Rooted GS3 Stuck on Logo Screen During Reboot After 4.4 Update

[igard]

As a first time poster, new to the community, I apologize for any committed taboos or redundancies in my question, and I offer gratitude to those with any suggestions..

I've been the owner of GS3 for some time now, I've grown used to it and don't have any plans to get a newer phone. If anything, this craziness has prompted desires in me to get a flip-phone again (although I doubt if I have the resolve to commit to that).

Sorry to bore you with the lead-up but I hope to illustrate how eager I am to resolve my issue instead of only hearing "Bro, just get the S5...."

The Problem:
I was driving home from work and noticed an icon in my notification bar saying something like "Android 4.4 update available. Update now?"
So I thought "there's a new android version? Sure, why not."
After the update completed, my phone began to reboot, but after the "Sprint 4G" animation clears, it seems to get stuck on the Samsung Logo screen. It does that beautiful colorful pulsing thing that it should do, but it does it for hours. In fact, it hasn't been able to pass that point at all.

Things I've Tried:
1) My fist attempt to solve the problem was pulling the battery out and waiting to replace and reboot. No change
2) Next I wiped the Cache Partition as recommended (for un-rooted, earlier pre-4.4 users). Again, No result.
3) Then, in a final desperate attempt, I committed a factory reset. Both of these were done by accessing "Manual Mode" (Pwr+Up+Home).
No result.

Finally, I took it to Best Buy. The Samsung representative there informed me that the 4.4 update is only compatible with GS4 and higher. And because I rooted my S3, Sprint was unable to distinguish, and sent it to me anyway. This is the root (no pun intended) of my problem.

If anyone knows whether it is still possible to un-root my phone, and whether that will solve my problem, I'd love to learn how to do so. If not, any other suggestions are also greatly appreciated.

I rooted my phone a while back to take advantage of "cut-rate" tethering (which I never could get to work anyway). So for me, keeping root access isn't important (unless someone knows how to solve THAT problem as well).

 

[meyerweb#CB]

The Samsung rep is an *****. 4.4.2 has been released for the Sprint S3, and there's no way you could get the version for the S4. And whether you're rooted or not, Sprint still knows you have an S3, not an S4.

What the Samsung rep should have told you is that the OTA generally won't work on a rooted phone. Usually it just fails to run, and won't hurt anything. Looks like you were unluckly.

But since your phone still powers up, you should be able to recover, and since you've already done a factory reset, you don't have to worry about saving any data, because it's already gone.

Yes, it's possible to unroot, using a Samsung tool called Odin. But since your goal is to get to 4.4.2, the easiest thing to do at this point is to install the entire 4.4.2 ROM using Odin, rather than using it to go back to stock 4.3 and waiting for the OTA again. This thread has a link to the ROM file and basic instructions.

[FULL RESTORE][TAR] Stock ND8 Odin FLASHABLE [4.4.2] - xda-developers

You can find Odin here: Download Odin 3.09 - Odin download with Samsung ROM Flashing Tool

If you're not familiar with Odin, and have questions, ask away.

 

[Brian Lovely]

Hi, I have the same problem on my Galaxy S3 (Sprint), for the same reason. Although, I rooted so I could disable all of the preinstalled bloatware in order to extend my battery life. What are my options? I would rather be on 4.3 rooted than 4.4 unrooted, and I would rather not lose all my data but it's nothing critical.

Also, is there any way to get the phone working at least partially without connecting it to a computer?

Thanks!

 

[igard]

Meyerweb, Thank you so much for your invaluable knowledge! I would be so lost without you! I'm super excited to get home today and get started. If I could hit the "Thanks" button more than once, I'd hit it a thousand! (well... I'd like to think I would).

I looked over the process, seems simple enough. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Hi, I have the same problem on my Galaxy S3 (Sprint), for the same reason. Although, I rooted so I could disable all of the preinstalled bloatware in order to extend my battery life. What are my options? I would rather be on 4.3 rooted than 4.4 unrooted, and I would rather not lose all my data but it's nothing critical.

Also, is there any way to get the phone working at least partially without connecting it to a computer?

Thanks!

Brian: The second question is easiest to answer: Probably not. I've seen one person who tried removing the battery and rebooting multiple times over a couple of days have his phones come back to life, but the odds aren't very good.

As far as staying on 4.3, I don't think you should risk trying to revert to a full 4.3 ROM using Odin. Since we don't know how far the OTA got, we don't know if the 4.4 bootloader has been installed. If it has, and you try to Odin back to 4.3, you'll brick your phone. However, once you get 4.4 installed you can root it, or install a rooted 4.3 ROM using a custom recovery. You'll still have the 4.4 bootloader and modem, but you can go back to a stock or custom 4.3 ROM after, if you want. In fact, if you have a nandroid backup of your current 4.3 ROM, you can probably restore it. (Although CWM seems to be not working well with ND8.

FWIW, I'm running the stock ND8 4.4.2 ROM, rooted, with bloatware frozen using Titanium Backup, and find that 4.4.2 works very well. I can't tell about battery life yet because I've been playing around with my phone so much, but the ROM itself is fast and smooth.

You can follow the instructions in the link I posted above to flash ND8 in Odin, then root it and install a custom recovery. Then you can flash a 4.3 ROM if you want to.

 

[igard]

The Samsung rep is an *****. 4.4.2 has been released for the Sprint S3, and there's no way you could get the version for the S4. And whether you're rooted or not, Sprint still knows you have an S3, not an S4.

What the Samsung rep should have told you is that the OTA generally won't work on a rooted phone. Usually it just fails to run, and won't hurt anything. Looks like you were unluckly.

But since your phone still powers up, you should be able to recover, and since you've already done a factory reset, you don't have to worry about saving any data, because it's already gone.

Yes, it's possible to unroot, using a Samsung tool called Odin. But since your goal is to get to 4.4.2, the easiest thing to do at this point is to install the entire 4.4.2 ROM using Odin, rather than using it to go back to stock 4.3 and waiting for the OTA again. This thread has a link to the ROM file and basic instructions.

[FULL RESTORE][TAR] Stock ND8 Odin FLASHABLE [4.4.2] - xda-developers

You can find Odin here: Download Odin 3.09 - Odin download with Samsung ROM Flashing Tool

If you're not familiar with Odin, and have questions, ask away.

I was hoping to learn how to use this new Odin. The version I'm familiar with had a PDA tab. this one doesn't. I have the .tar file I just need to know what to do to access it on Odin. I don't wanna go pushing buttons I have no knowledge of.


Update: I tried to figure it out on my own, I loaded the tar file in each field, but each time I was met with an error. invalid binary. I even tried in Odin 3.07. that one said md5 hash invalid. I get the feeling they dont like the tar file you gave me... hmm..

 

[meyerweb#CB]

No sure what the problem is. I flashed the file from that link using Odin 3.07 without any problem. If the hash is invalid, I'd try downloading the file again. Could have gotten a corrupted download.