Telecom S4 Updates

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#880440 18-Aug-2013 10:02

timmmay: I didn't really understand much of that Jeff. I backed up to external SD card using titanium pro, copied that to my PC.

You're saying I flash Philz Touch using Odin, that lets me back up my existing ROM/firmware to external SD card so if a flash goes bad I can recover? I assume Philz Touch replaces Android System Recovery? Are there any downside?

Titanium backup only backs up your apps but nandroid takes an image and just replaces it so everything is as it was beforehand. I only suggested custom recovery as you are rooted anyway so may as well go whole hog. Only downside is the same as rootung, you don't get OTA updates but the flipside is you can get the latest and greatest when you want and as I said you have already rooted so the nerve wracking part is done.

Just pushing you, not so gently, to flash custom Rom as I think you won't look back once you have ;)

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#880469 18-Aug-2013 11:13

bradstewart: While I don't have an S4, I have had plenty of Samsung devices and flashing firmware via Odin has never wiped any of my devices before. They generally don't touch /data.

I updated my Tab 2 from 4.1.2 to 4.2.2 the other day and it kept all my data.

Yeps I wasn't sure so decided to head the Kies way. I'm not sure why the update didn't work OTA.

It worked fine with Kies with no problems.

I have been on stock since release day. I rooted with a stock kernel that had stock recovery and fixed in a way so that the update wouldn't detect it was a custom rom. I was actually surprised Kies worked but hey the modified kernel worked so and done it's job and allowed Kies to work fine.

Guess it's on to CF Auto Root now!

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#880477 18-Aug-2013 11:27

So what does a custom recovery like Philz Touch do for me? What's the downside? What are the risks? If I need to return the phone is it easy to get it back to stock, and if so how do I do that?

Having to return everything to stock to get updates is a bit of a pita. I know titanium only does apps/settings, that seemed good enough for now. I'll do the nandroid backup if I do the Philz thingy.

I'm happy enough with stock, I've only had Android for a week and I have a general opinion that the manufacturer knows the hardware best and can customise their code and drivers for it.

Bit of a learning curve with this stuff, interesting though :)

Yabanize

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#880605 18-Aug-2013 16:34

timmmay: I didn't really understand much of that Jeff. I backed up to external SD card using titanium pro, copied that to my PC.

You're saying I flash Philz Touch using Odin, that lets me back up my existing ROM/firmware to external SD card so if a flash goes bad I can recover? I assume Philz Touch replaces Android System Recovery? Are there any downside?

The phone has lots of backup stuff built in through samsung and google and dropbox. I just did that and also copied the internal sd contents to pc and did an sms backup and thats about it

jeffnz

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#880616 18-Aug-2013 16:55

timmmay: So what does a custom recovery like Philz Touch do for me? What's the downside? What are the risks? If I need to return the phone is it easy to get it back to stock, and if so how do I do that?

Having to return everything to stock to get updates is a bit of a pita. I know titanium only does apps/settings, that seemed good enough for now. I'll do the nandroid backup if I do the Philz thingy.

I'm happy enough with stock, I've only had Android for a week and I have a general opinion that the manufacturer knows the hardware best and can customise their code and drivers for it.

Bit of a learning curve with this stuff, interesting though :)

If you aren't going to flash a custom Rom it has no real benefit apart from more options.

Returning to stock is explained here and has the stock roms as well. Risks are only from not following guides even then most things can be rectified.. If you flash custom roms or new stock ones you won't need to wait for dated updates.

Yes they may know best but include bloatware which can slow performance and lets remember these dev's are working on the same devices and mostly improving them.

You should try a custom Rom and see the differance, if you don't like it just restore back to where you are now.

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#880623 18-Aug-2013 17:15

Thanks Jeff, I'll do that backup, then apply the new ROM. I may install clockwork mod recovery, it seems more reliable than Philz according to my reading. The main advantage seems to be having nandroid, which I presume isn't in the stock recovery thingy.

A disadvantage of not using stock ROM is my desktops are probably lost, right? I'm working within touchwiz, not stock android? Recreating them would be annoying, but only an hour or so's work.

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#880633 18-Aug-2013 17:24

timmmay: Thanks Jeff, I'll do that backup, then apply the new ROM. I may install clockwork mod recovery, it seems more reliable than Philz according to my reading. The main advantage seems to be having nandroid, which I presume isn't in the stock recovery thingy.

A disadvantage of not using stock ROM is my desktops are probably lost, right? I'm working within touchwiz, not stock android? Recreating them would be annoying, but only an hour or so's work.

yes you will lose desktop setup, have a look at nova prime (its not free) it is TW replacement and has ability to save desktop setup including wallpaper etc. There is a couple of others around that can do the same I just use Nova, apex is another one.

Philz is CWM based recovery (clockwork mod) the other is TWRP but I have never used it

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#880644 18-Aug-2013 17:43

I think I'll just flash the latest stock ROM after doing the backup process for now. Maybe once I'm more used to the device and the language I'll look at doing more.

A big thing I still want is sound profiles for my phone. Outdoor, work, home, silent, discrete. Simple stuff that was built into every phone made in the past 20 years, except smart phones. I don't care if I have to activate them manually, and I don't want to have to use tasker. Still can't understand how something so basic has been left out, and why the volume control only controls ring volume not notification volume.

Appreciate your help, wish there was a decent guide to all this stuff.

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#880652 18-Aug-2013 18:04

timmmay: I think I'll just flash the latest stock ROM after doing the backup process for now. Maybe once I'm more used to the device and the language I'll look at doing more.

A big thing I still want is sound profiles for my phone. Outdoor, work, home, silent, discrete. Simple stuff that was built into every phone made in the past 20 years, except smart phones. I don't care if I have to activate them manually, and I don't want to have to use tasker. Still can't understand how something so basic has been left out, and why the volume control only controls ring volume not notification volume.

Appreciate your help, wish there was a decent guide to all this stuff.

ring sheduler

Llama

Audio manager pro

don't know if any of those help.

found this thread full of guides not all S4 specific may be of no use whats so ever :)

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#880659 18-Aug-2013 18:18

They look great, I'll have a play, thanks :) Hopefully one will do useful things like turning data on and off too.

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#880661 18-Aug-2013 18:27

I can't even get Odin to connect to the phone like the guide says in the how to return to stock firmware. I reboot with vol down + home + power, hit the up button, but Odin doesn't seem to want to connect. Any tips, though I'll play after dinner.

Worked it out - adb reboot download did the trick

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#880797 19-Aug-2013 07:35

Quick update, I did the firmware flash from the site posted earlier, no problems. I re-rooted, again no problems. The whole process took about ten minutes, most of it waiting for things to flash.

Titanium Backup seems like a good, useful program. It somehow stops the Android backup (adb backup) command working though.

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#880799 19-Aug-2013 07:56

timmmay: Quick update, I did the firmware flash from the site posted earlier, no problems. I re-rooted, again no problems. The whole process took about ten minutes, most of it waiting for things to flash.

Titanium Backup seems like a good, useful program. It somehow stops the Android backup (adb backup) command working though.

so you have latest firmware or latest Telecom firmware?

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#880800 19-Aug-2013 07:58

jeffnz:
timmmay: Quick update, I did the firmware flash from the site posted earlier, no problems. I re-rooted, again no problems. The whole process took about ten minutes, most of it waiting for things to flash.

Titanium Backup seems like a good, useful program. It somehow stops the Android backup (adb backup) command working though.

so you have latest firmware or latest Telecom firmware?

Latest Telecom firmware. I've decided for now to stay with stock, though if I find it limiting or can find a good reason to change that I'll look at it later.

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#881231 19-Aug-2013 20:53

Something that is annoying me after I flashed my rom to stock I lost the Helicopter video and the Over the Horizon music. Samsung support told me they should come back with a factory reset but they didnt. Not cool

Can anyone answer if these are included in the sammobile firmware files?

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