How to Flash a Custom Recovery on the Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9506/SHV-E330S)

The GT-I9506 (or SHV-E330S if you are on SK Telecom) is a Samsung Galaxy S4 variant which pretty much has all the awesome features of the original S4 but features LTE+ support.  Installing custom recovery on this device and rooting it could only make it more alluring (at the cost of voiding your warranty of course!) and if this is what you want, the below guide should help you get past the first step with no hassle!

I.  Before You Begin

1.  This guide is designed to work only with the GT-I9506/SHV-E330S variants of the Samsung Galaxy S4; do not try this on any other variant as you may end up with a bricked device.

2.  Charge your device to 75% or more to prevent unwanted shutdowns.

3.  Back up everything you feel is important just in case.

4.  Make sure you have the necessary drivers installed before you start.

II.  Necessary Downloads

1.  Odin 1.85.rar

2.  Chenglu_cwm_recovery_6.0.3.7(0905)-fix-exSdcard.tar or Philz_Touch _CWM_6.3.7_V5.15.0_unofficial.tar (choose any one of these two recovery files0 [Link available in this post]

III.  Installing ClockworkMod Recovery

1. Reboot your device to Download mode.  To do this, power down your device, then press and hold the Volume Down + Power buttons until you a see warning.  Now press the Volume Up button to continue on to Download mode.

2.  Connect your device to your PC.  If there are any drivers being installed at this point, let them do so before continuing any further.

3.  Extract Odin 1.85.rar to a folder on your desktop.

4.  From the extracted folder, double-click on Odin3 v1.85.exe to open up the Odin application.  The ID:COM field on Odin should be yellow at this point, meaning that your device has been detected and is ready.  If not, reinstall the drivers and try again.

5.  Click on the PDA button and browse to the location of Philz_Touch _CWM_6.3.7_V5.15.0_unofficial.tar [or Chenglu_cwm_recovery_6.0.3.7(0905)-fix-exSdcard.tar, depending the recovery you have chosen] and load it on to Odin.

6.  Make sure that only Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time are check under the Option section.  Be doubly sure that Re-Partition is NOT checked!

7.  Click on Start.

Once your device reboots, it should have a working ClockworkMod Recovery installed!

IV.  Rooting the Galaxy S4

Use our guide if you want to move on and root your GT-I9506.

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

11 thoughts on “How to Flash a Custom Recovery on the Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9506/SHV-E330S)”

  1. Hi! just a newbie here.. i followed the instructions above, then there’s a message “pass”.. but my phone doesn’t boot in ClockworkMod Recovery.. just a normal boot.. pls help.. thank you..

    1. Whoknowshimself

      You should turn of the phone, then hold the “volume up + home + power” buttons to enter recovery mode.

      1. Boutros Chedid

        Hi, I think what Mustafa means is: The clockworkmod doesn’t intialise. The default android OS runs.

        I have this same problem. I can’t get the CMR to work after having followed every installation step to the letter. I’ve tried and retried the installation process to ensure that I didn’t make any mistakes.

        What do you recommed I do?

  2. Same problem here, my phone i9506 always ens up with the stock recovery (with android guy “dead” and exclamation mark in triangle over him). Ive tried 6 different files and none of them work. How to fix it?

    1. Also if i try immediatedly booting to recovery i get some error and half of the screen gets snowflake before shutting down.

  3. Hello and thanks for this tutorial.

    I have a Galaxy S4 GT-i9506 from Orange France.
    I used to have Jelly Beans and was happy with it but since I upgraded to KitKat (4.4.2), I am facing the issue with the external SD-CARD as everyone 🙁 Write Access to the external SD-CARD is now blocked for all application.
    So the only solution I found on the web is to Root the telephone and that’s what I am trying to do.
    So i followed the 2 tutorials for the Custom Recovery and the Root.

    I am able to install the Custom Recovery and I chosed the Philz_Touch _CWM_6.3.7_V5.15.0_unofficial. However, when I start the phone in the recovery, I get the following error message:


    PhilZ Touch 5
    CWM Base version: v6.0.3.7
    E: could not mount /data to setup /data/media path !

    This is a problem because when I click on the menu “Install Zip” and I choose “Choose zip from sdcard”, I get the following error message “E: Can’t mount /sdcard/”

    So I am stuck there and cannot root my phone 🙁

    Anybody can help ?

    Thanks in advance !

  4. hi when i download the philz touch file it downloads as a disc file and the file doesnt show when i searcg in odin

  5. Hi I am already rooted! Will the process be the same? And will it cause any problems due to being rooted first?

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