HandsetsNews

Sprint Allowing Techs to Flash Epic 4Gs with Leaked Froyo Back to Stock Eclair?

36

`epic

Rumor has it (via Android Guys) that Sprint is telling their tech support team to flash any broken Samsung Epic 4Gs that come in with the leaked 2.2 upgrade back to Eclair. From the sounds of it, Sprint won’t have a way to roll the final update out – whenever that should happen – to those who flashed any of the leaks as they were able to do with the HTC EVO 4G.

AG also questioned if this were even legal: no, it isn’t. Having been the victim of a failed hard drive in the past few weeks, Geek Squad offered to back my data up for me and reinstall the operating system on a new hard drive (for which I had no disk, so they charged extra). After asking how much that would cost (I’d never pay them such ridiculous amounts of money to do something so easy. I was only there for the new hard drive.) they informed me I’d need to give  them express permission to do so. (There could be private information on these things, you know.)

But if they are indeed doing it, let them: you’ll have no other choice unless you root the device and back your data up yourself. Using Odin to return to a stock ROM would also wipe your phone clean, as well, so you’re out of luck either way.

For those in this unfortunate predicament, I’m planning to publish a tutorial on how to use Odin to get back to stock Android 2.1 from ANY build. It’s the least (and, simultaneously, the most) I could do after I erroneously endorsed the upgrade as official. (Yes, I know you’ll still want off with my head.)

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

Motorola Believes their DROID 2 Didn’t Go “Boom” in Man’s Ear

Previous article

Google Apps for Newer Archos Devices Out

Next article

You may also like

36 Comments

  1. Wow, just wow.

  2. Why is it that sprint won’t be able to roll out the real froyo over the leaked one? That makes zero sense whatsoever when they’ve done it to the EVO…

    And, question:
    When they do flash it back to eclair, that’ll wipe all internal phone data?

  3. The answer is NO this is completely false. Sprint will not be flashing the phones! The communication released before is the stance on the test software for now. If there is a change there will be an official communication from sprint

  4. so Gay. I am already looking forwad to selling my Epic to an idiot that doesnt know how awful samsung is with updates and buy an HTC device.

  5. @Craigmier other than the software do you like the epic? I have a hero and am about to upgrade and its between the Epic and the Evo. Having an htc device ide like to try something new but dont want to regret it!!!!!!

  6. Not sure what your implying with the “legal” thing.. There is a liability involved with anybody repairing somebody else’s property, but it’s certainly not illegal. Whether or not you can save data, or restore lost data is the thing. Sprint and Geek Squad are of course going to cover themselves in any way they can to prevent themselves from being sued for any data loss, you can be sure.. Since PC’s have been going strong for like 30 years now, I find it amazing that there are still people who don’t know that any important data you have, should be backed up somewhere.

  7. I’m done with samsung. End of story.

  8. @Graham

    Coming from the same the EVO is the way to go. Unless u really want to try something different with some pros but also cons

  9. I can’t fully enjoy the epic without the flash player, I’m going to wait a month to see if they upgrade it , otherwise I’ll go for the evo and won’t buy anything with the samsung name in it for at least five years.

  10. Quentyn, you gotta stop accepting the blame for all the people who installed this OBVIOUSLY unofficial update. It’s not your fault if people take liberties with their phones; after all, were you to recommend an app, and that turned out to be a bug-ridden phone-bricker, it’s NOT YOUR FAULT if morons try it out on their phone. You reported what everybody else did; it’s up to users to decide whether or not to install a what was clearly labeled a test build.

    I don’t want your head on a platter, and anyone who does should take a long walk off a short pier.

  11. I like the epic hardware and the feel over evo. I am really annoyed that samsung is so apathetic about uprades.
    We will probably get froyo in a month, and gingerbread in 2015. (Hee hee)

    Will stick it out with epic for now, but I will never get samsung again. Fool me twice…

    Am thinking about getting viperrom from xda. Supposed to be pretty darned good. Anyone else thinking about viperrom?

  12. I installed Froyo on my Epic several days ago and I have no problems with it whatsoever! Everything seems fine to me so far. I miss my Nexus one with tmo but I had 2 switch 2 Sprint because I got a great deal I can’t pass up. Eventually ill go back to tmo soon.

  13. Thanks Quentin, for the info. I found the way to use Odin and used dk18file and it restgored fine. I was told no guarantee it will update when froyo is finally released. Thanks for doing what you could to help. You are a stand-up guy :)
    }eorgeP

  14. @ohboy

    I agree that Quentyn shouldn’t be taking blame for people’s actions, however I think labeling people as morons for either installing this dev ROM or even a ‘bug-ridden phone-bricker’ is a little extreme.

    Those of us that are comfortable with performing Odin Flashes and/or rooting/un-rooting phones shouldn’t be painted with the same broad brush stroke as some person who copies a .zip file from a non google server without the knowledge to be able to restore their phone to ‘day01’ status.

    I have Rooted, loaded Syndicate ROM, un-rooted/re-flashed with Odin, manually gone to 2.2.1, re-flashed, manually upgraded to DI18 Eclair and manually updated to 2.2.1 again. All with no problems other than the well known screen rotation lag in the DEV ROM.

    And the day Sprint finally gets off of their thumbs and release their ‘official’ update I’ll ‘re-flash’, manually load DI07, Manually load DI18 and wait for my OTA Froyo to arrive.

    The ‘morons’ will be in line at the Sprint store, asking for help.

  15. Quentyn, thank u for everything. I flashed andi knew the risks. If u don’t want the risk then wait…… People should chill on this and relax. It is Sprint’S FAULT, they are messing around with the Epics abilities including TV out via 3.5 jack. US carriers arethe problem with getting froyo on Galaxy phones. My girls brother in Korea got his months ago and guess what…..It has froyo!!!! The detailed instructions to flash back to stock and di 18 whould be great, thanx

  16. Quentyn stop bashing yourself! I chose to flash seven days ago with Epic Experience Froyo Rom and have had not one problem. If I did have any problems or bricked my phone I would be pissed at myself not you.

  17. I came from an HTC Hero and it has been sweet getting the Epic. It took HTC forever to move the Hero from 1.5 to 2.1, so they have the same problems as Samsung. Some of this stuff just takes time. I can wait until 2.2 comes to epic.

  18. It is BEYOND UNACCEPTABLE that Samsung has become so NONRESPONSIVE whereas them REFUSING to honor their commitment to their customers who have invested so much money in their devices.
    I bought this damn Samsung Epic with the desire and intent to enjoy ALL of the advertised capabilities, HOWEVER the fact that either Samsung or Google seems to be taking their own sweet time about releasing an OFFICIAL Froyo 2.2 update and this device has been out a few months now is just UNACCEPTABLE!
    I have contacted Samsung for the last 3 months and they keep giving the same damn VAGUE response ” Froyo 2.2 will be released sometime near the end of the year”. WTH?!!!!!
    I gave up my Iphone4 because I wanted to experience Totally functional Flash enabled websites , and Now this crap!

  19. I like the epic. I downloaded the update and adore the changes. love flash! really love that the damned calendar finally has google as the default. the text app looks better. I can push my hotmail. like that I can rearrange the apps. what’s not to love? the techs at sprint told me last week that the plan was to skip to gingerbread vs froyo anyway. ill keep froyo for now and see what happens.

  20. hurry please… i need my gps back to get more points on this waze thing… plus my widgets wont stay on my homescreen.. it was a nice little sneak peek though :)

  21. Still have an Epic 4G in limbo – accelerometer not working, thought everything was Odin’d back to DI18 Eclair. Just hoping the anticipated OTA to Froyo will work. Apparently, while I was temporarily in Froyo DI28-land, I’d used the accelerometer callibration settings, which then rendered my accelerometer completely unusable even after wiping back to DI18 with Odin.

    As an aside, yeah, DK28 looked good, but didn’t anyone else notice pinch/zoom did NOT give you re-aligned text columns as before? Or was it just me?

  22. Typo city in my last post. That’s THOUGH, not thought, and I had gone up to DK28 (not DI28), then Odin’d back to DI18.

  23. I love my epic with all my heart. I love froyo even more. The phone is very fast when I use my broser. I do not have GPS from Sprint. But I have Google map for the time being. I am very dissapointed in Samsung. Samsung is about to release the Nexus S with Gingerbread but we have not gotten Froyo in the Galaxy S phones here in USA . I heard that only one. That just got Froyo is the one from A&TT. We paid a lot for this phone. I am very concerned. I think I will not buy another Samsung phone anymore because they are very irresponsables about their phones’ update.

  24. The epic is amazing. Everything about it revolutionized how I use my phone. If only it was made by HTC, or any other company that is capable of upgrading software, it would be the best phone on the market. For what it’s worth though, touchuowiz fills is for froyo’s features alright. Skyfire browser has descent flash, but this unless you want to root, I would not recommend this phone anymore.

  25. Excuse the spelling, it’s friday night and I’m posting this off of my epic while drinking and hopelessly searching for an actual froyo OTA release date.

  26. I flashed the DK28 2.2 build (vanilla) after reflashing to DI18 to fix GPS issues. I then ran the one click root, to clean up/remove unwanted apps. I have had No problems with the ROM except for the screen rotation lag. The fact that the Nexus S released with 2.3 is a potential good thing for Epic users IMHO. I’m waiting for the official 2.2 release so we can finish unlocking the phone’s potential on Froyo.

    @Stb4l
    Google released the 2.2 source code to Samsung along with the rest of the hardware manufacturers quite awhile ago. The responsibility lies with the h/w mfg to implement source code on their proprietary device(s).

    The fact that the Nexus S released with 2.3 is a potential good thing for Epic users IMHO.

  27. Does anyone know anything about a fix for the 3.5 jack tv out option for the Epic? It works on t-mobiles galaxy s, there is an option to turn it on under sound&display.

  28. I’m a veteran programmer in other languages but I am new to Android and to my Epic 4G, so I don’t know all the buzz words yet. I haven’t “rooted” my phone, and I don’t know what it means to “flash” a phone, but I did download that Froyo .zip file a week or so ago and applied it (and I won’t be labeled a moron for it, thank you in advance). I’ve had a few force closes, love lots of the updates and annoyed by only a few others, otherwise it has been a great experience overall. My only concern is I don’t want my phone skipped over when the official update comes out, and what I’m reading here sounds like it will. So Quentyn, the solution you mentioned that you’re going to provide to go back to 2.1, is that going to be only for users who’ve rooted their phone, or can it be done with an unrooted phone also?

  29. no mo samsung foe me im thru htc T not be betterhardware

  30. I sure do hope fmafioso you are from another country with that spelling..lol…..its like a secret message.

  31. you know, I installed the leak and the only bug I ran into was the browser was a bit iffy while scrolling and it would randomly start the haptic feedback. I wonder why mine has been ok and everyone elses has been crashing.

  32. I flashed to 2.2 and have not had any of the problems (gps, camera works fine, no fc’s). The browser did not automatically reflow text like in 2.1 (after enlarging the webpage), but I read in a blog that if you tap the screen twice the 2.2 browser would reflow the text (that works). A minor ploblem is sometimes after a Google search, the soft keyboard is not removed, when that happens I open the hard keyboard and then close to view the full screen of search results. The one major problem is still no handsfree bluetooth headset support (I tried two different brands of headsets, neither worked with 2.2). Has anyone had success with handsfree on 2.2? I am very satisfied with 2.2 and am waiting for the real release.

  33. Hey Quentyn.. Just wanted to say, Ohboy is right. Stop accepting blame for those who tried this. It’s not your fault, and you were trying to help. People make choices. No one had to do the update. I, for one, did the update. It works pretty darn good. Bugs are minimal and no GPS, but there is a fix for that as you know. I’m looking at installing some custom roms to see which I prefer to use. For anyone who bricked their phone, it’s not permanent, and can be fixed. It’s nearly impossible to permanently brick an Epic 4G. @ STB4I: I agree with you. You should get what you pay for, as advertised. To that, I say… If we are not getting what we pay for, we shouldn’t buy it. We need to teach these companies that if it weren’t for us, there would be no them!!! Help stop corporate bullying. Boycott the companies that have consistently treated you the worst!

  34. Jim it was done by this buggy epic that screen jumps back and forward I feel cheated no one should by a samsung phone again

  35. Jim it was done by this buggy epic that screen jumps back and forward I feelcheated no one should by a samsung phone again

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in Handsets