Couple questions / clarifications before I root:
1. Is it recommended to do any type of backup of the phone beforehand in case things go wrong or in case I want to go back? Settings/Contacts/Apps/AppData do not matter to me.
-If yes, what is the best way to back the phone up?
2. Is it recommended to Factory Reset the phone or format the memory card prior to root?
3. Any recommendations for someone who will be using Windows 7 64-bit? (Saw some posts about setting the USB mode to Charge Only if things weren't working.)
4. If I want to un-root and I use the rootzwiki bomb stuff, do the things in Menu > Settings > About Phone go back to the original versions as if I just got it from VZW? (Baseband Version, etc.)
I come from an Omnia i910 background (2+yrs of flashing and modifying the heck out of that thing) and I always had the stock updates I could flash back to in case things went wrong or in case I needed a replacement (never did, but I'd hate to have a savvy tech tell me my phone info is 1 character off and that means I rooted and voided my warranty - would like it to be as transparent as possible if I want to go back to stock).
Any help is appreciated. Look forward to learning and helping as much as I can!
Backups aren't needed, if it fails nothing is changed
I did it on win7x64 too, no issues, in pc mode.
Make sure you get the ota update first
Afterwards install koush's recovery and make a nandroid backup
And don't bother resetting, all rooting does is exploit a security hole so that you can install files in the system and access the root user
Sent from my DROID2
hey guys,
bought my samsung captivate two days ago and i love it. from reading all the posts about how rooting is awesome i finally took the plunge and rooted my phone with the one click root program. followed the directions to the teeth, everything went fine. even went as far as downloading clockwork and backing up my rom.
few hours later, im totally blown that i rooted my phone. i realized i threw away my warranty.
is there ANY way to unroot the phone and make it totally stock and make it seem like the phone was never altered? i read some answers of "yeah" and some answers of "once your rooted, you can't get back" (i remember reading about an article about how some android phones like the nexus one, once you root theres no going back period). the program i used had a unroot button but im not sure if that would wipe everything away to factory settings and erase all traces of the root.
i know im effing stupid for not thinking it threw. but hey, its good that i came to my senses before i loaded up an os.
to be clear, my phone is just rooted. nothing else. im not running cognitive rom or anything. its running the stock samsung 2.1.
so can anyone PLEASE PLEASE help me solve this problem?
im a total noob when it comes to android.
it took me 20 minutes doing that one click from reading the directions over and over again lol.
i need some step by step directions for stupid people
okay, so i followed the directions to unroot. the programs that were installed when i rooted seemed to have disappear. to be extra sure, i reformatted my sd card and than factory restored the phone (from settings/privacy). quick question though, after i pressed "factory reset" my phone rebooted and than for a quick second i saw the same screen i saw when i rooted (the black screen with the yellow font? looked like a system command prompt i guess). it came on for a sec and than disappeared and it booted regularly. did that happen because i did a factory reset or did that happen because im still rooted?
wtf is wrong with me. i just want my unrooted captivate back (and my warranty lol)
odin to stock with master clear.
There's a thread under android development something with "stock rom" that should restore your phone back to factory.
If you did all of that then you are definitely back to stock now & theres no way of detecting your phone was rooted. You could of gotten away with just using one click to unroot. Thats all I did when I returned mine after a week because my gps never worked at all. I dont think they even did anything to check if it was rooted or anything. Hows your gps on the new one by the way? Mines still bad but at least it sees some satellites now. My old one had a hardware problem where gps wouldn't do anything at all.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
When you use odin to flash back to stock does that restore the AT&T bloatware as well? Or should I use TiB when I first get the phone to get the bloatware back on?
Thanks,
JOe K.
After trying to exchange my phone for another phone (thinking the GPS is a hardware issue) I had rooted and flashed a custom rom. I reverted back using ODIN master clear and ODIN 2.1 rom (Which puts bloatware and everything on it) and there's no way to detect it. The only time it will truly void your warranty (I believe) if you go into the store with a custom rom or if you go into the store with a bricked phone and they figure out you were modifying your phone.
thanks for the answers guys! why is it that you cant "unroot" a nexus one? i heard they'll always be able to tell if your rooted once you do it.
Okay so I got a Droid 2 Global today and have been playing around with it, the first thing I noticed is a ton of bloatware. I have read a few guides, and though this is my 3rd android phone, I am still somewhat clueless at this stuff. After a bit of searching I managed to root with z4root, and got boostrap recovery and made a backup. Now I am seeing guides that say to freeze the apps with titanium backup, or move them somewhere else or this that or something else. However since I made a backup, does that mean I can just delete the files I don't like, and when an update comes out for my phone, use the backup to put them all back? This seems like the easiest solution to me, but I just want to make sure that would work as I don't know much about recovery things. Thanks for any help
ben7337 said:
. However since I made a backup, does that mean I can just delete the files I don't like, and when an update comes out for my phone, use the backup to put them all back? This seems like the easiest solution to me, but I just want to make sure that would work as I don't know much about recovery things. Thanks for any help
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Yeah you can do that. The reason people were just freezing apps was due to the lack of an SBF for the D2G so if you delete and app and Verizon pushes an update you want you can't do it if you didn't back up your phone so now that there is an SBF you can delete them if you don't like them just don't delete until you know how to restore your phone with said SBF. That way if/when something goes south you are ahead of the learning curve instead of having to learn it all real quick so you can use your phone again.
newk8600 said:
Yeah you can do that. The reason people were just freezing apps was due to the lack of an SBF for the D2G so if you delete and app and Verizon pushes an update you want you can't do it if you didn't back up your phone so now that there is an SBF you can delete them if you don't like them just don't delete until you know how to restore your phone with said SBF. That way if/when something goes south you are ahead of the learning curve instead of having to learn it all real quick so you can use your phone again.
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I don't think I'm following you. I made a backup with bootstrap, but bootstrap was out before the SBF was released, so are you saying that deleting the apps are fine, but my current boostrap backup will NOT restore the apps and I would need to restore with a old SBF that just came out? Also would it make a different that I am on the new 2.4.330 or something software version, but the SBF seems to be for the old 2.4.29 version?
If you mess up the phone bootstrap can't start. And you can't restore anything from it. It is not like the standard recovery which is independent from system image - it just hijacks normal boot to give you recovery where you can flash unsigned files. Or if you mess up and phone sits at M logo, custom recovery isn't going to help you. SBF is the only salvation.
It is fine to flash 2.4.29 over 2.4.330 updated phone. It has been confirmed multiple times to work fine. There is also word going about new SBF based on 2.4.330 that will be released in the following few days.
Hi guys,
I've been playing around with my Nexus S for about 3 weeks and I've decided to root it, but I have some question, I've been searching the answers in older posts but it's not quite clear yet, hope you can help me.
When I unlocked the bootloader, what kind of data will be wiped? It's just the SD card or also all the apps I've already downloaded? what about SMS, pictures and videos?
Is there anyway I can backup that data considering I haven't root it yet???
Thanks in advance.
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
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lol what? its nobodys fault but your own. all the resources are available, just because somebody isnt responding to your threads and holding your hand to restore a nandriod backup doesnt make it a "lack of a community".. and your phone isn't bricked, it can be recovered but you are too close-minded and cant install Clockwork Recovery / get drivers working
The data that will be wiped are most likely your SMS/settings/etc. This is standard procedure. And its something you'll go through a lot when you are using custom ROMs.
There are complete instructions for rooting, unrooting and unbricking your phone. It's all here in the forums, and many other places, you just have to look and learn. I read for two weeks before I unlocked and loaded a ROM into my NS.
If you don't have a need to root your phone I wouldn't do it just because you can. I wanted to run the Voodoo app so I had to root and load a ROM. It took a little while but it was painless and I liked learning about the Android system.
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.
It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!
RogerPodacter said:
It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!
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its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
"brick" describes a device that cannot function in any capacity (such as a device with damaged firmware)
In the strictest sense of the term, bricking must imply that software error has rendered the device completely unrecoverable without some hardware replacement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics)
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I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
Netconn said:
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.
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What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?
Make a nandroid backup first and foremost! Use Titanium Backup to make a backup of all your apps. If you want a backup of your sms, go sms pro really does a great job of that. Dont forget your contacts as well! Then copy your sd card and place it on the hard drive of your computer. When you unlock the bootloader, it does wipe your sd card. Once your unlocked and rooted, you should be able to restore everything once you replace the copy of your sd card back on the phone. Coming over from a Vibrant, I was nervous about rooting the phone but its an easy process. Just take your time and do lots of reading! Hope this helps!
Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Woops..yeah, your right there. Too quick to reply. I followed this method here..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=895545
and had no problems. Once you get unlocked/rooted and clockwork recovery, then you can make the fore mentioned backups. Export your contacts to the sd card then copy the sd card to the hard drive of your computer before unlocking the boot loader. I do not think apps get affected during the sd wipe unless you have them stored there.
zephiK said:
its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
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i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
may i suggest a noob proof guide|? i postted 1 in the htc desire forum and people love it. yesterday i returned a moto xoom because ti was overheating , got a nexus s and 2day il b returning that because it wont turn on. can any1 help me think of a good idea i can tell the future shop return people?
kmhil said:
I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?
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you are forced to lose your data to initially root your device. then after that point, you can always create backups and never lose data again while you switch between ROMs and flashing etc. but i think to initially root, you have to lose everything. not the sd card though.
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
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Do keep in mind, we don't have an i9020 or an i9023, we have an i9020A So the instruction out there all need to take that into considerations. I rooted mine fine with no "Bricking" I had to follow the instruction for the i9023, but it worked. I figure it took me all of 1 minute to root my phone. Admitedly, the "One click root" for the Galaxy series was easier.
I try to make it a point to never be the "First" person to do something on their phone. Much safer that way.
I also find it very unusual that you've managed to brick two phones, I've also had the pleasure of owning the telus fascinate, and not once did i get it bricked, I tried Bionics, CM7, Darky's and a bunch of other ones. Just never mess with the boot loader. When you went back to stock, did you make sure it was a stock ROM for the I9020A?
Have you tried connecting the USB to a computer, holding the volume up (or in the case of the galaxy, both up and down) While powering on the device? I've had to use that a few times to recover my galaxy (Thank you odin!!).
Now in regards to the OP, I would recommend using a program like Ti to back everything up, unlock the bootloader then restore from Ti, it's a little more hassel, but you can pretty much keep your settings and data. Personally, i rooted my phone before configuring a single thing on it.
kmhil said:
Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
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there is no way to make a good backup without rooting.
basically yes, you will lose all your settings
there are a few apps you can use to backup your apk before unlocing/rooting the phone.
look for App admin on market https://market.android.com/details?id=az.mecid.appadmin&feature=search_result
the stuff backed to SD does not get wiped
only the internal storage stuff
LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i took about 12 minutes total to unlock my bootloader, flash clockwork, and flash a custom rom. its not difficult if you pay attention to what you read. youre phone is not bricked. btw, i read your threads. if you werent so demanding, i would have helped. use the pdanet website the next time you need to install the proper driver, and follow the directions that they give you.
When I unlocked I used Astro to back up my apps, I turned on the Google data sync to back up my contacts and I did a back up of my SD on my computer.
When the unlock and recovery was done NS asked for my Google account then it restored all my contacts, Astro restored all my apps and I restored my files from my computer. A few steps but not difficult at all.
You will have to redo your accounts and data, and maybe an app or two won't load but the market will show them installed, just reinstall any that didn't.
Make sure you follow the directions properly in the forum. I had to use two computers to get it to work, but it did work and nothing was damaged.
With all that said.... This was the first time I have ever owned or altered an Android phone. Sure I was nervous... Now I'm hooked.. haha
I wound up using NSCollab .17 so far so good..
First thing I did when I got my phone was fastboot oem unlock.
Even if you don't want to root, use another ROM. Fastboot unlock it so your data doesn't get wiped.
If your hardware and everything seems okay, then flash Clockwork Recovery and do a nandroid backup so you can restore to pre-flashing point if you need it for OEM purposes.
Afterwards, go crazy and flash like theres no tomorrow and find something that you'll like.
And agreed with simms. You've made so made so many threads about this. I would help you step by step but I've been busy so I can't do that anymore. But if you search, you'll find about two or three threads where I did help somebody get their phone to a working state.
The basic idea is... if your phone doesn't boot but you can get to recovery.
- Download a ROM or Nandroid backup
- Install USB drivers
- Fastboot oem unlock (if you haven't)
- fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (or whatever the recovery.img is named) should be in /sdk/tools
- reboot into recovery (adb reboot recovery)
- mount and storage: mount USB, put the nandroid backup or ROM onto phone
- nandroid restore or flash a ROM (wipe factory,dalvik,cache --> flash ROM (if its CM7.. flash gapps afterwards)
- reboot
your phone boots. alternatively, you can use Odin but thats not a popular method but the choice is available if you wish to go towards that approach
in the worse worse possible case scenario there is always ODIN to the rescue
Why did you guys wait at all?
Once i got the phone i immediately plugged it into my computer and rooted it.
So my girlfriend's Verizon Galaxy S III is in quite the jam. The power button stopped working. She has to use a software button to turn the screen off and the home key to turn it back on.
Verizon sent over a replacement, but she needs to send the original phone in. Problem is, the normal methods for returning to stock all involve Odin, which requires the phone to enter Download mode....which we can't do. The phone won't register the power button being held down. I don't even want to turn it off since I'm not sure it could be turned back on.
So I've been googling around for another way (already having used Triangle Away) and found a couple of sets of instructions (here and here) on using Odin Mobile to flash the phone back to stock. But there seem to be a lot of comments around, especially on the YouTube video guides, of people saying it bricked their phone.
What's the safest bet here? As far as I can tell these are the options:
-Shut down the phone and pray the power button somehow works for getting into download mode (doubtful) so I can use Odin.
-Restore a nandroid / flash a zip of the stock ROM and then use EZ Root or whatever to unroot the phone and hope Verizon doesn't look into it.
-Use one of these sets of instructions for Mobile Odin...though it's not clear which one is best and what files I should be using.
-Just send it in and pray.
Odin Mobile seems like the smartest option...but the instructions out there aren't as comprehensive and up to date as I'd like. I'd rather not brick the phone.
Can anyone help? The phone is currently on AOKP 4.2 Milestone.
I originally accidentally posted this in the international forum. A poster there advised that I use Odin Mobile. What files should I use to move safely back to stock? I've never flashed back to stock before so I'm not familiar with the best source or if there's a specific version I need.
Thanks!
If all you need to do is get into download mode, you could probably force it with a usb jig. Then you can use ODIN on a pc and restore it that way. I have no idea how to use mobile odin, but I assume it shouldn't be that difficult to do a similar process. People make mistakes by not reading correctly and moving too fast through a process.
You could try to reboot, then while the phone is booting back up hold volume down + home to get to download mode. Just be ready to flash the phone, if your power button is broken you're only going to have 1 shot to do it and no way to verify it worked.
Did you happen to make a nandroid of your stock rooted rom? If so, you could just restore that and unroot it.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I did create a back-up. Would restoring back-up -> using triangle away -> ez unlock to re lock bootloader -> unroot be just as good as using Odin?
What's the best tool for unrooting? I rooted it for her almost a year ago so I don't remember. I have a Galaxy Nexus myself.
Thanks!
You can always unroot from a superuser app from within the rom itself. On a stock rom you would simply relock with ez unlock, unroot with superuser app, then phone would be pretty much stock.
All triangle away does is erase the flash counter, you only had to do that once. It won't be tripped unless you flashed something over odin.
I think your best bet is to restore that backup, then accept an OTA update after unrooting and relocking the bootloader. That will overwrite your recovery partition and make sure you're back to full stock. Is your stock backup touchwiz 4.0.4 or 4.1.1? It won't work with a 4.1.2 backup.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2