How to Extract PIT File from Samsung Galaxy Devices

Apr 2, 2017

Finding the stock firmwares for Samsung Galaxy devices is real easy, and flashing them to the devices even easier. If you are a smartphone enthusiast, you might get into situations when flashing the stock firmware might be your last option to restore your device.

Whether you want to recover your device from a boot loop, unroot the device and remove a custom recovery, or you just want to upgrade or downgrade the OS manually, you’ll have to flash the stock firmware. If you happen to be a Samsung user and have ever flashed the official firmware, CF-Root or a recovery .tar file, you must be acquainted with the very light-weight but a handy tool called Odin. All Samsung devices have a Download or Odin mode for installing a firmwares, firmware components, kernels, or custom recoveries using Odin.

If you make the required preparations before flashing firmwares with Odin, things go successfully most of the time. However, there are some cases where the procedure ends up with error and you get FAIL! message in Odin. One of the commonest form of the errors encountered in Odin while flashing stock firmwares is the “Invalid Ext4 image“and “Get PIT for mapping” issue.

<ID:0/003> Added!!
<ID:0/003> Odin v.3 engine (ID:3)..
<ID:0/003> File analysis..
<ID:0/003> Set PIT file..
<ID:0/003> DO NOT TURN OFF TARGET!!
<ID:0/003> Get PIT for mapping..

Android devices use the EXT4 storage structure which defines the allocation of available storage space to system partitions. PIT (Partition Information Table) is an integral element of all Samsung firmwares that contains the map of storage allocations for different system partitions. Since Samsung releases different variants of the same device depending on storage capacity, carrier, and region/country, the PIT structure on them differs from each other.

Don’t miss: All You Need to Know About Samsung PIT Files

When you flash a firmware, Odin starts looking for the partition information table. If the PIT is detected, the installation will finish uninterrupted, but if the PIT is not detected or it’s corrupted for some reason, you might get “Get PIT for mapping” error. To fix this problem, you will have to provide the appropriate PIT in Odin to install the firmware successfully.

Remember, the PIT is always storage (and in some cases, CSC) sensitive. Thus, if you own a Samsung Galaxy S6 64GB model, you will need the PIT file for the same model number and storage capacity.

Also see: Download PIT File for Samsung Galaxy Devices

You can use Google search to get the correct PIT file for your device, but if you do not get it, there is a way you can pull it manually from your device itself. Below, we’ll see how we can extract PIT file from Samsung Galaxy devices.

Extract PIT File from Samsung Galaxy Devices

Requirement: To be able to use any of the methods described below, you must have root privilege on your Galaxy device. Both the methods have been tested on the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Method 1: Using Terminal Emulator on Device

Install the Terminal Emulator app from the Google Play store:

Terminal Emulator for Android Price: Free
Also, install the BusyBox app. Launch the app and then tap the Install option.

BusyBox Price: Free
Now open Terminal Emulator and grant root permission when prompted.
Now type the following command:
```
su
```

Then type the following command in Terminal Emulator:

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/out.pit bs=8 count=580 skip=2176

Now browse your phone’s storage to find the backed up PIT file and save it on your PC for future use.

Method 2: Using ADB Commands on Computer

To use ADB commands, you will have to install Android SDK on your computer. If you don’t know how to setup the Android SDK or ADB, read our tutorial.
Go to Settings> Developer options and enable USB Debugging on your device.
Now launch a command prompt on your computer. You can do so by placing the mouse pointer on an empty space on the desktop and then pressing Shift key+Right mouse-click. Select Open command window here option.
Connect your Samsung device to the PC using the stock USB cable.
In the command window, issue the following command and press the Enter key on the keyboard:
```
adb devices adb shell su
```
When SU is called, grant root permission on your device and type the following command:
```
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/out.pit bs=8 count=580 skip=2176
```
Your device’s PIT should be backed up to the internal storage of the device. Save it on your computer.

Congrats! You can successfully extract the PIT file from your Samsung device. if you got a query or encounter any problem using the tutorial, please leave us a comment. Cheers!

Download PIT Files for Samsung Devices

I got a collection of PIT files for some Galaxy devices. If you have the same model, you can download from below. You can find out your device model in Settings> About.

SGS4-Wind

ATT_S4_SGH-I337_16GB

Sprint Galaxy S4 SPH-L720_16GB.pit

SCH-I545-pit

I9500_pit_32GB

I9505_pit_32GB

Sprint_S4_jfltespr_16GB

SM-N900_ha3g_32GB

SM-N9005_HLTE_16GB.pit

SM-N9005_32GB

SM-N900A_ATT_32G.pit

SM-N900P 32 GB PIT File