Learn how to root the Verizon Galaxy S3 SCH-I535

Manufacturers — sadly — limit their Android devices' users from using their devices to the full. It is quite an irony because Android is all about freedom. Upon hearing that Verizon will be releasing the Samsung Galaxy S3 with a locked bootloader, many users reacted in different ways. Some were silent about it and agreed to the change, while others expressed their feelings of discontent towards a manufacturer limiting the freedom on an otherwise exceptional phone. This news left a big impact that urged developers to cut the chains and regain their freedom.

XDA Developers member invisiblek shares a guide on how to flash a pre-rooted ROM on your Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 SCH-I535. Flashing this ROM will root your device and bring back the true essence of an Android phone.

The developer, however, also warned that an over-the-air (OTA) will be arriving soon and could block this rooting method. He warns against applying the OTA update on your phone until a rooting procedure for the new update has been cooked up.

Read the rest of this guide to learn how to gain root access to your Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 SCH-I535.

Warning

The instructions in this guide are intended for use with theVerizon Samsung Galaxy S3, model number SCH-I535. Applying these instructions on another device or model may produce undesired outcomes.
The information in this guide is provided for instructional and educational purposes only. There is no guarantee that these instructions will work under your specific and unique circumstances.
Use these instructions at your own risk. We shall not hold any responsibility or liability for whatever happens to you or your device arising from your use of the info in this guide.
Read and understand the whole guide first before actually performing the instructions.

Requirements

Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 SCH-I535
A Windows PC
Handset USB drivers installed on the PC. You can download the USB driver from Samsung’s Support page.
Enable USB debugging on your handset.
Disable antivirus, firewall, and other security software. Also disable Samsung Kies and other software that accesses your phone. Such software can interfere with the procedure in this guide.
Backup all personal data on your phone to make sure you have a copy of your personal data (e.g., contacts, SMS, MMS, Internet settings, Wi-Fi passwords, and the like) in case the procedure in this guide erases such data.
- For backup tips, check our guides on how to sync your data to the cloud and how to create local backups of your mobile data.
Download Odin3 3.07 (Odin307.zip, 453 kB) to your computer.
Download a modified system.img tarball from one the following sources (choose only one):
- Stock pre-rooted image without bloatware
  - Direct Download (stripped.rooted.system.img.tar.md5.zip, md5sum: 4d664b60b1ad5952a332bd1d78aa228b)
  - Torrent Download (i535-stripped-stock-rom.zip.torrent, md5sum: b2343ad6fdf54abc378a282db2ed3ad0)
- Stock pre-rooted image including bloatware
  - Direct Download (rooted.system.img.tar, md5sum: e937f4a460806e75575c02add8035276).
  - Torrent Download (rooted.system.img.tar.torrent, md5sum: 0f50fd1d2a8e18154cca712bf1e9d1bd).

Instructions

Download the rooted stock ROM to your PC.
- If you downloaded the ZIP version without bloatware, unzip the file first in order to extract a *.tar.md5 file.
- If you downloaded the TAR version that includes bloatware, no need to untar or extract the file. Just use it as it is.
Extract Odin307.zipinto a folder on your computer.
Go to the extracted folder and double-click Odin3 v3.07.exe to launch Odin on your computer.
Switch off your Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3.
Reboot your phone into Download Mode. You can do that by pressing the Volume Down key, Home button, and Power button simultaneously until a warning message appears. Press the Volume Up key to continue into Download Mode.
Connect your Phone to the computer via USB cable. An “Added!!” message will appear in Odin. If it doesn't appear, make sure you have properly installed the USB drivers on your computer.
Make sure that “Re-partition” is not selected under Options.
Select the PDA button and locate the downloaded TAR or MD5 file.
Click the Start button in Odin to begin flashing the ROM to your mobile phone. This will take a while. If Odin gets stuck, or you get a “FAILED” message, remove and reinsert the battery, then start over from step 5.
Your phone will automatically reboot. You phone will also get a “PASS” message in Odin.

Congratulations! You have successfully rooted your Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 SCH-I535. With a rooted phone, you can now flash ClockworkMod Recovery and customize your Android phone.

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Comments

http://www.facebook.com/JRBaxter45 Robert Baxter

Awesome. Works perfect, quick and easy. Thanks
JScoppa

Are there any bugs that stop functions from working?
tekkiegrrl

Thanks for instructions. Worked great, but….wish it would have been stated that the de-bloated version did not include the news ticker :( I actually like that feature.
http://twitter.com/Bluefluke Steve

Worked with no issue, thanks.
Joe Smith

Where is the .tar.md5 file? I can’t find it anywhere.
auauauu

Sorry I am new to Android system.
After rooted the phone with this method am I able to install custom apk (free paid apps)?
- wachutlknboutwillis
  
  Just support the developers and buy the apps! Root should be used for good, not evil!
blakeurmos

How do I check if the OTA update has been applied?
EvilMonkey2

Worked great, but the de-bloated one doesn’t contain the regular email app? Why would you consider email bloatware? Not everyone uses Gmail since we might have to use Exchange for work…as one example.

Would be nice if that was specified. I’m going to look for the .apk for the regular email app, I guess. Don’t want to have to install all the bloatware just to use my email (and don’t want to use K9 or something else).
- telloman
  
  Did you find the apk file for this?
  - EvilMonkey2
    
    Yep. Here’s detailed instructions on how to get it set up again. Unfortunately it’s just a bit time consuming since you have to do the above procedure twice. I’d PM you my dropbox or something but apparently Disqus doesn’t let you send PM’s and I don’t want to post my Dropbox here.
    
    I also read over at XDA that you can download this ROM and extract the same files I talk about below from the .zip file (skipping my steps 1-4), but that’s not what I did so can’t verify if it will work: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1746184
    
    1) Follow the instructions in the article, but use the full/Bloatware version
    2) Use your favorite root explorer (I used ES File Explorer) and go to Systemapp
    3) Copy the following files
    – Exchange.apk and Exchange.odex
    – SecMail.apk and SecMail.odex
    
    I am not sure if the odex files are necessary or not, but they didn’t seem to hurt anything. My guess is you don’t need them, but I’m not sure. I just copied these to my Download folder on my SD Card
    
    4) Do the instructions again, but use the Non-Bloatware version
    5) Copy those files back to the SystemApp folder
    6) Set the permissions to rw-r-r
    7) Reboot
    
    Hope that helps.
    - tellomaster
      
      Thanks man, I appreciate the reply!!
jay

Can I still get OTA updates with this?
elDuendeVerde13

First off, I’m new to this Android stuff…so here go my questions:
1) if I install WITH bloatware, will I be able to delete the stuff I don’t want? I currently cannot delete SNote or VZNavigator or whatever. Could I after rooting? There are certian things I’d like to keep.
2) If I install WITHOUT bloatware, does that mean the entire TouchWhiz interface is gone? My understanding is that certain features that I like are Sammy/TouchWhiz and not ICS. Ie, burst shot or best shot on the camera or the thing where it recognizes if I’m looking at the phone.
Just trying to decide how I’d like to proceed. Thanks.
- EvilMonkey2
  
  As far as I can tell, the non-bloatware version keeps most of the functionality with Touchwiz. Camera is the same, motions remain, etc. In fact, Touchwiz is still the launcher. It’s just missing bloat. I’m struggling a little bit right now, but so far this is the stuff I feel shouldn’t have been removed in the non-bloatware version:
  
  1) S Voice: While mostly useless, you can’t use voice dialing without it. I discovered this in the car yesterday where I tried (in vain) to push the button on my bluetooth headset to initiate a call (typically I press the button, say “Call Amy” and it dials my wife, for example). I had to find the apk and download it.
  
  2) The stock email app is gone, so again I had to get the apk to load that since I have non-gmail email accounts like Exchange for work.
  
  3) I just discovered all the “Nearby Devices” functionality is gone, so I can’t connect with DLNA to anything (like to send my pictures or videos to my TV via my XBOX or PS3). Need to figure that out.
  
  Hope that helps. Unfortunately I thought the non-bloatware version was great at first so I set up all my stuff, but I keep finding missing functionality. Thankfully you can flash back and forth from the bloatware version to the non-bloatware version easily enough if it doesn’t meet your needs. I wonder what else I’m going to find that’s missing though. Thinking I might have been further ahead just to use the bloatware version and disable/hide what I don’t want.
  
  In a nutshell, I wish it was listed what was removed for the non-bloatware version.
  - elDuendeVerde13
    
    Thank you.
    - EvilMonkey2
      
      I ended up flashing back the full version (couldn’t figure out the DLNA stuff with the non-bloatware version). Then I just disabled the stuff I didn’t want, and for some things (like S Memo and the Backup Assistant stuff), I just went into systemapps and removed them completely.
      
      I also discovered the non-bloatware version was missing the agenda/calendar widget, which I wanted (I don’t mean the Touchwiz specific one)
      
      Frankly, I was just finding too much stuff missing from the non-bloatware version and was having to jump through hoops to get the stuff back. It ended up being easier to just use the bloatware version and manually disable and remove what I didn’t want rather than use the other one and have to struggle to add back in the things I did want.
Chris Dysart

what would i do if i ever wanted to go back to the factory default
Chris Dysart

So what would I have to do if I wanted to un root my gs3 for say warranty or bcus I don’t like it rooted
Venator

I went through the process and Odin never gave the “PASS” code. I only got “Reset” but it did give me super user so i just used it as it was. However, I can’t seem to use barnacle, which is one of the reasons i rooted the phone, and sixaxis doesn’t seem to work as it should. Should i run the process again? I also updated superuser in the android store. Would that be an issue?
elDuendeVerde13

So, I tried DLing Odin 3.07 multiptle times to no avail. I was able to DL 3.04 that is referenced in another tutorial, are they essentially the same? Can I use 3.04 and still make this work?
Jennifer Cutright

Links with bloatware not working….
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=666673636 Jason Johnson

I can not find the version with bloatware, has it been removed?
http://www.facebook.com/ReBathColorado Rick Patterson

The links “including bloatware” are not working. will they be reconnected?
Chino

Hey … can you help me .. i did the root .. everything was ok .. but still can use my simcard on the phone .. :(
Ray

After I get the pass would it take a while for my phone to boot up?
Marty Williams

When i did everything through Odin my phone is currently sitting on the Samsung loading screen and has not moved for about 10 minutes… any suggestions

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Samsung Galaxy S3 SCH-I535: How to root

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