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Root [International] Problems after botched official OTA update of Note3 N9005

D

dalmanights

Newbie
1. In November 2014 I purchased, a Samsung Note 3 N9005 having H3G UK rom in UK that I use presently in Asia. This snapdragon model came with Jellybean and it was my first Android phone as I used windows phone earlier.

2. I did not know head of tell of Android OS and as I started using this complex phone, in a day or two it showed a pop up that said a 2 GB update was downloaded automatically (auto update was checked) and it updated the my phone from Jellybean to 4.4.2 kitkat.

3. The phone showed the following info :
PDA/ AP (firmware build version) : N9005XXUGNH1
phone/MODEM /CP (baseband or modem version) : N9005XXUGNH1
CSC(Consumer Software Customization) : N9005H3GGNI1

Build number as : KOT49H.N9005XXUGNH1

4. I tried Kingo root to root the phone but it failed and nothing was changed as shown below:
ODIN MODE
PRODUCT NAME : sm-n9005
CURRENT BINARY: SAMSUNG OFFICIAL
SYSTEM STATUS : OFFICIAL
REACTIVATION LOCK (KK) : OFF
KNOX KERNEL LOCK : 0X0
KNOX WARRANTY VOID : 0X0
QUALCOMM SECUREBOOT : ENABLE (CSB)
AP SWREV : S2, T2, A2, A3, P3
WRITE PROTECTION :ENABLE
UDC START

5. Then I tried Towelroot and it succeeded in rooting without any Knox flag and all remained as shown above. I tested it with rootchecker and Supersu and phone was shown as rooted. Then I connect the phone to Kies3 and it refused to connect to the phone or even regognize it. Therefore, I went ahead and with Supersu to remove the root fully. In the mean while I found that the phone started showing a triangle and security notice that said - Unauthorized actions have been detected.

6. Then I tried to start Samsung knox which was perfectly working before rooting. The Knox tried starting with a brown screen for a second and just came out of it without actually starting it and with no warning.

7. All things like wifi bluetooth etc except the working of Knox, were fully functioning and Knox counter was 0x0 with official ROM intact. Except for the security warning all things were perfectly functioning.

8. Recently (27 March 2015) I got another popup saying Lollipop update is available for download and it downloaded it successfully and started the update. The update process stopped abruptly at about 25 percent and gave an error message and restarted the phone with the 4.4.2 again. The original rom, knox is still intact but rootchecker says root having errors and phone is not rooted. However now my wifi and bluetooth stopped fully and just could not be started through the settings.

9. My question is, can I flash another stock UK rom or the same H3G rom 4.4.2 through Odin 3.09 or 3.07 without knocking off the official status of rom and Knox 0x0 status?

10. If I flash stock rom Vanilla (BTU) UK, what would possibly happen? Alternatively, If I flash the exactly the same 4.4.2 H3G ROM UK that is presently on my phone once again using ODIN 3.07 or 3.09, will it bring the system to original status (factory) so that I can officially flash the Lollipop that is available for H3G UK phones? Or the knox is damaged forever even if the Knox counter is still 0X0?

11. Any better alternatives open to me? I have to do something as my wifi and bluetooth are both dead but phone is functioning other wise for calls and messages. Is Knox dead forever even if the flag says 0X0 and rom as official?

Note: I am familiar with the procedure of using ODIN for flashing.

I would appreciate all your help to get over this mess.
 
Last edited:
dynomot said:
You can reflash using Odin. Luckily the is Hutchison Telecom (3G) Lollipop is now out. You can flash it and not bother with OTA. Here you go :

http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/download/44787/N9005XXUGBOB6_N9005H3GGBOB1_H3G/
Click to expand...

Dynomot, Thanks for the prompt suggestions. I have downloaded the new Lollipop rom from the link you provided. However, I am still in a quandary over flashing the new official ROM.
1. I forgot to mention that I have a 32GB version of Note 3 N9005. For this 32 GB note 3, some websites specifically insist to check all three check boxes in ODIN : the auto reboot, reset and repartition. Where as others just go with unchecking the repartition. I am not sure who is correct and what is the technical problem.
2. Currently, though the Knox software starts and shut down immediately, my system is still official and knox at 0X0 as is evident from the OTA update happening. However, Kies 3 fails to recognize the note3. Apparently, two independent things are happening inside i.e. OTA recognizing the official status and Kies3 declining the same.

Now, my queries are:
1. Would flashing with ODIN -the latest H3G rom you suggested, raise the Knox flag? I have some softwares that were running on Knox when it was working. I want to still use them by getting back the Knox functionality. If fresh flash refreshes the Knox completely I would be greatly happy.
2. Do I check repartition in ODIN for 32GB phone?
3. Does ODIN 3.09 have any advantage over ODIN 3.07
4. My present OTA failed at 25 percent into flashing - could you guess what could be the possible reasons?
5. Should I try OTA a few more times before going in for ODIN way?
6. Do you know any custom rom that would flash along with TWRP or CMM recovery in one go?
I hope you could come up with something from your knowledge in flashing. thanks

Dalmanights - 29/03/2015
 
1. Flash it as the instructions in the link. No need to repartition that was for the leaked version not this official one.

2. No, don't touch repartition at all.

3. No, although there are reports of Odin V3.09 not playing nicely with Note 3s.

4. Probably because your rooted.

5. Nope, It won't work see 4.

6. I'm surprised you haven't borked Knox already. Rooting may or may not trip Knox, flashing a custom ROM will, for sure. If you use Knox DONOT root or attempt a custom recovery flash.
 
Thanks a lot, Dynomot.
here is what I have understood from your guidance so far: (Correct a tyro like me)
procedure:
1. No repartition, even for 32GB Note 3 N9005 - when flashing a stock Samsung original ROM.
2. Use ODIN 3.07 to be on safer side. Here I see that it says PDA and in 3.09 as AP. I hope they are one and the same.
3. On the phone USB debugging enabled.
4. Reactivation lock disabled.
5. battery fully charged.
6. SD card removed.
7. Click start.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. I understand NOW, that if I go with custom ROM, it would kill knox and raise Knox Flag to 0X1.
2. However if I use the original stock Samsung ROM (Lollipop) that I downloaded from the link you provided, will it still kill Knox and raise the Flag to 0X1? This is a not very clear to me yet.
3. Is it possible to flash the present ROM 4.4.2 on my phone once again through original downloaded H3G 4.4.2?
4. In a remote event if anything goes wrong can I flash the same ROM again?
5. Is this procedure been done with success on a 32GB version successfully?
6. Is the bootloader for H3G / Vodaphone UK are locked versus a BTU , UK that is vanilla also available up to 4.4.2?
7. What happens if I flash the original 4.4.2 BTU instead of H3G rom ? will it accept?

I read somewhere that the PDA ending NH4 and later ones coming since November 2014, have a more rocksolid Knox hardware and flashing will not restore the phone to original status, because robustness was a requirement of business community? Have any idea on this?
I have gone to great lengths, troubling you with queries. My apologies in advance.
 
Sorry for seemingly leaving your high and dry, real life gets in the way of my Internet alter ego, very annoying ! :)

Flashing original firmware using Odin will not trip the Knox flag, only rooting (probably, but not some methods), flashing a custom recovery (always will) or flashing a custom ROM (always will if you flash via PC Odin).


If you use Odin to flash a stock ROM you cannot get back to the ROM you over wrote, it is gone, flashed over, it does not exist in your phone anymore. You can if you want use Odin to flash it back if you wish.

No bootloader on any Note 3 SM-N9005 sold in the UK is locked. Some are networked locked (mine was, I'm on contract with Vodafone), but this is not the same as a locked bootloader. A network ("carrier" - for our American cousins) locked SM-N9005 (I use the model number to avoid confusion) can be flashed with any SM-N9005 firmware and will work perfectly well, but as before flashing, only with the SIM from the network it is locked to. In the UK all the networks will give you the unlock code to use any network for around £20, usually after your half way through your contact. Once your contact term is up they'll give it you for free as the phone is now yours.

Newer firmwares once flashed can only have the same version ie V4.4.2 or higher flashed to them. You can flash different versions of V4.4.2 to your hearts content but you cannot go back to an earlier firmware such as V4.3.

Having said this, you can go back to v4.4.2 from v5.0.0, but as a rule of thumb, and particularly because you do use Knox don't try. Knox has been upgraded, as you say, in v5.0.0 and I'd, personally consider a flash to a v5.0.0 firmware a one way trip.

In a nutshell, any British bought Note 3 (an SM-N9005) can be flashed using Odin V3.07 with any official firmware for an SM-N9005 the same version number or higher. This will not trip the knox counter, is perfectly legitimate to do (it is what Samsung use themselves) and your device will be fine. If you flash a "foreign" SM-N9005 firmware or SM-N9005 firmware that is unbranded, and your existing firmware is to start you will lose the ability to update your phone OTA (Over The Air). This is reversible, should you feel the need to, by flashing the firmware specific for your Note 3 (for instance for me to get OTA updates again I would need to flash Vodafone UK's version of the SM-N9005 firmware).
 
Hello, dynomot, I express my gratitude for taking time out to help me.
Two things were worth the wait - I was entertained by your great British English nuances (no pun intended) that I sorely miss these days reading more of American English - which appear to be based on a 100 word dictionary, perhaps!. Secondly, I get logical information from you that helped me understand steps to success bit by bit.
I have infinite patience in this ROM flashing business. One step here and there and I would end up having a paperweight. (this I learned reading blogs from people who were mislead into procedures that let to a fiasco /paperweight.). I was almost done in, by someone suggesting I should unlock the boot-loader first! Then others said all boot-loaders from 4.4.2 onwards are locked by Samsung. Then there were some who confidently told me H3G, Vodafone, O2 come with locked boot-loader, and BTU is the only one unlocked. I could not decide then, what was right for me and what wasn't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a new ODIN 3.10.6 that looks more robust according to reports. Did you use it ever?
I wonder what the difference is between the ROMs of H3G, Vodafone, O2 and BTU, all UK based, except the booting screens and some company specific softwares that come preloaded. Since I am using the phone in India presently, I have no preference for any particular one though the present ROM is H3G. I am using a Indian SIM card, so the phone is unlocked for sure and as you say boot-loader is unlocked too. (Is there any way to know this simply?)
what ROM you use on your SM-N9005 presently?

One small correction: the Samsung website says the Knox 2.0 is implemented from 4.4.2 and not from 5.0 and hence can not work once someone plays with it as it is hardware coded.
Did you do your flashing anytime after November 2014 to test this assertion of Samsung? Please let me know. I am getting verbose I fear. Sorry about it.
 
I am referring to the last line of your last posting - why do you need to flash only Vodafone ROM to get OTA undates? only because you had tie-up with vodafone earlier? Suppose you have flashed say H3G stock rom to your phone, will it not give you OTA?
If what you said is right, then some vodafone code is lingering on your N9005 hardware somewhere even after all the wiping; am I right?
 
Hi Dynomot, I am ecstatic to say the least.
I wrote down your instructions on a paper and followed them verbatim.
Voila, everything went smooth as butter. I was little skeptical if this will work on windows 8.1 pro and KIS Security. I disabled the Kaspersky security as an additional precaution.

Here I am with 4.4.2 with KNOX fully working. Thanks a zillion.
Surprisingly all original wallpapers and and softwares are intact.

Next I will be doing Lollipop after getting reviews of it properly.

Please send me answers to my queries in red and later one about your last line.
I will be bugging you on and off though, I hope you won't mind my dumb-dodo queries.
Cheers and thanks again.
 
dalmanights said:
I am referring to the last line of your last posting - why do you need to flash only Vodafone ROM to get OTA undates? only because you had tie-up with vodafone earlier? Suppose you have flashed say H3G stock rom to your phone, will it not give you OTA?
If what you said is right, then some vodafone code is lingering on your N9005 hardware somewhere even after all the wiping; am I right?
Click to expand...

The server the update comes from checks for "custom" firmware then checks the CSC code (Consumer Software Customisation code) to see if it matches what your phones IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identifier) should have. Then it checks there is an update and offers it if so. So to get back the ability to get OTA updates I would have to flash Vodafone UK firmware again. I am currently running the latest Polish SM-N9005 firmware which is V5.0.0. I could flash Vodafone UK's V5.0.0, which is the same, but I can live without their software "add ons" (ie bloatware).
 
Not tried Odin 3.10.6 add yet. I tripped my Knox flag ages ago and once tripped Knox no longer works, and never will again. No loss for me. I never used it.
 
I am clear now about how things work in the background for OTA. I forgot to tell the obvious yesterday;The latest Samsung Kies3 too started functioning perfectly. Thus far, I am in no need to knock-out the KNOX. But after reading your posts and some others, I am realizing the functional limitations of the same.
I also found that surprisingly H3G has given very limited bloatware compared to Vodafone.

How do you rate Lollipop compared to kitkat ? Everywhere on the net people are vociferously expressing the battery drain issue and malfunctioning of some softwares. Did you face any such problems?
 
Battery life appears to be worse, although that could be the battery itself my Note 3 is coming up 2 years old and it had been ran down to 0% (bad practice) more often than I care to remember. It really, really sucks juice when running Sygic or any GPS dependent app. So much so it actually loses charge when plugged into a 0.5amp 12v charger to navigate to jobs (I'm a service engineer) at work. Where it used to very slowly still charge.

The phone is quicker although there are bugs. Contacts sometimes stops working for no apparent reason and crashes the call log on accessing. The odd app sometimes crashes for no apparent reason. No one is worse than another for those that occasionally do. RAM usage is lower and I don't get any lag whatsoever. My wife's S3 (a GT-I9300) feels horribly laggy sometimes on KitKat, although I'm comparing the proverbial "apples with oranges" here.

Personally I think the the changes in Lollipop are on the whole for the good. I like the material design for instance and the device is definitely "snappier". I can't definitively say if it is Lollipop causing greater battery use, or the age of my much abused battery. I may get a new original battery as this one is getting worse.
 
I think I should lick the Lollipop now. My SM-N9005 is just 4 months old and Kitkat gives me about 2-3 days of battery life with 2 hours of daily wifi usage and about 5-10 calls per day and zero Bluetooth. I hope, since my battery is relatively new, the lollipop should not give me problem to that extent, if I wipe the cache after the install, (based on the experiences shared by many people).
The H3G lollipop is rolled out in late March and I read from a Canadian source that though all lollipop versions are still called 5.0 the later releases have most of the bugs fixed. What a way to do things- big brother Samsung !!!
 
Hello Dynomot,
I installed Lollipop H3G UK version, through Kies3 . It works like charm -very smooth, no lags, no battery drain and no software issues. All things functioning very smoothly. I did a factory reset immediately after install. I am loving it.! Knox working like Fort Knox. All in all great experience.
 
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