Update Galaxy S4 SPH-L720 to Android 4.3 VPUEMJA Stock Firmware

If your Galaxy S4 SPH-L720 is updated to Android 4.3, your user experience, as well as your handset’s performance, will be even more awesome. The new firmware that will be part of your device as soon as the upgrade ends is this one: VPUEMJA. The new Jelly Bean official firmware was launched in October this year. Only the Sprint (cdma) version is fully compatible with your smartphone; which must be the Galaxy S4 L720 model, because a handset that’s not this one will end up bricked if updated with this new firmware. Your phone must run a custom ROM to receive the new tool. Because the tool has an activated KIES logo, you can upgrade the phone by Samsung KIES, too. So, apart from using either our guide today or OTA (with the Software Update button under Settings menu), you can also use that software for the update. If you opt for our tutorial, your Samsung L720 will get all of the best of the Android 4.3 features as well as new tweaks and no bugs. Having this new firmware on your smartphone will affect it in terms of root access, which will be revoked, and in terms of the device’s system partition, which shall be deleted. The important data and the phone’s internal and external SD cards wont be erased or affected (for the cards).

Requirements

Your Galaxy S4 SPH-L720 must now meet some very important pre-requisites. Follow them all below:

  • flash USB drivers for your handset from this page on your PC or laptop;
  • make backups (as usual, we want you to create a full NANDroid backup apart from a normal one);
  • charge your smartphone’s battery;
  • enable, on your phone, USB Debugging by opening Menu on it, then choosing Settings, selecting Applications, opting for Development and then turning on USB Debugging;
  • turn off your phone’s and notebook’s security programs;
  • be sure to have Windows installed on your laptop or comp.Sprint-Galaxy-S4-SPH-L720

Instructions

  1. When each of these requirements is applied, you have to download the on your laptop. Unzip it and then download Odin from this page, too.
  2. After you extract the latter, you should proceed to this task: enter the smartphone in Download Mode by pressing and holding Volume Down, Home and Power together; an Android logo will appear and it will have a warning triangle, so do this when you see it: press Volume Up.
  3. The Odin has to be opened as Admin on your laptop, then take the USB cable of your smartphone to use it as a way to establish a connection between your Galaxy S4 and the notebook.
  4. Wait for an “Added!!” message and a yellow ID:COM box before you do anything else; if there is no sign of a successful connection, you should use a different USB port or install the USB drivers again.
  5. There is a group of buttons that should be clicked on and then a bunch of files that have to be chosen. Here is how this should go on: tap PDA, choose a file with a CODE in its name, tap Phone, select a file that should have a MODEM in the name, tap CSC, opt for a file that has to sport CSC in its name, tap PIT and choose a file which should sport a file that needs to have a .pit extension.
  6. The next step requires you to activate these boxes: Auto Reboot, Re-partition and F. Reset Time. After you check all three of them, the new firmware will have to begin its flashing on your smartphone, so tap “Start” and then wait a bit.
  7. The L720 will end this installation process and, as a consequence, you will see it restart; soon after that, the device is going to have “Pass” written on it, which tells you that you can unplug the phone from your notebook.

[sc name=”banner-jos”] If you wonder where the new official Android 4.3 VPUEMJA firmware is, you will discover it in About Phone; this option should be accessed from Settings. If, after half an hour or so of using your phone with the new tool you feel that you don’t enjoy it, there’s the NANDroid backup file to use. This file is going to make sure the update is revoked and that the smartphone’s previous ROM returns on your Galaxy S4 SPH-L720. There is a comment section below. Please use it to drop us questions and anything else you want to contact us about regarding this tutorial.