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Root [Verizon] Verizon and unauth. software LOCK OUT

J

JoshuaN

Lurker
PLEASE READ IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT BRICKING WITH ROOT/ROMS.

Hello all... first time post. Not at all new to Linux, and been doing 'hoodrat things' on android phones for a couple years. Not the best in the universe, but I can hold my own.

I picked up a S3 today from Verizon after gaming the system to keep my unlimited data plan and had some issues I wanted to share with you all... as it's EASY TO 'BRICK' THE PHONE. (IMO)

So there's two ways to root now that most folks are seeing if you dig up info.
1) The little .bat file you run, no Odin needed.
2) Flashing on a rooted stock (bloat free or full) with Odin.

Talking about them...the first seemed to work fine for SU, but I was having wifi tethering problems. So I grabbed some .zips and went "old school" in ROM Manager. BAD idea.

So backups seemed to go fine. I tried to flash over a rom, and everything went to hell. It started to boot, then locked me out of recovery and EVERYTHING but download. I got a nice message from the Verizon police saying that they detected unauthorized software on the device, and to go to the store immediately.

Screw that. You know how this story goes, no one is going to be like "hey look, I got the phone and did all sorts of crazy things and it broke!" I went to some rather... well... quasi-trustworthy sources and got a copy of the bootloader, pit, pda, etc.

I did manage to get the phone back to stock, and then put on the rooted bloat free OS with Odin. Too much removed, don't like it. But with the rooted through Odin, wifi tethering seems to work a-ok.

Back to the Rooted bloat-full rom and am manually cleaning it up.

My tips- (obviously if you're a rock star, you can use your judgement and do whatever. =)

Use Odin, bloat FULL rom, and clean it up yourself.
DO NOT TOUCH THE BOOTLOADER.
DO NOT TRY FOR QUESTIONABLE ROMS (yet)

Right now... it seems with this bootloader crud Verizon is pulling it's very easy to put yourself in a real bad spot with being locked out.

If it DOES happen, you CAN fix it in Odin. But if you're worried about rooting and new to the game... keep it simple. A normal "stock rom" will not solve the verizon police issue. You pretty much have to go through getting the full phone back to "normal."

Get Odin, get a stock rom with root. Again- keep in simple unless you are pro.

I'm also seeing that Rom Manager backup SEEMS to work... but restore does not. YET AGAIN- keep it simple if you're a new user. The 'old' ways of doing stuff aren't hammered out on Verizon's version just yet.

Time will allow folks to get around all these troubles... but since it happened to me I wanted to share the thread and let you know if you do get this warning... you CAN FIX IT.

Feel free to ask me how, we can chat and I can provide links and such needed... but I would rather not post some of the places I had to obtain things from on the forum. (Hope you guys understand.)

Cheers!
 
flashing things through recovery works absolutely 110% completely fine on the VZW SGS3...there is little to nothing to worry about...period

honestly OP it sounds like instead of trying "old school" methods you should simply follow the directions out there...which i can certainly guarantee do not include "grab some .zips and use ROM Manager"
 
root for this phone is as easy as looking at a computer screen when you use odin(just don't unplug your device because that would be stupid). and installing a recovery is as easy as opening a command promp with adb or just downloading the app EZ recovery for vzw gs3. After that you can flash just about anything with this phone(somethings will work and something won't but even if something doesn't work you can just but into recovery and wipe/factory reset and start over). With the locked bootloader you cant just use other methods that would work for other devices. At this point we can't even use roms/mods/hacks or anything else that works on all the other galaxy s3 variants. There are really only about a handful(and i really do only mean about 5 people) that have developed for this device, so follow there footsteps or your going to get lost in the snow.
 
With that lock it wouldnt let me boot into recovery. That was the scary part. Flashing things through odin didnt worked to dont its by them directions out now. So factory reset became difficult.

And yes... thats whats i was saying. Dont "grab zips and used rom manager." Thats a bad idea. ;)

Root... have fun... just used caution.
 
Sounds like the OP tried to flash a rom that wasn't for the Verizon GS3, then is making broad generalizations that flashing anything but stock roms is a bad idea.
 
Well... yes and no. All im saying is playing dirty with roms is not a great idea unless you know whats youre doing. Im all for flashing all kinds of roms. If its not given a green light for verizon s3 then be very careful. More along the lines of do whatever you want.... just keep in mind the game isnt the same with Verizon Police in the field.

Just a warning to be smart. :) the TLDR of the first post should read ...

"Follow directions for Verizon specific versions. If you dont, bad things happen. Fortunately even without access to recovery one the phone you CAN fix it. "

I fully support rooting and roms... im an android and linux guy for a reason. If anyone else reading this got out of the "Verizon has detected unsupported software one this device, go to a Verizon store immediatly" message i would like to compare notes.
 
why on Earth would you try and do things that clearly go against every direction out there...or try to flash a ROM for a different device...

i mean this is common sense...
 
Yes... thats why i stated dont do what i did and follow current device specific directions and not what most folks have done in the past. The rom WAS for S3 as well.
 
I need your help very very much The boot loader locked me out too I need you to send me the links that you used to get the phone back to stock. Thank you
 
So you decided to ignore installation steps for whichever ROM you decided to flash? And then you're surprised things didn't work out? I don't get why you mention more than once that you're a Linux/Android type of guy.. it has little bearing since you clearly don't keep up on things.

Yes, people should know that flashing stuff shouldn't be done unless you know what you're doing. What YOU have made yourself an example as is INSTALL ROMS THE WAY THE DEVELOPER SAYS TO INSTALL IT.
 
Oh good lord. Look. What i didnt was install a rom them same way I have for many android devices. It was a "verizon s3 approved" rom..... this is them first device it ever went weird one due to the bootloader issue. I flashed a zip from a sd card with rom manager. Nothing crazy at all. Just nothers with odin because i was curious how things would go.

I fixed it. Its not a huge deal.... what im trying to say is if you go doing things in different ways then you EXACTLY need to.. there is a risk. Theres a risk doing it by then books as well.

My phone was back working... it was a bit of a pain to get the bootloader files i wanted but everything is fine and working great.

I apologize for trying to help others that may end up in this situation and NOT know how to fix it. Do you think devs never break things? Most of development IS breaking stuff. Do you think the open source community got to be where it is from following rules ? I took a risk and it went bad. I fixed the issue and learned from the mistake.

Im not crying... im not upset... i tried something that is "old common knowledge" and it went south. I learned from it and wanted to help others. End of story.

PM me if you want help with fixing the lockout. Im more than happy to help and walk folks through it.
 
Despite what you were trying to do by starting this thread, all it does is scare the inexperienced and those new to Android trying to do some research before tinkering with their new toy. ANY device is easily bricked when the instructions aren't followed explicitly... especially when using methods/apps never mentioned by the developer. As long as you read, and re-read the instructions (this includes making sure you are reading the instructions specific to your service carrier) there should be no unforeseen problems.
 
If you were able to recover your phone it wasn't bricked. I hate how people use that word incorrectly. I don't think it is any harder to screw up a flash on the S3 then any other phone.
 
I agree. Now I see the vernacular, "hard brick" and "soft brick". ("soft" brick...really? Nerf now makes bricks?) :D

With download mode, I can't see a way to brick this device.
 
Seems not many are listening to the OP. LOL! I get his point. Thanks for the good info.

I too saw the dreaded triangle. Fortunately, I was able to Odin back to stock (rooted). From there on, I kept trying more ROMs (now wiser).

Please use EZ Unlock v1.0 or v1.2. Do not use v1.4 from the Play store at the moment. That was my mistake which gave me the triangle of death. :D
 
Unless, somehow, you break download mode, you won't brick your phone.

Note that brick means it can only be repaired at the factory.
 
This actually just happened to me today, i was pissed XD turns out, after the software update, it relocked the bootloader, and i didn't even think to unlock it. not thinking about it much, i made a nandroid, and then restored my liquid nandroid, and then.... OHHHH GOD!!! VERIZON MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE NOW!!! RAAAAWWWRRRRR! followed some instructions, got back to stock. now i have to install everything all over again.

But yea, i'm told its caused because of the bootloader being locked, and needs to be unlocked to flash anything.
 
How do I reset my Galaxy Note 2.its showing unauthorized software and says go to Verizon. I know this is not gonna work so I do I root this phone.
 
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