Install Jelly Bean 4.1.2 XXUBMEA OTA Update for Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500

The XXUBMEA firmware has been released last week for the I9505 Snapdragon Galaxy S4 smartphone, now you can install the same version of it but designed to work with the Exynos 5 Octa Galaxy S4 variant. Read this entire post and you should be able to complete the updating process in under 10 minutes.
If you didn’t receive the official OTA Update to XXUBMEA Jelly Bean 4.1.2 firmware, then you should use this guide to manually flash all the required files. The new update fixes several bugs that were present in the previous builds that were delivered with the Galaxy S4. More info about this update  can be found here. In order to successfully complete the update, you will first have to take a look at the guidelines below:

• use this guide only with the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 Exynos 5 Octa model. Don’t try to flash this firmware update on any other variant of the Galaxy S4 phone.
• if your phone is rooted, then this update will revoke root access.
• try to backup some of your most important files before starting the updating process.
• if your smartphone doesn’t want to boot after you install XXUBMEA firmware, then you will be forced to apply some extra steps. You will need to boot into Recovery mode and factory reset the phone, which will delete data from your device.
• download and install Samsung USB Drivers for your computer. Without these drivers your phone won’t be recognized by your computer and you will be forced to return here and reinstall them.
• make sure that your PC doesn’t have the Samsung KIES software running while the ODIN program installs the new firmware update. Odin is a small program that is commonly used to flash tar.md5 files and other similar updating files for Samsung phones.
• disable all the antivirus and other security applications from running on your computer.
• enable USB Debugging from your phone’s Developer Options. If this menu doesn’t show up in Settings, then you need to open ‘About device’ section and then scroll down to ‘Build Number’. Tap the build number section 7 times for the Developer Options menu to be enabled.
• make sure that you read the entire post before starting the update.
• your phone’s battery power levels should be over 50%, as this will prevent it from powering off in the middle of the updating process.
• don’t skip any steps that I have listed below, as you wouldn’t want to repeat the entire tutorial more than once.
• this is a guide for advanced Android users and you shouldn’t attempt to use it in case you don’t know what you’re doing, as that will result in a failed attempt.
• we cannot be blamed in case you lose any important files or you’ll brick the device in the process.
• if you cannot complete the update, then you can ask for extra help in comments.

I think that these were all the instructions that you had to go over before starting to flash the updating files for your Exynos 5 Octa Galaxy S4 smartphone. Note that the updating process shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to complete. Remember to read the extra instructions that I have listed at the end of this post only in case the device doesn’t want to boot with the new firmware update.

How to flash Android 4.1.2 XXUBMEA Jelly Bean OTA Update for the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500:

1.  Download the I9500XXUBMEA zip from HERE. Extract the contents of this file and save them on your PC desktop.
   > you will get a file that is titled ‘I9500XXUBMEA_I9500OLBBMEA_XSE.tar.md5‘. Don’t extract any further than that.
2. Download Odin3 v3.07 from HERE. Extract the zip and place the files on your computer’s desktop screen.
3. Power off your smartphone completely.
4. Boot the device into Download Mode like this.
5. Launch the Odin exe on your computer.
6. Now, connect the device with your PC via USB cable.
   > wait for ODIN to say that the new device has been ‘added!!’ and then you can continue to the next step.
   > if the phone isn’t recognized, then you should plug it into another USB port or reinstall the Samsung USB Drivers using the download link listed in the preparation guide.
7. Next, click the ‘PDA’ button and find the I9500XXUBMEA_I9500OLBBMEA_XSE.tar.md5 file. Load it into Odin.
   > don’t change any other default ODIN settings and make sure that Re-Partition option is not enabled.
8. Click the START button to begin the updating process and then wait several minutes for all the files to be successfully installed on your device.
9. When the update is complete ODIN will display a confirmation message and your Galaxy S4 Exynos 5 Octa phone will restart.
10. Unplug the phone from PC when the Samsung logo screen appears.
11. Wait for the phone to boot into normal mode and that should be all.
12. Test all the new features and then tell us in comments if the overall performance of your device has been improved by the XXUBMEA Jelly Bean update.

These were the steps that you needed to take in order to complete the installation. If every step was completed without problems and the phone has successfully booted into normal mode, then you can close the tutorial and begin to test the new OS version.
If you encountered problems with the update, then you should take a look at the notes below.
NOTE 1: if ODIN froze, it showed an error message or some other thing blocked the update from installing correctly, then you should disconnect the phone from computer. Close ODIN and remove the phone’s battery. Re-insert the battery after several seconds have passed and then you will need to repeat the entire tutorial once again until your device will boot with the new OS.
NOTE 2: if ODIN says that the update has been installed correctly, but the phone doesn’t go past the Samsung boot animation, then you will need to ‘factory reset’ the device using the Recovery mode. This means that you will have to read the extra steps listed below:

• power off your Galaxy S4 completely by removing its battery.
• re-insert the battery and then boot the phone into stock Recovery Mode.
• select ‘wipe data/ factory reset’ option and confirm this process.
• when the factory reset has been correctly applied, select ‘reboot system now’.
• wait for your device to boot into normal mode.

I hope that the update was applied successfully for your Galaxy S4. If you have any other questions, then you should ask for extra help in our comments section below.