Categories Custom RecoveriesSamsung Galaxy

Install Latest TWRP Recovery 2.6.3.1 on Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300 & All Variants

Samsung’s past flagship device the Galaxy S3 is still the most popular and widely used Android smartphone around the world, you must have heard everyone around saying or holding an S3 in hands. Well, the device is really that good and everyone would love to have it as it sported a 4.7 inches display with 326 ppi, Samsung’s very first device to have a Quad Core CPU clocked at 1.4 GHz. A RAM of 1 GB was placed on board under a massive battery of 2100, an 8 MP camera at the back while a 2 MP on the front.

Galaxy S3’s development is on peak, there is a number of tweaks that you can implement on your device. Number of mods, number of custom ROMs. But most of the things are possible only if you have a custom recovery installed either CWM or TWRP. Device comes branded under different variants by different carriers, and some of you might face difficulties finding the appropriate recovery for your device. To overcome the need, I’ve compiled the latest version of TWRP recovery (Thanks to TeamWin for creating this awesome recovery) for all the variants of Galaxy S3 in the following post and explained how to install as well. In case you guys still don’t have an idea about a custom recovery, let’s have a brief look at the answer.

A custom recovery allows you to install custom roms, mods etc. Along with these, you can make a Nandroid backup, this helps you a lot as you can move back to the previous working state of your phone at any time you want if you have backed up your current system. In some cases, to root the phone you need to flash SuperSu.zip file in the custom recovery, having installed the recovery may help you while in some cases to install the recovery easily, you need to have the phone rooted. You can also wipe cache and dalvik cache of your phone using a custom recovery.

To install TWRP Recovery on your device, you need to follow these instructions.

This guide is only for Samsung Galaxy S3, for the variants which are listed below. Before installing this, make sure that your device is listed below. Check your device’s model number in Settings > More > About Device.
Download the file carefully for your device.
Make sure that your device’s battery is charged over at least 60%. Highly recommended in order to prevent any mishap during the recovery installation process.
Make sure that you backup your important media content, Contacts, Call Logs & Messages. This is highly recommended just in case something goes wrong and you need to reset your phone.
Use only OEM data cable to establish connection between your phone and PC. Turn off your Anti Virus and Firewall to prevent any connection issues. Also enable USB debugging mode on your phone if you face connection issues.
Recovery works well for Galaxy S3 running on all Android versions, no need to worry about the Android version.

Disclaimer: The methods involved in flashing custom roms and rooting your phone is highly custom and may result in bricking your device, and has nothing to do with Google or the device manufacturer that is SAMSUNG in our case. Also rooting your device will void its warranty and you will be no longer eligible for any kind of free device services by the manufacturers/warranty providers. In case of any mishap we may not be held responsible. Follow these instructions to the letter to avoid any mishap or bricking. Make sure that whatever you do, you are doing it at your own responsibility.

Pre – Requisites:

Download and Install Samsung USB drivers – Get Here.
Download and Extract Odin3 v3.09 – Get Here
Enough confidence to flash a recovery :-)!

Download the TWRP Recovery for Your Device:

Please keep in mind that, the device which come with a locked bootloader, like Verizon Galaxy S3, you must unlock the bootloader first and then flash a custom recovery.

How to Install TWRP Recovery on your Galaxy S3:

Download the file for your variant carefully.
Open Odin3.exe.
Put your phone in download mode, to do so, turn it off completely. Now turn it on by pressing and holding Volume Down + Home Button + Power Key, you should see a warning now, press Volume Up to continue.
In case the download mode method doesn’t work for your device, try one of the methods from this guide.
Connect your phone to your PC.
The ID:COM box in Odin should turn blue now, that means your phone is connected properly in download mode.
Click the PDA tab in Odin and select the downloaded Recovery.tar file and let it load. Your Odin should look exactly as shown below, make sure that no extra options are selected.
Hit start now and sit back, it will take a few seconds to flash the recovery and your device will reboot.
Press and hold Volume Up + Home Button + Power Key to access the TWRP Touch Recovery that you just installed.
You can backup your current ROM and do a lot of other things using the options in TWRP Recovery.
Make sure that you make an EFS backup and save it on your PC as well. Find the option in TWRP Recovery.
That’s All.

How to Root:

If you want to root your device now, you can download the SuperSu.zip file.
Place the downloaded file on your phone’s sd card.
Open TWRP Recovery and select Install > SuperSu.zip and flash it.
Reboot your device and find SuperSu in app drawer.
Congrats! You’re now rooted as well.

That’s All! We hope that you found this guide of much help. In case you got any queries or face any difficulties regarding this guide, don’t hesitate to stop by the comment box below and leave us your message. We will try our best to help you out. Thanks All.

This post was last modified on December 23, 2013 7:52 pm

Usama M

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.

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View Comments

douglasvinicius says:

October 20, 2019 at 12:23 pm

I'll try this to install cyanogenmod 11 in my S3 i9305 device. Just wanted to know: does installing a custom recovery involves the risk of bricking your phone?
Usama Mujtaba says:

March 10, 2014 at 6:23 pm

@disqus_RKK5J4hmok:disqus no it doesn't. Flash it without any fears.
Konrad Gamess says:

April 2, 2014 at 4:08 am

Here is my situation:
I rooted my S3 a few nights ago via CWM-based Recovery not knowing about Knox and it's cock blocking self. I am trying to "deknox" my phone through one of your other guides and whenever I boot into recovery, it goes into the Manual Mode one rather than CWM and I'm debating re-reovering my phone but wondering if that might brick it, even if I just re-recovered CWM. Another issue is that I may not be rooted properly, because Root Checker tells me I'm not although a Knox notification comes up as it's verifying it so I don't know what to think anymore. Guide me please!
- um009 says:
  
  October 20, 2019 at 12:21 pm
  
  @konradgamess:disqus flash a new stock firmware on your SGS 3 , after that flash a TWRP recovery and use our guide to deknox it. In case this doesn't remove knox apps, you can simply flash SuperSu in TWRP recovery and root it, after that install Titanium Backup and freeze all knox apps using the freeze option in Titanium.
  Your issue should be resolved, don't forget to leave me feedback.
Usama Mujtaba says:

April 4, 2014 at 6:58 pm

@konradgamess:disqus yeah give it a try. Otherwise just re-root it, install titanium and try freezing using that. Good Luck.
Usama Mujtaba says:

April 4, 2014 at 6:59 pm

@konradgamess:disqus that's great. Glad that you finally got it running. Stay connected, have a nice day.
- Konrad Gamess says:
  
  April 5, 2014 at 10:24 pm
  
  This will be my final update it seems :)
  All is well, I just used a root app uninstaller to get rid of Knox because Deknoxing failed me enough. My only issue now is (seems to be strictly a S3 issue) is that after an hour or two (or a reboot or two), my root permissions literally wear off and I need tk reroot my phone via TWRP. Any ideas would be great. I appreciate all of your help so far!
  - um009 says:
    
    April 6, 2014 at 7:31 pm
    
    @konradgamess:disqus flash stock firmware and then root it again. This will solve this issue, and yeah, perform a full wipe once before you reinstall stock firmware.
deepak says:

December 23, 2014 at 8:49 am

i m on cwm at the time. i wanted to shift to twrp so i downloaded a .zip file and tried to flash it through cwm recovery. but it is giving error status 7 saying problem in zip file. please help for shifting to twrp
- Usama Mujtaba says:
  
  December 24, 2014 at 8:16 pm
  
  @disqus_7C9MldqvCP:disqus flash TWRP recovery using the .tar.md5 file.
  - deepak says:
    
    December 27, 2014 at 6:26 pm
    
    ok i flashed it successfully but now there are both cwm and twrp on my phone. how to remove cwm
Som James says:

March 13, 2016 at 3:35 pm

Hi Usama, Here is my problem. My S3 (GT-I9300, used in India) got soft-bricked while i was talking over phone (Quite strange, but true). So I tried installing TWRP Recovery 2.6.3.1 on S3 to recover important files from mobile. I followed instructions as mentioned in your post, however I am getting below error now on ODIN (v 3.10)

<ID:0/031> Added!!
<ID:0/031> Odin engine v(ID:3.1005)..
<ID:0/031> File analysis..
<ID:0/031> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/031> Initialzation..
<ID:0/031> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/031>
<ID:0/031> There is no PIT partition.
All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

I google more about error but wanted to take your advice for the same. Please advise
- um009 says:
  
  March 13, 2016 at 11:10 pm
  
  @somjames:disqus did you just tick the PIT file (Re-Partition) option? If so then you need untick it and flash the file without having the PIT option ticked.
  If the error still comes up, you might need to find a PIT file for your device and then flash it to recover it. I'm afraid if your PIT partition is already messed up. I hope this reply helps. Best of luck.
  - Som James says:
    
    March 17, 2016 at 10:11 am
    
    Hi Usama, reason i am doing this is to recover data from my mobile (my kid's photos and videos). I am not interested in getting my mobile in working condition. Since aim is to restore data, I want to ensure if selecting PIT will cause any harm to data. Please suggest. Also let me know from where can I get correct PIT file from Samsung S3 GT-I9300 (India handset). Many thanks in advance
    - um009 says:
      
      March 18, 2016 at 7:02 pm
      
      @somjames:disqus If the partition has been messed up, you won't be able to recover any data. Flashing the PIT file will simply repartition your phone, which means all the previous data will be lost. You can easily find any PIT file on google. Many people have uploaded several PIT files, you just need to search properly.