Database Users

Flash to stock mf3 firmware?

I have been rooted on mf3, and want to get the new 4.3 update, however, i learned that even though I am unrooted, it still will no work, and I need to restore to the stock mf3 rom. Now after 4 hours of searching and soft-bricking my phone and recovering it, I have no idea how to do it. Any help? I'm new to this on android.

HeDsh0t said:
I have been rooted on mf3, and want to get the new 4.3 update, however, i learned that even though I am unrooted, it still will no work, and I need to restore to the stock mf3 rom. Now after 4 hours of searching and soft-bricking my phone and recovering it, I have no idea how to do it. Any help? I'm new to this on android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out Q1 and Q7 in the FAQ

[Q] Att forcing update

just got s4 yesterday. Came with mf3 Now this morning att is pushing an update to my phone... how do I stop it? Anytime I use wifi it startes back to downloading. .. Dont know what it is, or if it will make my wait longe4 for a safe way in, I assume if its from att, its not good! So how can I stop it???

With MF3 your pretty much stuck already. You can root it and install safestrap for MF3 but you are limited to Touchwiz based 4.2.2 Roms. Check out the threads for WHICH ROMS work for it.
The update your getting is most likely the MK2 4.3 firmware. With it you can root and install SafeStrap for MK2, there are some Roms you can run with it but they have to be Touchwiz Roms and based on 4.3 firmwares.
So basically if I was in your shoes I would just take the 4.3 update and root and install Safestrap for MK2. Then flash ShoStock MK2 for a BETTER than Stock experience.
If you could have gotten the S4 with MDL or MDB firmwares you could have used motochopper+casual to root and install an actual full recovery and flash anything you want. But those are hard to find unless you check Swappa for one with eiher of those firmwares.
Sent From My Spiderman,Ironman,Red,Dark Blue,Green, GreyedOut BadAss Themed I337

klloyd said:
just got s4 yesterday. Came with mf3 Now this morning att is pushing an update to my phone... how do I stop it? Anytime I use wifi it startes back to downloading. .. Dont know what it is, or if it will make my wait longe4 for a safe way in, I assume if its from att, its not good! So how can I stop it???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I were u.......turn off your wifi and take your att sim card off. ....... and also take your sd card out..... format it to EXfat and follow jortex new root for MF3 firmware. .... so when u rooted. ...u can install titanium back up from play store. ...and uninstall Att software update.apk then u should be ok..... but like RockRatt said.....since from now on everything moving forward with 4.3 base rom. ..... it should be nice to have 4.3 firmware. ......as of right now u able to root using saferoot method or kingo method and u can also install Safestrap recovery v 3.71 ..... Goodluck. .... ..
SWYPED_FROM_S4_MF3_REDVENOM

Unlucky you. Man id be pissed. Good news though im pretty sure google editions work with safestrap which still gives you 4.4. That's ofcourse if kit kat interests you

Thanks guys. I knew to disable the wifi for short term fix. I went ahead and held tight with the MF3 factory software. You guys are correct it is at 4.2.2. I did the root and quarantine of the updater. I just feel that I might be best waiting... I'm afraid that what ever comes down may make everything worse. I'll keep this and hold tight till something comes along that we can odin into it easy... I'm sure it wont be too awful long as this is a popular phone.
If anyone seeing my post is looking for the same thing, its here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2387577&nocache=1
If I remove all this ATT bloat, will it harm anything? Dont know what will trip the rom up and make it a nice paper weight. There is NOTHING of att software.

klloyd said:
Thanks guys. I knew to disable the wifi for short term fix. I went ahead and held tight with the MF3 factory software. You guys are correct it is at 4.2.2. I did the root and quarantine of the updater. I just feel that I might be best waiting... I'm afraid that what ever comes down may make everything worse. I'll keep this and hold tight till something comes along that we can odin into it easy... I'm sure it wont be too awful long as this is a popular phone.
If anyone seeing my post is looking for the same thing, its here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2387577&nocache=1
If I remove all this ATT bloat, will it harm anything? Dont know what will trip the rom up and make it a nice paper weight. There is NOTHING of att software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use titanium backup to FREEZE at&t bloat and update software. You never know what you'll need or want in the future.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Note 3 flashing and updating

I just got myself a Verizon Note 3. This is one power house of a phone. I noticed the kid I got it from does have it rooted. The only annoyance I see is allot of stuff is showing in the status bar with Chinese writing. is this normal or did he use some dumb way to root it? Also it still has 4.3 on it. I tried to update it but I get the message that "software update is currently unavailable". Is this because the Note is rooted?
I have done some searching and I did get the files for flashing it back to stock. Odin, .mkz, and the Samsung drivers. So if this update message is because it's rooted, I do have the stuff to flash it back to stock. I do also know how to use Odin as it's the same program for flashing the Note 1, which I did have. But any insight you guys can give me would be great. Thanks

cougar214 said:
I just got myself a Verizon Note 3. This is one power house of a phone. I noticed the kid I got it from does have it rooted. The only annoyance I see is allot of stuff is showing in the status bar with Chinese writing. is this normal or did he use some dumb way to root it? Also it still has 4.3 on it. I tried to update it but I get the message that "software update is currently unavailable". Is this because the Note is rooted?
I have done some searching and I did get the files for flashing it back to stock. Odin, .mkz, and the Samsung drivers. So if this update message is because it's rooted, I do have the stuff to flash it back to stock. I do also know how to use Odin as it's the same program for flashing the Note 1, which I did have. But any insight you guys can give me would be great. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out this post of mine. It will point you in all the right directions : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=55003142&postcount=3
Since you're on MJE 4.3 see this thread and go to post 2 NC2/MJE instructions...http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2787627

Thanks for the info gamer but I'm not looking to root or flash roms. with this phone. At least not yet anyway. It's new to me so I really need to be as familiar with it as possible before I go flashing roms and tweaks and such. I'm not familiar with the names MJE, NC2, NC4 etc. so trying to explain that to me is just like speaking German to me right now. All I want to do for the here and now is get it back to stock un rooted 4.3, take the update to 4.4.2, and then check on the need for root then.
I also will need to look into what's safe to flash, what needs to be run, app wise, in order to flash some things. Take for instance my last phone, lg optimus g pro, you needed an app called freegee to get past the bootloader. If you screwed that up, you bricked yer phone. I'm sure some of the processes for this phone are similar in that respect. So no fiddling for me just yet. So in short, could you just tell me in simple terms if I have the correct stuff to flash it back to stock?
I currently have the latest Samsung drivers, Odin 3 V3.0.9, and the tar file named "ALL_N900VVRUBMJE_N900VVZWMJE_2106277_REV03_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar.md5.7z"
Is this what is needed to flash it to stock 4.3? Also, if you don't mind, could you tell me if there is ANY way, a modem flash perhaps, to get my LTE working with this AT&T Straight Talk sim card? Currently I am getting H+ which isn't bad but it's no LTE. Thanks a bunch.
EDIT: Well, that was easy. My computer ran the Verizon software and it failed to update it so it did the repair and repaired it with kitkat. So one issue solved. Now If I can just get LTE working on here it would be great....lol

cougar214 said:
Thanks for the info gamer but I'm not looking to root or flash roms. with this phone. At least not yet anyway. It's new to me so I really need to be as familiar with it as possible before I go flashing roms and tweaks and such. I'm not familiar with the names MJE, NC2, NC4 etc. so trying to explain that to me is just like speaking German to me right now. All I want to do for the here and now is get it back to stock un rooted 4.3, take the update to 4.4.2, and then check on the need for root then.
I also will need to look into what's safe to flash, what needs to be run, app wise, in order to flash some things. Take for instance my last phone, lg optimus g pro, you needed an app called freegee to get past the bootloader. If you screwed that up, you bricked yer phone. I'm sure some of the processes for this phone are similar in that respect. So no fiddling for me just yet. So in short, could you just tell me in simple terms if I have the correct stuff to flash it back to stock?
I currently have the latest Samsung drivers, Odin 3 V3.0.9, and the tar file named "ALL_N900VVRUBMJE_N900VVZWMJE_2106277_REV03_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar.md5.7z"
Is this what is needed to flash it to stock 4.3? Also, if you don't mind, could you tell me if there is ANY way, a modem flash perhaps, to get my LTE working with this AT&T Straight Talk sim card? Currently I am getting H+ which isn't bad but it's no LTE. Thanks a bunch.
EDIT: Well, that was easy. My computer ran the Verizon software and it failed to update it so it did the repair and repaired it with kitkat. So one issue solved. Now If I can just get LTE working on here it would be great....lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can flash different modems in Odin but I don't know if they'll get you running on AT&T Straight Talk, someone else will have to chime in on that.

Att straight talk might work if you have the correct apn settings but you will not get 4g
Sent from my SM-N900V using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Yeah I am finding this out Roger. I want to root and enable the hidden menu. I am seeing posts about doing this and getting the 4g LTE working. The problem is most of these posts pertain to the T-Mobile branded note 3.

AT&T Note 8 update out 4.4.2

I haven't received mine, yet. But Android Police has posted that it is out.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...0-android-4-4-2-update-finally-going-devices/

terra-starr said:
I haven't received mine, yet. But Android Police has posted that it is out.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...0-android-4-4-2-update-finally-going-devices/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing here yet. I'm rooted with stock recovery. I'm wondering if I will see the update or not?
And FWIW, I never thought that I would see this day. Of course I still have yet to see it myself to believe it.

esoh said:
Nothing here yet. I'm rooted with stock recovery. I'm wondering if I will see the update or not?
And FWIW, I never thought that I would see this day. Of course I still have yet to see it myself to believe it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to unroot by flashing stock firmware with Odin for the update to take. With root the update would fail at 25%.

terra-starr said:
I had to unroot by flashing stock firmware with Odin for the update to take. With root the update would fail at 25%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, thanks for letting me know. Can you share which unroot/flash stock firmware instructions you used? Also, were you able to reroot after?

esoh said:
Cool, thanks for letting me know. Can you share which unroot/flash stock firmware instructions you used? Also, were you able to reroot after?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded the firmware from sammobile (4.1.2 was the only one available) then flashed with odin. Sammobile has the basic instructions. Then the 4.4.2 OTA update worked.
I haven't tried rooting yet. But i can save my google music downloads to SD and the glitchy touch screen appears to be fixed
Most of the crapware can also be deactivated running stock
Maybe we got lucky and they unlocked the bootloader; hopefully a developer will be interested enough to check.

I am on stock and still can't get the update. Are they doing this in stages?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I467 using XDA Premium HD app

Downloading Update Now
Nice surprise when i picked up my Note 8.0 today and the uodate manager started the download!! Will be nice if the "stutters" the note suffers from when typing is fixed (happened as i was typing this).
If anyone is interested I am 100% stock, never rooted, nothing flashed. Dont know if its natiowide rollout but I am im rural Ohio but thew device is a Alaska # & account.
As previously mentioned it would be AMAZING if the bootloader was unlocked but im not holding my breath. And even though i am VERY pleased the update is happening I still cant throw out any " good job AT&T" comments as this, OR ANY, update is BEYOND over due.
Will post thoughts once updated and taken for a spin.

terra-starr said:
I downloaded the firmware from sammobile (4.1.2 was the only one available) then flashed with odin. Sammobile has the basic instructions. Then the 4.4.2 OTA update worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got my (previously) rooted Note to update simply by checking "Unroot Cleanup" (or a command similar to that) within the settings of SuperSU and then running the update.

jdpk said:
I got my (previously) rooted Note to update simply by checking "Unroot Cleanup" (or a command similar to that) within the settings of SuperSU and then running the update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you full unroot afterwards the check and then took the update?

collins521 said:
Did you full unroot afterwards the check and then took the update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After selecting the checkbox within SuperSU it popped up a warning saying, essentially, that it was going to remove root, close itself, and it suggested a reboot after that.
Once clicking OK it only took a few seconds to run and then returned to my homepage.
I rebooted, ran root check which confirmed I was not rooted, and then ran the AT&T update.

After 4 calls to ATT, a visit to Samsung Experience and a call to Samsung I am having to send mine into Samsung no one could get it to update.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using XDA Premium HD app

Thanks for posting...have been waiting for this update for what seems like years.
KC
NOTE 3 - ROOTED FUN!

I had to flash mine through Odin and then factory wipe, then it took the OTA. When I tried just unrooting it wouldn't and would fail

Tried using the full unroot option in superSU but it kept FC'ing. So I flashed stock firmware with odin. Update worked with no problems.
Does any of the bloatware effect updating? i was thinking maybe thats why some updates are failing after unrooting. Im probably wrong just taking a wild guess.
And PLEASE if anyone gets their note to root after updating to 4.4.2 post how it was done. Thank you in advance.

terra-starr said:
I haven't received mine, yet. But Android Police has posted that it is out.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...0-android-4-4-2-update-finally-going-devices/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is there any download link

lingmu said:
is there any download link
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't find one. Even Sammobile only had the 4.1.2 firmware.

I have the AT&T SGH-i467, and I got the 4.4.2 update. Woke up to the popup to upgrade. My device was not rooted, stock from AT&T. After the update it would not boot completely. It would boot to the loading screen and flash to the "desktop" on occasion, then back to the loading screen. This would continue for as long as I would allow it, it would get pretty hot while doing this as well, draining the battery. I tried clearing the cache a few times with no luck. I had to factory reset it to get it to boot properly. All is well now. I have not yet experienced the usual screen lag either.

I too had to reload original stock ROM via Odin. The it went through without issue.
have tried to root using "known" methods but currently they all fail.
Hope someone comes thru with a root fix here.

Has anyone managed to locate a download link for this? I've unrooted, flashed back to stock via odin, etc. and cannot seem to get the update. I read somewhere that not having active at&t service on the device would prohibit it from pulling the ota update from at&t's server, which makes sense. However, if anyone has located a download link for this, I'd be grateful for it!

pbrady5 said:
Has anyone managed to locate a download link for this? I've unrooted, flashed back to stock via odin, etc. and cannot seem to get the update. I read somewhere that not having active at&t service on the device would prohibit it from pulling the ota update from at&t's server, which makes sense. However, if anyone has located a download link for this, I'd be grateful for it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try un-rooting and then pulling your sd card.

A bit of guidance please with S4 SGH-I337

I have a S4 Samsung SGH-I337 which is grey import to the UK. It is unlocked for any carrier but still bloated with ATT.
I would like to install and alternative ROM but am getting confused as whether this is possible or not. Have read so many threads and just as I think it is ok, I find another obstacle in the way.
So far I have found that the SGH I337 has a locked bootloader but it can be bypassed by using the loki method. I have now found that this has the MF3 firmware (I337UCUAMF3) and from reading through various threads I am not sure if installing another ROM is possible.
I would welcome some help with this please.

With a locked bootloader, you are limited to flashing tw-based ROMs with safestrap.

audit13 said:
With a locked bootloader, you are limited to flashing tw-based ROMs with safestrap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done a lot more reading on SGH I337 MF3 Non Active version running 4.2.2.
It seems that Safeguard will install but the only custom ROMS you can install are the Touchwiz and GED. Having looked at them neither appeal. So will have to give up on this or will end up bricking it.

MF3 is android jelly bean and it is an old OS. May be you prefer jelly beam. If I were you , I would upgrade my phone to Kitkat NB1 , root the phone and debloat the ATT stuff. There are also some cool kitkat custom there though.

sway8966 said:
MF3 is android jelly bean and it is an old OS. May be you prefer jelly beam. If I were you , I would upgrade my phone to Kitkat NB1 , root the phone and debloat the ATT stuff. There are also some cool kitkat custom there though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I don't know if it is possible on this phone because of the AT&T on it, also I am using it in the UK.
I tried Kies and that comes up with "sgh i337 does not support initialising". Don't know if it would help if I did a factory reset. I have backed up everything to Kies.
I have looked at various threads about upgrading the o/s but seems to be the same as installing another ROM and is fraught with the same warnings.

dg2016 said:
Thanks, but I don't know if it is possible on this phone because of the AT&T on it, also I am using it in the UK.
I tried Kies and that comes up with "sgh i337 does not support initialising". Don't know if it would help if I did a factory reset. I have backed up everything to Kies.
I have looked at various threads about upgrading the o/s but seems to be the same as installing another ROM and is fraught with the same warnings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it is possible for your phone. Here is a guide for the AT&T S4. I used that guide for my i337.
I use kies to check whether I have proper usb driver installed on my pic for the phone. That's it. I did try once to use kies to upgrade the firmware and it did not let me do it. Then again my phone was rooted and I was on a custom rom.
Factory reset will clear your caches. That is all.
The thread I mentioned is a guide to upgrade to lollipop rom . If you do not want to go to lollipop and stay in Kitkat , you could stop after the step one in Post #2. Then use twol root to root the phone.
If you want to stay in Jelly bean just to root the phone, there is a guide near the end of Post #2.
If you want just to root your mf3, here is a guide.

Thanks for the links. I am reading through them slowly.
Need my phone for work tomorrow so will try later in the week.
I have seen mentioned many times about the boot screen showing "Custom" and unlocked padlock. Does this have any effect on the process? Can't remember when it appeared or if it has always been there.

dg2016 said:
Thanks for the links. I am reading through them slowly.
Need my phone for work tomorrow so will try later in the week.
I have seen mentioned many times about the boot screen showing "Custom" and unlocked padlock. Does this have any effect on the process? Can't remember when it appeared or if it has always been there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that "custom" only shows up on the boot screen. I had that once. Has no effect on the operation of the phone. Only that you wont be able to get it fixed under warranty but with a device this old, I doubt you still have warranty.
I used kies to revert back to stock to get rid of the custom boot screen then re rooted. But then again I'm on MDL and I got custom by flashing a recovery that wasn't loki'd.

dg2016 said:
Thanks for the links. I am reading through them slowly.
Need my phone for work tomorrow so will try later in the week.
I have seen mentioned many times about the boot screen showing "Custom" and unlocked padlock. Does this have any effect on the process? Can't remember when it appeared or if it has always been there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The boot screen showing "Custom" and unlocked padlock means you have rooted OS and saying your warranty is void. It will not have any effect on the process. But I have one more information from you that your phone might be rooted. If your phone is rooted you have an admin right.
Download app like Root checker and see whether you have a proper root.
Check your app drawer and see you have app calls superSU installed and properly working.
Since your main concern was AT&T bloatware so you can start debloating those apps.
If you still want to upgrade the phone, follow the guides that I mentioned.