How to install Stock Firmware on Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus

With the release of Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, Samsung has once again set the new standards for the smartphone industry. These incredible smartphones by the South Korean giants bring a few features that you have never seen on a smartphone before.

The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus have an adjustable camera aperture. These phones are given a score of 99 on the DxOmark. This is the highest score for any smartphone till date. The Galaxy S9 has pushed the Google Pixel 2 and the iPhone X behind on the list.

The Galaxy S9 comes with a single 12MP shooter and the S9 Plus has a dual shooter with 2 cameras of 12MP each. On the front, these phones have an 8MP shooter that has been upgraded to take nice selfies.

Both these phones are equipped with either the Exynos 9810 or the Snapdragon 845 CPU. On the Galaxy S9, there’s a 4GB RAM and on the S9 Plus, there’s a 6GB RAM. Both the phones have a basic internal storage of 64GB and there’s an external SD card slot supporting up to 400GB.  The smaller variant has a 3000mAh battery and the bigger one has a 3500mAh battery. These phones run on Android Oreo.

Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are expensive phones, and they are loaded with the best hardware and software available in the market at the moment. In their stock state, the phones are complete powerhouses. If you just start customising these phones, you can unleash their true potential to get the maximum out of them.

While customising your phone, there is a risk if bricking it. The phones often get soft-bricked and the only way to recover them from the soft-bricked state is to flash a stock ROM on it.

Also, when you root your phone, the system status changes to custom from official. To unroot the phone and to restore the system status to official, you need to re-install a stock firmware on the phone.

At times, an update is available for the phone, but it doesn’t make it to your region right when it launches. In such cases, you can grab a firmware file from the internet and flash it manually. Updating your phone manually requires you to flash the stock firmware file using a tool like Odin. This process is also same as installing factory firmware on the phone.

Another scenario in which you would want to install a stock firmware on your Galaxy S9 or S9 Plus is when your phone slows down. Having a new and fresh installation of stock firmware can do wonders for you.

So, these are a few scenarios in which you will find this on-going guide helpful. Let’s have a look at the tutorial to install Stock Firmware on Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.

How to install Stock Firmware on Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus

Prepare for flashing a stock firmware on S9/S9+

1. This guide will work on all the models of the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus. Do not try this guide on a phone other than Galaxy S9/S9+.
2. Charge your phone up to 50% to make sure that it lasts through the flashing process. If the phone goes dead during new firmware installation, your phone can potentially get bricked.
3. Backup all your important data including contacts, call logs, SMS messages and media content before the installation of a new firmware.
4. If you have Samsung Kies installed on your computer, you need to disable it. If there is Samsung Smart Switch on your computer, you need to close it as well.
5. Disable your Firewall or any Antivirus if you have installed one.
6. Use OEM data cable to connect your S9 to the computer.
7. Enable OEM Unlocking and USB Debugging on your phone.
8. Follow this guide carefully.

Required downloads and installations

1. Download and install Samsung USB Drivers.
2. Get the latest Odin 3.13.1 and extract it on your computer’s desktop.
3. Download the firmware for Galaxy S9 or the Galaxy S9 Plus. Extract the firmware on your computer’s desktop to get AP, BL, CP and Home_CSC files.

   

Install Stock Firmware on Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus

1. Open Odin3.exe file from the Odin 3.13.1 extracted content.
2. Now put your Galaxy S9 or S9 Plus in download mode. To do so, turn off the phone first. Now turn on the phone while pressing Volume Down + Power + Bixby button simultaneously.
3. Your phone will boot up in the download mode showing you a warning. Press the Volume Up key to continue.
4. Connect your phone to your computer now.
5. Now in Odin, click on the AP tab and load the AP file that you got from the firmware files.
6. Similarly, click on the BL tab and select BL file. Select the CP file in the CP tab and select the Home_CSC file in the CSC tab.

   

7. Navigate to Options in Odin and make sure that the only options ticked are Auto Reboot and F.Reset.Time.
8. Now that you are all set to flash the factory firmware on your S9, click the start button.
9. Firmware installation will start now and come to an end within a few minutes. Your phone will reboot and you can disconnect it now.

That’s all with the firmware installation on your Galaxy S9 handset. Don’t forget to check out the official stock wallpapers of the S9/S9+ now.