[Samsung Galaxy S8 Guides, News, & Discussion] JeepinxJosh:
So after you flsh the factory binary nd boot all the way into the phone you just factory reset it and then reflash your firmware that you are on so if your on 3cre2 flash that even if your factory binary is 3ard1 make sure you have your current firmware or a firmware your wanting to update to that is later on down the chain.... you can always go forward never backwards unless you have unlocked the bootloader... and since it is lock down your screwed.... if you have a 1 or 2 as the 5th from the last letter you are on bootloader 1 or 2... and for the love of god stay there.... don't upgrade or your locked down and can't root cant change csc and can't flash different carrier firmware..... one your on 3ard1 or 3cre1 or 3cre2 your done for,.... you can still bypass frp lock with the combo files matching the bootloader version but that's about it.... hope that explains it....

the 5 in 5crf5 (the first one, or i guess the 5th one from the end... is your bootloader version so yes.... whatare you on now??? read above if you haven't already... so far one you go past v 2 BL you can't do custom firmware or anything I don't think.... the oreo beta is even v 2 or below.... so you may not want to update to that... I have pretty much every firmware since v2 and every combo file also... if you need anything just ask... frp bypass whatever....

---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:32 PM ----------

Factory reset after flashing the OFW.... pull battery when it reboots if you need to and then boot into recovery and factory reset..... that should take care of any weird stuff going on or mixed up file versions... I think... let me know...

---------- Post added at 03:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:37 PM ----------

the combo file is only 1 file it is a md5 file multi user cert... blah blah tar.md5 it should be about 900 mb or so.... if you have 4 or 5 files in the .rar or .zip then you are usuually looking at the stock firmware fils that are needed to flash back to normal once your done doing your business in the factory binary... (frp) and so on.... you flash the combo file in the AP slot.... as you do with all the odin files that are more than one files in one... like the old model of odin... the new one says BL_g950u........ AP_g950 CP_g950 CSC.. Home CSC.... and userdata_G950u...... blah blah... so put them where they go.... if it isn't labeled your best bet is to put it in the AP slot..... unless otherwise directed in OP or thread.... also you can't flash a zip or rar in odin... you must use flashify or TWRP or A custom recovery which we can not use so again that should tell you that you need to open it and flash the files where they say they go... if it is a md5 or tar then use odin and put it in AP slot

---------- Post added at 03:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:46 PM ----------

K will someone answer my question now lol :)

---------- Post added at 03:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:47 PM ----------

Oh btw I did this just fine on my Note 8 (n950u) and all I did when I flashed the stock firmware back was checked nand erase and re-partition and did a factory reset i the factory binary and right after I flashed the stock firmware back I pulled the battery once it rebooted and then held down the vol up key and power and bixby to get into recovery mode straight after flashing stock (never let it boot into anything at all) and factory reset it... and it all went smooth for me.... I was very impressed.... hope my s8 G950U TMB goes as smooth... just barely finished downloading all the v3 combo files and stock firmware as well as the v4 combo files and firmware just in case I get some wacky stuff like I have been seeing with people attempting v3 tampering.... so here goes nothing.... ill post step by step what I do to remove frp lock which I will have once I do this cuz I forgot my screen lock and have to reset it so I will be FRP locked... and then what I do to get back to stock and how the phone functions after that as well as the exact files used.. ok...