If I root my phone (brand new i537, stock 4.2.2) and, something hardware-related breaks, can I return it to a state where it doesn't show any signs of me tampering with the software?
No, I won't do weird stuff (yet...) that might put my phone at risk or whatever, I just want to be able to use Titanium Backup but, I don't want to risk having a lemon which won't be fixed because I poked something unrelated to the thing that failed.
Related
So I bought this i537 used a while back, the previous owned never registered it with samsung but I did when I bought it so I do have a warranty on it. I know it was previously rooted then unrooted before I bought it but I don't know if it ever had a custom rom on it. I rooted the phone with activeroot (still on 4.2.2 stock rom) and have since unrooted it with superSU.
I am having problems with the touchscreen and samsung has confirmed warranty coverage and gave me a shipping label but I want to be totally sure it a-ok before I send it in.
When I boot into odin mode there is no KNOX status, is that normal for this device? Did 4.2.2 not come with knox on this device?
Also the status says custom? When the phone WAS rooted it said official ??? seems bass ackwards.
Also, I would like to reload stock 4.2.2 via ODIN just to make sure everything is kosher before sending it it, would this void my warranty?
My phone is also sim unlocked, i imagine this is okay as far as warranty goes? Would reflashing with ODIN break my sim unlock?
Thanks so much!
CaseyR22 said:
So I bought this i537 used a while back, the previous owned never registered it with samsung but I did when I bought it so I do have a warranty on it. I know it was previously rooted then unrooted before I bought it but I don't know if it ever had a custom rom on it. I have rooted the phone with activeroot (still on 4.2.2 stock rom).
When I boot into odin mode there is no KNOX status, is that normal for this device? Did 4.2.2 not come with knox on this device?
Also, I would like to reload stock 4.2.2 via ODIN just to make sure everything is kosher before sending it it, would this void my warranty?
My phone is also sim unlocked, i imagine this is okay as far as warranty goes? Would reflashing with ODIN break my sim unlock?
Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's start from the top:
This phone came with MF2 (4.2.2), which was then immediately updated to MF3 (4.2.2). Both of these versions came with Knox enabled. If he just rooted then he probably didn't trip the Knox flag, but there could have been other things he did or tried to do that did trip the flag.
If it is indeed the i537, I can guarantee he did not flash a custom ROM. The i537 has a locked bootloader which means no custom recovery and no custom ROMs. However there is the ability to use TouchWiz-based ROMs, if you want to learn more about this and how it works read about SafeStrap.
We do not have official 4.2.2 stock firmware available to flash. We have a pre-release of 4.2.2, a pre-release of 4.3, official 4.3, and an OTA to go from 4.3 to 4.4.2. You can read more about the different firmwares in the i537 Firmware Thread.
Flashing firmware with Odin will erase your SIM unlock, but you can either enter the unlock code again or there are other methods that can be used. I'm not familiar with SIM unlocking so you'll have to do a little searching.
You never mentioned what you're sending the phone in for. I would try flashing the MF1 firmware first to see if it's a software issue. If it's a hardware issue then unfortunately you'll have to send it in.
Devo7v said:
Let's start from the top:
This phone came with MF2 (4.2.2), which was then immediately updated to MF3 (4.2.2). Both of these versions came with Knox enabled. If he just rooted then he probably didn't trip the Knox flag, but there could have been other things he did or tried to do that did trip the flag.
If it is indeed the i537, I can guarantee he did not flash a custom ROM. The i537 has a locked bootloader which means no custom recovery and no custom ROMs. However there is the ability to use TouchWiz-based ROMs, if you want to learn more about this and how it works read about SafeStrap.
We do not have official 4.2.2 stock firmware available to flash. We have a pre-release of 4.2.2, a pre-release of 4.3, official 4.3, and an OTA to go from 4.3 to 4.4.2. You can read more about the different firmwares in the i537 Firmware Thread.
Flashing firmware with Odin will erase your SIM unlock, but you can either enter the unlock code again or there are other methods that can be used. I'm not familiar with SIM unlocking so you'll have to do a little searching.
You never mentioned what you're sending the phone in for. I would try flashing the MF1 firmware first to see if it's a software issue. If it's a hardware issue then unfortunately you'll have to send it in.
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Thank you for the quick response. I edited the first post to add more details but you must've already quoted me before I hit send.
Basically the problem is the screen will randomly detect 1, 3 or 5 nonexistent touches across the center of the screen (confirmed by enabling "show touches" in the developer options). While this is happening the touchscreen becomes unusable, rebooting several times will eventually fix it but the problem comes back randomly, sometime within a couple minutes and sometimes after several hours.
I did confirm my device is running MF3 and it is absolutely a i537. I'm using the phone on straight talk not ATT so I have not received any OTA updates beyond this point.
So,anyhow I understand I can fix the device status:custom with triangleaway but I don't understand why there is no KNOX counter in ODIN mode and how this may effect my warranty.
Also, if I did ODIN to 4.3 or 4.4 would this trip the knox counter? (Assuming it isnt tripped already).
Thanks for your input, truly appreciated!
CaseyR22 said:
Thank you for the quick response. I edited the first post to add more details but you must've already quoted me before I hit send.
Basically the problem is the screen will randomly detect 1, 3 or 5 nonexistent touches across the center of the screen (confirmed by enabling "show touches" in the developer options). While this is happening the touchscreen becomes unusable, rebooting several times will eventually fix it but the problem comes back randomly, sometime within a couple minutes and sometimes after several hours.
I did confirm my device is running MF3 and it is absolutely a i537. I'm using the phone on straight talk not ATT so I have not received any OTA updates beyond this point.
So,anyhow I understand I can fix the device status:custom with triangleaway but I don't understand why there is no KNOX counter in ODIN mode and how this may effect my warranty.
Also, if I did ODIN to 4.3 or 4.4 would this trip the knox counter? (Assuming it isnt tripped already).
Thanks for your input, truly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like it might be a software issue so it would be worth it to try to flash the official 4.3 firmware. Flashing official firmware shouldn't trip the Know flag, but I'm not really an expert on Knox. I have read that Knox being tripped doesn't affect warranty repairs.
Devo7v said:
It sounds like it might be a software issue so it would be worth it to try to flash the official 4.3 firmware. Flashing official firmware shouldn't trip the Know flag, but I'm not really an expert on Knox. I have read that Knox being tripped doesn't affect warranty repairs.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, I went ahead and flashed 4.3 via ODIN and the KNOX status is showing 0x0 so that is a good sign. Has only been about a half hour so I cant say whether or not the touchscreen issue is fixed yet but I will post back and update what happens after a day or so.
Another plus is the update finally got rid of that god awful default font on 4.2 (changing the system font wouldn't change the fontface for plain text in the browser).
Quick update in case anyone is having a similar problem with "phantom touches" in the future.
After flashing to 4.3 the touchscreen problems have continued so i do believe it is a hardware problem that will require disassembly to fix.
Also the phone keeps trying to download the OTA update to 4.4 but I've heard bad things about the update so far so I've left my wifi turned off.
Going to be stuck using a windows 8 phone for a week or while my phone is out for warranty repair.
There is an app in the play store called phone info. There it tells you your knox status without root or being in download mode.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using xda app-developers app
One final update in case anybody runs into similar problems in the future. Samsung confirmed it was a hardware problem and fixed the phone 100% free of charge under warranty.
It appears they replaced everything which is pretty awesome because I now have a brand new digitizer and bezel without a single scratch or scuff on them. Also my usb port cover flap was feeling pretty worn/sloppy so now thats new and even the USB port itself looks brand new which tells me the motherboard was replaced. I can tell they peeled the old serial/IMEI sticker off the old phone and stuck it on this one.
Surprisingly they didn't update it to 4.4 while it was there which kind of sucks because I'm nervous about doing it myself after reading horror stories on the forums.
Anyway I'm very pleased with Samsung's support!
looking around i can not find anywhere that exactly states what versions of android and on what devices towelroot supports. My question specifically being for the S5 SM-G900A att phone. I am right now on lollipop and i realise i have to downgrade, but I only want to downgrade as little as possible to get towelroot to work. (the end goal being root access of course)
On another note I have two other questions i will ask here so as to not clutter the forum.
1. is there anyway to downgrade my android version without wiping all my data?
if not, any advice on backing up all my data before it gets wiped? mainly my photos, apps, and appdata.
2. I see the only custom recovery i can use is safestrap, i have read is some places that it can not backup your user data (videos, photos, etc.) and nowhere mention it does. question being if this is true and if so how can i back up all my data? i really like the idea of just doing weekly rom backups and being able to restore all my apps and all my data with very little lost (less then a week is good enough for me).
brazblue said:
looking around i can not find anywhere that exactly states what versions of android and on what devices towelroot supports. My question specifically being for the S5 SM-G900A att phone. I am right now on lollipop and i realise i have to downgrade, but I only want to downgrade as little as possible to get towelroot to work. (the end goal being root access of course)
On another note I have two other questions i will ask here so as to not clutter the forum.
1. is there anyway to downgrade my android version without wiping all my data?
if not, any advice on backing up all my data before it gets wiped? mainly my photos, apps, and appdata.
2. I see the only custom recovery i can use is safestrap, i have read is some places that it can not backup your user data (videos, photos, etc.) and nowhere mention it does. question being if this is true and if so how can i back up all my data? i really like the idea of just doing weekly rom backups and being able to restore all my apps and all my data with very little lost (less then a week is good enough for me).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you took the OTA update to 5.0 their is currently no way to safely downgrade and root.
Towel root only worked on 4.4.2 kernel.
Safestrap no longer works in 5.0 either.
Just have to hang tight till someone figures out root for stock 5.0.
Thank you for the help, i did not realize it was for 4.4.2 only. (why no list of working versions) as well you say no safe way to downgrade.....are there options or is it impossible? I just got the phone recently and I wasn't the one to update it, I got it second hand and well i can't control what has happened to it before me. sadly it was updated to 5.0
I may attempt a unsafe downgrade if possible, it really depends on what risk levels and if it's risk of doing something wrong and bricking or if there is a risk out of your hands and it may or may not work. else i will just wait and not update my phone in the time being.
nutt_case said:
If you took the OTA update to 5.0 their is currently no way to safely downgrade and root.
Towel root only worked on 4.4.2 kernel.
Safestrap no longer works in 5.0 either.
Just have to hang tight till someone figures out root for stock 5.0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
brazblue said:
Thank you for the help, i did not realize it was for 4.4.2 only. (why no list of working versions) as well you say no safe way to downgrade.....are there options or is it impossible? I just got the phone recently and I wasn't the one to update it, I got it second hand and well i can't control what has happened to it before me. sadly it was updated to 5.0
I may attempt a unsafe downgrade if possible, it really depends on what risk levels and if it's risk of doing something wrong and bricking or if there is a risk out of your hands and it may or may not work. else i will just wait and not update my phone in the time being.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3077652
The above post is the unbrick/downgrade thread for the g900a.
You'll notice it says not to attempt if you've taken the OC4 ota...I'd read through their first. At this point it looks pretty risky.
Good luck either way you go!
Hi all just wanted to find out how to do this
Thanks
edit:
I want to root just so I can recover files as most apps must have root.
Then I will unroot to get samsung pay and reset the knox counter.
abuch47 said:
Then I will unroot to get samsung pay and reset the knox counter.
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Click to collapse
Tripping Knox is permanent. You cannot reset Knox, even by unrooting your phone. Only Samsung can do it, and even so, it's very rare.
CafeKampuchia said:
Tripping Knox is permanent. You cannot reset Knox, even by unrooting your phone. Only Samsung can do it, and even so, it's very rare.
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Click to collapse
Thanks so I have done a bit more research and like you said permanent and then therefore Samsung Pay will never work. It will be a while yet before its available in AUS anyway so I'm not bothered.
So rooting is back on the cards to recover my camera album I accidentally deleted. It seems so daunting and over my head though. I don't want to brick my phone.
Do you have a easy and effective recommendation for backing up the note 5 before I head down the path of rooting?
Even then it's not very likely you can get the pictures back. Every time you touch your phone to do anything you are likely to overwrite those old memory locations - even by booting the phone.
Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
^Someone else said that and its already been a week. I may try anyway to test out the functionality of a rooted phone. What are the benefits of rooting for a non-power user?
Anyone have a recommended backup service?
Good day!
I'd like to start with what Samsung previously said that its devices are "Developer Friendly" which is the silliest thing I've ever heard.
So far, I've done something stupid (Yah what's next?)
So basically, I deleted some of my best photos by mistake (Sure Samsung is not dummy-proof) and want to get them back.
I've searched for some recovery softwares and despite they to be time wasting tools for the sake of not doing what they have to do, however, almost all of them (at least all what I found) are requesting root privilege.
My SGNote5 (SM-N920C) isn't rooted and I don't want to root actually (Even though I'm missing the fun I had with my rooted SGS4) just for not losing the KNOX security platform.
I was thinking, and if it is a must to root my Sammy device, what if just root it without flashing any custom firmware even with using the stock enforcing rootable kernel provided by @garyd9, trying my luck of restoring photos and unroot it. Would that trip the KNOX as well (Really!)?
Thank you all in advanced.
once its rooted, it trips knox, which is a hardware thing, so it cannot be reverted.
So I will lose warranty in June, and require my phone to be rooted for a few reasons however, I just wanted to know is it likely that the screen could die like others mentioned? and will Samsung repair screen if it's rooted? Also how would I root it? Also could Google Pay work?
I Need root access since I live in a bad reception area and want to use Auto airplane toggle as it would save battery life and other mods.
Anyways, Sorry for bombarding people with questions
If your warranty is done by June, and you root the device after your warranty period, then it doesn't matter if you have a dead screen. You will still have to pay to get it replaced. In case you root before that, you will lose all functions related to Knox.
Thanks. Are dead screens common issue?
How do I root my s21 ultra Exynos?
@amirage: Even if you root after warranty period, you will still lose all knox functionalities
Tristan17 said:
How do I root my s21 ultra Exynos?
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Click to collapse
Rooting is also in this post: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...t-for-galaxy-s21-series-b-n-0-u-u1-w.4233567/
Btw I am also considering rooting, I just don't know if it is worth it, if there are some good mods that requires the phone to be rooted.
i'd root too if there is a way to revert Knox, if only to optimize them google apps under naptime, in particular, and squeeze out more batt juice, in general. but, sadly, no...
I finally rooted my phone!!!
Just one thing, How will I update my phone for future updates (like one up 4.1)?
You will need to download the latest release for your model from Sam firmware and flash it on your phone.
Every time I try updating my phone I get this error what do I do please help!?
Tristan17 said:
Every time I try updating my phone I get this error what do I do please help!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cant use the system OTA updates anymore. Use ODIN with Home_CSC to update monthly firmware.