Flashing an SIII from Vodafone AU to Vodafone NZ

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Master Geek
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#978020 31-Jan-2014 12:41

ajobbins: 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.

Yeah, I'm not ready to go into the Cyanogemod territory yet. Sticking to the stock firmwares for now.

nickb99

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Master Geek
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#978066 31-Jan-2014 13:24

You'd think there would be a decent market for a solidly built, nicely written custom ROM for the popular models like the S3. I'd happily pay each year ($10?-$30?) to be able to avoid all the bloatware and to be a bit different :) You spend that on apps easily. MIUI was nice because it included a whole bunch of free stuff within the OS (and out, like free themes) that made it good value.

I guess that is what Cyanogenmod's venture capital backers think too, that they can sell a paid version for enough to be profitable.

We're at the point now where you don't need to change handsets every year, they are easily powerful enough for *most* users. What better way to be sustainable and to make best use of the hardware than install a nice clean light OS that keeps you up to date without having to chuck it away and start again. But I guess of course that is the last thing Samsung want...

Batman

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#978135 31-Jan-2014 14:55

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 can flash the voda rom yes 100%

BUT you MUST do factory reset BEFORE flashing otherwise it won't load properly and keep crashing very second (yes i've don that before :D)

once you flash you can update the software immediately assuming you have >15% battery

then install your stuff after that

04fuxake

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Master Geek
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#978145 31-Jan-2014 15:02

joker97:
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 can flash the voda rom yes 100%

BUT you MUST do factory reset BEFORE flashing otherwise it won't load properly and keep crashing very second (yes i've don that before :D)

once you flash you can update the software immediately assuming you have >15% battery

then install your stuff after that

I didn't do any resetting before I flashed the I9300T. However, I guess if you're downgrading the OS, it's possibly a good idea?

nickb99

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Master Geek
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#978148 31-Jan-2014 15:03

I always thought that downgrading a ROM was rather dodgy. Could well be wrong though, other poster seems knowledgeable.

ajobbins

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#978149 31-Jan-2014 15:04

joker97:BUT you MUST do factory reset BEFORE flashing otherwise it won't load properly and keep crashing very second (yes i've don that before

I've done it several times and never needed to do a factory reset and didn't have any issues afterwards

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reven

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#978158 31-Jan-2014 15:06

cheers, ill give it a go, factory resets not a big deal, wont take long. just discovered g+ had syncing turned off for my photos/videos for about a month, so have to wait until that finishes syncing before i attempt it.

04fuxake

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Master Geek
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#978160 31-Jan-2014 15:07

ajobbins:
joker97:BUT you MUST do factory reset BEFORE flashing otherwise it won't load properly and keep crashing very second (yes i've don that before

I've done it several times and never needed to do a factory reset and didn't have any issues afterwards

Yeah, I didn't even power off the I9300T explicitly. I just held down the Vol-/Power/Home buttons until the phone jumped into download mode and then connected it to Odin. Bish bosh flash and it's done.

I wonder if a downgrade requires clearing the Dalvik cache to avoid issues with different OS versions?

nickb99

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Master Geek
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#978162 31-Jan-2014 15:09

As long as you have a solid nandroid backup in order to recover from problems why not wipe everything, Dalvik, factory reset etc etc

blakamin

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#978169 31-Jan-2014 15:18

04fuxake:
NikT:
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.

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

Not just Optus either... AFAIK it has to do with a Samsung v Apple thing in Oz. Happened with the S4 XSA too. The easiest was around it is to flash a UK stock ROM. And if you want, you can flash the XSA back and the icons still move (on the one I have anyway).

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#978436 1-Feb-2014 10:02

maybe technology likes to test my blood pressure, but everything that can go wrong have gone wrong when I try short cuts or install custom roms. I don't know why all other geekzoners 'never have any problems' with no wiping before flashing (imperatively recommended by devs, didn't make up this bit), or custom roms whereas I have had so many issues it wasn't funny (I've tried about 10 times more custom roms than stock roms and had always gone back to stock due to glitches that nobody else seems to get *sigh)

have fun :D
I'd say when you downgrade flash without wiping your chance of problems is 100%. just try it if you don't believe :D then you can wipe and reflash :D

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bradstewart

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#978560 1-Feb-2014 16:05

joker97: maybe technology likes to test my blood pressure, but everything that can go wrong have gone wrong when I try short cuts or install custom roms. I don't know why all other geekzoners 'never have any problems' with no wiping before flashing (imperatively recommended by devs, didn't make up this bit), or custom roms whereas I have had so many issues it wasn't funny (I've tried about 10 times more custom roms than stock roms and had always gone back to stock due to glitches that nobody else seems to get *sigh)

have fun :D
I'd say when you downgrade flash without wiping your chance of problems is 100%. just try it if you don't believe :D then you can wipe and reflash :D

Only when downgrading to an earlier android version or moving to a ROM with a different base i.e. TouchWiz to AOSP/CM should you need to do a wipe.

If moving to a different carrier version or upgrading to a newer version via Kies or Odin then there should be no need to wipe. The process is handled the same as an OTA by android.

I've never seen anyone have so many issues as you Joker, I would suspect has something to do with the method you might use to restore data to device.

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#978572 1-Feb-2014 16:57

yes when I had the error every 2 seconds I flashed a late 4.2.2 Voda ROM onto an early 4.2.2 AU Telstra that was rooted (stock kernel, custom recovery)

would that be what you'd expect?

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#978573 1-Feb-2014 17:00

the other bit where I couldn't get telecom 4.2.2 rom to work was when I broke the phone bad by pulling the battery in the middle of a nandroid restore thinking it had frozen (when actually it hadn't)

that was a big mistake :D

jeffnz

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#978574 1-Feb-2014 17:05

bradstewart:
joker97: maybe technology likes to test my blood pressure, but everything that can go wrong have gone wrong when I try short cuts or install custom roms. I don't know why all other geekzoners 'never have any problems' with no wiping before flashing (imperatively recommended by devs, didn't make up this bit), or custom roms whereas I have had so many issues it wasn't funny (I've tried about 10 times more custom roms than stock roms and had always gone back to stock due to glitches that nobody else seems to get *sigh)

have fun :D
I'd say when you downgrade flash without wiping your chance of problems is 100%. just try it if you don't believe :D then you can wipe and reflash :D

Only when downgrading to an earlier android version or moving to a ROM with a different base i.e. TouchWiz to AOSP/CM should you need to do a wipe.

If moving to a different carrier version or upgrading to a newer version via Kies or Odin then there should be no need to wipe. The process is handled the same as an OTA by android.

I've never seen anyone have so many issues as you Joker, I would suspect has something to do with the method you might use to restore data to device.

I'm guessing you are right Brad. Only guessing but given the want to not have to do full wipe maybe restoring system apps and data thats incompatible

I've been flashing my phones since before the S1 and had only a few issues which were my fault and sorted by full wipe.

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