Database Users

Is it possible to Re-Root and keep the warranty?

This is probably a really stupid question and many will get angry and call me a noob. However the question is this:
I rooted my phone quite soon after I got it, and now I read there is a way to do it which means I wouldn't lose the warranty. Is there a way, possibly restore and root again, that will mean I get my warranty back?
Of course you are free to answer how you like, but a simple yes or no, or with the addition of constructive advice is all I really need.

no you are f..ed
Teleported from my SM-N9005 from The Enterprise

I did the same thing, bought the phone then rooted within the hour. I should of read all the 'efuse' and knox warranty stuff before... but oh well.
Worst part is, i had installed knox and played around with it, rooted the phone, and when it rebooted i had knox in the pull down menu and couldn't get rid of it as it stopped working. I have now gone back to stock via kies and patiently awaiting for a knox 0x0 reset. Who knows..

Blizzaa said:
This is probably a really stupid question and many will get angry and call me a noob. However the question is this:
I rooted my phone quite soon after I got it, and now I read there is a way to do it which means I wouldn't lose the warranty. Is there a way, possibly restore and root again, that will mean I get my warranty back?
Of course you are free to answer how you like, but a simple yes or no, or with the addition of constructive advice is all I really need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no way to restore a rooted device to factory settings whereby restoring the knox counter and enabling your warranty. Once rooted, the device warranty becomes void. You can root and install the original ROM but the problem is the device status will show "Custom". This can be reset so things look factory to the average joe (say a store employee for a return) but the problem you have is if sent for warranty, once a technician looks at the device and runs their troubleshooting techniques on the device, they'll be able to tell it has been rooted.
Hope this helps!

[Q] Returning to Stock for Warranty - Correct?

I have a Canadian Telus GS4 running SlimKat, and would like to return it to stock for a warranty replacement on the "SIM card not detected" issue that I'm having.
I would like to confirm that the steps I am taking to do so are correct and possibly get some help troubleshooting some issues I am having along the way.
Step 1:
Download stock firmware from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2269304
Step 2:
Download Odin 3.07 from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2258628
Step 3:
Flash stock firmware via Odin.
Now on to the Questions and issues I am having.
Question 1: Is it necessary to reset the binary counter to 0? If so, then what are my options?
I understand that Triangle Away will do the trick, but it warns that I must be using a stock kernel to be safe. I am currently running SlimKat. Do I need to return to stock using the above method, then re-root, then use Triangle away...THEN return to stock again? This feels like the long way around, are there other options?
Question 2: Does it matter which stock firmware I flash via Odin?
According to http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/1/?model=SGH-I337M&pcode=TLS#firmware there are 3 options of stock firmwares. Is the latest (from the link I pasted above in my "Step 1") alright, or should I go back to 4.2?
Thanks for checking this out! Hopefully this can help others with the same problem.

L_B said:
I have a Canadian Telus GS4 running SlimKat, and would like to return it to stock for a warranty replacement on the "SIM card not detected" issue that I'm having.
I would like to confirm that the steps I am taking to do so are correct and possibly get some help troubleshooting some issues I am having along the way.
Step 1:
Download stock firmware from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2269304
Step 2:
Download Odin 3.07 from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2258628
Step 3:
Flash stock firmware via Odin.
Now on to the Questions and issues I am having.
Question 1: Is it necessary to reset the binary counter to 0? If so, then what are my options?
I understand that Triangle Away will do the trick, but it warns that I must be using a stock kernel to be safe. I am currently running SlimKat. Do I need to return to stock using the above method, then re-root, then use Triangle away...THEN return to stock again? This feels like the long way around, are there other options?
Question 2: Does it matter which stock firmware I flash via Odin?
According to http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/1/?model=SGH-I337M&pcode=TLS#firmware there are 3 options of stock firmwares. Is the latest (from the link I pasted above in my "Step 1") alright, or should I go back to 4.2?
Thanks for checking this out! Hopefully this can help others with the same problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the exact same issue with the sim slot. But having the AT&T variant and MDL firmware is a rarity. If I sent mine into Samsung they would upgrade my bootloader to the more secure on and give me the official 4.3 update. I didn't want to loose my custom recovery, so I took it to a local iFixit workshop. Know the guy there and he fixed my iPhone 4S a few years back. Said it would be no problem for him to replace my entire sim slot for $10.
Hopefully you can find someone locally to do this for you. If you send your phone in, count on it coming back with a more secure bootloader (knox).

MattMJB0188 said:
I had the exact same issue with the sim slot. But having the AT&T variant and MDL firmware is a rarity. If I sent mine into Samsung they would upgrade my bootloader to the more secure on and give me the official 4.3 update. I didn't want to loose my custom recovery, so I took it to a local iFixit workshop. Know the guy there and he fixed my iPhone 4S a few years back. Said it would be no problem for him to replace my entire sim slot for $10.
Hopefully you can find someone locally to do this for you. If you send your phone in, count on it coming back with a more secure bootloader (knox).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am quite uneducated on the knox bootloader. I understand what it is but I didn't know it would be on the Telus firmware. A quick google search shows that it would be around 15 bucks for me to get the SIM slot fixed up. Not a huge deal...but my phone is still under warranty.
EDIT: Update - I replaced the SIM card reader in the phone and am still having the SIM card undetected issue. Either I received a faulty SIM card reader, or there are other issues with the phone.

L_B said:
I am quite uneducated on the knox bootloader. I understand what it is but I didn't know it would be on the Telus firmware. A quick google search shows that it would be around 15 bucks for me to get the SIM slot fixed up. Not a huge deal...but my phone is still under warranty.
EDIT: Update - I replaced the SIM card reader in the phone and am still having the SIM card undetected issue. Either I received a faulty SIM card reader, or there are other issues with the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you might want to send it in to Samsung. I'd rather you have a phone lol. I believe the 4.3 update will only give you knox, which keeps track of custom firmware. Your bootloader will not be locked. Sorry for the confusion.

MattMJB0188 said:
Then you might want to send it in to Samsung. I'd rather you have a phone lol. I believe the 4.3 update will only give you knox, which keeps track of custom firmware. Your bootloader will not be locked. Sorry for the confusion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do plan on sending it in but am having trouble returning it to stock... :S never had to do it before and Odin is giving me trouble
EDIT: Update - my Odin was freezing at "SetupConnection" for the longest time. Went to a different computer and it worked... flashed MK6 firmware (might have been a mistake to pick mk6?) but not the phone is back to stock and knox counter is at 0x0.

L_B said:
I do plan on sending it in but am having trouble returning it to stock... :S never had to do it before and Odin is giving me trouble
EDIT: Update - my Odin was freezing at "SetupConnection" for the longest time. Went to a different computer and it worked... flashed MK6 firmware (might have been a mistake to pick mk6?) but not the phone is back to stock and knox counter is at 0x0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well my point was that once you get the phone back from Samsung, they will always know if you flash a custom recovery by the knox. Unless your phone had knox before? But if its at 0x0 you have nothing to worry about.

MattMJB0188 said:
Well my point was that once you get the phone back from Samsung, they will always know if you flash a custom recovery by the knox. Unless your phone had knox before? But if its at 0x0 you have nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I need to do more reading on knox, but I didnt see anything about the knox flag in download mode when I was on the custom firmware and recovery, I think going from custom to the most recent MK6 firmware for the I337M put the indiciation there.
Thanks for your help.
It's also interesting to point out that since I flashed back to stock with odin, my SIM card issue has gone away for the time being. I'll update if it comes back haha.

I dont understand way they would deny a warranty on a phone that has a non-standard rom on it.
I mean if the sim slot is bad, its bad - not that some app made it bad, or the removal of ATT Navigation software caused it to break.
*yeah yeah I know, in the EULA it states stuff about circumventing the OS voids warranty
It just seems anal to spend a lot of time examining the entire OS and partitions when they can just toss in a sim card and recreate issue and just fix it.
...then again, I am not Samsung

atari800 said:
I dont understand way they would deny a warranty on a phone that has a non-standard rom on it.
I mean if the sim slot is bad, its bad - not that some app made it bad, or the removal of ATT Navigation software caused it to break.
*yeah yeah I know, in the EULA it states stuff about circumventing the OS voids warranty
It just seems anal to spend a lot of time examining the entire OS and partitions when they can just toss in a sim card and recreate issue and just fix it.
...then again, I am not Samsung
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression that if the knox counter read 0x1 than they would not touch the phone, regardless if you touched it or not.

I have not seen a post that someone's phone was returned not fixed with a note/reason that the phone was modified outside of specification. Also imagine a dumpster of fixable phones that are untouched due to knox flag was triggered?

atari800 said:
I have not seen a post that someone's phone was returned not fixed with a note/reason that the phone was modified outside of specification. Also imagine a dumpster of fixable phones that are untouched due to knox flag was triggered?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wasn't that the whole point of knox? If it reads 0x1 then the warranty is void?

Knox is an overall security layer, helping promote Android devices in the workplace.
For more info - read this

atari800 said:
Knox is an overall security layer, helping promote Android devices in the workplace.
For more info - read this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the knox flag in download mode is... "knox warranty void"
That's how it reads, or something like that.

True it can show that, but outside of chainfires explaination of how it is blown and "what has been hearing about Samsung service centers". If you read his article, there is a lot of maybes, mights, and even ends his article with "take it with a grain of salt".
Their are a lot of mad people in his chat, but I didn't find anyone saying they got denied. Samsung can do what they want, but they know word of mouth is as big as advertising is. One person saying "I installed a program, it broke is my phone and Samsung is not honoring the warranty" has a huge impact on people regardless if they know and/or understand rooting.
Knox security void can mean the phone can no longer be certified for enterprise grade applications or environments. That the security mechanism is tainted thus considered broke and not repairable.
Just my point of view - I have total respect for chain fire
Edit: Additional info
The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (1975) says that to refuse warranty, the company must prove that the problem with phone (or any other device that fails) was the caused by the customer.
So a defective sim card reader (unless obviously damaged by a consumer) should be covered where a modified corrupted partition table causing a boot failure (and also not a wide spread incident) may not be covered as this is more of a damage from a "non-friendly" application caused by the consumer.

[Q] Root, Warranty, Unroot?

Hello everyone,
We all know rooting your device voids your warranty.
But if you unroot your device will the ol' techs at Samsung be aware of it?
You see I've run into this problem: I took some pictures, didn't upload them to my laptop or a cloud service and my phone RANDOMLY did a factory reset. (More like it powered off by itself and then when I turned it on everything was gone) Now in order to run decent recovery software for the pictures, I need root. But I also want to have my phone checked out for hardware faults.
I'd like to root, recover photos (or attempt to), unroot and give it to Sammy.
For the S5 is there anything I should be aware of while unrooting?
Thanks in advance!

For now unroot dont give back warrant
Sent from my SM-G900M using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

matheus_sc said:
For now unroot dont give back warrant
Sent from my SM-G900M using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite sure what that means.

ellimistx99 said:
Not quite sure what that means.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It means that Samsung started using a protection method referred to as Knox. Rooting, installing custom ROMs or bricking your phone will usually trip the Knox counter which then burns a permanent qfuse. Trying to revert to stock after a qfuse is blown will still leave evidence that your phone was previously rooted.
If you root with Chainfire's mobile odin app, you may be able to avoid tripping the Knox counter. But it's not guaranteed. It's a cat and mouse game back and forth and whether your root is 100% revertible changes from time to time. Eventually someone will also mount a legal challenge to settle whether Samsung can void your warranty just because you rooted your phone. But in practical terms.. consider yourself warranty less if you trip the Knox counter on your phone.

fffft said:
It means that Samsung started using a protection method referred to as Knox. Rooting, installing custom ROMs or bricking your phone will usually trip the Knox counter which then burns a permanent qfuse. Trying to revert to stock after a qfuse is blown will still leave evidence that your phone was previously rooted.
If you root with Chainfire's mobile odin app, you may be able to avoid tripping the Knox counter. But it's not guaranteed. It's a cat and mouse game back and forth and whether your root is 100% revertible changes from time to time. Eventually someone will also mount a legal challenge to settle whether Samsung can void your warranty just because you rooted your phone. But in practical terms.. consider yourself warranty less if you trip the Knox counter on your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Darn,
Well then I suppose is there any thing I can do to try and recover my photo's?

ellimistx99 said:
Darn,
Well then I suppose is there any thing I can do to try and recover my photo's?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do you live? If you live in the Netherlands they will not void your warranty because of KNOX, this is proven in real cases now. If you live in another country, I do not know if the law is the same as here, but you should find that out before rooting of course

Well, as suggested above.. if you happen to live in an European countries that has unusually strong consumer protections then it's moot. Otherwise do a search and find out whether other members with your exact firmware version are seeing their Knox counters tripped or not.
Breaking a hard drive seal would normally void a warranty. But Samsung will let authorized vendors break the seal for data recovery purposes. I'd imagine that they'd do the same for photos on a phone but only if you use an expensive third party vendor. If you're not in a Scandinavian country, not rich and have a very recent firmware.. you may have to choose between voiding your warranty and decent prospects of recovering your photos.
If you don't see any better prospects you may be able to run an ADB shell without root and possibly do a dd image of your deleted photos. It's key that it would be a raw sector by sector image, rather than a file by file process in the context of data recovery. And as an aside your phone should be turned off and collecting dust for the moment. Continuing to use your phone may dash any real recovery prospects.

fffft said:
Well, as suggested above.. if you happen to live in an European countries that has unusually strong consumer protections then it's moot. Otherwise do a search and find out whether other members with your exact firmware version are seeing their Knox counters tripped or not.
Breaking a hard drive seal would normally void a warranty. But Samsung will let authorized vendors break the seal for data recovery purposes. I'd imagine that they'd do the same for photos on a phone but only if you use an expensive third party vendor. If you're not in a Scandinavian country, not rich and have a very recent firmware.. you may have to choose between voiding your warranty and decent prospects of recovering your photos.
If you don't see any better prospects you may be able to run an ADB shell without root and possibly do a dd image of your deleted photos. It's key that it would be a raw sector by sector image, rather than a file by file process in the context of data recovery. And as an aside your phone should be turned off and collecting dust for the moment. Continuing to use your phone may dash any real recovery prospects.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds good will look into all that. I live in Malaysia at the moment so I guess I'll have to see what Samsung says about it. I suppose if I explain it to them they might understand.
Thanks man

unroot

hello guys,
sorry for the bad english hope everything will be clear.
so i got my new phone 4 -5 month ago.
and my friend rooted it for me (mainly cus of the pokemon go hack), i didnt know the actual risk of rooting so i let him.
when i stoped playing pokemon go and found that that rooting ur device will remove the warrenty from my device i wanted to unroot it.
so i restore to factory settings thinking that it will remove the root, only like a week later i have read that restore to factor settings dos not remove root
so basicly now i want to unroot my phone so it wont cus demage to my warrnty.
i dont know much abut how he rootted my iphone i know he used a youtube video named: Pokemon Go Cheat/Hack for Android - Use a Joystick, WORKS on v0.35.0! ( new users can add links so i coulnt add a link to the youtube video but if u copy and past the youtube video name u could get to the actual video)
and on the descrition it sais This cheat/hack requires an Android device with root & Xposed installed. so im guessing this is what he did.
also i want to note that when useing root checker app it sais - sorry! root access is noy proberly installed on this devices
pleas could u guys help me with guides and tuturials on how to unroot my phone after it has been reset to factory settings so my warrenty wont go off its a new phone =D
ty ty ty
edit:i was thinking mabye the information on the download mode might be helpfull so this is what it sais:
odim mode
download speed : fast
product name: SM-G935F
cuarent binary: custon
system status: custom
fap lock: off
secure donwload :enabled
warenty void : 1 (0x020c) - - - - dos that mean my warranty is off?
ap swrev : b:1 k:0 s:0

With 3rd party insurance, which is usually cheaper anyways, they don't care about KNOX... In fact, Protect My Bubble didn't even make me send back my phones.... So to hell with Knox flag trips and get some better insurance.

anonymoustl said:
With 3rd party insurance, which is usually cheaper anyways, they don't care about KNOX... In fact, Protect My Bubble didn't even make me send back my phones.... So to hell with Knox flag trips and get some better insurance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok and regarding the fact that root checker sais its not rooted but when u look on the download details it depfenatly suggest its rooted..
what to do to fix that?

Once rooted its irreversible

Your bootloader is unlocked. This is not reversible, and voids the warranty. No way back i'm afraid. You can certainly remove root from your phone. Thats what i did, to be able to use ota´s. In your case this does not matter though, your warranty is still void.

Ati75 said:
Your bootloader is unlocked. This is not reversible, and voids the warranty. No way back i'm afraid. You can certainly remove root from your phone. Thats what i did, to be able to use ota´s. In your case this does not matter though, your warranty is still void.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do i safly remove the root cus i'v heard odin thing is very risky and if something goes worng the phone can get ****ed up

actually, using Odin is very safe. Just follow instructions very carefully, make sure it's for your model number and double check. Go to www.sammobile.com, go to the 'Firmware's' section., type in your model number and search for your country's firmware and download.
Install USB Mobile phone driver. Get Odin. Go into your phone's settings and turn 'ON' USB debugging. Plug your phone to PC with a good quality cable, preferably the one that came with your phone. Don't plug into a USB hub though. Go into Odin download mode (volume down, Home + Power buttons). When you got the BLUE ID:COM box lighted up, it means that it can read your phone so your drivers are all good. Then click on the AP button, browse for the file you got from Sammobile (remember that it must be the same Model as your one ok, any country is fine, just make sure that sm-g935F is for sm-g935F etc). click Start. it should reboot a few times itself and when it says Done, your phone should boot into Android and you go through the setup all over again, losing all data in the process, but you will have a brand new unrooted, error free phone that can get updates OTA. True, your Knox counter will still say 0x1 void, but most warranty don't check that. As long as it says 'Official' which you will have once you flash the stock firmware. hope this helps...

OMG!!!! just screwed up my blacklisted imei g930p. it is now stuck

I was trying to make sure my KNOX counter wasnt tripped before I ordered the services being provided by imeigurus.com I thought I could just check and return to the home screen. not the case. what do I do please help. I dont know what im doing.
I foolishly did the following:
**YOUR DEVICE CAN NOT HAVE TRIPPED KNOX*** KNOX COUNTER MUST BE 0X000
FIND THAT BY POWERING YOUR DEVICE OFF.
please take it easy on me when you reply. I now realize how STUPID it was for me to do something without knowing what I was doing in the first place.

You seem to have some issue you're not describing at all.
About knox tho all you need to do is boot the phone into bootloader mode, or download a knox checker app from play store.
Honestly unless your flashing roms and kernels or custom recovery to the phone, or if you rooted it in any way except by using the engineering version bootloader, your not going to have tripped knox. If you have tripped knox you cant untrip it. It is an actual fuse in the phone that literally blows. All the knox counter really does is check if the fuse is blown and counts the number of times unauthorised changes were made to the system.

rayne980 said:
I was trying to make sure my KNOX counter wasnt tripped before I ordered the services being provided by imeigurus.com I thought I could just check and return to the home screen. not the case. what do I do please help. I dont know what im doing.
I foolishly did the following:
**YOUR DEVICE CAN NOT HAVE TRIPPED KNOX*** KNOX COUNTER MUST BE 0X000
FIND THAT BY POWERING YOUR DEVICE OFF.
please take it easy on me when you reply. I now realize how STUPID it was for me to do something without knowing what I was doing in the first place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by you can't return to the home screen. Have you tried holding the power, home button and volume down button until the phone restarts. And what djdunn said is correct and you haven't fully explained the problem for people to fully help you.