Do I need the KitKat Bootloader? - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshoot

Should I be updating the bootloader for 4.4 KitKat ROMs?
The tablet thread says yes because one would miss some of the 4.4 improvements. If this is true for Android, then would I not need to do the update on my S4 or does the Dev include this in their ROMs?

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[Q] ATT GS4 4.2.2 to 4.4.2 Kitkat Need Help !

I'm currently running on 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on my ATT Galaxy S4(SGH-i337). I want to upgrade to the latest Kitkat 4.4.2 Stock Update. My ATT S4 is rooted and unlocked to work in India.
Can someone tell me:-
- If I need custom recovery for this ?
-If Yes/ No how do I go about it ?
-Will I lose root & and Carrier unlock after update ?
- Link to the Stock 4.4.2 Kitkat OTA
ashishk2 said:
I'm currently running on 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on my ATT Galaxy S4(SGH-i337). I want to upgrade to the latest Kitkat 4.4.2 Stock Update. My ATT S4 is rooted and unlocked to work in India.
Can someone tell me:-
- If I need custom recovery for this ?
-If Yes/ No how do I go about it ?
-Will I lose root & and Carrier unlock after update ?
- Link to the Stock 4.4.2 Kitkat OTA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you update, depending on which firmware you are on now, you will lose your ability to boot custom roms. If you have the MDL firmware, I suggest keeping it as you can use LOKI to bypass the locked bootloader and boot custom roms and recoveries. Now to answer your questions.
You can use a custom recovery to update to 4.4.2 if a .zip file for the update is available. You can also use ODIN to flash the update. You will lose root unless you use a pre-rooted update file. The stock 4.4.2 update is in the General forums I believe.

[Q] Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE downgrade from lollipop to kitkat

Hello, everyone. I'm new to Android. I recently purchased a new Samsung Galaxy S4 GPE. I love the phone, but lollipop is very buggy. I liked KITKAT 4.4.4. I was curious if someone could help a new user in a step by step fashion how to downgrade my GPE lollipop to kitkat 4.4.4??? Basically how to root, unlock bootloader, flash rom, etc. I would be entirely grateful. Not sure where to start and do not want to brick my phone. God bless.
Really? I used a lollipop GPE based custom rom and it was the most stable out of all roms so far.
Anyway, you will have to look in the Google Edition S4 forum.
There is a guide in the S4 General Section on how to downgrade from lollipop. Don't know if it applies to GPE.

[Q] Help Required: Stock S4 Recovery

Hi,
As the topic suggests, I am going to buy a used S4. I checked two S4's both with stock recovery, one was on lollipop 5.0.1 and the other was on kitkat 4.4.2. The stock recovery of 5.0.1 was showing more options than the one on 4.4.2. Is it some thing implemented in the new lollipop 5.0.1 upgrade ?
kashifmehmood said:
Hi,
As the topic suggests, I am going to buy a used S4. I checked two S4's both with stock recovery, one was on lollipop 5.0.1 and the other was on kitkat 4.4.2. The stock recovery of 5.0.1 was showing more options than the one on 4.4.2. Is it some thing implemented in the new lollipop 5.0.1 upgrade ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could be that samsung added more features in the new recovery. With every update, there comes a new recovery, bootloader etc. so this case is very likely.
If you are going to install a custom recovery anyway, then that doesn't really matter to you

Upgrade from 4.3 with root

So currently my note 3 is running android 4.3, has root, and I believe has an unlocked boot-loader. Otherwise stock Rom and Recovery.
My question is what can or can't I do to update my phone to a newer version of android while maintaining root.
On a side note anyone know if newer android versions improve BLE support? It's practically non-existent on 4.3
Thanks in advance.

Downgrade CM11 to TW 4.3?

So, my note 3 came with stock 4.4.2 touchwiz.
I rooted and flashed CM 11. I also did flash a couple of AOSP android 5.0 roms, but now I am on CM 11. I never updated with the OTA updater of samsung.
Now for personal reasons, I would like to give 4.3 a try, but is it possible?
I saw a video demonstrating it on youtube, but cant post itnhere yet. Just search for downgrade note 3 4,3, and you'll find a vid of it pretty (title also says something about restoring imei), but i dont know if its legit?
Thanks!
Umm, you can easily downgrade to 4.4.2 from 5.0, but not sure about 4.3. But you do know that official Lollipop Touchwiz ROMs are already out there for quite a while right?
Attempts to downgrade the bootloader from 4.4.2 to 4.3 may hard brick the phone so I would advise against it.

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