So I have a verizon galaxy s4 build jdq39.i545vruamdk and I want to update to jellybean 4.3. This device is not rooted or anything. OTA update says that it is temporarily unavailable and to try again later. It has been saying this forever. Kies cannot update the device either for some reason. I really want the update and I don't want to root or shi like that.
Can anyone help me?
Make sure to unlock the bootloader first, as it's not possible after MDK.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
I don't want any roms or roots. Does unlocking bootloader require rooting?
You should sell it. There's plenty of people who would prefer an MDK Verizon S4
Sent from your mom's smartphone
Only the original firmware (aka "MDK"), the one OP reports to be on, can run custom recovery. Please note, the bootloader cannot be unlocked on ANY version of the Verizon S4, but the custom recovery along with the Loki exploit that was mentioned is what allows custom ROMs and various other power user functionality. All builds since MDK do not allow the installation of custom recovery, thus locking the device down to the stock OS*.
EDIT: To answer your question, you don't
need root to unlock bootloader, but these and the custom recovery installation are all in the same realm.
Because of this, MDK phones are highly coveted, as phones sold today are obviously updated past that version. If you have zero interest at all in installing custom ROMs and stuff like that, there's no reason to avoid solving your issue regarding the lack of updates...but if you do, consider yourself lucky that your phone hasn't been updated! As also mentioned, it's possible you could sell the unit for considerably more than a standard fully-updated Verizon GS4 would sell for..
For example, my phone was never officially updated past MDK, and I'm currently running a ported Google Edition KitKat ROM on my Verizon GS4...which would not be possible to do on a phone that had been updated.
Now...if none of that interests you at all, then you may want to try a factory reset to see if that will trigger the update (of course this will erase all of your apps/settings/etc), or possibly contact customer support because as some have mentioned, this can also sometimes be an issue with the SIM card. If it's not the SIM card, I can guarantee you CS's suggestion will be the factory reset.
*Yes, there is safestrap...but that is obviously beyond OP's scope here.
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