How to root and unroot Samsung Galaxy S3

By admin July 7, 2013 Galaxy S3 4 Comments

How to root and unroot Samsung Galaxy S3

Rooting in the terms of Android developers called gaining full access or administrator access to your android ROM, or in other words you can get access to modify system core files using rooting. Using rooting you can install custom roms on your android devices. You can modify CPU frequency over clock and under clock . You can adfree your device/smartphone. Install custom fonts that not came with your device.

Using rooted device you can make a backup of your whole device, apps with their user data and settings using titanium backup etc. So that when you install any other ROM you will not lose your data or system settings.

But device manufacturers not provide you warranty after rooting as this void the T&C of warranty. So be careful to root your device, you can unroot your devices using apps like Triangle away. But if your device failed to unroot you will not able to get warranty on your devices.

How to root Galaxy S3 –

This rooting procedure has been checked for Android 4.1.2 only, so make sure your device is running over android 4.1.2 and it is international version, otherwise you may brick your device (totally unusable). As like XDA website same warning is applicable here , Author has not any responsibility if you have bricked your device. Do it with your own risk and understanding. First also read many posts and contents on XDA forums before starting.

In my previous post I have described how to install Stock ROM using Odin, Using same Odin you can root your Samsung Galaxy S3.

For rooting download CF root Package by Chainfire , this package root your galaxy S3 and will also install Clockwork Mod recent recovery.

Now follow the all steps as mentioned in the previous post on how to install stock firmware on Galaxy S3 , now in the PDA field in place of your firmware browse CF root Package in .tar format (extract the zip file to get .tar format) and click start. After completion your device will auto reboot and you will found it is rooted with also installed clockwordmod recovery tool. When you have rooted your device you will reach into CWM recovery mode in place of stock recovery when press vol up+home+power key combination. But you still have the access to odin download mode using vol down+home+power key.

When you rooted your device your phone will show modified under settings>about device>status.

When you have installed custom ROM your device status will show Custom in place of official , and binary counter will increase as much , as much time you install custom roms inside Odin download mode.

So that service centre officials get to know that your device is rooted and modified. Under this stage you will also not get official updates of firmwares.

How to unroot your Galaxy S3 –

If you want to unroot your device and install stock firmware again, you need the stock firmware of your device and Triangle away apps by Chainfire to reset binary counters.

First install Triangle away app and check the device status , When you run TriangleAway, if your device and firmware are supported, it will show you the detected state of the binary (custom or official) and flash counter value, and the option to Reset flash counter. Please confirm that the information shown is correct before resetting the values.
On a number of devices, TriangleAway can work, but your firmware may not be supported directly. In that case, the app will tell you it needs to reboot into a special boot mode, which will be happen if you select Reset flash counter. The device will reboot into a special mode which will allow you to review the current status and reset the binary and flash counter values (or abort and do nothing). On some devices this will actually trigger the counter to 1 if its 0 – so if you’re “just checking”, do that in download mode!

Now it has finished to resetting counter successfully , do not reboot your device just check the device status under download mode, it should show binary counter as No.

Now go into CWM recovery mode without booting, and delete all data and factory reset your device, also clear dalvik cache under advanced mode. Now again reach into download mode (do not reboot, otherwise it will again changed counter to one), Now install stock firmware that you have downloaded using Sammobile.com as described in previous post. Now after rebooting check the both things in odin mode it will show binary counter as “No” and status as “Official”, kernel as “Samsung”. And also in device status under Settings>about device> status will show as “Normal”. This is about How to root and unroot Samsung Galaxy S3 .

For more information on How to root and unroot Samsung Galaxy S3 see the following posts –

http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III/GT-I9300

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1710613

http://www.redmondpie.com/root-galaxy-s3-on-android-4.1.2-how-to-tutorial/

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2235366