King of Noobs here with lots of rooting questions!

[mcplums]

Hello chaps,

I recently got an S4 after four years of iphones. Couldnt be happier, iphone feels like a child's toy now. Anyway, I am VERY confused by all the rooting stuff and would love an answer to these questions!

1) How flexible can I be when flashing new firmware? I did the *#1234# shortcut and got AP/CP/CSC numbers, to what extent do these need to match new firmware I want to try out in order to avoid bricking my phone? And what about build versions, baseband, etc, whats the difference between all of these!?

2) I think the answer to this is no, but are there any workarounds on the S4 for apps which wont work on a rooted phone (e.g. sky go in the uk and OTA firmware updates)?

3) Is the absence of rooting, is samsung kies the best software to use for backups? Does it backup everything EXCEPT app states? I believe that is the only difference between it and titanium backup.

4) Is there any difference between using ODIN and KIES for installing new firmware?

Thanks in advance chaps!

 

[gollum18]

Hello chaps,

I recently got an S4 after four years of iphones. Couldnt be happier, iphone feels like a child's toy now. Anyway, I am VERY confused by all the rooting stuff and would love an answer to these questions!

1) How flexible can I be when flashing new firmware? I did the *#1234# shortcut and got AP/CP/CSC numbers, to what extent do these need to match new firmware I want to try out in order to avoid bricking my phone? And what about build versions, baseband, etc, whats the difference between all of these!?

2) I think the answer to this is no, but are there any workarounds on the S4 for apps which wont work on a rooted phone (e.g. sky go in the uk and OTA firmware updates)?

3) Is the absence of rooting, is samsung kies the best software to use for backups? Does it backup everything EXCEPT app states? I believe that is the only difference between it and titanium backup.

4) Is there any difference between using ODIN and KIES for installing new firmware?

Thanks in advance chaps!

1) You'll be fine as long as you flash a rom that is built for your device. Don't worry about the *#1234# menu. The last three letters/numbers in the firmware version are the most important. The build version is exactly that. It lists the version # and when it was built. The baseband is the radio version for your phone, on samsung devices you can upgrade it and not have it match your firmware version and it will be fine.

2) You can hide your root to be able to temporarily use them. I belive both supersu and superuser let you. While you can flash them with a custom recovery, OTA updates (unless their modded) need to be flashed on top of a purely stock system, because the updates are incremental not full updates.

3) If your looking for an app, I use "my backup", there's a root version and non root version, and both can backup and restore apps.

4) Odin can be used to flash individual pieces of updates. Like the radio, recovery, kernels, etc... And it can also be used to flash custom firmware/kernel. And it also requires a bit more tech knowledge to use. Kies can only flash full updates, not individual parts, but for the most part is fully automated.

Ask me anything else if you want, I'll do my best to answer them.

Sprint GS3 Running TN's Msg and Chubbs

 

[mcplums]

Thanks for your reply gollum! Im afraid though that now I have you listening I have a couple more questions, both following on from the above.... thanks in advance!

2) When rooted, I understand that you cant use OTA, but can you use kies to install updates like you normally would?

3) Ive tried my best to read around and understand, but Im still confused regarding what backup apps requiring root bring to the table in comparison to the ones not requiring root. The best I can find is that they also backup 'apk + data'. What does this mean? Does it mean that they can backup the data of an app, whereas non rooted apps like my backup will backup only the vanilla app, not any of its content (i.e., the messages on whatsapp, for example)?

4) Does installing firmware using kies/odin essentially reset the phone to factory and you lose all your stuff? Or is it just replacing the firmware, not the phones content?

Thanks again!

 

[lalec]

A root backup app such as Titanium Backup enables you to freeze bloatware apps that you don't want. Kies will tell you it can backup apps and Data but upon restore it may only be able to restore the other parts of the backup such as messages, call logs and contacts (that is what happened to me)

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