How to update AT&T S4 to official firmware Kitkat 4.4.2?

[charbelhaddad]

I have an S4 which i bought from 2013 using an AT&T contract. Now its unlocked and im using it in a different country with a different SIM card. I have mever received any updates - even when i try to go to settings and do it manually, and even when i try to update it via KIES. It always says that i have the latest firmware.
So last day i contacted a Samsung agent, and he said that it is impossible to update it via OTA if dont have AT&T carrier. But i really want to update it to KITKAT 4.4.2 considering im still stuck on 4.2.2 ...
So last day i saw you can upgrade it using a computer with the official firmware and boot your phone into download mode or something by pressing power key + home + .... and whatnot. But it said that it might cause damage to my phone.
Anyone knows how i can upgrade it without damaging my phone? I would like specific instructions please... also, will my phone be locked again if i do this? Will i lose any data? Thank you.
Ps: baseband version: I337UCUAMF3

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[Rukbat]

It might cause damage to your phone because you can upload anything to your phone using that method. If, for instance, you uploaded an LG ROM to your phone, it would upload, but your phone wouldn't work.

Go to SamMobile Firmwares (you'll have to create a free account to download files), put in the model number (i337, not S4) of your phone and look for the AT&T 4.4.2 ROM. Download that. Use Kies to update the phone - using that file. There are only 2 files and the Android version isn't listed. Look in About Phone in Settings to see what your Baseband version is. If it ends in MDL, you have the latest version available.

You can also go to the AT&T S4 forum on XDA and see what other people have. There are other ROMs, some based on later Android versions. (You do NOT want 4.3 or later, unless you don't care about custom ROMs. AT&T had Samsung lock the bootloader at that point, so you're limited to what you can do with the phone after that.)

As always, there are no guarantees - you could brick your phone. But thousands of people have updated their own ROMs with no problems.

 

[charbelhaddad]

I do NOT want to change my ROM. all i wanna do is update it to 4.4.2 or something. But it seems this is not possible. Any other solutions?

Posted via the Android Central App