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Root [International] Some questions, also a newbie

MechRider

MechRider

Lurker
Hi everyone,

I just upgraded from a HTC Desire to the SIII. I've been reading about rooting your phone since my old one but never really got around to doing it. Now that I got a spanking new phone, I decided to take the plunge and uncover the full potential of my new phone.

So I went and rooted it following a guide, and everything went well (got a pass in Odin, got the superuser app etc.). After a few days I tried to update to Jellybean via OTA, but every time I try to install, the recovery mode says that it can't be done. I tried doing it via Kies, but the program keeps crashing every time I plug in my phone and download the new ROM.

My phone also won't properly connect to my computer, as in, the phone is there, but when I click to browse through the files, there are none and the whole thing freezes.

So now I'm thinking of going back to stock firmware and updating from there on, and just root it after that, but what are the risks and how do I do this exactly? I know you download the stock firmware and flash it with Odin as in this guide, but I don't really know what my stock firmware is.

When I type in *#1234# in the Keypad, this comes up:

AP: I9300XXALEF
CP: I9300XXLEF
CSC: I9300PHNALE4

So far from what I've read, this shouldn't be my stock firmware, as I am supposed to have an International version (I'm from The Netherlands btw)

Is it safe to just flash any stock firmware? Or what should I do?

I'm sorry to just barge in with this wall of text, but I'm just trying to get a better understanding of the whole rooting process.
 
Now you have SU access I don't think the official OTA upgrade will work.

You are better off jumping over to XDA developers and installing a JB ROM...something like Omega.

This may cure your other issues as well.
 
nigsy said:
Now you have SU access I don't think the official OTA upgrade will work.

You are better off jumping over to XDA developers and installing a JB ROM...something like Omega.

This may cure your other issues as well.
Click to expand...

I've read that sometimes the OTA update will work, and sometimes it doesn't. In the case that it doesn't, you had to temporarily unroot via Voodoo rootkeeper and it should work.

Thing is, I tried this but it didn't, haha

I could install a JB ROM, but I really want to know why exactly I am having these issues. Just to get a better understanding of my phone
 
I think in order to receive official OTA's you need to have the stock recovery. I imagine that when you rooted it would have installed Clockwordmod recovery or something similar. Nothing to worry about :) But now you are rooted, as Nigsy says, you can go ahead an install a custom ROM which will be a lot better than any official firmware you can get :) I'm currently on InsertCoin but Omega is also pretty good. Have a look around the S3 xda forum and see what you like :)
 
CDPlant said:
I think in order to receive official OTA's you need to have the stock recovery. I imagine that when you rooted it would have installed Clockwordmod recovery or something similar. Nothing to worry about :) But now you are rooted, as Nigsy says, you can go ahead an install a custom ROM which will be a lot better than any official firmware you can get :) I'm currently on InsertCoin but Omega is also pretty good. Have a look around the S3 xda forum and see what you like :)
Click to expand...


I did install Clockwordmod recovery, that should be the issue with the updates then?

Omega seems pretty rad actually, I might try that.
 
MechRider said:
I did install Clockwordmod recovery, that should be the issue with the updates then?
Click to expand...

I think so yes. I think the easiest way to go back to stock is to flash a stock ROM in Odin, but now you are rooted I would stay that way :) There are so many ROMs to try!
 
CDPlant said:
I think so yes. I think the easiest way to go back to stock is to flash a stock ROM in Odin, but now you are rooted I would stay that way :) There are so many ROMs to try!
Click to expand...

I suppose. I'm trying to install Omega.

So far I've made these preparations:

Backed up my app data with Titanium Backup
Backed up my /efs with EFS pro
Downloaded the Omega ROM

So if I get this right, all I have to do now is boot in recovery mode, make a nandroid backup and do a full wipe? And from there install the Omega ROM.

I think
 
Yep that's about it. Make sure your google account is all synced up so your contacts come straight back when you sign in etc.

As long as you have a nandroid (and titanium backup) you're good to go. If something goes wrong or you don't like it you can always go back :)
 
CDPlant said:
Yep that's about it. Make sure your google account is all synced up so your contacts come straight back when you sign in etc.

As long as you have a nandroid (and titanium backup) you're good to go. If something goes wrong or you don't like it you can always go back :)
Click to expand...

I'm running Omega right now. Looks pretty sweet! Unfortunately forgot to sync with google account so I can now spend a few hours getting all my contacts info, but so far I'm liking it!

Thanks everyone in this thread!
 
MechRider said:
I'm running Omega right now. Looks pretty sweet! Unfortunately forgot to sync with google account so I can now spend a few hours getting all my contacts info, but so far I'm liking it!

Thanks everyone in this thread!
Click to expand...

Your Google account should have been syncing periodically (once a day or so for contacts) so give it a bit of time to see if they reappear again, hopefully they will. For me, I just always do a force sync before a wipe to make sure it's all up to date.

Enjoy your new ROM! :D
 
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