Before going into detail, I'd like to mention what I read on here so far:
It IS possible to use ODIN to flash the unlocked firmware to the t-mobile Note 8
I found a step by step guide on here that describes how to flash the aforementioned firmware
The hardware in the unlocked Note 8 and t-mobile Note 8 is identical
Now considering the above facts, am I missing out on anything if I cancel my currently back-ordered unlocked Note 8 from Samsung's website and instead order the t-mobile version, which costs exactly the same and will ship this week?
Also, I am on Cricket Wireless (AT&T MVNO). Is unlocking the t-mobile Note 8 for use on other carriers a straightforward process? How long does this usually take?
Thanks in advance!
Yes, get the TMO one.
Unlocking can be difficult
Gnex1 said:
Before going into detail, I'd like to mention what I read on here so far:
It IS possible to use ODIN to flash the unlocked firmware to the t-mobile Note 8
I found a step by step guide on here that describes how to flash the aforementioned firmware
The hardware in the unlocked Note 8 and t-mobile Note 8 is identical
Now considering the above facts, am I missing out on anything if I cancel my currently back-ordered unlocked Note 8 from Samsung's website and instead order the t-mobile version, which costs exactly the same and will ship this week?
Also, I am on Cricket Wireless (AT&T MVNO). Is unlocking the t-mobile Note 8 for use on other carriers a straightforward process? How long does this usually take?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The firmware for unlocked should work fine on tmobile version. Infact i am using the unlocked firmware on my S7 edge which is better that the original in terms of bloatware and performance. Based on what i read in other forums, buying tmobile is fine but getting it unlocked in the future might be a pain. Because of this reason, i am going to wait for the backordered note 8 even though there is delay.
262jss said:
The firmware for unlocked should work fine on tmobile version. Infact i am using the unlocked firmware on my S7 edge which is better that the original in terms of bloatware and performance. Based on what i read in other forums, buying tmobile is fine but getting it unlocked in the future might be a pain. Because of this reason, i am going to wait for the backordered note 8 even though there is delay.
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Click to collapse
Spending nearly $1000 on a phone and being expected to wait a month for it to ship does not work for me. Because of this, I have cancelled my order and will not be buying one anymore.
Hello, I've been flashing these Note's since back when Darthstalker was RULING the Note Series, ( One of the BEST to do it ), however, ever since T-Mobile decided to lock their bootloaders I've switched to the OnePlus. I am thinking about purchasing the International Note 8 (SM-N950F) because from the research I've done I've learned that this is the variant to get, I've also read that the Note 8 (SM-N950F/FD) can also be Rooted and Flashed via TWRP, However, when I search online to purchase that version (SM-N950F/FD) all I find is the Note 8 (SM-N950F/DS), are those 2 model numbers the same, or can it be flashed the same as the (SM-N950F and (SM-N950F/FD)? I ask cause i don't want to purchase the Note 8 SM-N950F/DS and not be able to flash it, or worse BRICK the Device.. If anyone can shed light to these questions i would gladly appreciate it, community and its yearssss of serving us enthusiast...!!! God Blessssss...!!!! In short, is the SM-N950F/FD the same as the SM-N950F/DS..????
They use the same firmware.
And T-Mobile didn't decide to start looking the bootloaders. ALL the US Galaxy phones have locked bootloaders. Even the factory unlocked, unbranded version you buy from Samsung.
T mobile and sprint were the last ones to lock up there boot loader, the ONLY 2 carriers that had locked boot loaders back then was AT&T + Verizon. So it was T mobile + Sprint that were that LAST Phone Carriers to Lock there Boot loader, this is a Fact, from the S7 and up is when they Started, ask anyone,,, thanks for your response Either way, Blessss....
N950F/DS is dual sim model where N950F is a single sim model. Aside from that everything else is identical
Short story long, I was on U1 XAA 4BULE, and I've been having major issues with app crashes (specifically DJI GO 4 for my drone) and I was going to downgrade to 4AUIP (Android 11 One UI 3.1). I downloaded the firmware, patched Odin, flashed the downgrade, failed, phone won't boot.
Turns out, my phone auto updated on reboot (I forgot to disable that in Developer Options) so it automatically updated to 5BULH, and now that it's on the baseband 5, it can't be downgraded to any baseband 4 firmware. So, easy enough right?, just flash 5BULH? Well, as far as I know, that was ONLY released as a baseband PATCH in the form of an OTA, and there's no actual firmware as far as I can tell.
Which basically means my phone is bricked until Samsung releases an actual 5XXXX firmware to flash with Odin.
I've been looking for awhile, checked Frija, SamFW, GalaxyFirmware, SamFrew, SamMobile, SamFirms, FirmwareX, and Sfirmware all with no avail, every latest firmware that shows is 4BULE
Unless someone has a baseband 5 full firmware for Odin, because I couldn't find anything online, than I guess I'm screwed until *5CVAA comes out, which is rumored to be on February 9th during the S22 launch event.
So, anyone have that firmware? Or am I just going stone age until February 9th when the new build is suppose to be released?
bANONYMOUS said:
Short story long, I was on U1 XAA 4BULE, and I've been having major issues with app crashes (specifically DJI GO 4 for my drone) and I was going to downgrade to 4AUIP (Android 11 One UI 3.1). I downloaded the firmware, patched Odin, flashed the downgrade, failed, phone won't boot.
Turns out, my phone auto updated on reboot (I forgot to disable that in Developer Options) so it automatically updated to 5BULH, and now that it's on the baseband 5, it can't be downgraded to any baseband 4 firmware. So, easy enough right?, just flash 5BULH? Well, as far as I know, that was ONLY released as a baseband PATCH in the form of an OTA, and there's no actual firmware as far as I can tell.
Which basically means my phone is bricked until Samsung releases an actual 5XXXX firmware to flash with Odin.
I've been looking for awhile, checked Frija, SamFW, GalaxyFirmware, SamFrew, SamMobile, SamFirms, FirmwareX, and Sfirmware all with no avail, every latest firmware that shows is 4BULE
Unless someone has a baseband 5 full firmware for Odin, because I couldn't find anything online, than I guess I'm screwed until *5CVAA comes out, which is rumored to be on February 9th during the S22 launch event.
So, anyone have that firmware? Or am I just going stone age until February 9th when the new build is suppose to be released?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bummer! That's a genuine horror story of I ever heard one!
Tried searching for said firmware, but couldn't locate one anywhere.
It's either stone age for you or just pop into a service center and have them flash the phone for you. From what I can see you only tried flashing stock firmware, phone should still be under warranty...
Wish it was that easy, population of 98k in a town that is roughly 750km (~470mi) away from the next major city means a service centre doesn't exist for me lol. Purchased through a Carrier also requires an additional $15 monthly charge for warranty outside of Samsung which I obviously didn't pay for lol. Plus with shipping times around here (Amazon Prime shipping takes a week minimum), just to send the phone to Samsung for repair, I would be looking at close to a month there and back. Looks like I'm just better off just waiting for estimated 10 days until the 5CVAx/5CVBx firmware to be released.
I dusted off the old Windows Phone, it'll do for now I suppose. Hopefully they release something before February 9th haha
Thanks for looking around for the firmware.
bANONYMOUS said:
Wish it was that easy, population of 98k in a town that is roughly 750km (~470mi) away from the next major city means a service centre doesn't exist for me lol. Purchased through a Carrier also requires an additional $15 monthly charge for warranty outside of Samsung which I obviously didn't pay for lol. Plus with shipping times around here (Amazon Prime shipping takes a week minimum), just to send the phone to Samsung for repair, I would be looking at close to a month there and back. Looks like I'm just better off just waiting for estimated 10 days until the 5CVAx/5CVBx firmware to be released.
I dusted off the old Windows Phone, it'll do for now I suppose. Hopefully they release something before February 9th haha
Thanks for looking around for the firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wish you luck man! Hope the release comes soon. And condolences on being stuck with A12.
Do let us know once you get it up and running again!
bANONYMOUS said:
Short story long, I was on U1 XAA 4BULE, and I've been having major issues with app crashes (specifically DJI GO 4 for my drone) and I was going to downgrade to 4AUIP (Android 11 One UI 3.1). I downloaded the firmware, patched Odin, flashed the downgrade, failed, phone won't boot.
Turns out, my phone auto updated on reboot (I forgot to disable that in Developer Options) so it automatically updated to 5BULH, and now that it's on the baseband 5, it can't be downgraded to any baseband 4 firmware. So, easy enough right?, just flash 5BULH? Well, as far as I know, that was ONLY released as a baseband PATCH in the form of an OTA, and there's no actual firmware as far as I can tell.
Which basically means my phone is bricked until Samsung releases an actual 5XXXX firmware to flash with Odin.
I've been looking for awhile, checked Frija, SamFW, GalaxyFirmware, SamFrew, SamMobile, SamFirms, FirmwareX, and Sfirmware all with no avail, every latest firmware that shows is 4BULE
Unless someone has a baseband 5 full firmware for Odin, because I couldn't find anything online, than I guess I'm screwed until *5CVAA comes out, which is rumored to be on February 9th during the S22 launch event.
So, anyone have that firmware? Or am I just going stone age until February 9th when the new build is suppose to be released?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try samsung's smart switch recovery procedure ?
DaReDeViL said:
Did you try samsung's smart switch recovery procedure ?
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Click to collapse
The programme says it can't connect to a USB File Transfer device when in recovery, and when booted in Download Mode, it says to open the recovery procedure, which asks for a recovery code from a previous OS install. Which I don't have because I've never used this before. So, looks like it needs a previously working instance before it can be used for recovery.
Also, entirely unrelated, but I made a video of my friends car with that quote in your signature haha
EDIT:
It appears Youtube removed the audio for copyright reasons lol.. never mind
Learned quite a few things today.
Samsung just released 5BVA1 for G998W. So I switched to that just so I have a phone. (I usually stay on U1 for faster updates which apparently isn't the case anymore)
It turns out that 5G is also working in my city now that I'm not on U1.. So for some reason Canadian 5G doesn't work on U1 even though they use the same basebands which is weird. It's like Bell is blocking non W phones from using it even with all the correct APN settings.
It's also pretty interesting that even on G998W XAC (unlocked Canadian CSC from Samsung with no bloat apps), it now says on setup "looks like you're using Bell, restart the phone" (with no way to close it, or ignore it) and after rebooting, it forcefully installs all of the Bell bloat apps as System apps that can't be uninstalled unless using ADB.
So there's literally no reason to buy a phone directly from Samsung now, at least in Canada. You get the carrier bloat apps by force no matter what with One UI 4.0 Might as well just buy them from the Carrier with the discounted prices for a 2 year term.
S21 Ultra from Samsung for Canada was $1999.99, though Bell it was $350 up front plus $50 a month for 12 months, works out to $1550. You literally save $450 CAD by getting a phone through a Carrier. Only reason to buy from Samsung was for the limited edition colours, and so the phone didn't have bloat apps preinstalled from the carrier. And personally, it's not worth $450 since you get bloat apps no matter what now, only for a special colour when replacement back panel which are like $60 CAD off eBay if you REALLY wanted a different colour lol
U1 XAA still doesn't have the bloat apps, but 5G doesn't work in Canada.
So it's either W XAC with Bloat and use ADB to remove it. Or U1 XAA with no bloat, but no 5G.
My phone is now working again, but those are some interesting findings, use this information as you will.
bANONYMOUS said:
Learned quite a few things today.
Samsung just released 5BVA1 for G998W. So I switched to that just so I have a phone. (I usually stay on U1 for faster updates which apparently isn't the case anymore)
It turns out that 5G is also working in my city now that I'm not on U1.. So for some reason Canadian 5G doesn't work on U1 even though they use the same basebands which is weird. It's like Bell is blocking non W phones from using it even with all the correct APN settings.
It's also pretty interesting that even on G998W XAC (unlocked Canadian CSC from Samsung with no bloat apps), it now says on setup "looks like you're using Bell, restart the phone" (with no way to close it, or ignore it) and after rebooting, it forcefully installs all of the Bell bloat apps as System apps that can't be uninstalled unless using ADB.
So there's literally no reason to buy a phone directly from Samsung now, at least in Canada. You get the carrier bloat apps by force no matter what with One UI 4.0 Might as well just buy them from the Carrier with the discounted prices for a 2 year term.
S21 Ultra from Samsung for Canada was $1999.99, though Bell it was $350 up front plus $50 a month for 12 months, works out to $1550. You literally save $450 CAD by getting a phone through a Carrier. Only reason to buy from Samsung was for the limited edition colours, and so the phone didn't have bloat apps preinstalled from the carrier. And personally, it's not worth $450 since you get bloat apps no matter what now, only for a special colour when replacement back panel which are like $60 CAD off eBay if you REALLY wanted a different colour lol
U1 XAA still doesn't have the bloat apps, but 5G doesn't work in Canada.
So it's either W XAC with Bloat and use ADB to remove it. Or U1 XAA with no bloat, but no 5G.
My phone is now working again, but those are some interesting findings, use this information as you will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you find that 5BVA1 ???
Frija
Searched for SM-G998W XAC, it get's firmware directly from Samsung's servers so it'll always find the latest version Samsung has up.
I have it on Google Drive if you want it from a different mirror, or if you can't get Frija working cause it depends on Visual C++ x86 2008 and 2010 and even then it fails to load on Windows 11 sometimes which is why I stayed on Windows 10 lol.
SM-G998W XAC 5BVA1
bANONYMOUS said:
Frija
Searched for SM-G998W XAC, it get's firmware directly from Samsung's servers so it'll always find the latest version Samsung has up.
I have it on Google Drive if you want it from a different mirror, or if you can't get Frija working cause it depends on Visual C++ x86 2008 and 2010 and even then it fails to load on Windows 11 sometimes which is why I stayed on Windows 10 lol.
SM-G998W XAC 5BVA1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you very much i found it . The weird thing is that mine is GLW and it can not find it in software update. I already downloaded the TLS . do you know if there is any difference from XAC?
You could flash the U Firmware as well. It's up to #5 BL. I'm not sure what your limitations would be, but it's worth a shot. It's 5BULJ.
bANONYMOUS said:
Short story long, I was on U1 XAA 4BULE, and I've been having major issues with app crashes (specifically DJI GO 4 for my drone) and I was going to downgrade to 4AUIP (Android 11 One UI 3.1). I downloaded the firmware, patched Odin, flashed the downgrade, failed, phone won't boot.
Turns out, my phone auto updated on reboot (I forgot to disable that in Developer Options) so it automatically updated to 5BULH, and now that it's on the baseband 5, it can't be downgraded to any baseband 4 firmware. So, easy enough right?, just flash 5BULH? Well, as far as I know, that was ONLY released as a baseband PATCH in the form of an OTA, and there's no actual firmware as far as I can tell.
Which basically means my phone is bricked until Samsung releases an actual 5XXXX firmware to flash with Odin.
I've been looking for awhile, checked Frija, SamFW, GalaxyFirmware, SamFrew, SamMobile, SamFirms, FirmwareX, and Sfirmware all with no avail, every latest firmware that shows is 4BULE
Unless someone has a baseband 5 full firmware for Odin, because I couldn't find anything online, than I guess I'm screwed until *5CVAA comes out, which is rumored to be on February 9th during the S22 launch event.
So, anyone have that firmware? Or am I just going stone age until February 9th when the new build is suppose to be released?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to let you know: BULH standalone for U1 has been released on SAMMobile
On Frija as well. Usually a faster download there.
bANONYMOUS said:
Learned quite a few things today.
Samsung just released 5BVA1 for G998W. So I switched to that just so I have a phone. (I usually stay on U1 for faster updates which apparently isn't the case anymore)
It turns out that 5G is also working in my city now that I'm not on U1.. So for some reason Canadian 5G doesn't work on U1 even though they use the same basebands which is weird. It's like Bell is blocking non W phones from using it even with all the correct APN settings.
It's also pretty interesting that even on G998W XAC (unlocked Canadian CSC from Samsung with no bloat apps), it now says on setup "looks like you're using Bell, restart the phone" (with no way to close it, or ignore it) and after rebooting, it forcefully installs all of the Bell bloat apps as System apps that can't be uninstalled unless using ADB.
So there's literally no reason to buy a phone directly from Samsung now, at least in Canada. You get the carrier bloat apps by force no matter what with One UI 4.0 Might as well just buy them from the Carrier with the discounted prices for a 2 year term.
S21 Ultra from Samsung for Canada was $1999.99, though Bell it was $350 up front plus $50 a month for 12 months, works out to $1550. You literally save $450 CAD by getting a phone through a Carrier. Only reason to buy from Samsung was for the limited edition colours, and so the phone didn't have bloat apps preinstalled from the carrier. And personally, it's not worth $450 since you get bloat apps no matter what now, only for a special colour when replacement back panel which are like $60 CAD off eBay if you REALLY wanted a different colour lol
U1 XAA still doesn't have the bloat apps, but 5G doesn't work in Canada.
So it's either W XAC with Bloat and use ADB to remove it. Or U1 XAA with no bloat, but no 5G.
My phone is now working again, but those are some interesting findings, use this information as you will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you find the phone after the update? Issues with lagging? How is the battery life? I had to downgrade back to 11, I found the earlier firmwares too beta-like for daily use.