How to flash your TYT MD-380/390 DMR radio for cool new features! 

Hi everyone, please be very careful what you do - it seems you can "brick" your radio easily with this method. Do your research and find out whether this works for your specific model before attempting anything. If things go wrong, perhaps re-installing the original firmware (www.tyt888.com/?mod=download) might help.

Thanks for the walkthrough. A lot has changed in the last couple of years since I last used my MD-380.

Nice walkthrough with good instructions. I tried this with a TYT MD-UV390 (non-GPS) running D019.005 firmware & CP 01.30. It "bricked" the HT leaving it stuck in firmware flashing mode. Fortunately I was able to find the Retevis firmware for their equivalent of the TYT UV390 and recovered it with D019.006 firmware. Repeated and rinsed several times before declaring this mod no-good for the current TYT MD-UV390 (non-GPS). Was able to convert it to "V" firmware allowing 120k contacts with other 3rd party UV390 codeplug programming software. It now accepts the DMR contact CSV uploads. I believe the program you used and the firmware mod it attempts may be outdated. TYT has apparently pulled all their firmware for the UV380/390 which is why I had to use the Retevis after doing considerable searching and research for a solution to unbrick the HT. You are correct there are different versions of the firmware . . . two each for 120k contact capacity, with and without GPS, and two each without 120k contact capacity, with and without GPS.

MANY THANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT - I LEARNED ABOUT THE 2 BUTTON FEATURE TO SET THE RADIO UP FOR FIRMWARE UPDATE ;-)

Thanks Lucien. This has answered one or two questions for me and explained some DMR lore to mr as well. I really wish I'd seen this a week ago! It would have been so helpful to me.

Thank you very much for sharing this! It worked on my TYT MD-380!!

I followed DH7LM's instructions and it works great on my MD380 no GPS. I love it. Thank you!!

February 27, 2021 Just for the record. These radios are still being sold, except they come with Firmware version D015.001 on them. They are known as "The New version" which have some slight hardware changes. With that said, you can run MD-380 Tools on them using the KD4Z version which is kind of a slow project at the moment or in other words, the development is not really in progress as we speak. Now onto the tools, as I said you can run TOOLS on these newer radios, except you need to do one thing before you flash the radio, which is enable the No Sleep workaround for new "Version 5" radios. It's basically a small hack KD4Z did to fix the bug with these newer radios going deaf after 5 seconds of receiving a signal. The trade off is that the radio will use 60 milliwatts more power, which drains the battery slightly more. You enable this FIX by using the tweaks menu in the setup process. Once you enable it you can flash your radio. That process is very simple. Basically follow the directions from the KD4Z Toolkit tutorial and don't forget to use the glv and use the tweaks menu before you flash the radio. Also, the TYT MD-UV380 is not the same radio, you can't install anything on it except the firmware TYT provides.

Hi, Why did you stop making ham videos? I just watched you social media sharing video but then I saw you haven't posted any new videos in a while. You do nice videos and I appreciated the knowledge. Take care for now

That is a great video, worked perfect for my MD380.. I was advised to be carefull if changing the firmware. There are some instances where that has caused problems. The up date on the user base works perfect. First time I've done that.. Thanks, stay safe and stay well , 73

To All, be careful doing firmware as this will work ONLY on Ver.13 and older models of the MD380/390.... THIS WILL NOT WORK ON VER.14 and newer... Will ONLY work on UHF models of MD380 & MD390 - WILL NOT WORK ON VHF MODELS... Because the VHF model only has 1Mb memory where UHF has 16Mb memory (go figure that one out)... WILL NOT WORK ON MD380UV or MD390UV... ***So check your radio's version first before you do any updates/upgrades***

Hello Lucien, It's been a while and I hope that all is well for you and your family. Good to see a new video from you. All is fine here in California and I have been having great fun with my ICOM 7300 and KX3. Enjoy the rest of the summer. 73 John N6NRO

Thanks comrade✊🏿💉

Hello, please tell me how to enable roger beep in the menu?

bonjour ,je possède un tyt md uv 390 bloquer en mode DFU suite a un essai de mise a jour de firmware du-coup talkie inutilisable 🙁 avez vous une solution ?

If things do screw up, you can reflash the stock firmware d13.20 or s13.20 depending on if it is regular or GPS version. Now you are in control of your radio.

Would anyone know if there's anything that can be done about a lost passcode for this radio? UPDATE: I tried eight zeros, and it worked.

Thank you for your great explanation.

how to unbricked my tyt th-uv98 caused by wrong firmware update, my handheld wont tum on at all

Thanks but please note does not work on MD380uvgps

I’m looking for a way to copy the audio files from the radios record feature to my computer. Has anyone found a way to do this?

Danke schon Lucien 73 Rob G3RCE

If this is causing so many problems (I just bricked my new radio) perhaps you should delete the video or put a big warning at the beginning. It wasn't until I followed your directions and bricked my radio that I scrolled down to see that this method could cause problems.

TYT website doesn't seem to have anything new available for the 390. Apparently my radio has the latest official firmware and can't find any information about my specific radio version, every article on the web just shows this method with 380's. Does this firmwares have options to mute tones selectively? I hate how loud they are, it would be aweosome if you could mute everything (especially key pad tones) but still hear the talk permit tone.

You need to remove the tyt888 reference for it no longer exists!

The site you direct us to says DOES NOT WORK for UV380. Is there a custom firmware for the newer UV380 radios?

Ty for the video!!!

I tried it, but now my radio is stuck on the back screen with the led flashing red and green

I just recieved a uv 380 and the softaware won't write the 600mhz offset to the radio. Any suggestions?

IS THERE A "FACTORY RESET" ON RADIO HANDSET USING CERTAIN BUTTONS LIKE YOU JUST PRESENTED WITH FIRMWARE UPDATE? - CAN YOU EMAIL ME - THANKS AGAIN

I have the tytera MD380, doing this flash will I loose all my programmed frequencies that I already have loaded? I have backed up my code plug just in case

Does this work for the DM-UV380 Dual band Radio? - if not can you tell me what firmware is the latest for the dual band (mine at present says Firmware D018.003 Cp ver 0.1.12) says on the box it is capable of promiscuous mode but i would like to have that available? Regards 2M0AIV Andy

How about for the MD-UV380?

Lucien. There are apparently 2 types of tools. The original TYT Toolz by Travis Goodspeed which only worked on the MD380U. Apparently this one works on the MD380UV and Retevis RT3 whis is basically the same radio. Is this correct?

Salve mi può lasciare il link per radio AILUNCE HD1 no GPS..grazie

just install md380tools by kd4z, its a more featured packed firmware

Curious if theres a way to change the TPT tone at the beginning. Anyone know a way to do it?

Hello to all. Sorry for my English, I use Google translator. Question to knowledgeable people or the author of the video. Is there an md380tools firmware for MD-380 with hardware version 5.01? All those that I found, including those released in May of this year, do not work correctly. No sound in analog mode. The squelch does not open. Who can tell which side to look for a solution to the problem? Thank.

I bought a *new* MD-380 UHF single band radio back in mid-late 2018. This radio and any MD380 made from around that time to date DOES NOT WORK properly with anything other than stock firmware. This video is from August 2019 and does not address or acknowledge this issue at all.

Guys i have a uv 390 gps and its stuck on the firmware update. Flashing led only. Can someone suggest something to repair it ?

Is Retevis RT3S applicable?

شكرا لك تحياتي 👍🌹🇸🇦🌹🤝👋👋👋

hello i have tyt md-390 i got into the program mode , i press downolad gps Fw. and flash, after i close the device i open and is program mode again :/

The RAR file is empty.

After doing this firmware update my tyt m390gps just flashes red and green when i turn it on. Now the radio is useless.Donnot use this upgrade.

Why does it error out?

Hi. ich spreche leider kaum englisch. Welche Firmware-Version ist den jetzt nach dem Flashen drauf, bzw, welche ist den z.Zt. aktuell? auf meinerm MD-380 ist die v.01.37 drauf. Danke!

I did the update, but the audio is gon and now audio controle any more , ? Now wat ?

I bought a tyt md-380 radio secondhand but it's been locked a d has a password on it is there a way to unlock this

i too have bricked my md-uv 380 radio!!!! where can i get a old version of firmware from? the links on her are not helpful..im i right in believing you cannot do any update on this radio??

Not your fault but I think I bricked my radio. Be careful people. Now my radio is stuck in programming mode

My friend i brick my dmr radio and now stucks on dfu mode!!!!! and your links does not exist D:/wwwroot/php/tyt888/web/home/download).php" no exists! also give us instructions how we can flash the original firmware again!!!!

this does not work at all

J'ai bloque mon 380 a cause de toi la radio et inutilisable même après la remise d'origine il reste en mode DFU

to difficult

My t y t m d u v 380 which is my daily driver is stuck on the 2022 GT 77 firmware and I cannot find a driver I cannot find anyone to help me if anyone could direct me to where in the hell you download this on a Windows 11 machine and get it to work so I can maybe update my radio please let me know that would be really cool.