[rageboardr]

So my Verizon Galaxy S4 phone is rooted and frozen on android 4.3. I now have need to update my phone because an app i really want wont work on anything below 4.4
Pretty sure all i have done is freeze the SDM app and the Knox app. So I plan to unfreeze these apps, and accept the latest update. Is there any reason I should not do this. I know I'll lose root, but is that the extent of the damage I'll do?

[Golfdriver97]

Perhaps a better option would be to flash a custom ROM? There are custom stock and AOSP ROMs that should be somewhat up to date.

[rageboardr]

I was into ROMing on the past with another phone, but there always seemed to be an issue with the ROM. I truly don't really want Jellybean because I've heard a lot of stories about it bogging down phones. Can anyone recommend a fully functional ROM?
I don't want to mess my phone up because this is my daily. When I ROMed in the past, it was on backup phones.

[rageboardr]

Presuming I don't find a Stock 4.4.4 ROM where everything works, because I haven't. Will I mess up my phone by taking the update, aside from losing root?

[Golfdriver97]

Presuming I don't find a Stock 4.4.4 ROM where everything works, because I haven't. Will I mess up my phone by taking the update, aside from losing root?

Sorry for the delay. Just catching up now. You can potentially brick the device by accepting an update while rooted. This is unlikely, but I have seen it happen. Most of the time, the update should just fail.

As for good ROMs...I'd need to look at what is available. Cyanogen is usually pretty stable, but you will lose a lot of Samsung features, like the SPen and such.

[rageboardr]

So it sounds like I should probably unroot my phone if I want to get back to stock. I really don't want to lose any functionality using a ROM, not on my daily. There are pretty good instructions at How to Unroot Galaxy S4 and Remove Root Completely! | GalaxyS4Root.com I suspect that is the approach I will take. I appreciate the info.
I was hoping I could just unfreeze the apps since I hadn't changed anything else. Alas, nothing is that easy.

[Golfdriver97]

I'll check out the link in a little bit.

Edit: ZedoMax posts some good stuff. That should be a good guide to follow.

[rageboardr]

For what its worth, Unrooting was a cakewalk. Thanks to Maz Lee(ZedoMax). Now I'm up to 4.4.2. My ESPN app works once again.
So I think its time to root it once more to stop any more updates, and I'll use ZedoMax's instructions regarding towelroot.
How to Root AT&T/Verizon Galaxy S4 and S4 Active on Android 4.4.2! | GalaxyS4Root.com

[Golfdriver97]

Thanks for the follow up. Glad it worked. See you around the forums.

[blade22222]

Before I traded in my s4 for a s7 I was running 5.1 from a developer over on Verizon's xda page and was lightning fast. Almost as fast as the s7.