Rooted SGS4

joyzisme

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Oct 5, 2013
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I bought a brand new SGS4 off ebay, the guy sqaid the seal on the box was only broken so he could unlock the phone. It certainly looks & seems to be brand new. When I go to update the software it says 'Your device has been Modified Software updates are not available'.

Does this mean it's been rooted opr because it's been unlocked? Help please.
 

Darnell0216

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Rooted, and possibly had the ROM changed or something else important was modified. Basic root usually still downloads OTA, but will not install or install with errors. If it was unlocked through official methods, Settings -> More... -> About device -> Status -> Device Status (last item) should still say Official(?).
 

Darnell0216

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Thank you, it says Custom
Then yes, the phone was at the very least rooted or customized in some other fashion. Your next best thing to do is check and see if the IMEI on the back of the phone matches the one in the about device, and then run it through one of the IMEI checkers online to see if it's genuine and/or been blacklisted. Of course, if you've already got it activated, then you can possibly skip that.
 

peejay1977

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I'd recommend booting to recovery, do a factory reset and then see what happens, if it's still saying custom then it's been flashed back to stock but the flash counter hasn't been reset. You can purchase Triangle Away it's only cheap and reset the counter and the do another factory reset and it'll be fine.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4
 

joyzisme

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Thanks Peejay 1977. I don't really understand all this, If I factory reset it, will it still work? I'm a bit nervous of breaking it. What is Triangle Away and where do I get that from??
 

myIphone4s

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yes factory reset wont hurt your phone, it just deletes everything, like apps, contacts, in other words straight out of the box.

triangle away, what is it? it resets the flash counter back to 0 a lot of people use this if they need to take there phone back to samsung or a carrier store. you can download it off the play store. go to down load mode, so pwr off, hold VOL DOWN, HOME AND PWR. and it will boot in to download mode, if it says like flash count (what ever number) well you can use triangle away, to reset that back to zero. if it does say 0 well no problems and you dont need to use triangle away
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...s?id=eu.chainfire.triangleaway&token=UZuq5-Wz

hope this helps you out
 

joyzisme

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Thank you everybody for your help. I decided to return the phone yesterday & am waiting for my refund.
I don't know if it effects the phone but the sticker under the battery had the IMEI no. ripped off so I thought this was a dodgy phone. The guy also offered me a part refund and keep the phone (don't know how much he was thinking though) but declined.
 

trucky

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The whole deal sounded fishy from the start. Why would anyone open a brand new phone just "so he could unlock the phone", then put it back in the box to try and sell as new? Then finding the IMEI sticker removed. It sounds more like some part of an insurance fraud than a new phone sale.

I think you've chosen the right path.
 

joyzisme

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Just an update of my problem with SGS4 the guyon eBay has received the phone back, and guess what...........he said he won't refund me because the in tray is missing! What's an in tray? I know I sent everything back. I've opened a buyer protection case and now just hope I get my money back.
 

trucky

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I think eBay will be fully behind you in the case of seller not selling as advertised. I've never heard of an in tray, or any other kind of tray on an S4. Follow the eBay rules, I think you'll get your money back.

eBay Buyer Protection
 

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