How to Update Galaxy S5 Mini to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OTA

The official Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OTA update is finally available for the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini devices, but things aren’t always that easy. It takes time for an update to reach all devices, so what can you do?

First of all, you can manually check the availability of this new Lollipop software by going to Settings >> About phone >> System updates >> Check For Update. There’s no update there, waiting for you? In such a case, there are only two possibilities: you can either wait for the over-the-air update to hit your Galaxy S5 Mini device or download it manually and install it with the help of this guide.

However, I encourage you to do that only if you are an advanced user. Don’t start experimenting now when the risks are so high: you can easily turn your device into a brick (read: How to Fix Bricked / Unbrick Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini). For those who have performed such procedures before, let me just tell you that the process can seem pretty complicated, but as long as you follow the steps as they are indicated in the step-by-step tutorial from bellow, you will do just fine.

In order to perform a successful Android Lollipop update installation process, you must download Samsung’s USB drivers on your computer and install them as without these you cannot connect your smartphone. Even more, make sure your device is charged more than 60%. As you might imagine, the below operation might take a while, and if your Galaxy S5 Mini is not charged, it might turn off during the procedure, which might cause high damages.

Then, remember that factory resetting your device will remove all the data from system partition, but it won’t delete any files from internal storage. Even in such a case, my advice is to back up all your data and avoid taking any chances.

However, if your Galaxy S5 Mini phone is running 100% stock Android, then you can complete the update without losing any single file, so go straight to the guide. But if your phone is rooted and has a custom recovery, then you need to know that root access will be lost and the recovery installed on your phone will be replaced with a stock Recovery.

How to Update Galaxy S5 Mini to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OTA:

1. Download the Android 5.1.1 firmware update archive from here;
2. When the download is done, you can extract the archived content: I am referring to the G800FXXU1BPB2 tar.md5 firmware updating file;
3. Also take Odin3 v3.10.7 zip by accessing this link;
4. Extract it on the PC as well;
5. Turn off the device;
6. At this point, you just have to boot the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini in Download Mode;
7. Open the Odin exe on your PC;
8. Use the USB cord to connect the device with your computer;
9. Go back to Odin and open the Options menu from where you must disable the ‘re-partition’ option;
10. Next, click on the AP button;
11. Find the G800FXXU1BPB2.tar.md5 file and load it in Odin;
12. Press the START button in Odin;
13. At the end, you can see the PASS alert displayed by Odin;
14. Your Galaxy S5 Mini will boot in normal mode.

If you happen to encounter any problems during the process, just head to the comments area and I will do my best to help you!