Root [Sprint] Galaxy S4 Unroot, WTF?

[timbre]

Ok, I would just like to clear things up a bit. I see all kinds of methods to unroot my galaxy S4 (need to clean it up to return it on warranty). Simplest is just to use "Full Unroot" from superuser app. Then some say I need to flash the factory rom with Odin, and some say I need to use the "Triangle Away" app, then flash with Odin. My phone is rooted, but I have never installed any custom ROMS. I really only root it to get wireless wifi. Will unrooting with the superuser app be sufficient, or do I need to get into all this other stuff?

 

[scott_]

I can't say for certain with the S4, I had an Aviator that I had experimented with rooting and stuff. I had the "yellow" warning triangle after I had rooted.
When I was done playing and before I gave it to my step daughter to use I "ODIN" flashed the stock rom. The phone was just as if it came out of the box. No yellow triangle, just like new, and asking all of the "setup" configuration questions on start up. Language, country, etc.......

 

[Gomjaba]

Fully unroot requires a little bit of everything. There are two sides of the coin

1. Android
2. Device

Now SuperSu's unroot procedure basically removes the exploit which gave root access to begin with. So fully unrooted is from Android perspective. You lose access to the filesystem. Android will still show as 'Modified' under system status, so you will have to factory reset.

Now Android itself is unrooted. However, you device firmware has a root counter which will increase each time you root. This requires Triangle Away to reset. Otherwise all it would require to hide root would be trashing the OS, so Samsung came up with the whole counter bit.

So to summarize. To unroot for warranty you need

1. Triangle Away
2. Stock ROM flashed via Odin.

Triangle Away also needs root so what I do is usually run Triangle Away on the rooted phone and interrupt the boot after it finished, going straight into download mode and flash stock. Then from the recovery menu I do a full factory reset.

Big HOWEVER - IF you installed the latest MH8 (and others, depending on your carrier), it will now have additional security. The boot loader is locked and uses an additional counter - called KNOX security.

There is no way to reset it, downgrade or anything like that ... At the moment ... Worth posting your full details to see what the best cause of action. Is.

 

[timbre]

To be honest I don't remember the exact root procedure I used. Sprint is my carrier. Let me know what other details you might need.

 

[Podivin]

Moved to root section for more visibility.