[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] enea009:
Hi.

I found this tutorial on the internet that works 100% for those who have Zenfone 5 with fake firmware. In my case i used the last firmware V2.21.40.44 without flashing older version and then Update to the last one. The original tutorial is as below.

I purchased the Zenfone A501CG 16GB 2GB RAM and I am very happy with this phone.

One of the things I like is the dual-sim setup. Besides the obvious dual-sim functions it lets you set which sim you are going to use for data or you can be prompted every time. As the second sim, I popped in a 3 mobile broadband data-only sim and it worked straight away without manually setting up the APN etc.

I have been a Galaxy S series fan for a few years and I was worried about switching to ASUS but the excellent Asus GUI (General User Interface) is very neat and works flawlessly. I was expecting a heavily customised (and buggy) GUI but I am very pleased that it turned out to be very smooth with plenty of features and customisation options.

Now the bad part.

The phone is shipped from China and they advertise it as having a WW (WorldWide) firmware installed prior shipping, which it is in part true.

I want to say that I have nothing against phones from China as most of the electronic equipment is manufactured over there nowadays however the phone firmware is a fake WW.

I don't know how they did it but they managed to install a WW 2.99.40.6 ASUS firmware over a CN sku.

This means that the phone originally was a Chinese handset subsequently converted to WW. The resulting phone is indeed in English (or any language you choose to setup), it has access to GooglePlay store, Gmail accounts and all the rest and it works no problem over here. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great kit. You wouldn't notice anything wrong however one of the major flaws of this particular setup is that it will not update over OTA (or manually).

OTA (On The Air) updates works that you simply click “check for system update” and the phone will connect to ASUS and upgrade itself to the latest version available for your handset (JellyBean, KitKat etc...).

ASUS has implemented an alternative way to upgrade its phones: you go the ASUS website, select you model, region/language etc and you can manually download the system update file.

Save this file on your phone internal storage, next time you reboot the phone Android will see that there is an update file waiting to be installed and it will ask you whether you want to upgrade.

You can download this file directly using your phone or if you are on a strict data usage budget (these updates files are about 700 MB in size) using a computer then copying it over to your phone internal storage by connecting the phone to your computer via USB cable.

OK, that's OTA and manual upgrade covered... this phone with WW 2.99.40.6 however will not update, nor over OTA nor by manually placing the firmware file on the internal storage.

I thought, well... why not simply download the latest from ASUS and install it overwriting the existing one? This way I will have the latest clean official up to date firmware... right?

Wrong, the phone will not update simply because its firmware 2.99.40.6 is “too new”, a firmware from the future...

Confused? Let me explain, this is the clever part: in February 2015 ASUS released the (currently) latest firmware update for Zenfone A501CG which is the 2.21.40.44.

Now let me point out that firmware versions always go up, for example:

1.16.40.7 (that was in 2014)

1.17.40.17 (still 2014)

1.18.40.8

1.18.40.9

2.19.40.18

2.21.40.30 (December 2014)

and the latest 2.21.40.44

You noticed that the numbers go UP with every release.. the highest the newest.

Now, if you look at the fake firmware installed on the phone (2.99.40.6) you will see that the 2.99.40.6 (look at the “2.99” bit), is even higher than the very latest 2.21.40.44 so the phone simply will not “downgrade” from 2.99.40.6 to 2.21.40.44. That's because with these android phones you cannot downgrade, only upgrade.

This is how the sellers prevent you from upgrade your phone. You are simply locked to this firmware... but why???

The only reason I can think of is that the operating system has some spyware, tracker or some advertising bloatware they don’t' want you to get rid of upgrading the firmware. This is the only possible explanation in my opinion.

When you upgrade firmware (from JellyBean to KitKat for example) files are kept, apps and their settings are kept and updated, user settings are transferred over. So all the unwanted pre-installed crapware would pass through the new version anyway so why the need to lock the firmware? Perhaps there is something deep down in the system that has been tampered with and will not survive a firmware update. That's what I think.

At the beginning after receiving this phone I didn't spot the fake firmware right away. As many of us do when they have a new phone, I checked for update via OTA, there was none. Actually, the System Update function crashed every time I checked for updates but I didn't bother looking any further into this matter because I was very pleased with the phone, it looked good and performed well.

Nothing seems to be wrong apart from the System Update glitch and Gallery crashing quite often.

It was after a couple of days of use when I started receiving unsolicited popup messages asking me to install additional apps that I started wondering if there was something wrong with my phone after all. These popups used to come up when the phone was idle, 4 popups at a time and sometimes right after rebooting.

I have been installing on the Zenfone exactly the same apps I had on my Galaxy S2 so I knew how these apps behave and what to expect from them so at the beginning I thought it was the ASUS GUI o some other pre-installed app. No, these popups were an issue related to the new phone.

I immediately thought that a reputable brand like ASUS (I own other ASUS products since 2005 and always been happy) wouldn't (or shouldn't) annoy new customers with these kind of nuisance, this would inevitably drive customers away so I decided to run some virus/spyware checks. Nothing major was found and the popups still occurred at least 3 times a day. That was day 4 on my Zenfone.

Almost forgot: the phone came rooted. Apart from the obvious advantages this also means that any virus scan can be performed deep into the system with administrative privileges. Having your phone rooted also means that it is not covered by ASUS warranty but that's another issue...

At this point I decided that it was time to do something about it. First I did a factory reset but this didn't work as this returned the phone at its original state when I took it out of the box 4 days before.

So I decided that I had to force the phone to “downgrade” to a previous ORIGINAL firmware then re-upgrade it installing the latest firmware from the ASUS website and this is how.

First of all you need two tools:

1) the USB drivers for ASUS phones fro Windows. You can download them from the ASUS website or search the internet for “ASUS Zenfone 5 Windows Drivers”.

2) the ADB package, I used the one provided here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2588979

This one actually provides the drivers too. Feel free to browse the internet and find the appropriate source but you will be downloading more or less the same file.

After you installed these two tools you need something called “Recovery Image”, there are some here:

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/cq6wwpya68azb/ZenFone_5_recovery

in my case I used this one: 2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img

and finally you need an original firmware from the ASUS website here:

http://www.asus.com/uk/Phones/ZenFone_5_A501CG/HelpDesk_Download/

in my case I downloaded this one: UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip

So what we are going to do here is:

we will downgrade the phone from the current WW 2.99.40.6 to WW 2.19.40.18

then install WW 2.20.40.13

and finally we will perform a OTA update to the latest firmware.

The whole process should take about 1 hour.

Please note that this method only works if:

1) your Zenfone 5 is a A501CG (T00F or T00J).

2) your current firmware is WW 2.99.40.6 but it will probably work with other “fake” firmwares too, you just need a different set of files (please note the “WW” bit is IMPORTANT, if your firmware is CN, CHT or TW this will not work and you will damage your phone).

3) your phone is rooted (if you are still reading this it probably is but check if you have an app called SuperSU with a yellow triangle).

4) USB debugging is enabled (do a google search to see how this can be done, enabling debugging mode takes 20 seconds).

..basically this will work if you have received the same phone I got.

If any of the above 4 points is not clear please run a quick google search. There is plenty of literature out there however not much literature on the internet covers what we are going to do now or if there is it is all scattered around various sites. That's why I am posting this, all info in one place.

Procedure:

Find the ADB folder on your computer and place there the file 2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img you downloaded from mediafire.

The UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip you downloaded from ASUS is a ZIP archive, open it, extract the file fastboot.img and place it in the ADB folder.

Put the UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip you downloaded from ASUS in the ADB folder too (do not extract this file, just place the ZIP archive in the ADB folder).

At the end in the ADB folder (apart from the adb files that were already there) you should have the following files:

UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip

2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img

fastboot.img

We start with the phone turned OFF. Make sure it has some battery left (more than 50%) turn your Zenfone on in Fastboot Mode (this can be done by pressing and holding at the same time the power Button and Volume UP buttons... together).

Connect the phone to the computer.

In the ADB folder on your computer open a command prompt window (called a CMD window). This can be done by pressing (on your PC keyboard) Shift then right-clicking with the mouse anywhere in the empty space in the ADB folder.

Now in the resulting CMD (black) window write the following command (exactly as it is written here):

fastboot flash fastboot fastboot.img

hit Enter. Then write:

fastboot flash recovery 2.19.40.18_ww_recovery.img

hit Enter and wait until completion.

Do not disconnect your phone and do not close the CMD (black) window on your computer but reboot your phone in Fastboot Mode (there should be a command on the phone screen “reboot fastboot”), navigate up and down with the volumes keys and confirm the selection with the power button).

Once you are back in Fastboot Mode go to Recovery. Now you should see the Android logo with a red triangle, press at the same time the Volume UP and the Volume DOWN keys to reveal a hidden menu (try pressing and holding the + and – keys several times if it doesn't come up the first time).

In this menu you need to go to Upload Firmware from ADB (or something similar) and confirm by pressing the power key.

Now, go back to your computer and in the CMD window type the following command:

adb sideload UL-ASUS_T00F-WW-2.20.40.13-user.zip

and hit Enter.

At this point your phone will start loading the original WW-2.20.40.13 we downloaded from the ASUS website. This will take some time, in my case it took about 45 minutes.

Once this is done you can reboot the phone and you will have a brand new Zenfone 5 with a WorldWide (real) 2.20.40.13 firmware, the one before the last one. Now we want to upgrade to the very latest (which is the best for Zenfone 5 in my opinion).

To upgrade now you have two options:

1) start using the phone right away and upgrade to the latest 2.21.40.44 via OTA or...

2) manually download the 2.21.40.44 from ASUS to your computer, place it on your phone internal storage and let the phone update at the next reboot.

In my case I choose the second option, it doesn't really make any difference however...whichever option you choose after the upgrade to the latest firmware you should perform two final last steps. This is to clean up, optimise and make sure the phone system runs smoothly from now on.

Very quickly...

Step 1: (AFTER you upgraded to the last firmware 2.21.40.44 either via OTA or manually) you should reboot to Fastboot Mode, select Recovery and “Wipe Cache Partition”. Wait until completion then...

Step 2: reboot your phone in normal mode and before starting to register and installing all apps go to Settings, Backup & Reset and do a Factory data Reset. Obviously this will wipe all your apps and settings but, as I suggested before, you didn't install anything yet.

Final tip: if you have an external SD card you already used on another phone or even in the Zenfone before the upgrade I would suggest reformat it before starting using it on your “new” phone. Many apps leave things behind on the SD that newly installed versions of the same apps don't like.

After this last two steps your phone is ready, no more suspicious junk and a 100% original ASUS system.

An optional step would be to root your phone again (upgrading firmware disables root or superuser) and put to sleep some of the pre-installed ASUS apps you don't need.

With root (device administrative) privileges you could un-install them but disabling them is enough.

I personally disabled some googleplay services like books, music, movies, games, newsstand, google+ (I never used them) then the following pre-installed apps: weather, asus backup, cloudprint, drive, feedback, hangouts, myasus, pc link, setup wizard, share link, webstorage, what's next, remote link.

But that's me, I don't use these apps and they have the habit to autostart with the phone and stay in the background eating systems resources and battery juice even if you haven't used them in a year.

Ah... rooting your device also allows you to reach and delete the batterystats file dramatically increasing battery performance.

VERDICT:

My opinion is that THE PHONE IS EXCELLENT, it really exceeded my expectations, the only downside is the fake firwmware which spoils the fun until you learn how to fix it. The original ASUS software is well balanced, polished and smooth and not at all bloated. Plenty of customizations too.

Post Scriptum:

Before buying this phone I checked some reviews and I learnt that apparently the battery was weak and wouldn't last a whole day. After 3 weeks of everyday use I have to say that this depends on what you do with your phone (obviously...).

By default ALL is enabled when you take it out of the box because the manufacturer is trying to give you the best (visual, probably) experience.

Without being conservative you have to find out and disable what is eating up your battery and you don't need.

The trick is to use the phone as it is for a whole charge (say, from 100% to 10% but already at around 50% you get an idea of what's going on) then before putting under charge go to Settings, Battery and check the statistic data.

You will see that that nice weather widget giving you the temperature and the rain forecast is sucking 40% of your juice because it is constantly updating... is it worth it? Push sync of 5 email accounts is really necessary..?? Real time travel updates..?

When you learn how to manage your device and what is running and when you will see that the battery life will stretch 3 times over. This applies to all smart phones.

Reading the Zenfone reviews another issue seemed to be quite common: the wifi would disconnect..! Now, that's an issue...! I wouldn't want to buy a phone with a dodgy wifi.

Truth is that if you enable the Power Saver in Ultra-saving Mode the wifi will cut off when the screen is turned off (this is also written in small letter on the on/off button). Obviously you won't receive any notification during scree-off time and connectivity will resume as soon as you turn the screen on.

Luckily to save extra battery life it's not all-or-nothing there is a Power Saving scheme (the third one) which is called Customized Mode where you can pick what you want to run or stop during power saving mode.