The options we have with root apps these days are giving people oodles more reasons to follow one of these guides to find out how to root the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphones. Apps have and are always going to be one of the primary reasons as to why you should root the Android operating system on your Galaxy Note 3 to go along with your installing aftermarket firmware.
ROMs are fun because they come with many new features and offer people new software that is more tailored to meet their needs instead of a general audience like the stock Android operating system. We have seen many root apps that almost mimic the effects of what installing a custom ROM can do — the Xposed Framework being toward the top of that list, but there are also many more apps out there that can change and tweak your operating system like the Tasker application.
Visuals and features are always impressive, but they are not the only reasons to root the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Some people will always find a way to get up to no good and try installing some illegal apps that allow them to download free upgrades to apps and so forth, but the vast majority of people out there can make use of rooting doing nothing illegal at all. Should you own a device that you have paid for in full, there is no reason why you cannot tweak the internal system if you are an advanced Android user. Tweaking the system’s hard to know where the boundaries are which is why it is only to be done by an experienced Android user — and that does not mean you who bought the Android phone two months ago and now are calling yourself an experienced Android user. It means people who know their hardware right down to the digits and exactly what those components can do and do. That is the only way you can successfully overclock and underclock the Android operating system with the hardware in your smartphone without creating problems. Nevertheless, that option is there if you think you have the ability to give it a go without bricking the phone. Those who can underclock and overclock the OS successfully can enjoy internal hardware that is clocked to suit their needs and not the way it comes out of the box. You can underclock the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone to get better battery performance or overclock to increase the hardware performance for your gaming and so forth.
The rooting exploit in this guide is based on LRX21V.N9002ZNUGPA1 firmware which is part of an Android 5.0 Lollipop rollout in some regions. You do not need to find out which areas exactly that firmware build number arrived for because you do not need it running on your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone before you start with the guide. The guide will work for the SM-N9002 model number running any version of Android 5.0 Lollipop regardless of the firmware build number. Chainfire gives the build number he used so you can see it and use it as an indicator.
Files You Need
- Download the new CF-Auto-Root tool for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9002 on Android 5.0 from here.
- Download the Samsung USB Drivers for the computer from here.
The rooting exploit in this guide is for the Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 processor. Be careful of that because there are two versions of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with the SM-N9002 model number and only one of them comes with the Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 processor. Flash this file on the other version and it will be bricked.
Note that you must use a computer that is running a version of Windows operating system to use this guide. Likewise, you must only follow this guide with the SM-N9002 model number version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 that has the processor details listed above.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 could be subject to software updates in the future that bring new bootloaders with them. Only occasional updates bring new bootloaders with them, but when they do they can cause Chainfire to have to update his files on his end. Once Chainfire updates the files, those changes are always automatically reflected in our guides, so you will always have the latest version available when viewing out tutorials. However, before the files can be updated, Chainfires relies on you guys to submit the new recovery images to the official CF-Auto-Root thread over at the XDA-Developers website. He will see the message you leave and then he will fix the issue.
Rooting the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9002 smartphone running on the Android 5.0 Lollipop updates
- Unlock the Developer Options menu on your Android operating system that is running on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone.
- Enable the USB Debugging Mode on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone so it can be connected to the computer.
- Extract the rooting package on the desktop of the computer so you can see the Odin flashing app and the CF-Auto-Root rooting file on the desktop.
- Run the Samsung USB Drivers on the desktop computer you are using in the guide so your device can be attached and detected by the apps on the computer.
- Press the Power button on the Note 3 smartphone and choose to turn it off completely from the menu.
- Hold the hardware button combination that will boot up the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 into the download mode.
- Connect your Note 3 phone to the computer with the USB cable that you normally use to charge the battery.
- Give it a few seconds and then check the Odin user interface provides you with a yellow or blue color which is letting you know that your drivers are working.
- Do not change any of the default settings from the Odin user interface before you proceed or else things might not go well.
- Click Odin’s AP button from the Odin user interface and then browse the desktop location for the rooting file that you extracted earlier already and then upload it to this place so you can see the file extension from the Odin user interface next to the AP button.
- Click Odin’s Start button from the Odin user interface and then wait until it is rooted.
- Look at the screen on the Galaxy Note 3 and wait for the text to roll down the display and show you that it is installing the SuperSU, cleaning up the cache partition and the flashing the stock recovery again.
- Check the Odin user interface on the computer for a green box that should light up with a pass message inside letting you know that it all went to plan.
In conclusion, that is how to root the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone with the SM-N9002 model number running on the Android 5.0 Lollipop updates. The smartphone will automatically reboot thanks to the way in which the developer, Chainfire has programmed the CF-Auto-Root package. As soon as it does, you will have the SuperSU application available from the app drawer. That is the app that is going to give you pop-up a message each time you install an app, and it needs the rooting permissions to run. Say yes to any messages from apps you did install and trust and said no to any apps you do not trust or that you do not recall installing. Just install the root checker app from the Google Play Store and open it up to check if your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone is rooted or not.
There are a couple of things you can try if you followed the guide above and your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone is still not rooted. Sometimes a smartphone or tablet will not get into the recovery mode automatically during the flashing and as a result, the device will not be rooted. Chainfire says that every device will need to get into the recovery mode at the end for the rooting to have worked. You can always solve this problem by pressing the hardware key combination for the recovery mode once your device does get rooted and it should fix the problem just the same.
Furthermore, there are several versions of the Odin flashing application that is available to install on the computer if you need to try something else. We have seen people report the device will not get rooted using one version of Odin, but it did get rooted when using another version. The versions are numbered so you can easily see when you are using different versions of the app. Chainfire gives the latest versions of the flashing tool bundled in with the rooting package, but that version will not always work one hundred percent of the time.