Personally, I would just not bother upgrading to stock 4.3. I would install the latest version of Philz Touch recovery and flash a custom Kit Kat ROM such as Validus.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] shahrozeumar:
But I have heard that the phone gets locked again by flashing a custom ROM :/

I got it unlocked permanently from a place but that guy advised me to abstain from doing flashing.

What is the problem with 4.3? Please quote any serious issues..

Sorry I have no idea about the network locked smartphones.

Thanks for the prompt response!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Carsus55:
If the phone is truly Sim unlocked it stays that way regardless of rom flashed, custom or stock.