Most of the Android smartphone released by Samsung are easy to mod, it can be seen from the active development and the number of developers who want to demonstrate their ability to mod an Android device. Most of the users who want to mod their devices argue that they want to get the best performance by rooting their device or just bored with TouchWiz UI since it never get significant change, and want to replace it with a stock android (AOSP) or MIUI that has a better graphical user interface.
After rooting or trying several custom ROMs, might be you want to unroot or even return to stock software with TouchWiz UI, fortunately there’s an easy method to restore our Galaxy S4 Active (SGH-i537 / GT-I9295) to stock firmware by using the Odin flash tool, this tool also useful to unbrick our device and solve some other issues such as stuck at samsung boot screen/logo, boot loop. Another reason why we need to return to stock is we can run the superb features like Smart Screen, Air View, Smart Pause, etc. these features don’t work properly on custom (non-TouchWiz) ROMs.
Restore Samsung Galaxy S4 Active to stock firmware is also required in case you wish to sell the device, as we know this device is pricey (around $650), by selling it we will get more bucks to purchase other Android smartphone. The following are some prerequisites that must be fulfilled:
- A device drivers for windows is needed so that the PC recognize our device.
- To flash, we need Odin3, which is a popular tool useful for flashing any Samsung devices.
- We also need an official stock factory firmware or kernel for the Galaxy S4 Active (get it here), make sure you pick the appropriate file based on device model number. The firmware is generally a zip packed file (with .zip extension), we have to extract it first, once extracted you should be able to find a .md5 file extension.
As soon as all of requirements have been met, it’s time to employ Odin3 to restore our Galaxy S4 Active (SGH-i537 / GT-I9295) to stock ROM.
- Open Odin3 on Windows computers, use the latest version of the tool (Odin3 v.3.07.exe).
- The phone have to be in download mode, turn off our phones first, then press the following three keys simultaneously (Home + Volume down + Power), you will notice a warning message, just press vol up button to continue, you should on Download mode now.
- Back to Odin3, connect the phone to a Windows PC via a USB port, and look at the “ID: COM” and “Message” menu to make sure your device has been recognized by Odin.
- On the “Options” menu, make sure only Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time is chosen, keep the others unchecked.
- Now hit the PDA button located on the on Odin, and find the stock firmware file with the .md5 extension.
- If you are convinced, it is time to press the Start button and begin the flashing procedure.
Flashing process takes place within minutes, now watch the “Message” section to make sure you don’t get any error message. When the flashing process is done, your device will reboot automatically, the first boot is a bit longer than usual, so please be patient. After successfully booting up, now our Samsung Galaxy S4 Active (SGH-i537 / GT-I9295) has successfully returned to stock condition and running official shipped software.