Flashing an SIII from Vodafone AU to Vodafone NZ

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Mad Scientist
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#976983 30-Jan-2014 00:14

04fuxake:
ajobbins: I had a VFAU i9300T that I flashed with non-T firmware no worries, as well as Cyanogenmod.

If you grab the VFNZ rom from sammobile.com and flash it using Odin, you shouldn't even lose any data (but do a back up in case)

Brilliant, exactly what I wanted to hear.

NO it won't work. it will crash it.

1) backup all data

2) factory reset

3) flash latest Vodafone rom

4) wait for Samsung to push out new Voda rom

5) press yes when the update is pushed to your phone

6) have fun

if you have not flashed any rom I do NOT recommend using a custom rom. something will not work and you will need to embark on fixing it. if you want it to just work flash a stock rom. up to you.

(it is very very hard to kill your phone so don't worry too much on what you want to do. my advise is so that you have an easy life. or you can choose the red pill and do something else)

johnr

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#976984 30-Jan-2014 00:15

joker97:
04fuxake:
ajobbins: I had a VFAU i9300T that I flashed with non-T firmware no worries, as well as Cyanogenmod.

If you grab the VFNZ rom from sammobile.com and flash it using Odin, you shouldn't even lose any data (but do a back up in case)

Brilliant, exactly what I wanted to hear.

NO it won't work. it will crash it.

1) backup all data

2) factory reset

3) flash latest Vodafone rom

4) wait for Samsung to push out new Voda rom

5) press yes when the update is pushed to your phone

6) have fun

if you have not flashed any rom I do NOT recommend using a custom rom. something will not work and you will need to embark on fixing it. if you want it to just work flash a stock rom. up to you.

(it is very very hard to kill your phone so don't worry too much on what you want to do. my advise is so that you have an easy life. or you can choose the red pill and do something else)

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Reply # 976975 29-Jan-2014 23:37

jeffnz

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#977055 30-Jan-2014 08:52

joker97:
04fuxake:
ajobbins: I had a VFAU i9300T that I flashed with non-T firmware no worries, as well as Cyanogenmod.

If you grab the VFNZ rom from sammobile.com and flash it using Odin, you shouldn't even lose any data (but do a back up in case)

Brilliant, exactly what I wanted to hear.

NO it won't work. it will crash it.

1) backup all data

2) factory reset

3) flash latest Vodafone rom

4) wait for Samsung to push out new Voda rom

5) press yes when the update is pushed to your phone

6) have fun

if you have not flashed any rom I do NOT recommend using a custom rom. something will not work and you will need to embark on fixing it. if you want it to just work flash a stock rom. up to you.

(it is very very hard to kill your phone so don't worry too much on what you want to do. my advise is so that you have an easy life. or you can choose the red pill and do something else)

.
Joker stop fear mongering it won't crash it at all nor is there the problems with custom Roms you say, sure if you want the latest and greatest update there are always bugs but the likes of Jellybean custom Roms are without problems with most being caused by people that don't follow instructions or load up with all sort of mods and addons.

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nickb99

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#977866 31-Jan-2014 10:16

I've played around with various custom ROMs, most recently MIUI on a Galaxy S3 but mostly end up going back to stock. In the last few days I put the latest 4.3 stock rom on it. In my experience there are always some annoyances with custom ROMs, to be expected really as they are all amateur productions and available for free.

I hoped for better from MIUI as it has such a large user base and is professionally produced. It was indeed a lovely ROM, super features & look. But I suspect as the phone is a little old now it would work better on their own hardware. I never felt that the dialling/voice calls worked as rock solidly with MIUI as they do on a stock ROM.

I have Apex launcher and a Kitkat theme on the rooted S3 now and am very happy with look and feel.

Maybe with CyanogenMod going pro we will see the introduction of chargeable, professional and fully supported custom ROMs. No more hunting around XDA-Developers for info - I for one would welcome that.

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#977920 31-Jan-2014 11:09

The 'T' versions of the S II & III are very minor variants, & aside from a tiny hardware change to signal amplifiers to 'optimise' for 850MHz UMTS networks, they are identical to the regular i9100 & i9300. Stock ROMs are interchangeable for these variants & their regular non-T versions.

There's some odd things that Australian operators do to Samsung firmware - I believe it's Optus that locks down the dock in the TouchWiz launcher so users cannot swap out the default Phone/Contacts/Messaging/Browser icons for anything else. As John says, VFNZ releases have very minimal customisation.

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04fuxake

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#977970 31-Jan-2014 11:48

NikT: The 'T' versions of the S II & III are very minor variants, & aside from a tiny hardware change to signal amplifiers to 'optimise' for 850MHz UMTS networks, they are identical to the regular i9100 & i9300. Stock ROMs are interchangeable for these variants & their regular non-T versions.

There's some odd things that Australian operators do to Samsung firmware - I believe it's Optus that locks down the dock in the TouchWiz launcher so users cannot swap out the default Phone/Contacts/Messaging/Browser icons for anything else. As John says, VFNZ releases have very minimal customisation.

Yes I discovered that weird TouchWiz lockdown which makes no logical sense.

04fuxake

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#977972 31-Jan-2014 11:51

nickb99: I've played around with various custom ROMs, most recently MIUI on a Galaxy S3 but mostly end up going back to stock. In the last few days I put the latest 4.3 stock rom on it. In my experience there are always some annoyances with custom ROMs, to be expected really as they are all amateur productions and available for free.

Which 4.3 ROM did you end up installing? I'm toying with putting the UK BTU one on my S3.

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nickb99

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#977973 31-Jan-2014 11:51

Yes I discovered that weird TouchWiz lockdown which makes no logical sense.

Maybe their support guys were getting calls from un-knowledgeable users who had mistakenly dragged an icon off the dock (say) and then could not find the dialler :)

NikT

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#977983 31-Jan-2014 11:56

nickb99:
Yes I discovered that weird TouchWiz lockdown which makes no logical sense.

Maybe their support guys were getting calls from un-knowledgeable users who had mistakenly dragged an icon off the dock (say) and then could not find the dialler :)

My thoughts exactly.

On the one hand, it's nice that Samsung is able to customise their software builds to the unique needs of certain operator customers & their userbases. On the other hand, there's something to be said for being consistent in user experience - and I would imagine that users who lose the dialer should be using the 'easy mode'.

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Smartphones @ PB Tech | Headphones @ PB Tech

nickb99

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#977986 31-Jan-2014 11:59

Which 4.3 ROM did you end up installing? I'm toying with putting the UK BTU one on my S3.

That question gave me a lot of head scratching. In the end, as my S3 is an international one I went with the advice on this page and used the I9300XXUGMK7 varient. I had previously downloaded an earlier version but that was the one pulled by Samsung as it was very buggy. As the article correctly stated this is an Israeli variant but installed fine on my rooted international i9300. No operator logos. Once installed I had to re-root the phone is all.

On first startup the text is in Hebrew (!) but one touch of the dropdown menu allows you to see and change it to English.

It also comes with a Jewish Calendar app pre-installed, first time I have ever seen that :)

reven

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#977988 31-Jan-2014 12:05

i have a s3 GT-I9305 that i bought from expert infotech. turned out it was from France, so firmware is annoying with french specific apps. it got the 4.3 update a couple of weeks ago.

is it safe to just go to sammobile, download the kies VF firmware 4.1.1 (the 4.1.2 doesnt say kies) and flash my phone using kies with that firmware? im a little caution to use a firmware from a site ive never heard of (its hosted on terafile. just dont know another way to get the vf firmware.

and once the 4.1 is flashed, will i receive OTA updates from vodafone?

i can live with 4.1.2 for a few weeks/months until its released from VF, i rather have a nz firmware on it other than the french one.

04fuxake

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#977991 31-Jan-2014 12:08

reven: i have a s3 GT-I9305 that i bought from expert infotech. turned out it was from France, so firmware is annoying with french specific apps. it got the 4.3 update a couple of weeks ago.

is it safe to just go to sammobile, download the kies VF firmware 4.1.1 (the 4.1.2 doesnt say kies) and flash my phone using kies with that firmware? im a little caution to use a firmware from a site ive never heard of (its hosted on terafile. just dont know another way to get the vf firmware.

and once the 4.1 is flashed, will i receive OTA updates from vodafone?

i can live with 4.1.2 for a few weeks/months until its released from VF, i rather have a nz firmware on it other than the french one.

You could download the UK 4.3 from http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/1/?model=GT-I9300&pcode=BTU#firmware

nickb99

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#977992 31-Jan-2014 12:11

And maybe the info in this thread will also help you.

04fuxake

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#978006 31-Jan-2014 12:34

NikT:
nickb99:
Yes I discovered that weird TouchWiz lockdown which makes no logical sense.

Maybe their support guys were getting calls from un-knowledgeable users who had mistakenly dragged an icon off the dock (say) and then could not find the dialler :)

My thoughts exactly.

On the one hand, it's nice that Samsung is able to customise their software builds to the unique needs of certain operator customers & their userbases. On the other hand, there's something to be said for being consistent in user experience - and I would imagine that users who lose the dialer should be using the 'easy mode'.

That was the main reason I wanted to make my wife's S3 the same as mine. She's come from an iPhone so her having a different TouchWiz to mine made helping her work stuff out harder.

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#978016 31-Jan-2014 12:38

I had numerous issues with Cyanogenmod 10.x builds on my SIII.

Apparently Samsung closed source on the drivers after Android 4.0, so CM devs has to reverse engineer a lot of it, and there were a few bugs.

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