What can cause the Oct 2011 OTA update of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to fail? I'm using a Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G (GT-P7500), Android 3.1, Baseband version P7500XXKG7, Build HMJ37 P7500XWKG9, rooted. (I got it with 3.1 and TouchWiz preinstalled.)

A few weeks ago, I got a notification about an OTA update. The only information I get about this update is:

Update details (9.61MB)
Improved stability.


Trying to install this update reproducibly fails. It downloads, then asks me whether to install. I confirm, and it tells me that it will reboot the device. The device reboots. During the reboot animation, I see a low-resolution progress bar that runs until about 25%. Then it reboots again, I enter my PIN and it tells me: "Failed to update firmware. Try again using PC software (Kies) or visit a Samsung service centre". It does not give me any details as to why it has failed.

I connected DDMS to the device during the update, but (as expected) it doesn't show anything during that phase. I don't know how to get any additional reporting as to why the update failed.

I can't connect the device to Kies either. Again, it doesn't report the problem. Kies notices when I connect the device, then says: "Reconnect the device in Samsung Kies (PC Studio) mode.Current connection mode not supported by Kies." (sic!)

What can cause an OTA update to fail?
Updating via Kies eventually worked. The trick to getting Kies to connect to the device is to turn off USB debugging on the device.