Database Users

Install Recovery and CM on Locked I9500

Hi All,
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this as I'm relatively new to posting on XDA. My girlfriend has a Galaxy S4 (I337) that I quickly and easily installed Cyanogenmod on. It's awesome and significantly better than TouchWiz. So, I bought an S4 off Ebay assuming it would be similar enough. It turns out this new S4 is an I9500 and before shipping it was updated to 4.3, which appears to lock the bootloader and prevent downgrading. I've tried Odin, Heimdall, ADB, Philz, Chainfire, Cofface, stock ROMs, etc with no luck. Today I did manage to root the phone and confirm root with TowelRoot. I'm wondering/hoping someone might have some resources to get CM on this thing. While I'd prefer not to brick it I am willing to take risks as I have a Razr (soft-bricked and unbricked) running CM and am relatively comfortable with computers/Linux.
I've been Googling and trying things for a month now and can't even find that much information on the locked bootloader. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
--
SL

The I9500 doesn't have a locked bootloader. You just can't downgrade from 4.3 to 4.2.2 with official roms. Same applies when you are running 4.4, then you also can't downgrade officially.
Just flash a custom recovery true Odin and flash away.
Why would you even want to downgrade? Are you sure you are picking the right files? You cant flash the files for the I337 on the I9500. So just go to the section for the I9500 roms and flash away.

Hi Lennyz1988,
Thanks for the quick reply. I don't specifically want to downgrade but that's the last option I've tried. Ultimately the goal is to put Cyanogenmod on the phone. When I attempt to upload any file via Odin I get "secure magiccode check fail : boot" (or fail : recovery) depending on what I'm flashing. All the reading I've done says that when these phones are updated to 4.3 a fix has been applied that stops Odin from working. Thus, I my last resort is/was to try and downgrade. As I said, I've been Googling for the last month and while few people have posted about this I have not found any solutions.
Hoping someone might have a solution or anything new to try that I haven't tried already, thanks again,
--
SL

Download the latest TWRP recovery:
http://techerrata.com/browse/twrp2/i9500
Fire it up in Odin under PDA. You need the .tar (DON'T EXTRACT IT).
If it fails:
- Different usb port
- Different cable
- Different pc
- Reinstall drivers
- Make sure Kies is not running the background.
Or you can use heimdall to flash it. Use the command line though:
heimdall flash --recovery nameoftherecovery.img (you need the .img instead of the .tar)

No luck there, Odin still fails with the same message. I have tried Heimdall on 2 different computers (4 different usb cables) and always get the libusb 12 error.
Since I have root access I figured I might be able to wipe the recovery partition from a terminal emulator. I copied recovery.img from the I9500 CWM to the internal sd card. I then went to /dev/block/msm_sdcc.1/by-name to figure out what partition is recovery, turns out its 21. I then did “dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p21”. I then booted into recovery and it just hung up. I had previously found a stock recovery partition so I flashed that via Odin (the only file I have found that works flashing via Odin). I could then boot back into the normal recovery. I then tried flashing both recovery and cache with the CF Auto files (cache is partition 18). Same result, it just hangs when trying to boot into recovery. At one point I did manage to flash a recovery that then came up with a warning about “software installed that is not supported by AT&T” and I couldn’t get past that so had to flash the stock recovery again.
On a side note, I accidentally wiped the EFS partition in this process (if found a tutorial that shows the S3 had recovery in partition 10, which is EFS on the S4). As a result 1.) the menu didn’t pop up when I hit the power button and 2.) wifi didn’t work. So, I made an .img of the EFS partition on my GT-I337 and moved it to the I9500 and that worked restoring both. In case anyone makes the same mistake.
I have now also used CWM ROM Manager and GooManger and tried installing recovery that way with no luck.

Just check if the internal memory partitioning is correct ( number, size and format) (use fdisk or parsed).
ODIN will install according to the PIT file and if drivers and cables are OK it is no other explanation than that.
PS: do not trust heimdall data because it just read the PIT file and do not give the true info from the memory part.!

Uhm on the TWRP website they say that the I9500 has it on partition 10.....
This would be the proper partition based on their website:
mmcblk0p10
Are you absolutely sure you have an i9500? Because my guess is that you don't.....
Boot into download mode. What does it say your model is?
Because on the AT&T it's partition 21.... So my guess is that you are messing up....

Thanks everyone for the input/feedback,
Something I think I had forgotten to mention previously, when the initial root/recovery attempts didn't work I downloaded an app to verify it is a genuine Samsung as I have heard of very good knock-offs. It is genuine according to the app.
Good point/catch regarding the location of the recovery partition. Under About Phone it shows as an I9500 and always has. When in download mode it currently shows as I337 but I wasn't sure if that was simply a result of all my attempts so I figured best to go with the one I am certain has been the same since I bought the phone. I had been hesitant to try wiping the recovery with for the I337 as that is how I soft-bricked my RazrHD (ultimately un-bricked it).
Tonight I will try the I337 files and see if Odin is successful. Thanks again.

Damn! Turns out my phone is an I337. The hardward (under the battery) says I9500 and when I plug it into a computer it shows up as I9500. On the weekend I thought I read that there is now the ability to flash recovery and install CyanogenMod on I337 if its updated to 4.4.2. So, I donwloaded the firmware and flashed with Odin. It flashed successfully but now I realize I am mistaken and 1.) cannot flash recovery, and 2.) cannot downgrade. For the time being I have installed Nova Launcher and removed as much of TouchWiz as possible. It's not perfect but at least usable. I'd like to start researching what it would take to flash recovery on this phone but I suspect I'm too busy at this moment.
Thanks everyone for the help,

S4 GTI9505 flashed recovery without root help

So I accidentally flashed the recovery package through Odin to a friend's s4 gt i9505 and i get a no access error in the recovery with an android and a red triangle. Since it has a custom recovery odin doesnt detect it. My question is what should i do ? . There is literally noone that has experienced the same (noob) mistake so there is no real fix. The phone is running 4.4.2 with an official upgrade to lollipop but KNOX was tripped so I would like to fix for him without having to pay for official service.
Thanks in advance.

Odd. I have a custom recovery on my S4 and Odin detects my S4 without a problem, meaning something else is causing your connection woes. Obviously, make sure you're in download mode first (hold down the volume down, home, power keys), which wouldn't be affected by a custom recovery, and change USB ports until Odin does recognize the device. Then flash the stock ROM again to restore the S4 to working order.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Odd. I have a custom recovery on my S4 and Odin detects my S4 without a problem, meaning something else is causing your connection woes. Obviously, make sure you're in download mode first (hold down the volume down, home, power keys), which wouldn't be affected by a custom recovery, and change USB ports until Odin does recognize the device. Then flash the stock ROM again to restore the S4 to working order.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the thing is it bypassed download mode straight into the recovery so it didnt recognize it at all. Maybe it was because it had a non rooted recovery? Anyway i rooted the phone with kingoroot which on the one hand it worked on the other hand the phone laggs like hell but it wiped the custom recovery somehow so i got samsung's download mode back flashed cf auto root but it doesnt update su binary so thats my problem now . The phone is a 4.4.2 firmware so should i Flash first lollipop and then root it or flash a recovery to install the su binary from there?

CostasV23 said:
the thing is it bypassed download mode straight into the recovery so it didnt recognize it at all. Maybe it was because it had a non rooted recovery? Anyway i rooted the phone with kingoroot which on the one hand it worked on the other hand the phone laggs like hell but it wiped the custom recovery somehow so i got samsung's download mode back flashed cf auto root but it doesnt update su binary so thats my problem now . The phone is a 4.4.2 firmware so should i Flash first lollipop and then root it or flash a recovery to install the su binary from there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on your first post and this post I have come to the conclusion that you have absolutely no idea what you are doing. You are mixing everything up. And I mean everything.
- A non rooted recovery? What is that? It doesn't excist. A recovery has nothing to do with root.
- Because you had a custom recovery Odin doesn't detect it? Completely impossible. A custom recovery has nothing to do with Odin detecting or not detecting.
- Wiping the recovery and getting download mode back? Dude that's impossible. Download mode and recovery are two completely different things.
1. Flash Lollipop if you want Lollipop. With .pit and re-partition.
2. Perform a factory reset.
3. Flash cf-auto root.
That's all there is to it.

Lennyz1988 said:
Based on your first post and this post I have come to the conclusion that you have absolutely no idea what you are doing. You are mixing everything up. And I mean everything.
- A non rooted recovery? What is that? It doesn't excist. A recovery has nothing to do with root.
- Because you had a custom recovery Odin doesn't detect it? Completely impossible. A custom recovery has nothing to do with Odin detecting or not detecting.
- Wiping the recovery and getting download mode back? Dude that's impossible. Download mode and recovery are two completely different things.
1. Flash Lollipop if you want Lollipop. With .pit and re-partition.
2. Perform a factory reset.
3. Flash cf-auto root.
That's all there is to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I meant was that I accidentally flashed the recovery tar.md5 file before cf-auto-root and it wasn't working . aside that I get an su binary update error is there a fix for that?

CostasV23 said:
What I meant was that I accidentally flashed the recovery tar.md5 file before cf-auto-root and it wasn't working . aside that I get an su binary update error is there a fix for that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root and recovery are two unrelated things. You don't need root for a custom recovery and you don't need a custom recovery to root.
I would start with a clean install since you used Kingoroot and cf auto-root.
Flash a stock rom with re-partition and .pit. Then only use cf auto-root.

Lennyz1988 said:
I would start with a clean install since you used Kingoroot and cf auto-root.
Flash a stock rom with re-partition and .pit. Then only use cf auto-root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I flash the official lollipop firmware via odin will it work you mean ? (Sorry for noob question ) also about that .pit I haven't found anywhere a .pit file is it necessary ?

CostasV23 said:
If I flash the official lollipop firmware via odin will it work you mean ? (Sorry for noob question ) also about that .pit I haven't found anywhere a .pit file is it necessary ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also wipe /system and /data in TWRP and then flash Lollipop firmware.

Lennyz1988 said:
You can also wipe /system and /data in TWRP and then flash Lollipop firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it obligatory i wipe the system partition because odin flash rewrites it anyway or am i wrong on this one?
Also after kingroot the recovery was wiped clean for some reason

Bro my s4 GT I9505 have stock rom v5 .0.1 UHOE3.now I need rooted and install philz touch recovery so pls proper guide and file.thanks in advance.

Philz is outdated, and certain ROMs will not install with it. Use TWRP instead. For installing, it's just like installing a stock ROM through Odin. We have guides on this in the General section.

Help Root Samsung S5 5.0 SM-G900H baseband G900HXXU1BOL2 BUILD # LRX21T.G900HXXS1BPD2

Hello, I need help to rooting my phone. I am currently using Samsung Galaxy S5 model number SM-G900H with Android version 5.0, Baseband version G900HXXU1BOL2 , Kernel version 3.10.9-5852541, Build Number LRX21T.G900HXXS1BPD2, and KNOX 2.3.
I've follow many tutorials on how to root my S5 but with no luck... it always get boot stuck after flashing CF-Auto-Root-k3g-k3gxx-smg900h.tar.md5 using ODIN3-v3.10.6. What else could be wrong ?

Some S5s don't like CF AR
Copy SuperSU.zip to your phone/microSD
Flash TWRP with ODIN (Uncheck Auto reboot first in ODIN)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2725939
Once it completes the flash, disconnect the USB, and pull the battery to power off the phone
Replace the battery, and immediately boot into recovery with Volume Up & Home & Power
Flash SuperSU
Reboot (If asked to root again from TWRP after flashing SuperSU, say NO)

*Detection* said:
Some S5s don't like CF AR
Copy SuperSU.zip to your phone/microSD
Flash TWRP with ODIN (Uncheck Auto reboot first in ODIN)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2725939
Once it completes the flash, disconnect the USB, and pull the battery to power off the phone
Replace the battery, and immediately boot into recovery with Volume Up & Home & Power
Flash SuperSU
Reboot (If asked to root again from TWRP after flashing SuperSU, say NO)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your assist... i will try it and post the results here... Should i use the last version of Odin and SuperSU anyway ?

Yep, use the latest versions

*Detection* said:
Yep, use the latest versions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did all the step above but after flashing twrp-k3gxx.tar , remove the battery and entering recovery mode, nothing is change there, it just entering the original recovery mode. Do twrp-k3gxx.tar is the correct version for my SM-G900H ?

*Detection* said:
Yep, use the latest versions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
frenxl said:
I did all the step above but after flashing twrp-k3gxx.tar , remove the battery and entering recovery mode, nothing is change there, it just entering the original recovery mode. Do twrp-k3gxx.tar is the correct version for my SM-G900H ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What happen if I just flash SuperSU directly via ODIN ?

Did you put the phone in download mode, and did ODIN show a connected COM port at the top?
Did it say successful flash?
Try leaving Auto Reboot checked and do it again, let the phone reboot, and then try booting into recovery
You can't flash SuperSU from ODIN, it's a zip file, not an ODIN flashable .md5 or .tar

*Detection* said:
Did you put the phone in download mode, and did ODIN show a connected COM port at the top?
Did it say successful flash?
Try leaving Auto Reboot checked and do it again, let the phone reboot, and then try booting into recovery
You can't flash SuperSU from ODIN, it's a zip file, not an ODIN flashable .md5 or .tar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I did put the phone in download mode, and ODIN show a connected COM port, i know how to used it and succesfully flashing the twrp-k3gxx.tar, pull the batt out and back in, boot in to recovery mode and nothing is happen... i just entering the stock recovery mode. it is like something overwrites the custom recovery right just before the phone boot up.
I think it is likely that Root image doesn’t seem to worked with the newest Android software update version, or maybe Samsung might also try to released some patches to the Android system that might prevent from customizing ?
I also tried to flasing CF-Auto-Root-k3g-k3gxx-smg900h.zip but it soft-break my phone so i have to flashing back to stock rom (luckyly i have download it before)

Stuck with the same issue. Plenty of Auto Root tutorials are available. Each one specifies that tutorial is exclusive to particular model number. G900HXXUIBOL2 is my build number. Once installed CF Auto Root. When verified via Root Checker, it showed success and got root access !!..But Couldn't enter recovery mode since then..was getting stucked in boot loop when trying to enter recovery mode. Had to restore stock ROM...Really frustrated with Samsung's UI. Wish I could change to Cyanogenmod..Any help would be really appreciated..Thanks in Advance

Help recovering data

So I have a friend who decided to mess with his phone, of course without doing a backup, and now he's stuck in a situation that it can't boot even into recovery.
Currently all I see when booting to recovery:
Recovery Booting. . . . .
Set Warranty Bit : recovery
The phone is G900F
He has no idea what version was installed on it before.
I don't need the phone to boot, I need to recover the files on it.
Being a oneplus person myself, I'm not that familiar with samsung phones (my latest samsung was s2).
I've tried to install with odin (3.0.7 - if that matters) the following recoveries:
official twrp 2.8.7
twrp
cwm
All these recoveries showed "Recovery is not seandroid enforcing" message as well as the above when trying to boot into recoveries.
I've tried the official recovery as well:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/general/sm-g900f-stock-recovery-5-0-lollipop-t3228871
which removed the "seandroid" message, but that's all.
Not sure what I'm missing.
Any help would be appreciated!

Tahvok said:
So I have a friend who decided to mess with his phone, of course without doing a backup, and now he's stuck in a situation that it can't boot even into recovery.
Currently all I see when booting to recovery:
Recovery Booting. . . . .
Set Warranty Bit : recovery
The phone is G900F
He has no idea what version was installed on it before.
I don't need the phone to boot, I need to recover the files on it.
Being a oneplus person myself, I'm not that familiar with samsung phones (my latest samsung was s2).
I've tried to install with odin (3.0.7 - if that matters) the following recoveries:
official twrp 2.8.7
twrp
cwm
All these recoveries showed "Recovery is not seandroid enforcing" message as well as the above when trying to boot into recoveries.
I've tried the official recovery as well:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/general/sm-g900f-stock-recovery-5-0-lollipop-t3228871
which removed the "seandroid" message, but that's all.
Not sure what I'm missing.
Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm...
I see that your friend messed up his phone very well .....
Hopefully the eMMC memory is not corrupted becuase then only motherboard replacement would be necessary.
Summarising what you wrote:
1. you flashed "official recovery 2.8.7" -> where did you get it from? 2.8.7 is the very old version!
2. you flashed unofficial TWRP very old (2014) recovery (I checked your link)
3. you flashed unofficial CWM very old (2014) recovery (I checked your link)
4. finally you flashed stock, from old OS 5.0 Lollipop recovery provided from entrusted source - nobody reported that it works in the thread.
I listed this for you in order to underline one thing - READ, READ, READ, ASK, ASK, ASK .... before flashing anything to the phone and tell it to your friend.
Le's start with flashing from ODIN ver 3.12.7 (I am using it) this version of TWRP:
twrp-3.1.1-0-klte.img.tar for G900F which is the latest official recovery:
https://twrp.me/samsung/samsunggalaxys5qualcomm.html
Read how to flash it with odin method (when you open the link).
Edit: Are you sure the phone is SM-G900F? Please check model number on the label under battery (inside the phone).
Edit2: When you enter odin mode check phone model version as well - it is provided by installed bootloader.

Many40 said:
Hmm...
I see that your friend messed up his phone very well .....
Hopefully the eMMC memory is not corrupted becuase then only motherboard replacement would be necessary.
Summarising what you wrote:
1. you flashed "official recovery 2.8.7" -> where did you get it from? 2.8.7 is the very old version!
2. you flashed unofficial TWRP very old (2014) recovery (I checked your link)
3. you flashed unofficial CWM very old (2014) recovery (I checked your link)
4. finally you flashed stock, from old OS 5.0 Lollipop recovery provided from entrusted source - nobody reported that it works in the thread.
I listed this for you in order to underline one thing - READ, READ, READ, ASK, ASK, ASK .... before flashing anything to the phone and tell it to your friend.
Le's start with flashing from ODIN ver 3.12.7 (I am using it) this version of TWRP:
twrp-3.1.1-0-klte.img.tar for G900F which is the latest official recovery:
https://twrp.me/samsung/samsunggalaxys5qualcomm.html
Read how to flash it with odin method (when you open the link).
Edit: Are you sure the phone is SM-G900F? Please check model number on the label under battery (inside the phone).
Edit2: When you enter odin mode check phone model version as well - it is provided by installed bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, thank you for trying to help me!
Please see attachments:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1euC7-CoBeeUQxTGXQnPPgRE2-5VxFXLh
You can see that it is indeed g900f. I've also checked under the battery.
I've flashed the recovery you asked, however I could not find odin 3.12.7 only 3.12.10, so I've flashed with that (the odin thread on xda does not provide a link for 3.12.7 download).
You can see that it's still not booting with that recovery, it's just stuck at "booting recovery" screen.
I'm thinking perhaps it has a bad bootloader? How would you suggest to proceed?

Tahvok said:
First, thank you for trying to help me!
Please see attachments:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1euC7-CoBeeUQxTGXQnPPgRE2-5VxFXLh
You can see that it is indeed g900f. I've also checked under the battery.
I've flashed the recovery you asked, however I could not find odin 3.12.7 only 3.12.10, so I've flashed with that (the odin thread on xda does not provide a link for 3.12.7 download).
You can see that it's still not booting with that recovery, it's just stuck at "booting recovery" screen.
I'm thinking perhaps it has a bad bootloader? How would you suggest to proceed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. Let's continue ... I hope (as I had very similar situation) that the phone is not hardbricked and eMMC memory is not corrupted -> I faced this on my phone and finally had to replace motherboard.
But let's be optimistic:
1. For data recovery - I don't have a silver bullet for this but I found this software: http://www.recover-android-iphone.com/recover-android/how-to-recover-data-bricked-samsung.html
It needs working odin mode so under condition that it supports s5 G900F it should be able to restore some data.
2. For unbricking - I recommend to flash via odin the latest official Samsung stock firmware dedicated to your friend's country/region:
https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/galaxy-s5/SM-G900F/
You must be registered to download the software. Link for odin 3.12.7 is available on the bottom of the download page.
Just to underline - odin flash most probably (anybody please confirm that) will wipe your data so be aware of that.
Good luck.

Many40 said:
Ok. Let's continue ... I hope (as I had very similar situation) that the phone is not hardbricked and eMMC memory is not corrupted -> I faced this on my phone and finally had to replace motherboard.
But let's be optimistic:
1. For data recovery - I don't have a silver bullet for this but I found this software: http://www.recover-android-iphone.com/recover-android/how-to-recover-data-bricked-samsung.html
It needs working odin mode so under condition that it supports s5 G900F it should be able to restore some data.
2. For unbricking - I recommend to flash via odin the latest official Samsung stock firmware dedicated to your friend's country/region:
https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/galaxy-s5/SM-G900F/
You must be registered to download the software. Link for odin 3.12.7 is available on the bottom of the download page.
Just to underline - odin flash most probably (anybody please confirm that) will wipe your data so be aware of that.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why a full firmware is needed? Perhaps I can flash only the parts required to get into recovery? I count mount the phone from recovery, that's why it's my priority.
I would like to know also if odin will wipe everything if flashing a full firmware?

Tahvok said:
Why a full firmware is needed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because it is commonly recommended way to unbrick a phone.
Perhaps I can flash only the parts required to get into recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps, yes. But:
1. I don't exactly know what restricts your recovery to run properly. Flashing separate recovery failed.
2. You, for example, could try flashing separately one of the latest bootloaders dedicated to G900F from BL section with odin but I doubt it would help.
I count mount the phone from recovery, that's why it's my priority.
I would like to know also if odin will wipe everything if flashing a full firmware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know yes but I am not 100% sure because I didn't try that myself on s5.
I would appreciate if somebody else confirms that.

Many40 said:
2. You, for example, could try flashing separately one of the latest bootloaders dedicated to G900F from BL section with odin but I doubt it would help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you suggest a bootloader for me? I would like to try that first.

Tahvok said:
Can you suggest a bootloader for me? I would like to try that first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my opinion, if odin mode works then bootloader should be OK. But as you wish -
tell me first what stock firmware will you later on trying to flash on your friends phone or in which country the phone will be operated.

Many40 said:
In my opinion, if odin mode works then bootloader should be OK. But as you wish -
tell me first what stock firmware will you later on trying to flash on your friends phone or in which country the phone will be operated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hong Kong

Tahvok said:
Hong Kong
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Latest available Firmware version for Hong Kong is G900FZHS1CQD1 however I can't find a separate flashable bootloader for you.
Generaly, in my opinion you might try any of the latest bootloaders compatible with SM-G900F phone (here you can find a collection: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=54094068&postcount=3, I am on G900FXXS1CQI4) but again:
1. I doubt it will help for entering recovery;
2. I still recommend to flash complete stock firmware to unbrick the phone.
However if you anyway decide to try with a bootloader, flash it with odin from BL section (untick auto reboot). Also turn off the phone before and after flashing and pull out battery for about 30 sec. It happens that bootloader doesn't flash properly at once even the odin says "PASS" so some people reported that they needed to repeat flashing a few times. I managed to flash bootloader at first time.

Unfortunateely the phone is not with me anymore, so I won't be able to continue testing. Thank you anyway for trying to help me! I really appreciate your help!

can't install twrp for xposed galaxy s4 sgh-i337m

I recently upgraded my phone software from 4.4.2 to 5.0.1 and i need to download xposed again and when i searched online it showed that i need to download twrp and i tried this method using adb
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-install-twrp/
but after entering the step 4 ,the command control just "showed a searching for device message" .
i had also tried via odin but recovery did'nt show up when i pressed volumeup+power+home . just a bunch of letters on the top right corner . Pls help me (i am a noob)

Forum for the 337m is here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4-att
Use Odin to flash the tar version of TWRP.

could'nt boot into twrp recovery
audit13 said:
Forum for the 337m is here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4-att
Use Odin to flash the tar version of TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried your method and decided to see if it was working properly and i followed the instruction for rooted devices in https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-boot-to-recovery/
Not only it did'nt work now my phone is just displaying the samsung galaxy s4 logo with words on the top left corner that says
recovery booting. . . .
recovery is not seandroid enforcing
set warranty bit : recovery
i just also checked the twrp manager app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jmz.soft.twrpmanager
it shows "custom recovery not installed or not detected"

How did you flash TWRP? You confirmed that the model # of the phone is sgh-i337m?
I could never get the fastboot instructions in the original post to work since all Samsung phones (non-Google Play versions) I have used did not support fastboot commands.

audit13 said:
How did you flash TWRP? You confirmed that the model # of the phone is sgh-i337m?
I could never get the fastboot instructions in the original post to work since all Samsung phones (non-Google Play versions) I have used did not support fastboot commands.
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I downloaded the .tar file from the team win website for the samsung galaxy s4 canada and i opened odin .
switched off my phone , put it in download mode (volume down+power+ home ,pressed volume up again for confirmation)
connected to computer , odin shows added , clicked AP selected the .tar file and clicked start without making any changes in the options tab . Phone restarts

Flashing TWRP with Odin on a phone running a stock ROM will replace the stock recovery; however, if auto reboot is selected in Odin, rebooting the phone after flashing TWRP will cause the stock recovery or overwrite TWRP and this is one reason some people uncheck auto reboot.
I suggest starting over by flashing the latest stock ROM from sammobile.com with Odin 3.07.

audit13 said:
Flashing TWRP with Odin on a phone running a stock ROM will replace the stock recovery; however, if auto reboot is selected in Odin, rebooting the phone after flashing TWRP will cause the stock recovery or overwrite TWRP and this is one reason some people uncheck auto reboot.
I suggest starting over by flashing the latest stock ROM from sammobile.com with Odin 3.07.
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I have just flashed my phone with stock rom from sammobile , after that i put into download mode again and did'nt select the autoreboot . when it was completed i tried going into recovery mode without switching on my phone so i removed the battery and placed it again and pressed volume up+power+home and i still got the same things that showed up before .

Did you try flashing different versions of TWRP? I suggest starting with 2.87. You can then use TWRP itself to flash newer zip versions.

audit13 said:
Did you try flashing different versions of TWRP? I suggest starting with 2.87. You can then use TWRP itself to flash newer zip versions.
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Thank you so much . It finally loaded twrp and i started with version 2.8.4.0 FYI .

That's great