Can a Factory Update be Uninstalled?

[crkckr]

I'm not at all happy with the last update that Samsung pulled on my Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, effectively emasculating my SD card. Can this unwanted update be uninstalled? I'll take the security risks to get my SD card working again!
Regards,
crkckr
aka
Mike

 

[B. Diddy]

Try this guide: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...ide-samsung-how-flash-stock-rom-via-odin.html

 

[crkckr]

Thanks, but I was hoping to keep everything 'as is' and not lose the set up I have, as would happen with this process. Not to mention it might be a wee bit beyond my (nearly non-existent) technical skills. I was hoping more for something like a Windows 'restore' that would just take me back to the good ol' days when I, as Administer/Lord and Master of my own device, could copy a lousy file from my SD card to the device.

I'm not sure what Samsung's update policies are, since this is A. my first tablet and B. it's only updated itself once and I truly don't remember if I had a choice in the matter. I certainly didn't pay enough attention to the matter, a mistake I hope never to make again!

If I'm reading all of that correctly, it's about the same as a hard factory reset. Do you know if the update would be included if I were to do a factory reset now or would it ask before trying to update again? I suppose a factory reset wouldn't be all that bad, I have collected a bit of junk that I've not cleaned up over the last few months. Then again, it would be easier to clean it up instead of reinstalling everything again.

Ah, things were so less complicated before I had this tablet foisted off on me... and how quickly I came to rely on it so much is downright scary!
Cheers,
crkckr/Mike

 

[B. Diddy]

System updates are pushed over the air to your device, and you're asked to accept them. You can decline them, but you'll be reminded again a while later, and I think after a certain number of reminders, you won't be able to decline it. System updates are not like factory resets in that you won't lose any of your data or apps. The one exception to this is if the update actually deletes a system app--for example, Samsung might decide to delete some outdated note-taking app, and if that happens, you might lose all of the notes associated with it.

 

[crkckr]

Ok, thanks for the info. I thought I was given the choice to accept or decline and got several reminders to update and after 2 or 3, finally did it. Big mistake, although they'd of gotten me latter no matter what and I'd STILL be mad at them. Maybe mad enough that if my tablet were to die today, I might just replace it with an iPad, which is what my wife uses. Having them side by side to compare is a big help. The biggest advantage with the Android was the ability to have a full 65 gb of space on that little SD card but from what I've read, they've fought even having an SD slot from the beginning. With the exception of the SD card, the iPad actually has several advantages over the Android, although I think they're a bit overblown by the iOS crowd. Oh well, once the current issues we have going on at home at the present time are resolved, I may just opt to root the thing and tell Samsung and Android to go pound sand! That's a bit off into the future, tho, so I'll put up with the Android until then, cursing them soundly until I have the time resources to do something about it. I know, it won't change anything, but it'll make me feel better!
Thanks again for the help,
regards,
cc

 

[B. Diddy]

Sorry that you feel that way, but I understand the frustration. The comparisons to iPads aren't always completely fair, though. You might be able to decline system updates on the iPad, but at some point, the iPad might become less useful if you don't update it. This became apparent on my wife's old iPhone 4S a while back, when she had been holding off on updating to iOS 7. Pretty soon, lots of apps that she was hoping to install couldn't be installed because they required iOS 7. So it was essentially forced on her.

The SD card has often been regarded incorrectly as a huge advantage of Android devices over iOS devices, but then becomes a source of frustration due to incomplete understanding of what it can do. The fact is that it can be helpful, but mostly in terms of storing media. It has never been particularly useful for expanding the device's capacity to install apps, because "moving apps to SD" (if supported by the device) only moves a portion of the app, not the whole thing. The increased SD card access restrictions that were introduced with KitKat were done for security reasons (KitKat and SD cards — what's fixed, what's broken and what's misunderstood | Android Central), but didn't make the card completely useless. Apps that have specific permissions for the SD card can still save or access files that are on there, so it can still be used to store lots of media files.

For Android, it's always best to get a device with as much internal storage as you can afford, and not to rely on the SD card to "expand" your storage.

Ok, sorry, let me get off this soapbox now ...