Reversing a Root?

[David Stabinsky]

So I rooted my Galaxy S4 (AT&T) to remove the bloatware installed by AT&T, and ended up accidentally deleting Samsung's text to speech engine, which is causing some issues. I now have a shiny new 32 GB micro SD card, so I don't really care about the bloatware. The only issue is that I'm clueless about how to restore the firmware without wiping all my stuff. I haven't backed up the phone since I rooted it, and I have purchased several different apps and I have everything nice and organized.

What I'm asking is, is there any way to remove the root and restore the apps without having to start from scratch?

 

[davidsnoodles]

I imagine there would be for an AT&T device. I have a S4 on Verizon, and there are stock images that you can flash using ODIN that don't wipe the device. So far I haven't been able to find the stock image for an AT&T S4 that doesn't wipe the device when you flash it. Just keep doing Google searches for AT&T no wipe factory image (or something along those lines) and eventually you'll find it. It may take a while for a developer to make one, though.

By the way, reversing a root is also known as unrooting your device (just in case you've been searching with a different term).

 

[bswangolf]

So I rooted my Galaxy S4 (AT&T) to remove the bloatware installed by AT&T, and ended up accidentally deleting Samsung's text to speech engine, which is causing some issues. I now have a shiny new 32 GB micro SD card, so I don't really care about the bloatware. The only issue is that I'm clueless about how to restore the firmware without wiping all my stuff. I haven't backed up the phone since I rooted it, and I have purchased several different apps and I have everything nice and organized.

What I'm asking is, is there any way to remove the root and restore the apps without having to start from scratch?

I am interested what comes from this thred. My only root was this new galaxy tab 2 which I got with my gs4, which turned out to be a waste of time since there arwnt any roms for it, but atleast I got some experience of a root. From what I understand. When you do root, it gets ride of the whole phones every thing, so everything would be say the CM rom. I read that somone was concerned about the camera features, I really love the looks of what I have seen with the CM rom. But for me I wont root if I cant get to use the incredible phone features. I have 2 daughters so getting to use the camera features to get to record them growing up. From what I researched for my kindle, it is possible to root but do a little switch off the root to be able to use the amazon prime. This. Would be something for me, I could use the CM rom, then " switch it off" to use the. Samsung camera. But of course that would not word if it was a long hard time consuming process, when needing to grab the phone for a quick capture of my daughters doing something I wanted to reco3d or take a picture. For me it would be a dream if it were an option to turn roots on and. Off like in the pull. Down menu.

- - - Updated - - -

So I rooted my Galaxy S4 (AT&T) to remove the bloatware installed by AT&T, and ended up accidentally deleting Samsung's text to speech engine, which is causing some issues. I now have a shiny new 32 GB micro SD card, so I don't really care about the bloatware. The only issue is that I'm clueless about how to restore the firmware without wiping all my stuff. I haven't backed up the phone since I rooted it, and I have purchased several different apps and I have everything nice and organized.

What I'm asking is, is there any way to remove the root and restore the apps without having to start from scratch?

I am interested what comes from this thred. My only root was this new galaxy tab 2 which I got with my gs4, which turned out to be a waste of time since there arwnt any roms for it, but atleast I got some experience of a root. From what I understand. When you do root, it gets ride of the whole phones every thing, so everything would be say the CM rom. I read that somone was concerned about the camera features, I really love the looks of what I have seen with the CM rom. But for me I wont root if I cant get to use the incredible phone features. I have 2 daughters so getting to use the camera features to get to record them growing up. From what I researched for my kindle, it is possible to root but do a little switch off the root to be able to use the amazon prime. This. Would be something for me, I could use the CM rom, then " switch it off" to use the. Samsung camera. But of course that would not word if it was a long hard time consuming process, when needing to grab the phone for a quick capture of my daughters doing something I wanted to reco3d or take a picture. For me it would be a dream if it were an option to turn roots on and. Off like in the pull. Down menu.

 

[David Stabinsky]

I went ahead and used Odin to install the stock firmware, and it didn't wipe out anything. It did add all the AT&T software back though.

 

[davidsnoodles]

Excellent! Glad to hear you were able to flash firmware that didn't wipe your phone.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

I am interested what comes from this thred. My only root was this new galaxy tab 2 which I got with my gs4, which turned out to be a waste of time since there arwnt any roms for it, but atleast I got some experience of a root. From what I understand. When you do root, it gets ride of the whole phones every thing, so everything would be say the CM rom. I read that somone was concerned about the camera features, I really love the looks of what I have seen with the CM rom. But for me I wont root if I cant get to use the incredible phone features. I have 2 daughters so getting to use the camera features to get to record them growing up. From what I researched for my kindle, it is possible to root but do a little switch off the root to be able to use the amazon prime. This. Would be something for me, I could use the CM rom, then " switch it off" to use the. Samsung camera. But of course that would not word if it was a long hard time consuming process, when needing to grab the phone for a quick capture of my daughters doing something I wanted to reco3d or take a picture. For me it would be a dream if it were an option to turn roots on and. Off like in the pull. Down menu.

"You keep using that word...I don't think it means what you think it means"

In all seriousness, I think your concept of "root" is a little mis-lead...

Root simply means gaining "root" access to the device, similar to having administrator access on a windows computer. In and of itself, root doesn't change the firmware or ROM you are running -- it's just gives you access to modify system files (such as remove "bloatware" and backup apps) as well as install custom recovery partition in order to install custom firmware, a.k.a. ROMs.

If you were to root your GS4, you would not "lose all the incredible features", unless you specifically installed a ROM that removed them, like CM (CyanogenMod); there are also plenty of ROMs based off of Samsungs official firmware that keep all the features. I'm not familiar enough with the Kindle to follow exactly what you're saying, but root isn't something you can "switch on and off", nor do I know of anyway to setup a "dual-boot" scenario, again though, rooting itself isn't tied to any firmware.

I'm currently rooted and running CleanROM, and still have all same GS3 camera the device came with.

 

[davidsnoodles]

Oh by the way, if those AT&T apps really bug you (I know AT&T likes to tack on a lot of their apps, unless they've changed what they add since the HTC Vivid), you can use an app like ROM Toolbox Pro or Titanium Backup to freeze (basically disable them) or uninstall them.

 

[havoklab]

I have the sprint version n have root but dont know which rom is best and if to flash one at all? Ive deleted some bloat ware but have no back up and i dont think its effected anything but how can i be sure?