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Here's the situation in brief(please read below for further explanation):
- Arrived in Ireland with LG Vm670 which worked fine for browsing, WhatsApp, etc
- Battery dislodged and phone reset to 1980, no longer can connect or recognize any WIFI signal (is now essentially useless)
- Decided to ROOT but have had to use husbands phone to access GooglePlay and download File Manger, Gingerbread etc on to SD card
- Put SD card into LG phone and nothing is being recognized therefor we're unable to ROOT and ClockSync device.
2 questions: How can I force my phone to recognize the SD files so that we can install these programs, should we be trying a factory reset? Will rooting even be possible without an internet connection or computer access?
*** THANKS to any or all that can shed some light on this problem, we do know what else we can do and I'm desperate for HELP!
The WHOLE STORY (as originally posted in general Q/A): After weeks of general research, trial and error and some despair I have decided to join this forum in hopes of some answers to sorting out my phone. While I will try to keep this brief, this is not a straight forward question and as of yet I have been unable to locate a thread that addresses all of my concerns or questions. Admittedly, I am not as technically savvy as other members on this site so please have patience and understand that I've done my best with the resources and knowledge I have. Here's the issue:
My LG VM670 phone was brought to Ireland (from the US) almost 2 months ago, while I never intended to use it for phone calls it was capable of browsing the internet and that was sufficient. WhatsApp was my main source of communication with family and friends in the states and abroad. I felt very fortunate to have not had any problems until the phone was dropped and the battery dislodged from the casing. Since that happened, my phone has reset itself to 1980 and is no longer able to locate or connect to WIFI or do much of anything for that matter.
After electing to ROOT the phone in hopes that ClockSync may resolve the problem, we downloaded all the files necessary from my husbands phone (an LG that had previously been rooted and is capable of getting online) but my phone is not recognizing any of the files from the SD card. We've exhausted all possibilities, Bluetoothing files and preloading the SD card with Gingerbread and ES File Manager but despite our best attempts my phone can't or will not access these files. Unfortunately, I have no preloaded apps that can assist so it's like starting from scratch but with no internet and no PC, all we're equipped with is an iPad 2 and his LG phone, we're not sure what else can be done with such limited equipment and access. But in the event we can get the applications and programs installed we know how to go about rooting thanks to all the guides posted, it's just getting over the hurdle with the SD card and installation.
Any thoughts on what is happening with the SD card? We know a root can be done without a computer but not if the files can't be accessed so this seems to be the biggest part of the dilemma. With no internet connection or access to the Google Play store is this even possible?
Any and all ideas are welcomed, I just want to be able to solve this problem without having to scrap the phone. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
i dont think you could without internet !
4536923
Why no access to a computer? Couldn't you ask to use someone's?
skinbark said:
Why no access to a computer? Couldn't you ask to use someone's?
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Click to collapse
Apparently they are out of the country. Remember you gotta install drivers too
@NoobInNeed - Can you boot to recovery? I ask because you made no mention of it.
Your questions:
1) Possibly... using Terminal Emulator
2) Also possible, if you can boot to recovery and your recovery isn't stock.
Hey guys, let me just start off by saying I have spent almost 8 hours straight today trying to figure this out and dig myself out of a hole I've created for myself, that being said, I'm going to try and be as detailed as possible so you guys know EXACTLY where I am and what I've tried. This post looks long but that's because it is. It's pretty much my entire day's worth of trouble typed out. So just bare with me and see if you guys can help me out here!
I have a T-Mobile Galaxy S4 model: SGH-M919 it has Android 4.4.2. Now on to the problem: I've had this phone for almost a year now and a few months ago I rooted it. Did a simple Youtube tutorial and used Odin to do the work and everything worked out fine. A couple months down the road (yesterday), after using the phone like a teenager, downloading apps and cluttering it up it started to slow down and not run some apps. After thinking about it I decided to factory reset it. All of my contacts, photos, and videos were backed up on Google so I thought "why not?" Well, this is where $#!% hit the fan.. being rooted then factory reset, right before the phone came online it had me answer two questions about the root. Something to the effect of "Do you want to keep root? (This option is not reversible)" I thought since I wasn't using the features I originally rooted the phone for I figured nah just get rid of the root. So the phone did its T-Mobile boot up and started the Initial setup.
Everything up to to this point was fine until I wanted to log in to my Google account during the setup. Please understand that where I am I have full 4G LTE coverage and have access to a pretty fast and sturdy wifi connection. Well, when it came to the google sign in I entered my email and password and it came up with a message reading "Can't Sign in - Can't establish a reliable connection to the server" (believe me i wish that was the only issue) so after reading that, I thought I'd try with my wifi.. nope. Same thing. Since neither my 4g or wifi worked I thought it was Google's servers so I tried again this morning, same thing. (keep in mind at this point i think my phone isn't rooted anymore.) I call the t mobile store and they give me a technical support number, so I call it and I tell them i cant sign into Google. The gentleman told me he cant do anything because he can tell my phones been rooted. Only thing he suggests is to contact Google, well, the customer care number just tells you go to google.com/support and there's nothing there about my problem.
This is where I dig my hole even deeper. I tried another factory reset and up in the top left corner i still see that root text. Even the rooted android symbol pops up before the Samsung logo or t mobile. Since I saw that I thought "ohh it just didn't get unrooted all the way." I look up ways to completely remove a root and a lot of them require plugin your phone into the computer and using Odin to flash a stock firmware on to the device. I went to plug my phone into the usb port but my computer didn't recognize the usb device, having experienced this a long time ago I searched around for the latest Samsung usb drivers and I installed those. Device still isn't recognized. Let me just note before people tell me to use MTP mode or Developer tools> usb debugging or connection mode.. The only thing that happens when plugging my phone via usb is the phone starts charging and my computer makes the trumpet noise like something is plugged in. Other than that, there is NO notification of it being plugged in. The reason i stress this is because I called Samsung technical support at this point and the guy (not gentleman) treated me like a 5 year old and ran me through all of these options after i told him I already did everything he was suggesting, including downloading Samsung Kies 3 and having it install the drivers. It does not pick up the device either.. at this point I looked up ways to remove the root without the computer. I found out you can just go into the root app "SU" or something and theres a remove root option. I jumped on that opportunity and had it removed. I restarted the phone and all the problems still persist, it even still has the root text on the top left when you factory reset it again. However now, even if you factory reset and select the option "keep root," thinking it would bring back the"SU" app it does NOT.
So lets recap. I have a phone that thinks its rooted and even appears rooted to t mobile but doesn't have any of the root apps or privileges or capabilities to fix my Google log in issue (like the host file in filemanager). And I can't re-root to get that app back because none of my 3 usb ports, 3 different usb cables (one being the cord that came with the phone), or any of the ports/cables on someone else's computer will recognize the darn thing to work on that way! I have all these issues that are supposed to fix each other but I can't do any fixing because they cancel each other out too... I'm at a dead end.
In case this isn't the right forum/website/thread/post area etc.. I have this whole message saved in Microsoft Word document so I can repost it anywhere you guys might suggest better results. Any help/advice will be much appreciated.
Greetings to all the developers and registered users on this site... Yes, this is my first post, but I read here pretty often and I used the search function, trust me! Seriously, I've tried all I could and I am at my wits end, but this is technology, we can't let it own us, we gotta continue owning it and that's what online communities like xda help us do, so thanks for all your past, present, and future contributions here. So I got this Metro PCS Kyocera Hydro Wave (C6740N) that I can't factory reset for a number of reasons, but mainly because I believe that there is either no boot-loader or no recovery partition as a result of Metro PCS flashing the ROM...
Anyway, lets get to the juice:
- Device powers on/off, but no combo of Vol -/+ and Power buttons bring up a recovery menu or anything (holding any combo down just boot-loops)
- Device has no SIM and no micro SD card, and the battery is not removable
- Device is locked... Like, pattern-locked/google account info/too many attempts/yada yada yada
- Device has no data and no WiFi connection active, so I could not use the google account to get past the lockscreen
- Device does not have USB debugging enabled/Google drivers for ADB do not work (Windows 7 auto-detects when I plug in the phone and installs a generic Microsoft driver which cannot be removed even after uninstalling the device, and also I pointed the Device Manager to the correct Google drivers I installed with the Android SDK Tools, as well as the Samsung Naked Universal Drivers I found on this forum, and Kyocera ADB drivers I found through Google which all failed, Windows returned a message stating that the most up-to-date or best driver for this device is already installed)
What I've tried (everything possible really):
- Hard reset/Recovery from phone: FAILED
- Connect to Linux and install ADB, then tried running the adb shell, adb devices, fastboot devices, etc but phone not detected: FAILED
- Connect to Windows 7 and install ADB (Android SDK Tools), I literally checked every single box and installed Platform-tools, google drivers, everything, got to the command prompt as admin, cd to the ADB directory, ran same commands as in linux, also tried commands on several forums and posts like adb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key to remove the lock but everything: FAILED
- Connect to Windows 7 and attempt to install proper drivers using RootGenius, MoboRobo, PDAnet, and several other suggestions which all were oblivious/unable to detect the device despite Windows recognizing it, so they all: FAILED
- Connect to Windows 7 and attempt running ADB through a Cygwin terminal, but the command "sudo" was not recognized/not valid, so: FAILED
- Connect to Windows 7 and use XRYViewer to extract data from the phone, possibly to see the system files and get an actual understanding of what everybody is saying you need to mount from the recovery partition, but no clue how to use this, since I can't find an XRY file in the internal storage, so: FAILED
- Connect to Windows 7 and access data/recover data from device using "Wondershare Dr.Fone for Android" and "iLike Android Data Recovery Pro" but both programs instructed me to enable USB Debugging, which is not possible, so the both also: FAILED
Despite this being my first post, I have scoured the forums here in addition to every other forum and webpage regarding this issue as well... There just isn't much about this phone except negative reviews, and I have come to the conclusion that on this particular model phone, I am out of options... I have a paperweight... I'm not very familiar with Android... So please correct me if I'm wrong...
Any input?
I'm curious if there are any options at this point, I have been trying to get through to this phone on several computers for the past couple days and it is frustrating me... Any input from the community would be much appreciated...
Mojo2XL, I guess you did not find an answer?
Mojo2XL said:
I'm curious if there are any options at this point, I have been trying to get through to this phone on several computers for the past couple days and it is frustrating me... Any input from the community would be much appreciated...
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Click to collapse
I have the exact same problem and it appears I am several months after your post. I just want to use this device as an e-reader but like you, I cannot get anything to recognize it!~
eenuckols said:
I have the exact same problem and it appears I am several months after your post. I just want to use this device as an e-reader but like you, I cannot get anything to recognize it!~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
may be this:
*2767*3855# - Think before you give this code. This code is used for factory format. It'll remove all files and settings including the internal memory storage. It'll also reinstall the phone firmware.
I found code in internet, but may be it works? can't check, my "wave" comes to me from USA by post for a few weeks..
barabeka said:
may be this:
*2767*3855# - Think before you give this code. This code is used for factory format. It'll remove all files and settings including the internal memory storage. It'll also reinstall the phone firmware.
I found code in internet, but may be it works? can't check, my "wave" comes to me from USA by post for a few weeks..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
doesnt work.. you can only get to emergency dialer which can only b used to make emergency calls
elliwigy said:
doesnt work.. you can only get to emergency dialer which can only b used to make emergency calls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okay. i will try something, when my phone will come. is your Wave locked?
barabeka said:
okay. i will try something, when my phone will come. is your Wave locked?
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Click to collapse
i bought another phone and they threw it in free but it has a pin code lock so i cant even get to google screen to bypass frp as im stuck at pin lockscreen and these darnphones have no recovery..
i doubt ull figure out a way as im real savvy with this stuff lol theres no recovery to boot into in order to reset and no way to update tje phone wothout knowing the pin code
any luck? i cant believe this thing is this locked down. makes apple look like chils play
warriorpluto said:
any luck? i cant believe this thing is this locked down. makes apple look like chils play
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i believe it can be done with a pc
Did you happen to get the files the other member posted that was only available for eight days?
Mojo2XL - Sort of.
I saw a youtub video (sorry no link) that says there was a OTA update that changed the phone's firmware that solved all the problems mentioned here. Thing is I have no carrier and cannot find this new firmware, but, I am still hunting....
eenuckols said:
I have the exact same problem and it appears I am several months after your post. I just want to use this device as an e-reader but like you, I cannot get anything to recognize it!~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same problem, I have been trying to get this thing to hard reset for a week now. There has to be a way to reset this Hydro Wave.. Has anyone dealt with this thing?
Hey hold the buttons as follows volume- & power at the exact same time while your phone is off be warned if you phone was preowned you need the goole account originally activeated with that phone if you do not have that then your in the same vote as me i cant remember any of my gmail account info to my wave from when i had it active I have litterally tried every thing to recover the info and i still can't recover it
WhiteWolf77 said:
Hey hold the buttons as follows volume- & power at the exact same time while your phone is off be warned if you phone was preowned you need the goole account originally activeated with that phone if you do not have that then your in the same vote as me i cant remember any of my gmail account info to my wave from when i had it active I have litterally tried every thing to recover the info and i still can't recover it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That doesn't work on this phone the hydro wave from AT&T has factory reset protection so it cannot be reset using the volume down and power button reset
Any update?
dannybz said:
Any update?
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Click to collapse
let me work on this, been trying to master as many FRP bypasses as i can. I don't have the device but a client is in the same boat
I accidentally stumbled upon a something weird. I've managed to make the camera crash to the home screen somehow. I believe this was a result of holding both volume buttons and opening numerous menus while using the camera. My guess is that it overloads it after a certain amount of times and causes it to crash. I've gotten the android UI to crash like this before. I will try to recreate the scenario and update you guys on this. it's on a Kyocera Hydro Wave. Running android 5.0 I believe. Try going wild until the phone starts to lag. eventually stuff will crash and the lock screen may go with it. use this to your advantage and enable USB debugging as quickly as possible because it will reset itself after about 30 seconds. Someone else on YouTube has recently told me that it worked for them. I would look into doing that.
PhoneScrambler said:
I accidentally stumbled upon a something weird. I've managed to make the camera crash to the home screen somehow. I believe this was a result of holding both volume buttons and opening numerous menus while using the camera. My guess is that it overloads it after a certain amount of times and causes it to crash. I've gotten the android UI to crash like this before. I will try to recreate the scenario and update you guys on this. it's on a Kyocera Hydro Wave. Running android 5.0 I believe. Try going wild until the phone starts to lag. eventually stuff will crash and the lock screen may go with it. use this to your advantage and enable USB debugging as quickly as possible because it will reset itself after about 30 seconds. Someone else on YouTube has recently told me that it worked for them. I would look into doing that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there anything a little more realistic possible? Lol, I can see an update available, can't connect to WiFi to update haha. The stuff they lock these phones with anymore i swear
I'm new to this forum, but NOT new to this site . I have visited here on numerous occasions seeking the help that needed . With that being said, I would like to offer a Bonafide, Tried and True way to factory reset the Kyocera Hydrowave . I KNOW that this work's for I have done in on numerous occasions for a friend of mine that works for Metro PCS ....
Step One: Completely power off the phone .
Step Two: Hold the Power AND Volume DOWN Buttons SIMULTANEOUSLY .
Step Three: DO NOT release any buttons, even when you get to the Boot Menu . (Very Important, If you don't do it right, you have to start all over lol ) .
Step Four: Once inside the Boot Menu, ONLY release the Power Button; or the Boot Menu will close and you have to start all over again .
Step Five: Use the Volume Down Button to Highlight the Wipe/Factory Reset Option .
Step Six: Use the Power Button to Select the option .
Step Seven: Watch the bottom of the screen for the progress, and then use the Volume Up Button to restart .
And there you have it . I hope that this helps out SOMEONE out there, because I feel good giving back for the help that I have received on here .
PS.( If you would like for me to post a Video Tutorial on this, can someone please tell me how to post the Video; I guess by me being a Newbie on here, I'm not allowed to do as of yet ) . If Anyone needs to contact me, as I'm not on here very often, my email is [email protected] .
LilAnt530 said:
Is there anything a little more realistic possible? Lol, I can see an update available, can't connect to WiFi to update haha. The stuff they lock these phones with anymore i swear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As unrealistic as it may sound it actually works Trust me on this. its similar to the LG attack which... is nothing but entering a long password.
betanews.com/2015/09/16/bypass-the-android-lollipop-lockscreen-by-entering-a-really-long-password
Just give it a go. it already worked for one dude on youtube. it takes a while but it honestly works. If you can get it, update the phone as soon as possible turn the screen timeout off and let it update. when the phone resets the update will install and you will be able to factory reset.
I mean it couldn't hurt. if you're locked out with no factory reset and ADB tools won't work what else can you do?
So I was trying to just do a clean install. This phone had no mods installed.
I have done this many times and all went well. I am hoping that someone can help me understand what went wrong.
So working on linux, latest fastboot/adb (29.0.6-6198805) and the March image for blueline.
flashing radio and bootloader went fine. When I got to flashing the kernel it stopped after writing slot_a and rebooting into fastboot. I got the message "waiting for any device"
The phone displayed a warming (see pics) that the bootloader is unlocked and phone vulnerable and gave me an option to pause. after a few seconds it went into a "fastbootd" screen that I never saw before (see pic attached) which gave me options to restart or go back to bootloader. Either option breaks the flashing sequence which ends with error.
Re-flashing produces the same result.
Any suggestions what causes this?
Of course the phone does not boot anymore. But I can get to bootloader again using key sequence. Bootloader is unlocked.
Thank you!
Fastbootd happens part way through a flash-all beginning with Android 10. I assume you are using the flash-all script and now doing each command individually. If not, edit the flash-all to get rid of the -w to dirty flash and keep apps and user data. My guess though is that your path is referring to an older version of fastboot. If you have ever installed the apt version of fastboot, it becomes the first to load in your path. Instead, drop the March files into your updated platform-tools folder and ./ the flash-all command in terminal directly from that folder. In a pinch, you can also sideload the ota zip (which you will need to download separately of course) from fastbootd by entering recovery from there and sideloading. Fastbootd gets you into user space, so you should have adb sideload ability.
there are no older fastboot/adb installed i checked. I did each command individually. Reason is long but the person with long nails in the pic is my daughter who is in Europe and I was trying to troubleshoot her pixel through WhatsApp .
I tried to do this flashing using her Chromebook and the stock linux emulation. This may be the problem i will come back to it.
So all files (images + fastboot/adb) were placed in one directory and I ran ./fastboot....
I can try and move fastboot/adb to a bin directory. i doubt this is the problem though. I ran them from home directory before.
I can try a sideload. never done it though.
Here's what i think happens and maybe you can tell me if sideload may avoid this situation:
ChromeOS has to give permission to Linux to use USB for a specified device. It does not remember that device after being disconnected though. Therefore I suspect that during the reboot into fastboot the phone looses USB permission for a second and hence breaks the process.
With all the covid thing all she has available is her Chromebook. I have a linux machine but it's here across the pond.
So does a sideload involve any intermittent re-boots where I may loose USB permissions?
sliding_billy said:
Fastbootd happens part way through a flash-all beginning with Android 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not know that.
What is the "normal" sequence of events? In our case it got to fastbootd and the laptop seemed stuck into "waiting for any device" Am i supposed to press anything or it resumes on its own?
We tried choosing bootloader once and reboot another time but in both cases the process broke down. Are we supposed to wait longer or what?
metricusa said:
there are no older fastboot/adb installed i checked. I did each command individually. Reason is long but the person with long nails in the pic is my daughter who is in Europe and I was trying to troubleshoot her pixel through WhatsApp .
I tried to do this flashing using her Chromebook and the stock linux emulation. This may be the problem i will come back to it.
So all files (images + fastboot/adb) were placed in one directory and I ran ./fastboot....
I can try and move fastboot/adb to a bin directory. i doubt this is the problem though. I ran them from home directory before.
I can try a sideload. never done it though.
Here's what i think happens and maybe you can tell me if sideload may avoid this situation:
ChromeOS has to give permission to Linux to use USB for a specified device. It does not remember that device after being disconnected though. Therefore I suspect that during the reboot into fastboot the phone looses USB permission for a second and hence breaks the process.
With all the covid thing all she has available is her Chromebook. I have a linux machine but it's here across the pond.
So does a sideload involve any intermittent re-boots where I may loose USB permissions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
metricusa said:
I did not know that.
What is the "normal" sequence of events? In our case it got to fastbootd and the laptop seemed stuck into "waiting for any device" Am i supposed to press anything or it resumes on its own?
We tried choosing bootloader once and reboot another time but in both cases the process broke down. Are we supposed to wait longer or what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never ran ChromeOS, but the reboot into fastbootd not retaining the connection would definitely be a problem. The sideload does no reboots until install is complete, so that would be a better way for sure. In reality the phone did at least one reboot into fastbootd. You'd need to try a flash-all with -w in place to see if it could pull off a clean install with the factory image and not lose track of the connection. No doubt it will lose track with individual commands . The normal sequence for factory flash now is just that... run the flash-all .sh it will go into fastbootd during install while terminal will continue to work. There are definitely some spots where nothing appears to be happening on the phone or terminal until reboot. Given the remote nature of your install, I do think a sideload (follow the directions on the pixel ota developers page where you DL the file) is the best option for you.
metricusa said:
there are no older fastboot/adb installed i checked. I did each command individually. Reason is long but the person with long nails in the pic is my daughter who is in Europe and I was trying to troubleshoot her pixel through WhatsApp .
I tried to do this flashing using her Chromebook and the stock linux emulation. This may be the problem i will come back to it.
So all files (images + fastboot/adb) were placed in one directory and I ran ./fastboot....
I can try and move fastboot/adb to a bin directory. i doubt this is the problem though. I ran them from home directory before.
I can try a sideload. never done it though.
Here's what i think happens and maybe you can tell me if sideload may avoid this situation:
ChromeOS has to give permission to Linux to use USB for a specified device. It does not remember that device after being disconnected though. Therefore I suspect that during the reboot into fastboot the phone looses USB permission for a second and hence breaks the process.
With all the covid thing all she has available is her Chromebook. I have a linux machine but it's here across the pond.
So does a sideload involve any intermittent re-boots where I may loose USB permissions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem with my PixelBook. My conclusion was ChromeOS does not forward the USB connection to the Linux container before the phone times out, but your theory about loosing USB permission may be correct. If you have developer mode enabled on the ChromeBook, try booting into Linux from a USB stick instead of running the Linux container. Unfortunately, I have no other solution.
dcarvil said:
If you have developer mode enabled on the ChromeBook, try booting into Linux from a USB stick instead of running the Linux container. Unfortunately, I have no other solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree but with my daughter abroad she can't do the USB stick thingy.
I'll explore the sideload. I'll have to test everything on my Pixel 3. I was trying to avoid that. I have both a Linux machine and a Chromebook here.
And yes, the permission is lost quite fast during a phone reboot. I tested it. I do however find it amazing that a Chromebook is capable of doing such advanced tasks.
I'll try again tomorrow and report back.
metricusa said:
I agree but with my daughter abroad she can't do the USB stick thingy.
I'll explore the sideload. I'll have to test everything on my Pixel 3. I was trying to avoid that. I have both a Linux machine and a Chromebook here.
And yes, the permission is lost quite fast during a phone reboot. I tested it. I do however find it amazing that a Chromebook is capable of doing such advanced tasks.
I'll try again tomorrow and report back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What if you get phone into fastbootd, then plug in so the phone is recognized, then "fastboot update image-blueline-qq2a.200305.002.zip"
Or just unplug it once it gets to fastbootd and plug it back in...if it becomes unrecognized, unplug and plug it back in again when needed?
wangdaning said:
What if you get phone into fastbootd, then plug in so the phone is recognized, then "fastboot update image-blueline-qq2a.200305.002.zip"
Or just unplug it once it gets to fastbootd and plug it back in...if it becomes unrecognized, unplug and plug it back in again when needed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try that.
Unplugging opens another can of worms:
The reason we are doing this is bc the phone suddenly has a problem charging. Opening the battery setting shows a red battery with the message "can't charge now". Also if plugged in while turned off the little battery shows a question mark.
Google offered to exchange it but shipping it back and forth from Europe is 140$ each way and I got a new phone for less. On top of this I risk having to pay import taxes on it.
So in short, if unplugged the phone dies.
The intent of doing this burn was to see if this issue is software related. As I said it happened suddenly after a simple restart. Battey was fine and after restart was not.
I have a feeling it's not the software though.
Wow, that is really high for shipping. I mean, I ship from China to the US for like 20 USD, beside the point though really. She knows no one with an ordinary PC to test? Or a local cell phone service center in her area that could evaluate it? I mean the battery could be dead, or it could have, ehehe, been dropped and a connection loose or something. Not trying to imply anything there, just saying there are many variables at play. I would say if getting to fastbootd and trying the update does not work, then she should really look for a repair shop. Depending on where she is it should be fairly cheap or even free for them to look at it.
wangdaning said:
Wow, that is really high for shipping. I mean, I ship from China to the US for like 20 USD, beside the point though really. She knows no one with an ordinary PC to test? Or a local cell phone service center in her area that could evaluate it? I mean the battery could be dead, or it could have, ehehe, been dropped and a connection loose or something. Not trying to imply anything there, just saying there are many variables at play. I would say if getting to fastbootd and trying the update does not work, then she should really look for a repair shop. Depending on where she is it should be fairly cheap or even free for them to look at it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the option is through fedex/ups. Shipping USPS has resulted many times in the package being stuck in customs for weeks. And the price is not necessarily much lower.
Yes we looked into having it seen by a repair shop but normally we should have been able to do flash it ourselves. Plus it's a good experience for her to be exposed to some linux and the basics of hacking a phone.
Another reason is that this has a high chance of being hardware related so whatever we spend on repair shop is wasted money.
I got her a Samsung A51 and she is out of trouble for now. I have had several bad experiences with pixels so this time I am officially done with spending a fortune on them.
Update as of this morning: It is clear that the USB permission is lost while fastboot performs a reboot during flashing. We tried to quickly re-allow the permission but while the terminal waits for a device patiently it looks that the loss of link is long enough for the phone to decide that something went wrong and goes into fastbootd.
We also tried to flash just the boot.img in both slots . that went well apparently but did not change anything and the phone is still unbootable. Tried recovery but it went back into bootloader with the error that it cannot boot boot.img.
So next step is sideload. i have to figure how that works
fastboot reboot fastboot, select recovery, apply update from ADB, adb sideload whatever.zip
Seems if there is no way to keep the phone on without it plugged in that is a problem. What about a cheap wifi charger, will that keep it on? I mean the phone will technically reboot going from bootloader to fastboot (fastbootd) and the permission will be lost. At least a repair shop could use a proper computer to test it.
wangdaning said:
Seems if there is no way to keep the phone on without it plugged in that is a problem. What about a cheap wifi charger, will that keep it on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone stays on while it is connected to usb. Never died in this process. The connection loss is because of permissions not power.
Latest update: adb sideload worked just perfectly phone is back in running condition.
The bad news, which was expected, is that we did not solve the battery problem so it's hardware related. See attached pic.
In any case: A million thanks for the help. You guys rock!
At least we found out that a Chromebook can do some of these tasks but cannot do the flashing.
I placed a question on Chromebook community about a possible way to give Linux permanent permission to USB. If I find out any good news I'll report back.
Thank you and stay safe!
metricusa said:
Latest update: adb sideload worked just perfectly phone is back in running condition.
The bad news, which was expected, is that we did not solve the battery problem so it's hardware related. See attached pic.
In any case: A million thanks for the help. You guys rock!
At least we found out that a Chromebook can do some of these tasks but cannot do the flashing.
I placed a question on Chromebook community about a possible way to give Linux permanent permission to USB. If I find out any good news I'll report back.
Thank you and stay safe!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you got the device up. As for the charging issue, have you tried a different wired charger or a wireless charger? I assume you are converting power somehow in Europe.
sliding_billy said:
have you tried a different wired charger or a wireless charger?
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Click to collapse
Yes. Tried different charger and a battery pack and also charging through USB from laptop. Did not try wireless. Before I bought the new phone she was using the phone connected to a battery pack.
As you can see in the pic the battery is red and it says "can't charge" while confirming that it does receive power.
I Googled the issue and there are several reports about same behavior. I also did talk to a repair shop over the phone and they said that the power module goes bad and it is a known problem with pixel 2 and 3. He also mentioned that there is a class action lawsuit but I cannot confirm the info.
It doesn't really matter at this point.
My aim was to eliminate the remote possibility this problem was due to some software issue. We solved this and from now on it's a google issue. As I mentioned Google offered to exchange the phone. But with COVID we had to postpone some flights when we could have made the exchange.
I will contact Google and ask for some workaround the COVID crisis. I hope they will be cooperative. I don't see why not.
Thank you all for your help!
My wife dropped her Pixel 4a yesterday and completely broke the screen. You can't see anything except done bright green splotches and lines and it doesn't respond to touch. I bought her a new phone and synced her account, but because her Drive storage was full, the last months photos are not synced. I upgraded her to the 100gb plan and let the broken phone sit hoping it would automatically upload the missing photos but it did not.
So at this point my only options are to somehow connect it to my computer and get them, or replace the screen. I'd rather not pay $140 to replace the screen JUST to get a month's worth of photos.
My question is, can I connect the phone to the PC and remotely enter her PIN and then access the files?
I searched online but the two softwares I found say they will wipe data.
x_orange90_x said:
My wife dropped her Pixel 4a yesterday and completely broke the screen. You can't see anything except done bright green splotches and lines and it doesn't respond to touch. I bought her a new phone and synced her account, but because her Drive storage was full, the last months photos are not synced. I upgraded her to the 100gb plan and let the broken phone sit hoping it would automatically upload the missing photos but it did not.
So at this point my only options are to somehow connect it to my computer and get them, or replace the screen. I'd rather not pay $140 to replace the screen JUST to get a month's worth of photos.
My question is, can I connect the phone to the PC and remotely enter her PIN and then access the files?
I searched online but the two softwares I found say they will wipe data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You MIGHT be able to get the phone to show up on Windows by mirroring it (either over USB or over Wi-Fi).
My phone isn't broken, but I can easily mirror the phone and unlock the lock screen and view it and control it using free software on Windows.
You can also mount the entire phone onto Windows as a drive letter over Wi-Fi if you have a webdav server on it.
Here are some screenshots of what I do, and I have some tutorials here on how to set that up if you need them.
if you didn't enable usb debugging before the accident, nothing can be done now
Nfury00701 said:
if you didn't enable usb debugging before the accident, nothing can be done now
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Click to collapse
Good point!
I assumed the op had already enabled USB debugging.
In fact, most people I know (including me) enable Developer Options the instant we get a new phone, and then we enable Mock Location and USB Debugging the second instant, so every Android device I've ever touched has had those two options set as the first things done.
But the user we're both trying to help might not have done that.
If he has any server (FTP, WebDav, SMB, etc.) set up to run at boot time, then he still has a chance (as most people set up one of those also, as far as I know).
If not, this is a lesson to the rest of us to have a failsafe plan if the screen won't work (my personal favorites are Vysor & WebDav).
I'm pretty certain I didn't enable the USB Debugging. Maybe I'll order a cheap screen from eBay just to get it working. Obviously it would be very low quality compared to OEM, but it's a fraction of the price and should get the job done.
Thanks for the replies!
Edit:
Well scratch that idea. Can't get a screen for under $130 now. The repair shop quoted me $140 I think and it's an OEM replacement. Still though, not gonna do it, at least not right now.
x_orange90_x said:
I'm pretty certain I didn't enable the USB Debugging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Drat.
I am racking my brain trying to figure out a way you can access the phone from your PC (over Wi-Fi or over USB) without interacting with the screen, which I do all day, every day, but I'm already connected over a variety of servers that are either on the phone (e.g., WebDAV) or on Windows via adb (e.g., Vysor, Scrcpy).
I guess the lesson for anyone reading this is set up a wireless server now, as they're free, and they need ZERO software on Android.
x_orange90_x said:
I'm pretty certain I didn't enable the USB Debugging. Maybe I'll order a cheap screen from eBay just to get it working. Obviously it would be very low quality compared to OEM, but it's a fraction of the price and should get the job done.
Thanks for the replies!
Edit:
Well scratch that idea. Can't get a screen for under $130 now. The repair shop quoted me $140 I think and it's an OEM replacement. Still though, not gonna do it, at least not right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont know if this will work, and if you need the bootloader unlocked (for the TWRP stuff), but I would try the following.
Try to access the phone in recovery through adb. i think you would of had to have previously authorised adb from your PC to the device, for this to work.
NB: You can run TWRP, without flashing it.
Run adb through TWRP, and try accessing the photos/data. I would guess you wil need to unencrypt the phone first.
Run TWRP, unencrypt the phone and do a backup, and try viewing the contents through 7Zip on your PC
DiamondJohn said:
I dont know if this will work, and if you need the bootloader unlocked (for the TWRP stuff), but I would try the following.
Try to access the phone in recovery through adb. i think you would of had to have previously authorised adb from your PC to the device, for this to work.
NB: You can run TWRP, without flashing it.
Run adb through TWRP, and try accessing the photos/data. I would guess you wil need to unencrypt the phone first.
Run TWRP, unencrypt the phone and do a backup, and try viewing the contents through 7Zip on your PC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds plausible, but I'm no expert on this topic. Remote-running TWRP sounds very promising. I'm willing to give it a shot if you can instruct me or provide me instructions to do so.
x_orange90_x said:
Sounds plausible, but I'm no expert on this topic. Remote-running TWRP sounds very promising. I'm willing to give it a shot if you can instruct me or provide me instructions to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not what I would call "remote running". Its running it without flashing it.
The following is a log of my script. I copy the TWRP img file to g:\recovery and then run the following in a command prompt on windows.
Code:
>g:
>cd \recover
>PATH=%PATH%;"%SYSTEMROOT%\System32";"C:\Java\x86\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools";
>fastboot devices
08721KEC209540 fastboot
>fastboot boot sunfish_twrp201017-test5.img
Its probably an outdated TWRP, and I changed the return from fastboot devices for privacy
I defer to the extraordinary knowledge of DiamondJohn where all I want to add is that I searched EVERY similar thread on XDA and referenced over two hundred of them, sorted in LIFO order, over here:
What is the best XDA solution to control Android on the PC & recover data over Wi-Fi when the user suddenly has an unresponsive broken screen?
The OP "might" profit from reading some of them, particularly:
Tutorial : How to turn on USB debugging on device with broken screen, by MiroBiala, on Jun 28, 2017
[Tool][Windows] Control a device with a broken screen. Now with touchscreen support!!, by k.janku1 on Jun 17, 2014
[TOOL] ADB Data Recovery (recover data from a phone with broken screen), by FuzzyMeep Two, on Jun 26, 2013
Bear in mind that adb can remotely push buttons from the PC to Android over Wi-Fi if you happen to know the pixel location of those buttons on the Android device (but, of course, adb has to work first).
Good luck. You're in good hands with DiamondJohn (who knows far more than I ever will about this topic).