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Rooted MF3 Exchange AT&T

I renewed my at&t 2 year contract on Sept 5th and upgraded to an s4. The phone has given me nothing but problems from the moment I first touched it. Long story short is that im taking it back to the store tomorrow and returning it. I called the store today and the girl on the phone basically said that since im still within my 14 days it will be a straight across trade for a new s4. I didn't mention to her that the phone is rooted and debloated. When I first received the phone it wasn't running the MF3 firmware. I unlocked and rooted the phone and installed a couple different roms trying to eliminate the near unusability due to lag and freezing. (I Know I should have just returned the phone immediately) I ended up soft bricking the phone while flashing custom firmware... So I used odin to get back to the original stock firmware, then did the at&t MF3 upgrade and rooted. Question- I know this is doubtful, but does anyone know of a way to restore the MF3 firmware to stock? If not, what should I do to get the phone as close to stock as possible? I was thinking I could reinstall all of the AT&T bloat from the playstore, turn them back into system applications via titanium back up and the uninstall SuperSU. The current device status under about device is listed as "Official"...

Go to best buy they can flash it to stock mf3
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johnharty3 said:
Go to best buy they can flash it to stock mf3
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Thanks for the reply! Do you think I would absolutely need to do that before taking it in for exchange, or do you think restoring the bloat and uninstalling SuperSU would be sufficient. BestBuy is kinda out of the way for me but I would do it if it was absolutely necessary...Thanks

I called today and they told me at best buy to come in and they coukd restore it to stock but I think you would be fine just removing SU
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norcal61 said:
Thanks for the reply! Do you think I would absolutely need to do that before taking it in for exchange, or do you think restoring the bloat and uninstalling SuperSU would be sufficient. BestBuy is kinda out of the way for me but I would do it if it was absolutely necessary...Thanks
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Yea if it still says official under device status you're fine. Uninstall all rooted apps like greenify, superSU, titanium backup, etc... Make sure you defrost/enable any freezed/disable apps just in case.
When you go in tomorrow, stay positive and act as if nothing happened.

haremmon said:
Yea if it still says official under device status you're fine. Uninstall all rooted apps like greenify, superSU, titanium backup, etc... Make sure you defrost/enable any freezed/disable apps just in case.
When you go in tomorrow, stay positive and act as if nothing happened.
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Sweet, thanks for the reinforcement! That was my plan exactly! If they say anything about the phone having been rooted, ill be like " rooted? whats that?"...LOL

norcal61 said:
Sweet, thanks for the reinforcement! That was my plan exactly! If they say anything about the phone having been rooted, ill be like " rooted? whats that?"...LOL
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"Don't worry fine AT&T Representative! This phone has never been used to plant trees!"

I took the phone in yesterday and got a stubborn rep who wanted to trouble shoot and blah blah blah. She took the phone in the back. When she came out she said all the phone needed was a new sim. I said no I want a new phone. So she said to come back tomorrow when the manager is there. Whatever she did to the phone caused the custom status to return. I had official status upon entering the store. Dont know how that happened. Im off to att to see if I can trade it in today.
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norcal61 said:
I took the phone in yesterday and got a stubborn rep who wanted to trouble shoot and blah blah blah. She took the phone in the back. When she came out she said all the phone needed was a new sim. I said no I want a new phone. So she said to come back tomorrow when the manager is there. Whatever she did to the phone caused the custom status to return. I had official status upon entering the store. Dont know how that happened. Im off to att to see if I can trade it in today.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Xparent Green Tapatalk 2
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Please post back and let us know what happened.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4

Sounds like what I went thru. Brought my new phone home and accidently updated to MF3 without knowing I screwed myself in the process. Returned 2 days later complaining of random reboots and sod's. They tried to troubleshoot my phone and told me a restore was needed to get my fon right. Told them if they don't replace my S4 with a new one I'll cancel the contract right on the spot.
After about an hour of their blah blah blah they gave me a brand new 32gb on MDL and I'm happily rooted now on CM... I'm liking this phone a lot now!
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supitsronnie said:
Please post back and let us know what happened.
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Yesterday I took the phone into BestBuy to have them flash it with MF3 to try and get rid of the custom status and boot screen. They looked at me like I was speaking Chinese when I asked them to do this in the phone dept. Even the geek squad had no idea what I was talking about. They said they had no way to reflash the phone. All they could do was restore the phone within the settings...UHG!! So no luck there on going back to official status. I found instructions here in the forum that work like a charm for going back to official status and getting rid of the custom boot screen. I used theses steps. All thanks go to Senior Member - ou812bkewl
1. Re-root again using the same method you did before for MF3, then:
--a) Reboot, update SuperSU app and it's binary
--b) Reboot again, verify device status is back to"Official"
--c) Reboot again, verifying that, this time, the boot screen is back to normal again
2. Download a file manager app in the Play Store called "Total Commander" and enable "Root functions everywhere" in its settings.
3. Navigate to a folder called "/system/xbin"
4. Delete ONLY files in that folder with the word "busybox" within its filename or symlink path. You should end up with three files left. I did. Two of them are SuperSU related. DO NOT DELETE ANY OF THEM!
5.Open SuperSU and, in its settings, select the "Full un-root" option. Once SuperSU closes, reboot.
When you reboot, wait a full minute and check on device status. It should still say "Official" and you will be fully un-rooted.
So im completly unrooted and official...Im off to the AT&T store shortly to try and exchange this thing...wish me luck!

norcal61 said:
Yesterday I took the phone into BestBuy to have them flash it with MF3 to try and get rid of the custom status and boot screen. They looked at me like I was speaking Chinese when I asked them to do this in the phone dept. Even the geek squad had no idea what I was talking about. They said they had no way to reflash the phone. All they could do was restore the phone within the settings...UHG!! So no luck there on going back to official status. I found instructions here in the forum that work like a charm for going back to official status and getting rid of the custom boot screen. I used theses steps. All thanks go to Senior Member - ou812bkewl
1. Re-root again using the same method you did before for MF3, then:
--a) Reboot, update SuperSU app and it's binary
--b) Reboot again, verify device status is back to"Official"
--c) Reboot again, verifying that, this time, the boot screen is back to normal again
2. Download a file manager app in the Play Store called "Total Commander" and enable "Root functions everywhere" in its settings.
3. Navigate to a folder called "/system/xbin"
4. Delete ONLY files in that folder with the word "busybox" within its filename or symlink path. You should end up with three files left. I did. Two of them are SuperSU related. DO NOT DELETE ANY OF THEM!
5.Open SuperSU and, in its settings, select the "Full un-root" option. Once SuperSU closes, reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you reboot, wait a full minute and check on device status. It should still say "Official" and you will be fully un-rooted.
So im completly unrooted and official...Im off to the AT&T store shortly to try and exchange this thing...wish me luck!
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Good luck, let us know how it goes.

haremmon said:
Good luck, let us know how it goes.
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I made it to the att authorized dealer where I bought the phone. The manager was totally cool and exchanged the phone for me no problems. The new phone came with the MDL firmware as well as the first. This phone was not buggy and laggy out of the box like the last one. I updated the firmware to the mf3 build and decided to leave it unrooted until there is an unlock and restore method for this build. This phone is working great and having no problems. I'm pleased
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norcal61 said:
I made it to the att authorized dealer where I bought the phone. The manager was totally cool and exchanged the phone for me no problems. The new phone came with the MDL firmware as well as the first. This phone was not buggy and laggy out of the box like the last one. I updated the firmware to the mf3 build and decided to leave it unrooted until there is an unlock and restore method for this build. This phone is working great and having no problems. I'm pleased
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Xparent Green Tapatalk 2
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Congrats, glad you got your phone back safely.
If you don't mind me asking but why did you update your phone to MF3 build as many would have blocked the update right away. :s

haremmon said:
Congrats, glad you got your phone back safely.
If you don't mind me asking but why did you update your phone to MF3 build as many would have blocked the update right away. :s
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Thanks! I thought long and hard about weather or not I was going to update to mf3. I decided that since I'm not going to root the phone or install anything custom at this time I may as well be on the latest firmware.
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norcal61 said:
Thanks! I thought long and hard about weather or not I was going to update to mf3. I decided that since I'm not going to root the phone or install anything custom at this time I may as well be on the latest firmware.
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I hope you don't ever want to install a custom rom. Since you did that, you will likely never be able to.

I'm not really worried about. I pretty much enjoy a stock experience. I have two nexus 7 tablets for hacking and playing with mods. I use this phone for my business and I'm just after a straight forward experience. If there's ever an app that I want that requires root I can always root this firmware. And I would be surprised if this bootloader stays locked forever.
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[Q] Help - GS4 - Even Best Buy could not Flash

Hello All,
I am quite new to the world of Android, but have searched and read up for multiple days on this site before finally posting my issue.
I have a GS4 that had been running stock with the MF3 OTA update. I finally decided to root and install safestrap to mess with a few custom roms. Everything went well. I was able to create a Rom Slot and load a custom rom for testing whilst keeping my stock in original form. NO issues what so ever. I used the Wicked Rom.... Eventually I decided that I would delete Rom Slot 1 and go back to stock. I followed directions to the T, deleted the slot and selected to boot from Stock. NO GO. This is where the horror begins:
Now, the phone boots up but I see the Samsung Galaxy S4 logo and it stays there...does not go back. I no longer see the SafeStrap recovery screen when booting up. --- I cannot even get into recovery on the phone any longer: it says recovery booting in blue and stays there.
I am able to get into Download mode to re-flash - but naturally none of the stock firmware files are loadable via Odin due to an error I keep getting NAND Flash! (Fail).
I finally decided to drive to Best Buy and asked the guy to flash my phone to stock there. He put the phone in download mode and used their multiflash tool which did not detect the phone and thus he could not move forward. The laptop did detect the phone at best buy, but their software did not and thus flashing did not occur.
I am looking for any and all advice to get this phone running without having to return it to Samsung....please and thanks in advance.
My apologies if my search did not yield a positive result and there is something out there....

Well There is no way to flash with Odin while on MF3, so that effort is completely fruitless at this time. Did the guy try a different USB port, cord or even restarting the computer he was using?
Can you get into your recovery to do a factory reset?
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Best buy should be able to do it. I remember reading somewhere that someone had to go to 3 different stores before they found someone smart enough to do it.. Lol
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I cannot get into recovery at all, it just says recovery booting and sits there....recovery booting is displayed at the top left of the screen in blue.
The guy did not try a different port or reboot. When he plugged the phone in, in download mode, the computer did recognize the phone but his Samsung software did not.
graydiggy said:
Well There is no way to flash with Odin while on MF3, so that effort is completely fruitless at this time. Did the guy try a different USB port, cord or even restarting the computer he was using?
Can you get into your recovery to do a factory reset?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Well he is an idiot for not troubleshooting his system. I have had the same exact thing happen with multiple different computers and phones. The computer detects the device correctly, but the program I needed to use would not. More often than anything a quick changing of ports or a reboot of the computer fixed it. I have had to completely wipe out the drivers a few times and reinstall them to get it to work. 9 times out of ten, it is not the phone that is the culprit, it is something else before the phone.
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FIXED
Well it seems the guy at my best buy was a TOOL! I took the phone in again today, had the battery pulled before I arrived - put it in download mode for him. Told him that Samsung tech support said he should reboot his pc. He did. Voila, reflashed to stock. Thank goodness....thank you guys for the advice.

Apply cold water directly to burned area.
Who's awesome?
ME!
Anyways, glad you are back up.
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[Q] Flash counter?

I have looked around the forums for this problem, but could only find something about root checker.
But does the G2 have a flash counter like the Samsung phones does?
What i mean by this is; Will i be able to restore the stock firmware via the LG flash tool, and the stores would never be able to tell it was flashed?
I'm asking because my brother bricked his device, and made the sim card reader stop working. And after we factory reset the phone via Odin and sent it back to be repaired, we got it back without getting it fixed. Turns out we missed the Flash counter, and now that phone is out of warrenty.
Does the G2 have a similar counter build in? If not, good job LG!

Yes, the LG G2 has a rootchecker. Unfortunately there is no way to reset it for now. I've used LG flash tool to restore to stock at least 4 times, but it still shows "ROOTED" in red letters when I switch to download mode. It shows "unrooted" right after restoring to stock, but restart and check it an hour later and it shows "ROOTED." I'm still looking for a solution to this. My GPS is horrible so I want to return it.

benjaminj007 said:
Yes, the LG G2 has a rootchecker. Unfortunately there is no way to reset it for now. I've used LG flash tool to restore to stock at least 4 times, but it still shows "ROOTED" in red letters when I switch to download mode. It shows "unrooted" right after restoring to stock, but restart and check it an hour later and it shows "ROOTED." I'm still looking for a solution to this. My GPS is horrible so I want to return it.
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Anyone else confirm this?
I though a simple flash to stock resets the flash/rooted message.

bigup7 said:
Anyone else confirm this?
I though a simple flash to stock resets the flash/rooted message.
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Mine goes back to UNROOTED after flashing to stock. D802.

MalignantQuechnitlan said:
Mine goes back to UNROOTED after flashing to stock. D802.
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What I understand from benjaminj007's post, his goes to UNROOTED as well, however at some point it reverts to ROOTED. Have you checked yours after some time or just after flashing?

I installed stock somewhere last week, just checked and it still says unrooted.

As far as I remember my 802 also said unrooted after my total reset using lg Flash tool.
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[Q] Possible hardware problem. Returning phone, but.....

I was running NAE on Wonderlite's ROM. Had both NAE build and firmware but on the MF9 bootloader. My battery keeps draining and the phone gets hot and sometimes restarts on its on. I also see a redlight (where the notification light is located) and it dims slowly and doesn't do anything and I am forced to restart the phone.
This is not all though. I have tried several ROMS and the issue still persists. I came from MF9 and now I am back at it and it still happens. The battery life sucks, and I have two of them.
could it be hardware malfunction? I explained to best buy and they said to bring it in.
Here is where I need help...
I download triangle away and seen that my flash counter is at 4, even with the MF9 bootloader. I tried to reset the counter and it stays at one. I can only check the counter when I root the phone and use the App. I cant seem to find it in download mode.
I am back on MF9 official firmware, rom, etc. Not sure what kernel is stock but it a came inclusive.
Also when I go into recovery it shows the android with a red exclamation mark and says "no command'. Is this normal?
I think they will see the flash counter but theres no way to check the counter without rooting and using the app?
Please help.

Run odin to get everything to stock. See if the problem still persists. If everything seems good, try to root and reinstall your favorite rom. If the problem is still happening on stock then it might be a hardware problem. Try replacing your battery. Do you have insurance? How old is your phone?
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Papichulo06 said:
Run odin to get everything to stock. See if the problem still persists. If everything seems good, try to root and reinstall your favorite rom. If the problem is still happening on stock then it might be a hardware problem. Try replacing your battery. Do you have insurance? How old is your phone?
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
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I tried all of the above. New battery and everything. I bought the phone in April of 2013. Its a little over a year. I do have insurance, but the flash counter stays at one. Not sure how to check it without rooting it. I flashed a stock rom running MF9.

I don't think the flash counter really matters to the techs at the sprint store. At least locally, the techs here all have their phones rooted and modded. I have to go today so I'll ask them a question about your phone and I'll get back to you.
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Papichulo06 said:
I don't think the flash counter really matters to the techs at the sprint store. At least locally, the techs here all have their phones rooted and modded. I have to go today so I'll ask them a question about your phone and I'll get back to you.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
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I bought it from Best Buy. So they might be anal about it. Not sure but I'm going tomorrow. I only rooted because I thought it would solve the problem but it didn't.

[Q] Is there anyway to get the Sprint boot animation back?

I have flashed a few roms since I have had this phone and have lost the stock boot animation for sprint (yellow splash) along the way. This never really bothered me but now the time has come to upgrade to a new phone. I was planning on giving my old phone to my mother and wanted to get it back to practically 100% stock. This is the only thing I am missing. I have looked around the forums and Google for a few days now with my free time but all to no avail. So the question is is there a way to get it back and if so how. Thanks all!
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Just flash the stock NAE tar file and it will return your phone to out of the box stock.

I have flashed it to go back to stock but I only get the Samsung logo and am still missing the Sprint splash screen on boot and power off.
Sent from my SPH-L720

I have solved the problem after flashing the stock tar again I found an app by Samsung called Refresh Customization by Samsung on the app store and by using that I manged to get the Sprint splash screen back and everything is now where it should be.
Sent from my SPH-L720