How to Check and Update the Samsung TV Operating System

Believe it or not, a whole lot can go wrong if you don’t update your firmware—regardless of the device—especially if you don’t do so for an extended period and your device falls behind by several firmware updates. So how to check and update your Samsung TV OS?

Below, we’ll cover the standard way you can check if your Samsung TV is up to date, as well as how to download and install new updates. We’ll also discuss alternative methods of these processes.

How to Check and Update Samsung TV’s Operating System

You can check and update your Samsung TV Operating System through the Menu. Press the Menu button on your remote, then select Support > Software Update on the screen. Select Software Update and hit Enter/Ok to start the update process.

When you’re going through the update, you’ll see the current firmware on the screen. Without knowing what your current firmware is supposed to be, it will likely be just a bunch of numbers to you. So how do you know that it has been updated?

One method is to do an update, if it updates, that means that your Operating System wasn’t up to date. If it won’t update Samsung will likely inform you on the screen that your system is up to date.

Alternate Methods to Check and Update Your Samsung TV

There’s more than one way to get your Samsung TV updated and to know what the current firmware on your specific TV is supposed to be.

First, use the above method to bring up your current firmware on your Samsung TV screen. Once you have it up, you want to match it with the firmware update displayed on the Samsung Download Center.

1. Go to the Samsung Download Center.
2. Click on TVs & Home Theater.
3. Click on the Search Box to enter your Model #, which can be found in your manual or on the back of your Samsung TV.
4. Select your TV below the Search Bar.
5. On the top of the first column, your current firmware will be listed.

Now that you’re on the screen that displays your current firmware, you can insert a USB flash drive into your computer and download the firmware. Open the zipped file containing the latest firmware update and copy the folder over to your USB flash drive.

Once the firmware update is downloaded to your flash drive, remove it safely from your computer and plug it into a USB port on your Samsung TV. You don’t have to do anything extra. Your Samsung TV will immediately start the update from the firmware in your USB.

Samsung smart TVs run on a personalized version of Android, which is what most smartphones not called iPhones run on. It’s a relatively simple and streamlined process when it comes to updating, and it shouldn’t take your Samsung TV any longer than five minutes to complete it.

Can You Rollback Samsung TV Firmware Updates?

Unfortunately, there’s no way to downgrade the firmware on your Samsung TV. With that being said, Samsung doesn’t have a record of coming out with firmware updates that will brick your Samsung TV.

If you’re having issues immediately after a firmware upgrade, the best fix is to do a factory reset on your TV. Of course, that means that you will lose everything that’s saved on the Samsung TV’s internal storage, and your TV will return to how it was when you first unboxed it.

The issue needs to be pretty significant to justify a factory reset. So you’ll want to try doing a soft reset, which is not an actual feature on a Samsung TV, so you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way.

1. Start by powering down your Samsung TV, then unplug it from the power.
2. If it’s connected to your router via ethernet, go ahead and unplug that as well.
3. Wait about five minutes and plug the ethernet back in first, followed by the power cord.

If that doesn’t solve whatever issue the firmware update is causing, proceed with a hard, factory reset:

1. Open the Settings Menu on your Samsung TV.
2. Select Support.
3. Select Device Care.
4. Select Self-Diagnosis.
5. Choose Reset Smart Hub.
6. Enter your PIN #.
7. Select OK.

The default PIN # for any Samsung Smart TV will always be 0000 unless you change it yourself. So when it asks you to enter your PIN # to successfully complete the factory reset, just enter 0000.

If you don’t have your remote, we made a quick video to help you factory reset your Samsung TV:

Often, whatever is going on with your TV that caused it to have conflicting issues with a firmware update will be resolved with a factory reset. When you power the TV back on, you’ll have to run it back through the standard setup procedure, which will include updating to the latest software.

All Things Considered

Don’t let the idea of possibly having to hard reset your Samsung TV keep you from updating when new firmware upgrades come out. The odds are far more likely that you’ll have more problems from not updating than you will if you update whenever the new firmware drops.

The factory reset is designed for those rare occasions when an update is conflicting with something else that’s going on with your Samsung TV. It could be an app you’ve downloaded or a setting that’s no longer available. Regardless, it’s always safer to keep it upgraded as each firmware update comes out.