How to debrand my Samsung Galaxy S3 and remove carrier branding? This is the question that many new Galaxy S3 owners make when they buy the phone from a carrier on a contract.
Most of sold devices are unlocked and not branded. They aren’t locked to a specific carrier and can be used worldwide because they aren’t on a contract.
But those Galaxy S3 devices that are locked to a carrier, are branded with the carrier logo and sounds.
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When you reboot your branded Galaxy S3, during the boot animation, the carrier logo will show up. The same thing happens during the shut down animation.
Not only that, but a branded Galaxy S3 is full of carrier bloatware. There are a lot of pre-installed applications that a normal user cannot uninstall.
If you are tired of your bloated and branded Galaxy S3, follow the guide below to learn how to install stock unbranded firmware.
Downloads
Samsung Galaxy S3 stock firmware without carrier branding: I9300XXUGNH4.zip
Odin tool: Odin3_v3.09.zip
Galaxy S3 USB Drivers: PC Drivers
Note:
Your Samsung Galaxy S3 should have at least 60% of battery left in case the phone freezes and doesn’t die in the middle of the process. Make sure to follow the guide carefully and nothing bad will happen to your phone.
If you don’t carefully follow the instructions, you can break your phone and turn it into a hard bricked device.
Guide
- Download and install USB drivers so your computer will recognize your phone.
- Go to Recovery and wipe data and cache.
- Boot into Download Mode (Volume Down + Home + Power)
- Extract Odin.zip and launch the program.
- Extract the stock debranded firmware.
- On Odin, tap on PDA and select the extracted firmware.
- Click Start.
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Once the firmware is installed, the phone will automatically reboot. There will be no carrier logo during boot animation and all bloatware will be deleted.