Mobile

How to Update Galaxy J5 to Android 8.1 Oreo [Officially]

If you’re expecting that Samsung won’t focus on the mid-range smartphones for updates, then probably your expectation has misplaced. For Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J530F variant, a new Android 8.1 Oreo update is being rolled out and users in Polan have already received it. These OTA updates are generally released based on regions, and other factors, therefore some users receive them a bit earlier them others. If you do not wish to wait anymore, then keep reading this material. In this tutorial, we’ll help you to manually update the Samsung Galaxy J5 to latest Android 8.1 Oreo with the official build.

With this update, you can expect improvements in many aspects like performance, stability and battery life. However, this update could take several weeks or months to reach each and every user around the world. If you’re lucky enough, just open the About Phone section and check for the updates. If you find some notification, just follow the available instructions to install this update. Otherwise, keep reading this tutorial. During these instructions, we’ll manually flash this Android 8.1 Oreo update on Samsung Galaxy J5 smartphone. Because we are flashing an official update, it won’t trip the Knox and it doesn’t void the warranty.

However, this process will wipe the internal memory completely. Since we are flashing a major update manually, it goes through wiping the internal memory thoroughly. Therefore, you must back up all the important stuff before doing so. We highly recommend you to create a general backup of your phone. That includes photos, videos, messages, contacts, and documents. For Samsung users, we have created a dedicated post for this purpose; backup Samsung Galaxy smartphones. Use this guide to back up most of the stuff on your computer or online, so you can easily restore them.

To be eligible to receive, your phone shouldn’t be customized or tweaked. If it is running on a custom ROM or rooted, then you’re not eligible to receive this update through OTA. However, you can manually flash this update on your phone. While we flash updates manually, they generally wipe the device first and then gets installed. Means, you’ll lose the root access, mods and custom firmware will be replaced with the official stock firmware. That leaves nothing old on your phone. Every aspect is replaced with the stock one.

To flash this update, we will use the Odin flashing tool. Basically, the Odin tool has been specifically built for Samsung devices. It helps to flash firmware, updates, recovery images and does many other operations. The noteworthy thing is that using the Odin tool for performing such actions won’t void the warranty on your phone. Instead, this is the most recommended tool to fix bricked devices and re-install the stock firmware. So, to flash this Android 8.1 Oreo update on Samsung Galaxy J5 smartphone, we will make use of this utility. Before we jump onto the instructions directly, we must discuss some important prerequisites:

Prerequisites

  • The update has been rolled out for Samsung Galaxy J5 SM-J530F variant only. You must check the model number of your phone. It should match this one. Don’t apply this update on any other smartphone. That could brick your phone or something bad can happen.
  • This process wipes the phone’s memory completely. Thus, a general backup is highly recommended before installing this firmware update on your phone.
  • To use the Odin tool, you need a Windows Operating system based laptop/desktop and a USB cable of your phone.
  • To be able to connect your phone and use with the Odin program, you must enable the USB Debugging on your phone. You can follow this tutorial to enable USB Debugging on your phone.
  • You must install the USB drivers of your phone on your computer. That ensures that your phone connected to the computer properly, and Odin tool is able to recognize it. Just download the Samsung USB Drivers from →here and install them on your computer.

That’s all you need to go ahead and install this latest update on your phone. The following instructions will take you through this whole procedure. You just need to follow the steps we mention exactly as they are.

How to update Update Samsung Galaxy J5 to Android 8.1 Oreo

  1. First, download this update package for your phone from →here. Extract the content of the package on your computer to obtain .md5 file. Remember, this update is only for SM-J530F and it doesn’t work on any other model.
  2. Now, get the latest version of Odin tool from here. Extract the package to obtain the Odin program and run it on your computer. It looks like this: Odin Flashing Program Samsung Phones
  3. Now, turn OFF your phone.
  4. Then, boot into the Download mode – press and hold Volume Down, Home and Power buttons all at once for a few seconds. You should enter into the Download Mode soon.
  5. Now, connect your phone to the computer using the USB cable. As you connect your phone, the Odin tool will recognize your phone. The ID: COM section will turn to blue indicating that your phone has been recognized.
    • If nothing happens, try to re-install the USB Drivers and connect your phone again.
  6. Then tap on the ‘AP’ button and load the firmware file having .md5 extension.
  7. Don’t make any other changes. Make sure that Re-Partition and the Auto Reboot options are unchecked.
  8. Now, tap on the ‘Start’ button to start the process. It could take several minutes, 5-10 minutes to flash this firmware on your phone.
  9. On completion of this process, A PASS! message will appear on the screen. That indicates that this update has been successfully flashed on this device.
  10. Now, take OFF your phone from the computer.

Congratulation, you’ve updated your phone to the latest Android Oreo firmware officially. Now, enjoy the goodness of Android 8.1 on your Samsung Galaxy J5. This should bring some major improvements in performance, and usefulness. Must check out our checklist to improve performance on your phone.

That ends our tutorial here. Do let us know your experience after installing this new update on your phone. Share your thoughts and views in the comment section below. We would love to hear from and improve our guides. That helps us to bring out the best stuff for our readers.

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