Samsung Galaxy S/SGH-T959V/Download Mode

Download Mode is the mode that you boot your phone into on Samsung devices when you want to flash firmware through Heimdall or Odin.

Some roms have "Reboot to Download Mode" in there power menu, and some do not. For those that do not, read on.

What is Download Mode

Download Mode is one of the many modes the bootloader can start in. Others are "recovery mode", "charging mode", I have also seen an "Upload Mode" but I don't know much about it. Then there is the normal android system boot mode for normal use.

Download Mode is a way to flash any image on the devices OneNand (flash) or EMMC (internal sdcard).

You cannot flash MTD images in download mode. This is because the bootloader does not know about mtd or yaffs2 (that is known of). It only seems to support BML/STL images. So the cleanest way to get to mtd is to flash a bml kernel, then flash an mtd rom(with mtd kernel) from the bml recovery. The mtd rom should support upgrading from bml.

How to get into Download Mode

1. Take your microUSB cable and plug it into the computer, but not the phone (yet).
2. Take out the battery from the phone.
3. Put the battery back into the phone.
4. Put the back cover back onto the phone, make sure it's snug so the battery doesn't fall out.
5. Hold vol + and -, keep holding them.
6. Plug the USB cable into the phone.
7. You should now be in download mode and should see a picture of a yellow triangle with Andy and a shovel in the middle.
8. You can now flash your Odin/Heimdall file.

If this method does not work, you can try some of the other methods here.

You can also just get a usb download mode jig.

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