[Q] firmware update for HK phone in UK - General Questions and Answers

So I bought my daughter a new LG E975 from China, it is running 4.1.2 and is apparently a Hong Kong Version.
Now, I've done firmware updates before on Samsung and not a problem, even on HTC a while ago, but this is the first time I've had a foreign phone so I'm stumped.
First problem is that FOTA is not available, in fact, the option for software check on the phone is simply not there. I've tried googling but can't find an explanation of why and how to enable it. I've tried LG PC suite, whilst it detects the phone without issue, it says "can not check software unavailability, please try later". Also tried the Mobile Support tool, but on launching it says my PC isn't connected to the internet, but of course it is.
So I thought fine, I'll go the manual path, but my concern then is what firmware to choose, do I choose a UK provider or a Hong Kong one, to be fair, the phone is unlocked, so I just want a non UK provider firmware, i.e. a standard LG 4.4.2 update not locked to a provider, is that possible?
Or am I going to have to apply a rooted firmware? As it is my daughters phone I just wanted simple vanilla version built for this phone.
I wish I'd not bothered now, I didn't envisage these sort of problems when getting the phone.
Any help appreciated.

Related

[Q] moving phone carrier question?

I bought an Australian (Telstar) HTC Mozart to use in New Zealand as the hardware specs match the NZ Telecom network. Now I an really worried that as Telecom dont sell this phone they will never "release" an update and I'll eventually be stuck with a very old version of WP7.
Anyone got an ideas if this will be a problem or if my phone will see the Telstra update and grab that?
I have a dev account so if anyone knows how a dev can load the update directly then that would be great to hear...
Thanks
they will Telstra aren't really ones to stop it though i know that they haven't released the update yet. my sister has a mozart from telstra and hasn't gotten an update yet. just be patient. i'm pretty sure they just rolled it all into one.
I also bought a phone from germany and I'm using it in Portugal with diferent carrier and I got the update! So I think you shouldn't worry
The Gate Keeper said:
they will Telstra aren't really ones to stop it though i know that they haven't released the update yet. my sister has a mozart from telstra and hasn't gotten an update yet. just be patient. i'm pretty sure they just rolled it all into one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But do you think it will update a phone running in NZ on a different network? Mt worry is that if teh carrier can block an update then that seems to suggest its tied to the phone + carrier combination. If i take a phone sold for an Australian carrier and use it in NZ then will it update?
In theory it should work as Telecom NZ provide the internet access and the phone is still branded Telstra. It still shows their NextG branding at start up etc but what if it doesn't?
I also cant think why developers are not allowed to run the update using dev only tools. How are we supposed to test our applications?
Seems a little up in the air. As for teh update I am patient and happy to wait but I really think MS need to explain stuff way more. Lots of people are complaining and that is bad for the image as a whole. A few more blog post from MS could really diffuse that.
Thanks for the feedback.
vbgeezer said:
But do you think it will update a phone running in NZ on a different network? Mt worry is that if teh carrier can block an update then that seems to suggest its tied to the phone + carrier combination. If i take a phone sold for an Australian carrier and use it in NZ then will it update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. It's tied to the device+branding, so as long as Telstra releases the update you will get it.
The alternative is to unbrand your phone by flashing a non-branded (i.e. generic) ROM and you'll get the update as soon as MS seems fit rather than being dependant on any carriers.

Angry! Model D6603 where is it from?.

I'm quite annoyed to be honest purchased what I thought was a sim free z3 from amazon UK it was a returns phone so i got it cheaper.
Switched the phone on and the default language was pointing at Netherlands, I thought straight away "here we go"
App draw full of Dutch 02 apps! Although the phone does take my 3 sim card. Deleted the ones I could and deactivated the rest.
Now I'm starting to think, will Sony warranty cover me??
What should I do guys?
gibbo82 said:
I'm quite annoyed to be honest purchased what I thought was a sim free z3 from amazon UK it was a returns phone so i got it cheaper.
Switched the phone on and the default language was pointing at Netherlands, I thought straight away "here we go"
App draw full of Dutch 02 apps! Although the phone does take my 3 sim card. Deleted the ones I could and deactivated the rest.
Now I'm starting to think, will Sony warranty cover me??
What should I do guys?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't you do a live chat or phone Sony and find out?
If it is does take your three UK Sim card, then it is a Sim free phone...
However the dutch firmware can be flashed over with a UK one via flashtool
Just got off the phone to Sony, at first they told me it was the UK version, then it turns out to be a German z3!. they said it is covered for warranty over here till 13/3/17.
Do I need to root to flash the UK firmware??
No.. Run Flashtool as it is.
Where can I get the uk firmware from?
try the general section where there's an official thread on the first page, although due to xperifirm, a free software download allowing you to access almost any sony firmware direct from their servers, most firmwares are no longer uploaded - the UK generic on xda may not be the most up to date version, so accept that you're using an older firmware initially and simply update it via pc companion once installed, or use xperifirm direct (you will need to google how to run this with flashtool to get the software onto your phone, unless you've been there and bought the t shirt)...... and you don't need root to do any of this.

Samsung pay for International Unlocked device?

Hi all, I have an unlocked s6 edge (925f) living in the U.S. I understand that it will not be officially bundled into the software since it's an international variant, but has anyone gotten it to work through the framework and APKs? When I try it , I'm able to get into the app and all that, but when I try to add a card, it tells me that it can't communicate with the server. If anyone could help that'd be awesome.
Thanks!
Same exact scenario here. 925F, sideloaded the framework and app, can add card, can't communicate with server. Went to Samsung counter at Best Buy, they couldn't do anything. The girl there though did say she had experienced the same scenario with no connection but in an ATT branded S6 which then cleared itself up in a day or two.
Two things I'm thinking of:
1. Flash a US branded firmware (ATT or Tmobile) and see if that fixes it. Though I'm not even sure if they will flash on the 925F version, and/or the flash will lock the phone to that firmware's brand SIM.
2. Somehow try to get the Samsung Pay logs to see where it's trying to connect but I don't think that's even possible without root which will trip Knox which makes Samsung Pay unusable.

How to flash updated T-Mobile firmware on very un-updated AT&T S7 Edge?

I'm new to XDA and not very expert at Android. I used to use a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S6 with T-Mobile as the carrier. I recently bought a used AT&T Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and have succeeded so far in getting it unlocked so it recognizes my SIM card. So my phone is up and running. However, it is still an AT&T phone. I don't know all of the ways it is undesirable to use an AT&T phone on the T-Mobile network. I do know that updating software is problematic. I want to make this phone into a T-Mobile phone, so that when software updates are available it asks me if I want to install them and so on.
Now I'm getting into unfamiliar territory. I believe my CSC is G935AUCU1APB4. (This is called my 'baseband version' in the settings menu.) From 'PB4' I get that this firmware is from February 2016, version 4. My model is G935-A and what's in between tells me something about my country and original Android version, maybe. So when I go looking for a late version of T-Mobile's firmware for my phone, would it still start with G935A, or would it perhaps look like G935T (for T-mobile)? Or perhaps G935U (for unlocked?) Anyway, my first big question is what firmware package should I look for and how do I know that is the right one?
After that, well, I have never manually flashed firmware into a phone. I see references to Odin and SmartSwitch and sammobile. Well, shoot. I figure I can learn any of these packages. Which should I use and why?
That's enough for now, thanks for reading!
metalmagpie
metalmagpie said:
I'm new to XDA and not very expert at Android. I used to use a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S6 with T-Mobile as the carrier. I recently bought a used AT&T Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and have succeeded so far in getting it unlocked so it recognizes my SIM card. So my phone is up and running. However, it is still an AT&T phone. I don't know all of the ways it is undesirable to use an AT&T phone on the T-Mobile network. I do know that updating software is problematic. I want to make this phone into a T-Mobile phone, so that when software updates are available it asks me if I want to install them and so on.
Now I'm getting into unfamiliar territory. I believe my CSC is G935AUCU1APB4. (This is called my 'baseband version' in the settings menu.) From 'PB4' I get that this firmware is from February 2016, version 4. My model is G935-A and what's in between tells me something about my country and original Android version, maybe. So when I go looking for a late version of T-Mobile's firmware for my phone, would it still start with G935A, or would it perhaps look like G935T (for T-mobile)? Or perhaps G935U (for unlocked?) Anyway, my first big question is what firmware package should I look for and how do I know that is the right one?
After that, well, I have never manually flashed firmware into a phone. I see references to Odin and SmartSwitch and sammobile. Well, shoot. I figure I can learn any of these packages. Which should I use and why?
That's enough for now, thanks for reading!
metalmagpie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I have learned a ton in the last couple of days. Bottom line is the easiest way to update OS on an AT&T Samsung is to take it to Best Buy and ask the person at the Samsung counter to do it. I see no reason to believe that it is possible in software to make an AT&T phone look like a T-Mobile phone. And as far as flashing with Odin? What a totally buggy tool! I was NEVER able to make it get past "analyzing files" or maybe "file analysis". When you get down to switching cords from one USB port to another I figure you might just as well change your socks. Finally, there is a TON of crap advice out on the Web.
metalmagpie

Making this Galaxy S7 useful

I have a teenage son who has taken initiative to figure out how to replace a motherboard in what was his sister's broken Galaxy S7 (model: SM-G930U). All seemed to work successfully until he tried to activate the phone on the network our family uses (US Mobile). The company rep said that the phone is not voLTE compatible and cannot be used. The rep also said that the phone appeared to be an AT&T phone, which must be due to the motherboard my son installed into the phone because I have always tried to buy phones for my kids that will work universally across all networks. Researching a bit, I'm seeing that many Galaxy S7s are voLTE compatible (even my wife's older phone--an S5--is voLTE compatible). It seems strange to me that this phone is not voLTE compatible and now appears to be quite useless to connect to a carrier. My guess is that this must be a software/firmware configuration issue, and I would like to help my son be successful in his endeavor to have a working phone.
Can anyone guide us through the process of making this phone voLTE compatible? Some high-level background information about how cell phones are structured and what might be causing this problem (hardware vs. software/firmware) might also be useful to help us get the technological lay of the land. I have a lot of desktop/laptop tech knowledge from back in the day (e.g., CompTIA A+/Network +; MCSE; Novell CNE), but not so much when it comes to cell phones (so analogies might be helpful). I have installed Phone Info and can provide other information as requested.
Hey, my first guess would be, that the csc file flashed on this mainboard does not match your country or region or carrier. Download an official firmware with the carrier-free csc variant from your country and clean flash it with ODIN (aswell as every other partition) this will wipe your phones data so be caucious!
Setings>About Phone as well as Phone INFO say that the model # is "SM-G930U". However, when I enter the IMEI number at IMEI.info, it tells me that the model number is "G930F Galaxy S7 (SM-G930A)". So, what model number should I use when searching for the correct firmware to download? Before my son replaced the motherboard, I'm sure the model of the phone was SM-G930U.
Try running this
Update/Flash/Unbrick your device via Odin
Hello everyone! I made a tutorial regarding flashing the latest update when not available in your region: Video tutorial: Steps: 1. Download and extract both Frija and Odin. 2. Launch Frija. 3. Check the "Auto" button. Write your device's...
forum.xda-developers.com

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