How to Extract Stock Recovery from Samsung Firmware!

If you have rooted your Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Note 3, Note 2, S6, S5, S4, S3, S2, or any other Samsung devices including tablets, mostly like you have installed a custom recovery like CWM or TWRP.  Well, if you want to receive stock OTA updates (perhaps you want to try the latest firmware that came out last night and you are still on stock firmware), you will need to re-install stock recovery.

How to do this?

The process is actually rather simple.  You need to download the latest stock Samsung firmware for your model of Samsung device, extract the recovery.img file from it, then compress it back into tar file and flash with ODIN.

Step 1. Download appropriate Samsung stock firmware for your device:

  • Galaxy Note 4 Stock Firmwares – Link
  • Galaxy Note 3 Stock Firmwares – Link
  • Galaxy S5 Stock Firmwares – Link
  • Galaxy S4 Stock Firmwares – Link
  • Galaxy S3 Stock Firmwares – Link

Don’t see your device?  Try SamFirmware.com.

Step 2. Unzip the files.

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Step 3. Open the .tar.md5 file using 7Zip. (Download 7Zip)

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Step 4. You should find the recovery.img file, this is the stock recovery file for your Samsung device.  Select it and hit Extract.

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Step 5. Compress the file using 7Zip in “.tar” format.

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Step 6. Put your Samsung device in ODIN Download mode, select AP or PDA in ODIN program and select the new “recovery.tar” file, then hit “Start”.

If done successfully, your phone will reboot and you should have stock recovery back.  To reboot into recovery and check, power off your phone then hold down Volume Up, Center Home, and Power buttons.  (You can also use QuickBoot app on PlayStore to reboot into recovery if you have a rooted device.)

Now, you have learned how to re-install stock recovery.  If you are running rooted stock firmware (meaning you’ve rooted your phone but did not install custom ROM OR you have restored  your stock ROM using CWM or TWRP), you can use this method to re-enable OTA(over-the-air) updates.  Now, you may also have to remove root, simply use SuperSU app to unroot also.  You can easily re-root after OTA by re-install CWM or TWRP recovery then flashing SuperSU zip file.

That’s about it, if you lost root and need to re-root, see our How to Root Android page!

You can also install the recovery.img file using Flashify app. (Skip Step 5 and 6 as you don’t need the tar file.)

Have a question?

Please post all your questions at the new Android Rehab Center at HighOnAndroid Forum, thank you for understanding!

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Max Lee

Max Lee is the founder of HighOnAndroid.com. Max makes Android tutorials and review videos for people who want to get high on Android over at his YouTube channel and Korean YouTube channel.