How to unroot Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus

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Got your Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus? Congratulations if so. It is possible to install a TWRP recovery and root these devices as well. If you are planning to opt for root and recovery, you will end up voiding the warranty of your phone and you will also make your phone vulnerable to bugs. There’s not only the negative effect of rooting on phone, it has more advantages than the disadvantages. Rooting your Galaxy S8 will give you the complete control over your phone. Galaxy S8 owners can bring out the beast hidden inside their phone by simply rooting it and by means of a custom recovery.

Things do not go always as expected. If you rooted your phone for the first time and you are now disliking your device being rooted, you need a method to get out of it and unroot the device. Unrooting the phone is also needed if you wish to run Samsung Pay and other such highly-secure applications on your phone. Although a power user wouldn’t unroot his/her phone, but if you still wish to remove the root access from your phone, you can do it freely.

In order to unroot Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus, users have to flash a stock firmware using Odin3. Odin3 is Samsung’s flash tool. You have to carefully download the firmware for your phone, unpack it, load it in Odin, enter download mode on your phone, connect it to your PC and then flash it. Unrooting the phone will restore your phone to factory settings. It will also make your phone capable of capturing OTA updates. Usually, rooting a phone hurts its OTA update capability and therefore, you are unable to get the latest and greatest Android updates. Follow the instructions given here to unroot Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus.

A few things to keep in mind before proceeding

  1. This method is applicable only on Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. Do not try this on any other device. You can apply this on any variant of the S8 or S8 Plus as long as you have downloaded the correct firmware.
  2. Charge your phone up to 50% to avoid power mishap during the flashing process.
  3. Backup your important contacts, SMS messages, call logs. Copy your media content to your computer. If you have WhatsApp installed on your phone, copy the entire WhatsApp folder to your computer.
  4. Use your OEM data cable to connect your phone to your PC.
  5. Disable Samsung Kies using Odin.
  6. Enable OEM unlocking on your Galaxy S8.
  7. Enable USB debugging mode on your Galaxy S8.
  8. Your phone must be rooted in order to unroot it.

Required downloads

  1. Download and install Samsung USB drivers.
  2. Download Odin3 3.12.5 and extract it on your computer’s desktop.
  3. Download the firmware for your phone through this page.

Download the firmware carefully according to your region/country. Do not download a carrier-branded firmware for a non-branded device. If you are unable to find the firmware for your region, you can download the firmware of the closest possible region and flash that instead.

Unroot Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus

  1. Extract the downloaded firmware folder to get the firmware.tar and other files.
  2. Open Odin3.exe now. In Odin, click on the AP tab and select the firmware.tar file. The file takes a few minutes to load. Let Odin load it completely.
  3. Now in Odin, click on the BL tab and load the BL file that you got from the extracted folder.
  4. Similarly, click on the CP tab and load the CP file.
  5. Click on the CSC tab and load the Home_CSC file in it.
  6. It’s time to connect your S8 in the download mode. Power down your S8 completely. Press and hold Bixby + Volume Down + Power Key to boot into download mode. As soon as the screen comes up with a warning, press Volume Up key to continue.
  7. Now connect your phone to your PC while Odin is open. Odin will show “Added” message in the log box. It will also turn the ID:COM box blue upon successful connection.
  8. Click on the Options button in Odin. The only option checked should be F.Reset.Time. No other option should be checked here.
  9. Now click on the Start button in Odin and let it flash the firmware.
  10. Once the firmware flashing ends, disconnect your phone and turn it on.
  11. It will be all new as it takes you to the menu. Set it up from scratch and enjoy since it’s unrooted now.

Note: Unrooting the phone will not bring its warranty back. The knox counter cannot be reset once tripped.

Conclusion

That’s how we unrooted the S8 or S8 Plus. This method basically flashes a new stock firmware on your phone and replaces the old firmware. This method also resets your device to factory settings. You can root the phone again if you want to. In case you are facing any kind of issues, do not hesitate to contact us through the comments box below.

For other Samsung Galaxy S8 Issues and their Fixes, visit this page.

Just in case you want to root the phone again…

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Usama is a software engineer by profession and at TechBeasts.com he uses his expertise to solve everyday consumer tech problems with his main areas of interest being Android, iOS and Windows.

13 COMMENTS

    • @terrykontopoulos:disqus Root your phone using Magisk and hide root for Android Pay. Not sure about this, but it should work since Magisk is a systemless root solution.

  1. Now connect your phone to your PC while Odin is open. Odin will show “Added” message in the log box. It will also turn the ID:COM box blue upon successful connection.

    This step isnt working. Odin does not find the phone. tried several times

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