[GUIDE] UPDATED: How to Root Your Sprint Galaxy S3

[sure why not]

I did!
But I'm having a little confusion with Titanium Backup.
It's prompting me to go into my app settings and 'allow unknown'
I've tried -settings-apps- and apps-menu-settings etc... but don't see this as an option.

I've only had this phone for 2 days and will figure it out soon enough.
Is there a Titanium FAQ here in this sub-forum?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Jellybean moved menus around, and TiB hasn't caught up yet. That option is now under the security menu, and called "Unkown sources."

No Titanium FAQ here, but the company's web site has a ton of information.

 

[sure why not]

Yes, Thank you!

I finally found it, but hadn't replied yet.
TB has quite a list to start with (256 items) and is churning away as I type this on my little ASUS.
At least I have a 32G C10 ?SD, so there's plenty of room and I will be able to 'get home' if I do something terribly wrong or ignorant.

I'm really surprised that Samsung/Sprint make it so inviting to hack this device.
I think it's Google itself that had Ti locked down.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

BTW, you should leave the "unknown sources" unchecked normally. TiB will create backups that way; it only really needs that option checked to do restores. Keeping unknown sources unchecked improves the security of your phone a bit, making it harder for malware to take control.

 

[ShiZor9]

Crystal clear walkthrough! Coming from several HTC's and friends' HTC's, I can actually spend more time playing and fiddling than unlocking the darn bootloader and getting S-off!

Took more time downloading and creating folders than actually running Odin!

 

[Yrocmoto]

I cannot get this to work for the life of me. Everything works fine, no errors. I have the team epic recovery on the root of the SD card and the internal memory. When I boot into CMW I get the 'E: Can't mount sdcard...' So I can't install from the SD card. I also do not have an option to install from the internal memory, it's just not there in CMW.

I also installed TWRP, still no sdcard, but I can get to the internal, the problem I don't recognize the file structure or the folders that are there. I took the time to look for the team epic .zip everywhere I had access to, but as expected, it was not anywhere to be found.

Any help would be much appreciated.

My S3 is only a week old, here's the configuration it shipped with:

Version 4.1.2
Basband L710VPBMD4
Kernel 3.0.31-1130792
Build JZ05K.L710VPBMD4
Hardware L710.14

 

[sure why not]

You put the zipped .tar file on the internal card and your removable one?

What brand and size of SD card are you using?
How is it formatted?

Have you tried saving something else (like a picture) to the card and then reading it?

 

[Yrocmoto]

It's Samsung 8GB class 2. Good idea testing it with something else and yes it works, I can save images on it and view them on the phone.

I also tried using a Lexar 32GB class 10 card I have here, acts the same.

 

[sure why not]

I might try deleting it from your SD card and from your computer.
Download the .tar again, maybe from another source or mirror.
There is a reason it won't read properly.
Your original download may be the problem if the SD card works for other files.

 

[Yrocmoto]

I have downloaded it a couple times, from everywhere I could find. I can't even mount the card to browse to it, don't know how the file would affect CMW being able to mount it in recovery? It also won't mount in TWRP. I used the SDFormatter, with no luck either. I really feel that this is something with the S3 its self, like it's all blocked when you boot into recovery, is that possible?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I cannot get this to work for the life of me. Everything works fine, no errors. I have the team epic recovery on the root of the SD card and the internal memory. When I boot into CMW I get the 'E: Can't mount sdcard...' So I can't install from the SD card. I also do not have an option to install from the internal memory, it's just not there in CMW.

I also installed TWRP, still no sdcard, but I can get to the internal, the problem I don't recognize the file structure or the folders that are there. I took the time to look for the team epic .zip everywhere I had access to, but as expected, it was not anywhere to be found.

Either I'm confused, or you are.

What do you mean "boot into CMW"? (I'm assuming you mean CWM, as in Clockwork Mod recovery.) Are you already rooted? You shouldn't be able to boot into CWM recovery until AFTER you've rooted. You need to copy the Team Epic Root From Recovery zip file to your SD card,not TWRP or CWM. Tten boot into Download mode. Once in download mode, you control the root process from your PC, with ODIN, not from the phone.

Oh, maybe this is what's confusing: When the instructions say " Move recovery.tar into the Root GS3 folder" it's talking about a folder on your PC, not the root folder on your GS3.

But please describe the exact steps you've been taking, and exactly where you get the error message, because I'm not at all sure I understand what you're doing and where the problem occurs..

Oh, Sure Why Not, just for the sake of clarity, the .Tar file is a .Tar file. It's not zipped.

 

[Yrocmoto]

I followed the guide in the first post (among other root processes on the net). I get stuck at the boot into recovery step, and yes, you do this before you are rooted, am I correct that the team epic .zip is the file that will root the phone?? Anyway, when I boot into CWM (not CMW) I cannot mount the SD card, the error is 'E: can't mount /cache....' something like that and a bunch of lines that say the same thing with different directories. I am putting Team Epic file on the SD card, I am using Odin to write the CWM or TWRP and I am always able to boot into either of those, pulling the battery or not, but neither of them can mount any of the 3 SD cards I've tried......

 

[rsolomonjr1]

Worked awesomely!!! Thanks! I just got a new phone and was a little wary.

 

[bonsly16]

Will this process delete any sort of data from the phone?

 

[Golfdriver97]

Will this process delete any sort of data from the phone?

No. Rooting just adds specific files to grant superuser access to the phone.

Sent a long time ago from a Galaxy Tab 2 far, far away on AC forums

 

[Nick Messer]

I'm having the same problem as Yrocmoto.... I can flash CWM or TWRP onto the phone with ODIN without issue. I can also boot into CWM or TWRP without issue using the battery-removed method and with the battery in. However, when booted into CWM or TWRP, neither seem to be able to mount or recognize the internal or external SD storage. If you select the 'mount storage' options, the phone cannot find or recognize any of the storage locations so that they may be mounted. It doesn't seem that "they've" altered the ability to load your own recovery sofware on this phone/firmware, but "they" have made it useless as you can't back anything up (no storage mounted so no data found!) or restore anything using your custom recovery.

Until this is further researched and a work-around is published, the toolkit root method does not appear to work. At least, not for me.

Anyone know of a rooted stock 4.1.2 ROM that I can flash straight my phone with Odin?

 

[aoldenburg83]

I rooted my Sprint Galaxy S3 in March of this year with this method. I have since had some problems and had to do a factory reset, and have not attempted to re-root my phone.

My problem is, Sprint, or Samsung, is trying to push an update on the phone, but when it tries to update now I just get "update failed" and it reboots, then keeps alerting me to the update again. Also, when I try to run several apps, they will freeze, it will come up with a message saying "shell has been granted superuser permission", and then the phone will restart. Is there any way to fix this?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I rooted my Sprint Galaxy S3 in March of this year with this method. I have since had some problems and had to do a factory reset, and have not attempted to re-root my phone.

My problem is, Sprint, or Samsung, is trying to push an update on the phone, but when it tries to update now I just get "update failed" and it reboots, then keeps alerting me to the update again. Also, when I try to run several apps, they will freeze, it will come up with a message saying "shell has been granted superuser permission", and then the phone will restart. Is there any way to fix this?

OTA's will never work on a rooted phone with a custom recovery. Are you running the stock Sprint ROM, or a custom ROM? If you're on stock, you can update to the current Sprint firmware manually. See post #2 in this thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sprint-galaxy-s-iii/272331-your-way-update-md4.html

If you're on a custom ROM, you should see if your ROM builder has created an updated version, or a mod that at least fools Sprint into thinking you're on the latest version, so the notifications stop coming.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Nick, I've not seen this before. I'm use TWRP recovery, and have never had a problem finding flies on the internal or external SD.

Have you tried the latest version of TWRP? The one linked in the thread is an older version, I think.

If you can't get this method to work, search the web for QBKing77's rooting videos. Many people have used his method successfully. Make sure you find instructions for the Sprint GS3.

 

[briank24708]

Is there any Videos on youtube that actually works? I'm new to rooting and I don't know for some of these youtube videos for people that said it doesnt work if they are just stupid or if they really did it wrong. I have US Sprint Samsung Galaxy s3 on Android 4.1.2.