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Root [GUIDE] Restore your Galaxy Light to stock MJA

Shabbypenguin

Shabbypenguin

Extreme Android User

How to return your Samsung Galaxy Light to stock​


These instructions should fix your semi-bricked or broken phone as long as you can get it into download mode. Make sure you have drivers already installed on your Windows computer before starting. Please read them all the way through and then begin. pay no mind to minor changes in the images, they are taken from the last big odin guide i did. i have configured the odin settings file so all you need to do is click the pda button.

You will need:
SGH-T399-Stock-MJA.zip

Set up the software:
Extract the zip
Run Odin3

Put your phone in Download Mode:
Power your device off
Make sure the usb cable is not connected (it tends to mess up due to charging animation)
Press and hold volume down, home and power
You will see a warning screen
Press volume up to continue to download mode
Connect USB cable :)

Odin should now look like this:
B4zZo.png


Dont mess with the settings, i have it configured via the ini file :)
Click on PDA and load T399UVUAMJ4_T399TMBAMJ4_T399UVUAMJ4_HOME.tar.md5

You should now look like this
xGNny.png


Now you should be able to click Start.

When you click start you should see something similar to this:
3llmM.png


Your phone should auto-reboot when finished and should be working 100%!

Troubleshooting:

Odin isn't detecting the phone?!

Try a different USB port
Try a different usb cable (you would not believe how often these two suggestions fix it)
Uninstall the drivers, reboot, and reinstall the drivers
Click to expand...
It seems frozen and hasn't made any progress for 15 minutes

System.img takes awhile but if it stays on that for longer than 15 minutes unplug the phone and pull the battery and start over
Click to expand...
 
I want to thank you for everything that you do. I've read more than a few of your guides and this one made it possible for me to help out a kid at work who bricked his galaxy light phone. Thank you.

BTW: I'm not sure if this matters or not but the COM number is sometimes different than what the screenshot shows. Mine was COM6 and when it rebooted after successfully unbricking, I still had Odin open and it said COM3. The phone is working fine (though it did start with google voice as default text input instead of samsung keyboard so I had to skip the initial set up and then go back.)
 
I did this after an unsuccessful root, but my carrier is Metro PCS and this is a T-Mobile recovery method. Now my phone is not working on either network!

I wish I would have known that this method does not work for Metro PCS locked phones before I did it. Now I don't know what to do. I didn't create a backup like I should have.
 
dontdriveangry said:
I did this after an unsuccessful root, but my carrier is Metro PCS and this is a T-Mobile recovery method. Now my phone is not working on either network!

I wish I would have known that this method does not work for Metro PCS locked phones before I did it. Now I don't know what to do. I didn't create a backup like I should have.
Click to expand...

Considering metropcs doesnt carry this phone i dont really think that is the issue.
 
I'm assuming it was operator error that made the root not work. But now I just want to double check since it's a different carrier. Should the regular root method work for Metro PCS Galaxy Lights?
 
I cant find any information about it anywhere. usually there is at least a metropcs blog post or something talking about a new phone, seems odd they would have taken a end of life devices that had been killed off and re released it on metro.

edit: what root? you are posting in the stock restore thread. what did you do to get your phone like this?
 
Shabbypenguin said:
edit: what root? you are posting in the stock restore thread. what did you do to get your phone like this?
Click to expand...

I said in my original post that I tried to do this restore method after an unsuccessful root attempt. I was just trying to get my phone back to stock, but instead of it staying as Metro PCS, it was changed to T-Mobile.
 
Samsung Opensource Release Center

kernel source is posted so thats good for folks who have interest in it. anyways yea this firmware was for teh tmobile software version MJA. it should have failed trying to flash this due to the knox security. you dont really have much options atm as there is no stock restore package for metro. what did you try to root? if someone is able to get root on it they can dump the partitions off a stock one.
 
ah ok well unfortunately not much i can do to help :( didnt even know that the device existed let alone had stock dumps of it.
 
dontdriveangry said:
I get the feeling you think I'm lying. They said they've only been selling them since last week. It also has Kit Kat.
Click to expand...

What?! KitKat? Damn it. I just saw the Galaxy Light at MetroPCS for $50! I wish I had enough money to buy an extra. I also wish someone would take KitKat from the Metro phone and put it on the T-Mobile version. I have the T-Mobile version but I just got it unlocked and moved it over to Metro.
 
They have the phone in store cuz I didn't see it in the websize I want to buy this phone for my wife too I have one
 
congruent said:
Shabby - Would it be very hard to take the KitKat ROM from the Metro version and get it on the T-Mobile phone?
Click to expand...

nah just need someone who can dump the images into an odin tar and that would allow tmo light owners to flash the files 1 by 1 until t hey got everything working on 4.4.
 
An end of life phone for MetroPCS. I gave up my F6 for this. It's a slightly faster clock speed. I was told it was not Snapdragon. It comes with KiitKat stock. The bloatware lag is driving me nuts. But I know with a ROM it will have potential. I have not attempted root because of Knox. It does not allow SuperSU to execute. I worked with the SGH-T999L and gave up because of mounting errors with Clockwork mod. TWRP had the same issue. Maybe a I modified Knox removal script. I am not sure if the bootloader is locked. Obviously not if you can get TWRP without a brick?

I'll dump partitions with root if I could get root and instructions for dumping. I'm willing to take the time. It has potential. Shabby. I'd like to help. Bout time I got cracking on a phone. It's cheap too. Like a little S5.irs nice and compact.

I obtained 60$ 4G plan (fastest MetroPCS has to offer. It outperforms Verizon in local areas. Shabby please send me a private message if you see this.

If I can obtain root safetly I can dump system too for a stock image backup. But again I need help. I'm a new dev.
 
Far from a little s3 :P

its more akin to the international SGS3 with exynos. if you flash supersu in twrp you can have it disable knox and then reflash supersu to get actual root, nothing to really worry about :).
 
congruent said:
Just jumpin' in here to let everyone know that there is a way to get KitKat on the Tmo variant of this phone.

[ROM][Galaxy Light T399][ANG6] LightWave V3[Fast] - Post #268 - XDA Forums

It appears to work fine for most users. My sim isn't detected after I do it, though. Still trying to figure out why.

Shabby - Do you know if there's any way to root the latest firmware from TMobile (T399UVUANI2)? Everytime I try to flash TWRP it fails.
Click to expand...

Nevermind! My problem was that I was attempting to root by first flashing stock MJ4 (no root), then OTA upgrading, then rooting NI2. For some reason that doesn't work (I read about other people having the same problem). I flashed straight to NI2 with a firmware file downloaded from Sammobile and used this method:
[RECOVERY][Galaxy Light T399] TWRP 2.7.1.0 T… | Android Development and Hacking | XDA Forums
to root a newer TWRP. Everything looks good.
 
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