Step 5. Run the ODIN program. You should see a yellow highlighted rectangle box with a number. If you don’t, you need to install Samsung Kies. Download Samsung Kies and install. After installing, un-plug your phone then plug it back in, you should now see it.
Step 6. Hit “PDA” and choose the “CF-Root-SGS2_XX_XEO_LPQ-v5.3-CWM5.tar” file you unzipped earlier.
Step 7. Hit “Start” and the kernel will start flashing to your phone.
Step 8. Your phone will reboot when it’s done.
Step 9. Once you reboot, check that you have the SuperSU app. If you do, you are rooted.
Congratulations! You’ve rooted your Galaxy S3! That was easy right?
For those of you who want to get most out of your Galaxy S3 GT-i9300, you will certainly want to root your Galaxy S3. Rooting your Galaxy S3 gives you lots of benefits like full control over your phone, ability to install custom ROMs, and a whole lot more. (If you would like a longer video explanation of what rooting does, please see this video “Why Root My Android Smartphone?”.
So, let’s root our Galaxy S3, it only takes about 5 minutes, very safe to do.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A GALAXY S3 GT-i9300 MODEL
Step 1. Hold down Volume Down, Home Center, and Power buttons together for about 20 seconds until your phone resets and shows you an option to get into download mode.
Step 2. Next hit Volume Up button to enter download mode.
Step 3. Once in Download mode, you can connect your micro-USB cable from your Galaxy S3 to your computer.
Step 4. Next, download GalaxyS3Root.zip and unzip, you should find 3 files like below screenshot. Download GalaxyS3Root.zip
Step 5. Next, make sure you have drivers installed, you should see “Samsung Mobile USB CDC Composite Device” in Device Manager. If you don’t, simply download Samsung Kies and install it. (Then unplug, plug the micro-USB cable.)
Step 6. Double-click on odin3 v1.85.exe file to start ODIN. You should see a yellow highlighted box with a COM number. The number doesn’t matter just so long as you see a yellow box. If you don’t see yellow box, your drivers are not installed correctly OR try killing Kies in Task Manager as sometimes it can interfere.
Step 7. Choose “PDA” and choose “CF-Root-SGS3-v6.1.tar” file in GalaxyS3Root folder. Then hit “Start”
Step 8. In about 10 seconds, your phone will reboot and give you ClockworkMod Recovery and full root.
Step 9. You will get a “PASS!” if everything went correctly.
Step 10. Your phone will automatically reboot into ClockworkMod Recovery and install root/Superuser files.
Step 11. Once your phone reboots, you will find “SuperSU” app, which is the Superuser app.
Step 12. You can verify you have root by running a rooted app such as Titanium Backup app, you will see Superuser request window pop up. Hit “Grant” everytime you see this.
Step 13. You can now get into ClockworkMod Recovery anytime by holding down Volume Up, Center Home, and Power button together for 20 seconds.
Congratulations! You’ve rooted your Galaxy S3! That was easy right?
Q: Does this root method erase my settings and apps?
A: No, it doesn’t touch a thing, very safe to do.
Q: ODIN does not start on my computer, what do I do?
A: Sometimes various Windows programs and drivers interfere with ODIN, try closing/killing any programs before running the program. If that does’t work, just use another computer.
Q: I ended up in Kernel panic mode, what do I do?
A: Relax, that’s same as ODIN download mode, simply run ODIN again and flash the files again, it will work.
Q: Does rooting break my phone in any way?
A: No, this root method actually does not change your Galaxy S3 except install custom recovery and give you root. Everything else on your phone will stay the same.
Q: I cannot enter ClockworkMod Recovery, I get stock Android recovery instead! I’ve followed the root guide to the T and same thing is happening after doing it 100 TIMES!!!
A: Newer software updates on the Galaxy S3 sometimes may overwrite the ClockworkMod Recovery you just installed, you can get by this by simply reflashing ClockworkMod Recovery with ODIN, then hold down Volume Up and Center Home button together for 10 seconds as soon as you see “PASS!” in ODIN.
More questions? Please leave in the comment section below for help from author and other users.
More on this Root Method
This root method simply installs ClockworkMod Recovery to the recovery partition and installs Superuser zip file, very safe to do. With Galaxy S2, recovery partition was part of the kernel and was a bit dangerous but with Galaxy S3, Samsung has made recovery parition separate from the kernel, making it much safer just like how Galaxy Nexus works.
