Last Updated on April 12, 2017 by Mathew Diekhake
Samsung love to release an extra variant of many of their mobile products called the Black Edition. I touched base on it once when Phone4U were selling the Black Edition Galaxy S4. Anyhow, there’s lots more of these Black variants on offer than just the S4. We have seen the S4 Mini, and the Note 2 come out as these unique and a lot more rare version of the existing original variant. They each have a fake faux-leather back that are plastic, but they look convincing along with the white stitching on the sides, it’s a definite upgrade over the standard look if you like black.
Sammy has recently updated most of the tools I just mentioned to Android 4.4.2 KitKat over the last week including the S4 Mini LTE Black Edition. Today I’ll show you how you can update the Galaxy Note 2 I217M Black Edition to the latest Android VLUDNF1 4.4.2 KitKat by following this guide. It will roll out to everyone eventually as the OTA release that arrives over the air, hence the name, to all devices in the region and on the right carrier. In this case it covers Rogers, Bell, TELUS, Virgin, Kodoo and SaskTel. If you like to follow the hockey, you might also know all those phone carrier names to be from Canada, so this update does cover the Canadian’s.
We can always turn on our Android-based device’s and check if the OTA is ready for installation by navigating to Settings > More > About device > Software updates > Check for software updates. This process slightly sometimes varies depending on the model, but that is the exact way to check for the Note 2. If it is ready, it will ping back the result. If it is not ready and you don’t want to wait then, that’s when you simply take ten minutes to follow what I have prepared below here. Keep in mind that everyone who has root will not see any more software updates OTA because it stops it from coming. In order to see future updates you have to first manually install this firmware and then from here on in it will start arriving if there is any more in the future. We are sure there will be at least an Android 4.4.3 coming soon enough and yesterday we started seeing Android 4.4.4 which is the last stop before the succeeding significant Android 4.5 “Lollipop.”
As usual there’s no point starting without the Samsung USB Drivers that are up to date.
Most modern day computers come with USB 2.0 instead of the older 1.0. The 2.0 offers greater speeds and often function better, so we want to use this when connecting our devices. A lot of smartphones come with USB 2.0 connectivity also.
Lots of people using Android do so because of the custom options available such as Custom ROMs and rooted applications so they can tweak the OS, change the appearance with new themes and more. If you have root and are using a different ROM then, you should know that root is revoked, and the ROM deletes when following this. The reason is that it is the official firmware so it will wipe everything that isn’t stock although your phones data should remain safe.
I say should remain safe, but there are no guarantees, so we always recommend people take a full backup of the persona data such as photos, music, video, SMS texts, call logs and anything else stored on the internal storage otherwise known as built-in storage space. You can use market apps such as Helium, Titanium and more or sync with Samsung Kies is a popular choice. If you require extra space check out the Google Drive service as they continually try to cater for everyone the best, they can.
This guide is for the Black Edition in Canada with the model number I317M so do not try and install it on any of the other devices. You can compare the model number by viewing on the back of the casing, the back of the box and by navigating to Settings > About Device and looking at the number there.
The I317M carries the same specs as the other Note 2’s but is for a different region. With that being said, we knew that one of the features that it has is USB charging. USB charging is brought in to offer users a greater range of ways to charge up their smartphones and tablets. That means you can plug this smartphone in the computer with its dedicated USB cable, and it will start charging by itself. If this feature is working for you then we don’t need to bother about how much battery % remains in the status bar icon. If it does not operate when plugged into the PC system unit then we need to make sure that there is at least 65% battery power remaining on the device before starting the steps listed below. When brand new the battery offers 35 hours talk time and 40 days standby time that is enormous. It’s no surprise either with a whopping 3100 mAh capacity.
Make sure you are working from a Windows-based PC ranging from XP through to Windows 8. That includes Vista, 7 and any other variant from 64 to 32 bit machines. Try to get on at least Vista or up for the best experience now because XP is aging so much that Microsoft no longer offer support.
Make sure you enable USB debugging mode by visiting the Develop Options menu available from the settings menu. The Note 2 went from Android 4.1.1 to 4.1.2, then 10 4.3 before finally ending with Kitkat. That works out well because it was 4.2 that had the hidden menu for the Develop Options, so that’s once less headache out of the way.
Update Canadian Galaxy Note 2 Black Edition to Android 4.2.2 Kitkat I317MVLUDNF1
1. Download the I317MVLUDNF1 KitKat firmware zip for Rogers, Bell Mobile, Telus, Kodoo, Virgin Mobile or SaskTel depending on your subscription.
2. Download Odin 3.09 if you don’t have it saved already. If you wish to retain it then do it to the C: Drive, so you don’t create clutter on the desktop. You don’t need to save it for next time because we always provide it anyhow. The choice is yours.
3. Make a mental note of the file locations and extract the contents of both.
4. Have the Odin application open on the desktop and ready to go.
5. Boot it in Download Mode.
– press Volume Down + Power + Home buttons at the same time to achieve this task.
6. Plug the Note in the PC system unit in one of the available USB ports. The front of the unit is easiest and often work well. If one port did not work then try another.
7. You will notice the new hardware icon in the system tray on the taskbar, and you will also see Odin picking it up by changing the ID: COM port color and giving a message saying, “added” as well.
– if those things didn’t happen it could mean you don’t have the right USB drivers. Did you download them in the checklist?
8. Click the AP button in the Odin app and upload the I317MVLUDNF1 tar.md5 file.
9. Leave all of the default settings.
10 Do not check the re-partition box.
11. Click the start button and wait for the flashing to finish.
12. Close down Odin after it says pass and the ID: COM port changes to a more favorable color option.
13. Move the mouse cursor down to the taskbar and right-click on the green arrow to access the “safely remove hardware” figure. from inside put a stop to the USB Mass Storage device.