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

Skunkape60

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I'm a n00b to rooting and have a few questions before I do this. I would like to root with stock rom so that I can remove all of the bloatware and get tethering. My questions are as follows.

What is the purpose of nandroid?
What do I use to delete bloatware, and do I need to backup the bloatware before I remove it?
How do I unroot my phone should I need to?
Where do I download the apps that I have to be rooted to use?

If I think of any other questions I will ask them. Sorry to sound like a n00b, but I haven't messed with my phones since my old Palm Pre... it's been that long.

The nandroid is a complete image of your phone. This includes settings, apps, wallpaper and data. It will restore the phone to the exact state it as in when backed up.

The easiest way to remove bloatware is with titanium backup. Yes, backup the apps before removing.

There is s guide to return to stock in the sticky posts.

You can download these apps from the playstore.
 

cradle667

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Thank you for the response. I am going to mess with this and hopefully get to where I'm comfortable installing custom roms as well. I've seen a few that look very interesting.
 

Keith Patrick

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I rooted with the custom recovery exactly as instructed. Now I have a question, and mind you I am new to the rooting world. I booted into recovery and selected backup to external SD card. I did this so that if I ever run into trouble I can restore everything. It merely stated that it needed to free up space and then a little "." appeared under it. It was like this for some time. I got scared and held down the power button. Keep in mind that the little status bar under the Android was all grey and I never was notified in any way that the backup was complete or anything of that nature. My phone turned on normally and everything is fine. I checked my SD card in My Files I have a "clockworkmod" folder and inside of it are two folders: "backup" and "blobs". Inside the backup folder is another folder "1970-01-07.22.13.21." Inside that is three files: "boot.img", "recovery.img", and "system.ext4.dup". I was stupid and didn't previously check to see if that file was on my SD card before I attempted to backup, however under the details of the "clockworkmod folder it states that it was last modified on 01/01/1980 at 00:00, and I'm not sure what to make of that. I am curious as to if I have a complete proper backup on my SD card, or if I somehow messed something up because I didn't wait long enough or some other reason and I need to fix it and/or make a new backup to my SD card. I appreciate your guys' time. You guys (especially Skunk) have taught me a lot, however I still have a lot to learn.
 
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DroidXcon

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I rooted with the custom recovery exactly as instructed. Now I have a question, and mind you I am new to the rooting world. I booted into recovery and selected backup to external SD card. I did this so that if I ever run into trouble I can restore everything. It merely stated that it needed to free up space and then a little "." appeared under it. It was like this for some time. I got scared and held down the power button. Keep in mind that the little status bar under the Android was all grey and I never was notified in any way that the backup was complete or anything of that nature. My phone turned on normally and everything is fine. I checked my SD card in My Files I have a "clockworkmod" folder and inside of it are two folders: "backup" and "blobs". Inside the backup folder is another folder "1970-01-07.22.13.21." Inside that is three files: "boot.img", "recovery.img", and "system.ext4.dup". I was stupid and didn't previously check to see if that file was on my SD card before I attempted to backup, however under the details of the "clockworkmod folder it states that it was last modified on 01/01/1980 at 00:00, and I'm not sure what to make of that. I am curious as to if I have a complete proper backup on my SD card, or if I somehow messed something up because I didn't wait long enough or some other reason and I need to fix it and/or make a new backup to my SD card. I appreciate your guys' time. You guys (especially Skunk) have taught me a lot, however I still have a lot to learn.

Looks like you stopped it to early as there should be approx 9 files under your back up. But it is curious that your dates are wrong. If I were you I would d o download goo manager from the market open it> hit menu button> install openrecovery script> let it install n boo t into recovery and use twrp to do the nandroid backup. I have not been a fan of clockwork in a long time.

Check out this thread on how to use twrp
http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=249052
[AT&T][SPRINT][How to] Use Custom Recoveries- Flash roms and Mods, Let the fun begin!



Sent from my SCH-I815 using Tapatalk 2
 

Skunkape60

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Looks like you stopped it to early as there should be approx 9 files under your back up. But it is curious that your dates are wrong. If I were you I would d o download goo manager from the market open it> hit menu button> install openrecovery script> let it install n boo t into recovery and use twrp to do the nandroid backup. I have not been a fan of clockwork in a long time.

Check out this thread on how to use twrp
http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=249052
[AT&T][SPRINT][How to] Use Custom Recoveries- Flash roms and Mods, Let the fun begin!



Sent from my SCH-I815 using Tapatalk 2

That is new way cwm does the backups on the s3. It divides your backup into 2 folders backups and blobs. Your system and recovery image in one folder and the data goes into the blobs folder. Your date is normal as well. On the s3 cwm hasn't figured out how to get the proper date. This is normal and a bug in cwm. Everything you have stated is the way it's supposed to be.

Twrp does a better job as they have gotten the date part figured out and put the entire backup into one folder.
 

DroidXcon

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That is new way cwm does the backups on the s3. It divides your backup into 2 folders backups and blobs. Your system and recovery image in one folder and the data goes into the blobs folder. Your date is normal as well. On the s3 cwm hasn't figured out how to get the proper date. This is normal and a bug in cwm. Everything you have stated is the way it's supposed to be.

Twrp does a better job as they have gotten the date part figured out and put the entire backup into one folder.

Thanks for the info. I have not been messing with cwm since I started using twrp. I feel its much more pleasant to navigate.
Perhaps koush can't keep up with all the devices cwm supports.

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk
 

Keith Patrick

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That is new way cwm does the backups on the s3. It divides your backup into 2 folders backups and blobs. Your system and recovery image in one folder and the data goes into the blobs folder. Your date is normal as well. On the s3 cwm hasn't figured out how to get the proper date. This is normal and a bug in cwm. Everything you have stated is the way it's supposed to be.

Twrp does a better job as they have gotten the date part figured out and put the entire backup into one folder.

Awesome! Thank you so much. So the fact I never saw backup complete notification in recovery but rather a "." and had a gray status bar is normal as well? I guess I'm worried that I shut it off to early, and if I need to recover one day I can severely mess things up.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Android Central Forums
 

Skunkape60

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Awesome! Thank you so much. So the fact I never saw backup complete notification in recovery but rather a "." and had a gray status bar is normal as well? I guess I'm worried that I shut it off to early, and if I need to recover one day I can severely mess things up.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Android Central Forums

No you should have had a backup complete....
 

Keith Patrick

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No you should have had a backup complete....

Once again, thank you very much! What seem like legitimate questions to people like me probably make people like you laugh and/or cry; most likely cry. Now I have one final question if it's not too much trouble. Mind you I'm doing my best to get the questions that I have answered, while not annoying anyone. In the event I need to restore, I'm assuming I would need simply to boot into recovery and choose restore from SD card. From there, do I just select clockworkmod and it will restore, or will it open the clockworkmod folder and I need to select one of the folders or files that are contained inside the clockworkmod folder? If the latter is true, what folder or file do I select?

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Android Central Forums
 
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Skunkape60

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Once again, thank you very much! What seem like legitimate questions to people like me probably make people like you laugh and/or cry. Now I have one final question if it's not too much trouble. In the event I need to restore, I'm assuming I would need simply to boot into recovery and choose restore from SD card. From there, do I just select clockworkmod and it will restore, or will it open the clockworkmod folder and I need to select one of the folders or files that are contained inside the clockworkmod folder? If the latter is true, what folder or file do I select?

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Android Central Forums

It should automatically open your backup folder and you will select which backup you want to use. If you only have one, that is what it will show you.
 

Bobby Galasso

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ok so small problem...everything boots up but it freezes at the lock screen,it says there is no service and the status bar is gone...any ideas as to what i could've done wrong?


edit: so now it wont even turn on...i makes a sound when i plug it in to my computer but nothing happens.i think i hard bricked it.i seriously want to not exist right now :'(
 
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Skunkape60

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ok so small problem...everything boots up but it freezes at the lock screen,it says there is no service and the status bar is gone...any ideas as to what i could've done wrong?

Never seen that before. Do you have the Sprint gs3? I guess you could go into recovery and flash a backup of you made one. Our try a factory reset in recovery. Perhaps you could also try pulling your battery. Last resort go to my return to stock guide and try again.
 

Bobby Galasso

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i had tried to install Android revolution hd 21.1 but i saw in the script that the boot image didnt work,so i attemted flashed my old rom to try to prevent the enevitable...second time this has happened,i think i may be what some like to call a " ing moron" i literally was at the sprint store 3 days ago for this same reason and got a replacement.

sprint GS 3
jellybean 4.1.1
 

meyerweb#CB

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i had tried to install Android revolution hd 21.1 but i saw in the script that the boot image didnt work,so i attemted flashed my old rom to try to prevent the enevitable...second time this has happened,i think i may be what some like to call a " ing moron" i literally was at the sprint store 3 days ago for this same reason and got a replacement.

I hate to say it, but I think your self-assessment may be right. It took me 30 seconds to do a Google search and find this:

[ROM] Android Revolution HD 21.1 | High Quality & Performance | XXEMR2 | Jelly Bean - xda-developers

Android Revolution.png
and
Android Revolution2.png

The i9300 is NOT the Sprint version of the Galaxy S3. In fairness, that thread could make it more clear exactly what phones you can and can't flash that ROM to, but you need to read, understand and learn before you undertake something as fraught with risk as flashing a ROM. If you bricked one phone, and couldn't learn from that experience, my suggestion is to never try to root or flash ROMs again. Ever.

Yes, your phone is most likely bricked. Read through the threads here (which you should probably have done BEFORE flashing a ROM) and you'll see some things you can do to try to recover. Good luck.
 

Skunkape60

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when I hook up usb to phone the computer says ... missing hardware ID contact manufacture... what do I do?

So you let Windows update your drivers. A simple reboot of you computer will work one time. If you have to plug your phone in again you will get that error. And have to reboot your computer again.
 

Skunkape60

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when I hook up usb to phone the computer says ... missing hardware ID contact manufacture... what do I do?

On your computer:

1. Go to "Control Panel"
2. Add & Remover Programs
3. Remove Samsung Kies & Drivers
4. Reboot Computer

After computer Restarts:

1. Download these drivers - Click Here
2. Install downloaded Samsung Driver (Note: Do not have your device plugged in)
3. After software installation is complete, plug in your device.
4. Look at the bottom right by the system tray and you should see the new hardware found. Click on details.
5. Wait until there is a green check mark by all of the drivers. If any of them fail, you will have to start again from the beginning.

Troubleshooting issues:
1. Try a different USB Port
2. Try a different cables. (All cables are not created equal) The stock Samsung cable is often the culprit.
3. Try redownloading the drivers.

If your drivers were working one day and then suddenly no longer work then windows has installed updated drivers through windows update and they are not compatible with your device. If this happens. uninstall the drivers and Tell windows not to update drivers automatically. Reboot your computer and reinstall drivers using instructions above.

To Stop Windows from Updating your drivers:

For Window XP:

1. Open My Computer.
2. In an open area of the window, right click your mouse and choose properties.
3. click on the "Hardware" tab.
4. In the Drivers block click on the Windows Update button.
5. Select "Never search Windows Update for Drivers

For Windows 7

1. Click on Start button
2. Right click on my computer and choose properties
3. On the left side click on "Advanced system settings"
4. Click on the hardware tab at the top
5. Click on Device installation settings
6. Choose "Never install driver software from windows update."
7. Save changes.
 

Jason Gossett

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First let me say thanks for showing me how to root. It did it in about 30 minutes and was pretty nervous the whole time. I am trying to use my phone as a wireless hotspot and not send Sprint anymore of my hard earned money. All te research I have done says that jelly bean has shutdown this ability. Can you point me in the direction to make this possible?