How can I reinstall a stock ROM in my Samsung Galaxy S8+ using a Mac?

[Cordeline]

Hello everyone ^-^.

Installing a clean ROM was much, much easier on my old phone (Nexus 6P), since everything I needed to do was to do download it from Google's Android website, and run a command on Terminal to install it.

On my new phone it is not really looking so easy. I was able to find instructions for doing it on Windows, but I need to do it on a Mac. Right now I have no Windows computer nearby, and I need to do this by next Saturday since I will be traveling with my family and I want my phone to be as "clean" as possible.

I do not want to install any "custom" ROMs or anything like that, mostly because I know that if I do something like that I will lose Secure Folder. I want to install the one that my phone originally came from. Luckily, I was able to find the ROM on the internet (SamMobile, I think it was?), so everything I need to do now is to install it.

I have been googling for a way to do it on a Mac for three weeks now but I haven't had any luck, every tutorial I find is for Windows :(.

 

[Cordeline]

So I ended up:

1. Asking my dad to help me get a Windows ISO.
2. Using Bootcamp on my Mac to install Windows along macOS.
3. Downloading Odin on the Windows side.
4. Downloading the firmware SamMobile.
5. Flashing from windows.

I'm surprised I was able to do all this alone, except for getting the ISO ^-^; I wish how simple it was doing it on my Nexus 6P. But I'm happy to learn something new!

 

[Tsutarja]

Samsungs are a pain in the ass to root and load a ROM onto, which is why I try to avoid them when it comes to Android devices. Their hardware is great, but the software loaded onto the devices is what turns me away from them, in addition to them trying their best to make sure advanced Android users do not get their way.

 

[Cordeline]

Another really good and easy way to do it as well, although you still need Windows, is Kies. It allows you to reinstall the device software from Download Mode, and will not void your warranty. It will also grab the carrier-specific variant of your phone's ROM, if any, and install that.

Didn't know that was another way of doing it.

It would have probably saved the issue I had. Turns out that, for some reason, after installing the ROM, the phone thought it only had 16GBs total instead of 64GBs. I noticed when I took a photo and told me there was no space. Had to force upload everything and do a factory reset, which thankfully fixed it, but now I have to reconfigure my phone while on my family trip ><