Last Updated on September 17, 2017 by Mathew Diekhake

Verizon Subscribers using the Samsung Galaxy S4 are witnessing a fresh I545VRUFNG6 Android 4.4.2 KitKat software update rolling out to selected devices OTA across the United States.

As long as you have updated yours either from OTA sync or downloading the file manually, you can follow these steps to unchain the OS and open it up again with root access. You should know that today marks the day that 5.0 Lollipop was unveiled to the worlds along with the new Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 smartphone and tablet. However, since we are still stuck way back in the middle stages of the chocolate build, there’s no telling how long it will be until we see such an update rollout for owners, if one at all.

The way we are gaining root access today is with the TowelRoot file that came from this official XDA members thread. It comes from Muiz who is a senior member. You should take a look at the warnings he shows in the additional information section underneath where the files are on the thread,. They read: devices can pull up “a little’ wonky with lagging and lack of WiFi capabilities. i don’t know about you, but to me that is little. Therefore, you should perhaps hold back from installing this back on your daily drive if your job is an important one that requires a lot of mobile use such as lawyers, tradesmen, real estate and others. However, most of you will already be familiar with rooting and know the risk so it’s up to you.

When we root we unchain the OS away from its default factory restrictions. It’s a great way to open it up to its full potential s owe can install custom ROMs, custom firmware, more applications that aren’t available from the Google Play store so added fun and that comes with a purpose such as overclocking the CPU. However, it does come at a risk. if you have any outstanding warranty they do become void since we break open the bootloader and tick over the flash counter. This damage is temporary and can always be reverted backward to how it was by locking the OS back up again and un-rooting the phone. To do that requires a fresh guide that we are not showing here.

Furthermore, you should know that rooting comes with risk factors such as bricking the handset. Luckily, most mobiles comes with guides to un-brick thanks to some clever developers that are also available from XDA Developers. if you run into trouble there’s nothing stopping you using the search bar on their site and searching for how to un-brick for that model. You should find a guide ready and waiting or at least people pointing you in the right direction who have been through the same process themselves.

Make sure you enable USB Debugging Mode from the Developer Options menu and download the correct Samsung USB Drivers. That way we can cancel out any connection and functionality issues off the list if you fail to get things underway.

Temporarily disable any security programs and features running on the Android OS and the computer. You should use a Windows-based computer, notebook or laptop since most Android root files are made to work best with the Redmond-based Microsoft Windows operating system. We know that Odin is one program made by the official Samsung Developers that does not work on Apple mac OS X or any Unix OS including Linux.

Locate the SGS4 USB cord for plugging into the computer system unit or any available USB slot with the machine you choose to use. Moreover, check the battery status from the status bar and make sure it reads at least 40%. these handsets are getting old now and we need to give them a little more juice to make sure they see out the process without turning off.

How to Root Samsung Galaxy S4 For Verizon Subscribers running the latest Android 4.4.4 KitKat I545VRUFNG6 Firmware

  1. Download the TowelRoot program from here.
    – use the computer’s desktop environment
  2. Download Odin 3.09 here.
    – use the desktop once again
  3. Turn the SGS4 off and boot it up in Download Mode.
    – press Volume Down + Power + Home buttons at the same time.
  4. Fetch the USb cable.
  5. Plug the phone into the computers USbslot.
  6. Open Odin and click the AP button.
  7. Upload the I545_NC5_Stock_Kernel.tar.md5 file.
  8. Wait until the flashing process finishes and it reboots.
  9. Now root using the Towelroot-v3.apk.
  10. Turn the S4 off once again.
  11. Boot into Download Mode a second time.
  12. Flash the I545_NG6_Stock_Kernel.tar.md5 file again from Odin.

The Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4 SCH-I545 smartphone now has root access which means you can go and start installing the abundance of root applications that are out there. Most of them are going to be hosted by the same Google Play Store that you already know, but there are a few good ones located out of the Google Play Store as well. You always need to tread a bit more carefully when you install from outside of Google Play because it means Android and Google are not monitoring the files.

You might also be interested in:

Have something to say? You can contribute to this tech article by leaving a comment below.