Normally I do not recommend upgrading the phone if it is working fine. This is mainly due to the problems that many users have when performing an update . Some do it wrong or are unlucky, so the phone can even get its software damaged. However, sometimes it is necessary to take this risk, especially if there are vulnerabilities in the Android system that can expose your phone to hacking, or in case something is not working right..
If you have already decided to update your cell phone, one of the easiest ways is to go to system settings, Software update, Download and Install. However, since the download of the software is carried out over the WiFi or mobile network, it is possible that a corrupted software or file will be obtained due to the nature of these networks, perhaps one of the causes for many users to have problems after updating your phone. Whether this is true or not, it may be better to avoid that risk and go for something "more reliable", such as updating the equipment from the PC. In the case of Samsung Galaxy phones, this is easily done with the Smart Switch tool.
How to update a Samsung mobile from the PC
All you have to do is download the Smart Switch client for PC from its official website , open it and connect the phone to the PC with the USB cable. From here, the onscreen wizard will walk you through the process of completing the installation of the client on mobile (although you could also install it yourself from Google Play )..
Once the connection is established, click on the Update button, then Continue. The AdminDelegator window will appear that you must accept. (Note: If the Update button does not appear, it means that there are no software updates available for your phone.)
There will also be some recommendations that are important to take into account:
Before upgrading
• A rooted device may cause upgrade failure, unstable mobile phone operation, or other problems.
• It is recommended to use an official Samsung USB cable.
(Samsung is not responsible for malfunction caused by unofficial USB cable.)
• Fully charge the battery.
• Back up your data.
(Unbacked data may be deleted.)
Updating
• Do not press any button to open any menu.
• Do not connect other mobile devices (MP3 players, cameras, external hard drives, etc.) to the computer.
• You cannot use the calling features.
• Do not disconnect the cable until the update is complete.
Download and install update
Once the update process has started, it's all a matter of following the steps on the screen. The download of the software update will begin.
After the download is complete, the phone will automatically go into download mode (turquoise screen) and the update will start to be applied to the phone, as shown above..
After completing the update process, you will be able to disconnect the cell phone from the PC, it will reboot and the "Optimizing applications" process will begin. After a few minutes you will be able to use the device while the update is finished in the background.
How long does it take to update the cell phone?
The entire process from downloading the update to finishing applying it takes no more than 30 to 45 minutes. That's how long it took for me with an update of just over 6 GB.
Do not update by skipping an available version of Android or ONE UI
Smart Switch does not apply the latest available update. After updating, I reconnected the phone to the Smart Switch and another available update appeared again, similar in size to 6 GB. It was the update to One UI 4.1 (also based on Android 12), with a security review October 2022. There must be some reason why Samsung does not allow skipping a major system update, that is, updating from One UI 3.1 to 4.1 without going through by One UI 4.0 (my case), or from Android 11 to Android 13 without going through version 12, to give two examples.
Update or apply multiple security patches at once
If you update the cell phone from Settings, Software update, you will have to apply the security revisions (monthly) one by one, which usually have a size of approximately 1 GB. That is, if you have not updated your Android for 6 months, you will have to repeat the update process six times to stop seeing the pending software update notice.
The good thing about upgrading your PC with Smart Switch is that you can apply multiple or all pending security patches in batch or all at once in one update. In my case I had to do the update twice, but it was because I had two major updates pending, as I explained above. However, in the first time I was able to apply five security patches at once (September 2021 to January 2022) and in the second nine security patches (February 2022 to October 2022).
I was finally able to get my phone up to date and without the annoying update available notification anymore.
Update with Odin or with Smart Switch
Odin is more technical software than Smart Switch, so I don't recommend it unless you know what you're doing. The advantage of using Odin is that I could update to Android 13 with One UI 5 by downloading this software already available on Sammobile for my cell phone. I can't do this with Smart Switch since at this moment on Samsung servers there is only Android 12 for the region of my device. Probably with Odin you could also directly install Android 13 from Android 11, although Samsung does not work this way with its Smart Switch program.
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