You really

Appreciate any help I can get ...

Was thinking of ditching my S4 for another phone as it was getting laggy, battery dies too fast and it keeps getting stuck for no reason. Now thanks to this thread, found out that an update is available and I'll probably try the update first before wasting any money changing phones.

My problem is that I've not had any OTA update notification and I don't think I can wait any longer as my S4 is driving me mental. I'm tempted to download and update the new firmware myself but am a total idiot when it comes this. Hopefully, someone will help me with my queries:

1. Is updating via Odin or Kies considered flashing/rooting?
2. Any danger or is there anything I should know about first before doing this?
3. Will it blow up my phone?

Cheers guys and thanks in advance.

Hi, why not just try to factory reset your phone? See if it is misbehaving apps.

Anyway, to answer:
1. No, because you are flashing Samsung official firmware
2. There is always danger, although because you are just flashing official firmware, the risk should be minimum. That being said, I always do full backup before attempting anything. Just in case.
3. Nope, but don't sue me if it blows up when you are flashing

Cheers buddy ... will download and try to install this weekend.

Reluctant to factory reset because that would mean having to back-up and all that right?

Am a bit paranoid of losing my PvZ progress so most likely would only factory reset as an absolute last resort.

Anyway, if you decide to factory reset, just use Titanium Backup (the free version is sufficient) to backup all your apps and data, factory reset, then restore. All your apps and data should be intact.

This post has been edited by RushArt: Jul 3 2015, 04:22 PM

[quote=RushArt,Jul 3 2015, 04:17 PM]
Anyway, if you decide to factory reset, just use Titanium Backup (the free version is sufficient) to backup all your apps and data, factory reset, then restore. All your apps and data should be intact.

[/quote

+1 on the titanium backup. I even bought the premium so i could backup to google drive. awesome

I would suggest you backup your phone using Samsung Smart Switch and restore from there after you have done a hard reset on it. The batteries have gone way past their prime and needs to be replaced. Hope this helps.

Thanks to all for the advice and tips.

I didn't backup my phone but instead resorted to praying a lot and thankfully everything went well. Used Odin by the way.

So far so good. Battery life also seemed to improve a bit based on my totally unreliable method of timing using my gut feel. Although I totally agree that I need to replace the battery since it's actually older than certain people.

Will observe and update.

This post has been edited by wira1979: Jul 6 2015, 08:37 AM

Wow..praying helps the s4 go well? Haha..

Battery usage for the S4 was never really good to begin with. Added with a worn out battery it is even worse.

To be fair, S4 has one of the best battery life for flagship of its generation (M7, Nexus 5, Xperia Z, Note doesn't count because it's a phablet). The only flagship that has better battery life at that time is LG G2 (with the downside of no removable battery).

Yeah, it was good when it first came out. I think a combination of firmware updates and old battery has somewhat worsened battery performance. I'll be getting a new battery soon so hopefully things will improve again.

By the way, in general I'm satisfied with the latest firmware update. Only gripe is the fact that it gets quite hot after general usage (not even gaming). I use a plastic casing and can still feel the heat. Hope it's not burning anything in the phone. I don't need a further excuse to upgrade to an S6 hehehehe ...

support samsung la, their revenue not good.

You Samsung employee?

Tabuli ini machiem bro... you still using your broken modem s4 till now.

Getting new battery doesn't improve too much. Since the new lollipop keeps running down my batt, got an original batt (but already almost 1 year old based on manufacturing date), only slight improvement.

The new OS likes to hike up apps' processor usage to 99% randomly thus running down the batt faster. Still with the new batt, I can at least use the phone via my normal usage, almost 3/4 of a day (old batt, half day kaput). Thus a powerbank is still necessary to get me thru a day with some gaming (no gaming, can last a day).

The new OS do give my phone a new lease of life that I, like some ppl here almost give up on the phone random errors that require restart to continue usage. So far, besides the random apps processor hike (thus hot and battery runs out faster), it is almost error free and no all widget hang just like a new phone to me. Occassional widget still hang but unlike before where it freeze all widgets, it just pop up a message on widget, click, then it will reload that particular widget (main culprit is google calendar widget).

I guess I will wait to see what S7 will be in store for me next year.

Concur with you where i have similar widget issue, as for performance i love it, as battery can tolerate. Heating, not exist at all...

You manage to found solution for the Widget you mentioned? For me if no great offer i will stick with my S4 for another year or if Note 5 could impress me

This post has been edited by nokia6280: Jul 9 2015, 05:07 PM

Can live with the widget occasional hang issue coz it can reset the widget immediately unlike before lollipop update where it has to be rebooted. Been living with main screen where all widget permanently freeze for almost a year. To see all my widgets running again after the update is already a major improvement. Happy with my phone now. Forgoing the S6 edge for now.

Yup! even the S6 Edge is attracting enough but I may go for S7 or Note 5.....

Does anyone know how much is the free storage before ( Stock TouchWiz UI ROM ) and after installing custom rom? Could not find any answers about this ..

32GB or 16GB? Mine is 32GB left 23.7GB