Last Updated on January 5, 2023 by Mathew Diekhake
One of the best qualities you have with a rooted Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone is the ability to use apps to save you much of the work. We always hear about root apps being the main reasons to root in the first place, but we do not often listen to what these apps can do. The Flashify application is a perfect example of an app that can take the hard manual labor away from flashing for you thanks to its built-in features that will help you flash just about anything you could ever possibly want to flash on your smartphone.
The CF-Auto-Root exploit in this guide is for the Snapdragon 800 MSM8274 system chip and not the other version. Make sure you have the right version of the Snapdragon processor–including the MSM8274 before you flash this file.
The CF-Auto-Root package in this guide is based on KOT49H.N9008ZMUENG4 firmware which is part of an Android 4.4.2 KitKat software update that rolled out to some regions. You do not need to be running that same software build ID on your Samsung Galaxy Note 3–it is just there to be used as an indicator.
Files You Need
- Download the CF-Auto-Root tool for the Note 3 SM-N9008 running Android 4.4.2 from here.
- Download the Samsung USB Drivers for the Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9008 smartphone computer from here.
You must have the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with the SM-N9008 model number to use this guide or else you will almost certainly get it bricked according to Chainfire — the developer of the CF-Auto-Root tool we are using the guide.
Note that some larger software updates for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphones can bring in new bootloaders with them. Those same new bootloaders cause Chainfire’s CF-Auto-Root tools some problems with regards to the rooting procedure not flashing or a device is not booting after following the guide. To rectify the CF-Auto-Root not working problem, Chainfire — who is the developer of the rooting tool we are using for the tutorial — asks for people who pick up on these issues to please submit them. You can do that by sending the new recovery image files that are found in the new firmware files to the official CF-Auto-Root tool thread at the XDA-Developers website. That gives Chainfire the chance to update the files, so they start working again. The changes made to the files will be automatically reflected in our guides, so you do not have to worry about finding the updated files. They are already here.
Rooting the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9008 Smartphone running the Android 4.4.2 KitKat software updates
- Turn on the “USB Debugging” Mode from the settings of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone so you can connect the device with the computer and the USB cable.
- Extract the rooting package to the desktop of the computer so you can see the rooting exploit and the flashing application that you are going to use to flash the rooting exploit to your device.
- Install the Samsung USB Driver package on the computer running Windows so when you connect the device to the computer the flashing application can detect it.
- Double-click on the Odin flashing application executable file that is on the desktop and then wait until the user interface opens.
- Boot the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone into the download mode and then join it to the computer with the USB cable that you would normally are to charge the device battery.
- Double-click the Odin flashing tool executable that is on the desktop and wait until the user interface opens.
- Click the “AP” button from the Odin user interface and the browse the desktop location for the rooting exploit you are going to use to root the device.
- Do not change any of the default settings from the Odin user interface before you star the flashing.
- Click the “Start” button from the Odin user interface and then browser the desktop location for the rooting package you want to use to root the device.
- Look over at the display of the smartphone and check that it says that it is installing the SuperSU application, cleaning up the cache partition and the re-flashing the stock recovery on your device.
- Look up at the computer and check that it says that you have passed by giving you a green pass box available from the Odin user interface.
In conclusion, that is how to root the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone with the SM-N9008 model number running on the Android 4.4.2 KitKat software updates by using an updated version of the CF-Auto-root application by Chainfire and a computer that is running a version of the Windows operating system.
You can check that the rooting guide did, in fact, work well for your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone by waiting for the handset to reboot and then opening the Google Play Store app and searching for the basic root checker app. You will find the basic version of the root checker is there for you to install free of charge and it will tell you if your device does have root access to the internal system when you open the app and follow the few on-screen instructions to get it working.
Anyone who does not have a rooted Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone can look at a few things. One of those things you can do is try installing another version of the Odin application — which is your flashing app. Chainfire gives us the Odin 3.10 to use in the latest updates and one of the earlier version to utilize in the previous updates, but these do not always work all of the time for everybody. There are videos of people trying one version of Odin and it failing to flash and then the person tries another version, and it flashes, so give a few version of the Odin flashing app a try before you give up.
Moreover, Chainfire states that each Samsung Galaxy Note 3 must get into the recovery mode during the flashing of the CF-Auto-Root file for the guide to have worked. You will find it hard to see because everything happens quickly, but recovery typically boots after the flashing all by itself. If yours doesn’t then, you need to boot the recovery mode manually for the rooting to work. You can do that by holding down the hardware key combination for the recovery mode as soon as the flashing completes in the Odin application.