[Verizon Galaxy S 5 Android Development] Young Gunna:
I just wanted to add my experience with using the "Directions To Update Or Downgrade Bootloaders" on my Verizion S5 to go from PL1 running lineageOs to QA1 without loosing any data. The first time i updated using this process i really just failed at reading and it was my fault for it not working and why it took me like 4 hours to do it all from scratch.... This last time it took around 30 minutes to update the bootloader from PL1 to QA1 without loosing any data setting or anything like that.

I already had an unlocked bootloader running TWRP 3.02.0 (the later versions cant read my SD card), i am running LineageOs latest nightly the 14 Feb and Open Gapps from Feb 14th as well.

My first step was doing a TWRP backup of only Boot, Recovery, System, and Data and keeping it on the external SD card.

Next I copied over a stock AND rooted rom provided in the first post (VZW_PG2_STOCK_ROOTED_DEODEXED to be exact) it shouldn't mater so long as the ROM is stock and rooted I also never had to boot into this ROM, the TWRP_Prepare.zip file, and the file SafeStrap_QA1_Bootloader_Unlock_AIO.zip to the INTERNAL sd card.

Then i rebooted back to twrp recovery and flashed first the VZW_PG2_STOCK_ROOTED_DEODEXED ROM once that completed i didnt try to boot this rom, i then flashed in TWRP the TWRP_Prepare.zip file.

Next I rebooted into download mode and connected the phone to my computer and then opened Odin on my laptop. In Odin Under the AP slot i picked PB1_Firmware_Only_NK2_Kernel.tar.md5 (provided in the first post). Since i have a 16gb S5 i also have to select Under PIT S5_KLTE_USA_VZW.pit (also in first post) If you have a 32gb phone dont flash the pit file.

Click Start

The phone will reboot so you have to be quick as Safestrap on your phone might say it has an error (but it will still work) if you miss selecting the boot to safestrap recovery button on the bottom left side of the screen, reboot the phone into recovery again ( you may have to pull your battery as your phone will get stuck trying to boot but thats ok!)

Once in safestrap go to Power Menu/Reboot Menu and reboot to Download Mode. In the download mode make sure the current binary is Official. The System status my still say custom and thats ok. You also may have lost developer mode and thats ok too.

Now pull the battery restart the phone and enter SafeStrap.

In safestrap, click installl and flash the file SafeStrap_QA1_Bootloader_Unlock_AIO.zip

The Phone will Power Off or reboot if this happens pull battery/ reboot phone to get back to recovery mode. Once back in recovery you will see that you have the latest TWRP which is 3.0.2.2 which has issues reading external sd cards so at this point you cant restore from your backup on your external SD card. This is ok and is easily fixable.

Reboot the phone back into download mode you should now have developer mode. Now connect the phone to the computer and open up odin. Flash TWRP version twrp-3.0.2-0-klte.img from the TWRP.me website in the AP slot to get access back to the external sd card.

Once completed I rebooted the phone back to recovery, which is now back to 3.0.2.0 and can get to the external SD card. I then just restored Boot, Recovery, System, and Data from the earlier backup and rebooted the phone as normal after about 5 minutes i had the latest modem and bootloader (QA1) and all of my old lineageOS stuff.

I hope this clears up some things for everyone and makes sense. As always try at your own risk but this is what worked for me and took me little to no time to complete once i took the time to read all the original steps.

Thank you so much [MENTION=5414005]GeTex[/MENTION] and [MENTION=1949695]jrkruse[/MENTION] for all of your hard work on keeping this thread alive!!!