Develop Bugs

[Q] I messed up pretty bad, need help please!

Okay so here's what happened, from the beginning:
A long time ago, about a month after the release of the SGS3, I rooted my device. All I wanted was to uninstall bloatware, which I did.
I took some advice from a friend and installed some root-related apps (Titanium Backup, Rom Manager, BusyBox Free, Root Checker Basic, AnTuTu Benchmark, GooManager and TWRP) that I barely used.
Fast forward to today, about an hour or so ago. I had completely forgotten my phone is rooted because all I really did was remove bloatware. Suddenly the thought occurs to me, "I haven't checked for an update in a while!" Again, don't remember my phone is rooted. So I do the software update process, takes about 20 minutes to download the OTA update, then I click continue to install. The phone does its thing, shuts down down to install, starts coming back on, white text at the bottom scrolls with some jargon I am not familiar with, then I see something I recognize: ERROR! (something about md5 files or something rather) "****! I forgot my phone was rooted!" That's when the TWRP UI comes up....
All I can think to do is run the TWRP backup restore, which I backed up as part of the root process months ago. Well, that's complete now and my phone is back to 27 Oct 2012. Not TOO big a deal considering most, but not all, of my data is stored to some cloud (how does that work? I thought water and electronics didn't get along)<---JOKE!. So now I don't really know what to do. I am in the process of using SMS Backup+ to restore all my texts, and am trying to get my apps back up to date. After I get this all done, I still want to run the JellyBean update. As a safe bet, I would like to (if possible) un-root my phone, which requires me to re-install bloatware (?), yada yada yada, and basically return my GS3 back to factory settings so I can install JellyBean the legit way. I would then like to re-root my phone to remove (again) all the bloatware. So, I guess my question to whomever is far more qualified than me (probably 99% of xda forum users) is how can I safely go about doing this without losing (again) all my data? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you VERY much!

Ok. There are several problems here that need to be worked on.
First, I suggest that you get all your apps and data back up to date to "current" as opposed to Oct 27. Once you do that, then boot into TWRP and make a backup and save a copy to your PC as well. That way you will have a current restore point.
Next, the reason you are not able to take the OTA is two-fold. First you have Root and second you have a custom recovery.
**Former is easy to fix. All you need to do is get OTA Rootkeeper from the market and run it. Make a backup of SU and when you are ready to take the OTA, temp delete root through the app, take OTA and the restore Root through the app. Pretty easy.
**The latter issue is with regards to the custom recovery. You will need to find a flashable zip of the stock recovery and flash that (this is after you make your backups of course).
So now you will have an unrooted phone [technically if you use OTA Rootkeeper] with stock recovery. You should be able to take the OTA no problem, restore Root with OTA Rootkeeper and install Goomanager from the market to get TWRP recovery back.
Seem like a lot? Well it is. But then you could always look in the Dev section for a flashable version or mrRobinson's Root66 Odin package which is far esaier that above. Just read the OP.

Well, I am stuck at step one. Now my phone isn't reading my SD card, which is where I would be backing up to as my phone does not have enough free space on internal memory. So I guess I have a new problem that needs a solution, as well as all the other problems.

Still need help guys...
I still need help here. How am I supposed to back up my phone if it's not reading my MicroSD card? Better question, how can I get my phone to read the SD card?

klewis1x said:
I still need help here. How am I supposed to back up my phone if it's not reading my MicroSD card? Better question, how can I get my phone to read the SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to format your micro sdcard on your pc
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

My phone is reading the SD card in certain applications, but not in the ones that matter. Most of my music is on the SD card and there is no problem listening to any of it, but when I go to the storage settings on the phone it tells me to insert an SD card. Same thing when trying to use TWRP to try and back up my phone to the SD card. This is really frustrating...

xedualMCx said:
Try to format your micro sdcard on your pc
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That did the trick. Thanks sent your way.

How to update from stock root 4.1.1 to current?

I'm sure this has been addressed but I can't seem to find a definitive answer. I am bone stock (stock recovery and no custom rom) with just root on AT&T.
There are no missing deleted apps, as I replaced them previously but I still have never been able to do any of the OTA updates. It's starts and then fails.
Is there a way to unroot and the do an OTA update? I am trying to avoid Odin so I dont have to wipe everything and then have to start all over and adjust settings to my liking an also reinstall all of my apps.
I seen there is an option in the Super User app to "completely unroot and uninstall". Will choosing this option allow me to finally do OTA?
I've never installed a custom recovery or a custom rom so I don't know why OTA's always fail. At this point, I dont really care about having root since the only reason I previously wanted it was to remove at&t bloatware but I'd rather have OTA's at this point.
Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated! Please speak slowly and in layman's terms as I am an old fart that is still a bit of a n00b, lol.
Thanks!!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using XDA Free mobile app

n01un0 said:
I'm sure this has been addressed but I can't seem to find a definitive answer. I am bone stock (stock recovery and no custom rom) with just root on AT&T.
There are no missing deleted apps, as I replaced them previously but I still have never been able to do any of the OTA updates. It's starts and then fails.
Is there a way to unroot and the do an OTA update? I am trying to avoid Odin so I dont have to wipe everything and then have to start all over and adjust settings to my liking an also reinstall all of my apps.
I seen there is an option in the Super User app to "completely unroot and uninstall". Will choosing this option allow me to finally do OTA?
I've never installed a custom recovery or a custom rom so I don't know why OTA's always fail. At this point, I dont really care about having root since the only reason I previously wanted it was to remove at&t bloatware but I'd rather have OTA's at this point.
Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated! Please speak slowly and in layman's terms as I am an old fart that is still a bit of a n00b, lol.
Thanks!!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are on stock and have a valid AT&T SIM card in the device with full access to Wi-Fi and the AT&T network, you should be able to get an OTA update. Root could, however, indeed prevent an OTA update so your best bet may be to unroot. You could unroot and uninstall SuperSU from the SuperSU app just as you suggested. This should do it. However, if it doesn't and you would really want to avoid Odin and custom recovery, then you could do a 2-step manual update to 4.3 via stock recovery - first to 4.1.2 and then to 4.3. This will naturally update your phone to (full) stock 4.3 and we can then see if the phone will take the Kit-Kat OTA update from there.
You can see the instructions for the 2-step update via stock recovery in the thread below ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2387423
1) Download the 2 zip files under update412.zip and update43.zip respectively to your computer
2) Copy the zip files to a good quality (micro) SD card
3) Place the card in your phone and boot to recovery mode by simultaneously holding down the Volume Up, Home and Power buttons
4) Hold the buttons until you see a blue message flash across the screen. Then release the Power button but continue to hold the Volume Up and Home button until you see the Android image appear. Then release the buttons
5) Use the volume up/down key to scroll to <mount from external storage> and the power button to select
6) Navigate to the first zip file (update412.zip) and install. Wait for installation to finish and your phone to reboot.
7) Complete set up. Check your phone settings. Then power off and reboot to recovery again.
8) Repeat the process for the second update file.

Well I tried the unroot feature in SuperSU and then uninstalled it.
I then tried the OTA update again and as usual, it failed about 30-40% in.
Ive never installed a custom recovery or a ROM so I don't get it. All I did was use Mr.Robinsons thread/directions on "how to root without tripping...." just for root only in the sticky.
I give up.:banghead:
Thank you though for responding. I may try the alternative way you suggested when I get time tomorrow and see what happens. Either that or screw it, im stuck with 4.1.1 and now I don't even have root. :banghead:
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using XDA Free mobile app

n01un0 said:
Well I tried the unroot feature in SuperSU and then uninstalled it.
I then tried the OTA update again and as usual, it failed about 30-40% in.
Ive never installed a custom recovery or a ROM so I don't get it. All I did was use Mr.Robinsons thread/directions on "how to root without tripping...." just for root only in the sticky.
I give up.:banghead:
Thank you though for responding. I may try the alternative way you suggested when I get time tomorrow and see what happens. Either that or screw it, im stuck with 4.1.1 and now I don't even have root. :banghead:
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There have been several reports of failed OTA update so you may not be alone here. The process I advised is sure to take you to 4.3 JB without hassle. There is, of course, a manual update process from 4.3JB to 4.4.2 Kit-Kat (the latest OS). You will, however, require custom recovery for this ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2788357

Larry2999 said:
There have been several reports of failed OTA update so you may not be alone here. The process I advised is sure to take you to 4.3 JB without hassle. There is, of course, a manual update process from 4.3JB to 4.4.2 Kit-Kat (the latest OS). You will, however, require custom recovery for this ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2788357
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I finally was able to update via OTA. I had to actually use Kies and reinstall firmware and then go through all the updates, starting from scratch and took forever. What an absolute pain in the ass. Plus, after all this work to go from 4.1 to 4.4..........I can't see where it was worth it. I am now going through the tedious task of setting up all the settings and widgets and everything else the way it was or the way I like. So much for Kies actually backing up and "restoring" anything.
I have a couple of questions though....
1. Now that I am on 4.4..........how do I root this version (that works). I was reading the thread saying to use towelroot but it's not confirmed if this is still working after I guess you do the OTA after a certain date and it's now patched. I DO NOT want to install custom roms or anything else. All I want is root so that I can remove the AT&T crapware that is now even worse with this phone on 4.4.
2. I have a battery percentage that is in the LEFT upper corner that I can not figure out what program or app it is associated with and I can not get rid of it. This is not the % indicator that is part of Android and next to the battery icon on the right which is on and is okay, this is one the left.
3. I hate the new PIN lockscreen because the keypad/numbers are so small compared to old version. Any way to fix this?

n01un0 said:
Well I finally was able to update via OTA. I had to actually use Kies and reinstall firmware and then go through all the updates, starting from scratch and took forever. What an absolute pain in the ass. Plus, after all this work to go from 4.1 to 4.4..........I can't see where it was worth it. I am now going through the tedious task of setting up all the settings and widgets and everything else the way it was or the way I like. So much for Kies actually backing up and "restoring" anything.
I have a couple of questions though....
1. Now that I am on 4.4..........how do I root this version (that works). I was reading the thread saying to use towelroot but it's not confirmed if this is still working after I guess you do the OTA after a certain date and it's now patched. I DO NOT want to install custom roms or anything else. All I want is root so that I can remove the AT&T crapware that is now even worse with this phone on 4.4.
2. I have a battery percentage that is in the LEFT upper corner that I can not figure out what program or app it is associated with and I can not get rid of it. This is not the % indicator that is part of Android and next to the battery icon on the right which is on and is okay, this is one the left.
3. I hate the new PIN lockscreen because the keypad/numbers are so small compared to old version. Any way to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to know you were finally able to update. To try to answer your questions ....
1. Towelroot indeed comes well recommended for rooting on Kit Kat. You could, however, first try CF Auto Root which is one of the simplest approaches to rooting. If this doesn't work, you could try Option 2 in the thread below ... The thread also contains instructions to CF Auto Root.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2538991
2. I'm not sure what that battery indicator is. I run 4.4.2 also on my S3 but I cant see this. Can you try a reset to see if it would go away?
3. You can try removing this from settings.

Im glad you asked this...
I too noticed Im on 4.1.1 stock but rooted. I wondered if you could go to 4.4.2 as my phone tried to OTA update on its own last week and failed. I did not know if it was worth it to try or not another way. About the only thing I see that would want me to try is Google Wallet now working with S3 on 4.4.2 without having to jump through all kinds of hoops, mine used to work fine, but now GW will not open up all the way. Im not sure its worth doing if I have to re setup all my crap as I will be upgrading my phone whenever I want, just holding out to see if the Nexus 6 will be out end of the year and on AT&T..Im not liking that all the new phones are getting so freakin big, the S3 is just right and I dont want to have to end up with a damn Note sized phone but that is a whole other discussion

If you're still on 4.1.1, BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, UNLOCK YOUR PHONE IF HASN'T ALREADY
otherwise you'll regret it
then the rest, tbh, you don't need to unroot at all to upgrade, just flash the firmware in ODIN or recovery..
edit: nvm it seems like you've already upgrade yours to KitKat

Towel Root(TR) and Rooting in not one click but 2 Clicks

First of all I want to thank all the developers on this and all forums, I hope that you prosper in your endeavers...
I have been at this since the sprint mogul came out. Playing around with PPC kitchen and technology keeps getting more 'interesting'...During the s3 root procedure I was fascinated with the Knox and how it was dealt with automatically with Supersu, and how cwm took control of keeping itself as the recovery as well as offering to keep root(such manners!)...
Check your Version # this how to is meant for 4.2.2 ONLY
I believe there was just an update(cause my phone downloaded it and wanted to install) I knew it was time to root again.
This summer I finally upgraded from my beloved Galaxy s1... After many a rom it was victim of a glass of water
spill...Bought a s3 sph-d710 for cheap and have been loving the phone but missing my wifi teather(and text to speech
prowess, why does the s3 stock suck worse than s1 cyanogen 10.2?) so I know I must root.
OOps my volume UP button is
broken! How to I get to downoad mode? to use ODIN! Gueess I gotta Root on the Phone...
ABD? Tried finding the tiny version of abd but after failed downloads and searching for links for the tiny version were
broken so...instead I Installed towel root and followed the guide here
http://gs3.wonderhowto.com/how-to/easiest-one-click-root-method-for-your-samsung-galaxy-s3-0155625/
It was so amazingly easy(you download towelR touch the red Icon or one of the donate links in TR), wait 20 second click make it rain, wait 20 seconds then check with saferoot...(after installing it @ goo.im)! After TR immediately without rebooting install #saferoot(do not attempt to get root with this just install), and install CWM recovery which I did thru rom manager(via google play, I attempted to install from their site but it was a zip and it did not jive with my unpackaging skillsEDIT Drr it was prolly for cwm?). Safe root does something for SuperSU so that it will not hang while removing knox( wait 5 min if it seems to hang then force quit and u prolly did not install saferoot yet so do that and try again)
(EDIT: be sure and install safe root (FROM GOO.IM)after you make it rain with TR and then you install supersu & rom manager.Also Install towelroot and Supersu from their perspective verified real web page not other sources/googleplay) I was freezing at chainfires supersu install after making it rain)but once saferoot is installed it will disable knox(noted above)
I then took out Knox with Supersu simply by opening the program(it will ask you if you want to kill Knox) also it will ask to
update everytime.
Then I Installed the 4g and hotspot fix via CWM recovery via Rom Manager reboot into recovery and I was fully functioning..done! ND8Oxed 4.4.2..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2224083
I Used this post below as a general guide Hope this helps some, click thanks if I did..thanks all!
Happy Camper (rooted, tethered sprint galaxy s3)
Finally, I got my Sprint S3 tether working.
Many thanks to both bilgerryan and jdsingle76.
So just to help out other noob out there, what I did was:
1. root the S3. www idigitaltimes com/samsung-galaxy-s3-android-442-kitkat-update-how-root-sprint-sph-l710-variant-and-install-custom-roms
(Sorry I am not allowed to post links yet)
2. Install a custom recovery. I did not use Philz. I am sure it must be very good. However, I am not very good at using
Odin yet. I used CWM. Installed it directly from play store. There are lots of youtube videos on how to do it.
3. copy the Hotspot ROM zip file to the SD card in the phone. In my case, the ROM is the ND8 odexing version
4. Back up my stock rom (rooted) with the CWM recovery, in case something goes wrong. Lots of youtube videos too.
5. install rom from the zip file using CWM recovery. (again, lots of youtube videos available)
6. factory reset and wipe the cache
7. reboot and setup the phone from scratch.
There you go.

vizionforever said:
First of all I want to thank all the developers on this and all forums, I hope that you prosper in your endeavers...
I have been at this since the sprint mogul came out. Playing around with PPC kitchen and technology keeps getting more 'interesting'...During the s3 root procedure I was fascinated with the Knox and how it was dealt with automatically with Supersu, and how cwm took control of keeping itself as the recovery as well as offering to keep root(such manners!)...
This summer I finally upgraded from my beloved Galaxy s1... After many a rom it was victim of a glass of water
spill...Bought a s3 sph-d710 for cheap and have been loving the phone but missing my wifi teather(and text to speech
prowess, why does the s3 stock suck worse than s1 cyanogen 10.2?) so I know I must root.
OOps my volume UP button is
broken! How to I get to downoad mode?
ABD? Tried finding the tiny version of abd but after failed downloads and searching for links for the tiny version were
broken so...instead I Installed towel root and followed the guide here
http://gs3.wonderhowto.com/how-to/easiest-one-click-root-method-for-your-samsung-galaxy-s3-0155625/
It was so amazingly easy(you touch the red Icon or one of the donate links in TR), wait 20 second click make it rain, wait 20 seconds then check with saferoot as root checker will tell you that you are not rooted?! After TR immediately without rebooting install #root checker, and supersu and CWM which I did thru rom manager.
Strangely #Root checker(upon my request) kept reporting that I did not have root. Curious if root checker was wrong I
nstalled safe root (noted above)and Obviously there is some whole new route to root cause It said I was indeed still rooted, weird!
I then tookout Knox with Supersu simply by opening the program(it will ask you if you want to kill Knox) also it will ask to
update everytime.
Finally I Installed, then opened Rom manager and Installed (VIA ROM MANAGER)!)CWM. Treves wifi tether did not work for me in 4.4.2 so I knew I must install fix via zip in CWM.
Then I Installed the 4g and hotspot fix and I was fully functioning..done! ND8Oxed 4.4.2..
I Used this post below as a general guide Hope this helps some, click thanks if I did..thanks all!
Happy Camper (rooted, tethered sprint galaxy s3)
Finally, I got my Sprint S3 tether working.
Many thanks to both bilgerryan and jdsingle76.
So just to help out other noob out there, what I did was:
1. root the S3. www idigitaltimes com/samsung-galaxy-s3-android-442-kitkat-update-how-root-sprint-sph-l710-variant-and-install-custom-roms
(Sorry I am not allowed to post links yet)
2. Install a custom recovery. I did not use Philz. I am sure it must be very good. However, I am not very good at using
Odin yet. I used CWM. Installed it directly from play store. There are lots of youtube videos on how to do it.
3. copy the Hotspot ROM zip file to the SD card in the phone. In my case, the ROM is the ND8 odexing version
4. Back up my stock rom (rooted) with the CWM recovery, in case something goes wrong. Lots of youtube videos too.
5. install rom from the zip file using CWM recovery. (again, lots of youtube videos available)
6. factory reset and wipe the cache
7. reboot and setup the phone from scratch.
There you go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TowelRoot seems to be broken when it comes to the latest S3 model called the Sph-L710T and i have a guide in this question thread with root info for the Sph-L710 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2787771 if you want to take a look at it but thanks for the info

[Q] Bricked my phone... Need Help.

Like I'm sure this topic hasn't come up before, but I've searched for hours and I'm probably just making things worse. I also just accidentally deleted this post halfway through. It's too late and I'm too tired and I have no working phone.
Bought an SGH-I747 on E-Bay. Got a Straight Talk SIM card kit, activated it, so far so good.
Rooted it with CF-Auto-Root. Worked pretty well, took a lot of reboots, upgraded the SU from the Play Store and it got rid of Knox. So far so good. Got everything all set up the way I like it. Happy.
It was running 4.4.2. I'm assuming it was the release prior to the November 12th OTA release, but I can't say for sure.
Phone downloaded and installed an upgrade automatically. Now, it won't boot. I get the SAMSUNG logo, then the Samsung Galaxy S III logo then nothing.
I retried the CF-Auto-Root, no change.
I booted into recovery (volume up, home and power on), did factory reset, no change.
Started looking around for a way to return it to stock. Found an upgrade43.zip file somewhere (I'm sorry I can't find where I got that now). Put it on the sdcard card and tried installing it with the recovery and it fails part way through.
At this point, I think I probably need to completely overwrite everything with something stock. I just don't know how to do that. I see posts on such subjects but they all have warnings that make me think I'm going to totally brick the phone, so I'm hoping someone can point me the right way. I'm not all that Android savvy, as you can tell.
Help.

Since your phone was running 4.4.2, do not attempt to flash any ROMs using that attempt to downgrade your bootloader to anything prior to 4.4.2.
Try this to get your phone up and running:
download the latest CM11 for the d2lte and save it to an external SD card: https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=d2lte
dowload the latest tar.md5 version of Philz Touch for the d2lte from here: https://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/d2lte/
boot phone in download mode, open Odin 3.07, do not check anything except f.reset.time, flash Philz via PDA box, remove USB cable when you see the word Reset appear in the status window, remove battery, replace battery, boot into recovery, format system, Dalvik, data, and cache, flash cm11, and reboot.

Thank you for your reply. There are a few things in there I don't quite understand, but I think I can figure it out.
I was going to attempt this...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2658486
In fact, I did attempt it with TWRP last night after I posted here and new I still wasn't going to sleep. I kept getting an error about a bad ZIP file.
Is that stock restore a bad idea?

Do not attempt to flash an older bootloader. The mjb bootloader is from 4.3 and attempting to flash it could hard brick your phone.
I suggest doing what I suggested so you can confirm the bootloader and modem installed on your phone.

OK. Thanks. Probably a good thing I couldn't get it to work then.

Thank you so much. I have a working phone again. Now I just have to get it all set back up the way I like it.
I have to say, and it's probably words straight from the devils mouth, that I kind of wish I could have restored the Samsung stock software. It's just what I'm used to. But I will take what I can get.
A few questions. I like having root. But root is what got me in trouble in the first place. Is this going to be rooted now, or will I have to do that or am I better off just leaving it alone.
Second, I'm probably going to have questions since this is so different than what I'm used to (like I already can't find the Play store). Where is the best place to ask?

If you want root, one of the easiest ways to get it is to flash supersu from your custom recovery. Most ROMs are pre-rooted.
Many custom ROMs do not include Gapps. Just download and install the Gapps version for your ROM.
If you like the TW look, flash a TW-based ROM. Check out the development threads for different ROMs.

here is a thread for Q's that has some pretty good/friendly helpers on it if you need.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2257421
"all i can really do , is stay out of my own way and let the will of heaven be done"

How to save in to external SD card
How do you save the file into the external SD card? I am having the same brick issue with my GS3.

To save a file to an external SD card, just put the card into a card reader and save the ROM to the SD card.

Best Way to Reset Rooted Nexus 7 2013

I have a N7 2013 that I bought about 4 years ago and I would like to wipe it and start clean. I rooted it as soon as I got the tablet and I'm not sure if the root method matters but it was so long ago I have no idea how I rooted it. It's not modded in any other way, just rooted with stock android 4.4.4
Anyway, the tablet is starting to act funny, crashing certain apps, and I would like to just wipe it and start over. If it were completely stock and unrooted I would just go into recovery and factory reset that way, but I wasn't sure if I can do this with the rooted tablet or if there is a different way. There are so many threads on different websites with different ways to do this and I just want to make sure I'm using the proper method so I don't mess anything up. I don't have anything on it that I am worried about losing, so I can jump right in and start wiping.
What I'm wondering is if there is a way to reset it and keep root, or do I have to unroot first, or just wipe it and re-root? If someone can point me towards a good thread to use that would be great. Any help is appreciated.

If it matters, it also has TWRP v2.7.0.0 installed. I believe that was put in as part of the rooting process.

Try using the Nexus Root Toolkit by Wugfresh it does everything you require and more
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1766475