I recently opened up Samsung’s Kies software, to synchronise some of the content that doesn’t get updated over the air, and was given a popup notification of a new firmware version. Having done similar upgrades through Kies before I didn’t think twice: new equals shiny equals better, right?
To cut a long story short, this time the update didn’t work. My phone was stuck in limbo and Kies couldn’t get the process to finish. My only hope seemed to be ’emergency firmware recovery’ via a recovery code that Kies presented to me. But even this option didn’t resurrect my slumbering Galaxy S2.
Rather than assume my half-upgraded phone was now a brick I considered my options. Even if Kies can’t do the upgrade it can at least download the correct firmware for you. I found that Kies downloads its firmware updates into the TEMP folder. The file’s name is in the format ‘tmp<4 hexadecimal characters>.tmp.
You have to be quick to find it though. Kies decompresses the file into a folder called ‘tmp <4 hexadecimal characters> .tmp.zipfolder’ and almost immediately afterwards begins the firmware upgrading process. Once it gets to 100% these files are removed sharpish – grab a copy while you can! Putting ‘%TEMP%’ into the ‘run’ dialogue box makes this easier to find.
Since Kies couldn’t do the job I finally resorted to the rooter’s favourite: Odin. This little program, armed with the firmware I’d grabbed from Kies’ temp folder, was thankfully able to bring my phone back to life.
As a further bonus, and unlike those who go down the rooting process proper, Kies will still happily talk to my phone for synchronisation and backups. One final point to note – the recovery didn’t work until I had tried using a different USB cable (I switched from my no-name eBay purchase to an official Samsung one) and also plugged straight into a USB port, rather than via a powered hub.
Hopefully this may help someone else who finds themselves stuck in a similar position.
Hello,
Really thank you for the article, it’s awesome. So, may I put that article in my website?
Thanks again.
Hello,
I managed to copy the .tmp file before it was gone
unzip successfully but no .md5 file to use with Odin,
could you be more specific in that part?
Which option did you select, PDA or phone?
Thanx in advance
The most recent firmware I’ve downloaded via this route is I9100XWLSY_I9100BVLS4_I9100ORALS8_HOME.tar.md5.
PDA is the option I used. If you search for Odin and ‘firmware update’ there are plenty of examples out there if you need further assistance.
Hope this helps.
I was having this same issue with my galaxy tab 3 SM-T210R. Your article is really helped.
Tqtqtqtqtqtqtqtq!!!!
Thanks a mil!!
This is the best way to get the real stock image from samsung !!!
Thanks you so much !
Now I will start to play with custom without thinking on how to go back to stock !!!!