The Jelly Bean 4.3 update for the Samsung Galaxy S3 has been giving UK owners grief, so many of these people will be glad to know there’s a custom ROM to take the handset up to KitKat 4.4. If you’ve got the Galaxy S3-i9300 and you want to sidestep the bugs of Android 4.3, read on.
This 4.4 ROM, developed by OmniROM, seems to be very stable, with most things working, apart from the camera and clear video playback.
If you fancy a bit of KitKat, follow these steps.
Make sure you have the Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 international model, as flashing this ROM with other models might cause problems.
Root the Galaxy S3 and install ClockworkMod Touch 6.0.32 or later.
Make a backup of your personal info, settings and data files; do a manual backup instead of using the Samsung Kies PC suite.
Make sure you have at least 50% battery life to prevent power interruption during the process.
Enable the USB debugging mode on your Galaxy S3. Head to ‘Settings > Applications > Development > USB ‘debugging’ or ‘Settings’ > Developer Options > USB ‘debugging.’
Install the necessary USB drivers on your PC for the Galaxy S3 GT-I9300.
Download OmniROM 4.4 and PA Gapps to your PC.
Flashing Instructions
Connect your Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 to the PC with a USB cable.
Copy the OmniROM 4.4 and PA Gapps and paste it onto the SD card of your phone, without extracting the zip files.
Unplug the smartphone then turn it off.
Reboot your Galaxy S3 into recovery mode by pressing and holding the volume up, home and power keys at the same time until you see the Samsung logo.
You can use touch controls or hard keys to move around inside recovery mode.
Do an Android backup of your current ROM. Choose ‘backup and restore > backup’ to save the ROM so that you an restore it anytime you want to.
Install firmware and Google Apps by selecting ‘install zip from SD card > choose zip from SD card > search for the OmniROM 4.4 file you have pasted earlier > confirm installation.’ Do the same thing with the PA Gapps.
After the installation finishes, return to the main menu and select ‘wipe data/factory reset.’
Reboot the device by selecting ‘reboot system now.’ Wait for four or five minutes for your Galaxy S3 to reach its home screen.
Your Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 should now be running the latest Android 4.4 KitKat.
If you get stuck in a boot loop, reboot your Galaxy S3 into recovery mode and perform the following:
– ‘wipe data/factory reset’
– ‘wipe cache partition’
– ‘advanced > wipe Dalvik cache’
– ‘install zip from SD card
– ‘reboot system now’
