Update Samsung Galaxy GT-I7500 to Android 1.6-Step by Step

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Considering how much i’ve looked around to find the information to update my friend’s Samsung Galaxy to Android 1.6, i thought putting down my experience might help many others out there to Update their Samsung GT-i7500 especially in India, where it is still being shipped with Firmware I7500DDII3.
Well the latest version according to Samsung still might be IK5, or who knows the Indian Version latest would be IK4. They are pretty ignorant in this case. No offence intended though. So, the latest according to Developers and Hackers out there is I7500XEFJB2, which is apparently the leaked firmware from Samsung Servers only. ( So, partially Official. ) It’s being claimed as official in France though. I simply don’t understand why Samsung took so much of time to port Android 1.6 on I7500, and at this point of time when every other phone is getting Android 2.1, the Donut update seems so ir-relevant. But then again, something’s better than nothing.
To start with, i would like to suggest readers to comprehensively read the whole process carefully and then try to update their phone as their are chances that you might end up bricking your phone. ( Although, such things never happen, but still there are chances ) So, do it at your own risk.

Files You Need
- Samsung GT-I7500 USB Drivers
- Odin MutiDownloader
- I7500XEFJB2 Firmware (dot)tar file

Samsung GT-I7500 USB drivers usually comes with the ‘New PC Suite’ and installs with the Installation of PC suite. But if you’re working on an x64 platform. ( 64-bit Vista or Windows 7 ), you might need other drivers to get your phone connected to your PC. Download it from here.
x64 bit Samsung GT-I7500 USB Drivers

Extract the Contents of it and just don’t run the setup. Follow these steps to Install the USB driver for Samsung GT-I7500.
- Connect the Phone to the computer through USB cable.
- Right Click on My Computer and Click on Manage.
- Go to Device Manager on Left hand side.
- On right hand side, you would see a USB Mass Storage ( Samsung USB Android ) Device in Universal Serial BUs Controller Node.
- Right click on it to update the driver and select Manually.
- Select the location of Extracted Drivers that you just downloaded.
- It would Update the drivers. ( If it doesn’t don’t go further, ask me in comments. )
- Similarly do it for few other unknown devices in the right side of the Device Manager window. And you would be done with Installation of all the Drivers except one which wouldn’t install, thats adb. ( And you won’t need it, until you want to Hack your phone to install custom ROM’s. )

Now when you are done with, installation of drivers of your phone, you can proceed further. just make sure, you have installed all the drivers. Open New PC suite and connect your phone through USB cable, you would see a Notification on your phone at the Notification bar at the top which asks you to weather you want to mount the Internal SD card for Data transfer between Phone and Computer. Click on Mount to Mount the Internal SD card and you would be able to see the Drive on your computer and the PC suite.

Second part was to get the Odin Multi-Downloader. It’s a Flash tool for your android phone, which flashes the Firmware on to your phone. Download it from here.
Odin Muti-Downloader 3.95

Finally, you would be required to download the Firmware. Download it from here.
I7500XEFJB2 Firmware (dot)tar file
Extract the (dot)tar file to a specific location.

Now that you have all the files you are ready to go. Make sure, you’ve created necessary backups of your Contacts, Apps, sms, etc. I would recommend MyBackup and it does the needful. It’s Free and lightweight. Ofcourse, you can find better apps, and choose from the one you like.

Steps for Flashing the Phone with Latest Firmware.
- Run the Odin.exe file by right clicking and running it as an Administrator.
- Take a backup of everything on your phone using apps Like MyBackup from Android Market. And Format it before continuing any further.
- Turn Off your phone and start it in ‘Downloading Mode’ by pressing Volume down + Ok + Power Button simultaneously for 3 to 5secs.
- Now, when your phone displays ‘Downloading’ connect the Data Cable with to your phone.
- Odin should detect your phone, if it doesn’t try and follow the Steps again from the Driver Installation. ( or ask me in comments. )
- Select the ‘One Package’ from top left column of ‘Options’ in the Odin Window.
- Select the path for Orion.ops file that you extracted from the Orion zip package. ( This is located in the right side top column. )
- Select the Path for the Firmware that you extracted. It’s in the (dot)tar format.
I7500XEFJB2 Firmware (dot)tar file
Extract the (dot)tar file to a specific location.

- Press start and wait for the Odin to display “PASS” in the left bottom half of the window. ( Status window. )
- Disconnect the phone and Wait for it to Boot. It might take a bit longer to boot. But don’t Turn it off.
- Once booted, go to settings -> SD card and Storage -> Format SD Card. This step can be done before starting to Flash Process as well. OR Do it using Recovery Mode
To enter into Recovery mode all you need to do is, Press Volume Down + Call + Power simultaneously. It’ll start booting then press menu button to format your Phone.
* To get of the Recovery Mode, press Home + Back button for five(5) seconds. ( You won’t need this anyways. This in-case you decide to enter into recovery mode sometime in future )
- Enjoy the Android 1.6 on your Samsung Galaxy GT-I7500.

Share your experiences with the New Firmware as well as the Flashing process. I’m will update you with my observations on the New Android 1.6 on Galaxy in a day or two. As, of the now, the Phone seemed to be really faster ( considering the oldest firmware, we Indians had, it’s really quick ) and seems more responsive. Switchers app has been replaced by the power control widget, and it is really useful. Although, there seems to be some bugs with it, i’ll let you know. I’ll report you the bugs as well. So stay tuned. And yeah, fire up your questions in the comments.

Update : I’ll update it with screenshots, if you find it more useful, just let me know in the comments.

Update 2 : Finally updated the tutorial with the screenshots to make it real easy for even non-techie users. Click on the link to see the pics in original size. Sorry for being a bit late, but was really busy. and i’ve a really exciting news to share bout the future updates on Samsung Galaxy GT-I7500, so stay tuned.

Update 3 : I’ve updated the guide with some of the feedback from you. Hope you don’t get a problem now. And the flashing goes smoothly. Please do follow the Steps correctly and carefully else you might brick your phone.

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