Chinese Ads Gone From OPX! Now want to Root S4

axel

axel

axel

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I have recently reinstalled a new ROM on my wife's phone with great assistance from this forum.

Now that I have a little confidence I am thinking of rooting my Samsung S4 to get rid of bloatware. I have disabled many of the built in apps I do not use, but several refuse to be disabled. The icons are still in my app drawer and they do not appear in the disabled list, although "disable" has been selected and is greyed out. They also still work if selected. There are about a dozen including, Kids Mode, Samsung Hub, Voice apps etc. My battery drains very quickly and no doubt these apps are contributing.

Any advice on permanently disabling or removing these would be appreciated or alternatively on rooting my S4. I already have the latest ROM installed and I have various tools such as TWRP from my last adventure.

Axel
 
Welcome to the world of rooting ;).

The steps are different for Samsung phones, Odin will be your best friend.

In Settings -> About phone, under model under does it say i9500 or i9505? As both uses different chips so will be different.

TWRP for i9500: https://dl.twrp.me/i9500/
TWRP for i9505: https://dl.twrp.me/jfltexx/

You will need to download and install Odin on your PC. Once you have Odin installed, download the proper .tar file for your device from the download link above. Power off your device. Turn on your device using the proper key combo to get into download mode and attach the device to your computer via a USB cable. Use the PDA tab or button to browse to and select the tar file that you downloaded and flash the device.
Click to expand...

Once you have TWRP flashed over you can boot into TWRP and flash SuperSU (2.78 zip file) giving you root access, and with apps like Titanium backup you can remove system apps.

You also have an option to go to a different ROM, the S4 is stuck on 5.0 Lollipop TouchWiz, but Samsung did offer a Google Play edition version which is on 5.1, and is pretty much stock Android without any of the Samsung UI (although this is for the Qualcomm i9505 model). Alternatively there are some ROMs based on Marshmallow and even Nougat: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4
 
Hi, many thanks again for the support.

I have GT-19505 and Android version 5.0.1 (no sweets mentioned)

I have downloaded Odin and the TWRP for 19505.

"Turn on your device using the proper key combo to get into download mode"
Can you clarify please?

"Use the PDA tab or button" Where is this? I have looked on Odin and cannot see it."

"Once you have TWRP flashed over you can boot into TWRP and flash SuperSU (2.78 zip file) giving you root access, and with apps like Titanium backup you can remove system apps"

Can you step by step this please?

Axel
 
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5.0.1 is Lollipop ;). The Android version in About usually doesn't mention the sweet name, just the number.

Make sure you have twrp-3.0.2-0-jfltexx.img.tar downladed as Odin works with tar files.

Also back everything up just in case.

1) Power off the phone, then after a few seconds hold volume down, home and power at the same time. You should see something like "Downloading..." on the screen, this means the phone is in download mode.

2) Open up Odin on the PC and connect the phone to it. Odin should now detect the phone and the ID:COM box will turn yellow stating added.

3) Click on AP (older Odin versions had it labelled as PDA, TWRP's site didn't update this) and select the TWRP file. Click start and it will flash TWRP and should automatically reboot the phone back to Android afterwards.

4) Once the phone has finished booting, copy over the SuperSU zip file. Then power off the phone.

5) Hold volume up, home and power until you see the TWRP screen. Tap on install then tap on the SuperSU zip file you copied over previously to your phone. Reboot the phone and now you should be back in Android.

6) You should see SuperSU in your app drawer. Use something like this to see if root works: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joeykrim.rootcheck&hl=en_GB

You'll get a pop up window from SuperSU asking if the Root Checker app can have access. Allow it and the root checker app should confirm you're rooted.
Now, I did use Titanium Backup back in the days to back up my apps as well as removing system apps, but I haven't felt the need to do this any more. I'm not sure if it's still the best app to use but it still does the job. In the app just go to backup/restore to see the list of apps, find the system app you want, tap on the app to bring up some options and tap uninstall. First time will ask for root permissions so make sure to allow that.

Be careful though, if you remove the wrong system app it could mess up the phone. There are lists like these that shows what is safe and what happens if certain ones are removed: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2315904

And then there's PreloadInstaller.apk which if you do not remove will recover the system apps you removed, so make sure to remove that first.

I recommend using Titanium's backup option first before removing apps as well just in case the phone does actually depend on it.
 
All went well until Step 5. No TWRP screen, the phone boots as normal, tried it twice.

I did disconnect from the PC after Stage 4 which may have been the mistake??



Axel
 
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No it should be fine.

Are you sure you're holding volume up, home and the power button at the same time?

I guess the other way is to enable USB debugging in developer options, and do "adb reboot recovery" if you're having problems with the button method.
 
Orcvader said:
No it should be fine.

Are you sure you're holding volume up, home and the power button at the same time?

I guess the other way is to enable USB debugging in developer options, and do "adb reboot recovery" if you're having problems with the button method.
Click to expand...

Yes tried it twice more (after disabling a volume lock app) but no difference. Tried the "adb reboot recovery" and got the screen below. "Allow debugging" pops up on my phone when I enter the command but after selecting OK nothing happens.

 
Looks like it hasn't been authorised properly, does doing "adb devices" bring up the same unaurthorised message?

If so on the phone under the USB debugging setting, there should be a "Revoke USB debugging authorisations" option that will reset it. Do that, replug the phone to the PC, then do "adb devices" on the PC again and see if it gets authorised properly this time.

Then do the "adb reboot recovery" command when it's done.
 
"adb devices" did not bring up any error messages so tried "adb reboot recovery" again. I am now into an "Android system recovery" screen with about a dozen options.
 
... That doesn't sound like TWRP.

Select the reboot option now to get back to Android, and put the phone back into download mode. Open up Odin again.

Just to make sure, you did download and select twrp-3.0.2-0-jfltexx.img.tar and not twrp-3.0.2-0-jfltexx.img right?

Another thing to check, where did you buy the S4 originally? There could be a chance if it was locked to a network, it may not allow custom recoveries.

EDIT: If it was network locked seems Samsung overwrites custom recoveries back to the stock one (it's for the S5 but should apply to other Samsung phones as well): http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...s/523843-odin-says-pass-but-doesn-t-work.html

Seems the suggested thing is to uncheck the auto reboot option in Odin before pressing start, and then Odin states "PASS", unplug from the PC, take the battery out, insert it again, then try the "volume up + home+ power" button combination again to boot into TWRP.
 
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I only have the correct file twrp-3.0.2-0-jfltexx.img.tar on my computer.

I bought it from O2 and it will be locked to their network. Does that mean I am snookered from rooting the phone?
 
axel said:
I only have the correct file twrp-3.0.2-0-jfltexx.img.tar on my computer.

I bought it from O2 and it will be locked to their network. Does that mean I am snookered from rooting the phone?
Click to expand...

Check my edit, try those steps but if you can't get the button combination to work then you're stuck sadly.
 
Brilliant!! Worked a treat. I have used the root checker and I am now fully rooted.

Should I install the basic Titaneum Backup or the Pro version?
 
I think you're best flashing a new ROM for the phone. Maybe a stock based ROM that's already debloated and also better optimised.
Try one from here
Personally I always get rid of any stock ROMs and always flash an AOSP based ROM. So your S4 will look and perform like the OPX does.
 
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