upgrading through kies

It would be ideal I believe if you Odin flashed the latest stock ROM and updated from there. That is typically how I do it with all of my Galaxy devices (2 GS2s and a GS3) but I do not own an S4. I doubt it is too much different. I think Kies can detect either an unlocked bootloader or custom recovery and will not let you update otherwise.

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If you root the device you can only get manual updates and I don't believe you can do it throug kies, someone please correct me if I'm wrong

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Right so if i upgrared my standard s4 to the google play version i would then not be able tonupdatr through kies or ota

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Correct. As far as I have read this is the case. Typically carrier branded phones (in the US anyway) have updates released by the carrier either via OTA or Kies. I would imagine that you have to have a custom recovery to flash the GPE version of Android for the phone which requires a custom recovery. Kies will not detect the phone properly if at all.

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