Unbricking a soft-bricked Samsung Note 8.0 (and then rooting it!)

I soft-bricked (the device would still power on and flash the Samsung screen before going dark) my Samsung Note 8.0 a few months ago after attempting to root it. After many hours of attempting to fix it, I decided to sell it on Craigslist. When people tried to lower my price to ridiculous levels, I ended up trying to fix it again. This is what I did to recover stock settings (note that the binary was still being recognized as official). And when you're ready to try rooting your device again, head over to Unlockr for a super-easy method that worked for me.

  1. Purchase a USB jig. I used this one.
  2. Download and install Samsung Kies (not Kies 3).
  3. Plug the jig into the device's USB port. The device will enter download mode. Remove the jig.
  4. Plug your device into your computer using its USB cable.
  5. In Kies, select Tools > Firmware Upgrade & Initialization.
  6. Enter your device model (GT-N5110 for Wi-Fi only) and your serial number. These are available on the lower back of the device in very fine print.
  7. Kies will prompt you several times if you're sure you want to do an emergency recovery, as all your files and settings will be lost.
  8. The recovery process takes ~20 minutes.

Then go here to learn how to root your device painlessly: http://theunlockr.com/2013/10/16/how-to-root-the-samsung-galaxy-note-8-0/

4 thoughts on “Unbricking a soft-bricked Samsung Note 8.0 (and then rooting it!)

  1. Melanie Caddy

    Cortney Eric Johnson It was at the point where it would begin the actual installation and the computer would say "Cannot be installed" (or something to that effect)

    But the good news is I managed to use Odin to get back to stock recovery and then your steps worked for the firmware. So thanks! 🙂

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