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Most unusual..

My Thunderbolt is locked somehow, and I have no way to restore it to factory defaults. What I mean by "locked" is as follows:
I remove two apps from the device, change the wallpaper and delete a contact. Then, I restart the device - when it boots back all of the changes I made are gone. It's like in read-only mode, the changes look like they take affect but after a reboot everything is restored to it's current FC'ing on everything state.
I've tried factory resetting the device but instead of booting to recovery it just boots to the picture of a phone with the red caution symbol showing, it does not do anything else.
I've tried flashing over a stock RUU image but the flash either 1) looks like it works then boots back to the state it was before, 2) hangs on part of a flash and reboots to the normal state.
The device is not rooted, I've tried revolutionary and get the following error:
"rawadb_handle_msg" and then it loses connection.
Any ideas would be appreciated, I've never seen anything like this.

Turn it on and let it boot up if it can then pull the battery while its on and leave power off for 5 minutes then try again.
Also can try, with power off, hold power button and volume down button together for a few seconds and when it gets to the white screen wait for about 10 seconds then select reboot from there

Latest OTA patched the Revolutionary exploit (so it won't work). You may want to root using ADB and flash the rooted RUU. Can't say I've ever seen R/O behavior; but then again, I've been rooted for months - currently on AOSP (ShiftAo5p 2.8) and waiting for an ICS with data
I know, not too helpful, but there are still ways to root.
Any feedback from VZW or a "real" corporate store? They're actually quite helpful here with tech junkies.
OK, one more suggestion - early on, I couldn't do anything either (Market, etc) and the fix was to pave (format) my SD card. I know it sounds weird, but I was going to exchange my phone (ordered, then sent back replacement). I figured, what the heck. Took the uSD card out, put it into my PC's USB port and formatted it FAT32, popped it back in and VOILA - happy happy joy joy.
Granted I copied all the data off of it before paving - then copied back selectively (highly recommend AirDroid, by the way, no more cables). Might give this a shot.

Hey guys, thanks for the suggestions - unfortunately no luck on my end with that

nautical34 said:
Hey guys, thanks for the suggestions - unfortunately no luck on my end with that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I inserted the card freshly formatted (I wasn't rooted at that point) - nothing on it, and I booted up, I was able to install Market apps (which I couldn't do before) - Note - AFTER I also did (multiple) a factory reset, I was good.
That didn't work for you? Maybe try again? Or just No-Go?
Also helps prove every 'Bolt has its own personality
Good luck on your CLNR ...
I have no idea what errant app or corrupted data may have been on the card, but totally paving and starting over "fixed it". Soon after, I rooted Then I had choices Granted I've had times I've had to do a factory reset (but not pave the SD) and set up all again - I've found the larger games (haven't determined which yet) cause my phone to get into reboot fits if I do actually reboot (which I need to do sometimes to get the radios to get data again); so, boring maybe, but very few games installed. That's OK, I prefer to learn or listening to music during idle time. Good luck.

Frequent freezes of S2 LTE (I727R). Not sure how to resolve?

I am having a very annoying problem with my Rogers I727R S2 phone on ICS stock.
The problem started to increase in frequency to become a real pain.
My phone would suddenly freeze and stop responding to screen touches for a bit, sometimes as long as 2 minutes, before bouncing back. When it comes back, it initializes as if it is restarting, so I would feel a vibration, lose all open applications and see icons start appearing on notification bar one by one. The media scanner would start working and software installed on SD card start appearing.
The problem happens spontaneously and out of the blue. It was occurring at less intensity on gingerbread before upgrading to ICS. After upgrading, it was not that frequent until only recently.
I noticed the problem goes away when I remove the SD card or when I am on flight mode with no Wi-Fi. I changed the SD card but this did not help. Connecting from home or work does not differ, so a problem with Wi-Fi would be ruled out. I once had a problem with home Wi-Fi when somehow the router’s DNS was not resolving, when this problem of mine was at its prime, and my phone was rendered unusable as it only takes couple of minutes before acting up.
I spent quite long time searching for an answer and so far no luck
I just placed a video illustration of the problem, and hope to get feedback on even where to head.
watch?v=akS59vFfIAI

raymonko said:
I am having a very annoying problem with my Rogers I727R S2 phone on ICS stock.
The problem started to increase in frequency to become a real pain.
My phone would suddenly freeze and stop responding to screen touches for a bit, sometimes as long as 2 minutes, before bouncing back. When it comes back, it initializes as if it is restarting, so I would feel a vibration, lose all open applications and see icons start appearing on notification bar one by one. The media scanner would start working and software installed on SD card start appearing.
The problem happens spontaneously and out of the blue. It was occurring at less intensity on gingerbread before upgrading to ICS. After upgrading, it was not that frequent until only recently.
I noticed the problem goes away when I remove the SD card or when I am on flight mode with no Wi-Fi. I changed the SD card but this did not help. Connecting from home or work does not differ, so a problem with Wi-Fi would be ruled out. I once had a problem with home Wi-Fi when somehow the router’s DNS was not resolving, when this problem of mine was at its prime, and my phone was rendered unusable as it only takes couple of minutes before acting up.
I spent quite long time searching for an answer and so far no luck
I just placed a video illustration of the problem, and hope to get feedback on even where to head.
watch?v=akS59vFfIAI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try a different launcher.

the only way to troubleshoot is to start from scratch, read my 2nd link in my sig to restore to stock ics, reset within the recovery when odin finishes flashing, also keep out your sdcard out just to make sure your sdcard or its slot is not the problem. if still having probs its hardware failure, should still be under warranty

odeccacccp said:
Try a different launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For reference, a different launcher did not do it

vincom said:
the only way to troubleshoot is to start from scratch, read my 2nd link in my sig to restore to stock ics, reset within the recovery when odin finishes flashing, also keep out your sdcard out just to make sure your sdcard or its slot is not the problem. if still having probs its hardware failure, should still be under warranty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went through your instructions restoring to stock ICS (which did not wipe my data as I thought it would). This did not help though, and the problem persisted. After that I decided to a hard factory reset. This appears to have done the job and my phone was working very smoothly.
Because my phone is rooted, I restored to the buggy stock again using CWM in hope to be able to figure out how to my migrate my purchased software, data and settings after hard reset. I wonder if there is a way to preserve important files even with replacing systems. I want to hard reset again but I keep my important information

raymonko said:
I went through your instructions restoring to stock ICS (which did not wipe my data as I thought it would). This did not help though, and the problem persisted. After that I decided to a hard factory reset. This appears to have done the job and my phone was working very smoothly.
Because my phone is rooted, I restored to the buggy stock again using CWM in hope to be able to figure out how to my migrate my purchased software, data and settings after hard reset. I wonder if there is a way to preserve important files even with replacing systems. I want to hard reset again but I keep my important information
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after restoring stock perform a reset in the recovery, if old data is still there after reset its a hw defect in the nand
edit: reread your post so nm what i just posted, use titu or other backup software

[Q] Über-crash = reformat? What to do? thx

Hey gang -
Yesterday at home I pulled my phone out of my pocket and it was at the "touch the Android to begin" (!) screen. But it was still connected to my WiFi... And I was confused.
Rather than do that, I reset the phone, wiped Davlik cache and Fixed Permissions (took a long time!), then rebooted.
That sort of worked, but a LOT of my apps are crashing on start, and others are missing altogether. Even when I re-download them and re-install them, they don't work.
What's the way-ahead here? Am I stuck doing a factory reset? Or even formatting the SD card?
Thanks in advance.

When things get that fouled up, a clean install over a freshly formatted microSD is probably the best thing to do. You might be able to get away with restoring from a "nandroid" backup from before things started going bad, but "Your mileage may vary."

jeffsf said:
When things get that fouled up, a clean install over a freshly formatted microSD is probably the best thing to do. You might be able to get away with restoring from a "nandroid" backup from before things started going bad, but "Your mileage may vary."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, thanks!
Anything else on the SD card I should back up besides DCIM / Media-> Ringtones/MP3s / "ui" / TitaniumBackup?
(Got about an hour while this stuff goes off to my HD...)

Hoo! Thought I effed myself for a sec - from CWM I was wiping all partitions... including /sdcard.
Then I realized... $#¡+... my ROM is on there!
Fortunately CWM has the "mount USB storage" option.
*whew!*

I was going to add format the sdcard from the phone. But you did that. Typically when what happened to you would happen to me it would be from some app updating and for whatever reason got corrupted during install and fouled the phone up. If you use TiB I highly suggest setting a automated task to back up your TiB backups to drop box, google drive or box.net. Then in these situations you have a recent TiB to fall back on.

JaimeZX said:
Hey gang -
Yesterday at home I pulled my phone out of my pocket and it was at the "touch the Android to begin" (!) screen. But it was still connected to my WiFi... And I was confused.[...]...a LOT of my apps are crashing on start, and others are missing altogether. Even when I re-download them and re-install them, they don't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi JaimeZX,
I am curious if you have recently rooted, flashed to stock, or installed the VB or Basic w/a twist kernel? I am running the exact same setup as you list (minus the modem) and this *exact* same scenario happened to me on the exact same day. March 12th, at about 10pm.
Detail as much information as you can, I've had many problems since flashing back to stock, formatting the SD, wiping everything multiple times, and re-installing Valhalla Black, Basic w/a Twist and all fresh apps d/l'd from the market. I'm on multiple attempts to stabilize the device and have questioned whether or not there is some issue with either the Rom or the Kernel. Perhaps there is an issue with the stock packages, or the USB driver ghosts (I've deleted all USB assigns at all ports and reinstalled for device detection in Heimdall). Hopefully we can get a good list of information to help us fix an issue that is apparently quite catastrophic (in that /data seems to corrupt) and save others from a future headache.
I have searched the dev threads to no avail, and as a general rule it seems that if problems are brought up they are usually met with "try flashing back to stock," "gremlins," "no one else is having problem 'X'," etc. even in cases of users with multiple complaints of the same issue. Both the DSP Sound force close upon EQ preset select and the issue that some had with the Messages, Phone Dialer, Search, Call Logs closing to homescreen are issues that I've seen this with. I believe this is a real issue, and I need to get it fixed without wasting time on messaging replies to anyone advising "try this," "Try that," etc.
My hope is that between the two of us we can address any of the common responses from developers before taking the issue to them and reporting it. I personally cannot today get my phone to boot without freezing (after boot cycle completes - not bootlooping or freezing during the bootleader seq) and am currently attempting to get into d'l mode without much luck.
When this happened to me on Tuesday night I was able to reboot to recovery, reflash the final-fixed.zip first without wiping data (which failed-/data is corrupted somehow here) and then *with* wipe/data and it booted, ran fine, so I then re-flashed BasicWithaTwist Kernel and was fine until late last night again.
I had been using the phone for some fairly constant web searching and the screen went black, appeared to soft reboot, and then froze. I pulled the battery, waited a few mins, reinstalled battery, once again, Freeze after boot.
No indication that an app crashes, phone just completely freezes, remains screen on, capkeys lit, power button does not respond, nor do softkeys or touchscreen. Makes it though the scan device and scan SD processes *sometimes* and other times freezes before it completes them.
I pulled the both the SD and the SIM and booted up, same issue, though it makes it through the scan device processes everytime since it's not scanning 18gb of data on an SD. This tells me it is not SD or SIM related, and is most likely software related, either ROM or Kernel. I've also ruled out the possibility of an old app/data package by reformatting the SD (long format - wipe all containers to "o,") let Android rebuild menu structure on SD, redownloaded a short list of commonly used apps and installed fresh - *NO* TiBackup apps were restored and the actual backup folder was not replaced to the SD after flashing.
I've tried both the Odin (Fb KJ6 back to stock) and the one click (lumin's tutorial) back to stock. Checked the download of Final-Fixed, MD5 checksum is correct. Cannot find MD5 on the sms-T959V-KJ6-antsvx.v1.1.3.zip file. Doesn't seem to be listed on Anton's github site, perhaps I don't know how to find it there. That is the only puzzle piece I haven't double checked.
All for now, looking forward to yours or anyone's replies or suggestions for anything I may be overlooking. Thanks.
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---------- Post added at 11:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 AM ----------
devlinandersen said:
Hi JaimeZX,
... I've had many problems since flashing back to stock, formatting the SD, wiping everything multiple times, and re-installing Valhalla Black, Basic w/a Twist and all fresh apps d/l'd from the market. I'm on multiple attempts to stabilize the device and have questioned whether or not there is some issue with either the Rom or the Kernel....
0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should add that I have been on Valhalla Black Edition since it was in beta and have been quite happy with it. I only did a back to stock flash to try to (one more time) see if I could get a cooperative DSP sound manager. No such luck, and now a few headaches, and this issue on Tuesday coupled with yours in the exact same timeframe...I'm just thinking there is a problem somewhere in the chain of attack and hope to find it with the help of others.
Also, phone freezes after boot, needless to say, I'm not able to run a logcat.

devlinandersen said:
No indication that an app crashes
[...]
Also, phone freezes after boot, needless to say, I'm not able to run a logcat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try running logcat > /sdcard/some_file and cat /proc/kmsg > /sdcard/some_other_file so you have a capture of both the Android logs as well as the kernel logs. If you're not comfortable with command-line work, aLogrec should be able to at least help with the Android logs.
Given the number of people successfully running stock and custom ROMs on this device with stability, it either is going to be a hardware problem with your phone, corruption of a file system, or some app or combination of apps you are running, not a "dev" issue. Without logs, it is going to be nearly impossible to differentiate between the causes.

jeffsf said:
Try running logcat > /sdcard/some_file and cat /proc/kmsg > /sdcard/some_other_file so you have a capture of both the Android logs as well as the kernel logs. If you're not comfortable with command-line work, aLogrec should be able to at least help with the Android logs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try in a bit, collecting files for another fresh install, different ROM.
jeffsf said:
Given the number of people successfully running stock and custom ROMs on this device with stability, it either is going to be a hardware problem with your phone, corruption of a file system, or some app or combination of apps you are running, not a "dev" issue. Without logs, it is going to be nearly impossible to differentiate between the causes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is false logic and is just what I was trying to avoid. I will attempt to explain to hopefully help build a stronger environment that is conducive to problem solving. It still very well could be a dev issue if say, a certain ROM or Kernel begins to wrestle with an app that has recently updated. Is it the apps or the rom's fault? Maybe it is a seldom used feature of an app that just missed all the users testing until now, it's well within the realm of possibilities and would just like to see helpful comments (such as the first portion directly above) to help solve issues. Truth is, I don't know *what* is wrong and neither do you, so a focus on constructive commentary would just help everyone out.

Logs or it didn't happen.

Update...
After a factory reset/data wipe, wipe cache, wipe dalvik cache I had to let the battery charge for a bit. Came back and decided to just try to boot phone, still freezes after boot sequence. I decide that I will flash a different kernel and a different ROM in order to see if I can make a difference. Before flashing Blastoff v2.5 Kernel I decided to factory wipe/data wipe, wipe cache and dalvik again...I am not sure if this is news, but when doing the Dalvik cache wipe in CWM it returned no result, perhaps because I had previously performed and is empty, but I thought it strange that there was *no* communication that it was already empty/wiped, etc.
Installed Blastoff v2.5 and was able to boot without freezing. Something else was damaged with the Rom as well, would not load home screen, only had pulldown menu. Rebooted to Recovery and flashed Unnamed RC-2.zip and have been charging the battery, talking on the phone and reinstalling apps from market.
Same error happened twice to me and once with Jaime. Both of us on VB and Basic+Twist. After installing new kernel i'd point towards kernel. Also uninstalled DSP and installed voodoo sound on VB, but had that on previous version as well. If I had to start somewhere, I'd start right around there.
Hope this helps, will provide logs from SD backup I made before reflash of new kernel/rom. Gotta run. Adios...
-devil.

I had to get my phone going today, it appears to be working without freezing, though on this new app the phone dialer/phone caller force closes on outgoing calls (I am only mentioning here, I will visit the Q&A for the ROM if I need assistance). Unfortunately I was unable to replicate the problem without flashing back to my previous nandroid. I have it saved and given some time I will do my due diligence and get a logcat **if** Jaime doesn't do it before me...because I kinda have a feeling that something was updated in the market on Tuesday evening that is now fighting with the kernel somehow. But again...I didn't run a logcat so it's not even happening...yet...
...to be continued...

Devlin - sorry for the delayed reply.
I did notice that I'd had more and more apps FCing on me in the week leading up to the Über-crash. Unfortunately I don't have any more "background" to add than that.
I backed up everything I wanted on the SD card and then formatted that, plus /data, /system /everythingelsethatwasanoptioninCWM. Then did my installs.
FORTUNATELY (knock on wood) I have not had any recurrence of the major issue.

Unable to save pictures or screenshots: possibly due to corrupt storage?

tl;dr: I cannot save pictures or screenshots on my phone, as well as a few other small quirks, can someone help?
Hello XDA, I've just recently encountered a strange issue with my Nexus 5 and I was hoping one of you might be able to help me out. I'd like to have screenshots to break up the text wall, but due to the nature of my issue, that's out of the question.
So my big problem started about two days ago, when I wanted to flash the omnirom nightly (1/27 to be exact) to my phone.
While doing the factory reset before flashing the rom, TWRP got stuck (and I'm talking about 10 minutes) formatting /data not including internal media. I was left with no choice but to hold volume down and power and hope for the best. This is what I bet screwed things up. After that I tried again, and the formatting worked, and omnirom booted, but with the error message of something about device UIDs being inconsistent and recommending I format my data partition.
Well since the rom was a nightly, I felt like ignoring the message, but I did notice issues: I could install and uninstall apps, but none of them could really access the internal storage (for example, any attempts to save a picture, like through chrome, would fail. I also couldn't restore from titanium backup. Connecting to my pc would not display my files).
Dismayed, I obeyed the message and did a full wipe of the data partition and tried again (not just the factory reset one, but the full wipe of /data, and don't worry, I could still backup using ADB pull so I haven't lost anything). This caused the UID error message to go away but I still had issues-not as bad as before-but still issues. Titanium backup worked, so I used that to restore successfully, but I couldn't make new backups. I was frustrated and blamed my issues on using a nightly so I did another full reset and went back to stock.
Now, I wasn't given another UID message, and ALMOST everything works, but I am left with the issue that is the reason I post this thread. I can't take pictures, video, or screenshots and a select few apps fail to recognize the internal sd card (reddit sync, for example, will fail to save pictures when I try to download them, but other apps, like chrome, will succeed to do so, so it is a non-issue. I could also connect to pc again, yay!).
The camera (app and hardware) will still work, and I can tell it takes the picture because the little thumbnail that slides to the side after taking a picture appears. It just fails to save the picture. When I swipe to view the picture, it shows up only as a dark gray box. If I view it in the photos app, I am greeted with the message "media not found." When I try to take videos, Camera will force close the moment I press record.
I've tried a few things, like clearing the camera's data, but that was unsuccessful. Different camera apps (I tried Focal) result in the same problem. Using the Root File Browser app, I also made sure that permissions weren't locking access to that folder. I've also tried deleting the DCIM folder by connecting to PC and then taking another picture, but that still did nothing.
I don't know what else I could do besides another /data format, but I already did that and I don't feel like another format would really do anything since I already did one. I'm left with little that I could think would fix this, but I'm sure someone here could help me.
It is late now and I have school in the morning, so I'll check back on this thread in about 16 or so hours when I'm done with that. Then if anyone has a potential fix, I could try it. If I don't see a fix, I could post a video describing my problem or any more information you might find useful. Thank you all and goodnight.

fatwad said:
tl;dr: I cannot save pictures or screenshots on my phone, as well as a few other small quirks, can someone help?
Hello XDA, I've just recently encountered a strange issue with my Nexus 5 and I was hoping one of you might be able to help me out. I'd like to have screenshots to break up the text wall, but due to the nature of my issue, that's out of the question.
So my big problem started about two days ago, when I wanted to flash the omnirom nightly (1/27 to be exact) to my phone.
While doing the factory reset before flashing the rom, TWRP got stuck (and I'm talking about 10 minutes) formatting /data not including internal media. I was left with no choice but to hold volume down and power and hope for the best. This is what I bet screwed things up. After that I tried again, and the formatting worked, and omnirom booted, but with the error message of something about device UIDs being inconsistent and recommending I format my data partition.
Well since the rom was a nightly, I felt like ignoring the message, but I did notice issues: I could install and uninstall apps, but none of them could really access the internal storage (for example, any attempts to save a picture, like through chrome, would fail. I also couldn't restore from titanium backup. Connecting to my pc would not display my files).
Dismayed, I obeyed the message and did a full wipe of the data partition and tried again (not just the factory reset one, but the full wipe of /data, and don't worry, I could still backup using ADB pull so I haven't lost anything). This caused the UID error message to go away but I still had issues-not as bad as before-but still issues. Titanium backup worked, so I used that to restore successfully, but I couldn't make new backups. I was frustrated and blamed my issues on using a nightly so I did another full reset and went back to stock.
Now, I wasn't given another UID message, and ALMOST everything works, but I am left with the issue that is the reason I post this thread. I can't take pictures, video, or screenshots and a select few apps fail to recognize the internal sd card (reddit sync, for example, will fail to save pictures when I try to download them, but other apps, like chrome, will succeed to do so, so it is a non-issue. I could also connect to pc again, yay!).
The camera (app and hardware) will still work, and I can tell it takes the picture because the little thumbnail that slides to the side after taking a picture appears. It just fails to save the picture. When I swipe to view the picture, it shows up only as a dark gray box. If I view it in the photos app, I am greeted with the message "media not found." When I try to take videos, Camera will force close the moment I press record.
I've tried a few things, like clearing the camera's data, but that was unsuccessful. Different camera apps (I tried Focal) result in the same problem. Using the Root File Browser app, I also made sure that permissions weren't locking access to that folder. I've also tried deleting the DCIM folder by connecting to PC and then taking another picture, but that still did nothing.
I don't know what else I could do besides another /data format, but I already did that and I don't feel like another format would really do anything since I already did one. I'm left with little that I could think would fix this, but I'm sure someone here could help me.
It is late now and I have school in the morning, so I'll check back on this thread in about 16 or so hours when I'm done with that. Then if anyone has a potential fix, I could try it. If I don't see a fix, I could post a video describing my problem or any more information you might find useful. Thank you all and goodnight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would flash the stock image again to solve your problem, backup files first. Here is a tutorial http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2513701.

gee2012 said:
I would flash the stock image again to solve your problem, backup files first. Here is a tutorial http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2513701.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, it worked! Camera is saving pictures again and nothing is acting up. And it all was way less painful than I thought it would be

Getting an OTA update after installing TWRP and rooting OR use RUU?

I have an HTC One E8... I know, it's ancient... But... It's been a good phone until this past year when it really started dragging. Takes forever to do anything. A year ago, the main camera (is that the front or back camera) stopped working (phone doesn't even recognize that it's there -- flash doesn't work either with a flashlight app). Before that, phone dialing using my Bluetooth earpiece stopped working. Maybe related, but the phone doesn't work as a phone (holding it to your ear). If I'm not using the Bluetooth earpiece, it will only work on Speaker-phone mode (voice command apps such as Google Assistant and song recognition apps like Sound Hound don't 'hear' anything). Lastly, the Bluetooth has been disconnecting for no apparent reason. My earpiece will say 'Phone 1 disconnected', but when I look at the Bluetooth icon on the phone, it still thinks it's connected. Tapping the icon to turn off Bluetooth and then tapping again 'fixes' the problem and it connects again. It's just annoying when it does this in the middle of a conversation (and because, when it happens, the other party doesn't hear me yelling at them to wait because my Bluetooth disconnected because the phone doesn't know that anything is wrong). I had read ones that the Bluetooth drivers for this phone were sketchy. It's strange, though, this this problem has really gotten worse over the past couple of months without me making any changes to the phone. Lastly, the battery has really gone downhill. The phone will unexpectedly shut off around 30% battery. (I even tried the HTC battery recalibration technique -- no joy.) I chalked all of this up (except for the battery issue) to software. I thought maybe a good ol' factory reset (wipe) would fix the issues. For years (literally) it's been nagging me about a system update (Android 6.0). I never did it because the phone was already running slow and it's always screaming about being out of storage space. It hovers around 500MB free most of the time. I don't have that much installed on it. Any apps that will allow it, have been moved to the SD card.
That's the back-story to give you some insight as to what's going on with the phone. I included all of that 'other' stuff (camera and voice dialing issues) in case someone has seen them before and can offer any suggestions there.
So here's where I'm at. I decided to try to do a factory reset to 'refresh' the OS (remove all the patches and updates) and start over. Afterwards, I wanted to run Link2SD with a 64GB SD card so I wouldn't have the space limitations that I'm experiencing now after all of the apps have updated. The other night, after backing up the internal memory and the SD card, I started the process. (BTW, I have another SD card that I'm going to use that I've already partitioned per the Link2SD instructions.) After much trial and error, dead download links, incompatible versions of adb.exe and fastboot.exe I finally managed to get TWRP recovery installed. Then there was the issue of getting a working SuperSU installed. Finally did that. The phone booted and started walking me through the process of setting up my Google account. Everything seemed to go well. The phone was just as speedy as the day I got it. I was even able to restore my 15000 text messages and it was still zippy. It was wonderful! Unfortunately, the camera still doesn't work. Seems like voice dialing isn't working at the moment either. The Bluetooth issue seems to have gone away. Since the camera still isn't working, it looks like I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and get a new phone. This one will just become a 'toy' or a temporary backup phone in the event something tragic happens to the new phone. I'll just use this one on Wi-Fi only to check the weather and maybe play some games (which I had pretty much stopped doing because it was so slow and always out of storage). I would also use it as my portable media device for listening to downloaded podcasts and music while I'm running or riding my bike. It could also (maybe without mobile data) track my runs and rides, etc. As long as it doesn't get slow like it was before, I think it'll do just fine in its re-purposed life. (It was so slow I could barely play music from Google Music and have Google Fit tracking my run at the same time. It would take forever to switch screens!)
Ah, what's this?! Oh, there's that software update again. I guess I'll go ahead and do it before I start setting up a bunch of apps and tweaking the phone to my preferences. Nope! It downloads the OTA update into the Downloads folder and starts the process, but when it reboots, it reboots in Recovery mode into TWRP. I'm now finding that you can't easily do an OTA update after you've rooted your phone and put a custom recovery on it. I've seen lengthy instructions on how to put get a stock recovery.img out of the OTA zip file in the Downloads folder. I've moved it to my PC and pulled the firmware.zip file out. When I try to open the firmware.zip file to get to the recovery.img file, Windows is saying it's corrupted. I also see something about using an RUU.exe or RUU.zip file to restore the phone to stock. I've downloaded the correct RUU .exe file for my Sprint e8 in case I decide to go that route.
Here's my question... I know, finally! Since I don't have really anything on this phone since I did the reset and root, would it just be simpler to use the RUU method to blow it away and start over instead of trying to resolve the corrupt firmware.zip file issue and all of the other steps that follow? That's question #1. Question #2 is this... Will this RUU that I downloaded actually take the phone straight to Marshmallow before it starts walking me through setting up my Google account? If so, that's great! I'm all for the ease of that. I noticed that OTA download was about 250MB, while the RUU download is 1.5GB. Why such a difference? Is it because the RUU is the full-blown deal and not just the patches? I'm fine doing the RUU and then reinstalling and rooting the phone afterwards if that'll work. I still have all the files that I previously downloaded.
Sorry for the novel, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible to eliminate the back and forth "Did you try this?" "Did you try that?" However, if there is anything that I left out that would help with your answer/advice, please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks in advance for any guidance you can give a noob.
lrbarrios