Are these the steps for upgrading the ROM of a rooted phone?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I've always wondered what the official steps were for upgrading the OS of a rooted Android phone.

I've got the T-Mobile Samsung S4 running stock 4.2.2 and it has been rooted.

I want to upgrade to 4.4, and root that.

I can't do the OTA update because it detects that my phone has been modified (rooted) and won't update.

So do I have to:

1. Download a modified but otherwise stock 4.4 ROM for the T-Mo S4
2. Factory reset my phone aka format EVERYTHING.
3. Use Odin to upgrade my ROM to the 4.4 that I downloaded.
4. Do something to root 4.4.
5. Try and get back all my apps, app settings, homescreen shortcut locations, etc?

If you're rooted, there's no way to just upgrade to 4.4 without formatting your phone, is there?

 

[Uppsala9496]

In the past I've done the following:
- Download ROM and put it on your sd card

- Boot to recovery

- Do a factory reset, wipe cache and in mounts and storage section format system

- Wipe dalvik, cache, system and data

- Flash ROM

- Reboot and then set everything back the way you like it.

I've also done dirty installations where I have not wiped back to factory and the phone functioned fine. YMMV.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Right. The "set everything back to the way you like it" part kinda sucks, no? Especially resetting all your home screen shortcuts to where they were previously, creating the folders, etc.

 

[DeviousTrap]

Right. The "set everything back to the way you like it" part kinda sucks, no? Especially resetting all your home screen shortcuts to where they were previously, creating the folders, etc.

Titanium Backup.

Create backup of your launcher, reset the phone, restore your launcher backup.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Titanium Backup.

Create backup of your launcher, reset the phone, restore your launcher backup.

Ehhh... If you update the ROM you'll also be updating the launcher, no? So restoring the launcher means restoring an old version of the launcher?

 

[destrekor]

Are you updating rooted stock? Or custom ROMs?

I've been rooted and modified, but otherwise on stock ROMs from Verizon/Motorola (or Google for my 2012 Nexus 7).

I don't format or wipe, I upgrade in place.

I do it this way:

Create Backup
[Disable Xposed modules like Busybox, and then disable Xposed Installer]
Uninstall SuperUser
Flash the stock/OEM Recovery using ADB
Flash/Install the new OTA
Flash custom recovery once more
Install SuperUser
[Enable Xposed Installer and any preferred modules]

My Moto X is currently on 4.4.4 with all previous data and applications and preferences fully retained. It is absolutely stock, save for a custom recovery and tweaks made through Xposed.

 

[cronos]

First of all, there's no global way of 'upgrading the ROM of a rooted phone'. Every manufacturers have their own way, every phone can be different, sometimes even a custom ROM has some specific ways of installing (using Aroma installer, etc).

Now that that's out of the way, I'm exactly the opposite of destrekor above. I never do in place upgrade. If I install a different ROM, I always fully wiped the phone. Yes, I know I could do Titanium backup to make things easy, and I do do that for a handful of apps (Whatsapp, etc., because I need it right away) but everything else I chose to set them up from scratch. It's really similar to reinstalling Windows on top of another one. Might as well start clean and make it feel like new again rather than retaining old junk that's been building up in the system for so long.

 

[destrekor]

First of all, there's no global way of 'upgrading the ROM of a rooted phone'. Every manufacturers have their own way, every phone can be different, sometimes even a custom ROM has some specific ways of installing (using Aroma installer, etc).

Now that that's out of the way, I'm exactly the opposite of destrekor above. I never do in place upgrade. If I install a different ROM, I always fully wiped the phone. Yes, I know I could do Titanium backup to make things easy, and I do do that for a handful of apps (Whatsapp, etc., because I need it right away) but everything else I chose to set them up from scratch. It's really similar to reinstalling Windows on top of another one. Might as well start clean and make it feel like new again rather than retaining old junk that's been building up in the system for so long.

If I install "a different ROM" - I fully agree, starting from scratch for system data is imperative.

Installing OTA updates is not "a different ROM" - thus the procedure I take.
If I wasn't rooted, I wouldn't have to touch the recovery manually, and I'd just install the OTA directly through the phone. You wouldn't wipe during that procedure.

 

[s44]

Basically, you've missed a few things. The only thing you might want to Odin is a custom recovery, though you can flash one of those too with an app. Most custom ROMs will come in a zip package flashable through recovery.

Second, you should use a backup app like Titanium Backup. I've actually heard that the one in JRummy's ROM toolbox has a better UI, but at this point so much of the community grew up on TiBu that it may be hard getting help with any other app if you need it. Also TiBu autorestores your Android ID on first launching the app after a flash, which helps things like not burning Play Music deactivations.

Third, you can and should backup/restore basically all user apps (I suggest *not* restoring the Google ones, because you don't want to mess up sync on that), but you probably want to avoid restoring system app data. I'm not sure why anyone uses a stock launcher instead of Nova Prime anyway... (Btw, before you restore, go to settings and turn off Google's installed app malware scanning. It makes the process a lot faster. Turn it back on after.)

Fourth, most ROMs let you "dirty flash" - just wipe cache/dalvik cache, not all of /data before flashing - but this is a very bad idea when upgrading Android versions or going to a totally separate ROM.

So your process looks something like this:
(1) Install Titanium Backup. Change the directory to your external SD card. Go to batch options. Back up all user apps & data. Manually uncheck the Google apps. Wait.
(2) When done, install TWRP with Flashify
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cgollner.flashify&hl=en
or TWRP manager, or via Odin.
(3) Download your ROM.
(4) Reboot to recovery. First, do a factory reset (/data, /cache, and dalvik). Then, install the ROM zip.
(5) Reboot the device from the recovery options. Log in with your google account. Do *not* have it restore your old apps.
(6) Open the Play Store and download Titanium Backup again. Yes, this should be literally the first thing you do.
(7) Launch TiBu, let it restore your Android ID, and wait for it to reboot.
(8) Edit phone settings to turn off the app scan.
(9) Launch TiBu again, go to batch actions again, restore all missing apps & data. Wait. Turn the app scan back on when done.
(10) Install Nova Launcher, buy Nova Prime, and never complain about losing launcher config stuff again.

 

[cmdrdredd]

If you're rooted, there's no way to just upgrade to 4.4 without formatting your phone, is there?

Once you are rooted you can flash roms on top (referred to as dirty flashing)f you want to risk it. It isn't recommended but some have done it. I do not recommend it, it can cause unnecessary problems.

As was said, Titanium Backup is the best program to backup everything. Apps, settings, data, messages, call logs etc

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

When you said Odin some warning flags turned on. For a typical flashable zip, stick to recovery. If you have a factory image, Odin works, but remember that means you're wiping EVERYTHING. Some newer updates might be impossible to root, so be careful!

 

[cmdrdredd]

When you said Odin some warning flags turned on. For a typical flashable zip, stick to recovery. If you have a factory image, Odin works, but remember that means you're wiping EVERYTHING. Some newer updates might be impossible to root, so be careful!

Yeah that is true. Once you root it is my opinion that you should find stock based custom roms to flash through custom recovery if you want to keep things stock but rooted. A lot of them are debloated so you can pick and choose what apps you have installed. You can remove all carrier apps with many of them and all samsung apps you aren't using. Flashing true stock roms with odin will remove root and a lot of newer ones lock root methods out.

 

[shabby]

I've got the T-Mobile Samsung S4 running stock 4.2.2 and it has been rooted.

I want to upgrade to 4.4, and root that.

Odin flash a stock 4.4 image
Run towel root or flash twrp and root it inside the recovery.

 

[kmmatney]

Here's how I would update a rooted phone running a stock ROM.
1) Factory reset. this removes your root
2) Update to new Stock ROM
3) Factory reset again (this may not be needed, but always a good idea after a major update)
3) Root phone again

I know you mentioned that you didn't want to reset the phone, but my experience upgrading to KitKat is that you need to factory reset. My phone was very sluggish when I tried updating without a reset - even though I wiped out all caches. You risk having your phone underperform if you don't do a factory reset.

 

[s44]

1) Factory reset. this removes your root

No it doesn't.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

1)Download ROM and save to sd card.
2)Boot into recovery and wipe all partitions except for sd card.
3)Install your ROM.

That's it. There is no need to root again or do other steps.

 

[zerogear]

First of all, it isn't because of root that causes OTA not to work, it's the custom recovery that modifies the image. If you've done no other 'modifications', flashing stock recovery back will allow OTA to run even if you have root.

(fastboot flash recovery)

 

[shabby]

First of all, it isn't because of root that causes OTA not to work, it's the custom recovery that modifies the image. If you've done no other 'modifications', flashing stock recovery back will allow OTA to run even if you have root.

(fastboot flash recovery)

On my nexus5 if you modify any system apps you can't do ota updates, root/recovery doesn't affect ota updates, just need to re-root after.