Smart Switch for Update?

[Ragg Tagg]

My wife, my son and I all have the exact same phone, Samsung S5 with AT&T. My son's phone won't update beyond 5.x while my wife and I have 6.0.1. I suggested he try Smart Switch because he is encountering the "not enough available space" problem (he has about 5GB free space.) Smart Switch tells him his software is up to date. Is this because he doesn't have enough internal space? It seems to me that Smart Switch should hold the large update file and install it on the phone, rather than having the phone have to download the file to its internal memory.
Thanks,
Ragg

 

[lunatic59]

Has your son done anything to the phone like trying to root it or access the system partition? See if you can boot into fastboot mode and check the screen to see if it thinks it's been modified. I would think that would break updates.

If there wasn't enough room SS would say that.

 

[Ragg Tagg]

Lunatic59, thanks for the response. I doubt he's rooted the phone, but I'll have him check the fastboot thing. (He's in another city.) After booting fastboot (power button and volume, right?) how can you tell if it thinks it's been modified? Does it just say that on the opening screen?

 

[lunatic59]

Samsung calls it download mode or Odin mode. To get there you shut off the phone and then hold volume down + home + power until you get the download mode screen with the dire warning about installing custom firmware. Press volume up to enter download mode and you will see this in the upper left corner

If it doesn't say "official" then there's your problem.

To get out of download mode, just press hand hold the power button until the phone reboots.

 

[svim]

How long ago did you and your wife get updated to Marshmallow?
Updates, especially version upgrades, typically won't be available to everyone all at once but often on a 'rolling release' schedule. Don't know just what's involved in determining who gets them early and others later but if it's only been a few days perhaps your son just falls into that 'later' category and it'll happen in the near future.