[Q] Cant flash ROMS from stock 4.2

[30secs]

I have newly acquired a samsung s4 active with 4.2 stock. I couldn't OTA upgrade or manually (keeps failing halfway through), couldn't flash 4.4 ROM through recovery, and couldn't do backups through ROM manager and recovery 3.0+

At this point i'm not sure what i should do. i'd like to set my phone up and forget it.. but nothing is really going easy for me. is this because of the s4 active recovery? why is it so hard to change that darn 4.2 stock rom?

 

[Devo7v]

I have newly acquired a samsung s4 active with 4.2 stock. I couldn't OTA upgrade or manually (keeps failing halfway through), couldn't flash 4.4 ROM through recovery, and couldn't do backups through ROM manager and recovery 3.0+

At this point i'm not sure what i should do. i'd like to set my phone up and forget it.. but nothing is really going easy for me. is this because of the s4 active recovery? why is it so hard to change that darn 4.2 stock rom?

It depends on which version of the phone you have. If you have the i9295, then it really shouldn't be that hard to do what you are asking about. If you have the i537 then you can't really do anything you're asking about because it has a locked bootloader. If you have the i537 you need to check out SafeStrap.

 

[30secs]

i believe i do have the i537. is there a thread i can check out to help with getting started on custom recovery roms etc?

 

[Devo7v]

i believe i do have the i537. is there a thread i can check out to help with getting started on custom recovery roms etc?

The i537 has a locked bootloader which means you cannot install a custom recovery or any other kernel. Your only option is to use SafeStrap along with 4.2.2 TouchWiz-based ROMs. Read more about SafeStrap here and a list ROMs that will work with SafeStrap here.

Because of the locked bootloader you will not be able to use CyanogenMod, any CM-based ROM, or any AOSP-based ROM. The only ROM I like using that is different than the stock ROM is the 4.2.2 GPe. Do some reading before you try SafeStrap, otherwise you could brick your phone pretty easily.