Last Updated on September 1, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake

Are you sitting down wondering if you don’t have to endure the misery of waiting for an OTA update to come around to your handset? In precisely three days time that will come to an end. The Japanese owners of their galaxy Note version can now finally update to the latest 4.1.2 jelly bean like the rest of the world. Previously made available for Europe and the USA, this update failed to make its way to Japan. Now, though, we loved Japanese can get in on the action like the rest of the world and finally away from the old 4.0.0 Ice Cream Sandwich firmware.

Often the best way to back up is via root. We don’t have this now since this is an official update. If you already know what you want to do for this then that’s fine because there are several ways to do it. If you are unsure and would prefer some advice we recommend the Helium application. With this app you can back up everything easy and even store your apps. It’s probably the easiest way we know now and it is available for the most of them.

The build number of the Note SC-05D Android 4.1.2 update is build number is JZO54K. Don’t forget to have enough battery power left before you start so it doesn’t shut own before the end. If this does happen, it could lead to bricking. If that happens it might not ever be recovered, and you will need to buy a new one.

What’s good about this upgrade?

Many would already know, as they have seen most others around the world with it, but if you don’t know, there is the project Butter in store for you. This will make a faster, better browser experience. Users can also expect triple buffering speeds, added notification features, as well as a camera app overhaul.

This version of the Galaxy Note has been with us since way back in 2011, when Android Gingerbread 2.3 was in its hay day. It is still a classic ROM, however, it doesn’t stack up with the features which are around today in the newer builds.

Whenever we don’t see any other names than the stock one’s in the title we know that this has been released by the real Google team and not any of the third-party developers who like to make changes.

This Android 4.1.2 update is 900MB in size. That is quite big and may take some time to download. That’s why we recommend doing it via Wi-Fi instead, so that it used up your home bandwidth and not the small amount which you phone comes with if you end up using all the plans.

You can update over the air, or from Samsung KIES. Users wishing to upgrade manually will have to wait until the file is issued by the official website. As we mentioned before, this won’t take very long. If it is the method by hand, you want to install it you will also need to head over to the settings after you turn the handset on and enable USB debugging. To do this Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging.