After much of debate on whether the Galaxy S phone will be update to Android 4.0 ICS officially or not, Samsung made it clear in January that Galaxy S will not be included for the ICS update. The next day Samsung came and reported that instead of Ice Cream Sandwich, Galaxy S will receive the Value Pack update which is more often same as that of Ice Cream Sandwich.
In this article we will go on through the procedure on how you can install the value pack based XXJW4 firmware on your Galaxy S smartphone irrespective of the Android version that you have on your phone.
Pre Upgrade Instructions
Make sure you go through the following pre upgrade instructions -
- Note that you proceed with this phone with your model number as Galaxy GT I9000 and not any other variant manufactured by Samsung. This is not for Galaxy S GT I9000i or Galaxy S Aviator.
- Please make sure that you have a minimum of 70 % battery life left on your phone. This is to ensure that you don’t run out of battery during the upgrade procedure.
- Its quite important to backup most of the things on your phone. Go through the following utilities –
SMS – Use “SMS Backup & Restore app”,
Contacts – Sync with the Gmail application,
Call Log - Call Log and Restore
Songs, Videos & Files – Copy to internal / External SD Card,
APN and MMS Settings – Note down manually via “Applications > Settings > Wireless and Network > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names”. - You should enable USB debugging on your phone. To enable USB debugging on your phone follow the path of Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging and you would be able to enable it.
- All the antivirus or the firewall should be disable for certain period of time. Also close Samsung KIES on your PC.
Disclaimer : Neither we or the developer of this ROM should be held responsible if anything happens to your mobile phone if you proceed with this firmware upgrade. We have ensured that everything should go fine with update.
Update Galaxy S with Value Pack XXJW4 Firmware
Please make sure that you go through the following procedure correctly -
- First you need to download the XXJW4 firmware package on your computer.
- Once the files are downloaded, you need to extract the same on your PC.
- Among those files extract, you need to open the Odin tool and install it.
- On the other side you need to turn off your phone so as you can get it in download mode.
- Galaxy S can be entered in download mode by holding the Volume down button, center key and the power button, hold them continuously for 10 seconds until you see a green robot with downloading writing below it. Release the buttons when you see it. You can make use of the following video showing how you can get your phone in download mode –
- Now connect your phone using the USB cable, one end to PC and other end to mobile phone. As soon as you connect your phone, you will see that ID : Com port section will turn yellow, this indicated your connection was successful.
- Make sure that you have select Auto Reboot and F Reset Time in the option of Odin tool.
- Now click on PDA and select JW4_JW4_JW4.tar file.
- Click on “Start” to begin the process of firmware upgrade.
- Once the firmware upgrade is done, your phone would be restarted. You need to disconnect the phone from the computer.
- Now to remove the old firmware on your phone you need to get your phone in the recovery mode.
- You can enter the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone in the recovery mode. You can do it by pressing the volume up button, centre button and the power button. This video will help you out.
- In the recovery mode you need to select the option of Wipe data/factory reset and then select Wipe Cache Partition and then reboot your system using the reboot system now option.
- At any point of time you are strucked, repeat the procedure again from step 1.
With that now you have update your Galaxy S smartphone with new a value pack based on XXJW4. If you want to root this phone, check out instructions of rooting Galaxy S with Value Pack.
I am from India. can I install this update.
Yes, You can.
Thank you for the guide. Would you know of the improvements / changes that have been introduced in the Value Pack. It would help me in deciding if I should be upgrading or not. Thanks again.