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Root [International] PhilZ CWM Recovery - Dummies Guide

ironass

Extreme Android User
Aug 17, 2010
12,758
6,351
Cotswolds, England
#1.0. This is a step-by-step guide, with videos and screenshots, for absolute beginners to Android and the Galaxy S4. Please read it carefully and thoroughly as it will take you through the installation procedure and answer most of your queries.

(Warning On firmware releases that are Knox security enabled the following instructions will result in the Knox security flag being tripped. See, Knox Security & locked bootloader on new firmwares for more information.)


Phil3759 is well known for his CWM, (ClockWorkMod), custom recoveries in the rooting and modding circles.

The custom recovery is essentially the phone's stock kernel image with an elaborate CWM, ClockWorkMod, Recovery incorporated that replaces the very basic one that comes with stock and allows you to create, "nandroid", backups and a whole host of other tasks that are essential to modding your phone.



You cannot root your phone with these recoveries so you will need to be rooted to install them.

There are 2 methods of installing the PhilZ recovery that depend on whether you have a stock or a custom, CWM, Recovery already installed on your rooted phone.



Method #1 for rooted phones with STOCK Recovery


#1.1.Download PhilZ recovery for your model of phone

Use this method of installation if you do not already have a custom, CWM, recovery installed. You will no doubt have Odin3, the necessary drivers and a USB lead already as you are rooted.

It requires that you flash, via Odin3, the PhilZ recovery which, by itself, cannot be used to root your phone.

Download the latest PhilZ recovery .tar.md5 file for your model of phone.

Samsung Galaxy S4, GT-i9505, quad core...

Download the latest PhilZ_touch jflte.tar.md5 file, here.

or

Samsung Galaxy S4, GT-i9500, octa core...

Download the latest PhilZ_touch i9500.tar.md5 file, here.

If you are unsure of the model of your phone, go to... Settings > More > About device > Model number

Download the file to your desktop. This is the .tar file that contains the PhilZ custom recovery.



#1.2. Step 1.

Ensure that your phone is fully charged and that you have USB debugging enabled.

On your phone, go to... Settings > More > About device > Build number and tap 7 times on it. This will enable the hidden, “Developer options”, menu when you go back to the, “More”, menu. Open the, “Developer options”, menu and check, “USB debugging”. See video, here.

Put your phone into Download mode by turning it off completely and then press and hold the following buttons... Volume Down + Home (centre hard key) + (lastly) Power. Continue to hold these buttons until your phone boots into the Warning! screen asking you to press volume up if you want to continue or volume down to cancel. Press Volume Up. See video, here.



#1.3. Step 2.

Right click on Odin and select, "Run as Administrator", to open it. Ensure that the Samsung Kies programme is NOT running at the same time as this can cause problems

With Odin displayed on your PC screen, click on the AP button, (formerly known as PDA on earlier versions of Odin), and navigate to the extracted PhilZ .tar file, that you placed on your home screen, and select it.

Make sure that Re-Partition is unchecked and that Auto Reboot, F.Reset Time and PDA are checked and that the PDA box now contains your .tar file.


#1.4. Step 3.

Connect your phone, still in Download mode, to the PC using the USB lead. If you have successfully connected to Odin you should see the ID:COM box in Odin turn yellow or light blue, (depending on which version of Odin you are using).


#1.5. Step 4.

In Odin click the Start button and you should see a green progress bar above ID:COM and shortly after that the box above it will turn green with the word PASS! in it and your phone will automatically reboot. If during re-booting you are offered the option to, "Fix Root", then select No.




Now go to #1.7 to install Nandroid Manager and Online Nandroid Backup.



#1.6. Method #2 for rooted phones with CWM/TWRP Recovery


This method is for those who are already rooted and have a CWM or TWRP Recovery but wish to install the PhilZ custom recovery with its enhanced touch facilities.

Before doing anything, you should do a nandroid, Titanium and /efs file backup to your external SD card.

These are your, "Get out of jail FREE" cards in case anything goes wrong, now or in the future.

Download the latest PhilZ custom recovery .zip file for your model of phone.

Samsung Galaxy S4, GT-i9505, quad core...

Download the latest PhilZ_touch jflte..zip file, here

or

Samsung Galaxy S4, GT-i9500, octa core...

Download the latest PhilZ_touch i9500.zip file, here

(If you are unsure of the model of your phone, go to... Settings > More > About device > Model number)

Place it on your external SD card, safest place, (if you downloaded it using your phone it will be in... "/mnt/sdcard/Download").

You should now boot your phone into Recovery mode, see video, here, and select Install zip and choose External sdcard. You then navigate to "philz_touch .zip", and install it. Before rebooting it is a good idea to also select Wipe cache partition and, under Advanced, Wipe dalvik cache. Now, go back and select Reboot System now.


For more details and support for the PhilZ custom recovery, visit the developers website, here.



#1.7. Installing Nandroid Manager and Online Nandroid Backup.


To make full use of the options that are now available you will need to download and install, "Nandroid Manager", and, "Online Nandroid Backup", from the Google Play Store.

You are now able to make, "nandroid", (mirror image of OS, app's and settings), backups and restores.

Tip: In Online Nandroid Backup > Menu > Settings > Default Backup Settings > Save Location... set it to, "/storage/extSdCard", as nandroids can be around 4GB and would soon fill up your internal storage.



#1.8. Note: If you flash a stock Samsung firmware which contains a stock, un-rooted, kernel, in future you will need to re-root and install the custom recovery again.


Thanks go to Phil3759 for his kernel and instructions. Feel free to make a donation to Phil3759 for all his hard work.


(Whilst I have taken every care in compiling this guide, I cannot be held responsible for any damage that may occur through its use, or mis-use, and the decision to use this guide lies with you, the owner.

This guide is written solely for, and on behalf of, Android Forums and may not be reproduced, in part or whole, without permission.
)


ironass motto... "Flash in haste... repent at leisure" ;)
 
:-(I'm going to have to go sleep before baby wakes me up but I've successfully flashed the latest recovery 6.0.3.2 my only problem is I can't make a backup to the external card,I did read about changing the format to ext4, I'm assuming I'm currently on exfat 32...I formatted in the phone when I first got it, SanDisk 64gb...what do you recon, should u bite the bullet and reformat?I don't wanna flash anything else until I've got a backup available :-(
 
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Bugger....the little one actually decided for the first time in a month and a half to wake me up at 3 am instead of 8 am! Had tried to keep from getting up up, but to no avail.....

Shall try using a formatting program on the computer, already tried setting it to backup onto external through Rom manager but didn't make a difference unfortunately :-(

philz has posted a fix, but I'm not entirely sure that the fix is for this problem or not! Lol shall try formatting tomorrow, probably night, and will let y'all know how I get on, cheers
 
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Right...interesting developments....I decided to swap sd cards, when I bought my 64g I bought the Mrs a 16gb card which doesn't actually work in her galaxy w, but does in my old s2.So I decided to try it in the s4, booted into recovery, into back up and restore, then tried a backup to external, it is currently running just now!
:) doesn't solve why my 64gb card won't work :-(
 
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when I bought my 64g I bought the Mrs a 16gb card

Shock! :ahhhhh:

Horror! :afraid:



You... a Scot... spending money! ;)


Glad that you have it working with an SD card now though. Try formatting your 64GB using SD Formatter and see if that works and if not, try formatting in the phone again.

Just a thought... you didn't get it from a market stall that had the words, "Cheap", somewhere on the sale price? :deal:
 
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lol sadly that is where i went wrong with the s2, i was using a cheap "32gb" card from ebay.... finally got round to checking it recently and it is actually only 1.8gb!

Got the sandisk ones from mobymemory, but yes, they were reasonably priced though ;)

ill see what i can do with the 64gb card, it does work perfectly with regards to everything else, its just in recovery im having problems! :(
 
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vic_and_bob.jpg
 
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Latest PhilZ recovery versions are...

i9505 = 5.08.0 Download Source

Changelog... (for Syd! :rolleyes:)

"- improve nandroid progress bar update
- fix recovery was not prompting when backup estimated size is larger than free space
- add ors backup support for twrp format requested by BillGoss
- ors backup: when no backup name is given, generate it using same way as nandroid operations (time stamp + rom name tag)
- support separated compiling for Loki patched devices (S4 AT&T and Verizon)
- i9505: revert some changes to fix time bug for some users
- Galaxy S4 US variants: repack around Audism stock JB 4.3 kernel v3 + Samsung exfat modules + revert use of mkefs for partition corruption issue
- fix missing break in set backup compression value menu (misc_nandroid_menu())
- misc clean up code
- sync latest sources
"


i9500 = 5.07.1 Download

No change.


Am I right in saying that this software backs up the efs folder (my favorite folder) automatically?

Spot on Rudedawg. According to PhilZ's main page, here...

"backup/restore EFS in both tar + img formats, now with time incremented copies for both tar and .img"
 
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