In order to root Sharp Aquos S3 Mini, you have to install TWRP. TWRP is a custom recovery and helps to install system modules to the device. TWRP is one of the best custom recovery available, there are more custom recoveries but TWRP is the best for every device and works smoothly without any bugs.
The story is long, click here to teleport to the guide! It had been very long time until I am finally freed from 2-year carrier contract from Softbank. Phones in Japan are not sim-free i.e. they are tied with a carrier either Docomo, Softbank or au. When you buy a phone, you instantly signed a 2-year contract with them (breaking a contract from them costs you 10,000 Yen). Phones themselves are not expensive because of this long-term contract. It gets huge amount of discount. But, that is just a deceiving trick. The true cost lies in the carrier fee. The fee alone costs about 6,000 Yen/mo. In my case, I had paid 8,000 Yen/mo, because the discount didn’t fully cover my phone price tag. Hence, if I broke a phone and bought a new one, I had to pay 8,000 + (3,000~) Yen/mo. This number is pretty big to me. In April and October, they are seasons for のりかえ or changing a carrier. People usually make a contract in these months, so after 2 years their contract will end in the same month. There is one month to decide whether to continue with the same carrier or changing to another. Most people change to other carriers because of larger discount from のりかえ campaign (Docomo, Softbank, au).
However, I am considering to take a different path not to join these big 3 carriers. I decided to use a service from a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). This is a new term gaining attention since last year. MVNOs target people who use a lot of data packets and make few phone calls in a month. They sell only sim cards with large data plan (+ phone number). The minimum price for (3GB) data plan with phone number is around 1,700 Yen/mo. It is only 1-year contract. However, these sim cards only work on sim-free phones i.e. not bought from big carriers. Sim-free phones range from 10,000 to 60,000 Yen. I have to buy a new phone, or I just unlock my phone, Sharp 203SH. Since my old phone is not going to work with MVNO, so I don’t have anything to lose. I went with unlocking my phone.
My phone is Sharp 203SH build 0030. I used this root suite, but I failed because the suite doesn’t support my build. I got temporary root privilege, but I couldn’t uninstall any bloatware (system apps they said). Again. do at your own risk.
My Environment
- AQUOS PHONE Xx Softbank 203SH build S0030
- Using Reset all does not revert build version back to the factory version
- It reverts back to the latest installed build.
- Using Reset all does not revert build version back to the factory version
- Windows 8.1 64-bit
- System locale: Japanese
Preparation
- Install the USB driver
- Extract the adb driver
- Connect a USB cable to the phone
- Change the USB connection mode to any mode except MTP mode
- Turn on System settings > Other settings > Developer options > USB debugging
- Install the adb driver
- Go to Device Manager and find the adb device (it has an exclamation sign)
- Right click and update the driver
- Navigate to the adb driver folder and let it install
- Download and extract the root suite
- It comes with adb. It means you don’t have to download a whole SDK.
- Change you system locale to Japanese and restart
Get Temp Root
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At this point, we have temp root privilege. YAY! I lost root privilege after restart, so I continue the next step without restarting.
Unlock the phone (Failed)
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I stopped here, because it couldn’t unlock LSM. Continuing further is no point. This security module prevents it. I hope this guide will be useful for people having 203SH build S0024. They have better luck than mine unlocking their phone.
Quick links
- Sharp 203SH product page [Japanese] [English]
- xda forum – rooting 203SH
- fc2 – using Sharp root suite <– I used this one
- [Download] Sharp root suite
- Password: root
- Support only build S0018, S0022, S0024
- [Download] Sharp root suite
- The guy contributing tools behind those 2 guides on GitHub
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How to reset or hard reset Sharp Aquos S3
If your smartphone Sharp Aquos S3 it works very slow, it hangs, you want to bypass screen lock or you have a full memory and you want to erase everything or you want to sell it or give it away and you want nobody to be able to access your files and passwords you can do a factory reset so that it returns to be like the first day.
In the following steps we explain how to format the Sharp Aquos S3 to erase all your information and make it totally clean as it came out of the store.
You must bear in mind that a reset or return to the factory state in a mobile deletes all its content so you must make a backup of your data before doing it if you do not want to lose everything.
There are two ways to do a reset on a Sharp Aquos S3, one through the mobile options and another more complete from the recovery mode.
Restore from the options of Sharp Aquos S3
If you want to make a reset using the device options to return to the factory state a Sharp Aquos S3 you have to follow these simple steps:
1-First step:
Access the settings menu of your device.
Access the settings menu of your device.
2-Second step:
Go to the system settings, in the Personal section you will see the option 'Backup' click on it and then click on 'Factory data reset'. If you do not see the Personal section look for the section 'About the phone' click on 'Storage' and then on 'Backup and restore' and you will see the option 'Factory data reset'
Go to the system settings, in the Personal section you will see the option 'Backup' click on it and then click on 'Factory data reset'. If you do not see the Personal section look for the section 'About the phone' click on 'Storage' and then on 'Backup and restore' and you will see the option 'Factory data reset'
3-Third step:
Before doing it, it will ask for confirmation and will show a message remembering that all your data will be deleted from this device, the data that you have uploaded to Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or backups that you have in the cloud, such as Google Drive, Dropbox or One Drive will not be deleted.
Before doing it, it will ask for confirmation and will show a message remembering that all your data will be deleted from this device, the data that you have uploaded to Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or backups that you have in the cloud, such as Google Drive, Dropbox or One Drive will not be deleted.
4-Fourth step:
If necessary, draw the screen unlock pattern or enter the screen unlock password or PIN to continue.
If necessary, draw the screen unlock pattern or enter the screen unlock password or PIN to continue.
5-Fifth step:
Your device Aquos S3 of Sharp it will restart and take several minutes to start while restoring the device to its factory state and optimizing the applications pre-installed in the system Android 8.0 (Oreo).
Your device Aquos S3 of Sharp it will restart and take several minutes to start while restoring the device to its factory state and optimizing the applications pre-installed in the system Android 8.0 (Oreo).
Restore with hard reset or Recovery mode Sharp Aquos S3
Restore with hard reset or Recovery mode your Sharp Aquos S3 can solve problems that have not been solved with a normal factory reset.
1- First turn off your Sharp Aquos S3 completely. If you can not unlock the screen, press and hold the power button for about 20 seconds and the phone will turn off.
2- Keep holding on volume down and power keys together for a few seconds. In some devices according to the Android version the combination can be the power key and the volume key up.
3- When the Sharp logo is displayed, release the buttons.
4- Move through the menu with the volume up and volume down keys until you reach the 'Recovery Mode' option and press the power button to access.
5- Use the volume up and volume down keys to select the 'wipe cache partition' option and press the Power button to activate the option and clear the mobile cache.
6- After a few seconds you will return to the previous screen, with the volume buttons go to the option 'wipe data / factory reset' and press the power button to enter. A screen with many NOs and a YES will appear, with the volume keys again go to the YES and press with the power key.
7- After finishing again with the volume keys, click on 'reboot system now' and press the power key of your Sharp Aquos S3, the device will reboot and take several minutes to start while restoring the device to its factory state and optimizing the applications pre-installed in the system Android 8.0 (Oreo).