[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Diddler77:
All,

I've spent the better part of the last two days trying with zero success to downgrade my Verizon Galaxy S4 SCH-I545 from 5.0.1 to 4.4.2. I've read dozens of pages on various forums, both on general instructions for the procedure as well as pages relating directly to the fault I'm seeing. In short, I get the Complete(Write) operation failed error in Odin. The reason I'm trying to do this is a general disappointment in Lollipop, it has slowed the phone down (I need to kill off all apps at least once a day just to keep performance up) and I've enjoyed none of the "benefits" of Lollipop on the phone. It's been so bad I've deliberately ignored all requests my Tab 4 makes to upgrade to Lollipop.

I've tried the firmware reflash using Odin 3.04 as well as 1.85. I've tried both versions on two different computers, one running Windows 7 Home, the other running XP. I've run them standard, and on Win7 as Administrator. Fresh reboots. The Win7 has Kies (not running) and the WinXP computer has never had Kies, just downloaded the current Samsung USB drivers. I've tried running two different firmwares downloaded from Sammobile, on each machine, with every combination I can think of. I'm using the factory USB cable plugged directly into the motherboard on each machine. I've varied the moment I plug the phone into the cable based on various recommendations, waiting until Odin is already running, or getting the phone in download mode first then plugging in, etc. I've also tried re-running the update again immediately on failure, and again after rebooting the phone back into Download mode, trying multiple times in a row without closing down Odin, and then alternately restarting everything after each failure. Basically I've tried pretty much everything I've read, and it feels like I'm following the rules of an old gypsy woman, if I update the phone at midnight while swinging a dead rooster over my head, standing on my left foot only, all will go ok. Only nothing goes ok.

This is the complete error I get in Odin 3.04:

<ID:0/012> Added!!

<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..

<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..

<OSM> Please wait..

<OSM> I545VRUFNG6_I545VZWFNG6_I545VRUFNG6_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.

<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..

<OSM> Leave CS..

<ID:0/012> Odin v.3 engine (ID:12)..

<ID:0/012> File analysis..

<ID:0/012> SetupConnection..

<ID:0/012> Initialzation..

<ID:0/012> Get PIT for mapping..

<ID:0/012> Firmware update start..

<ID:0/012> aboot.mbn

<ID:0/012> NAND Write Start!!

<ID:0/012>

<ID:0/012> Complete(Write) operation failed.

<ID:0/012> Added!!

<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

The first four lines happen almost immediately. Then it seems to wait or hang for about 45 seconds (meanwhile one CPU maxes out), afterwards the rest of the lines pretty much spit out instantly. On the phone the display changes slightly, one little tick mark appears on the progress bar, then nothing else. The phone appears to be locked and needs a very long hold of the power button to shut off. These symptoms appear identical regardless of which computer I use, or which version of Odin I use, which makes me suspect the phone is the culprit rather than the software/hardware of either computer. I figure if I had, for example, a corrupted firmware file it would fail somewhere down the line in the install, or even after it's dumped the file to the phone.

One thing that worried me (and I NEVER found any mention of this in any directions) is the amount of available space on the phone. With the bloatware on the phone (7.07GB of "miscellaneous files"?!?) I only have 2.76GB free on the internal memory, and the firmware file is 2.4GB. I'm assuming that it all needs to copy to internal memory first. After my first failed attempts I checked space available and I had less than 2.4GB free. After clearing cache and a few apps I got it up to 2.76GB.

USB debugging is on, battery level is full or high on the phone, reactivation lock is off, the phone connects to either computer just fine and interfaces with Windows Explorer, I can see and access files on the phone via My Computer without any error.

I saw one page describing using Heimdall as a wholly different idea, it seemed MUCH more complex and my gut reaction is it looks like it would be easier to brick the phone. Is there some manual way I can dump the firmware to the phone and get it to read the file such that it doesn't require a computer?

Anything else to suggest? In general I still like the phone and don't have a great deal of interest in upgrading, but it's getting frustrating enough that I'm considering junking the phone.

Thanks in advance,

Ryan