If you are the rightful holder of the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 there is a Newsflash: Samsung had just released the latest Android 4.2.2 XWUBMG1 official firmware for your mobile.

This phone is known as the Exynos version of the S4, meaning it comes pre-loaded with a range of System on chips, of SoCs for short.

Because this is the best flagship phone Samsung has there are no limits to what this 4.2.2 has to offer. If you have seen a certain feature advertised, then it will be here once installed. This is one of the many benefits of having the best equipment. If you already know what it has then by all means skip ahead and just do the tutorial. If you would like to get to know some of the features, then here are some things worth noting.

Sounds have been a focal point with this. It’s not like they really matter, but many people find the old ones a bit frustrating, so gone is the old sounds and in are the new ones. These are seen from the WiFi settings and wireless charging / low battery. To me it sounds like something out of the Mario Kart game. Both sounds work well with each other. They use the same tune just one is in a higher tone, and the other is in a lower tone.

  • The XWUBMG1 firmware is being rolled out to many countries. It will also be available via KIES download. However, if you have root access you will not be able to do this. The only option you have to go back to stock firmware is to install it manually. Once you have installed this, you will lose root, however, your warranty will become good again, as will everything which came with the mobile when it was originally released in stock.
  • You need the USB debugging mode enabled, because it is a gateway for the connection.
  • You may already have this, but if you don’t, please install the Galaxy S4 I9500 USB drivers.
  • Remembering that it is a galaxy product and has the Micro SD card, we want to utilize this for backing up as much as possible. It’s always a good idea to get yourself into the habit of performing regular backups, no matter if you are following this guide or not. After completing the installation here, it’s not expected that the device would be wiped in any way because it is official firmware. However, with technology being so unpredictable stranger thing have happened. That’s why we always encourage people to make copies. By using the internal SD card storage, we can do that now. An SD card reader is optional because it requires you going out and buying an extra accessory from Sandisk. Once you have it though, you can create a folder on your Mac or Windows computer to store all of your phone’s contents on. If that doesn’t sound like something you would be interested in then there is other options like the helium app which is downloaded from the Play Store. With helium you can back up everything and not just the applications effectively and quickly.
  • If you came across any troubles when trying to do this operation it could be because of firewalls and/or anti-virus programs. It’s a good idea to turn these to the disabled position and then try the installation procedure once more and see if it works now. If this still didn’t fix your problem, it most likely will be a USB driver issue. These are by far the most common types of problems people experience. Be sure to have the up to date version and you should be OK.
  • To check that it worked properly, open it up and go to the settings > about phone > and inside here should show the numbers of the firmware version being used. As long as it says the same as this article then we know that it’s a match and we are fine. If the numbers look awfully a lot like what was previously running, then that means we didn’t have success with this and it will need to be put on again.

 

How To Update The Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 to Jelly Bean 4.2.2 XWUBMG1 Firmware

1. Download the XWUBMG1 firmware file here and ODIN 3.07 here.

2. Boot the S4 into download mode.
– press the Home + Power + Volume Down keys at the same time.

3. Run ODIN and connect the Galaxy to the computer.
– use the USB wire that comes with the device. It is often used for the wire connecting the phone charger.

4. With ODIN, click on the PDA button and upload the firmware file.

5. Don’t mark the F. Reset time and the re-partition boxes.

6. Click start.

7. Wait for the flashing to finish before disconnecting.

8. Remember to click the “safely remove hardware” icon from the system tray and stop the USB Mass Storage Device.

Now go to the Google Play Store here and install the Samsung Firmware application and check what version you are running.