Help with recovering Galaxy S3 corrupted by Android 4.3 update

[pmattingly]

Hello everyone,

I'd be grateful if anyone can help me out with a problem I'm currently experiencing with my Galaxy S3.

The phone basically won't boot. It powers on fine, goes through the custom logo (for my network provider, Three) and then goes into the Samsung logo. There it stays, unable to boot.

What I think has caused this is that Three notified me of an over-the-air update to Android 4.3 from Android 4.1.2. I downloaded the update, and ran it, but I don't think it completed successfully and so the phone's firmware is probably now corrupt.

I sadly didn't take a backup and would really like to get the phone working again without losing text messages, apps, app data and so on.

I've looked at various options. I have the correct stock ROM/firmware for the phone (H3G version of 4.1.2). I could use Odin, or I could probably install Clockwork Recovery and use that. But I don't know exactly what I'm doing and in particular, how to keep my app data.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[Ronan Campbell1]

I'm exactly the same. Went to install the update earlier today, it must have failed. Phone won't even boot past the Samsung Galaxy S3 Screen at the start.

Seems like the OS is just totally corrupted. Even prior to boot, the battery gif isnt functioning at all. Cant connect to pc in order to pull any files off the SD card either.

Looking like a factory reset (if that's even possible with the phone in this state)

Ronan

 

[pmattingly]

I actually managed to solve this problem myself in the end.

I might post detailed instructions later, but the basic plan was:

1.) Find and download the stock firmware for the phone, typically from somewhere like Samsung Updates | Latest News and Firmware for your Samsung Devices!
2.) Put the phone in download mode (turn the power on while holding Home + Power + Volume Down)
3.) Flash the stock firmware using Odin leaving "F. Reset Time" unchecked.

Having done these three steps successfully, I found the phone booted up perfectly well and all my data and applications remained intact. I hope it helps other people too.

Phil