It's been a while since Samsung has started rolling out Android 4.4 KitKat update to the international variant (i9500) of its previous flagship device, the Galaxy S4. If you have updated to the official KitKat version, then your Galaxy S4 would be unrooted (no matter if you had rooted it previously or not). In this guide, we shall help you root Galaxy S4 i9500 in a step by step guide. This guide should work fine, no matter whether you are on Android 4.4 or an earlier one.
Before you proceed ahead and root your Galaxy S4:
- Rooting an Android device voids its manufacturer warranty, if any. Though unrooting helps in most cases, Galaxy S4 comes with a flash counter which will increment if you flash anything non-official. Chainfire's TriangleAway should help you out in this case. In a nutshell, don't proceed ahead if you want to keep your Galaxy S4 under warranty.
- We'd recommend you to have your battery percentage above 50% just to make sure that you root your Galaxy S4 i9500 successfully and the battery doesn't empties in the meanwhile.
- USB Debugging should be enabled on your device. On KitKat, Developer Options need to be unlocked first (go to Settings > About Phone > Build Number and tap Build Number 7 times or more) before you can do that. Once unlocked, go to Settings >Developer Options and enable USB Debugging from there.
- Do not try to use the clockworkmod recovery present in this guide on any other device except Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-i9500.
How to Root Galaxy S4 i9500 and install CWM recovery:
- Download Samsung USB Drivers. Install the executable file on your Windows PC and reboot it.
- Download Philz Touch Recovery for Galaxy S4 i9500 (based on CWM) and extract it to a folder of your choice.
- Switch off your Galaxy S4. Once it shuts down completely (which is signified by a vibration, in most Android devices), press and hold Home, Power and Volume Down buttons simultaneously until your Galaxy S4 powers on to the Android Logo screen (alongwith a warning intended to freak you out). Press the Volume up button to ignore the warning and to proceed to the Download Mode.
- Download and Extract Odin in any folder on your PC. In the extracted folder, right click on the Odin executable file and select Run as Administrator.
- Now connect your Galaxy S4 i9500 to the PC and switch to the Odin window that you opened in the previous step. If the drivers have been installed successfully, Odin will detect the connection and the ID:COM box in Odin will turn blue and an "Added" message will appear in the Odin window.
Note: If Odin doesn't detect your device, double check your driver installation. Try connecting your phone to a different USB port. Without Odin detecting your device, you won't be able to proceed further in this guide. - In Odin, make sure that Re-partition checkbox is unticked. Leave all other checkboxes at their default state.
- Click the PDA button in Odin and select the recovery.tar.md5 (the file which ends in .tar.md5 extension) file in the folder in which you extracted Philz Touch Recovery in step 2 of this guide.
- Once you have selected the .tar.md5 file, mumble a few prayers and press the Start button.
- When the file is successfully flashed by Odin on your Galaxy S4, it will reboot automatically and a PASS message will appear in Odin.
- Disconnect your Galaxy S4 from your PC and power it off. Once powered off, press and hold Volume Up, Home and Power keys together till you boot into recovery mode.
- In clockworkmod recovery, select the Philz Settings option and then select Re-root system (SuperSU) option. Finally, choose Yes to confirm your selection. Doing so will install SuperSU app and the required SU binaries.
- Now your phone should be rooted. Reboot it (by going to the Recovery's main menu and selecting Reboot now) and check whether your Galaxy S4 is successfully rooted or not.
