Did you just pick up a brand new Galaxy S4? Well if you’re looking to root your Galaxy S4 on Android 4.2.2, this guide is going to help you. But be careful, this is for the Exynos 5 Octa version only. Make sure you read this entire guide before doing anything with your phone.

Disclaimer: This guide is intended as a helpful “how to”. dotTech and its writers are not responsible for any gain or loss (including but not limited to bricked devices) incurred as a result of following this guide. Root your device at your own risk. Rooting may void your warranty.

Requirements

This root guide is for the Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean only. If you do not have the I9500, do not attempt to use this guide to root your device.

Additionally, this process will wipe your phone, so be sure to back up everything before proceeding.

Before we begin

• You’ll need to download the Samsung Android USB drivers on Windows for the Galaxy S4
• Download Odin3 Flash Utility here
• Download Clockworkmod Recovery & Root here
• Have at least 50% battery left

How to Root Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500

• Make sure you’ve downloaded all the files listed above
• Boot your Galaxy S4 into download mode. Power off, then plug in the USB cable into your computer and hold Volume Up + Down along with the power button.
• Launch Odin3 on your computer, connect your device in download mode. Odin3 will detect your phone and indicate a COM port at the top
• Under PDA, select the cofface_samsungI9500_recovery_en_0503.tar file to flash the recovery. This will later be used to root your device. Make sure that Re-Partition is unchecked, and leave the rest of the settings as is. Then hit the start button to begin flashing
• After the flash is complete, your Galaxy S4 will reboot. Once the boot is complete, power it back off
• Reboot the phone into CWM recovery which you just flashed by pressing and holding Volume Up + Home and Power.
• In recovery, you’ll go to root your phone, followed by choosing any of the two methods. CWM recovery will notify once the process is complete.
• Reboot your phone again and you’ll have the Superuser app installed on your Galaxy S4. Make sure not to update the su binaries after this.

Conclusion

That’s it! Now enjoy your rooted Galaxy S4. You can now use root apps, flash ROMs, kernels and everything in between.