[Captivate General] deAtog:
Kies is the software used to upload music, movies, and contacts for Samsung phones. Kies 1.5 has been around for a while, and version 2.0 was officially released on January 5th, 2011. Both versions support a wide variety of phones. If you've tried to use Kies and have been told that your phone is not supported, then you can follow the steps here to add support for your device. I've attached proof that these steps work.

Before we get into details here's the info on my device:

Model: SGH-I897

Firmware: Stock JH7

Rooted: NO

Modifications: None!

Launcher: TouchWiz (This is a must!)

OK, so now that we've gotten that out of the way here are the steps needed to get Kies to recognize your phone. These directions assume you have Microsoft Access installed and are familiar with how to use it. If you don't have Microsoft Access, you may download Open Office and then use these instructions.

Download and install Kies.

Version 1.5 with tethering is here.

Version 2.0 without tethering is here.

With your phone disconnected, open Kies and do one of the following:

For Kies 1.5 choose "Driver Recovery" from the Kies menu.

For Kies 2.0 choose "Install driver" from the "Tools" menu.

Connect your phone and choose Kies on your phone.

Windows should detect your phone and install the necessary drivers. If any of the drivers fail to install properly, simply disconnect your phone and reconnect it.

Once all drivers have been installed, Kies will attempt to connect to your phone. If it gets stuck while connecting then disconnect your phone, unmount and format the internal SD card on your phone, and then reconnect it.

Kies should now connect to your phone state that it's not supported.

Open the registry editor by running regedit from the Run option on the Windows Start menu. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Samsung\Kies\DeviceDB\1 and make note of the ModelName for your phone and then close regedit.

Close Kies.

Copy the Kies model database, SamsungModelDB.dat to your desktop.

Under Windows XP it is typically located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Samsung\Kies.

For Windows Vista and Windows 7 it is usually in C:\ProgramData\Samsung\Kies.

Both of these directories are hidden. In order to view and browse for them you'll need to enable viewing of hidden files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Open Microsoft Access and then open your copy of the model database.

In Microsoft Access do the following:

Look through the npssamsungmodeldb and find a model which closely matches that of your phone. For SGH-I897 users, the closest match is the GT-I9000M, based upon the international version of the phone SGH-T959D.

Add an entry to the npssamungmodeldb table for your phone using one of the following methods:

Directly enter the values for modelName, propName, and propVal using the empty row below all existing data.

For modelName enter the model of your phone that you obtained from the registry above.

For propName enter: base

For propVal enter the model that closely matches your phone.

Run the following query: Insert into npssamsungmodeldb(modelName, propName, propVal) Values(model, 'base', base)

When prompted for model, enter the model of your phone that you obtained from the registry. IE, SGH-I897

When prompted for base, enter the model that closely matches your phone. IE, GT-I9000M

Close Microsoft Access.

Replace the original version of the Kies model database with your modified version of it.

Open Kies 2.0 and then connect your phone to your computer. Kies should now recognize and support your phone.

If some features do not work, try using another pre-existing model in the database.

I originally tried the GT-I9000 for the SGH-I897 and found it to be incompatible.

Additional Notes

It is possible to use tethering with Kies 2.0, but you must manually configure a dial-up connection to do so. The information needed to do so is contained in the Network Provider database distributed with Kies 1.5. It is located in the same location as the model database and is again Microsoft Access database.​

Change Log

1/21/2011

Added Kies 1.5 info and updated title.

Added Windows Vista and Windows 7 path information.

Made directions more generic to provide support for devices other than just the SGH-I897