Develop Bugs

How to get OTA on rooted phone without wiping all data

Sorry if this questions is noobish,
But I rooted my Sprint GS3 w/ CWM and want to know if theres a way to flash the OTA's without it wiping all my data? I had the original Evo before and everytime I flashed an update it erased all my apps and data, but that was also using custom roms. I'm content with the GS3 stock rom, just don't want to lose all my data.

504chris said:
Sorry if this questions is noobish,
But I rooted my Sprint GS3 w/ CWM and want to know if theres a way to flash the OTA's without it wiping all my data? I had the original Evo before and everytime I flashed an update it erased all my apps and data, but that was also using custom roms. I'm content with the GS3 stock rom, just don't want to lose all my data.
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DL Voodoo OTA rootkeeper from the Market

What I did was use Voodoo OTA rootkeeper to temperarily unroot the phone. Then I reflashed the stock recovery. (look here for the stock recovery file to odin to your phone) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1743923&highlight=stock+recovery
Once I did that the OTA download would install.
Then you can rerun Voodoo to reroot your phone. You can also reinstall CWM if needed. I haven't bothered yet so I am running root with stock recovery.

poit said:
What I did was use Voodoo OTA rootkeeper to temperarily unroot the phone. Then I reflashed the stock recovery. (look here for the stock recovery file to odin to your phone) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1743923&highlight=stock+recovery
Once I did that the OTA download would install.
Then you can rerun Voodoo to reroot your phone. You can also reinstall CWM if needed. I haven't bothered yet so I am running root with stock recovery.
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I'm gonna try that. But Superuser has a temp unroot option and survive OTA option....that should work right? Or is Voodoo better?

poit said:
What I did was use Voodoo OTA rootkeeper to temperarily unroot the phone. Then I reflashed the stock recovery. (look here for the stock recovery file to odin to your phone) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1743923&highlight=stock+recovery
Once I did that the OTA download would install.
Then you can rerun Voodoo to reroot your phone. You can also reinstall CWM if needed. I haven't bothered yet so I am running root with stock recovery.
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THANKS, your advice to reflash stock recovery seems to have worked. after i reflashed stock recovery, i had to manually flash the LG2 to LG8 update file since i had already tried to accept it as an OTA last nite and failed bc of CWM. i didnt use Voodoo, Superuser's temp unroot and survive OTA options seem to have worked, except now SU doesnt allow me to toggle those 2 options on/off anymore. But SU still allows me to toggle SU permissions for apps on/off

OTA update issues....

I have a rooted S3 with CWM at my recovery image and the OTA update came out and everytime i try to update, the update downloads but when the phone reboots into recovery/download mode, it fails right there and doesnt install the update. How can go ahead and make this happen and fix the issue that I have. Im afraid i might have to unroot and then update. HELPPPP!!!!
Drew

Its your recovery, not the root. But you will lose root, most likely. Use ota rootkeeper from the market to back up and restore root. Also, you will need to go back to 3e recovery (stock recovery). Out, just flash the cwm lh9 zip in the general section

I had a very similar issue after rooting. After searching through a ton of the posts under Mr. Robinsons Sticky on rooting, these are the steps that I used.
1.Go to Google Play and download OTA Rootkeeper,
2.Run it and choose the Option to protect root AND then choose the disable root phone option.
3.Then go to Settings -- About Device -- Software Update and download the update.
4.Once the update finishes installing the phone will reboot.
5. Open OTA Rootkeeper and re-enable root
this is what worked for me.

Here's a thread with the OTA in a zip you can flash right from CWM without losing root: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=31802808
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

rooting and ota

Hi,
I might sound dumb but will I be ablle to get OTA updates if I install custom recovery and root.

thechamp007 said:
Hi,
I might sound dumb but will I be ablle to get OTA updates if I install custom recovery and root.
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No. OTA updates require stock recovery. However, you can revert to stock recovery and unroot as you please. Also, you can flash OTA updates through TWRP once a flashable zip is made, except you have to download it and flash it manually, just like installing a custom ROM. Cheers.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

I received the last update through OTA on a rooted Stock ROM with TWRP installed.
After the install was finished TWRP asked if I wanted to restore the root. All went smoothly.
To clarify.. I did not flash the ROM. I used the normal OTA update.

tigerdim said:
I received the last update through OTA on a rooted Stock ROM with TWRP installed.
After the install was finished TWRP asked if I wanted to restore the root. All went smoothly.
To clarify.. I did not flash the ROM. I used the normal OTA update.
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I believe you can on small point updates. The full update from 4.3 to 4.4 most likely won't work with a custom recovery.

nbehary said:
I believe you can on small point updates. The full update from 4.3 to 4.4 most likely won't work with a custom recovery.
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you must have stock /system folder + stock recovery
you can be rooted, by if you delete some files in /system - you break your ota
new ota will be with new radio too
after ota super-su apk will be removed by the ota
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i restored /system apps from sdcard before 4.3 ota and migrate very well from 4.2.2

The ota 4.3 update removed my root and Twrp. Hope 4.4 doesn't do the same. It's always a pain for me to restore root with my Windows 7 laptop. It keeps installing the wrong usb drivers which get in the way of the wugfresh toolkit access to the nexus 7. So it's no easy task for me.

OTA Update

I have rooted my Nexus 7 wifi 2012 tablet with TWRP
I don't want to keep un-rooting, applying ota updates then re-rooting my tablet. Is there an easy way. Maybe modified images i can use on a rooted tablet which i can install via the install option in twrp recovery loader.
I also notice that Nexus root tool kit has a ota sideload update option in the advanced menue.
So my question is where are the modifies ota update files if they exist as I don't want to keep un-rooting, rerooting each time to apply official ota updates. I have searched the net and can't find modifies ota updates?

My OTA failed due to root and modifications so I extracted system.img and boot.img from the 5.1 tarball and flashed them using Nexus Root Toolkit. Works well.

I'm going through the same issue - I want to keep running stock, but every time an OTA update comes in, it bugs me for an update until I go through the whole process of finding the files elsewhere, using the Toolkit to flash them etc etc.
Is there a better way to do this automatically? Can I find the downloaded OTA package on the Nexus and just flash it from there?

Since Lollipop, you can't take an OTA in any way (official or sideload) if you've modified your system. Rooting, custom recovery or kernel. Unrooting does not help since the system already has been modified.
Easiest way to upgrade and still keep your data is to flash the factory image but leave out userdata.img. This can be easily done through NRT (No wipe mode) if command prompt is scary. Yes you'll have to reroot... But hey, this is a Nexus, it's easy.

I assume that means waiting for someone to post the update?

If you want to wait for someone to make a prerooted image, then yes. Otherwise just download the official factory image (Google it) and go for it.
Google doesn't always release OTAs and factory images at the same time, so some waiting will probably always be involved...

Drives me crazy. TWRP used to be able to intercept a OTA flash, flash the needed images, detect you lost root and ask to restore root.
Somewhere that disappeared.
I just flashed a very old stock and took every OTA to 5.0.2, rooted, setup... now getting bombarded with 5.1.1 update notification. Ugh

Didgeridoohan said:
Since Lollipop, you can't take an OTA in any way (official or sideload) if you've modified your system. Rooting, custom recovery or kernel. Unrooting does not help since the system already has been modified.
Easiest way to upgrade and still keep your data is to flash the factory image but leave out userdata.img. This can be easily done through NRT (No wipe mode) if command prompt is scary. Yes you'll have to reroot... But hey, this is a Nexus, it's easy.
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I need to flash the latest lollipop image to my rooted nexus with TWRP. I know where to find the images but don't remember how to flash it. What exactly are the steps and how do I leave out userdata.img ?
And what are the steps to reroot lollipop?
Thanks

i keep getting the offer to download the 5.1 update but when i do it dloads it then tries to reboot into recovery to flash it but it obviously boots into TWRP recovery which is no good.
So the question is when it dloads the update where does it dload to?
and could i flash it from TWRP if i find it?

Questions

I got 2013 nexus 7 WiFi with ,5.1.1 lollipop, I rooted it with chainfire, its rooted now and unlock boot. Working all good, I have not got a custom reocvrry? Is that fine? And also will ota updates work? If I update will my root go ?

You don't need a custom recovery. You will only need it if you want to flash a zip. You will need to do that to for example install s custom Rom og kernel.
Since you have rooted your phone you will no longer be able to get OTA updates. If you want to get them you will need to unroot first. To do that open the SuperSU app. Then choose settings and then full unroot. After you do that and reboot you should be able to get OTA updates again. If you install a custom recovery or ROM tho, you will need to go back to full stock as well to use OTA.

If I unroot then I need to do root again by auto root chain fire? And also the latest update is 5.1.1 so when next update? I mean on the nexus 2013 7 is there no last update?

Rucka said:
If I unroot then I need to do root again by auto root chain fire? And also the latest update is 5.1.1 so when next update? I mean on the nexus 2013 7 is there no last update?
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in less than a week the nexus 7 2013 will be updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. as long as you have an unlocked boot loader you should have no problem getting root again. you could try cf autoroot but I would either use the Nexus Root Toolkit or fastboot to obtain root again