Hello. I am completely green to rooting, roms and really Android as a whole. I have a Verizon Galaxy Note 3. My first ever android phone. I previously had every iteration of iPhone since 2007. I'm loving this phone and the platform. So happy I switched. Anyway, like many other Verizon Note owners I'm livid that they haven't released the kit kat OTA yet. I really want the latest software as I've used the Galaxy S5 and loved the newest version of android. Sorry to ramble. My point is that I want to install this kit kat leak on the XDA site but not sure how to do it. I mean I read the directions and it's pretty easy to understand but do I need to root my phone?? I don't even know what rooting is or even begin to comprehend how to root my phone to begin this kit kat install. If someone knows of any easy how to videos or can give me steps on how to do it I would be very appreciative. Thanks!!!!!
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Help Verizon Note 3 Kit Kat????
- Thread starter ceekay820
- Start date
ShanDroyd
Well-Known Member
I've rooted every phone I have owned since the beginning of Android. For some reason I can not get my Note 3 to root. My most recent attempt actually temporarily "bricked" my phone 
. After hours a screwing around, I finally got Kies-3 to do an emergency restore. I am now hesitant to try again. Kies took 3 hours to restore my phone. luckily, so far, the Knox / flash counter has not been tripped. I am going to wait for official OTA Kit-Kat. 
. After hours a screwing around, I finally got Kies-3 to do an emergency restore. I am now hesitant to try again. Kies took 3 hours to restore my phone. luckily, so far, the Knox / flash counter has not been tripped. I am going to wait for official OTA Kit-Kat. 
johnpjackson
Android Enthusiast
I'm not seeing it available OTA for my Verizon N3 yet..
Its only being offered through cable connection to PC right now.
johnpjackson
Android Enthusiast
Well, whatever Verizon is up to, it hasn't reached here yet. Neither OTA nor going with my data cable and the Software Upgrade Assistant are showing there's an update available to me yet. Perhaps though whatever you're seeing going on means it will be soon..
I updated through Kies this afternoon. Around 5. VZW Upgrade Assist wouldn't recognize any updates. But through Kies it was seamless. Very easy and done in less than a half hour. I have noticed that the phone is overall more snappy. Love the real camera shortcut on the lock screen. I'm using the real Google Experience Launcher and with that an Kit Kat I am very pleased at the moment. Only problem I've had is the stupid visual voice mail updates. Won't stop. And every time I try to set it up it gives me an error. Oh well. I'm just happy to finally have the update. And glad I didn't have to go through XDA and rooting my phone to do it. Probably I'll end up Edging up and going with the LG G3 when it's released or HTC One M8. I'm a phone junkie! But aren't we all!? And I wanted to give a big shout out to Verizon Wireless and thank them for being over 4 months late with the Kit Kat update. Way to stay on top of things. *******!!! I could understand if I had a Trac Phone or an older device. But having a so called flagship phone I'm a little perturbed at not having the latest software. That's one thing Apple actually does do well is software updates. I do miss that. Anyway, rant over! Goodnight all!!
johnpjackson
Android Enthusiast
Well, I wonder if they make it available based on customer identity? I say that because I just installed the latest Kies and it too says there is no newer firmware available. It says that about version MJE.
AnonGuy
Android Enthusiast
Basic Visual Voicemail (20 Message Inbox with 3 Minute Length per message) is supposedly free, but it won't activate on my phone. You cannot just "cancel" that pop-up, because it will come back randomly during the day and every time you reboot the phone.
The app is not able to be disabled, which adds to the pain.
I certainly would use it, if it worked, but given the way it's acting I wish I could just disable the app and move on and never think about it again...
Called Verizon and they were trying to get me to pay $2.99 a month for it. It says right on the setup screen on the phone that the service is "Free of Charge."
Performance is good. My battery doesn't seem nearly as good as before the update (I did a factory reset immediately after the update and disabled all the stuff I usually do before even signing into any account). I did use my phone more than usual today, though - I was on the phone a LOT and of course after the update I was using it heavily rein-stalling and updating apps.
A few things I noticed:
1. The Voicemail thing I alluded to already.
2. In the Video Player, there's also Video Editor (along with "Trim") when you select Edit on a video. It will download Samsung's Video Editor (sort of like iMovie but for Galaxy Series devices) from Samsung Apps and then you can use that to do different types of editing and video compositions.
3. Ridiculously Fast Unlocking
4. Performance Impovement. The Device now has 2.71GB RAM available to the system, up from ~2.3GB before the update, which should help serious multi-taskers. It feels a bit quicker, not that it was ever slow. But I can notice the difference. I think graphically it seems to be performing a bit better for me (animations smoother, quicker, etc.).
5. You can now disable "Upload to Picasa," which removes it from the Share Menu for Photos and Videos. Very nice to debloat that menu a bit. Before the update the Picasa Plugin wasn't pre-installed, so you could only Uninstall it and Google Play Services would reinstall it in the background almost immediately. By disabling it, you put the breaks on it ever showing up again.
6. Camera app doesn't seem to have changed at all. The jury is out on performance as I haven't taken any pictures with it, yet. Google Camera is now available for install so it should be easy to check and see the differences in photo quality between the two apps, and the Lense Blur or Photo Sphere features may be useful to some people. The camera app still goes to Beauty Mode by default every time you switch to the FFC, a horrible decision on Samsung's part (Really, WHY?).
7. Some Options dialogs in Samsung Apps have changed a little (for the better).
8. Album View in Music App seems to use smaller Text and Thumbnails, so you see more on the screen in list view.
9. Play Store no longer listed in the "Apps" Menu
10. You can still do whatever you wish on the SD Card with the Samsung Built-In File Manager, without Rooting. Move, Delete, Rename, Copy, whatever... in any folder you want.
11. In the Samsung Messaging App, there is now a universal Font Size setting. So, you no longer have to keep "Use Volume Button to Adjust Font Size" checked to view a smaller font size in that app. That's a particularly good change in user experience, cause the way it was before made no sense at all (i.e. forget adjusting your device volume while in the messaging app conducting a conversation over SMS)...
12. Google Drive is now baked into the FW (Ugh... another app to disable).
13. Boot Screen is not a Bright Red Verizon animation... For shame...
14. Bigger Emoji Set in Samsung Keyboard. You can now Uncheck Swype in settings so it doesn't even show up in the dialog to Switch keyboards (good if you don't want to disable it, but want to remove it from immediate view).
15. More Samsung Apps can be updated (S Health, etc. - Update via Samsung Apps > Galaxy Essentials).
16. All Stock Apps that could Save to SD Card before (Browser, Voice Recorder, etc.) still have that ability. Browser has been Enhanced, especially the settings available to the user. The Samsung Browser is definitely faster with this update. It renders pages faster and the UI is snappier.
17. "Emergency Alerts" siphoned off to its own "App."
18. Cellular Network type is always visible, even when WiFi is on. Good for people who live in bad reception who want to know whether they're on 1x or 3G or whatever, because that can affect the viability of phone functions like MMS (which is always sent over Cellular, and is painful if you don't have at least a 3G signal).
19. Samsung Email app got a few UI/Text/Label changes.
20. My Magazine still doesn't integrate Facebook, making "Social" worthless for a lot of people. Flipboard is still baked in and you still can't disable it (not sure if My Magazine is dependent on that app being installed and enabled on the phone... anyone?)
21. Kindle for Galaxy is now available for the Note 3 in Samsung Apps (Galaxy Gifts section, where all the free/promotional apps/content are housed).
Read a little about it here: Samsung And Amazon Team Up For Custom Galaxy Kindle E-Book App | TechCrunch
22. It seems the Note 3 is Voice-Over-LTE capable now. The Hidden Menu/App appeared on the phone before I factory reset it after the update, and I was able to open it and peek at a bunch of the settings/setting categories. I didn't understand much, but it was fairly populated so my guess is it'll be ready for this when it is launched by Verizon (and probably AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint).
23. I feel like my Call Quality has suffered a bit, but I don't talk on the phone enough to know for sure yet... The buildings here are notorious for killing cell signals. However, the Droid Maxx I was using while dealing with the Voicemail notification issue with Verizon Tech Support sounded quite a bit better than my Note 3.
Tried to avoid most of the more obvious stuff (Tap and Pay Capabilities/Issues, Mobile Printing Support, Icon Colors, etc.).
Hope this info/my experiences is/are useful to someone.
Ciao.
Duckster
Android Enthusiast
So what was the bottom line with the visual voice mail? Is it free for you now or not? I always saw that it was $2.99. I tried it for one month and I liked it (nice to sort through saved voice mails), but not enough to pay them one dime more for a service that should be free. Sheesh! I'm already paying enough fees...where's the customer "break"?
I agree. They updated the app and it now says that basic visual voice mail is included at no charge. Premium is $2.99 per month for more storage and longer message time. And I believe the premium also gives you the option of converting voice mail to text. Hopefully you get the update soon! I'm almost tempted to just buy out the phone, sell it on ebay and switch to AT&T or T-Mobile.
TrueFangz
Android Enthusiast
I've seen a few posts on different forums with people saying they can't disable the VM app. I'm not sure how or why, but when I had this problem yesterday after updating, I was in my App tray, tapped and held on the VM icon, and dragged it up to "disable app" on the top of the screen, and it worked just fine for me. I'm running 4.4.2 stock Note 3, Verizon, with no modifications to OS or Launcher. So, I'm not sure why others can't do this?
atrain311
Android Expert
Same here. Exactly the same.
johnpjackson
Android Enthusiast
The OTA update just became available here to me in Western Massachusetts
waremaster
Well-Known Member
I just got the update OTA as well in NJ
rcaine
Well-Known Member
I just found the update available OTA after trying all morning several times over the wire using both Kries and Verizon. We'll see how it goes. I have it downloading now.
I'm in Georgia but updates are based on IMEI number rather than location. They try to ration it out.
I'm in Georgia but updates are based on IMEI number rather than location. They try to ration it out.
