Last Updated on January 5, 2023 by Mathew Diekhake
To grant an Android operating system SuperUser access is to give it root access. What both root and SuperUser refer to is giving yourself the necessary privileges to be in full control of the Android operating system so there is nothing you cannot do should you choose to do everything. Our devices do not come with this same permission out of the box because to do that would be a form of suicide in hopefully a very non-literal sense. What I mean by that is everything should not have a device that gives them full access if they do not know how to use it because there are hidden dangers. Those same hidden dangers are the main reason why companies like Google, who own and developed the Android operating system purposely remove you from a person in full power. There is a flip side to that whole argument in the fact that there are people out there who do know all there is to know about the Android operating system, the World Wide Web and who would choose to use a device with the full administrator permissions. What is more, they would wholeheartedly prefer to be using the Android operating system with those same permissions. We solve this problem by giving people a way to root the device, and that is what people here will be doing when they root the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone using the CF-Auto-Root tool by Chainfire.
One of the most common reason as to why people want to gain full administrator permissions is to start installing apps that require them to run. Anyone wanting pot install custom ROMs will need to install a custom recovery too, and once done, you can check out the ROM Toolbox application which does a fantastic job at being your one stop shop for everything your Note 3 smartphone needs for flashing those ROMs. That includes giving you a list of all available ROMs for your devices and its model number, cutting out much of the hard work. And essentially that is the same thing most root apps can do for your device too. There are apps out there that can remove your system apps, so you have the same stock firmware but without the bloatware, giving it more of a pure Android experience. You can also find apps that will allow you to tweak the performance by overclocking and underclocking the GPU and CPU on your device. There is nothing you cannot do once you find the right app for the job and you have granted the rooting permissions and unchained your operating system.
The firmware build number that the CF-Auto-Root tool in this guide is based on is the LRX21V.N9009KEU2GPB1 firmware. Chainfire tells us that it does not mean you need to be running that same firmware build number on your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone before you begin with the guide. It just means you can use it as an indicator because some of the Samsung devices will not boot the older images.
Files You Need
- Download the Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9009 CF-Auto-Root package for Android 5.0 Lollipop from here.
- Download the Samsung USB Drivers for the Galaxy Note 3 smartphone on the computer from here.
The rooting exploit in this guide is for the Snapdragon 800 processor MSM8974. Two unique processor versions come with the same SM-N9009 model number
You must have a computer with USB slot that is running a version of the Windows operating system to use this guide. Furthermore, you need to have the Snapdragon version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with the SM-N9009 model number or else you will brick the device. The Note 3 with this model number one of those rare devices that come with two unique processor versions under the one model number. And as such, Chainfire has had to create two unique CF-Auto-Root files for each version.
There will be some software updates to your Android operating system in the future that could bring in new bootloaders with them. Chainfire tells us that these usually come about with new versions of Android a.k.a a jump from Android KitKat to Lollipop. A new bootloader will mean Chainfire needs to apply some updates to the files. He relies on people like you to submit the new recovery image to the official CF-Auto-root thread made over at the XDA-Developers forum website and then he can apply the required updates. Those updates will be automatically reflected in our guides because our links go directly to the Chainfire official repository.
Rooting the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9009 running the Android 5.0 Lollipop updates (Snapdragon processor version of the SM-N9009)
- Enable the USB Debugging option from the settings on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone so you can connect the device to the computer and use the applications on the computer without any worries.
- Extract the rooting file on the desktop of the computer so you can use thew rooting exploit and the flashing tool that comes bundled within the package.
- Installing the Samsung USB Drivers on the Windows computer, so your device can be detected by the Odin flashing tool during the guide.
- Double-click the Odin flaming application executable file that is on the desktop and the flashing tool user interface will open.
- Press the Power button on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone and then push the button to switch it off from the menu.
- Boot the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone up again but this time holding the hardware button combination for the download mode, and then connect it to the computer with the USB cable.
- Wait for a few seconds and the drivers will start working; you can check this by seeing a yellow r blue color coming from the Odin user interface.
- Do not change any of the default settings from the Odin flashing app user interface.
- Click the AP button from the Odin user interface and the browse the desktop location for the rooting package.
- Click the Start button available from the Odin user interface and the rooting will begin.
- Look over at the display of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone and check you can see some text coming down the display stating that it is installing the SuperSU application, cleaning up the cache partition and then reflashing the original stock recovery on your device.
- Look back up at the display of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone and check that it says that it has passed by giving you a green pass box from the Odin user interface.
In conclusion, that is how to root the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone with the SM-N9009 model number running on the Android 5.0 Lollipop updates by using an updated version of the CF-Auto-Root application and a computer that is running the Windows operating system. Your work can be checked by installing the basic root checker application from the Google Play Store once your smartphone reboots back into the normal mode.
Anyone with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone in need of some troubleshooting tips can try installing another version of the Odin flashing application from our downloads page. There are people out there reporting a file not flashing on one version of Odin and when they install a different version of Odin the device gets flashed. That might be what you need if the Odin version 3.10 does not flash for your device. Choose from the Odin 3.09, Odin 3.07 or one of the other Odin versions instead.
Moreover, anyone who still does not find the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 rooted after following the guide above using the CF-Auto-Root package can try manually booting the smartphone into recovery mode after the flashing completes. For the occasional device, the CF-Auto-Root tool might not automatically reboot it into the recovery mode — a step that Chainfire — the developer of the CF-Auto-Root tool — says is required for the rooting to have worked.