How do I permanently prevent Note 2 from OTA updating to 4.3?

[badkitties]

How do I permanently prevent Note 2 from OTA updating to 4.3?

I have one Verizon Note 2 that can no longer use free hotspot apps after the 4.3.

I want to prevent my spare Verizon Note 2 from getting the 4.3 and stay on 4.12 for as long as possible.
Don't even want to see notification about an update. (until FoxFi or other developer figure out how to
defeat this new block created by Verizon in 4.3 update)

thanks!

 

[anon(394005)]

To stop/kill the OTA updater you need root access and then rename the following two files (via ES File Explorer) under /system/app (then reboot phone):

FWupgrade.apk to FWupgrade.bak
SDM.apk to SDM.bak

 

[1812dave]

To stop/kill the OTA updater you need root access and then rename the following two files (via ES File Explorer) under /system/app (then reboot phone):

FWupgrade.apk to FWupgrade.bak
SDM.apk to SDM.bak

and what's the best link for doing the rooting? I don't want to unlock or anything else. I only want root and I don't know squat about doing it. I've perused a few pages about rooting etc, but they tend to be cluttered with stuff I'm not sure I need to get involved in.
secondly, when another update comes (hopefully) to fix the mess that 4.3 is, how do I get the OTA when rooted? I suspect I need to unroot? where is that instruction?

Does rooting make anything wonky? does it remove any capability of the phone vs stock?

 

[SHIVA77]

FYI, updated 4.3, totally flawless. No issues so far.

 

[anon(394005)]

and what's the best link for doing the rooting? I don't want to unlock or anything else. I only want root and I don't know squat about doing it. I've perused a few pages about rooting etc, but they tend to be cluttered with stuff I'm not sure I need to get involved in.
secondly, when another update comes (hopefully) to fix the mess that 4.3 is, how do I get the OTA when rooted? I suspect I need to unroot? where is that instruction?

Does rooting make anything wonky? does it remove any capability of the phone vs stock?

I'd start here (see section 1a in particular): [GUIDE][VZW Edition]How to Root/Rom/Return to Stock the VZW Galaxy Note II! - xda-developers

Also see the sticky in our Note 2 "Rooting, ROMs and Hacks" area: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ve...how-vzw-gnote2-root-rom-via-odin-w-video.html

The Q and A there has some good info on rooting. And yes, it is recommended to unroot before attempting an OTA again. From the Q and A: to unroot use a file manager (ex. ES File Explorer), delete the following files: /system/xbin/su and /system/app/Superuser.apk.

Rooting itself won't make anything wonky or unstable or remove any capability. It just gives you full administrator access to the system.

 

[1812dave]

I'd start here (see section 1a in particular): [GUIDE][VZW Edition]How to Root/Rom/Return to Stock the VZW Galaxy Note II! - xda-developers

Also see the sticky in our Note 2 "Rooting, ROMs and Hacks" area: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ve...how-vzw-gnote2-root-rom-via-odin-w-video.html

The Q and A there has some good info on rooting. And yes, it is recommended to unroot before attempting an OTA again. From the Q and A: to unroot use a file manager (ex. ES File Explorer), delete the following files: /system/xbin/su and /system/app/Superuser.apk.

Rooting itself won't make anything wonky or unstable or remove any capability. It just gives you full administrator access to the system.

Please don't take this as a complaint, but there are 119 pages in that thread that you linked and I would be doing this for the first time. I doubt my chances of success would be any better than the countless people who posted to that thread with problems. It looks like Adam, as smart as he is, can't make everyone's phone "just work" for first timers trying to root. I started at the first page, read through numberous pages and then jumped to the last 15 or so pages and skimmed thru to see what sort of issues there are still, and if they are resolved. Even if i would eventually get it working, my phone is not a "project" device, so I can't afford for it to be offline more than a short time, so I couldn't simply wait on someone to come along and "rescue" me from god-knows what errors I might encounter. It's simply risking too much. I need something that is really simple, like: download 'this file", ' that file', hook up phone to win 7, run a file, wait, and presto, everything is going to be copacetic. if my phone was a backup and didn't cost me $750 + tax, I might go for it, but that's not the case.

 

[anon(394005)]

No problem, I understand the apprehension. Rooting is not something to be taken lightly. You need to be comfortable with the process and accept the potential risks before going ahead with it. The key to doing that is to read as much as possible on the rooting process for your specific device so you know what to expect and what to do if you run into a problem. But at the same time don't read too much into issues others have had as a lot of them happen because they didn't take the proper time to understand the process and subsequently got into trouble.

 

[geoclooney]

I'm in the same boat as Dave, and I went ahead and took the plunge and rooted.

I then used ES File Explorer and renamed FWupgrade.apk to FWupgrade.bak and SDM.apk to SDM.bak. However, even after renaming them and clicking OK the file names didn't change. FWupgrade.apk still says apk and SDM.apk still says apk (even after rebooting, then repeating the whole process again).

The only thing that may be different about my situation is that a couple of days ago I did a factory reset, then the phone was trying to force the download on me. I couldn't defer or otherwise stop the download. It only downloaded about 5% of the upgrade (my estimate of the graph) before I turned off Mobile Data and it stopped.

I'm still on 4.1.2, but I'm afraid to turn Mobile Data back on because I think the 4.3 upgrade will try to force its way on again. I just checked the "Software Update" tab and it says 'Download Failed,' whatever that means.

I can turn Mobile Data back on, and I suppose I can always turn it off if 4.3 resumes downloading, but first I thought I'd ask and see if I'm missing something regarding the renaming of these files.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.


EDIT: Figured out I needed to do some tweaking with ES File Explorer (Grant the app root permissions and then set up the "system" folder with Read/Write permissions). No 4.3 for me! Thanks!

 

[1812dave]

was there anything freaky that came up during the rooting process? I saw the video from xda that showed a bunch of things pop up, to which the quy quickly glossed over. for a novice at things like that its hard to know what to ignore and what needs immediate attention.

 

[geoclooney]

A couple of unexpected things happened. One was the USB drivers--my note 2 didn't connect exactly right the first time. I ended up having to delete USB drivers and windows and reinstalling. That wasn't necessarily scary since I wasn't really messing with my phone at that point.

The other had to do with the "jar" file used in the rooting. Unfortunately for noobs like us, there are many different versions of this file, and it wasn't obvious which one is the absolute best one to use. I tried the absolute latest version and things didn't work exactly right for me, so I used "515," which seemed to be the most prominent version for the Verizon Note 2 with 4.1.2.

Even then, this "jar" file needed to be "unlocked" on my PC before things would work. Simple enough, as that just involved right-clicking on the file and changing its properties.

The good news is that even though it didn't work exactly right the first couple of times (due to the issues noted above), I didn't wreck my note 2, although I did have to pull the battery a couple of times in order to start the process over.

Good luck!

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Please don't take this as a complaint, but there are 119 pages in that thread that you linked and I would be doing this for the first time. I doubt my chances of success would be any better than the countless people who posted to that thread with problems. It looks like Adam, as smart as he is, can't make everyone's phone "just work" for first timers trying to root. I started at the first page, read through numberous pages and then jumped to the last 15 or so pages and skimmed thru to see what sort of issues there are still, and if they are resolved. Even if i would eventually get it working, my phone is not a "project" device, so I can't afford for it to be offline more than a short time, so I couldn't simply wait on someone to come along and "rescue" me from god-knows what errors I might encounter. It's simply risking too much. I need something that is really simple, like: download 'this file", ' that file', hook up phone to win 7, run a file, wait, and presto, everything is going to be copacetic. if my phone was a backup and didn't cost me $750 + tax, I might go for it, but that's not the case.

That is one reason I considered rooting for only half a second. I'm very technically minded, but most of it doesn't make sense to me. I need a step by step detailed guide, "Rooting for Dummies" for me to even be able to think about it.

 

[anon(394005)]

Edit: this may only work if you haven't taken the 4.3 update yet.

I didn't think about this until now, but a much easier route to obtaining root access for the Verizon Note 2, versus using Casual, would be to use the already rooted stock ROM called "Root66_VZW_stock_system.7z" from XDA thread: [GUIDE][VZW Edition]How to Root/Rom/Return to Stock the VZW Galaxy Note II! - xda-developers

Same file as listed in the AC thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ve...how-vzw-gnote2-root-rom-via-odin-w-video.html

It's what I used back in Feb. to get back to a rooted stock ROM after I mistakenly accepted the VRALL4 OTA and lost root access (see thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ve...ease-select-recovery-mode-kies-try-again.html). It's basically a fully functional already rooted Odin image of the Note 2's original release software VRALJB (4.1.1). You could then disable the OTA updater as previously listed to ignore any future updates.

It's pretty straight forward to do:
1. Download Odin from: http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1165122&d=1340993443
2. Download 7zip software from: 7-Zip
3. Download the Root66_VZW_stock_system.7z file from: root66_VZW_stock_system.7z | by mrRobinson for Galaxy Note 2
4. Unzip the 7z file with 7zip
5. For the rest, follow this video:

P.S. - I did this without reservation even though I also paid full retail ($750) for my Note 2 (to keep grandfathered unlimited data).

 

[chuckr01]

How do I permanently prevent Note 2 from OTA updating to 4.3?

I have one Verizon Note 2 that can no longer use free hotspot apps after the 4.3.

I want to prevent my spare Verizon Note 2 from getting the 4.3 and stay on 4.12 for as long as possible.
Don't even want to see notification about an update. (until FoxFi or other developer figure out how to
defeat this new block created by Verizon in 4.3 update)

thanks!

If FoxFi is your biggest concern, read the FoxFi on 4.3 thread on this forum, all is not lost. Other than that hiccup my Note 2 is working just fine so far.

 

[leonoe]

EDIT: Figured out I needed to do some tweaking with ES File Explorer (Grant the app root permissions and then set up the "system" folder with Read/Write permissions). No 4.3 for me! Thanks!

I couldn't figure out how to setup Read/Write permissions with ES File Explorer to rename the apk files to bak. Remembered I had Root Explorer and was able to rename the files... FYI in case anyone else has this problem.

 

[DWooderson]

This is my situation too... I tried to root, but encountered errors in Odin, and gave up. I find rooting to be a complicated process, and if anything goes wrong, you're stuck. There is simply too much fragmented, unorganized information to process.

I'd like to root because:
1) Disable the update (I'm very happy with 4.1.2)
2) Remove bloatware
3) Enable tethering (I learned this week that FoxFi might solve this issue)

Question: If I upgrade to 4.3, will Knox prevent me from rooting in the future, or will it otherwise prevent me from playing with ROMs down the road?

 

[socal]

EDIT: Figured out I needed to do some tweaking with ES File Explorer (Grant the app root permissions and then set up the "system" folder with Read/Write permissions). No 4.3 for me! Thanks!

I checked and have those permissions but it sill won't let me rename those files.

 

[daseffect]

How do I permanently prevent Note 2 from OTA updating to 4.3?

I have one Verizon Note 2 that can no longer use free hotspot apps after the 4.3.

I want to prevent my spare Verizon Note 2 from getting the 4.3 and stay on 4.12 for as long as possible.
Don't even want to see notification about an update. (until FoxFi or other developer figure out how to
defeat this new block created by Verizon in 4.3 update)

thanks!

 

[rokky]

Easy Root:
For those of you having problems with the odin/CASUAL root method with its 1GB+ jar file, and all those detailed steps, for the VzW Note 2, I found that the method in this thread: [ROOT] Saferoot: Root for VRUEMJ7, MK2, and Android 4.3 - xda-developers
is probably 1/10th the effort. The zip to download is 3MB, unzips to about 6MB, and takes about 5 minutes to run . It works for a number of different phones including my Droid Razr HD (which is how I first found it) as well as my Note 2 (at 4.1.2 version). The only prerequisite is to be sure your Samsung USB driver is correct for Windows (I assume that from all the emphasis in the instructions about it - I did it from Linux/Xubuntu 12.04, so USB driver was not an issue ).

This tip is a "thank you" for the quick/easy-to-read info on how to block the 4.3 OTA (with that root access)

HTH

 

[Michael Gould]

I haven't seen mention of it here in this thread, but the deal-killer for the 4.3 update is that it permanently(?) locks up the bootloader of the Note2 and indications are this will not be hacked. That means no custom recovery or custom ROMs. I had just gotten a refurb and stupidly accepted the update from Verizon, and boom -- locked me back up.

I have switched to T-Mobile and just got my Note 3 today. Need to find a way to do it with this carrier and phone now as well (block OTAs).

 

[ska916jedi]

What if I don't want to update? Is there an app that can block 4.3? I want to stay on 4.1 too! Thanks