Root [How To] Return your Samsung Exhibit II 4G back to it's factory "out of the box" state

[jntdroid]

All credit goes to stubbakatt over HERE for the files and original instructions. I simply walked through it myself and re-wrote out the instructions in a way that caters to my brain.

Disclaimer: This has been tested on two machines - one running Windows 7 32 bit, and one running Windows 7 64 bit. This has not been tested on an XP machine (though it should work the same) or on a Mac. And of course, I'm not responsible if you brick your device, proceed with caution, etc. etc.

FILES NEEDED:

• Drivers: click here (Google Docs automatically pulls up the content of the .zip - simply go to the top left and choose File then Download to download the .zip) - if you're rooted/rommed, you probably already have these, but just in case these are the drivers I used
• "Back to Stock" - Odin, ops, factory image, etc: click here (Google Docs automatically pulls up the content of the .zip - simply go to the top left and choose File then Download to download the .zip) - this is the main stuff that Odin will use to flash your phone back to it's factory state

If someone wants to mirror these files, that would be great. I moved them to my Google Docs account.


STEPS:

1. Make sure the computer recognizes your phone with the drivers above (again, this is probably already the case if you're having to do this!)
   
2. Unzip the "back to stock" .zip file to wherever you want - preferably somewhere easy to get to (desktop?).
   
3. Power down your phone. Once it's off, hold down the volume-down button and press power. Hold both down until you see the "Warning!!" message with the yellow triangle at the bottom. Once you see that, hit the volume-up button. This puts you into Odin/download mode.
   
4. Plug your phone into your computer.
   
5. Among the files you unzipped from the "back to stock" .zip file, open "Odin Multi Downloader v4.43.exe". Once it opens, the Message window at the bottom left should read "Added!!!" and "Detected!!!".
   
6. Make sure all four of the Options are checked (One Package, Auto Reboot, Protect OPS, Reset Time [mine's set to 300 seconds]). I don't know if this is all necessary, but at the very least One Package and Auto Reboot appear to be.
   
7. On the right side, click the "OPS" button, and select/open the Ancora.ops file.
   
8. At the bottom, click the "One Package" button, and select/open the "T679UVKJ1_T679TMBKJ1_T679UVKJ1_HOME.tar.md5" file.
   
9. The Message window should do an md5 check and end with "Check MD5... ok". If it doesn't, try redownloading again - don't want to flash a corrupt file!
   
10. If all of that is good to go, then select the "Start" button.
    
11. Your mileage will vary, but for me it took about 5 minutes, then the phone reboots itself into recovery mode (the little white box with the progress bar), then about 30 seconds after that and the phone fully reboots. Don't unplug it yet. After a few minutes (actually, the 300 seconds set in the "reset time" in Odin), it will say Pass!!! and you're good to go and unplug the phone.
    
12. However, we're not quite done yet. Our goal is to get back to a factory state. You'll notice a lot of your stuff is still in place - apps, etc. That's because this process doesn't touch the /data partition of the phone. In addition, it's possible you COULD still be seeing the Superuser app. If that's the case, simply go into your application settings (settings > applications > manage applications), find Superuser, uninstall it. It will say uninstall not successful, but it should disappear.
    
13. The last thing to do is simply a factory reset - this will wipe out the /data partition, back to stock, and you'll be done. This could also take care of Superuser, but I've never tested it to see since it's easy enough to do it before the factory reset.

So there you go - hopefully you're now sitting on an "out of the box" Exhibit II 4G to do with whatever you please.

 

[ldybala]

Thanks! Just what I needed to factory reset the device. I have a case # with Samsung because I cannot load any apps to my external SD card. However, when I go into Odin mode and connect, the device is not recognized. I get the message in a pop-up window: Please connect phones.

In device manager it is listed as MSM7x30 with a driver that is not recognized. Everything works as it should when not in Odin mode, e.g. I can type adb commands at the command line and get the proper responses. I reloaded the Samsung drivers and all four devices were loaded correctly according to the message.

 

[jntdroid]

Thanks! Just what I needed to factory reset the device. I have a case # with Samsung because I cannot load any apps to my external SD card. However, when I go into Odin mode and connect, the device is not recognized. I get the message in a pop-up window: Please connect phones.

In device manager it is listed as MSM7x30 with a driver that is not recognized. Everything works as it should when not in Odin mode, e.g. I can type adb commands at the command line and get the proper responses. I reloaded the Samsung drivers and all four devices were loaded correctly according to the message.

I can't find it at the moment, but there was a thread somewhere (maybe here or XDA) talking about how you have to, basically, manually load up that driver through the control panel... once I had it all setup, I didn't have to worry about it again obviously, so I've forgotten exactly how that worked.

 

[ldybala]

Thaks. Think I got it. Looked in the forums and they mentioned installing Windows Kies. When I connected the device in Odin mode it said that it was installing the Odin driver. I have not yet run the program again, but believe that this will solve the problem of recognizing the phone.

 

[motorapido]

All credit goes to stubbakatt over HERE for the files and original instructions. I simply walked through it myself and re-wrote out the instructions in a way that caters to my brain.

After I do this "back to out-of-the-box" process, will the phone still be rooted, or will I need to re-root?

 

[surgerush]

All credit goes to stubbakatt over HERE for the files and original instructions. I simply walked through it myself and re-wrote out the instructions in a way that caters to my brain.

After I do this "back to out-of-the-box" process, will the phone still be rooted, or will I need to re-root?

You will need to re-root

 

[motorapido]

I get an error that the software can't communicate through the USB cable. I'm using the Samsung-provided cable. Before I do the special power/volume boot up of the phone, must I enable some sort of USB debug or something?

 

[chiles007]

The link above for the Odin, ops, factory image, etc does not work.....is there another link to download the necessary files?

 

[benjdm]

The link above for the Odin, ops, factory image, etc does not work.....is there another link to download the necessary files?

It worked for me.

 

[Viande]

Beautiful! Thank you sir for this fine set of instructions. This was my first root and I of course made a couple of mistakes. All is well now and I can once again root my phone but safely.

 

[midster]

It worked great. Thanks a whole lot!!

J.R.

 

[danny20]

Can you Make a video please ? the Message window at the bottom left should read "Added!!!" and "Detected!!!" Its not showing up when i connect my samsung

 

[gbergh3]

My phone powers up to the "Exhibit II 4G" but then just stays on that screen. I tried to do the factory reset, following the directions on this thread. I downloaded the drivers you suggested and Odin. I got Odin to communicate with my phone and ran it through step 11 of your instructions. However, it did not reboot at this point. I removed the battery to restart it, but it still starts up to the "Exhibit II 4G" screen. This just suddenly happened two days ago. I have no idea what happened. The only thing I did was download google goggles and scanned something in my house. I guess I've heard that there is a noxious virus called "flame." It was wierd because my computer crashed at about the same time my phone did, though my computer does no have blue tooth, my phone's blue tooth was off, as was its wifi. My computer restarted without issue, but my phone is still locked. Anyone out in cyberspace have any suggestions. I am very desperate. This is my second phone in two months (broke the other one). Any help? PLEASE?

 

[foshizzleandre]

The dropbox links arent working can i get a link for the downloads please?

 

[bozaira]

Do we need root to restore?

 

[jophtcedo]

Dude... you are a f****** lifesaver! I ended up bricking my Exhibit 2 tonight playing around with it and just knew my $175 was lost.

Got it going again and your instructions are perfect.

Thank you! Thank you!

 

[glb45]

Have the back to stock files been deleted? If not, how does one obtain them?

 

[trwilson1974]

your the man thanks soo much!!!!

 

[cb431]

Thanks a lot , this worked perfectly .

"I rooted my device and after that I tried to install the custom ROM. (Peach sun rise ) I screwed up some things and was getting error .

E:short write of /tmp/sideload/package.zip

I tried flashing many other custom roms but same error . It looked like my phone is gone but these steps were life saver.

 

[cb431]

Thanks a lot !!!

 

[to serve man]

What is the benefit of going back to un-root?
If you really want to go back to stock and retain rooted state, you can just use cwm, do a rom-wipe, then wipe data, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, and then download the back-to-stock-rom.zip from xda, and then flash that, then do another wipe data/cache/dalvik and then you are all set, back to stock, still rooted. I don't think anyone can tell you are still rooted.

 

[tube517]

What is the benefit of going back to un-root?
If you really want to go back to stock and retain rooted state, you can just use cwm, do a rom-wipe, then wipe data, wipe cache, wipe dalvik, and then download the back-to-stock-rom.zip from xda, and then flash that, then do another wipe data/cache/dalvik and then you are all set, back to stock, still rooted. I don't think anyone can tell you are still rooted.

Sometimes people unroot if their phone needs to be repaired and rooting voids the warranty. So, they unroot to bring it back to stock.

This phone can unroot easily versus other phones. There is an app that can show if you are rooted or not. The carriers can also tell if the phone is still rooted.

 

[to serve man]

Thanks, btw, this is a great phone and I cannot believe people go for more expensive phones. The screen resolution is same as Galaxy S2 but smaller, so you get a much sharper picture and vibrant colors, and it has awesome sound. The only problem is the camera, slow shutter.

So above instructions, although pretty old, still work with any rom, any version?

 

[tube517]

Thanks, btw, this is a great phone and I cannot believe people go for more expensive phones. The screen resolution is same as Galaxy S2 but smaller, so you get a much sharper picture and vibrant colors, and it has awesome sound. The only problem is the camera, slow shutter.

So above instructions, although pretty old, still work with any rom, any version?

The OP has updated the post with updated links as of 12/5/12 so it should be fine.

This phone is an underrated phone. I liked using it. I had to switch, though, because it couldn't keep up with my day to day needs. It's a single core phone so it is limited. However, it is the best "budget" 4g phone I have seen/used.

I agree, the sound is awesome. It's better than my GNex. And for a 3 mp camera, it takes some good pictures.

 

[tdisraeli]

I don't know what to say

My phone froze up 5 months ago during an download/update. I sent it to T-Mobile and they said since it had water damage (was moisture from shower and has nothing ((NOTHING)) to do with download/update freeze) that the phone was not covered under warranty. No one @ T-Mobile had a clue, online, support, in-store, or at the tech center.

Every few weeks I'd try in vain to do a hard reset, search the web, and just plain pray.

Finally...I stumbled upon this thread and what a miracle. Couple downloads, 5+ mins, and whamo!!! Brand new phone!!! Since I already bought a new phone this Exhibit 2 is going to my middle son and he'll be stoked.

Thanks again man, you made my day :smokingsomb: