If you have modded your Galaxy Note 2, like rooting and installing stock rooted ROMs you may need to install the unmodified, unrooted and original firmware. It can't just simply revert back to it's original default settings without flashing required like performing a factory reset. This restoring process works on all Samsung Galaxy Note 2 variants - International, United States and Canada.
No need to unroot, installing official or original firmware will automatically remove root to your device once after flashing. Since rooting and installing unofficial firmware already voids your device warranty, that's because the binary flash counter is has triggered when you flash any modified or rooted ROM.
Yes! If you need to completely restore back without a trace of any modification, you should reset the flash counter. You may check it via download mode - pressing and holding (
" button to continue. Look for the Custom Binary Download, it shows a count of how many flashing have made. If its not tripped then you may not need to reset it, but if it showed like 0/1 then you should reset it to 0 count. You can simply alter it using Chainfire's TriangleAway app, it's free to download it
Aside from bringing back your device from using unofficial firmware, this is also useful for fixing soft-bricks. If you messed-up from rooting or installing modified ROM then you need to fix it by restoring back the original firmware and bring back your device to be useful again.
If you device already on 4.3 base ROM then you must install the 4.3 stock only, otherwise it will not work or Odin tool will not let you through flashing the old firmware. This issue may caused by the new 4.3 secured bootloader.
3. Install the USB Driver and Extract the downloaded stock ROM
Install the USB Driver first to get rid of flashing failures. Also need to extract the downloaded file which is packed in zip format, so that you’ll get the tar.md5 file.
4. Run and Configure Odin
Run Odin downloader Odin3_v3.07 on your PC desktop. Watch out the check-boxes options on the right top of Odin, ensure that the ‘RE-PARTITION’ is unchecked, only the ‘AUTO-REBOOT and ‘F.RESET TIME’ checkboxes are both remained checked.
5. Boot your Galaxy Note 2 into Download Mode
To reboot the Galaxy Note2 into download mode , you need to turn the power off. After it completely shut down, just press and hold the
Volume Down key,
Home button and the
Power ON/OFF button simultaneously.
You should then prompted into a warning screen and asking you to press volume up if you want to continue or volume down to cancel, just simply press volume up to get into download mode. The download mode then displays an Android robot and say’s “Downloading.. Do not turn off target!!”
6. Connect your Galaxy Note 2 to Computer or Laptop
Once you already reboot the phone in download mode, simply connect the phone to your PC or laptop USB.
In Odin window – the ID:COM box will turn to blue color and indicates the COM port number and a word “Added” on a log box will prompt you that the device is already detected or recognized by Odin. Your COM port number might be different from mine. If you do not see a COM port number then there’s something missing or wrong. You may read again from the top of this post.
7. Set and load and the binary .tar.md5 fileT he stock ROM is pack in One .tar.md5 file only. Now, you need to just simply click on the PDA button, then browse to the folder where the .tar or .tar.md5 you have previously extracted and then select and load it.
8. Begin Flashing the stock ROM
Once if all set and ready to fire-up, hit the “START” button in Odin to begin flashing the stock ROM.
Do not ever interrupt the phone while already in flashing progress, like disconnecting the cable or turning off the device. Just wait until it completely finish.
9. Wait for the word PASS!!
When the Stock ROM installation successfully completes, you will then see a word “PASS” in Odin. This indicates that the flashing was already finish, and on the log box it says “All threads completed. (succeed 1 / failed 0)”. The phone will just then automatically reboot, then it’s time to remove it from PC or laptop USB connection.
Confirm if you successfully restore your Samsung Galaxy Note (Sprint L900).
Confirm your fresh firmware installed by typing *#1234# or
Go to Settings>About Phone>Firmware info.
You can also do factory reset by dialing *2767*3855#.
Possible errors that you may encountered, this is based on my own experience while flashing stock ROM on Samsung Android devices. These are just a few hints on how to resolved it.
Q: I got an error message that says “Set-up connection Failed” ?
A: 1. Check your USB connection from the phone to PC,
2. Connect to another PC USB port
3. Check and try to another USB cable
4. Re-install the USB driver.
Q: Odin just suddenly stuck in the middle of nowhere while in flashing progress, It isn’t responding at all?
A: Check for possible program that might interrupt the process, like disabling the anti-virus and closing any running programs.Try to use another PC or laptop,
Q: I experienced bootloop or the phone just stuck on Welcome Logo (phone always stop at bootanimation) and it won’t boot normally?
A: You can fix it via recovery mode option, do this:
Boot in recovery mode
1. Press and hold Volume Up, Home and Power button.
2. Use volume keys to select, Up and Down and Power or Home key to select the option
3. Select Wipe Data/Factory Reset using the Home button.
4. Next select the Wipe Cache Partition
5. Lastly, select Reboot System Now to reboot your Galaxy Note2 in Normal mode.
That’s it! Just let us know how’s it going.
