Samsung Galaxy S4
The Samsung Galaxy S4 may soon have more internal storage free for personal use. Reuters

Samsung’s latest Galaxy S4 smartphone is a wonderful piece of work in the hardware and software departments.

But, along with new features and improved specs, the flagship handset has also initiated the South Korean tech giant’s new approach towards rooting, making it all the more difficult to achieve.

Although the Qualcomm Snapdragon variant of the Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505) has already been rooted successfully — thanks to well-known developer Chainfire — the Exynos 5 Octa variant (GT-I9500) of the smartphone proved more difficult to be rooted.

However, developments have been made and the Samsung Galaxy S4 International Version with the model number GT-I9500 is now ready to be rooted. It should be noted that before rooting the Galaxy S4, users must flash the Cofface’s ClockWorkMod Recovery on their device.

Below are the steps to flash ClockWorkMod 6.0.3.1 on the Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500), followed by the rooting process. But before going ahead, users are highly recommended to have proper backups for their personal data on the phone, apps and settings.

In addition, the handset should have at least 80 percent battery life and a Samsung USB driver for the Galaxy S4 must be installed on the computer to be used in the process. USB Debugging should also be enabled. (Download Samsung USB driver here)

Note: IBTimes cannot be held responsible for anything that goes wrong. Users must proceed at their own risk.

How To Install CWM Recovery And Root Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500)

Step 1: Download Cofface’s CWM Recovery and Root and unzip the files

Step 2: Download Odin 3.07

Step 3: Turn off your phone and go to Download mode. To do this, press and hold the Volume Down and Home buttons together and then press the Power button. After you see a warning screen, press Volume Up button to confirm to enter Download mode.

Step 4: Run Odin as an Administrator and connect the Galaxy S4 to the computer via USB cable while in the Download mode. If the phone is connected properly, you will see “Added” message in Odin.

Step 5: Click on the PDA button in Odin and select the cofface_samsungI9500_recovery_en_0503.tar file. In the Odin window, Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time check boxes should be selected while re-partition must remain unchecked.

Step 6: Hit the Start button in Odin to begin the flashing process.

Step 7: Once the ClockWorkMod recovery is successfully installed on your phone, it will reboot automatically and a pass message will appear on the left-hand side of Odin. The Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500) is likely to have the ClockWorkMod recovery installed in it, so you can proceed to root the device.

Step 8: Power off the device again and boot it into CWM recovery. To do this, press and hold the Volume Up and Home buttons. Then press the Power button.

Step 9: In recovery, go to root your phone option. You can use Volume buttons to browse and the Home button to select options.

Step 10: Restart the phone and you will find the SuperSU app installed on your Galaxy S4 GT-I9500.

[Source: Redmond Pie, Android Jinn]

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