How to Manually Update a Rooted Galaxy S21 and Keep Root Access?

Last month, we discussed “How you can gain root access on the Samsung Galaxy S21 series using Magisk?“. If you are a Samsung Galaxy S21 series user, you may have heard that the company has released a new update with the March 2021 security patch. However, users won’t get that update if they rooted their Samsung Galaxy S21 series devices. This is because whenever users unlock the bootloader on Samsung devices, they won’t be eligible to get the updates. This means users with rooted Samsung devices won’t get regular updates.

Instead, users have to update their devices with a program called “ODIN manually”. We have used ODIN previously when we rooted our Samsung Galaxy S21 device. We will use it again to update our device manually and for all future updates if we continue with the root access.

Also Read: 

“How to Update the Samsung Galaxy S21 Series to Stable Magisk v22?”

So, in this article, we will show you how to manually install new updates on the Samsung Galaxy S21 devices. We will also do it while maintaining root access to the device.

Downloading the Official Firmware

• To start the process, follow the following steps.
• The first step is to download the official firmware manually. This is the update we will manually install on our devices.
• In previous articles, we have already given details on downloading the official firmware. There are many ways to do this, but we will use the “Frija” program. If you like other methods to download the firmware, you can also use those; make sure it’s from a trusted source and hasn’t been modified.
• You can download Frija from this link. Follow the link to get more details on Frija and how to download the firmware.
• Once you download and install Frija, download the Samsung firmware using Frija. It is a zip file that you must extract to your PC/laptop. You will get five different files after you download and extract the firmware zip file.

Preparing the Device and Files

Connect your device to the PC via a USB cable and copy the file that starts with “AP” from the extracted files to your device’s internal storage.

• Now, open the Magisk Manager app on your device, which you used to root your device.
• In the Magisk Manager app at the top section, tap the install button in the top section of Magisk. You will get several options to choose from.
• Choose “Select and Patch a file” on the top section.
• Your device file manager will open, locate, and choose the file you just copied to your internal storage. It starts with the letter “AP”.
• Select that “AP” file, afterwards it will return you to the Magisk Manager App.
• Once you have selected the file, tap the “Let’s Go” button at the top right of the app.
• Once you tap that “Let’s Go” button, you will see a lot of text scrolling on your device’s screen.
• This log tells you exactly what the Magisk app will do to that firmware file.
• It extracts the firmware content and patches and modifies files. It will then put all the files back together and give you one file as an output file.
• The output file will be saved on your device’s internal storage with the name “magisk_patched file“. This new file will replace the “AP” file you just patched using Magisk. It will be saved in the downloads folder on your device’s internal storage.
• Once the file is patched, “All Done” will be shown at the bottom.
• Now, connect your device back to the PC using a USB cable. Then copy that “magisk_patched file” from your device to your PC in the same folder where you extracted the firmware file. Disconnect the USB cable when you copy that file back to your PC.

Updating the Firmware with ODIN

You need to boot the device into “download mode“ to continue further.

• To do that, “Power Off” your device completely. Again, connect your device to the PC via USB while long-pressing both the volume up and down buttons simultaneously. Your device will “Turn On” with the blue splash screen.
• Then, press the “Volume Up” button on a single press. This time, you will not have to long-press the volume-up button. It’s just a single press. Now, you have entered download mode. Proceed to the next step as you enter download mode while your device is connected to the PC.
• Open up the “ODIN Program” on your PC. If you haven’t installed ODIN, download it from this link and install it on your device before going through this process. In the ODIN program, ensure your device is connected to the PC. You should get an added message at the bottom of the log on the right side of the ODIN.
• On the left side of the ODIN program, there are five blocks where you need to load the relevant firmware files.

You must insert the firmware files you downloaded and extracted earlier.

Instead of using the file with the letter “AP” for the “AP” block on ODIN, we will use the “magisk_patched file“. This is the file that we copied from our device to the PC. Remember that it will be a ZIP file; we will not extract it. We will use this same file in it’s zip format.

And instead of using the file with the letter “CSC” for the “CSC” block in ODIN, we will use the file that starts with “HOME_CSC”. This “HOME_CSC” file helps us to retain all the data on our device.

• So, click on the “BL” button in ODIN and select the file that starts with “BL” from the folder where you extracted the firmware file.
• Next, click on the “AP” button in ODIN and select the “magisk_patched file” instead of the file that starts with the letter “AP”. Similarly, in the “CP” button, select the file that begins with the letter “CP”.
• Lastly, click the “CSC” button in ODIN and select the file starting with “HOME_CSC”. ODIN may take a couple of seconds to load that file in.
• Click the “Start” button at the bottom to continue the process. Once you click the Start button, you will see the process bar at the top and log files on the right of ODIN. Just wait for the process to complete; it will take some time.

Wait until you see the green “PASS” message above the progress bar. Once the process is complete and you see the green “PASS” message, your device will reboot.

Post-Update Checks

• Your device will boot back into Android. It will take some time, so be patient and wait. You will see a message that says “Phone is updating”.
• Once you see your device boots up, unlock the display, and the Android OS will start installing all your apps. Your device will now be set up in just a few minutes.
• All your apps and data will be available on your device, so you don’t need to worry about the data. You will still have root access, and you can check it with the help of a Root Checker app.
• Now, go into the settings and then about phone options. Regarding phones, the Android security patch level(as at the time of writing this article) should be “March 1st, 2021”, which is the latest.

Maintaining Root Access

You will not get the regular Android updates if you want to keep root access. You need to do the above-mentioned step-by-step process to keep your device updated. Just download the latest firmware available for your Samsung Galaxy S21 devices.

If you are experiencing difficulties with your device, check out our “How To” page to learn how to resolve some issues.