Bought an AT&T N5 in UK...

ttGuy · Mar 26, 2017

...and it works fine with my EE sim. Lovely device. However it is full of AT&amp;T software (not really bloatware). It is running Marshmallow. But when I do a check for updates it goes through AT&amp;T servers and says no upgrade, check again in 24 hours. My question is, without rooting it, how do I get it to think it is an EE / UK Note 5 so if Nougat is released I can upgrade without being tied to AT&amp;Ts timetable. Thx!

mikedt · Mar 26, 2017

See about flashing non-carrier, international firmware for it, or even a custom ROM. Details and specifics should be in our Samsung N5 forum somewhere.
Root could likely remove the AT&T bloatware, but rooting would also rule out and break any AT&T pushed updates, which it won't get unless it's in the US and with that carrier.

The_Chief · Mar 26, 2017

As far as bloatware goes, I still think Verizon is the champion for that. Fortunately I was able to do to Settings --> Applications --> Application manager and either uninstall or disable it all (or at least the worst of it). Rooting is becoming more and more of a pain... and many useful apps (like Android or Samsung Pay) will not work if the phone is rooted.

ttGuy · Mar 27, 2017

Thanks. I was hoping it was be easier. IE, just a simple hard reset. Really annoying how both here in the UK and in the US airtime carriers make it so hard to get the raw ('Nexus/Pixel') phone back. What is interesting is that unlike my UK phones before this US Note 5, I could erase (say) Google maps and re-install it. Not so on this phone, I am stuck with the US version so I have an American female voice (no problem with that!) and a few other features that do not come with the UK version. I can disable it of course, but don't want to because I use Google Maps all the time for navigation in the car. Upside, when I visit the US, I guess I can pop an AT&T sim in and all will be peachy!

mikedt said:
See about flashing non-carrier, international firmware for it, or even a custom ROM. Details and specifics should be in our Samsung N5 forum somewhere.
Root could likely remove the AT&T bloatware, but rooting would also rule out and break any AT&T pushed updates, which it won't get unless it's in the US and with that carrier.

Jfalls63 · Mar 27, 2017

You can only receive OTA's on AT&T branded devices if you have a active AT&T sim card.
AT&T locks the bootloader on their branded devices up tight and on most running 6.0 and above, impossible to root.
You can usually find someone who has captured the OTA's at XDA and install them with the stock recovery. AT&T only releases the first Android version firmware for their devices which makes finding updated version almost impossible.
You can use Package Disabler Pro at the Play Store to disable most pre-installed bloat that you normally cannot do without root or with the App Manager.https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ospolice.packagedisablerpro

Hadron · Mar 27, 2017

ttGuy said:
Thanks. I was hoping it was be easier. IE, just a simple hard reset. Really annoying how both here in the UK and in the US airtime carriers make it so hard to get the raw ('Nexus/Pixel') phone back.

All a "hard reset" (aka "factory reset" - they are the same thing) does is delete user-installed apps and data. Nothing else. It won't ever undo any changes to the operating system (updates, rooting, changes made after rooting, etc - which means that it also will not rescue people who root phones and then remove things they shouldn't have). And it certainly wouldn't remove branding - if you took the name "factory reset" literally you'd expect it to restore any branding and bloatware you had removed rather than the alternative, since that's all part of the original software for a carrier device (though, as noted, the name is misleading and it doesn't actually restore anything).

There isn't a raw "Nexus" Note 5 to get back to though. The Note 5 software was written by Samsung, using Android as a starting point, so the version of the phone sold as unlocked+SIM-free is the "rawest" that there is (Samsung user interface, Samsung apps, plus whatever bloatware Samsung decide to add themselves, just without the stuff that the carriers add).

As for making it a UK/EE Note 5, did that even exist? If they ever released the Note 5 in the UK it was very late, but as I remember that was the handset that Samsung's marketing decided that we didn't need (they didn't think the S-Pen was used much here so we'd be fine with one of the Galaxy S phablets instead). That was a year of bad decision making by Samsung, since it was also the year that they decided that nobody needed SD cards, both decisions they had reversed by the following year.

Jfalls63 · Mar 27, 2017

Not possible to flash UK firmware on it due to Product and CSC codes and different model numbers.

ttGuy · Mar 28, 2017

Hadron said:
All a 'hard reset' (aka 'factory reset' - they are the same thing) does is delete user-installed apps and data. Nothing else. It won't ever undo any changes to the operating system (updates, rooting, changes made after rooting, etc - which means that it also will not rescue people who root phones and then remove things they shouldn't have). And it certainly wouldn't remove branding - if you took the name 'factory reset' literally you'd expect it to restore any branding and bloatware you had removed rather than the alternative, since that's all part of the original software for a carrier device (though, as noted, the name is misleading and it doesn't actually restore anything).
There isn't a raw 'Nexus' Note 5 to get back to though. The Note 5 software was written by Samsung, using Android as a starting point, so the version of the phone sold as unlocked+SIM-free is the 'rawest' that there is (Samsung user interface, Samsung apps, plus whatever bloatware Samsung decide to add themselves, just without the stuff that the carriers add).
As for making it a UK/EE Note 5, did that even exist? If they ever released the Note 5 in the UK it was very late, but as I remember that was the handset that Samsung's marketing decided that we didn't need (they didn't think the S-Pen was used much here so we'd be fine with one of the Galaxy S phablets instead). That was a year of bad decision making by Samsung, since it was also the year that they decided that nobody needed SD cards, both decisions they had reversed by the following year.

Thanks! Brilliant detailed reply. Much appreciated.

ttGuy · Mar 28, 2017

Jfalls63 said:
Not possible to flash UK firmware on it due to Product and CSC codes and different model numbers.

Oh well. Will leave it as it is. Everything works fine except for Americanized Google Maps etc. When i go to the US and pop in an AT&amp;T sim I guess the American stuff will be useful!

Bought an AT&T N5 in UK...

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