[Q] S3 device status detected as "modified" after JB update yesterday night.

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zadigre

Senior Member
Aug 28, 2006
1,262
665
Montreal
[Q] S3 device status detected as "modified" after JB update yesterday night.

First let me say that my Galaxy SIII was not rooted before the update. It's been running full stock rom.

I've done the Jelly Bean update yesterday night through Kies while my phone was connected to my computer.

Update was perfect until I tried the software update app to check if there was anything left to install.
At this moment, I had a message telling me that my phone was modified and updates will not work (I don't remember the exact message).
If I go to Settings, About device, Status... Device Status is "modified".

Again, I don't have anything on my phone to root my device.

So what I tried next... removing my microsd card (64GB Sandisk microSDXC) and reboot my phone. Now, Device status is "Normal".
Put it back again... reboot... and Device status is again "modified".
Format the card... reboot... Device status is Normal.
Put everything back (55GB of music only synched through iSyncr wifi with my Mac)... reboot... Device Status "modified".

So it really looks like that the thing that Samsung uses to detect the "modified" state of the phone is broken in some way because it's detecting my media files (mp3 and m4a) as some sort of modification to the phone... this is completely wrong!!

Am I the only one with this problem?

I will try this week to reduce the amount of music file to see if there is anything that broke the detection system... I will report later if I find anything.

By the way, I found a similar thread with a similar problem... but this thread did not offer any solution and it looks like to be close as I cannot add anything to it.
 

Tony_YYZ

Senior Member
Oct 31, 2012
456
104
That's very weird because I was rooted using the method in my sig and my device status showed modified as well. I was able to install the update just fine.
 

zadigre

Senior Member
Aug 28, 2006
1,262
665
Montreal
That's very weird because I was rooted using the method in my sig and my device status showed modified as well. I was able to install the update just fine.

I was also able to install the update... the status was "normal" before the update...

the issue I have now is it says "modified" even if I did not modify anything in my phone.

I did the test again this morning... I removed all the music file on my card... device status is back to normal.

It must be one of my music file that triggers this detection... if it's in fact the case, it means that there is a bug in the detection that Samung have implemented.
 

Tony_YYZ

Senior Member
Oct 31, 2012
456
104
I was also able to install the update... the status was "normal" before the update...

the issue I have now is it says "modified" even if I did not modify anything in my phone.

I did the test again this morning... I removed all the music file on my card... device status is back to normal.

It must be one of my music file that triggers this detection... if it's in fact the case, it means that there is a bug in the detection that Samung have implemented.

Yeah, that is very odd. I'd organize all your files on our SD Card into folders and move them to your PC. Then copy one folder at a time over to the SD card and see which one triggers the phone to show a Modified status. Then you can narrow it down from there.
 

zadigre

Senior Member
Aug 28, 2006
1,262
665
Montreal
Yeah, that is very odd. I'd organize all your files on our SD Card into folders and move them to your PC. Then copy one folder at a time over to the SD card and see which one triggers the phone to show a Modified status. Then you can narrow it down from there.

this is exactly what I'm going to do... I will also try to logcat command through adb ... I might be able to find something in the log.

I will let everyone know as soon as I find the cause of this problem.
 

Tony_YYZ

Senior Member
Oct 31, 2012
456
104
Yea mine was modified going into the ota update it updated fine then after when you checked software update it said it was modified and that updates were no longer available

Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium

This is so weird, after my OTA completed yesterday I tried to check for updates again and it just told me I was on the latest version. Now when I check it gives me the modified error.

Blargh. Ahh well, It's not like we're going to be seeing another update anytime soon, unless it's a patch.
 

zadigre

Senior Member
Aug 28, 2006
1,262
665
Montreal
This is so weird, after my OTA completed yesterday I tried to check for updates again and it just told me I was on the latest version. Now when I check it gives me the modified error.

Blargh. Ahh well, It's not like we're going to be seeing another update anytime soon, unless it's a patch.

are you rooted after updating?

maybe you can do like what I've did (remove microsd card), reboot and see if you still have this "modified" status/message.
 

Tony_YYZ

Senior Member
Oct 31, 2012
456
104
are you rooted after updating?

maybe you can do like what I've did (remove microsd card), reboot and see if you still have this "modified" status/message.

I did restore root after updating. I'll have to temporarily remove root, restart and see what it says then. I'll try to do that later.
 

zadigre

Senior Member
Aug 28, 2006
1,262
665
Montreal
I did restore root after updating. I'll have to temporarily remove root, restart and see what it says then. I'll try to do that later.

I suspect that they are checking not just the presence of "rooting" app in the system folder, but also other "rooting" files anywhere else on the phone... I'm sure they do this because just by removing my microsd card, even if the only files present were music and jpg file, the status went from modified to normal.

So a temp unroot might not necessarily fix this problem for you.
 

Tony_YYZ

Senior Member
Oct 31, 2012
456
104
I suspect that they are checking not just the presence of "rooting" app in the system folder, but also other "rooting" files anywhere else on the phone... I'm sure they do this because just by removing my microsd card, even if the only files present were music and jpg file, the status went from modified to normal.

So a temp unroot might not necessarily fix this problem for you.

Hmm, hopefully the answer surfaces from one of the devs soon.
 

yulet

Senior Member
Dec 10, 2011
183
96
I have ROOT but my Device Status is Normal :eek:

Sent from my SGH-I747M
 

howlingmoon12

Senior Member
Jul 27, 2010
197
28
Toronto
Yea mine was modified going into the ota update it updated fine then after when you checked software update it said it was modified and that updates were no longer available

Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium

Sam here, as far as I can tell it wasn't as a result of the SD card. It was fine when I had stock unrooted Rogers ALH1, but it changed to modified when I flashed the root injected Rogers ALH1 for the no counter trip thread, and it was in ODIN too.
 

acloaf

Senior Member
Jul 22, 2012
107
33
Lethbridge
which su binary are using (supersuser or supersu)?

I think that supersu has an option to hide the root availability... is this the one that you are using?

I'm also rooted on the JB update and status shows normal. I'm using supersu but can't find an option to hide. With rooted ics it always showed modified.

I wasn't sure if it was connected to the flash counter in some way since I'm not at 0 anymore but apparently that's not the case.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app
 
I'm also rooted on the JB update and status shows normal. I'm using supersu but can't find an option to hide. With rooted ics it always showed modified.

I wasn't sure if it was connected to the flash counter in some way since I'm not at 0 anymore but apparently that's not the case.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app

It's all based upon files in /system ALSO flash counter.

Modified, meh.

Just if you DO NOT root and updated to JB 4.1 and it now shows modified...that's weird.

Yet most of the time when you flash to a rooted version and it says modified thats cause of /system files and flash counter.
 

zadigre

Senior Member
Aug 28, 2006
1,262
665
Montreal
It's all based upon files in /system ALSO flash counter.

Modified, meh.

Just if you DO NOT root and updated to JB 4.1 and it now shows modified...that's weird.

Yet most of the time when you flash to a rooted version and it says modified thats cause of /system files and flash counter.

My phone has a stock rom and flash counter is 0.
This morning, I had all my music files on my microsd card... Status was modified. I removed all files, reboot... Status normal. Yes this is weird.
 

tvf_tez_e

Member
Nov 12, 2012
49
0
I have the same weird problem too. I bought my phone 4-5 days ago from a famous shop. It was totally new and unused, never rooted, never flashed anything, no simlock, no root required app installed AND no sdcard. These days it is mostly Modified, rarely it turns to Normal after restarting the device...
 

zadigre

Senior Member
Aug 28, 2006
1,262
665
Montreal
I don't know what was really going on... I removed one song, got the "Normal" status. I removed some other files, got "modified". ReAdd the first file that was removed, got the "Normal" status again.

What I've decided to do is put my memory card in my MacBook Pro. I got an error that the card wasn't readable. My MacBook is supposed to support SDXC standard with and extFAT formated card... so it looks like that my card had a problem. I decided to reformat the card with FAT32 even if SDXC card are supposed to be extFAT. I put the card back into my phone. I synched all music files.... and I got the "normal" status again. I modified my playing list in iTunes... I synched again... status stil shown as "normal".

So I don't know what was the problem exactly... I suppose that the file system on the card was damaged in some way... but I really do not know what caused this problem at first.
Anyway it works fine now... so this is the most important thing.
 

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