[Q] Will the v4.1.2 Minor FW Update remove root? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

GT-I9300 International No carrier
Current FW v 4.1.2
hxxp://i.imgur.com/DxDXONZ.png
Update Details
hxxp://i.imgur.com/18JE68Z.jpg
Phone Rooted using CF-Auto-Root
SuperSU and Busybox installed
CWM not installed
Using Stock ROM
Using Stock Kernel
As you can see Kies has prompted me an update and the update seems to have already downloaded OTA using WiFi.
It is prompting me to install the update again and again.
My question is, if I do select to install this update,
1.) Will it remove root?
2.) Will it completely wipe my phone? (previous incremental updates haven't wiped my data, but the phone wasn't rooted then.)
3.) Can I root again using CF-Auto-Root?
Thank you.

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Jaxx89 said:
GT-I9300 International No carrier
Current FW v 4.1.2
hxxp://i.imgur.com/DxDXONZ.png
Update Details
hxxp://i.imgur.com/18JE68Z.jpg
Phone Rooted using CF-Auto-Root
SuperSU and Busybox installed
CWM not installed
Using Stock ROM
Using Stock Kernel
As you can see Kies has prompted me an update and the update seems to have already downloaded OTA using WiFi.
It is prompting me to install the update again and again.
My question is, if I do select to install this update,
1.) Will it remove root?
AS per thousands of posts YES.
2.) Will it completely wipe my phone? (previous incremental updates haven't wiped my data, but the phone wasn't rooted then.)
NO
3.) Can I root again using CF-Auto-Root?
YES
All this is posted multiple times .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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JJEgan said:
Jaxx89 said:
GT-I9300 International No carrier
Current FW v 4.1.2
hxxp://i.imgur.com/DxDXONZ.png
Update Details
hxxp://i.imgur.com/18JE68Z.jpg
Phone Rooted using CF-Auto-Root
SuperSU and Busybox installed
CWM not installed
Using Stock ROM
Using Stock Kernel
As you can see Kies has prompted me an update and the update seems to have already downloaded OTA using WiFi.
It is prompting me to install the update again and again.
My question is, if I do select to install this update,
1.) Will it remove root?
AS per thousands of posts YES.
2.) Will it completely wipe my phone? (previous incremental updates haven't wiped my data, but the phone wasn't rooted then.)
NO
3.) Can I root again using CF-Auto-Root?
YES
All this is posted multiple times .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about that. Maybe my searching skills aren't good enough or maybe I don't know how to use this forum coz I found only one thread that too with a Gingerbread FW, which is why I posted this Q
Really sorry.
Thanks for the quick reply.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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Device status modified and cannot update
tried using triangle away and did not reset the flash counter

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Because triangle away can reset your flash counter only if you're running stock recovery, stock kernel, stock rom etc.
CF-AutoRoot should not make your status "modified" but probably like you see it did. Maybe some other apps did that, maybe not, nobody knows anyway. If you really need these updates then you should flash newest firmware from samsung through odin and then root it + reset flash counter, it should work also for further updates (but I'm not sure).

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JustArchi said:
Because triangle away can reset your flash counter only if you're running stock recovery, stock kernel, stock rom etc.
CF-AutoRoot should not make your status "modified" but probably like you see it did. Maybe some other apps did that, maybe not, nobody knows anyway. If you really need these updates then you should flash newest firmware from samsung through odin and then root it + reset flash counter, it should work also for further updates (but I'm not sure).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot.
I know where to get the FW updates to flash via Odin but don't really understand how to reset the flash counter if not by using TriangleAway.
Could you please be kind enough to guide me?
And these are the apps I used after root
SuperSU
Busybox
Root checker
Titanium Backup
Lucky patcher
Market enabler
Greenify
Could any of these apps modify the stock kernel, rom or recovery? Coz I never flashed any custom ones just rooted using CF-Auto-Root and installed the root apps
P.S: I was able to do the FW update via Kies and now the status is back to normal, but I'm afraid to root coz the status might go back to modified.

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It's more like, you know. If we're talking about warranty then they'll find that your rooted your phone anyway. If we're talking about updates then probably it's still better to keep an eye on some stock-based custom roms, mostly because of frequent updates (nearly instantly after new baseband), while you still need to wait some time for OTA to arrive. Of course it's much easier to apply OTA than whole custom rom but hey, how often are you doing that?
About your question - busybox is my choice because it modifies /system apps, many of them.
And lastly - in odin you have a checkbox to reset flash counter, so you don't need to worry about anything using this tool. At least in general.
Overall I'd stick with pure stock non-rooted firmware if you don't need it in general or rooted custom rom (f.e. mine ) for much better experience. I couldn't go back to stock after getting used to much better performance, less battery drain etc.
Choice is yours.

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Lucky patcher
Warez is totally banned on XDA you are stealing from developers .
As its a warez app who knows what sort of malware it could add to your phone .
I would wipe the phone install original firmware .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1978840
Then update it and to stick with unrooted stock .
jje

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JustArchi said:
It's more like, you know. If we're talking about warranty then they'll find that your rooted your phone anyway. If we're talking about updates then probably it's still better to keep an eye on some stock-based custom roms, mostly because of frequent updates (nearly instantly after new baseband), while you still need to wait some time for OTA to arrive. Of course it's much easier to apply OTA than whole custom rom but hey, how often are you doing that?
About your question - busybox is my choice because it modifies /system apps, many of them.
And lastly - in odin you have a checkbox to reset flash counter, so you don't need to worry about anything using this tool. At least in general.
Overall I'd stick with pure stock non-rooted firmware if you don't need it in general or rooted custom rom (f.e. mine ) for much better experience. I couldn't go back to stock after getting used to much better performance, less battery drain etc.
Choice is yours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick response
I rooted mainly coz I needed to use market enabler
In Odin are you referring to the option F. Reset time??
I am using the Odin version provided by Chainfire in his S3 rooting thread in which all options are disabled except for Auto reboot.
@JJEgan I don't even know how to use half of the apps I mentioned, I only installed them as my friend suggested it as must have root apps.
As you might see, I am still a N00b at this and am in the learning process.
BTW Thanks for the link to the guide.

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Jaxx89 said:
Thanks for the quick response
I rooted mainly coz I needed to use market enabler
In Odin are you referring to the option F. Reset time??
I am using the Odin version provided by Chainfire in his S3 rooting thread in which all options are disabled except for Auto reboot.
@JJEgan I don't even know how to use half of the apps I mentioned, I only installed them as my friend suggested it as must have root apps.
As you might see, I am still a N00b at this and am in the learning process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suggest going through my flashing guide located in ArchiDroid thread, with newest odin and newest methods for flashing/rooting.

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JustArchi said:
I suggest going through my flashing guide located in ArchiDroid thread, with newest odin and newest methods for flashing/rooting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot.
If I'm not mistaken, ArchiDroid is a Custom ROM(pre-rooted) which requires a Custom Recovery.
I will be learning a bit more first before I install a Custom ROM.
A question though. Will I have to take a backup of my app data if I decide to install a custom ROM?
Also if I want to install the stock FW via Odin, will I have to take a backup first?
Thanks and I'm really sorry about asking such questions.

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Jaxx89 said:
Thanks a lot.
If I'm not mistaken, ArchiDroid is a Custom ROM(pre-rooted) which requires a Custom Recovery.
I will be learning a bit more first before I install a Custom ROM.
A question though. Will I have to take a backup of my app data if I decide to install a custom ROM?
Also if I want to install the stock FW via Odin, will I have to take a backup first?
Thanks and I'm really sorry about asking such questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it requires custom recovery for installing .zip package.
There is nothing to learn if you ask me, you have complete guide for installing everything you need in step-by-step howto. If you want to keep your data then you need to use some nice app for that f.e. Titanium Backup but for that you need root and... yeah. It's easier to start from scratch on new pre-rooted rom.
I'd suggest flashing custom recovery (tutorial in my topic) and then you can create a backup directly from that, with everything you want to, including actual system, efs folder, recovery, kernel etc. So you can easily get back to original rom whenever you want to. Keep in mind that you still need custom recovery for that.

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JustArchi said:
Yes it requires custom recovery for installing .zip package.
There is nothing to learn if you ask me, you have complete guide for installing everything you need in step-by-step howto. If you want to keep your data then you need to use some nice app for that f.e. Titanium Backup but for that you need root and... yeah. It's easier to start from scratch on new pre-rooted rom.
I'd suggest flashing custom recovery (tutorial in my topic) and then you can create a backup directly from that, with everything you want to, including actual system, efs folder, recovery, kernel etc. So you can easily get back to original rom whenever you want to. Keep in mind that you still need custom recovery for that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok Now I'm really confused
I still haven't learnt how to use Titanium Backup to backup, or how to do a nandroid backup. I have read it's better to do a backup b4 installing a custom ROM. And if I'm not mistaken, I need ROOT to do a nandroid backup too.
As I said before that I used CF-Auto-Root, I just followed the instructions to the word.
I had tried doing a ADB backup before root, but for some reason it kept exiting(I guess coz I have just about 1GB memory left on my Internal memory SD card)
Thanks for the quick reply. Man ur really fast in answering questions. :good:
EDIT: Just did the CF-Auto_Root again and didn't install any other apps like busybox(uninstalled all root apps) and used triangleaway to reset the flash counter. But the counter still stuck on 1
The device status shows normal though.

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Jaxx89 said:
Ok Now I'm really confused
I still haven't learnt how to use Titanium Backup to backup, or how to do a nandroid backup. I have read it's better to do a backup b4 installing a custom ROM. And if I'm not mistaken, I need ROOT to do a nandroid backup too.
As I said before that I used CF-Auto-Root, I just followed the instructions to the word.
I had tried doing a ADB backup before root, but for some reason it kept exiting(I guess coz I have just about 1GB memory left on my Internal memory SD card)
Thanks for the quick reply. Man ur really fast in answering questions. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all you need custom recovery to perform nandroid backups. So you can stick with my first 10 steps in my howto. After that enter recovery, enter backup section and make a custom backup (or default, doesn't matter) of everything you have, especially /efs folder as it's really important. When you finish doing backup then boot to your normal system and copy these backups to your PC. Now you're sure that they won't disappear and if you want to backup your phone from that then simply put them back on your phone and restore them from the recovery.
But overall I'd suggest clean start without these backups. Of course it's always recommended and I recommend it as well but as long as you won't want to go back to original rom, there is no real point for backing it up. You can always download latest official firmware and flash it through odin.