As many of you Verizon S4 owners are aware, Verizon recently provided a two-part update, to update our phone to Lollipop. The first one simply updates the firmware from NK1 to NK4, and the second part updates it to Lollipop. Many of us, myself included, did NOT want to apply these updates, but mistakenly pressed the button to install the first update, to NK4. [It's pretty easy to avoid the second part since it requires loads of space to be cleared on your device before it can be installed.]
Sadly, when the phone updated from NK1 to NK4, we lost our root. Well, be sad no more! Thanks to my research & testing, I have put together a solution. I have done this on my phone and experienced no issues for the last 2-3 days.
These steps are similar to the steps for rooting NK1 - first flash NC5 through Odin, root using towelroot, and then re-flash NK4. I have seen many posts asking about the NK4 stock kernel, and no one seems to have it, even the sammobile site. Well, I got my hands on the Verizon update.zip for NK4, extracted the boot.img, and then turned it into a tar.md5 file that can be flashed via Odin.
So, here are the steps:
1. Go to this post and get your hands on the Towelroot apk, NC5 stock kernel, and Odin.
2. Download the NK4 stock kernel attached to this post (I had to zip it, to comply with the forum posting rules, so please unzip it)
3. Install Towelroot on your phone.
4. Shut down your phone, then boot your phone into "Download Mode" (press and hold the Home, Volume Down, and Power keys until the phone powers on and displays warning screen, then press Volume Up key) and Flash the I545_NC5_Stock_Kernel using Odin's PDA slot(AP in Odin v3.09+).
5. Once your phone reboots, open Towelroot from your app drawer and press "Make it Rain" to root your device. Note that at this point, your phone may be acting funny because of the flash of NC5. Don't worry, it will be fine once we flash back NK4. For now, just get Towelroot to root the phone. If it says it worked, then shut down the phone. [In my case, Towelroot said it worked, but the Root Checker app I had said I did not have root, so don't trust those, if Towelroot says it worked, it worked!]
6. Boot into Download Mode again, and this time flash the I545_NK4_Stock_Kernel in Odin. Once your phone reboots, you should have root!
7. Download SuperSU from the Play Store to manage root access. Done!
If you are unfamiliar with Odin and like a guide with pictures, there is a giude written for the original NC5->NK1 rooting, so you can follow that here, but remember that the second flash should be NK4, not NK1 that it says in that guide.
Ok, this is my first post here, so be gentle. I hope this helps everyone having the same issue as I did. I am so excited to finally be contributing to the xda site, after so many years of using it to root my various Android phones over the years!
Please Note: As mentioned in other threads on this site, you should NOT try to flash NC5 if you have already updated to OC1 (Lollipop).
Sadly, when the phone updated from NK1 to NK4, we lost our root. Well, be sad no more! Thanks to my research & testing, I have put together a solution. I have done this on my phone and experienced no issues for the last 2-3 days.
These steps are similar to the steps for rooting NK1 - first flash NC5 through Odin, root using towelroot, and then re-flash NK4. I have seen many posts asking about the NK4 stock kernel, and no one seems to have it, even the sammobile site. Well, I got my hands on the Verizon update.zip for NK4, extracted the boot.img, and then turned it into a tar.md5 file that can be flashed via Odin.
So, here are the steps:
1. Go to this post and get your hands on the Towelroot apk, NC5 stock kernel, and Odin.
2. Download the NK4 stock kernel attached to this post (I had to zip it, to comply with the forum posting rules, so please unzip it)
3. Install Towelroot on your phone.
4. Shut down your phone, then boot your phone into "Download Mode" (press and hold the Home, Volume Down, and Power keys until the phone powers on and displays warning screen, then press Volume Up key) and Flash the I545_NC5_Stock_Kernel using Odin's PDA slot(AP in Odin v3.09+).
5. Once your phone reboots, open Towelroot from your app drawer and press "Make it Rain" to root your device. Note that at this point, your phone may be acting funny because of the flash of NC5. Don't worry, it will be fine once we flash back NK4. For now, just get Towelroot to root the phone. If it says it worked, then shut down the phone. [In my case, Towelroot said it worked, but the Root Checker app I had said I did not have root, so don't trust those, if Towelroot says it worked, it worked!]
6. Boot into Download Mode again, and this time flash the I545_NK4_Stock_Kernel in Odin. Once your phone reboots, you should have root!
7. Download SuperSU from the Play Store to manage root access. Done!
If you are unfamiliar with Odin and like a guide with pictures, there is a giude written for the original NC5->NK1 rooting, so you can follow that here, but remember that the second flash should be NK4, not NK1 that it says in that guide.
Ok, this is my first post here, so be gentle. I hope this helps everyone having the same issue as I did. I am so excited to finally be contributing to the xda site, after so many years of using it to root my various Android phones over the years!
Please Note: As mentioned in other threads on this site, you should NOT try to flash NC5 if you have already updated to OC1 (Lollipop).
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