When it comes to carrier branded smartphones, one of the biggest hurdles is to get across the boundaries and obtain root access on these device and get a custom recovery working on these devices. The only reason is, these devices come with a locked bootloader and the carriers do not allow getting across the bootloaders easily. Verizon and At&t happen to be the toughest carriers in this regard, this can be easily presumed from what we saw with the Galaxy S5, it took months for developers to get root access on the device, there was a great bounty as well for the milestone. The same root application rooted Verizon Galaxy Note 3 as well.
That’s a matter of past now, since we got the root access, this paved way for great developments and Safestrap Recovery by XDA recognized developer Hashcode is a result of that. Custom recoveries usually need a device with an unlocked bootloader, but Safestrap doesn’t require touching the bootloader of your Verizon Galaxy Note 3. Basically, Safestrap recovery is the modified form of TWRP 2.7 recovery and has a touch interface. It doesn’t touch the primary system of your device and it flashes the Safestrap on the series of virtual ROM slots located on the internal emmc area/sdcard of your device, you may read all about Safestrap recovery on the developer’s thread. For now, our goal is to get this Safestrap recovery running on our beloved Verizon Galaxy Note 3 SM-N900V. Just in case you’ve been looking for a method that will lead you to the successful installation of Safestrap recovery on your Verizon SGN 3, you may follow this guide carefully and get it done.
Here are the early preparations
Here are the early preparations
1. This guide is only for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-V900!
Make sure that your device is exactly as mentioned above. To check out what device you have, go to Settings > More/General > About Device or Settings > About Device and match the model number. Be careful about the device model number, flashing a file on a device not listed here might result in bricking it up.
2. Your device must be rooted & have Busybox installed
Make sure that your Verizon Galaxy Note 3 SM-V900 is rooted, you can root your device using this guide. Also make sure that it has Busybox installed on it. Just in case you don’t have Busybox installed, you can grab it from the Google Play Store and install it.
3. Battery should be charged at least 60%!
Your device’s battery shouldn’t be weak. In case your device goes dead during the flashing process, your device may get soft bricked and you might be in need of flashing stock firmware and that will ultimately result in wiping up your data as well. So, make sure that you charge your device before you start the flashing process.
4. Backup everything!
Just to be on the safe side, you may consider backing up each and everything from your Android device. This is highly recommended so that in case anything goes wrong, you still have the access to all of your data and you can restore it immediately. You may backup everything as listed below.
- Backup Media – Copy your files manually to your PC or Laptop.
- Titanium Backup – If already rooted, use Titanium Backup to backup all of your apps, system data and other important content.
How To Install Safestrap Recovery On Verizon Galaxy Note 3 SM-N900
- Download Safestrap APK.
- Download the APK directly to your phone or copy it to your phone from your PC.
- Now on your phone, go to Settings > General > Security > Allow Unknown Sources.
- Once allowed, locate the Safestrap APK and tap it to install it.
- Proceed and finish the installation.
- Now open the Safestrap application from the app drawer.
- Now tap the “Install Recovery” button and let it do the job.
- Once installed, it will display the message “installed”.
- Now reboot your device using this application, as soon as your device boots up, you will see a splash on the screen. While this happens, press the Menu key on your phone in order to enter Safestrap recovery.
You forget to mention what android version and kernel will this work? If installed in 4.4.2 nc4 they can brick their device!
@filibertoalvarez:disqus this won’t brick NC4 firmware. It works fine with that.
Will let you know!
@filibertoalvarez:disqus yes it’s up to date.
Safestrap (v3.75) installs and I finally get to a screen :
— start —
Reboot your Note 3.
During boot, you will see a SafeStrap screen which gives you an option to “RECOVERY” or “CONTINUE”.
Chose “RECOVERY” to boot into SafeStrap recovery.
— end —
I do chose “Reboot to Recovery” But the phone just reboots. No “recovery” options at all.
I do see a slightly different screen upon power-up now: an unlocked
lock,
then the normal Note 3 screen comes up and the Verizon screen and
the phone just boots normally to the lock screen.
Any ideas?
Thx!
Note 3 (4.4.2 + NC4)
@disqus_CzFTIwkwQ8:disqus the safestrap support officially has ended. I don’t have an exact idea about this issue.. you may try installing it again using the app. It might work.
Thanks so much for the reply. I did try that… I was wondering about UNinstalling BusyBox but it displays all kinds of warningsso I chickened out! Oh, well.. If you hear of anything please think of me!
Ah HA! I’d uninstalled SafeStrap to re-do as a clean install a few times w/o success. This time I just installed it over itself w/o the uninstall… IT WORKED!
@disqus_CzFTIwkwQ8:disqus that’s very good. lOl that was just a guess. Stay connected with us.
This site is one of my Note 3 resources now. I’ll be lurking around and may stick my head up now and then!
Now that I can re-ROM my 900v I have to find a ROM I want…
QUESTION: Must I use a ROM specifically for SM-N900v or will any Note 3 ROM work for me?
I see they are often categorized buy model number.
Is there a hierarchy?
For example, will a 9005 ROM work on a 900v? Or the reverse: will a 900v ROM work on a 9005?
Will a 900p ROM work on a 900a, etc?
Thx again!
@disqus_CzFTIwkwQ8:disqus Be careful while choosing a ROM. You need to flash a N900V specific ROM. Other ROMs will not work on your device.
ROMs are always device specific. You can find number of ROMs in the Verizon Galaxy Note 3 thread on forum.xda-developers.com
Best of Luck 🙂
Will this still work for 4.4.4? Because Towel root won’t root on my device. Says it’s unsupported.
Have Verizon Note 3 SM-N900V (4.4.2 build ending in NC4).
Would like to follow the above so that I may install developer ROMs but the download link is not working.
@disqus_CzFTIwkwQ8:disqus download it from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/devdb/project/dl/?id=7190
You ROCK! thanks much.
Before SafeStrap don’t I need to kill KNOX?
At the end of the SuperSU install it offers to kill KNOX but my screen has said “Disabling KNOX” for quite a few minutes now.
Should I be afraid?
Maybe there’s another way to remove KNOX?
Howdy, folks,
I have a rooted & SafeStrapped VZW Note 3 (sm-900v). 4.4.2 / nc4
My primary concern is that it never take any OTA updates! Once that’s accomplished I can take my time and decide what new ROM (if any) I’d like to install on it.
What do I do to this phone to shut off the OTA update feature?
Thanks all!
@disqus_CzFTIwkwQ8:disqus if the OTA doesn’t work, you can always use Odin to flash stock firmware.
No, no, not what I was asking… I do *not* want OTA to work. What programs on the 900v must I disable to ensure OTA never runs?
@disqus_CzFTIwkwQ8:disqus rooted phones never get OTA anyway 🙂 just root it and you’re done.
@disqus_CzFTIwkwQ8:disqus you can also disable software updates from system > about device > software
I’m more than surprised at that! Rooting alone will stop OTA updates?
I have no reason to doubt you, but it seems so counter-intuitive, I’m so confused! On my rooted sm-900v 4.4.2 nc4 under “system > about phone > software update” the only option is to check for an update, so I guess that’s reassuring…
Did everything up to the reboot part. No splash. No nothing. My phone didn’t do shit. Im starting to hate this phone.