I’ve successfully upgraded my old Samsung Tablet, GT-8000 (2012) to Android Nougat 7.1, and it’s been very successful!

Earlier this year, I did upgrade it to the last 4.4.2 release but found it very slow and with WiFi problems, so thought I’d try some other upgrade. For a 5 year old tablet, if I bricked the device it wasn’t much of a loss.

Upgrading Android devices is not something I have much experience of, and I was very doubtful I’d get it to work. I set out by reading up what I could find from an Internet search. Of course there is loads of information, all of varying quality – information overload in fact.

Eventually I found the following sites gave me the most help:-
feldspaten.org - lineageos-n8000
How to Install Lineage OS 15.1 on Any Device using TWRP Recovery
How to Install TWRP Recovery using Odin on Samsung Android devices

The spec for the GT-N8000 I found at:-
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 N8000
confirming that the CPU is a 32bit ARM processor.

This is a list of the files I used:-
SAMSUNG_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones_ver_1.5.65.0.exe
Odin3_v3.13.1.zip
twrp-2.8.6.0-gt-n8000.tar
lineage-14.1-20170810-UNOFFICIAL-n8000.zip
open_gapps-arm-7.1-stock-20190720.zip

Only Odin3_v3.13.1.zip needs to be unZipped, the other two are uploaded to the tablet as Zips. I’m sure you can find these files using your own internet searches.

The comments I found referring to a Bixby button weren’t helpful. All that is needed is:-
Power + Volume Up => recovery mode
Power + Volume Down => download mode

The (summary) procedure is as follows:-

1. Install the Odin software on your windows PC.
2. Download the files to you windows PC.
3. Power the N8000 into download mode, and connect it to the windows PC.
4. Use the AP button in the Odin software option to upload the TWRP tar file.
5. Reboot the N8000 into recovery mode, and upload the LineageOS and OpenGapps zip files.
6. Use the TWRP software as per the instructions in the videos, to re-image the N8000.
7. With fingers crossed, reboot the N8000.


My N8000 took a very long time to get to first login screen.
It also showed some odd screen messages which gave me the impression something had gone wrong, but I continued, and all was fine.

I’m very pleased with the results.
The N8000 appears much faster and slicker. Just as good as any current Samsung Tab range (well, nearly)!
I was also lucky to find a replacement USB cable from GT-N8000 USB power lead, as I’d trod on the original and had repaired with gaffer tape!

If you have one of this, I hope these comments encourage you to upgrade it.
I was easier than I thought it would be.