In this guide we will be showing you how you can download OTA updates for Samsung Galaxy devices using the Samloader device. Apart from pushing out OTA updates to their respected devices, OEMs also make their firmware files available on their websites. This means that users can also download the firmware files from the website and manually flash them on their device using any method from stock recovery to ADB sideloads. But if we talk about Samsung, things are quite a bit different. Samsung does not upload their firmware files anywhere, so this means that you can not avail Samsung firmware files from any place from the internet.
Eventually users tend to look towards third part alternatives. The most well known tools in this field are the SamFirm and Frija. From these mentioned tools, you can easily download OTA updates for Samsung devices. Once you are done with that, you could easily flash the tools using the Samsung Odin Flash Tool. Now Samloader, a new tool has also entered this domain. It has effectively made the entire downloading process much more easier and convenient for users. Follow this guide to learn more about how you can use the Samloader tool to download OTA updates for Samsung devices.
What is the Samloader Tool?
The biggest advantage of the Samloader tool is that it is an open source tool, this means you can modify its source code as you like. You can avail it’s source code from the GitHub repository. The tool was developed by a member of XDA developers, n000, who created a cross platform tool in Python by reverse engineering the Samsung Smart Switch. Another perk of this tool that it is not based on the Windows DLL, so this means that you can use this tool on MacOS and Linux systems as well as on Windows PCs themselves.
Image taken from XDA
In addition to that, this tool does not even require much space. It is only as big as 100 KB and you can also use the tool to decrypt the OTA packages. And to top that, you can also create your own flashable packages using this tool. These were pretty much the highlights of Samloader’s functionalities. So let’s now jump into the steps following which you can use the Samloader tool to download Samsung OTA updates for your device.
How to Download Samsung OTA Updates via Samloader
Provided below is the step by step guide for using the Samloader tool to download Samsung OTA updates.
STEP 1: Install Python 3 and PIP
- First of all, you need to download the latest version of Python. Once you are done, install the software by opening up the setup for the software and then following the on-screen instructions.
- When have installed Python, you will also need to install PIP. Fortunately for users, newer versions of Python already come with this pre-installed. In order to verify it, open up the command prompt as an Admin and then type in the following command “pip help”. If you get a long list of commands after entering the command, this will mean that your Python build already has PIP installed. Now follow on to the next step.
STEP 2: Download Samloader
Now you have to download the codebase for Samloader. You can either download Samloader from this link or you can also clone the repository by making use of Git. Enter the following command to clone the repository “git clone https://github.com/nlscc/samloader”
STEP 3: Install using PIP
After you have downloaded Samloader and installed Python and PIP, you have to proceed to install the Samloader. You can install the Samloader by entering a PIP command. First, we have to change the directory to the location of the tool and use PIP to install it. Enter the following command for this procedure:
cd samloader
pip3 install
The following syntax can also be used :
pip3 install <path-to-samloader>
STEP 4: Checking the latest Firmware for your device
Now as we have installed the Samloader tool, it is time to finally start with the process to install OTA updates for Samsung devices using the Samloader tool. But before that, you should check which is the latest firmware available for your Samsung device. For this, type in the following sequence:
samloader checkupdate [model] [region]
You should replace your phone’s model and region with the Model and region in the command. For example if you own a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, then you would have to type in the following command:
samloader checkupdate SM-G988U TMB
Using the same procedure, you could also type the command for your own device.
STEP 5: Downloading the Firmware File
Now, you are able to download the firmware file for your Samsung device and you should also specify the download directory, by typing in the following command:
samloader download [version] [model] [region] [out]
STEP 6: Decrypting the Firmware
Last but not the least, if you want to decrypt the firmware files, you can do so by two different commands. The command depends on the type of the encrypted firmware that you are using, enc2 or enc4. Mentioned below are commands for both of them.
- For enc2 encrypted firmware:
samloader decrypt2 [version] [model] [region] [infile] [outfile]
- For enc4 encrypted firmware:
samloader decrypt4 [version] [model] [region] [infile] [outfile]
After this, the correct firmware file corresponding to your Samsung device will now be downloaded. You should also keep in mind that some carriers like AT & T and Verizon use Samsung’s OTA servers to provide official updates. This means that the tool will not work with them. So that was it from our side. We hope that you found this article helpful. If you have any queries or comments, do share them in the comment section below.
