How To Install Official Android Lollipop On At&t Galaxy S5 G900A & Keep Root

AT&T Galaxy S5 has joined the Lollipop squad. Samsung started rolling out the OTA based on Android 5.0 Lollipop for this device. As expected, it carries some major changes. The most prominent changes are in the UI department. Samsung TouchWiz has been revamped according to Google’s new Material Design UI. New UI is pretty smooth and eye-soothing, a flat design has been adopted by Google for the elements on the screen. New notifications on the lock screen, guest modes, priority modes and a lot more is there to check out which makes this upgrade worth installing.

It took quite a while for this update to roll out for At&t Galaxy S5 SM-G900A. When the At&t Galaxy S5, it was quite impossible for the developers to come up with a method to root this device and get a workaround for its locked bootloader. After months of hardwork, GeoHot came up with his TowelRoot application that rooted plethora of devices alongside the At&t Galaxy S5. This just explains how hard it may get for carrier branded device users and specifically At&t device users to get beyond the boundaries. The exploit worked on Android KitKat only and many of the Android power users have been enjoying the sweetness of KitKat as well, but they sure would love to try something new and different that is available in the Lollipop update. But before you make a move towards Lollipop, you would tend to make sure if your device’s life is going to be the same as it was on Lollipop. The answer is No. If you simply update your device to Android 5.0 Lollipop straight away, you will lose root access and you won’t be able to root the firmware easily after updating. You can either update to pure stock OTA update and wait for a root method to come up, or you can use a different approach to update your device in such a way that you do not lose the existing root of your device, or through some means you can flash a pre-rooted firmware on your At&t Galaxy S5.

The good news is, all of the approaches listed above are possible. In the on-going post we will be going through three different methods that will help you to install completely pure and stock Android 5.0 Lollipop through stock recovery of your device, a pre-rooted Lollipop firmware using Chainfire’s all new FlashFire and restore a pre-rooted firmware using Safestrap Recovery.

1. Let’s go through some quick early preparations and then begin updating the device.
2. This method is only for At&t Galaxy S5  G900A running Android 4.4.2 or 4.4.4 KitKat. Do not use this method if your device is already on Android 5.0 Lollipop. Check your device’s software version and model number in Settings > System/ General / More >  About Device.
3. Make sure that your device’s battery is charged at least over 60%. This is important to avoid any power issues during the installation process.
4. Make sure that you’ve already backed all of your important contacts, call logs, sms messages. Also backup your important media content.
5. Do not forget to backup EFS of your Galaxy S5. We also recommend backing up Nandroid if you’ve flashed Safestrap recovery on your device. [Only if you wanted to install pre-rooted firmware, otherwise skip this step.]
6. Non of these methods will void the warranty of your phone or trip the Knox counter. Follow the instructions carefully, and make sure that you do everything on your own responsibility. In case a mishap occurs, we or the device manufacturers may not be held responsible.

1. Make sure that you followed all the instructions listed above.
2. For this method, your device must be running on Android  4.4.4 KitKat.
3. Download Android 5.0 Lollipop Stock OTA.zip file and copy it to your phone’s external SD card.
4. Now boot your At&t Galaxy S5 into recovery mode. To do so, turn off your device completely. Now turn it on by pressing and holding Volume Up + Home Button + Power Key. As soon as your device boots up, release the keys. You should be able to see the recovery mode now.
5. Using the Volume Keys, navigate to “apply update from external storage” and press Power Key to make selection.
6. Now select the Android 5.0 Lollipop OTA.zip file and then select “Yes” to proceed with the installation.
7. Now wait for a few minutes till the update installation comes to an end.
8. Once it ends, reboot your device. First reboot may take up to 10 minutes, hold on tighter in the meanwhile.
9. That’s all! Your device is running on Android 5.0 Lollipop now 🙂 Enjoy!

How To Update At&t Galaxy S5 To Pre-Rooted Stock Android 5.0 Lollipop Using FlashFire

Your device must be rooted for this process. Make sure that your device is rooted. You can root it using TowelRoot.

1. InstallFlashFire app, you must follow these steps to installFlashFire.
   1. Join Android-FlashFire community on Google+.
   2. Now open FlashFire Google Play Store link and hit “Become a beta tester”.
   3. It will take you to the installation page now, you can install it easily.
   4. You may install it using the FlashFire APK if you’re having difficulties with the procedure explained above.
2. Now download the firmware file G900A_OC4_Stock_Rooted_ROM_wOA1_BL.
3. Copy the downloaded .zip file to your phone’s SD card now.
4. Now open the FlashFire App that you just installed on your device.
5. Tap “Agree” to terms and conditions and allow the application for root privileges.
6. Tap the “+” button twice in the lower right corner of FlashFire in order to bring up the actions menu.
7. Now tap “Flash OTA or Zip” and select the G900A_OC4_Stock_Rooted_ROM_wOA1_BL.zip file. FlashFire will now scan the file.
8. In the next screen, leave the Auto-mount option un-checked and press the tick mark on the top-right corner.
9. Do not touch anything else, follow these instructions to the letter.
10. Once you’re done with all this, you’re good to go now. Tap the “lightening” button on the lower-left corner now.
11. That’s all. Sit back and wait for the application to do the job. It will take around 10-15 minutes for your device to reboot and it will be running on rooted Android 5.0 Lollipop.

How To Update At&t Galaxy S5 To Pre-Rooted Stock Android 5.0 Lollipop By Restoring Backup In SafeStrap

• Your device must be rooted for this process. Make sure that your device is rooted. You can root it using TowelRoot. Also install Safestrap if you want to install pre-rooted firmware.
• Enable USB debugging mode on your At&t Galaxy S5.
• Download Odin3 on your PC.
• Use stock data cable to establish connection between your device and your PC.

Install Instructions:

1. Now download the firmware file, G900A_OC4_Stock_Rooted_Backup.rar and extract it.
2. Also, download the partitions file: G900A_OC4_Stock_Partitions_wOA1_BL.tar.md5
3. Now copy the extracted files the Backup folder on your phone’s SD card. This is the Nandroid Backup folder, that you created using Safestrap recovery, the path should be as “ext-sdcard/TWRP/BACKUPS/abc”. Just in case you couldn’t find any such folder in the external storage, you can simply boot into SafeStrap recovery, tap the Backup option and create a backup. This will create the folder in your phone’s SD card and you can copy the extracted file after this.
4. Now boot into SafeStrap recovery once again and tap “Wipe”. Wipe everything except your external SD card.
5. Now go back to the main menu in SafeStrap recovery and tap the “Restore” option. Restore the G900A_OC4_Stock_Rooted_Backup file.
6. Once this file is flashed, tap the “Reboot > Download” mode option in the SafeStrap recovery. Your device should be in the download mode now.
7. Now open Odin3 on your PC.
8. Connect your At&t Galaxy S5 to your PC. Your phone should be in the download mode already. Odin3 will turn blue once it has detected your device.
9. Now click on the “AP” tab in Odin3, if you’re using an older version of Odin, you will click on the “Modem” tab. Make sure that all options except F.Reset Time are unticked in your Odin3.
10. Select the G900A_OC4_Stock_Parititions_wOA1_BL.tar.md5 file.
11. Click on the “Start” button now and sit back while it flashes the file.
12. Once flashed, disconnect your device and reboot it manually now.
13. First boot may take up to 10 minutes, once your device boots up completely, it will be running on Android 5.0 Lollipop.
14. That’s all, Enjoy 🙂

That’s it. We hope that you found the methods easy. Just in case you get stuck with something, do not hesitate to catch us up through the comment box below. Thank you all.