Install the Leaked Android Lollipop Firmware Onto the Samsung SM-N9005 Galaxy Note III

Welcome to the new year, folks.  Hope everyone's various festivities went well and all your families and friends are well.  Today, we've got a tutorial for all you folks with the Samsung Galaxy Note III, model number SM-N9005.  If you have that model variant and would like to install that recent Lollipop leak to your device, go ahead and follow along.  If you don't have it, then it we'll see you in another article but thanks for the interest, though you're welcome to stay for the ride.

Okay, so the first thing to do is a few pre-procedure things.  First, this tutorial will be running based on a Windows computer, so sorry Mac folks, though you again are free to follow along or just get the files which is the next step.  Windows people, download Odin, the Samsung firmware flashing program, here because we'll be using that.  Next, hit the link here to download the Lollipop leak for the N9005, and it'll take you to Mega to download the gigabyte-sized zip file, so start that soon because it can take a bit.  Next, make sure you have the Android Debugging Bridge, ADB as you might know it, installed so we can make a backup of an important part of your phone.  And last, we will need to take a backup of all the things on your phone, be it text messages, app data (I recommend Titanium Backup simply because it's great at doing its job), and be sure to either backup to the cloud or move onto your desktop any photos, videos, or files that you have on your phone's internal storage.  If you have an external Micro SD card, you can just move all those things (including the Titanium Backup files, unless you have already set external memory as a place to store them) to the card.  So now we need to use ADB to make a backup of something called the PIT, or Partition Information Table, because the leak includes a PIT that will make the finally-installed software to recognize the device as a 16 gigabyte model, even if you have 32 gigs of storage.

So, while the Mega file downloads, let's get your PIT backed up, shall we?  You'll need one of two things to do this.  If you have root and just want to do the process on your phone, then make sure to have Terminal Emulator installed and open, since it lets us do the same thing that we will on the desktop to back up the PIT.  For ADB on the computer, if you choose to do it this way or don't have root access on the device, then make sure in developer settings that USB debugging is enabled.  On the desktop, enter the commands as shown on the next line, and you should be fine.

adb shell su -c "dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/My-N9005.pit bs=1 skip=17408 count=4244"
adb pull /sdcard/My-N9005.pit

And if you're using Terminal Emulator on the device, you'll need to type in "su", grant the Terminal root access, and type in the following, then move the file to either your computer or the external SD card.


If you happen to have a 32 gigabyte variant of the N9005, then you'll need to at least copy this file to the computer because you will actually need this for the process.  16 gigabyte folks, you should make sure to keep it safe in case you should need it.  If you are all ready to go, then we offer this last word before we start.  We at Android Headlines aren't liable for any bricked phones, broken hardware, or any sort of plague that results from following the following instructions; you understand that this is completely your choice, we're just showing you how to go about it as correct as can be.  Good?  Good.

First thing's first, and that's Odin for today.  Extract or move the contents of the Odin zip file into a folder on the desktop of your computer.  We'll be using Odin 3.09, but versions back to 3.07 should work just fine too.  Make sure you have your Note III's original charging cable as well, as that always provides the best connection since it was made for it.  While we're moving some files around, let's move the N9005XXUGBLN 5.0.7z zip file from the downloads section to the desktop, then extract or move the contents of this one into another folder on the desktop, for easy access.  If you have a 32 gigabyte model of the phone, also make sure to move your My-N9005.pit file onto the desktop as well, because we will need that for the flashing process.

If your Mega file isn't done downloading, then just wait for it while we work on the setup of Odin and some other things.  First, let's get Odin open, and that's just a double-click on the Odin .exe file in the folder you extracted.  While or now that Odin is open, let's get into Odin-mode or download mode on the phone.  Power the device off, making sure to have all the files you want to save moved and elsewhere, and if you have an external SD card, then take that out once the phone is off, just to be safe and sure.  Once the phone is off completely, press and hold the power, home, and volume down buttons until you see a screen that warns you of the risk of installing custom software or firmware, and if you want to proceed, then do ahead and use the volume buttons to select to continue, then press the power button to select.  Go ahead and connect the phone to the computer using the USB cable you got with the phone; other ones will work, but best results often come from using OEM cables and hardware.

Now, once the file is downloaded and you have the PIT file reader (32-gig users only), go ahead and make sure that Odin recognizes it.  You can check the progress of the check in the box in the bottom-left of Odin's window.  This next step is only for 32 gigabyte users, so 16-gig folks just skim and move forward.  You need to select the box that says PIT on it, and navigate to your desktop where you have your My-N9005.pit file, select it, and let Odin check it to continue on.  Also make sure to have the box on the left half of Odin for 'Re-Partition' checked, since you'll need to and that's what a PIT file is for.

Okay, next up is choosing the files for the four next slots in Odin.  For each of them, navigate to the folder where you extracted the leaked firmware to on your desktop.  Once there, select the relevant files for the four sections of BL, AP, CP, and CSC.  Once you have the "F. Reset Time" and "Auto Reboot" checked, as well as "Re-Partition" for the 32-gig users, and Odin has checked all of the files, go ahead and click "Start".

Once you start, your device will have the leak software installed, and it will, when finished and successful, show a green box saying PASS in the bar along the top of Odin.  The phone will then reboot itself when done.  The first boot will take a while, just like the first time you booted it out of the box, so be patient.  If you had a 32 gigabyte model, then it will be all fine and fresh.  If you had a 16 gigabyte model, you'll have to go and factory reset, either through the settings menu, or through the recovery menu.  To get to the menu, turn the device off, press and hold power, home, and volume up, until the screen turns on and a little bit of blue text comes up in the top-left corner, and you get put into stock recovery.  From there, use the volume keys to scroll up and down to select factory reset or wipe all data, hit power to select the option, let it wipe your data to make sure Lollipop works as intended, scroll back to reboot, then boot into fresh, leaked Touchwiz-ified Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Once that's done, you should be fine and dandy to enjoy Samsung's latest alterations and additions to Google's best Android version yet.  After setting up and using it for a bit, how do you like it?  What do you wish Samsung had kept from stock AOSP Lollipop, or what do you wish Samsung had kept from previous versions of Touchwiz?  What feature have you most been waiting to use in the latest Android release?  Let us know down below if this worked for you.

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About the Author

Phil Bourget

Staff Writer
Using Android since 2012 and the Galaxy S III, I'm now running a Nexus 5 paired to a Moto 360 to keep updated on the Internet of stuff. Usually found on Google+ or in class.