Custom ROM installation assistance

[Vii Cards]

I have rooted a few phones in my day, but I've never installed a custom ROM, so here's my situation. I have a Galaxy S4mini (SPH-L520) variant. It is currently rooted, but it still has the old KitKat Android version, which I think is 4.4.2. That version is proving outdated to the point of being ostensibly useless. Play store crashes. YouTube won't update to a version that works. The list goes on. I use this phone as a universal remote, because Samsung only had the IR blasters in the Galaxy 4, 5, and 6 series. I'll never understand why they discontinued this excellent feature. If I want to continue using this phone for my purpose, it's time for me to bite the bullet, and force an Android update, and I've been working on it for hours now, to no avail. Again, the phone is rooted. I have Odin. All of the sources I've found keep steering me to mediafire to acquire the ROM, but all of their downloads contain file types that are not what Odin requires, such as .tar, .md5, .smd, .tz, and .tgz. Google searches keep directing me to flash the stock firmware, which is obviously not my desired result. The videos I'm seeing aren't helping either. Obviously, I'm doing something wrong, or overlooking some key detail. Can anyone point me in the right direction, please? My email is [Removed] if that makes communicating easier. I look forward to any help here.

 

[ocnbrze]

I have rooted a few phones in my day, but I've never installed a custom ROM, so here's my situation. I have a Galaxy S4mini (SPH-L520) variant. It is currently rooted, but it still has the old KitKat Android version, which I think is 4.4.2. That version is proving outdated to the point of being ostensibly useless. Play store crashes. YouTube won't update to a version that works. The list goes on. I use this phone as a universal remote, because Samsung only had the IR blasters in the Galaxy 4, 5, and 6 series. I'll never understand why they discontinued this excellent feature. If I want to continue using this phone for my purpose, it's time for me to bite the bullet, and force an Android update, and I've been working on it for hours now, to no avail. Again, the phone is rooted. I have Odin. All of the sources I've found keep steering me to mediafire to acquire the ROM, but all of their downloads contain file types that are not what Odin requires, such as .tar, .md5, .smd, .tz, and .tgz. Google searches keep directing me to flash the stock firmware, which is obviously not my desired result. The videos I'm seeing aren't helping either. Obviously, I'm doing something wrong, or overlooking some key detail. Can anyone point me in the right direction, please? My email is viicards@gmail.com if that makes communicating easier. I look forward to any help here.

Odin is primarily used to flash firmware updates. you need to install a custom recovery called twrp. you will use that to flash a custom rom. https://twrp.me/samsung/samsunggalaxys4minisprint.html

if you just want to update the phone, then you can use Odin to flash a firmware update. this might unroot the phone though......https://www.sammobile.com/samsung/sph-l520/firmware/#SPH-L520

 

[mikedt]

I have rooted a few phones in my day, but I've never installed a custom ROM, so here's my situation. I have a Galaxy S4mini (SPH-L520) variant. It is currently rooted, but it still has the old KitKat Android version, which I think is 4.4.2. That version is proving outdated to the point of being ostensibly useless. Play store crashes. YouTube won't update to a version that works. The list goes on. I use this phone as a universal remote, because Samsung only had the IR blasters in the Galaxy 4, 5, and 6 series. I'll never understand why they discontinued this excellent feature. If I want to continue using this phone for my purpose, it's time for me to bite the bullet, and force an Android update, and I've been working on it for hours now, to no avail. Again, the phone is rooted. I have Odin. All of the sources I've found keep steering me to mediafire to acquire the ROM, but all of their downloads contain file types that are not what Odin requires, such as .tar, .md5, .smd, .tz, and .tgz. Google searches keep directing me to flash the stock firmware, which is obviously not my desired result. The videos I'm seeing aren't helping either. Obviously, I'm doing something wrong, or overlooking some key detail. Can anyone point me in the right direction, please? My email is [Removed] if that makes communicating easier. I look forward to any help here.

I'm pretty sure with an S4 Mini, there is no ROM version higher than Kitkat 4.4.4 made for that phone, either custom or original Samsung. Think you can just keep it as an IR remote control, and not much else. I have a Huawei Mate10 I keep around, and I often use that as a remote control for TV, Android box, and A/C, as it has an IR blaster.