[Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite Guides, News, & Discuss] i5lee8bit:
** PLEASE DO YOUR PART AND READ / SEARCH / RESEARCH BEFORE POSTING AND/OR ATTEMPTING ANY MODIFICATIONS TO YOUR DEVICE. THIS GUIDE ASSUMES YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW TO OR HAVE ALREADY UNLOCKED YOUR BOOTLOADER, ALREADY ROOTED YOUR DEVICE, HOW TO FIX KG STATE ISSUES, HOW TO USE ODIN, 7-ZIP, LZ4 TOOL, ETC. THIS POST IS SIMPLY MY OBSERVATIONS AND STEPS TO UPDATE THE FIRMWARE WHILE ROOTED WITH MAGISK, WITHOUT LOSING DATA / REQUIRING A WIPE. MODIFYING YOUR DEVICE COMES WITH INHERENT RISKS, AND IT'S NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU LOSE YOUR DATA. THE STEPS I SHARE HAVE WORKED WITHOUT FAIL FOR ME, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU MAY NOT RUN INTO PROBLEMS. BACKUP YOUR DATA.**

The reason I decided to write up this guide is because of the extremely large amount of misinformation, as well as general noob-ness (no offense to anyone, just my observations to be completely honest), that I seem to come across when it comes to the Samsung sub-forums around here. I've seen many people state that updating the firmware on this particular device (Galaxy Tab S6 LITE) will REQUIRE a data wipe, which is simply not true in my experience. However, I will admit that the procedure is extremely bass ackwards when it comes to this particular device, so maybe that's why people have been claiming this.

This guide only applies to stock Samsung firmware users.

Spoiler content hidden.

Unfortunately, like I said this device is freaking weird. Not sure if it's because it's Exynos (it's my first Exy device) or what, but it doesn't follow the same procedure as I've been used to back in the Galaxy phone days, other Tabs I've come across, nor with the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus I now own... Which is to literally follow the instructions as the creator of Magisk himself, @topjohnwu, published on his Github (see the Samsung section): https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/install.html

But following those official Magisk instructions will result in this particular device not being able to boot, and you will need to wipe and start over. tl;dr - normally for sammy devices, you need to patch the full AP file in Magisk Manager and flash that in the AP slot in Odin because it also patches vbmeta to work around AVB. But for this device, this doesn't seem to be the case. At least in my experience.

Spoiler content hidden.

FOLLOW THIS GUIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK! AND

BACKUP YOUR CRAP BEFORE ATTEMPTING

, JUST IN CASE.

I'm not responsible for any problems you incur, etc. etc. blah blah.

(BTW, this is for the SM-P610 - WiFi USA version. Not tested on LTE, and if you try on LTE, you'll also have a CP file to flash, fyi. I have no experience with the LTE model either). This guide assumes you already have your bootloader unlocked, know how to use Odin, aren't a complete noob, and can at least restore back to stock if crap goes sideways.

Below are some bonus resources anyway, to hopefully clear up some silly questions before they come up.​

* Please thank the devs and OP's of these posts if you find them helpful and/or use their tools. It's the least you can do! *

[FRIJA] USE THIS TO DOWNLOAD THE LATEST FIRMWARE: https://xdaforums.com/t/tool-frija-samsung-firmware-downloader-checker.3910584/

[ODIN *PATCHED*] I RECOMMEND VERSION "Odin3 v3.14.1_3B_PatcheD": https://xdaforums.com/t/patched-odin-3-13-1.3762572/

[LZ4 TOOL] DECRYPTS LZ4 EXTENSION'D FILES: https://github.com/lz4/lz4/releases

[BL WARNING TEXT REMOVAL] TO REMOVE UGLY WARNING TEXT AT BOOT: https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-odin-...tock-firmwares-modded-bl-warningtext.4195829/

* Please thank the devs and OP's of these posts if you find them helpful and/or use their tools. It's the least you can do! *

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STEPS TO UPDATE FIRMWARE:

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Use Frija (download thread provided above), or download firmware from somewhere like samfw.com

Open / unzip the firmware, and then open the AP archive and pull boot.img.lz4.

Using LZ4 tool (download thread provided above), decrypt boot.img.lz4 to boot.img

* you can just simply drag and drop the boot.img.lz4 file over the lz4.exe binary in Windows explorer

Copy boot.img to your tablet. Open Magisk (Manager) and patch the file.

Copy the Magisk Patched boot file back to your PC. Rename it as boot.img

Create .tar file (tar file name doesn't matter) containing ONLY boot.img - do not use compression (if using 7-Zip, add the boot.img to archive, select archive format as "tar", and use compression level as "Store"). While the .tar file name doesn't matter, IT SHOULD ONLY CONTAIN A SINGLE FILE - boot.img

Reboot to download mode. Hook up your tablet to your PC.

**IT MAY GET SCARY HERE ON SOME STEPS, BUT CONTINUE FOLLOWING THIS EXACTLY**

(Use Odin3 v3.14.1_3B_PatcheD, link provided above)

Flash new stock firmware, using BL / AP / HOME_CSC (must use HOME_CSC to not wipe data, DO NOT USE THE REGULAR CSC FILE OR IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY WIPE). If you have LTE version, also flash the CP file in CP slot. WiFi version does not have CP file.

Using default Odin options is fine (F. Reset Time, Auto Reboot). In fact, I would recommend it for the sake of following this guide.

It'll be scary, but it will reboot a few times and eventually boot into recovery mode. Don't interrupt the process and let it eventually settle on its own into recovery mode (after a few seemingly failed boot attempts).

It'll make you think you're screwed and must factory wipe the device. DON'T FREAK OUT. Options will be:

Try again

Factory data reset

View recovery logs

While USB cable is still plugged into the tablet and computer, select Try again (tap power button, but don't hold the button down) and then immediately hold down volume up and down at the same time so that and until it goes back to download mode. As prompted, press volume up to continue.

Using Odin, flash ONLY the magisk patched boot image tar file (uncheck BL / CSC boxes if Odin is still open from before). Also you can flash the modified bootloader splash tar as well at this time, might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Again, you can just leave default options enabled (F. Reset Time, Auto Reboot).

Again, this will be very scary. It won't boot to system, but rather bootloader again. Probably an error at the bottom, something like "failed to load locales from the resource files" / "failed to compare" / whatever. However, the normal recovery options should now be available.

YOU WILL ONLY WIPE CACHE PARTITION (scroll down to "Wipe cache partition", and then confirm yes. Then select "Reboot system now".

It will take a while to boot, but this time you should eventually get to the lone "SAMSUNG" boot logo (this is a great sign), and then eventually get the "Tablet is updating..." box which shows the progress as it re-optimizes all of your apps.

That's it, and once it finishes optimizing your apps, should continue to load to your lockscreen! If so, congratulations, you've now updated to the latest firmware while retaining root without losing your data!

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Even with a heavily modified tablet, this has worked over several months, including the jump from A10 to A11. SafetyNet still passes (using kdrag0n's module), YouTube Vanced (my module), LSposed with Firefds kit and GravityBox R, and a bunch of other Magisk modules.

I'm very much aware you can save time by tweaking the above process, but this was the very safest exact procedure I could think of, so I recommend following it exactly as I wrote above.

Good luck, I hope it works for you, and enjoy your tablets!