How to Root the Samsung Galaxy S3 (US Cellular)

There are several variants of the Samsung Galaxy S3 device and one of them is US Cellular variant that comes with 4G LTE enabled and the rest of the specifications are usually same as its other variants. To remind you the specs, the phone boasts a 4.8″ inch screen with the resolution of 1280×720, Android Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, 2GB RAM and a 1.5GHz processor. In order to get the most out of this beast, you must root it and it’ll start working at its fullest to provide the maximum performance possible to the users. And rooting doesn’t cost a penny nor do you have to be a geek to do that, it’s as simple as abc. Just follow the following guide and you should have root access on your Samsung Galaxy S3 (US Cellular) smartphone.

I. Before You Begin:

1. This will void the warranty of the device. However, you can reinstate the warranty by unrooting the device if there’s any unrooting procedure available.

2. Make sure your device is charged fully or has at least 70% of battery life left. This is to prevent any unexpected issues during the process.

3. You should have appropriate drivers installed on your PC.

II. Downloading Required Files:

1. ClockworkMod Recovery (Download link’s given in the first post)

2. Root Package (Download link’s given in the first post)

3. Odin

III. Installing ClockworkMod Recovery on the Samsung Galaxy S3 (US Cellular):

1. Download and place all the files you downloaded to your Desktop.

2. Extract files from the Odin archive to your Desktop.

3. Connect your device to your PC using the USB cable.

4. Copy the Root Package ZIP over to the root of your SD card.

5. Disconnect the device once file’s copied.

6. Launch the Odin tool by double-clicking on its executable file.

7. In Odin, click on PDA and select the CWM Recovery file you downloaded earlier.

8. Uncheck the Auto Reboot option, it’s important.

9. Turn OFF your device.

10. Reboot the device into Download mode. This can be done by pressing and holding the Volume DOWN+Home+Power buttons together.

11. Press the Volume UP button to continue.

12. Once inside the Download mode, connect your device to your PC via USB cable.

13. Now Odin should recognize the device and one of the boxes in the tool will turn yellow.

14. Hit Start button and it’ll begin flashing the recovery.

15. Once flashing’s done, do NOT turn ON the device, just pull the battery out of the device.

Great! You’ve successfully flashed the recovery on your device, now root the device without turning it ON in normal mode. Follow the steps below to learn how.

IV. Rooting the Samsung Galaxy S3 (US Cellular):

1. While your device’s turned OFF, press and hold the Volume UP+Home+Power buttons together.

2. You should boot into the ClockworkMod Recovery mode.

3. In the Recovery, choose install zip from sdcard followed by choose zip from sdcard.

4. Select the Root Package ZIP you copied earlier to root the device.

5. It’ll start flashing the file and the process could take a minute or two to finish.

6. Once it’s done, choose reboot system now from the Recovery menu.

7. And you’re all done!

Brilliant! Your device has been successfully rooted and is equipped with a custom recovery. With root and recovery comes great powers, such as the ability to flash custom ROMs and install root-only apps!

V. Flash a Custom ROM (Optional):

1. If you are ready to flash custom ROMs on your device, head to the How To Flash a Custom ROM on the Samsung Galaxy S3 (US Cellular) to learn how to do that.

If this procedure helped you please thank/donate to the original developers here.

If you need help with this procedure, please ask in the comments below or in the forum.

This is part of our Android How To’s. We have how to’s on rooting, loading ROMs, and tons of other tips and tricks for your specific device or for Android devices in general! For all of our Android How To’s, head here.