[Samsung Galaxy Watch] kgingeri:
I can also confirm I switched an Active 2 LTE purchsed vi BestBuy.ca (but came from the USA) SM-R835U (USA) to SM-R835F (Canadian) firmware as well.

This enabled both Canadian LTE and Samsung Pay properly. All updates still appear to work normally.

It appears that I do not have cards supported by SPay 😞 so I can't say it works completely, but the process of adding a card works now. It didn't previously - wanted Zip etc.

Also my Telus account may have to wait until I get to a store. It saw I was on Telus and reported that Telus doesn't have any support for this watch (even tho I see references on their site, maybe too old?). Telus' site does mention that corporate accounts will need to come to the store for adding/activation - which is what I have. I didn't add anything to my plan yet either, so that may be why.

First I'd like to thank @adfree , @eArmin , @manikar

Also Christian Ihechi on Medium.com (see here - scroll down for watches) for all the great info and help!!! (y) 😁

The process was quite simple actually. So I thought I'd share the procedure and links for firmware I used. I know the Active 2 is pretty old now, but this may still be helpful for future users research...

Needed and Not:

Hardware: A model SM-R835U Samsung Galaxy Actve 2 watch. Others may work with this procedure, but I wouldn't risk it unless the first letters and digits in the model are the same (ie. "SM-R835")

Firmware: downloaded and unzipped (4 files) - I paid $3 from Full Stock Firmware

NOTE: You do not need a COMBINATION file. The "OYV" was important in my CSC firmware file name, as that signifed it being for Canadian territory. I purchased and used R835FXXU1BTJ1.zip from Full Stock Firmware even tho my watch was a SM-R835U model.

Software: NetOdin - downloaded and installed on a Windows 10 machine (tho I'm mostly a ChromeOS/Linux guy ;) ) - my copy came from lo4d

NOTE: You do not need sdb and you will not be editing any files or pushing/pulling from the watch.

Procedure:

One thing I was certain of (I'm a relatively noob to this process) is COMMBINATION file, push/edit/pull, multi reboots etc. After a lot of research I found the procedure from the Medium user (mentioned above with link) so it's basically a copy of his steps. Here, just to make it easy for others researching this process.​

Hold down the Home button for 6–10 seconds until the message “ Rebooting … “

Quickly press Home three times until the Reboot Menu appears. (The menu is available for about 10 seconds, after which the clock goes back to “Rebooting …”)

The menu selection is made by long holding Home button. To go into Download (wireless mode) press the home button until “Download (Wireless)” is highlighted, then hold down the Home button.

Download mode will load in WPS mode. Press Home twice to change the mode to the AP.

Connect to the access point that appears (for example, SM-R835U) (ODIN may not see the device if several networks are connected.)

Run NetOdin3 and then set the 4 firmware files for BL, AP and CSC from files you extracted for firmware. Then click Start (Copying/flashing of firmware takes about 20 minutes). You do not need a combination file. All 4 files are flashed at once, at the same time.

After the files are downloaded, the Watch will reboot. Again, hold Home and highlight & select Recovery in the Reboot menu.

The “Setting Up” screen and “Resetting” screen should appear and after that the Watch will reboot and boot as usual. Enjoy!

Technical specifics:

Model: SM-R835F (was SM-R835U)​

Serial: RFAMBxxxVJL​

IMEI: did not change in the process​

EID: did not change in the process​

Tizen 5.5.0.1 (was 4.0.0.6)​

Software Info:​

Version: R835FXXU1BTJ1 (was R835USQU1AYF2)​

Model: SM-R835F (was SM-R835U - R835USKVXAR USA "XAR")​

(Was international Version, now "XAC" - Canadian).​

Other Versions: One UI 2.0, Knox 2.5.0, Knox SDK 2.5.0, SE for Tizen 2.0.0, TIMA 3.0.0​

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See in Christian's write up (steps 9-16 in the first section) for a great explaination of files and uses​

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UPDATE: It's a day later and I've now received Tizen 5.5.0.2 - So updates still work!​

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UPDATE2: Even though it has Canadian firmware, I cannot activatee a device (IMEI) manufactured outside my home country! BE AWARE!​