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Okay so i rooted my Samsung Galaxy Express to jelly bean 4.2.2 using the method below. but i cant access Samsung kies because it doesn't recognize rooted phones. So i was wondering if there was any way to keep the rooted features but go back to the stock rom? And if there is how do i do it and where do i get the file from?

Here are the steps I took to upgrade my phone:

Flash Clockwork Recovery

  1. Download Express OUDHS CWM.exe.
  2. Turn off the phone
  3. Press and hold volume down and power to enter download mode (if this doesn’t work, press and hold volume down, power and home key)
  4. Connect your phone to your computer via USB
  5. Window ID: COM should be highlighted in yellow, this means your phone was properly detected
  6. Press start and wait for installation
  7. Disconnect your phone, recovery is now installed

Install SuperSU

  1. Download SuperSU v1.25
  2. Connect your phone to your computer via USB
  3. Copy the SuperSU v1.25 file to the root of your SD card (make sure you have an SD card in your phone)
  4. Turn off your phone
  5. Hold volume up, power and home key to enter recovery (as soon as you see blue text on the top of the screen that read entering or booting recovery, immediately release all the buttons)
  6. Click on install zip from SD card and locate SuperSU file
  7. Select the SuperSU file and install
  8. After installation is complete, reboot your phone

You will now have both custom recovery and SuperSU installed on your phone, which allows you to install custom ROM’s, which is the next step. (Make sure USB debugging is still enabled). Please note that these versions of CM10.1 and CM10.2 are unofficial builds, however are stable enough as daily drivers.

  1. Download CM10.1(Android 4.2.2) or CM10.2(Android 4.3)
  2. Download Gapps (Google Apps) for CM10.1 or Gapps for CM10.2
  3. Connect your phone to your computer via USB and place ROM and Gapps files in root of SD card (make sure they are on SD card)
  4. Download ROM Manager and reboot into recovery. You can also manually reboot into recovery by powering off your phone, pressing and holding volume up, power and home key.
  5. Create a backup.
  6. Wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache partition and dalvik cache (found in advanced)
  7. Install the ROM from the SDCard
  8. Install Gapps from the SDCard
  9. Reboot phone and let it sit for a few minutes while it boots for the first time. It may take a few minutes, and this is only evident upon initial boot.

You will likely run into issues with non functional WiFi. To resolve this, after flashing the ROM, follow these simple steps:

  1. Download this file.
  2. Power off the phone.
  3. Hold volume down, power and home button to enter download mode.
  4. Press volume up to enter download mode.
  5. Connect phone to your computer
  6. Open Odin and flash the downloaded file as Bootloader (You should see a green box that indicates that the method passed and worked)
  7. Reboot the phone and test WiFI
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    Ahem... What's your question? :) This rather looks like a question including its answer. But nobody will find the question is answered. Would you mind to move the answer part to an answer? We really love when people share their knowledge and experience, but wouldn't it be a pity if nobody notices! Thanks a lot! – Izzy♦ Dec 27 '13 at 10:28
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    @Izzy It looks like Taylor posted instructions he used to root his phone to begin with. He's looking to reverse them and go back to stock. Pretty sure we have a question that covers it. – Chahk Dec 27 '13 at 15:12
  • @Chahk Reading it again with your comment in mind makes me pretty sure you're correct :) So maybe we rather encourage Taylor to create a separate post on "How do I root the Samsung Galaxy Express", placing his process as an answer, and link it here? That would be a profit to all, himself included! Taylor: you might also take a look at our tags for odin and heimdall for "partly alternatives" to Kies. – Izzy♦ Dec 27 '13 at 19:02
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Samsung Kies is no longer recognizing your phone because you've replaced the operating system by installing a custom ROM (CyanogenMod in this case.) Simply rooting it and leaving stock Samsung firmware would've been sufficient, and wouldn't interfere with Kies. You should have stopped after the "Install SuperSU" step.

With that said, here are the instructions for returning back to stock Samsung firmware:

  1. Galaxy Express comes in different flavors, depending on your country and/or carrier. Find out the exact model number of your device (e.g. GT-I8730/T for international version, or SGH-i437 for US AT&T/GoPhone) and download the latest firmware from here. Make sure to pick the correct region.
  2. Make sure you have taken a full backup of the contents of your device. Flashing factory firmware will wipe your device clean.
  3. Extract the downloaded zip file to your desktop. You should get a file with a .tar.md5 extension (.md5 extension may not be visible in Windows)
  4. Download ODIN (instructions here). This is a special tool used to flash firmware files on to Samsung devices. Extract the downloaded zip file to your desktop
  5. Make sure you have installed all the necessary device drivers for your phone on your PC. You can also get the drivers by installing Samsung Kies
  6. On your phone, enable USB Debugging from Settings -> Developer Options
  7. On the PC, launch ODIN. Click the PDA button in ODIN and load the stock 4.1.2 firmware .tar file you got in Step 3
  8. Make sure everything else in ODIN is left at default values. Just make sure Auto Reboot and F.Reset Time boxes are checked, and the RePartition box is left unchecked
  9. Switch off your device and reboot it to Download Mode by pressing and holding Volume Down+Home+Power buttons together. At the warning screen, press Volume Up to enter Download Mode
  10. Connect your phone to the PC via USB cable now
  11. ODIN should display the message Added! and the ID:COM port box in ODIN will turn yellow
  12. Click the Start button in ODIN to start flashing the stock firmware on to your device.
  13. Once ODIN has successfully flashed the file, it should display the message PASS!, and your phone should reboot automatically
  14. Disconnect your device from the PC now, and proceed to set up your phone.

After the above process is successfully completed, you can try rooting your phone again. This time do not install a custom firmware, and you should be all set.

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