yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] chuangk:
I just upgraded my Windmobile T999V from stock 4.3 to stock 4.4.2, and this method worked on my stock 4.4.2:good:. However, when SuperSU was trying to update the su binary, it failed and then asked me to disable KNOX. So, for some reasons I got to disable KNOX first. The device was then rebooted and su binary updated by SuperSU.

Regarding Windmobile stock 4.4.2, frankly, I really regret to update my phone as under the same usage and apps installed, the battery drains a lot faster. I had WIFI range issue with my phone on stock 4.3 when comparing to my old S2 and so I thought upgrading to 4.4.2 would resolve this problem but the range is still poor after the upgrade.

Another issue is that the S3 does not support my language preference (Traditional Chinese), so, I had to install an app called Morelocales2 to change the interface language. This app worked flawlessly on stock 4.3 but after upgrading to 4.4.2, everything changed except the native apps like Camera, Phone, Contacts, Messages....etc. Tried other similar locale program but ended up with the same result. Not a really big deal but if I know this problem I definitely would not upgrade my phone. By the way, there is no ART mode and so I really don't know what's the advantage of upgrading to KK. Very disappointed actually. Wish someone comes up with a method of downgrading/reverting to stock 4.3.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Have you considered a full fact reset? Especially with kk, it seems this has helped a number of people with several issues, I believe including battery drain.

As far as ART is concerned, its still considered to be in the experimental stage which is probably why it wasn't included.

As for wifi, im not sure whst to tell you there. Theres a dialer code you can use to turn power saving off for it that might help. Ill try to look it up for you. But if you have any devices on your network that still use Wireless G, it may cause issues with your wireless N devices.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Ok, for wifi, try this...

Open your dialer and enter *#0011#

This should open service mode.

Next press menu and select WiFi.

Press the button to turn wifi power saving mode off. (This has to be redone if you reboot)

Hopefully that'll help a little.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Shack70:
So I flashed back to stock firmware the instructions for Odin here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1949687. My phone flashed and now is unrooted as I expected but still will not update as is it listed as modified. Am I missing something? When I boot the phone for download (middle button, vol down, and power) Odin is what shows on my phone. As i understand it Odin will root when you flash. Is this what is happening and how to fix it. I just want to unroot at this point as Im not finding many uses for root. I guess I just don't really need it. Thanks!

Also all. My apps, settings, and data were still there. Just no root.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] masondoctorjt:
Is super su still installed somehow? I did the exact same as you. I flashed stock from Odin and it went back to official status.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Shack70:
The su app was still installed but no root access. I just uninstalled it and anything else I had that required root. Rebooting first to see if it works, then refreshing I guess if it didn't.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Odin doesn't wipe data, so your apps and all are preserved. At some point you updated SuperSU causing it to be installed on the user data partition, which is why its still there after the flash. If you factory reset it should fix everything to be as you want. This will wipe internal sdcard though, so backup!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Shack70:
Thanks Doc, I had a feeling that is where I was headed.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Shack70:
That worked! So now my next question would be if I wanted to root again what is the better way? Flash to route66 or towel?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Towelroot is the safer and easier way. Anytime you flash anything, there is some risk involved. With Towelroot, you're not doing any extra flashing so risk is reduced.

I still recommend and use root66, but only in certain situations now. Though it does have some risk involved because your flashing your device, its still pretty minimal.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] FcHsChilD:
I used Root66 for my SG3 but this would have saved some time downloading i suppose.As always great work.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] chuangk:
Thank you Doc for the advises and the easiest way to root the phone:good::good:. I did try to turn WIFI power saving mode off but without any noticeable improvement. I also factory-reset twice but the battery still drained a lot faster. One thing caught my attention immediately after the upgrade was that the battery charges faster but also drains faster. Not sure why this happened. Anyway, hope there will be a way to downgrade back to stock 4.3 soon.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
You can flash an older stock 4.3 rom, just not the full firmware. Maybe that'll help battery and wifi?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Rareutu:
Out of curiousity, did your cf-auto-root method stick around longer than 48 hours? I'm on my third try and the root keeps disappearing. I'll flash back to stock 4.3 (NC2) when i get a chance and try towelroot, but there's no documentation on my issue online (to the best of my searches), and all the KNOX 'fixes' didn't work for me and it's all just incredibly maddening!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] chuangk:
Hmmm, this is getting to an advance level to me. I downloaded the stock Wind mobile 4.3 rom from Sammobile but I think this rom is the full firmware. Do I just flash this rom using ODIN and then I am back to stock 4.3 or are there special steps to follow so the full firmware is not flashed? Sorry that I am not an expert on this.:p
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] yeeahnick:
Yes i am still rooted as of today with cf-root. I did remove all the knox stuff manually with TB. Ive tried towelroot before and its really really easy and simple to use. Good luck
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
What are you running now? Im assuming you're on 4.1.2, but you said you'd flash back to 4.3. Thats the latest available, so im kinda confused as to what you're flashing back from. If its a rom, you should already be rooted.

If you are on 4.1.2, I dont know if Towelroot will work. But if not just flash the root66 NC2 firmware.

It is the full firmware. And yes, flash using Odin. If you dont want the full firmware flashed you can use Mobile Odin but you have to already be rooted. Otherwise flash a rom in recovery n
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] chuangk:
Sorry Doc. My T999V is running on stock Wind Mobile 4.4.2 rooted with Towelroot. If I simply flash the stock Wind mobile 4.3 firmware using Odin, will my phone be back to 4.3 without problem? I have read some posts saying that this can't be done because of bootloader issue. Thanks.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] dmgriz:
Success with Eastlink T999V 4.4.2

CONFIRMED - Success rooting my Eastlink T999V (4.4.2) with towelroot. Same as @northghost, SuperSU hung up disabling KNOX but after a reset and opening SuperSU again, it worked like a charm. Thanks @geohot, Easy like Sunday morning...

Just curious anyone else have an Eastlink T999V?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Ok, you cannot flash the older firmware. Odin won't let you and if you try ither methods it'll brick. You can flash the older roms though. Or as I mentioned, you can flash the firmware via mobile odin. It doesn't flash the full firmware, only select parts of it. If you do try this, make sure you deselect the modem before flashing.

If you're not familiar with mobile odin, search xda for its thread for more info. If you have any other questions about it, or flashing the older roms from recovery, let me know.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
I think you're only the 2nd person ive ever seen around here with Eastlink!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] dmgriz:
I can confirm this (just the Odin part, not the mobileOdin part!) :p After the 4.4.2 update my alarm stopped working and ES File Manager was behaving strangely so I attempted to flash stock 4.3 with Odin. Got an error on my download screen that said something like "BOOTLOADER SW RV 2". I then tried to go back to stock 4.1.2, same error. Not knowing what else to do, I flashed the 4.2.2 update again and did a factory reset and Voila! Alarm works, ES works, rooted with Towelroot and everything appears to be fine. I would like to be able to get back to 4.1.2 someday so that I could give CM10 or some other ROM a try but for now it's all good.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] serio22:
You dont need to go back to 4.1.2, you can still flash those ROMs
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] dmgriz:
I didn't look much further than this post but it states that for CM you need to start from ICS. Is there another thread I should check out?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Rareutu:
It's the strangest thing y'all. My root will come and go in seems like an arbitrary manner. The only reason i noticed is because my quickboot reboot widget would make the screen go blank (hang) from which i could hit the 'return' hardware key to go back to homescreen. I would then confirm by opening any root-needed app (triangle/TB, etc) and get the 'root needed for functionality' message.

In any case - to elaborate on the root coming and going phenomenon.

I came from stock T999 (non LTE) and believe i had an OTA or two under my belt but was running 4.0.1 or 4.1.1 latest! I can be lazy about these things and was happy about my original root method (though i can't remember which method that was) but recently tried to see if OTA method worked when i saw that Tmo was on to my root (settings/about/phone/software update produced message. Turns out the flash counter is responcible for that, as confirmed after Triangle usage).

Then i flashed latest NC2 update - found through samfirmware via ODIN, and after i couldn't find a relatively 'safe' method to root (based on online documentation, reading up on KNOX, my own comfort levels, etc), stumbled on the cf-auto-root and flashed that. So far so good for a couple of days.

Then, after a couple of days, the root was gone as described above. Reflashed auto root, integrated SuperSU into system and ran Aroma Installer full de-bloat. I couldn't find the recommended knox system entries to delete via TB, and assumed they were never included in the auto-root image. But i did download KNOX Disabler just in case. Never used it.

Then my root was gone again after a couple of days and thinking i had nothing to lose i tried to run KNOX Disabler. The app didn't seem to work and looked like it was hanging, but after a reboot the root has returned.

So now the situation is that (and this is mostly trial and error), the root will disappear after some time (i'm paranoically checking it twice a day now, and might establish duration or reboot patterns at some point), at which point i'll go through the knox disabler/hang/reboot/root returned loop.

My situation seems unique as far as wide google and xda search results - and it seems manageable (if annoying) for the moment, but it would be great to understand and resolve the bloody strangeness.

Thanks for listening and any contributions on the matter!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] serio22:
Did you ever open SuperSU and disable Knox from there? Knox may be conflicting with root access

---------- Post added at 12:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:02 PM ----------

It was probably an old post.. I'm sure it will work, but since it is an old cm build you may need to edit the assert lines to match your bootloader.. I wouldn't go back to cm10 though since we have cm11
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Try serio22's suggestion first, but you might want to back everything up, then factory reset. If it still is happening, reflash the firmware via Odin, then factory reset again. Boot up and use Towelroot to root the device, following instructions in the op. If this works, you can restore most of your data, but try to avoid restoring data for any system apps. (Contacts and calendar type apps are ok though)

And just fyi, the flash counter isnt how the system detects if you are rooted or how it prevents using OTA's to update. SysScope is a Samsung app which detects root and other changes to the system. If it does detect either, it changes the System Status from Official to Modified. When you run Software Update, it checks this value and if its been set to modified it won't even check for the update.

You can flash the stock firmware (might also need to factory reset), and you'll then be able to get OTA'S again. The flash counter and Warranty Bit have no effect on this.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Rareutu:
I'm not sure how. Launching SuperSU doesn't prompt me as in the below tutorial, and i can't find knox within SuperSU somehow..

http://www.droidviews.com/disable-knox-security-service-on-samsung-galaxy-devices/
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
There's also the root66 firmware. Its pre rooted and knox is removed.

We've given you several different things to try. Have you attempted any of them yet?

One last thing you can try. Clear data on SuperSU, then reopen. Maybe it'll prompt you then.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Rareutu:
Thanks a lot for all the knowledge and options guys. I really appreciate it,

I need to first wrap my mind around the risks of reverting to stock firmware (factory reset via settings) before attempting any of them though. I read somewhere that once you've flashed the 4.3 series MK2 or NC2 you risk permabricking by trying to flash anything earlier. Will a factory reset use the image that was on the phone when i bought it at release, or has my flashing overwritten it?

That's why i'm afraid to flash anything other than the cf-auto-root which has root baked in the system.

If the problem persists -god i hope it doesn't worsen- i'll probably bite the bullet and one of the suggestions :-/

---------- Post added at 07:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 PM ----------

I.....may have tried the route66 method, or it might have scared me on first reading. I think that's where i saw the hazards of flashing anything earlier....etc...

It's been kind of a whirlwind last couple of weeks, between this and non-phone-life-stuff :)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] dmgriz:
I should have looked further :p Thanks!!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
All factory resetting does is wipe data. It doesnt touch the system partition or any other parts of the firmware. If you have stock recovery installed, it formats /data, so it fully wipes all user data and apps, including internal sdcard.

If you have a custom recovery installed, it doesn't format, but selectively deletes in order to achieve the same result, but preserves your internal sdcard data.

It is true, once you update to 4 3 firmware you cannot downgrade. But you can still flash older roms if you wish. Factory resetting only wipes user data, it doesn't restore older firmware, so you dont have to worry about that at all.

If you are already on 4 3 firmware, you can flash the same or newer firmware with odin. It will prevent you from flashing anything earlier.

Hope that eases your mind a bit!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Hey [MENTION=535343]all[/MENTION]!

Need to ask a favor from those of you who are stock rooted (or are about to be) by using this method.

After rooting, but before flashing a custom recovery, please consider making a debrick.img for us to fix hard bricks with.

I have just posted a script that takes most of the work out of doing this. It is posted here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=54232631

Basically, we need both 4.3 and 4.4.2 images from all T999 variants. If they work, you could be saving yourself from a hard brick in the future!

Thanks everyone!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] serio22:
Do you need it for the T999 as well? If so I could do 4.3
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] sector4:
I am on root66 tmo nc2 stock no custom recovery yet. If needed I can run it. But don't have a way to unload it
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
That would be great! Which build though? MJC or NC2?

If serio22 has NC2 we'll just let him do that one then. Otherwise ill help you out with it.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] serio22:
I have NC2, I'll do it and PM you
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] masondoctorjt:
My t99l is rooted with stock recovery, but I have debloated and customized it. Would the debrick image contain all my info, or would I need to factory reset before running the script. I am on NC1 by the way.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
It doesn't get anything from the user data partition, so you're good there, but it does get a small portion of /system, so im not sure if being debloated would have any effect. Considering this is something people will be relying on to save their device from a hard brick, its probably best to be full stock and make the image before any debloating. Especially if there's a system app that it needs, there'd be no way to know what it is or if its been debloated.

If no one else steps up to make one, we can get it from you then if that's cool.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Actually, a guy is looking for a T999L image now. If you want to create and post it in the debrick thread for him to try, im sure he'd appreciate it.

And lets everyone make any further discussion about this in the debrick thread. I only posted here because it'd have a good chance of being seen by those meeting the requirements.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] masondoctorjt:
I can't seem to get the script to run. What is the best way to run it? I extracted it and copied to /data and changed the permissions to what you said. But when I try to run it nothing really happens. I'm using a manager. Is there a better so to use? Also if I get this to work on my phone I could probably root my wife's t999l and get a full stock debrick image.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
You should be able to just tap the script to run it. In Root Explorer it asks if you want to view or execute it, just choose execute. After a minute or two it should be completed.

Try a different file manager I guess. Maybe what you are using doesn't allow running scripts this way.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] serio22:
ScriptRunner will also work from the play store and its free.. just select the path and give it root access.. process is actually fast, tried it with script runner and root explorer and it took maybe like around 10 sec for both apps
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Yeah, I just say to give it a minute or two just in case. But it was very quick when I tested on my friends device too.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] gdgt:
thank you

Hey, just wanted to say thanks, this helped me root my phone. t-mobile s3. :good::good::good:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] masondoctorjt:
Im sorry, it just keeps saying that it is running and it will run for hours if I let it, but the debrick, gz file it creates is 0.00mb in size so it just isn't Working for me. I tried every script runner app, script manager, and every root explorer app in the store, even the pay versions.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] serio22:
I replied to your post here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=54290021 let's continue the conversation there
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] chuangk:
I am going to give it a try from stock 4.4.2 firmware back to stock 4.3 rom. Attached is the mobile odin screenshot with Root66 pre-rooted 4.3 firmware selected.

When I opened the firmware .md5 file, Kernel, Recovery, System, Cache, and Modem were set. Do I just deselect Modem and keep the other four? Anything else I have to select or watch for before I touch the "flash" switch?

I am wondering if anyone has ever done this before. Would this brick my phone? Will my phone become essentially stock 4.4.2 but with stock 4.3 system? Thanks and sorry for the many questions.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
I have not done this with 4.3 or above (dont have 4.4.2 yet). Im pretty sure others have done this on 4.3 though. Not sure about 4.4.2.

Mobile odin is not able to flash the bootloader, so it will remain as is (along with several other partitions). It will only flash what you have selected. The recovery shouldn't matter, but if it were me I'd deselect it and the modem.

If you are not comfortable doing this though, you can just flash the stock rom. There is an option to select a zip file. Download this and put it there.

http://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23252070760975059

Its a Wind MK5 rom. Deodexed, rooted, knox removed, insecure kernel.

Either way, you'll end with 4.4.2 base firmware and a 4.3 rom and kernel.

Since you are downgrading, you'll also have to wipe dalvik. If it hangs at boot you'll have to factory reset from recovery. If its stock recovery it will wipe your internal sdcard, so backup before doing anything. If using custom recovery, it'll wipe all but internal sd.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] kai456789:
thank you very good
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Mustafa Fahmy:
galaxy s3 with official 4.3 xxxugna8

I tried all the ways for towelroot and it isnt working

When pressing makeitrain it says ur phone isn't rooted

Although tried superuser also it said ur device isn't rooted

Try to root it manually

Hopefully u can help me
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] sector4:
What model phone are you using. Need a little more info than that for people to help.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] TNAR:
Wow.

I have been trying to root my 4.4.2 S3 for days without success. Odin hated me. Casual hated me. My phone hated me. I hated me.

Then suddenly I stumbled upon Towelroot. Bleh, just another big talker, I thought.

I installed it. Made it rain. Perhaps two seconds later it said I was rooted.

Surely not, me thinks.

But it worked!!

Wow!!!

Donate? You bet your ass! You da man geohot!!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] wtrhzrd:
I can get you a clean 4.3 at some point this week. I'm going to be swapping a motherboard which is still 4.1.2 into my S3 and doing a complete factory reset so it's completely clean (including all the apps on it). Then I want to OTA update it to 4.3. At that point I want to try the towelroot and hopefully get rooted and de-knoxed without setting the warranty bit (which I did on my current board). I don't plan on putting a custom recovery on this time, so I'll have a completely clean, rooted, no knox system running by the end of the week if you still need an image for T999.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Let me know when you are ready. We do have a 4.3 image from serio22 but I am redoing the script again, so might need someone to make one with it.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] ImpassionedRule:
Yep, it worked. Went from CM11 on the MK5 firmware, back to stock NF1 firmware, and rooted using TowelRoot.

Like others, I had to close the app when it showed "Disabling KNOX", but after restarting the app, KNOX was disabled.

---------- Post added at 10:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 PM ----------

Is it fine if I return back to stock firmware from CM11? BTW, I think I also triggered KNOX.

EDIT: This spamming forum rule is kinda annoying.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Yup, that's perfectly fine to do. And I really hope the Warranty Bit doesn't block this in the future, but it didn't on 4.3 so it should be ok if its tripped.

And I know the 10 post rule is annoying, but it really is a necessary thing. Otherwise our mods would be busy cleaning up posts from spam bots all day long!

You'll get past it easy enough though and then it'll never be an issue again!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] wtrhzrd:
I can do it whenever. I'm up on NC2, rooted, and staying on stock recovery indefinitely.