Task 3: Re-root Your Note II - (Part 2)
How to Root a Note II with stock Android 4.3
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- After undergoing the update to Android 4.3 and being factory reset afterward (if you followed the steps in Task 2), it is probable that your phone is no longer in the developer mode. It needs to be and we'll use the Android menu to check it and implement it if necessary. Select "Settings" from the Android menu and scroll to the bottom until "About phone" is visible. If "Developer options" is not also visible above it, then your phone is no longer in developer mode.
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Note: If the Settings are configured for a "tab view", tap on the "More" tab to view the "About phone" settings. The "Developer options" should be visible above it if the phone is in developer mode.
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To put the phone into developer mode, tap on "About phone" and scroll down. Then tap on the Build number 7 times.
. - Turn on the USB debugging mode from the Android menu with Settings > Developer options > USB debugging.
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USB debugging must be turned on for Saferoot to work.
. - Enable apps to be installed on your phone from outside the Google Play Store by going to: Settings > Security
. - Your phone should not be connected to your PC yet. Right-click on the file "install.bat" that you extracted from the Saferoot zip file and choose the "Run as administrator" command. "Install.bat" is actually a PC batch file containing a script that will handle the rooting process.
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A Windows command prompt window will appear. Don't be concerned by the fact that "Samsung Galaxy S4" is listed at the top of the window—this process works well and is safe for the Note II, also.
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A message will appear in the window instructing you to plug your phone into your PC and press any key on the computer's keyboard to continue.
. - Connect your phone to your PC via your phone's USB cable. Important: Wait a minute for your computer to recognize
Note: You may have noticed that you do not need to put your phone in Odin mode for this method. It is a very easy procedure and, even if it goes wrong or does not work, it should not harm your phone. That's why its author calls it "safe" root.
. - Press any key (once) on your PC's keyboard for the script to continue. If a message appears on your phone asking you whether to allow the PC ("this computer") to use USB debugging to access your phone, check the "Always allow from this computer" and tap the "OK" button.
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The Saferoot script will copy a number of files to your phone and begin the rooting process. Then it will reboot your phone and ask you to wait. After the phone has rebooted, Saferoot will check to see if it can detect "su" (the superuser app). If it can't, it indicates that something prevented it from attaining root-level access. If that happens, close the command prompt window and unplug your phone from your PC. Then start over with Step 4 above. It took three runs to successfully root my wife's Note II. But my Note II was rooted on the first attempt. I don't know what happened with hers but the point is: don't give up until you've tried two or three times.
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Saferoot also attempts to disable the "Knox Notification Manager". It was successful on both our Note II phones. The "Knox" is a new security feature to prevent rooting of Galaxy phones and it can generate annoying messages.
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At some point you will be asked to open SuperSU and let it update. To open SuperSU, tap on the "Apps" icon at the bottom right corner of any home screen on your phone then scroll through the apps to find SuperSU. Tap on it to launch it. It should ask you to allow it to get an update. Allow it to do it.
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Next, you will probably get a message from SuperSU asking for permission to allow "ADB shell" to gain root permissions. Allow it to have permission.
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Saferoot should say "--- All Finished ---" when it is done. Close the command prompt window when it does.
. - If desired, disconnect your phone from your PC.
. - Locate the Root Checker app that you installed earlier and verify that your phone is rooted by tapping on the "Verify Root" button.
. - Next, I recommend rebooting your phone and using the Root Checker app again to verify that your phone is still rooted. It should be. Congratulations!!!
. - The next step I did was to return to the Google Play Store and install the "Pro" version of Chainfire's SuperSU. Then I turned on the "Survival mode" feature (not available on the free version) to help it survive future OTA updates.
. - Next, I recommend restoring the data backups from your phone's internal storage and external SD card. This should be done before attempting to restore the data to any apps because your apps may reference it. For example, I restored the ringtones, notification sounds and pictures to my phone's internal storage because some of them were linked to my contacts and I want the Contacts app to be able to find them when my contacts data was restored. You'll need to think this through and anticipate the dependencies of your apps and restore them before restoring the data for the apps, themselves.
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I recommend using caution so as to avoid writing old system data from Android 4.1.x onto your new Android 4.3. For this reason, don't blindly restore the entire contents of your storage backups without thinking about what you really need. Make a note of the folder and files that Android 4.3 installed on both your phone's internal storage area and your SD card and don't write over them with old versions from your backups.
. - After you've restored the data from your storage backups, you should install your backup app onto your phone. For me, this meant returning to the Google Play Store and downloading Titanium Backup and its Pro license key. I had already restored the user app + system data backup to my SD card in Step 11 above. Now I can simply open Titanium Backup Pro and restore data to my apps. Naturally, the apps need to be installed first and I never use Titanium Backup Pro for that—I prefer to return to the source (Google's Play Store or Amazon's Android App Store) and install fresh copies of my apps from there. Then I return to Titanium Backup Pro and restore just the data for the app.
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Note: The only time I would install an app with Titanium Backup is if the app is no longer available from other sources.
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Tip: In come cases, you will be restoring data that was created with an older version of an app. This is the case with the Contacts app and text message. If your backup app offers to convert the data between different versions of an app, I recommend turning this feature on. In Titanium Backup Pro, you open the main menu and turn on Preferences... > Migrate system data in the "Restoration settings" section. This feature worked beautifully for me and I was able to restore the contacts and SMS/MMS texts much better than any other method I've ever used. Even the contact photos were visible because I had carefully restored the photo files in Step 11 first.
. - With regard to restoring apps, my approach was to begin with the system apps first (like the Contacts and text messages). I also used the Google Play Store to upgrade all of the system apps that needed it. Then I returned to Titanium Backup Pro and "froze" all of the bloatware and apps that I don't want to use. I chose to freeze them rather than uninstall them so I can restore them later should the need arise. I saved my personal apps for last—there are a lot—and I wanted to make sure that the system was stable and running very well first.
. - After all my apps had been restored, I used Titanium Backup Pro to check the Dalvik cache (it was okay) and I did one last wipe of the Android system cache.
. - Finally, I used the Root Explorer app to edit feature.xml in the system area. It is a CSC (Consumer Software Customization) file that cell phone network providers use to customize the features of our phones. They use it to turn on or off features for various reasons. For example, Verizon doesn't want us to be able to turn off the camera shutter sound, nor do they want us to have an exit button to properly close the internet browser when we're finished using it. I adjust these customizable features based on my needs but, once the feature.xml file is edited, you can't wipe your system cache without also wiping the changes to feature.xml. So I save it for last and wipe the cache beforehand (Step 14).
Well, that concludes my experience upgrading my family's two Note II phones to Android 4.3 without giving up root-level access. I hope the explanations help fill in some of the gaps you'll find in other procedures on the 'net.
Kind regards, FirstLight
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