Install Android Kit Kat 4.4 on the Samsung Galaxy S3

Samsung recently confirmed that the international model of the Galaxy S III will not be receiving the update to Android 4.4 Kit-Kat. While the device is two years old, it is still immensely popular, meaning that this is a blow to a huge number of customers.

Samsung will not be officially supporting the OS for this device but the third-party ROM community will step in to get this latest software on your device. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to get Android Kit Kat 4.4 installed on your device. In order to do so we will install an unofficial CM11 ROM based on Android Kit Kat 4.4

Before beginning any of this, make sure you’ve backed up any data that you want, since your device will be wiped in the process. Also, make sure your device is charged and you have a PC running Windows near by.

1. Download the CyanogenMod 11 based on Kit Kat 4.4 ROM here
2. Connect your Galaxy S3 to your PC and copy the downloaded files to your device’s SD card
3. Disconnect the device from the PC
4. Turn the Galaxy S3 off
5. Boot in custom recovery mode (done by holding volume up, down and the power button at the same time)
6. We recommend you perform a back up before installing the ROM, you can learn how to do so here
7. Now we have to perform a factory reset 
8. This can be done from the Wipe Data / Factory reset menu and once it is done, proceed to wipe the cache of the partition
9. Now we can continue installing the CM11 ROM
10. Open up the downloaded file from the SD card(which we in step 2 moved from the PC to the SD card) when a message pops up asking if we are sure we want to, press “yes”
11. Once done, reboot the device and if you have followed the steps above correctly you should have no issue

If you want to install Gapps on your Galaxy S3, make sure to check out our in-depth guide.

As with any modifications of this type, you need to be careful and not do anything you’re not comfortable with. AmongTech, the developers, nor the author of this article are liable for anything that goes wrong with your device or any warranty/carrier issues that arise.