Hello everybody,
a friend of mine has recently come back from a 12 months work experience in NY (we live in Italy) and gave me his american Galaxy S6 Edge since he has just got a brand new Iphone 7.
This S6 is AT&T version (SM-G925A), sim unlocked, still Lollipop installed.
My question: is there a way to flash SM-G925F international firmware and get OTA here in Europe?
I already read about people trying to do this for using in USA, but posts are 2 years older or without replies.
I read also about compatibility of LTE network...but I just want to give a try.
Any advice?
Thank you guys
I have the same phone as i used to work overseas.
I would not suggest you would change to F version as you might brick it, or since it is built for AT&T it should stay on the AT&T. Think of specific drivers and so on. This version has slightly different hardware from the European version.
Why not update the firmware with Odin. start with lollipop updates go to marshmallow and nougat.
Thanks my friend, you were right (almost brick the phone). Now I'm on MM At&T but with DRK error, something about dm-verity.
Phone always reboot in recovery with this error; I had to flash a special stock kernel found here that, I suppose, disables dm-verity, just to boot it up.
Maybe the EFS folder got corrupted...no way to install Nougat via Adb, I'm unable to mount system as RW.
I actually didn't know that there were Samsung phones around the world with bootloader locked down...shame on At&t!
My friend didn't even want it back, now it's on my desk taking dust...what a waste of good hardware!
Thanks anyway
aluks1982 said:
Thanks my friend, you were right (almost brick the phone). Now I'm on MM At&T but with DRK error, something about dm-verity.
Phone always reboot in recovery with this error; I had to flash a special stock kernel found here that, I suppose, disables dm-verity, just to boot it up.
Maybe the EFS folder got corrupted...no way to install Nougat via Adb, I'm unable to mount system as RW.
I actually didn't know that there were Samsung phones around the world with bootloader locked down...shame on At&t!
My friend didn't even want it back, now it's on my desk taking dust...what a waste of good hardware!
Thanks anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good ole US carriers. Gotta love em. I aint seen the light of root or unlocked bootloader in a few years now other than my g4. Which no roms no twrp. But root only.
Related
OK I'm a complete newbie here. I bought the 8" S2 International unlocked version from Amazon and will take it to AT&T to activate it tomorrow. It's on 5.0.2 and is not seeing any OTA updates. Does anyone know if there's a way to get 5.1.1 OTA? If not, does anyone know if Samsung has commented as to whether they'll release 5.1.1, or even Marshmallow, for this device or will I have to go to a custom ROM?
Also, is there an absolute beginners guide to this site? I've been reading through the threads and keep seeing terms like odin, twrp, and many others that I don't know what they mean and I'd like to figure out.
Thanks.
CincyTriGuy said:
OK I'm a complete newbie here. I bought the 8" S2 International unlocked version from Amazon and will take it to AT&T to activate it tomorrow. It's on 5.0.2 and is not seeing any OTA updates. Does anyone know if there's a way to get 5.1.1 OTA? If not, does anyone know if Samsung has commented as to whether they'll release 5.1.1, or even Marshmallow, for this device or will I have to go to a custom ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i just received the same device yesterday and so far, it's working just fine on at&t: including data full phone features (i wasn't aware that this version of the Tab S2 had a full fledged phone). i inserted my nano sim from my dual-sim note5 and the S2 configured everything automatically. also, i didn't see an OTA when i checked yesterday and there's nothing at sammobile.com which is where one can generally find firmware (stock ROM) for Samsung devices. any custom ROM right now will likely be 5.0.2.
CincyTriGuy said:
Also, is there an absolute beginners guide to this site? I've been reading through the threads and keep seeing terms like odin, twrp, and many others that I don't know what they mean and I'd like to figure out..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Odin = Windows based application used to flash firmware to Samsung devices.
TWRP = a custom recovery that - once your phone is rooted (similar to admin privileges on windows pc) - allows one to flash a custom ROM or other components/features not on a stock device. you can also create backups/nandroids of your device so you can restore your device if something goes wrong (similar to resorting a windows system image to a new hard drive). always, always backup when trying things out. tutorials are here, but sometimes not easily located via search. :good:
I've got a S6 Active that when I received it was on Lollipop. I was able to flash MM (using thread here on XDA) to it before it was officially released from the carrier. Then I was able to flash back to stock Lollipop and then received the MM 6.0.1 update from the carrier. I wanted to flash back to Lollipop for testing purposes but was unable. I think it's because the bootloader is locked?
I've read a bunch of threads saying that the S6 active has nott been rooted? Has a locked bootloader? Can't run custom roms?
Can someone please give me the scoop on this. I'd like to go back to lollipop for testing but I don't think its possible. Is that the case? Thanks.
Roveer
roveer said:
I've got a S6 Active that when I received it was on Lollipop. I was able to flash MM (using thread here on XDA) to it before it was officially released from the carrier. Then I was able to flash back to stock Lollipop and then received the MM 6.0.1 update from the carrier. I wanted to flash back to Lollipop for testing purposes but was unable. I think it's because the bootloader is locked?
I've read a bunch of threads saying that the S6 active has nott been rooted? Has a locked bootloader? Can't run custom roms?
Can someone please give me the scoop on this. I'd like to go back to lollipop for testing but I don't think its possible. Is that the case? Thanks.
Roveer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi
yes it's not possible to downgrade your rom or your bootloader because of the locked bootloader that prevents any try to modify the device...
is this typical of most phones? I've read of others frutrations about the S6 active still having a locked bootloader. Did I just pick a bad platform? Is S6 the same way? How about S7 series? Thanks.
roveer said:
is this typical of most phones? I've read of others frutrations about the S6 active still having a locked bootloader. Did I just pick a bad platform? Is S6 the same way? How about S7 series? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Locked bootloaders are often the case for phones provided by carriers. While a phone purchased directly from the manufacturer is usually able to have its bootloader unlocked, carrier phones are locked by the carrier themselves, preventing any tampering by the end user. A custom ROM is any modified version of Android not developed by the company that made your phone. Think of it like a third party system. To get these custom ROMs onto your phone you must "flash" (simply, install) the ROM from your computer to your phone. However, a locked bootloader prevents this. While in some cases there are ways to get around carrier locked bootloaders, it is generally futile. If you purchased the S6 Active in hopes of tinkering around with custom ROMs, I'm afraid you have picked the wrong phone. The S6 Active, as of currently, is permanently locked to Samsung's and AT&T's "stock ROM"
EDIT: as for going back to Lollipop, the reason this is generally not possible is due to the fact that the Marshmallow update also updated critical parts related to the bootloader. It is impossible to roll back these changes once they have been made as they are strictly one way.
Thanks for the explanation. I didn't buy the phone for the express reason for changing android versions but rather to use as my daily driver. We are a BES 12 (Blackberry Enterprise Server) shop and I have found a bug that causes the VPN portion of the software to drop after an hour or so. Simply hitting the home button (waking the phone up re-establishes the vpn and mail flow continues). I'm working with BB to determine what's going on. I've disabled all power saving and doze settings yet still the problem. They are going to activate some other phones on my system to see if they see the problem. My reason for wanting to go back to lollipop is that I don't believe I saw this problem when I was on that OS so I was hoping to go back to confirm that behavior. I like the "active" phones for their ruggedness but don't have an unlimited budget to be buying handsets.
Roveer
roveer said:
Thanks for the explanation. I didn't buy the phone for the express reason for changing android versions but rather to use as my daily driver. We are a BES 12 (Blackberry Enterprise Server) shop and I have found a bug that causes the VPN portion of the software to drop after an hour or so. Simply hitting the home button (waking the phone up re-establishes the vpn and mail flow continues). I'm working with BB to determine what's going on. I've disabled all power saving and doze settings yet still the problem. They are going to activate some other phones on my system to see if they see the problem. My reason for wanting to go back to lollipop is that I don't believe I saw this problem when I was on that OS so I was hoping to go back to confirm that behavior. I like the "active" phones for their ruggedness but don't have an unlimited budget to be buying handsets.
Roveer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the software you are referring to is something provided by blackberry, perhaps they need to patch their software for compatibility with Android Marshmallow. While not all software is broken by a major Android update, there are definitely some that are. Of course enterprise level software is entirely foreign to me (I'm only 17), so getting a second opinion on this issue would definitely be a good idea.
OK, I understand locked bootloader preventing from flashing any custom roms etc. Even preventing previous official android. Here's another question: Is there a way to flash current android version? I'm on G890AUCS4CPF3 which is an AT&T build. What is the carrier's method to reflash current OS when there has been some corruption to the version that is on the phone. Not just wipe, but reload entire android, re-create file system etc... That's what I want to try next. Blackberry has activated a Samsung S6 on my server and it (so far) is not exhibiting the same problem as my S6 Active. This leads me to believe that it my be a problem with my hardware. I want to do a reload at this point. Any ideas how I can do that? Odin flash? Is there a repository for the G890AUCS4CPF3 ROM?
Thanks,
Roveer
roveer said:
OK, I understand locked bootloader preventing from flashing any custom roms etc. Even preventing previous official android. Here's another question: Is there a way to flash current android version? I'm on G890AUCS4CPF3 which is an AT&T build. What is the carrier's method to reflash current OS when there has been some corruption to the version that is on the phone. Not just wipe, but reload entire android, re-create file system etc... That's what I want to try next. Blackberry has activated a Samsung S6 on my server and it (so far) is not exhibiting the same problem as my S6 Active. This leads me to believe that it my be a problem with my hardware. I want to do a reload at this point. Any ideas how I can do that? Odin flash? Is there a repository for the G890AUCS4CPF3 ROM?
Thanks,
Roveer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Carriers can tell if your Firmware is theirs or not because official Firmware is digitally signed by Samsung and AT&T.
As for using Odin, that would be your most viable option. However, I am not aware of any Odin images for the Marshmallow update on the S6A. As far as I know, Odin cannot get around the restriction of having a newer Bootloader, so you cannot flash down.
One thing you can try is to wipe cache partition. If that fails, factory reset from within the bootloader. Just make sure you've backed your data up.
EDIT: Take note that there is a difference in Firmware between the S6 vs the S6A.
EDIT 2: In your other thread you stated you can't flash back to lollipop due to a locked bootloader. This is actually due to, as stated before, the newest bootloader tha to the latest Android Marshmallow update.
FevenKitsune said:
Carriers can tell if your Firmware is theirs or not because official Firmware is digitally signed by Samsung and AT&T.
As for using Odin, that would be your most viable option. However, I am not aware of any Odin images for the Marshmallow update on the S6A. As far as I know, Odin cannot get around the restriction of having a newer Bootloader, so you cannot flash down.
One thing you can try is to wipe cache partition. If that fails, factory reset from within the bootloader. Just make sure you've backed your data up.
EDIT: Take note that there is a difference in Firmware between the S6 vs the S6A.
EDIT 2: In your other thread you stated you can't flash back to lollipop due to a locked bootloader. This is actually due to, as stated before, the newest bootloader tha to the latest Android Marshmallow update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I wiped the cache partition and factory reset within the bootloader and tried my app again. It continued to fail. I even found the MM image in the S6 Active MM thread and sideloaded it. It was only 400+ megs though. Still the app doesn't work so I'm starting to doubt that my problems are related to my particular S6 but its always a possibility. I'm trying to get Blackberry to dig up their own S6A and test on their own. They've been testing with a S6 for the past 2 days (on my BES server) and haven't seen the same problems, so it's either my device or a problem with the S6A (which as has been pointed out does use a different firmware version than the S6), but until I can get another S6 Active device to test I won't know.
Roveer
First of all, hi everyone owo/
Well, as the title says, my dad bought two unlocked S5's from Amazon and both of them come from AT&T and we use them here with Personal which is an Argentinian network carrier
Everything works fine, 4G works great, but one of the issues is this one
Since it passed 3 years when KitKat got the latest update (4.4.4, on the phone is 4.4.2 .-.) some apps do not want to upgrade at the Play Store since sometimes on Android when is not upgraded, some apps lose compatibility with the device (On this I doubt, I'm not 100% sure) and I want to ask to you guys if you can help me with steps to at least upgrade my mom's phone and mine (since my dad is getting a new one and gives me his S5) to Lollipop without rooting the device, because here on XDA I saw a post on how to do it but it requires root and I'm not going to do it just to be safe, so I was curious to see if there's a possibility of upgrading the system through Odin, which I do have a little bit of experience (I did have it with an older Sammy phone, not the newest ones) without losing the carrier unlock thing
If you guys can remember there was a code to let you know if the network was unlocked or not but sadly it does not work anymore so I don't have any idea if it is permanent or not other than switching the cards, so my question is, I will lose the unlock if I update the system through Odin??
Also I don't have a AT&T specific SIM card to do the upgrade (Which for me is BS having only the AT&T card to do system updates) and I saw some posts on XDA on how to update it but only I saw the root method to update fom KK to Lolli and I don't want to root it, I want to do it just normally through Odin saving me some time
I'm not against root, is fine but I always prefer a much safer way instead of tinkering with some important system stuff and also I'm new into this forum (And I visited XDA since 2012)
Have a good day
Rodoko (my username is old, so I use this one written here, my account was made in 2013 so... I am unable to modify it u.u )
Meipuru Kuurisu said:
First of all, hi everyone owo/
Well, as the title says, my dad bought two unlocked S5's from Amazon and both of them come from AT&T and we use them here with Personal which is an Argentinian network carrier
Everything works fine, 4G works great, but one of the issues is this one
Since it passed 3 years when KitKat got the latest update (4.4.4, on the phone is 4.4.2 .-.) some apps do not want to upgrade at the Play Store since sometimes on Android when is not upgraded, some apps lose compatibility with the device (On this I doubt, I'm not 100% sure) and I want to ask to you guys if you can help me with steps to at least upgrade my mom's phone and mine (since my dad is getting a new one and gives me his S5) to Lollipop without rooting the device, because here on XDA I saw a post on how to do it but it requires root and I'm not going to do it just to be safe, so I was curious to see if there's a possibility of upgrading the system through Odin, which I do have a little bit of experience (I did have it with an older Sammy phone, not the newest ones) without losing the carrier unlock thing
If you guys can remember there was a code to let you know if the network was unlocked or not but sadly it does not work anymore so I don't have any idea if it is permanent or not other than switching the cards, so my question is, I will lose the unlock if I update the system through Odin??
Also I don't have a AT&T specific SIM card to do the upgrade (Which for me is BS having only the AT&T card to do system updates) and I saw some posts on XDA on how to update it but only I saw the root method to update fom KK to Lolli and I don't want to root it, I want to do it just normally through Odin saving me some time
I'm not against root, is fine but I always prefer a much safer way instead of tinkering with some important system stuff and also I'm new into this forum (And I visited XDA since 2012)
Have a good day
Rodoko (my username is old, so I use this one written here, my account was made in 2013 so... I am unable to modify it u.u )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is highly suggested that you root with towelroot and upgrade with flashfire. You can't root on Lollipop and you can't downgrade back to KK. May as well root now just in case you ever need it. Root doesn't modify system files on its own, the end-user does that.
I have Note 9 (SM-N960U1) unlocked in USA. I am currently on AT&T.
I seem to have many dead spots inside my house so want to enable wifi calling but found out that I need to flash carrier specific firmware on my phone. As I am complete noob, have some questions:
1) What does flashing a firmware does? Pros? Cons?
2) I am currently on Android 10 (One UI 2.0 Build QP1A.190711.020.N960U1UEU3ZSL2). If I flash a new firmware, will my phone be downgraded to a lower version of Android?
3) If answer to @2 is Yes, how will I get latest Android updates? Will it depend on Samsung or AT&T?
4) Last but not the least, HOW THE HELL I FLASH THIS FIRMWARE?
Any help will be a great help. I have a interview on Friday so don't have much time to get this fixed.
TIA.
1) Flashing is a way to manually install or update firmware or operating system through the bootloader. This provides a way to restore the devices operating system during an emergency or failed OTA Update etc. The cons of this however is it is quite easy to mess up your device if you don't know what you are doing. And Flashing different firmware that is not originally meant for your device easily carries this risk. The bootloader is what tells your device how to boot the operating system and happens before any user interaction knock on wood you theoretically corrupt the bootloader or somehow mess it up you are left with a 1000 dollar doorstop. Im not sure how a carrier's firmware would react on an unlocked phone. I personally wouldn't risk it but it's up to you. I'm pretty sure that other users here have tried it you should look around and do your research. Remember this would not only be changing Android this would also change the CSC and Modem.
2) Android 10 has not yet been released for the Note 9 so I would assume that you are on the beta. You would need to factory reset and downgrade to Android 9 before flashing ATT's firmware.
3) Carrier's handle OTA updates. However im not sure you would even receive OTA's anymore.
4) You need to use Odin3 and get the firmware from somewhere like sammobile.
In conclusion I personally would advise you to contact ATT with your problem. Considering your interview tomorrow if something did for some reason go wrong you most likely wouldn't have time to fix it.
UndeadAnarchy said:
1) Flashing is a way to manually install or update firmware or operating system through the bootloader. This provides a way to restore the devices operating system during an emergency or failed OTA Update etc. The cons of this however is it is quite easy to mess up your device if you don't know what you are doing. And Flashing different firmware that is not originally meant for your device easily carries this risk. The bootloader is what tells your device how to boot the operating system and happens before any user interaction knock on wood you theoretically corrupt the bootloader or somehow mess it up you are left with a 1000 dollar doorstop. Im not sure how a carrier's firmware would react on an unlocked phone. I personally wouldn't risk it but it's up to you. I'm pretty sure that other users here have tried it you should look around and do your research. Remember this would not only be changing Android this would also change the CSC and Modem.
2) Android 10 has not yet been released for the Note 9 so I would assume that you are on the beta. You would need to factory reset and downgrade to Android 9 before flashing ATT's firmware.
3) Carrier's handle OTA updates. However im not sure you would even receive OTA's anymore.
4) You need to use Odin3 and get the firmware from somewhere like sammobile.
In conclusion I personally would advise you to contact ATT with your problem. Considering your interview tomorrow if something did for some reason go wrong you most likely wouldn't have time to fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for your help mate..cheers
rockstar283 said:
I have Note 9 (SM-N960U1) unlocked in USA. I am currently on AT&T.
I seem to have many dead spots inside my house so want to enable wifi calling but found out that I need to flash carrier specific firmware on my phone. As I am complete noob, have some questions:
1) What does flashing a firmware does? Pros? Cons?
2) I am currently on Android 10 (One UI 2.0 Build QP1A.190711.020.N960U1UEU3ZSL2). If I flash a new firmware, will my phone be downgraded to a lower version of Android?
3) If answer to @2 is Yes, how will I get latest Android updates? Will it depend on Samsung or AT&T?
4) Last but not the least, HOW THE HELL I FLASH THIS FIRMWARE?
Any help will be a great help. I have a interview on Friday so don't have much time to get this fixed.
TIA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have SM-N960U1 with One UI 2.0? Did you just buy it used? You are on bootloader 3, so you cannot flash another firmware with bootloader less than 3.
Hi,
A question I hope someone can answer:
The short version; would this (N920PVPS3DQF1_N920PSPT3DQF1_SPR.zip) ROM be compatible with the N920P Note 5 variant that's currently on this (NRD90M.N920PVPS3DRH1) build number?
The long version; My GF has a Note5 of the Sprint N920P variety which she bought new in 2017(? The hardware version is N920P.04, if that matters). The phone is still on Android 7.0 (build number NRD90M.N920PVPS3DRH1)
The phone has (always had) lousy battery life and a tendency to crash at random, so I thought I'll take a crack at rooting the device to get some of the Sprint crap out, and maybe even install a more recent version of Android.
Apparently the latter will not happen (or is not worth trying as GF can't/will not deal easily with any obstacles/work arounds) as there seems to be no ROMs that's fully working on this Sprint version [is this really true?!]), but Magisk root route is still available, with one caveat.
When I went to look for a backup factory firmware (here), just in case something goes wrong, I could not find the ROM GF's phone has, and the closest one is this ROM (N920PVPS3DQF1_N920PSPT3DQF1_SPR.zip). Would it be compatible with her phone?
Also, is TWRP the only recovery available for this phone?
Thanks for any pointers
Rooting it is easy just use Magisk. The version of the zip looks ok. TWRP is the best - Not sure why you would want to use anything else. Also use TWRP to make a backup if possible. I used an OTG drive to make a backup.
Best rom so far is MOAR.Check XDA. Be aware banking apps detects rooted phones.
MarSOnEarth said:
Hi,
A question I hope someone can answer:
The short version; would this (N920PVPS3DQF1_N920PSPT3DQF1_SPR.zip) ROM be compatible with the N920P Note 5 variant that's currently on this (NRD90M.N920PVPS3DRH1) build number?
The long version; My GF has a Note5 of the Sprint N920P variety which she bought new in 2017(? The hardware version is N920P.04, if that matters). The phone is still on Android 7.0 (build number NRD90M.N920PVPS3DRH1)
The phone has (always had) lousy battery life and a tendency to crash at random, so I thought I'll take a crack at rooting the device to get some of the Sprint crap out, and maybe even install a more recent version of Android.
Apparently the latter will not happen (or is not worth trying as GF can't/will not deal easily with any obstacles/work arounds) as there seems to be no ROMs that's fully working on this Sprint version [is this really true?!]), but Magisk root route is still available, with one caveat.
When I went to look for a backup factory firmware (here), just in case something goes wrong, I could not find the ROM GF's phone has, and the closest one is this ROM (N920PVPS3DQF1_N920PSPT3DQF1_SPR.zip). Would it be compatible with her phone?
Also, is TWRP the only recovery available for this phone?
Thanks for any pointers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's true that the N920P doesn't have a fully working custom rom available right now. You could try flashing noblelte but mobile data may not be working, and if it is, you may not get LTE, let alone CDMA.
Yes, N920PVPS3DRH1_N920PVPS3DRH1_SPR is the currently most recent that the stock rom version, so there is no benefit or reason to flash QF1 on it, since R comes after Q in the alphabet
TWRP is the only recovery for N920P.
Crossfire81 and ripee, thank you both.
GF lived, suffered, survived, and now with the T-mo/Sprint merger, she's moved on to an unlocked N10+ just last month, so the N5 is my to play with.
MarSOnEarth said:
Crossfire81 and ripee, thank you both.
GF lived, suffered, survived, and now with the T-mo/Sprint merger, she's moved on to an unlocked N10+ just last month, so the N5 is my to play with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, if you want to give any feedback on roms on the SPR variant, find our threads and let us know.
Crossfire81 said:
Rooting it is easy just use Magisk. The version of the zip looks ok. TWRP is the best - Not sure why you would want to use anything else. Also use TWRP to make a backup if possible. I used an OTG drive to make a backup.
Best rom so far is MOAR.Check XDA. Be aware banking apps detects rooted phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello bro do you know if the n9020p has an lock or unlocked bootloader?