Develop Bugs

Crap, can this be done?

Just got this phone and I love it but the seller on ebay had it rooted and had one of the roms from here on it. They said they would put it all back to stock for me. I like to start with a clean slate if you know what I mean. Well, it is back on gingerbread but root is still there and a whole bunch of other stuff (apps, roms, titanium backup) etc etc in folders on the internal storage. My question is can I safely get this phone back to being stock just like it was from the factory, without the risk of bricking it? I know how to use Odin for the Epic 4G and all. I knew there were some problems with the touch and some phones getting bricked. I have no clue what they may have done to the phone so I am a bit concerned to do anything to it till I hear from someone who has done this (gone completely back to stock) Also, is there a tutorial somewhere?? Thanks guys for your help with this.
Oh here is some more info if it helps looks like I am on Android version 2.3.6, EL29, kernel 2.6.35.7 there is some other info if you need it please let me know I do see a Caulklin's folder in there in the internal storage so most likely they did have that rom on there at one time. There is also a ACS folder in there but when I try to open any of the folders in there I get an error that there is no program that can perform this action. Grrrrrr

Hi.
When messing with Gingerbread, especially stock, bricks are pretty hard to come by nowadays.
Here is what I suggest:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1433101
(from what you said, you probably understand this already)
Just run the EL29 OC. You'll be good to go.
In terms of the internal storage, just delete it all or run a format. You won't get yourself in trouble that way, it's just the internal storage.
If you're concerned about the data wipe brick, that is only on ICS. So since you're on GB, it is not a problem (and totally unrelated to clearing internal storage.)
Post back if you have any questions or anythin'.

If you are on gingerbread then there is no danger of the EEMC superbug(As far as I've heard/read). As for reseting I don't have a link to a tutorial off the top of my head, however the process is pretty simple. Start searching through the development forums for the stock odin files and then flash them. I can try to find you a tutorial/links tonight but I don't really have time right now...besides the search function works the same way for you as it would for me! Feel free to ask if you need anything else!
Hahaha MochaCharok beat me to it!

Thanks guys. The phone at one time was on an ICS rom and yes I can search for it. I just wanted to make sure before I did, that this could be done. So, I will see about finding the tutorial and how to go about getting the phone all back to factory like. I know I am so anal this way, but I really do like to start with a clean slate before I do anything to any phone. thanks again guys I will holler if I run into any problems. LOVE this phone though.
thewadegeek said:
If you are on gingerbread then there is no danger of the EEMC superbug(As far as I've heard/read). As for reseting I don't have a link to a tutorial off the top of my head, however the process is pretty simple. Start searching through the development forums for the stock odin files and then flash them. I can try to find you a tutorial/links tonight but I don't really have time right now...besides the search function works the same way for you as it would for me! Feel free to ask if you need anything else!
Hahaha MochaCharok beat me to it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

When you activated the phone on your account it should've wiped everything they had on the phone prior and reset it to stock. At least that's what happened when I activated a phone I'd bought from an XDA member. So I started with a clean slate automatically.

It didn't for whatever reason. I had to go in and edit the MIN and MDN manually to get it to activate so maybe that is why. That thing was a HUGE pain to do too. It would not take and kept resetting. Had to try it like 5 times.
Esoteric68 said:
When you activated the phone on your account it should've wiped everything they had on the phone prior and reset it to stock. At least that's what happened when I activated a phone I'd bought from an XDA member. So I started with a clean slate automatically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

If you are stuck with what to do next then take it to a Sprint store and let them wipe it for you.

Good info
As I'm going to try this and hopefully get the missus off her Opt S and onto an E4GT this week this was good timing to cover the process.
Here's what I am planning to do:
1) Flash EL29 + Root
2) Factory Reset from Recovery (which should clear NVRAM if I understand correctly)
3) Call MVNO and have them set up phone
4) Allow hands-free activation to hopefully fill in the blanks
If this works as I hope then I shouldn't have to tinker manually with the NVRAM data.... if not then I have my phone to base most of that off of. And of course it depends if the carrier will let me set the phone up - in the past they haven't been warm to using a different phone unless you purchased it directly from them.
All this just to sit tight until we can get the GS3 probably next year.. yeesh.

[Q]Guides For Installing Roms?

Coming from an EVO 4G I thought I had a pretty good grip on installing roms. A week after getting and rooting my S3 I'm still gun shy. I want to install Jelly Bomb but I keep seeing posts about flash counters and dirty flash. I've never heard this mentioned before. Are these Samsung exclusive terms? I wanted to go easy and find a Rom as close to Stock as possible with the ability to remove apps to get my feet wet but haven't found one. This phone seems easier to brick than the EVO. Am I right? Also, I see things referencing Touchwiz and fishing it. Very confused. Samsung's version of Sense I guess?

ruckstande said:
Coming from an EVO 4G I thought I had a pretty good grip on installing roms. A week after getting and rooting my S3 I'm still gun shy. I want to install Jelly Bomb but I keep seeing posts about flash counters and dirty flash. I've never heard this mentioned before. Are these Samsung exclusive terms? I wanted to go easy and find a Rom as close to Stock as possible with the ability to remove apps to get my feet wet but haven't found one. This phone seems easier to brick than the EVO. Am I right? Also, I see things referencing Touchwiz and fishing it. Very confused. Samsung's version of Sense I guess?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash counters can be reset pretty easy these days. all roms labeled as having TW or touchwiz are pretty much stock with things like battery saving mods or battery hogging apps removed that are usually not needed"debloated".
this post sent from my Jellybombed GalaxySIII

joeyhdownsouth said:
Flash counters can be reset pretty easy these days. all roms labeled as having TW or touchwiz are pretty much stock with things like battery saving mods or battery hogging apps removed that are usually not needed"debloated".
this post sent from my Jellybombed GalaxySIII
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I see you are on Jelly Bomb right now. What's your overall opinion of it? Any problems? Anything I should know not mentioned in the Dev's post?

ruckstande said:
Thanks. I see you are on Jelly Bomb right now. What's your overall opinion of it? Any problems? Anything I should know not mentioned in the Dev's post?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's what you do...former evo'er here as well...
Grab the one click Odin LJ7 that you will find in sg3/android dev. Titled (root)odin one clicks by billard. Read the post so you understand how to use it. Save it to your CPU. That will save you if you ever brick your shiny new phone.
Go on you tube and search qbking77....you'll find every video you want regarding rooting and installing cmw
After that its the exact same way to flash ROMs as your evo. I promise.
Good luck

jwitt418 said:
Here's what you do...former evo'er here as well...
Grab the one click Odin LJ7 that you will find in sg3/android dev. Titled (root)odin one clicks by billard. Read the post so you understand how to use it. Save it to your CPU. That will save you if you ever brick your shiny new phone.
Go on you tube and search qbking77....you'll find every video you want regarding rooting and installing cmw
After that its the exact same way to flash ROMs as your evo. I promise.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I should be flashing through Odin the same way I rooted? I, did root btw using qbking77 very easy video guide. Took me all of ten minutes to root.

ruckstande said:
Thanks. I see you are on Jelly Bomb right now. What's your overall opinion of it? Any problems? Anything I should know not mentioned in the Dev's post?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I luv this rom, super themed though, not everyone likes all the blue. For me everything works. Just the statusbar after a reboot, you have to pull down notification bar once to get it to show up. Other than that no problems, kernal in 10.2 allows overclocking also.
this post sent from my Jellybombed GalaxySIII

Your fine then...just install cmw and your good to go.
The galaxy 3 is different than the evo in the sense that its very easy to root and unroot using Odin. The evo is a pain to unroot.
Make sure your grab that one click Odin and save tho because it will bail you out of trouble if something gets screwed up. You could run that and it will return you to stock or stock rooted (your choice depending on what file you download).
Anyways. Install cmw. Download ROM to your SD or internal SD. Hold volume up, home, power to cmw. Wipe/factory reset x3, wipe cache, advanced/wipe dalvik, install ROM, reboot
By the way. If you want what you posted in op keep stock but rooted. If you want a better kernel flash team sonics or jelly bomb with kt747....but if I were you I'd go SlimBean...enjoy

One other thing. What's this business about downloading a modem?

The roms are not modem dependant. And chances are if you're on stock you already have the latest modem. If you want to confirm go in the about section of settings and look at your baseband. should end in LJ7. Like I said though its not really important

If the modem isn't that important, why can't I connect to Sprint's network at all? I was working on installing the Goodness ROM which said I had to install a particular modem. I downloaded all files to the computer as suggested, transferred them to the phone then used TWRP as my backup and installed the ROM and the modem as stated. When I went to reboot it told me that there was no ROM installed. So I went back to my recovery installed it and now I can not connect to the network at all. Can someone please help? I need my phone as I am a Paramedic and I talk to the hospitals with it when I am bringing them a pt.

PolynesianMedic said:
If the modem isn't that important, why can't I connect to Sprint's network at all? I was working on installing the Goodness ROM which said I had to install a particular modem. I downloaded all files to the computer as suggested, transferred them to the phone then used TWRP as my backup and installed the ROM and the modem as stated. When I went to reboot it told me that there was no ROM installed. So I went back to my recovery installed it and now I can not connect to the network at all. Can someone please help? I need my phone as I am a Paramedic and I talk to the hospitals with it when I am bringing them a pt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not trying to sound harsh here but if that's the case just stay stock rooted. You need the phone brother...peoples lives are depending on it...lol
On a lighter side, I do t have experience with that ROM. But sounds like a bad flash. Wipe/factory reset...cache....dalvik...and I even format the internal SD...haven't had any problems

Open the dialer and hit ##72786# Should set ya straight

Oh well that didn't work. I watched the QBKing77 video and followed those instructions. Install took way less than I expected. Maybe two minutes? I pressed reboot and it rebooted back into recovery. That didn't go so well.

[Q] Wifi not turning on! Please Help.

Hello, Im new to all of this so please understand. Okay, I have a Sprint GS3, I rooted it using the toolbox thing it worked but I decided that I didnt want the root anymore. I loaded stock software and booted it up normal. The only problem now is my wifi isnt turning on. Ive searched page after page on google, ask and bing. I dont know what to do anymore. Im just about to just say screw it and give up. Any help will be much appreciated.

You Odin'd back to Stock, and now your WiFi is not working correctly ? Are you certain your connecting to your Router ? Did you check the Router to make sure it's working correctly ? Did you try to connect to the Router with another Device ?

If you still have a custom recovery installed, I'd say to just flash another rom. The toolbox kills your WiFi fir sine reason, which can only be fixed by flashing another kernel, and roms have the kernels built in so, you might as well kill two birds with one stone
You could just flash stock rooted though, no need to go full out custom

Wifi not turning on
What I mean is my phone's wifi wont turn on at all. How do I get everything back to normal like before I rooted it?

Brblank44 said:
What I mean is my phone's wifi wont turn on at all. How do I get everything back to normal like before I rooted it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, this method should work and do exactly what you wanted, but you'll still have root access.
Below, I have quoted a post I made a while back when trying to help someone out.
Down below I link to Freeza's stock Rom, which is what you want if you want the stock phone with root. The one you want to download is the DeOdex MD4 one:
DeOdex:
Sprint Touchwiz Jelly Bean 4.1.2 L710VPBMD4 | Mirror
MD5: 77262D9D6CF1A6AF30A8981A95A75D57
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In step #4, the wipe system is very important. It's most likely that something in your /system folder is messing up your wifi. Just flashing a new Rom over might not fix it. I'd also wipe /data, 'cause a fresh wipe is much less likely to have issues.
Ok, let's start at the very beginning (it's a very good place to start).
Before we get started, I'm going to make the following assumptions:
You successfully rooted your phone through Odin.
You currently have a custom recovery (either TWRP or CWM).
You have a Rom you'd like to flash on either your internal storage or your SDcard (I'd recommend the SDcard, but that's your prerogative).
If either of the first two is not true, I'd recommend going back to the rooting guide and check out the videos on how to use Odin to gain root and a custom recovery.
If number 3 above is not true, download a ROM (nor someone new to flashing/custom Roms, I'd recommend Freeza's stock rooted Rom, as it's identical to stock TW, but just with Root). Once you download a Rom, check it's md5sum to verify that it's a good download. Copy the file to your SD card and get ready to flash (make sure you have decent battery life left, I try to keep at least 50% or more when flashing Roms, although it shouldn't take too long.
I'll give directions on how to flash a Rom below. The instructions will be for TWRP, but CWM has similar options/settings
Turn your phone completely off (hold down power for 3-5 seconds)
Boot your phone into recovery. Hold Up, Menu, and Power for a few seconds (until SAMSUNG appears on your screen and the phone vibrates)
Make a Nandroid backup. I can't emphasize this enough. In flashing, it's almost a certainty that one time, something will mess up. When that happens, you want to be able to restore a backup. In TWRP, just go into Backup Menu and choose where you want it (internal vs. External storage). It takes my phone a few (5-10) minutes to completely backup my data.
In TWRP, click the wipe button, then system. This will completely wipe the Rom from your phone. Doing this will allow you to get a "clean" install, without any settings or leftover files from your old Rom getting in the way. Instead, you could only wipe data (factory reset), which is good enough for most Roms. I'd still recommend a system wipe, though.
Also while in the Wipe menu, wipe Cache and Dalvik Cache.
Go back to the TWRP main menu.
Click Install, then find your Rom zip file (may have to switch from internal to external storage).
Let TWRP do it's thing.
If you're installing a TW-based Rom, chances are it had gapps already installed. If not, you should now flash the correct gapps package from goo.im. Make sure you're flashing the correct one, as if you don't, your google apps will force close upon use.
Reboot into system and give it time to boot (first boot sometimes takes a couple of minutes).
Set up your phone the way you like.
These should be the directions to follow whenever you flash a new Rom. Some Roms have the Aroma installer, so you'll have more options once you choose to flash the Rom zip, but those are typically easy to follow (and vary from Rom to Rom, so I won't be able to give you a good guide on that).
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Brblank44 said:
What I mean is my phone's wifi wont turn on at all. How do I get everything back to normal like before I rooted it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. The toolbox kills your WiFi completely and you have to flash another rom to fix it. Flash stock rooted from freezas thread and you should be good to go.

CNexus said:
If you still have a custom recovery installed, I'd say to just flash another rom. The toolbox kills your WiFi fir sine reason, which can only be fixed by flashing another kernel, and roms have the kernels built in so, you might as well kill two birds with one stone
You could just flash stock rooted though, no need to go full out custom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do people use a toolbox on a phone that's so easy to root without it?

flastnoles11 said:
Why do people use a toolbox on a phone that's so easy to root without it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I first rooted my phone (back pre LJ7 days), I used it because I came from the EVO 4G, which was notoriously difficult to root (and which needed a toolkit). So when I came to the GS3, I figured it'd be the same way. Fortunately, the toolkit worked better back then and I didn't have an issue. Now that I've helped others use Odin (and have used it myself a number of times), I don't point to the toolkit anymore.
But my point is, sometimes people assume it's difficult, see a toolkit that is meant to make it easier and decide that's the way to go.

topherk said:
Ok, this method should work and do exactly what you wanted, but you'll still have root access.
Below, I have quoted a post I made a while back when trying to help someone out.
Down below I link to Freeza's stock Rom, which is what you want if you want the stock phone with root. The one you want to download is the DeOdex MD4 one:
In step #4, the wipe system is very important. It's most likely that something in your /system folder is messing up your wifi. Just flashing a new Rom over might not fix it. I'd also wipe /data, 'cause a fresh wipe is much less likely to have issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much. I will try this as soon as I can.

topherk said:
When I first rooted my phone (back pre LJ7 days), I used it because I came from the EVO 4G, which was notoriously difficult to root (and which needed a toolkit). So when I came to the GS3, I figured it'd be the same way. Fortunately, the toolkit worked better back then and I didn't have an issue. Now that I've helped others use Odin (and have used it myself a number of times), I don't point to the toolkit anymore.
But my point is, sometimes people assume it's difficult, see a toolkit that is meant to make it easier and decide that's the way to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get that, but just a tiny bit of reading around well show you the toolkit is actually the harder way to root this phone in my opinion... Just saying

flastnoles11 said:
I get that, but just a tiny bit of reading around well show you the toolkit is actually the harder way to root this phone in my opinion... Just saying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree that the toolkit is much more complicated and a bit of a "black box." Hence why I don't recommend it anymore.
But back then, even though I read a whole lot, I decided to go with the toolkit because it felt safer. Heck, I eevn donated so I could get the "pro" features! And for people who aren't that comfortable "hacking" things, it's tempting to use something that'll do the "hard work" for you, even if the normal way of doing it is relatively simple.
That's why I always try to spell things out very clearly for people (I do like numbered lists, don't I?). If someone responds to a thread with "just wipe data and flash a new rom," most "noobs" will hesitate because while they may know those terms, they don't know the procedure and will be afraid of messing it up. With the numbered list of instructions, they typically feel much more comfortable with doing it themselves.
Just my two cents.

Yeah, very true (@topherk). The first time I rooted my firdt phone, I saw all the guides and stuff, but settled on a toolkit sort of program to do it for me...subsequent phones I've always rooted by hand. For me it kinda sucks that there's no way to root the S3 manually (as in like, push this to.the phone, reboot, run this command then flash recovery)
Having come from 2 HTC devices (evo and evo shift), I kinda feel like ODIN is a "cheating" way to root lol. But that's just me.

Whats a md5? It says no md5 file and gives me an error.

Brblank44 said:
Whats a md5? It says no md5 file and gives me an error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats normal,.the great majority of flashable zips do not include an md5 file.
What that is referring to is a hashing function, called the md5sum, that can be used to verify the integrity of a file. Most devs will provide this (in number format) so that you can check the md5sum of your local copy/download against what they provide. If anything goes wrong in a download or file transfer, the md5sum of your copy will not match the expected value, confirming that it was a bad download or that something went wrong along the way.
For your case, TWRP always checks to see if the flashable zip includes an md5sum check file that it can check your file against as an added precaution that you're not flashing something corrupted.

Brblank44 said:
Whats a md5? It says no md5 file and gives me an error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't do the md5 verification in the Recovery. That typically fails, even if the md5 is correct.
I typically do it in Windows (I use this program, works great). If it's a really large file or I don't feel confident about the cable I'm using, I'll also check the md5sum in ES Explorer on the phone after I transfer it.

Okay I flashed it and I have the same problem. Wifi not turning on. The detox whatever its called didn't work. So I took it to sprint today after having flashed it and everything and they did a hard reset. I lost everything. Sprint couldn't swap the phone out for a new one. I am thinking about sending it back to samsung. So they can fix it. Any other ideas guys? Also thank you for your understanding and helping me.

Brblank44 said:
Okay I flashed it and I have the same problem. Wifi not turning on. The detox whatever its called didn't work. So I took it to sprint today after having flashed it and everything and they did a hard reset. I lost everything. Sprint couldn't swap the phone out for a new one. I am thinking about sending it back to samsung. So they can fix it. Any other ideas guys? Also thank you for your understanding and helping me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brblank,
Try this easy method to return to stock everything including recovery, flash count reset and device status normal. It worked perfectly for me.
Before flashing wipe Cache and Dalvik and factory reset.Then flash the file. Make sure you choose the correct file (16gb or 32gb version).
Even if it doesn't fix your WiFi issue it will put your phone in the proper state to send to Samsung.
You can place the file on your internal or external card.
Return to Stock Link
With much thanks to billard412
Hope this helps you.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Problem

Hello everyone,
I really need your help with my wife's Metro PCS Samsung GS4 M919N.
The thing is, we are now living outside the US so I had to unlock her phone. After ordering the unlock codes, I decided to root the phone and use a custom ROM while waiting for the codes.
That is why I found this guide here: androidforums.com/metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root/790899-metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root-guide.html
So while reading the guide, I aimed to have the following accomplished at the end:
Recovery: TWRP
Custom ROM: CyanogenMod 10.2.1
I then started doing the guide for the TWRP recovery by using Odin. I got the message saying that the flashing passed and went ahead to restart to recovery to install CM 10.2.1 as a custom ROM. The thing is that I keep on restarting to the stock recovery not TWRP. So I went to YouTube and found a video showing how to flash TWRP using GooManager. After following that guide, I went to restart to recovery and I successfully got into TWRP.
Now, to achieve my goal, all that's left to do is to flash CyanogenMod 10.2.1 (jfltetmo).
Before doing that, I decided to make a backup. After using TWRP to do a backup, I proceeded to installing the custom ROM + gapps (wiped with the default settings). Everything was working I think (I handed the phone to my wife so she was he one testing it). After some time, she decided she wants the stock ROM instead so I decided to download the androidforums.com/metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root/783769-rom-recovery-flash-able-stock-m919nuvuamf2-rooted-deodexed-rom.html ROM.
I flashed the newly downloaded ROM + gapps (same file). This time, I couldn't get the gapps to work probably because it was meant for another version. So I decided to just restore from the backup I created earlier.
So, the usual stuff. Wipe. Restore. Restart.
Seems to be going smoothly because my wife was happy to see the old ROM she was used to.
Until the phone started to restart on it's own. (It's pretty much downhill from here on out).
At first I thought it was just a random thing that probably would never happen again. I was wrong as it became more frequent as days went by.
Recently I can't just restart the phone, I would have to remove the battery and then restart it. Now, it's getting really hard to restart the phone. Please help me fix this. I prefer to leave the phone rooted, but if the fix unroots the phone then so be it, anyway my wife prefers the stock ROM so only the unlocking was necessary.
Metro PCS Samsung Galaxy S4 M919N
Recovery:
TWRP 2.6.3.1
ROMs:
Stock Metro PCS
CyanogenMod 10.2.1
Let me know if you need more information from me. Hopefully I can restart the phone so I can give you some version numbers.
Thanks everyone!

I didn't read everything but just wanted to say
VERY GOOD THREAD!
this is how threads should be done. Very descriptive, organized, told us everything you did and asked for help! Good job man! Only negative is it prolly should have gone in Q&A section but irregardless very good thread!
About your issue, I recommend flashing stock Odin tar file to everything back to stock and reroot and start over. Flashing stock will not lock it again it will remain unlocked. But should get you back up and fresh. Just be aware it will erase all your data and all of the internal SD card.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

dokgu said:
Hello everyone,
I really need your help with my wife's Metro PCS Samsung GS4 M919N.
The thing is, we are now living outside the US so I had to unlock her phone. After ordering the unlock codes, I decided to root the phone and use a custom ROM while waiting for the codes.
That is why I found this guide here: androidforums.com/metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root/790899-metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root-guide.html
So while reading the guide, I aimed to have the following accomplished at the end:
Recovery: TWRP
Custom ROM: CyanogenMod 10.2.1
I then started doing the guide for the TWRP recovery by using Odin. I got the message saying that the flashing passed and went ahead to restart to recovery to install CM 10.2.1 as a custom ROM. The thing is that I keep on restarting to the stock recovery not TWRP. So I went to YouTube and found a video showing how to flash TWRP using GooManager. After following that guide, I went to restart to recovery and I successfully got into TWRP.
Now, to achieve my goal, all that's left to do is to flash CyanogenMod 10.2.1 (jfltetmo).
Before doing that, I decided to make a backup. After using TWRP to do a backup, I proceeded to installing the custom ROM + gapps (wiped with the default settings). Everything was working I think (I handed the phone to my wife so she was he one testing it). After some time, she decided she wants the stock ROM instead so I decided to download the androidforums.com/metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root/783769-rom-recovery-flash-able-stock-m919nuvuamf2-rooted-deodexed-rom.html ROM.
I flashed the newly downloaded ROM + gapps (same file). This time, I couldn't get the gapps to work probably because it was meant for another version. So I decided to just restore from the backup I created earlier.
So, the usual stuff. Wipe. Restore. Restart.
Seems to be going smoothly because my wife was happy to see the old ROM she was used to.
Until the phone started to restart on it's own. (It's pretty much downhill from here on out).
At first I thought it was just a random thing that probably would never happen again. I was wrong as it became more frequent as days went by.
Recently I can't just restart the phone, I would have to remove the battery and then restart it. Now, it's getting really hard to restart the phone. Please help me fix this. I prefer to leave the phone rooted, but if the fix unroots the phone then so be it, anyway my wife prefers the stock ROM so only the unlocking was necessary.
Metro PCS Samsung Galaxy S4 M919N
Recovery:
TWRP 2.6.3.1
ROMs:
Stock Metro PCS
CyanogenMod 10.2.1
Let me know if you need more information from me. Hopefully I can restart the phone so I can give you some version numbers.
Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with Elesbb. If the goal is jus tto get back to stock, just do an odin flash of the stock ROM. Be advised if you flash the latest Kit Kay update you will nto be able to go back to Jelly Bean. From your post it seems like you are partial to Jelly Bean. So if that's what you want, but sure you use the stock 4.3 ROM. You can find it around here on XDA somewhere with a quick search to make sure you have the right one.
As Elesbb said, you won't loose the 'sim unlock'. But you will lose root. However you can root the stock ROM just fine.
You might also consider one of the myriad of TouchWiz based custom ROMs. They are look just like TouchWiz that your wife wants, but have a lot of optimizations and options in them. Those should flash just like any ROM. If you still get the reboot issue then do the Odin back to stock, reroot, then flash the custom TW roms.
---------- Post added at 12:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 PM ----------

Thread cleaned.
Rather than bashing a ROM or user let's keep on topic and help the OP resolved the problems he's having. Arguing over the virtues of a ROM doesn't help anyone.
Thank you,
Rwilco12

Before posting this thread I sent the aforementioned guide's poster (arocker). He sent me a reply saying not to use gapps as the stock ROM for Metro PCS already comes with Google apps. I'll try his suggestion first and see if the phone still reboots a lot.
If the problem persists, I will try the solutions mentioned here. Thanks a lot!

elesbb said:
I didn't read everything but just wanted to say
VERY GOOD THREAD!
this is how threads should be done. Very descriptive, organized, told us everything you did and asked for help! Good job man! Only negative is it prolly should have gone in Q&A section but irregardless very good thread!
About your issue, I recommend flashing stock Odin tar file to everything back to stock and reroot and start over. Flashing stock will not lock it again it will remain unlocked. But should get you back up and fresh. Just be aware it will erase all your data and all of the internal SD card.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After trying arocker's suggestion to not flash gapps, the phone still reboots. So now, I am going to try your solution guys.
But before I do, I want to make sure that I am on the correct paths/links.
Here's what I found for the following:
ODIN
forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/themes-apps/27-08-2013-odin-3-09-odin-1-85-versions-t2189539
I've had a couple of chances to use ODIN but only using specific functions like flashing a recovery file while the phone is in download mode. I don't however have any experience using ODIN to put the phone back to stock where the phone gets unrooted. Having the phone unrooted is fine by me as I only needed to have the phone unlocked.
Any step-by-step guides for using ODIN for this specific purpose guys? I don't want to mess this up again.
Thanks and sorry for the trouble.

dokgu said:
After trying arocker's suggestion to not flash gapps, the phone still reboots. So now, I am going to try your solution guys.
But before I do, I want to make sure that I am on the correct paths/links.
Here's what I found for the following:
ODIN
forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/themes-apps/27-08-2013-odin-3-09-odin-1-85-versions-t2189539
I've had a couple of chances to use ODIN but only using specific functions like flashing a recovery file while the phone is in download mode. I don't however have any experience using ODIN to put the phone back to stock where the phone gets unrooted. Having the phone unrooted is fine by me as I only needed to have the phone unlocked.
Any step-by-step guides for using ODIN for this specific purpose guys? I don't want to mess this up again.
Thanks and sorry for the trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No trouble at all, check out the stickies in the beginning of threads.
Look for guides similar to this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2335109
Pp. Good luck.
sent from my bluetooth controlled toaster.

PanchoPlanet said:
No trouble at all, check out the stickies in the beginning of threads.
Look for guides similar to this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2335109
Pp. Good luck.
sent from my bluetooth controlled toaster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello PanchoPlanet,
Thanks for the link. I went ahead and tried to unroot without Windows (Mobile Odin) as per the instructions on the link. I downloaded everything and went ahead to install the Mobile Odin APK. When I ran it to install the Flash Kernel, the app told me that the device is not supported.
To my understanding the guide is for M919 devices but should work for my wife's device as well (M919N - Metro PCS). I would like to try the guide for using Windows but I'm not really expecting for it to work or I might mess it up more. I'll try to search some more and provide the links where this forum will lead me to. But if you have any ideas, please let me know asap. Thanks!

PanchoPlanet said:
No trouble at all, check out the stickies in the beginning of threads.
Look for guides similar to this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2335109
Pp. Good luck.
sent from my bluetooth controlled toaster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, here's what I found:
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2446497
It seems like the perfect thread for what I am trying to achieve. Will let you guys know if it is successful. But it will have to wait for tomorrow. Gonna catch some sleep.

Okay, I'm running out of options. I was able to flash the stock ROM using Odin 3.07. The recovery looks like it came back to the stock recovery as I no longer have TWRP installed. When I install Root Checker, I see that I am no longer rooted. That's good.
But my original problem is still here. The phone reboots a lot. The phone is so unstable that it is barely usable.
I am now going to try one more thing.
I have a Galaxy S4 (I337M) from Rogers Canada (my wife has Metro PCS M919N). Mine got rooted and has CyanogenMod 10.2.1 as a custom ROM. My phone is working perfectly while hers reboots a lot. I was thinking it was because of a faulty battery. So I am doing an experiment by swapping the batteries. So far no reboots have occurred, but I will continue to monitor this.
Any ideas why the battery is kinda messed up?

This thread talks about battery stuff and reboots:
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/530338/20131216/samsung-galaxy-s4-problems.htm
Batteries can go bad a lot of ways. Extreme temperature, factory defect, phone drops, moisture, etc.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Android_Monsters said:
This thread talks about battery stuff and reboots:
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/530338/20131216/samsung-galaxy-s4-problems.htm
Batteries can go bad a lot of ways. Extreme temperature, factory defect, phone drops, moisture, etc.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And 100% of the time, they eventually just get old.

dokgu said:
Okay, I'm running out of options. I was able to flash the stock ROM using Odin 3.07. The recovery looks like it came back to the stock recovery as I no longer have TWRP installed. When I install Root Checker, I see that I am no longer rooted. That's good.
But my original problem is still here. The phone reboots a lot. The phone is so unstable that it is barely usable.
I am now going to try one more thing.
I have a Galaxy S4 (I337M) from Rogers Canada (my wife has Metro PCS M919N). Mine got rooted and has CyanogenMod 10.2.1 as a custom ROM. My phone is working perfectly while hers reboots a lot. I was thinking it was because of a faulty battery. So I am doing an experiment by swapping the batteries. So far no reboots have occurred, but I will continue to monitor this.
Any ideas why the battery is kinda messed up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a wierd situation, by swapping batteries you basically performed a battery pull, which acts as a reset, that in it self may have cleared your issue.
Now if battery is bad that could be an unusual problem. Maybe just replacing the battery will be the end of your mystery.
Pp.
sent from my P5113 using TouchPal mind control keyboard. (Beta)

The battery should be brand new as the phone was just recently purchased this April.
Anyways, so far no reboots have happened and any instability has not been shown at all. Everything looks ok, yet.
Anyone know if it is safe to swap batteries? Our phones have different S4 models. I'm not sure what the implications would be. Also what is this battery pull which acts as a reset? We've been pulling the battery a lot of times but the reboot still happens but not when we swapped batteries.

The batteries are all the same. Don't worry about that.
Even if its a new battery if could have just been bad. A manufacturing defect perhaps.
Sent from your phone. You should be more careful where you leave that thing.

dokgu said:
The battery should be brand new as the phone was just recently purchased this April.
Anyways, so far no reboots have happened and any instability has not been shown at all. Everything looks ok, yet.
Anyone know if it is safe to swap batteries? Our phones have different S4 models. I'm not sure what the implications would be. Also what is this battery pull which acts as a reset? We've been pulling the battery a lot of times but the reboot still happens but not when we swapped batteries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This battery thing is wacky, anyway swapping batteries should not be a problem, it's just an energy storage container. Pulling the battery isn't like powering down the phone or resetting/rebooting ,sometimes devs request a battery pull to get the proper wipe effect that reboots can't provide.
You inadvertently solved your problem by accident. That's a good thing.
Pp.
sent from my P5113 using TouchPal mind control keyboard. (Beta)

PanchoPlanet said:
You inadvertently solved your problem by accident. That's a good thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have quite literally solved the vast majority of my problems this way.
Its a preferred method.
Sent from your phone. You should be more careful where you leave that thing.

Sometimes it's that "total disconnect "of power that kind of gets all the ducks lined up in a row and everything flows in the dynaflow.
Good.
Pp.
sent from my P5113 using TouchPal mind control keyboard. (Beta)

its very important topics and it might seen for every galaxy s4 users.just wonderful topics.

This exact same thing happened on my mother's 6-month old S3. If you're still wondering, you could try putting the old battery and running a CPU stress test app. It should increase the current draw and trigger a shutdown.
EDIT: whoops, sorry to kind of zombie. Didn't check the date.
Sent from my Galaxy S4

[Q] Crashing apps and loss of service?!

Hey guys, long time browser, first time poster, but not a reason for celebration, alas.I come to you guys out of frustration after hours of being unable to solve my issue cruising the interwebs, and the thread title kinda says it all.
To start from the beginning, I recently delved into the rooted world by means of towelroot (kitkat 4.4.2), installed xposed framework, got the modules XBlast and XPrivacy, and you might have guessed, fiddled around with each. Everything was fine and dandy until I was having issues receiving/making calls through an app (LINE, if you know it), and so I attempted to figure out what the issue was, very much assuming XPrivacy to be the culprit. Couldn't get it to work, which is when I decided to restore my backup I made using Clockwork. Should have been nice and smooth sailing, but...
Upon having it "restored" I booted on into it, which is when I got smacked in the face; as soon as I'm booted, most, if not all, my apps are reporting that they have stopped working by a bombardment of error messages in endless succession, making just browsing the home screens almost impossible. Also with this barrage came the lack of cell service, a nice white n' slashed out circle in what should be my bars of signal. I tried again to restore my phone from my backup. Same issue, but I did notice during the recovery it made mention of something like "secure_android" missing? This sent me on my hours of head banging, turning up *possible* resolutions, which didn't work. I've tried flashing the stock bootloader, gapps, and nothing. Now, my data and apps are all still there and I can get into recovery without issue, it's just the pain of not being able to actually using any of it.
I have debugging switched on on my phone, but do not have some sort of adb app installed on it, nor could I access any market place to try. I'm not so sure I would be able to install anything on my phone given my current circumstances, anyway.
Please, if any of you out there have some idea as to what is going on, I'm all eyes (as ears on a forum don't work so well)! If there are any details I may have omitted and so on, just let me know and I'll supply it--
Thank you all so much in advance for any possible steps that may resolve this issue!

Fingerless said:
Hey guys, long time browser, first time poster, but not a reason for celebration, alas.I come to you guys out of frustration after hours of being unable to solve my issue cruising the interwebs, and the thread title kinda says it all.
To start from the beginning, I recently delved into the rooted world by means of towelroot (kitkat 4.4.2), installed xposed framework, got the modules XBlast and XPrivacy, and you might have guessed, fiddled around with each. Everything was fine and dandy until I was having issues receiving/making calls through an app (LINE, if you know it), and so I attempted to figure out what the issue was, very much assuming XPrivacy to be the culprit. Couldn't get it to work, which is when I decided to restore my backup I made using Clockwork. Should have been nice and smooth sailing, but...
Upon having it "restored" I booted on into it, which is when I got smacked in the face; as soon as I'm booted, most, if not all, my apps are reporting that they have stopped working by a bombardment of error messages in endless succession, making just browsing the home screens almost impossible. Also with this barrage came the lack of cell service, a nice white n' slashed out circle in what should be my bars of signal. I tried again to restore my phone from my backup. Same issue, but I did notice during the recovery it made mention of something like "secure_android" missing? This sent me on my hours of head banging, turning up *possible* resolutions, which didn't work. I've tried flashing the stock bootloader, gapps, and nothing. Now, my data and apps are all still there and I can get into recovery without issue, it's just the pain of not being able to actually using any of it.
I have debugging switched on on my phone, but do not have some sort of adb app installed on it, nor could I access any market place to try. I'm not so sure I would be able to install anything on my phone given my current circumstances, anyway.
Please, if any of you out there have some idea as to what is going on, I'm all eyes (as ears on a forum don't work so well)! If there are any details I may have omitted and so on, just let me know and I'll supply it--
Thank you all so much in advance for any possible steps that may resolve this issue!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like your backup was a downgrade (old version).
I would suggest doing a factory reset, test it. If that doesn't do it, use Odin to flash stock firmware (which can be found in the general section stickies).

BWolf56 said:
Sounds like your backup was a downgrade (old version).
I would suggest doing a factory reset, test it. If that doesn't do it, use Odin to flash stock firmware (which can be found in the general section stickies).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for responding! I did try a wipe data/factory reset via CWM, then restored from there. Didn't work. I'm not sure if there is a particular order in how it should be done such as "factory reset, reboot phone into recovery, restore" or if I should be able to get away with "factory reset, restore", the latter being what I did. I also got a hold of a bootloader file and modem base band for build I747UCUFNE4, if those would be useful in any way.
If it's of any help, I somehow got the Unofficial Omni ROM 4.4.4 to work without any issue, but not quite happy enough with the overall interface of it, yet slowly adapting having installed a touchwiz launcher just to hold me over.
I've tried locating the backup CWM created on my phone so that I could store it on my computer and generate another backup as from what I read, the unpaid version only allows you one at a time, but had no luck digging through my directories. I'm currently investigating this online nandroid backup thing to see if there's anything to it.
I've also come across some file labeled "I747UCUFNE4_Stock_Rooted_Deodex" which is a zip, but I'm reading ODIN uses tar as it's compression of choice? Does this mean I should flash this file via recovery, or? Also, the file size is a whopping 920MB or so... that normal? (Edit: this is where I found the file http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2788357 which says to flash in recovery)
Thanks again for your response! I was really thinking my problem would just be glanced over.

Fingerless said:
Thanks for responding! I did try a wipe data/factory reset via CWM, then restored from there. Didn't work. I'm not sure if there is a particular order in how it should be done such as "factory reset, reboot phone into recovery, restore" or if I should be able to get away with "factory reset, restore", the latter being what I did. I also got a hold of a bootloader file and modem base band for build I747UCUFNE4, if those would be useful in any way.
If it's of any help, I somehow got the Unofficial Omni ROM 4.4.4 to work without any issue, but not quite happy enough with the overall interface of it, yet slowly adapting having installed a touchwiz launcher just to hold me over.
I've tried locating the backup CWM created on my phone so that I could store it on my computer and generate another backup as from what I read, the unpaid version only allows you one at a time, but had no luck digging through my directories. I'm currently investigating this online nandroid backup thing to see if there's anything to it.
I've also come across some file labeled "I747UCUFNE4_Stock_Rooted_Deodex" which is a zip, but I'm reading ODIN uses tar as it's compression of choice? Does this mean I should flash this file via recovery, or? Also, the file size is a whopping 920MB or so... that normal? (Edit: this is where I found the file http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2788357 which says to flash in recovery)
Thanks again for your response! I was really thinking my problem would just be glanced over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant factory reset without restoring.
But now that you're back up and running, there's no need for it (unless you flash another ROM). You could flash NE4 if you wanna get back on the official ROM but there are also tw custom ROM which you can look into (you're currently using an aosp one).
As for the 920mb, yeah.. That's Sammy at its best, bloating their ROMs.

BWolf56 said:
I meant factory reset without restoring.
But now that you're back up and running, there's no need for it (unless you flash another ROM). You could flash NE4 if you wanna get back on the official ROM but there are also tw custom ROM which you can look into (you're currently using an aosp one).
As for the 920mb, yeah.. That's Sammy at its best, bloating their ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You think it would be safe to do a factory reset and try to restore just the data from my recovery? Or is it possible that the data is somehow the issue with everything going wonky?
I'm very new to the ROM thing, Omni was easy to get up and running, but actually playing with a ROM was more of a last ditch effort to see if the problem would be resolved that way and give any sort of indication as to what the issue was (still haven't the sllightest). It's currently not rooted (at least according to my root checker) and the towelroot method doesn't seem to work on it. I kinda need to be rooted if I wanted to make a nandroid, I really want to make a back up of what I currently have set in case I screw the pooch trying to get things back to "normal", yet I'm afraid of overwriting my only recovery and losing whatever data is embedded, though I'm not too deeply saddened by the thought of not having chat histories and whatnot, it would just be nice to have. Perhaps you have thoughts, or anyone else out there, on the matter? I know my first step would be to at least root my current ROM, then back up, I found this as a means to root Omni (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2672160), but how do I determine whether I'm using an ARM based or x86 based device?
Good to know the file size for the stock ROM is considered normal. I didn't even consider carrier/Samsung bloat to have such a huge impact.
Thanks, yet again!