Samsung’s third generation phablet device, the Galaxy Note 3 is the latest sensation in the world of Android. It is being seen as a worthy upgrade to its predecessor Note 2 and has received mixed opinions from critics. Coming to specs, the device sports a 5.7″ Full HD sAMOLED display with 1920 x 1080 Resolution, 2.3 GHz Quad CPU, 3G B RAM, 13 MP rear and 2MP front camera, 32 /64 GB Memory, 3,200 mAh Standard Battery and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (it has KitKat now).
It has not been long since it was released but the stats of Note 3’s sale promise that it is doing good. However, whether it will be able to outshine Note 2 or not, is yet to be seen. Meanwhile, if you have already bought the Galaxy Note 3 LTE, checked it features and are now planning to root it, this tutorial will help you do that. It is to be noted that Chainfire has now released the official Odin flashable root package for the device. The TWRP recovery, however, is not official.
Disclaimer:
The rooting procedure described below is considered risky and therefore it must be taken for granted. Though it has been tested and found working, it does not come with a guarantee tag. It’s your phone and your responsibility. All we can do is to help you in case you are stuck at some point of the procedure. Also, the rooting method applies only to Samsung Galaxy Note 3 LTE SM-N9005 and trying it on any other model of the device might bring catastrophic results.
UPDATE
To root your Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9005 on Android 4.4.2 KitKat, use Geohot’s TowelRoot app.
Preparations:
- Download CF-Auto-Root package for SM-N9005 (extract the zip): CF-Auto-Root-hlte-hltexx-smn9005.zip
- Download Samsung USB Drivers or latest Kies on your PC. If you do not have either of them, download here.
- If you also want to install a custom recovery on your Note 3 SM-N9005, download the latest PhilZ Advanced recovery with .tar.md5 extension: philz_touch_6.13.0-hltexx.tar.md5
- Installing a new firmware might wipe the apps and data present on the internal SD, so it is recommended that you backup your data. Here are a few apps that will help you do that.
- Turn on USB Debugging on your Note 3. Read this guide to know how to do it.
- Make sure to charge your device to a decent level before starting.
Root Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9005:
If you are not new to the Android scene and have owned a Galaxy phone or tablet, you might like to be told how to install files using Odin tool. But if it is your first time, follow the steps given below.
- Open the CF-Auto-Root folder and launch Odin 1.85 as administrator.
- Turn off your Note 3 and put it into Download Mode. This is how you can do it: turn off the device, and press Volume Down + Home + Power buttons at the same time for about 2-3 seconds. When the screen turns up, you’ll be prompted to press the Volume Up key. Press it to enter Download Mode.
- Connect your Note 3 LTE to computer using USB cable.
- Wait till Odin detects your device and you see “Added!!” in message box on Odin and Blue signal at the ID:COM port.
- Now click on the PDA button and select the file with .tar.md5 extension.
- When you are satisfied that everything is fine, click the Start button on Odin.
- The installation procedure will now be initiated. Wait till it is done and you see PASS! message with Green indicator.
- Your device will then reboot automatically. The first boot takes a little longer time that normal reboot, so wait patiently.
Finally, you’ll be hailed by the lockscreen. Open the app drawer to check the presence of a new app called SuperSU. To further verify that the device has full root access, install the Root Checker app from the Play Store and run it.
[googleplay url=”https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joeykrim.rootcheck”]Installing CWM/TWRP Recovery on Galaxy Note 3 LTE:
Having rooted your Galaxy Note 3 LTE SM-N9005, if you also intend to install custom ROMs or mods, do the following steps. Actually the procedure of installing any file with .tar extension in Odin is the same as described above. Following the procedure given below will void your phone’s warranty.
- Make all preparatory steps as instructed above.
- Boot your Note 3 in Download Mode.
- Launch Odin and connect device to computer via USB.
- Click on PDA and select “philz_touch_6.13.0-hltexx.tar.md5“ file.
- Hit the Start button and wait till you get PASS!! message followed by device reboot.
To reboot your device into Recovery mode, turn it off and use Volume Up + Home + Power button combination.
If you have any problem or question regarding the procedure described above, feel free to leave a comment. Thanks!
You Might Also Like:
Best Apps for Rooted Android Devices
Customize and Tweak Your Note 3 with Xposed Framework
Add Any App to Floating Pen Window on Galaxy Note 3
How to Install Official Firmware on Galaxy Note 3 (All Models)
it is showing secure check fail or secure check fail:recovery please help
As always, Rakesh saving my skin. Thanks a lot buddy again. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thanks for all your help and awesome blog in 2014. Best Regards from Rio de Janeiro.
Merry Christmas, Andre! Thanks for the appreciation!
Hi Rakesh, I’ve done the root part and followed by flashing the Philz, after auto reboot, I try to go to Recovery mode but find the phone going into Download mode, as if the recovery didn’t install. Any idea why? Thank you. (I’ve flashed many times, same problem every time)
Hi Ocean, try Volume Up+Home+Power combo to get into the recovery mode, or simply try this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jc.rebootmanager
Hello Rakesh, thank you so much for your swift reply. You’re right! I had been so foolish, spending all day flashing CWM and Philz while using “Volume Down” for booting into recovery…. only just realise it’s UP 3am last night…
Hi Guys! I just rooted my note 3 successfully! Thanks a lot for the guide. Please if someone know is it possible to rollback from kitkat to jellybeam? Any pointing will be helpful. Cheers, chris
Hi guys, so i have followed the instructions exactly, just wondering once you have received the green pass sign in Odin and it auto reboots the device. How long should it take to reboot completely. I did read that it can take quite a bit longer than a normal boot in process, but I am up to 20 minutes at the moment. the screen reads at the very top left hand corner in blue writing ( Recovery booting ….) under that in red writing (RECOVERY IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING) under that in yellow writing ( Set Warranty Bit : recovery)
It also has the Samsung galaxy note 3 sm-n9005 logo in white in the center of the screen.
Any help would be amazing and appreciated. I am tech savvy, but this is my first time playing around with phones and android devices in general and with all the mixed reviews on the topic (on other sites and forums) makes it hard to suss it out.
Thanks… from Luke
Does your Note 3 have Android 4.4.2?
Hi Rakesh,
Model no. SM-N9005
Android version- 4.3
Kernel version 3.0.4-2019540
For memory before i tried the root my version said 4.3.3 but i cant be certain, but it reads 4.3 as version in about device.
Also the phone never rebooted. I left it for like an hour nearly, obviously overkill but I’m patient. It then remained with that message on the screen that i previously posted, the whole time. Even after removing the battery it remained lol. After reinstalling the battery i held down the power button for 8-10 seconds to reboot, but it kept it in a continuous loop of rebooting to the above mentioned screen. Luckily the first thing i tried solved this. As you hold down the power button to hard reboot, as soon as it vibrates and you see the initial flash of the screen shutting down, remove the pressed button and quickly repress to enter Odin mode, then click down on the volume button. This rebooted the phone back to normal operation and killed the reboot loop. You probably already knew that, but if it helps in the future yay for me lol. Both the current binary and system status read Custom now, but i do not have super user.
thanks again for any possible assistance.
Cheers Luke.
Which country are you from?
Australia 🙂
yourself ?
Okay, install this firmware: http://samsung-updates.com/details/19041/Galaxy_Note_3_Snapdragon/SM-N9005/XSA/N9005XXUDMJ7.html
Use this guide: https://www.droidviews.com/how-to-install-restore-stock-firmware-on-samsung-galaxy-note-3-all-models/
Thanks for that. Do i just install it as i did previously in Odin using the PDA tab? Also is the file supposed to be 1.6GB?
Cheers .. Luke
Yes, you just have to flash the firmware via Odin.
Hi Rakesh,
Just finished the re installation of the firmware link you provided, you sir are a champion. Many thanks 🙂 🙂 🙂
Odin mode on the phone now reads
Samsung official and also official for system status.
The Knox warranty void is 0x1, but i don’t care about tripping it.
Now that I’m back to standard how should i attack the rooting process this time.
Thanks again Rakesh…
I am glad to know, Luke. Enjoy and keep visiting!
Hi Rakesh,
Now that I’m back to standard, What would your advice be on rooting the phone?
Yes, sure. Try saferoot. I have not tested it but it wroks on most Galaxy sevices with Snapdragon processor: https://www.droidviews.com/how-to-root-t-mobile-galaxy-s4-sgh-m919-on-android-4-3-vruemk2-firmware/
Try and let me know.
Will do, Yeah i did try CF-Root, but it doesn’t complete the install and just goes into a boot loop.
Ill try the new link you provided and let you know soon.
Cheers .. Luke
Hi Rakesh,
It’s still sending it into that original error message i posted in my first post. 🙁
Hmm, then restore your device and wait till I find something else. 🙂
No problems, and yeah I’ve already returned it back to official, courtesy of the link you provided me 🙂 works a charm that one.
Is there any other details you might need from me to help with the search?
My service provider is Telstra if that helps.
No, that is enough.
Hi Rakesh,
sorry for the late reply. That last link you provided seemed to have worked. I now have SU. (root) so thank you very much for that. The reason i wanted to do that is to be able to run linux on the phone. I’m finding that Linux deploy is still not working.
What would your suggestion be or what process should i take to be able to run a distrobution of Linux
Okay Luke, try this: https://www.droidviews.com/root-galaxy-note-3-without-tripping-knox-warranty-with-root-de-la-vega/
Confirmed working with MJ7. do not download the firmware as you already have it.
Thanks Rakesh i will try this method and get back to you. once again thank you for the ongoing help 🙂
Wait, did you try CF-Root?
Thanks Rakesh. I’m downloading the file at the moment. unfortunately though i haven’t got the best speeds where i live, so ill have to try the install in the morning. I’ll let you know how i go. One last question though 🙂 once i have preformed the reinstall should i retry the root or should i try another way?
Thanks again though mate, i really appreciate it, i haven’t been on forums much but this has been the most prompt and easy one by far. Will definitely be passing on this site.
Just restore the device for now, we’ll see the rooting part later.
LOL you said CWM… but link to TWRP instead…
Yep, when the guide was written the method described rooting Note 3 through rooted firmware. Then changed it and added the CWM and CF-Root method. Since that CWM did not support KitKat firmware, I changed it to TWRP recently.
The mistake: I forgot to replace CWM with TWRP. And now I am going to correct it. Thanks!
Hi will this method of rooting work without tripping Knox 0x0 with no knox warranty void?
No TIM, it’ll trip KNOX.
How can I root without tripping knox?
There is a way but let me check it out first.
If I root with this method can I unroot and get my warranty back?
Use the Universal Root Dela Vega if you don’t want to trip the Knox.
Have you got a link for the Universal Root Dela Vega because the one on xda developers site I can’t download
SM-N9005XXUBMI7-ROOTED-KNOX_FREE.Rar on sm-,9005 : failed using odin 3.04
🙁
Download mode says : SECURE CHECK FAIL [FMM] : system
Odin says : fail!
Try with the other version of Odin.
HI ! I tried 1.85, 3.04, 3.07.. nothing works.. odin always says “fail!”
I tried both with SM-N9005XXUBMI7-ROOTED-KNOX_FREE.Rar and stock rom from sammobile. Nothing works
Phone says I must use emergency recovery from Kies. But the phone is not visible by Kies !
All of this tried on two computers, with two cables (genuine USB 2 and geniune USB 3)
Nothing works… heeeeeeelp !
Reactivation lock is ON
Only positive thing : knox warranty void is still at 0 !
I was unable to recover my phone, so I send it to a Samsung repair center.. I’ll better wait a little bit more before rooting…
You should warn readers about “SM-N9005XXUBMI7-ROOTED-KNOX_FREE.Rar” method.
Use chainfire CF-AUTO-ROOT. You loose software warranty, but Chainfire’s method is most reliable.
Hi,
Yours is the first case with the firmware method. I used it myself successfully. CF-Root arrived yesterday so also included that. As for your phone’s problem, if you are unable to install official firmware using Odin, try this: https://www.droidviews.com/firmware-upgrade-encountered-an-issue-solution/
It should be fixed.
I left the reactivation lock. Maybe that’s the difference that made it worked for you and not for me.
Anyway, Thanks for your solution, but I can’t test it now, I’ve send it to the repair center
I tried to install TWRP on N9005XXUENB4 android 4.4.2 but it shows that everything went good with Odin, but i dont get the recovery option while trying to restart the phone [the custom recovery is not installed..]
You used the Volume Up+Home+Power combo?
i used ‘Volume Down’, ‘Home’ and ‘Power’ button and when i got the download screen i used the volume up key and followed the whole process of flashing, i got the green success message at the end when it restarted my phone, but then it doesnt show the recovery in the reboot options like i used to get when i was on 4.3 was using TWRP before updating to 4.4.2
Use this key combo to get into recovery mode: Volume Up+Home+Power
or
Use one of these apps: https://www.droidviews.com/how-to-boot-into-recovery-mode-without-touching-hard-keys/
Thanks for the solution, the problem was i couldnt get to the recovery mode, it used to boot up till the samsung logo and go into a boot loop, it was later found out that it is a known issue with the boot loader for 4.4.2 which re writes the boot partition on every boot, and there is a fix that has been released by cwm which works
Did you try the latest TWRP? It should work on KitKat.
And yes, were you able to root?
yeah i rooted it!! then went on to install the recovery, but failed to install TWRP since they have some known boot loader issues, so ended up installing the advanced version of CWM, that has features from both TWRP and CWM, and it works well with kitkat- got it on xda forum
everything works good now, thanks for the help
Okay, give me the link to that modded CWM so that I might add it here too.
i have shared the link, droid views says that it has gone for admin moderation since its an external site, and will be shown upon approval by the site admin
Sorry I forgot to approve the link. The post has been already updated with PhilZ recovery.
Thanks!
ur welcome 🙂