Help Won't updare, Kies issue?

[tim1989]

I think I have a problem which hopefully someone could help me with..
My S2 seems to be stuck on android 2.3.3. whenever I try and update the phone tells me there is no update available (even though my old phone, an SE xperia play, had a more up-to-date version of android).

So I download kies software to try and update that way, but my phone wont even connect to my laptop. It connstantly says "connecting" and nothing else will happen. either that, or it says it cannot connect and I should remove the usb and try again.

I have run the troubleshoot feature in kies, which reinstalled device drivers, but still no joy..

Any ideas anyone? Thanks!

 

[naith_kk]

Well, lets try to reset the USB ports by force to see if that works. Keep your samsung phone connected to your computer.

download devcon through this Microsoft official link. lets just say you done this and extracted the contents to C:\devcon. there are two directories inside based on whether you use 32bit windows or 64bit windows... shift-rightclick on either one of those directory and choose "open command window from here..."

you'll see a command prompt window, enter these codes at the prompt. wait until each one is finished before entering the next (or if you know how, you can create a batch file):

devcon remove *usb\root*
devcon rescan

Once run, you'll see your USB connections and any other devices that use USB get disabled and reenabled later... that includes your Samsung phone. Give it some time to re-register your USB drivers for it...

once Windows is finished re-installing your USB drivers, you can try KIES again and see if that works.

 

[tim1989]

Thanks for your response! Iv tried that, and it still seems to be the same. Its really frustrating because I know my phone should be getting an update, yet it seems to be stuck with the firmware it currently had. Kies air connects to my laptop just fine, though no way of updating the firmware that way

 

[tim1989]

Also, just in case it helps, I keep getting a message come up on my laptop saying it was unable to start the service on the device. When I connect the usb, it does seem to start on my phone, claiming to be connected to the laptop, but this tends to disappear after about 10 seconds or so. Could it be a problem with the phone its self?

 

[naith_kk]

Ok, do a read on ironass's sticky about firmware eligibility here. This is to determine whether or not your phone does have official firmware for updating. If you found out that your phone doesn't have an update just yet, then you're out of luck of updating from official methods, apart from flashing firmware manually with firmwares that are not officially released for your phone... which is quite an undertaking.

If the phone and firmware version does indeed have an update, and you're not getting the phone connected to KIES to get it, then I'd suggest the following:

1. Seeing your phone is Gingerbread (2.3.x) Ensure that USB Debugging is turned off. Last I remembered was it was in Settings | Applications | Development.

2. Uninstall KIES, reboot your computer and reinstall KIES and try connecting after it's done installing. More importantly, connect your USB cable directly to the PC instead of through a hub or another USB component... and use a different USB port doing this.

 

[tim1989]

I already read that post, and it seems I should be able to update. I will try reinstalling kies when I get a chance and see if that works. Thanks for your help!

 

[sg3geek]

I found a solution that worked (to connect the phone to Samsung Kies using MTP). Below was the method I used, followed by further explanation. You may not need to follow these steps exactly, but they're the steps I used.

1) Plug Samsung Galaxy S3 phone into computer's USB port. You will get the MTP driver failed to installed message.

2) Backup SMS / MMS using a backup app (like MyBackup Pro).

3) Factory reset phone (while still plugged into computer).

4) Do NOT sign in to your Google Account when phone resets - This is CRITICAL. You can do it later.

5) Basically, just get the phone started up again without signing into any accounts (like Dropbox, Samsung account, etc.)

6) MTP driver should have automatically installed on computer - if not, then unplug phone from computer and reconnect.

7) Sign into your Google Account, and feel free to re-customize your phone at this point.


Explanation and Notes:

1) I factory reset my phone 2x in a row. The first time, without doing ANYTHING on the phone after factory resetting it except for signing into my Google Account, the MTP driver failed to install. I believe this happens because signing into my Google Account uses the "backup and restore" functionality of the Google Android account and Google starts automatically downloading saved settings like home screen, Wallpaper, Play Store apps, and other settings. This interferes with the initial MTP driver installation. The 2nd time I factory reset (within minutes of the first factory reset), I did NOT sign into Google Account, and voila, the MTP drivers installed. Only AFTER I was able to connect to the computer did I sign in to Google Account.

2) Previous to this solution, I had tried every solution I had found online including:

a) checking / unchecking USB debugging mode
b) toggling between MTP mode and Camera mode
c) changing some hidden Android settings
d) using different USB cables (the one that came with the phone along with others I had)
e) uninstalling and reinstalling the Samsung drivers
f) uninstalling and reinstalling Samsung Kies
g) Device Manager in Microsoft Windows - deleting everything under Universal Serial Bus Controllers so it would reinstall upon Windows restart
h) cleaning registry
i) trying to connect to different computers (it didn't work)


I had initially thought it was a computer problem, but then realized I was using MTP to connect other devices (like a Sony videocamera). The problem was with the Google Account automatically downloading various settings to the phone (because of the Backup and Restore functionality) PRIOR to connecting to the computer.


For those of you who have tried everything suggested online to connect to the computer, I hope this solution helps!