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How to know if your magic is truly bricked or only semi bricked.

I've had the great misfortune of bricking my phone within the first few hours of owning it. I should have known something was up, it wouldn't reboot when I changed the language to English, and I'd have to hard reset it (delete everything) and then let it load in Chinese again. Well, in an attempt to fix what I thought was a rom issue, I went through the song and dance of trying to root my phone.
I'm still not fully clear on how to do it, as it seems there's more to it than just what the tutorials say.
Anyway, like the title of this thread says, there's a pretty good way to figure out if your phone is really bricked, no need to ask or wonder anymore.
If your phone only boots to the htc magic screen (and then stops), and is unable to load bootloader, fastboot, usb connections, or anything else, it's bricked. 100%. You have to take it back. Don't bother searching the forums for the answer, I've wasted hours going through every related thread and trying every possible solution. Without the ability to access the fastboot screen, you're out of possibilities. Untill someone comes out with an unbricker which goes deeper than fastboot, there is absolutely no way to fix it.
A semi brick is much better on the other hand. There are plenty of ways to fix your phone, provided you're only semi bricked. I would define semi bricked as being able to enter fastboot, but being unable to boot the phone as normal. This can happen with a bad flash, or a mis step during a tutorial. I'm not exactly sure how easy it is to change a semi brick to a full brick, but my full bricking happened after semi bricking it while loading a new rom on it.
So. to summarize, if your phone WON'T go into the boot menu by pressing vol-down+power, you're in need of a new phone.
If you can still get into the boot menu, and access your phone through usb, you're ok, just get help (via a tutorial) before going any further, unless you're completely certain of what to do next.
Tis a shame to send a device, which is physically undamaged, to the digital graveyard. But such is life.
Caid.
444.
EDIT
on a side note, before my phone reset itself into it's endless loop of unloading, I noticed the screen flash an image of a box with what looked like a red arrow coming out of it. It was right in the center of the screen. This was in the recovery-RAv1.0H.img menu. What's that all about?

Did you try other key combinations such as Home+Power, or Back+Power?

I'm sorry but I think you're misunderstanding it all a little bit...
Caid444 said:
I've had the great misfortune of bricking my phone within the first few hours of owning it. I should have known something was up, it wouldn't reboot when I changed the language to English, and I'd have to hard reset it (delete everything) and then let it load in Chinese again. Well, in an attempt to fix what I thought was a rom issue, I went through the song and dance of trying to root my phone.
I'm still not fully clear on how to do it, as it seems there's more to it than just what the tutorials say.
Anyway, like the title of this thread says, there's a pretty good way to figure out if your phone is really bricked, no need to ask or wonder anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's easy if you follow the guides... I did it in two different phones with no problem at all in any of them... Anyway, let's stay on topìc
Caid444 said:
If your phone only boots to the htc magic screen (and then stops), and is unable to load bootloader, fastboot, usb connections, or anything else, it's bricked. 100%. You have to take it back. Don't bother searching the forums for the answer, I've wasted hours going through every related thread and trying every possible solution. Without the ability to access the fastboot screen, you're out of possibilities. Untill someone comes out with an unbricker which goes deeper than fastboot, there is absolutely no way to fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong. If your phone boots to the HTC Magic screen, the bootloader is doing it's job. The bootloader just takes you there. The linux kernel and ramdisk takes you to the boot animation, and there is where android really starts.
If your phone shows the first htc logo, or the Vodafone branded screen, you can start in bootloader mode. To make that you just have to remove the battery, put it back, and press and hold BACK + END KEY. From that, you can fastboot.
Also, and unless you destroyed the recovery partition, you can also boot in recovery mode, by pressing END KEY while holding HOME (no need to keep them both hold, just home button)
Caid444 said:
A semi brick is much better on the other hand. There are plenty of ways to fix your phone, provided you're only semi bricked. I would define semi bricked as being able to enter fastboot, but being unable to boot the phone as normal. This can happen with a bad flash, or a mis step during a tutorial. I'm not exactly sure how easy it is to change a semi brick to a full brick, but my full bricking happened after semi bricking it while loading a new rom on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would call a semi brick this:
Your phone goes into an endless loop while booting.
Your phone gets stucked on the first boot logo.
You can't get access to the recovery partition.
Your phone boots all the way but then gets stucked.
Your phone gone bad during a software update.
That, all, can be solved by reflashing the affected region. There are tutorials for everything but if you need I can write some hints on each case (I suffered them all ).
Caid444 said:
So. to summarize, if your phone WON'T go into the boot menu by pressing vol-down+power, you're in need of a new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, VOLDOWN+POWER starts in Hboot mode. From there you can go back to fastboot mode, but hboot is used to make a software upgrade using complete images or running htc diagnostic images (SAPPDIAG.IMG, SAPP*.IMG /NBH).
Caid444 said:
If you can still get into the boot menu, and access your phone through usb, you're ok, just get help (via a tutorial) before going any further, unless you're completely certain of what to do next.
Tis a shame to send a device, which is physically undamaged, to the digital graveyard. But such is life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can't get USB working on fastboot mode, or on recovery mode, your phone has probably a hardware fault. It happened with some of the first revisions of the Vodafone branded magic, don't know about htc branded ones though..
NOTE: Not talking about missing drivers, if you don't have drivers, that's another problem, but the computer should at least detect the device. Also, if your phone is off, and you connect the charger (or usb) and the orange led lights up, the bootloader should be ok.
Caid444 said:
on a side note, before my phone reset itself into it's endless loop of unloading, I noticed the screen flash an image of a box with what looked like a red arrow coming out of it. It was right in the center of the screen. This was in the recovery-RAv1.0H.img menu. What's that all about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the recovery mode. With that you can unbrick your phone
Also, as another hint, if you're new to linux OSes, you might want to take a look at some manual on terminal commands. If your main software is bricked, it's possible that your SDCard doesn't get mounted on recovery mode, depending on wich recovery image you're running. Provided you have an update.zip on the sdcard you need to run, you might have to mount it manually.
To do that, you have to start the phone in recovery mode, and run an "adb shell" on the PC.
When you have a shell opened, you'll have to mount the sdcard manually:
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard
Then, on the phone you can use the option to run sdcard update.zip to restart the software upgrade procedure.
Regards!

Before I reply, I'd just like to say thank you very much for your extremely in depth reply.
biktor_gj said:
I'm sorry but I think you're misunderstanding it all a little bit...
It's easy if you follow the guides... I did it in two different phones with no problem at all in any of them... Anyway, let's stay on topìc
Wrong. If your phone boots to the HTC Magic screen, the bootloader is doing it's job. The bootloader just takes you there. The linux kernel and ramdisk takes you to the boot animation, and there is where android really starts.
If your phone shows the first htc logo, or the Vodafone branded screen, you can start in bootloader mode. To make that you just have to remove the battery, put it back, and press and hold BACK + END KEY. From that, you can fastboot.
Also, and unless you destroyed the recovery partition, you can also boot in recovery mode, by pressing END KEY while holding HOME (no need to keep them both hold, just home button)
I would call a semi brick this:
Your phone goes into an endless loop while booting.
Your phone gets stucked on the first boot logo.
You can't get access to the recovery partition.
Your phone boots all the way but then gets stucked.
Your phone gone bad during a software update.
That, all, can be solved by reflashing the affected region. There are tutorials for everything but if you need I can write some hints on each case (I suffered them all ).
Actually, VOLDOWN+POWER starts in Hboot mode. From there you can go back to fastboot mode, but hboot is used to make a software upgrade using complete images or running htc diagnostic images (SAPPDIAG.IMG, SAPP*.IMG /NBH).
If you can't get USB working on fastboot mode, or on recovery mode, your phone has probably a hardware fault. It happened with some of the first revisions of the Vodafone branded magic, don't know about htc branded ones though..
NOTE: Not talking about missing drivers, if you don't have drivers, that's another problem, but the computer should at least detect the device. Also, if your phone is off, and you connect the charger (or usb) and the orange led lights up, the bootloader should be ok.
That's the recovery mode. With that you can unbrick your phone
Also, as another hint, if you're new to linux OSes, you might want to take a look at some manual on terminal commands. If your main software is bricked, it's possible that your SDCard doesn't get mounted on recovery mode, depending on wich recovery image you're running. Provided you have an update.zip on the sdcard you need to run, you might have to mount it manually.
To do that, you have to start the phone in recovery mode, and run an "adb shell" on the PC.
When you have a shell opened, you'll have to mount the sdcard manually:
mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard
Then, on the phone you can use the option to run sdcard update.zip to restart the software upgrade procedure.
Regards!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To the first answer.
It's not THAT easy, the guides are kinda (you should already know what you're doing at this point) in nature. It's confusing for newcomers, as we've no idea what to expect, that and there are a multitude of variations. More specification as to which guide works with which model, and which updates would be nice.
As for the second part, I could not get the phone working with any button variation pressed. I'm sorry I was not more clear in my description, to begin with. I could press (and hold) any button (or buttons) + power (end key) and the phone would just vibrate (briefly) and then display the original screen "htc magic"(endlessly). The orange light does come on when plugged into the usb or computer, but only while it is off, as soon as the device turns on, the light turns off.
Another thing of note is that, after bricking it, I had to remove the battery to turn it off (every time if it was on), and if I put the battery back in while it's plugged into the usb port of the computer, the phone would turn back on without pressing any buttons. It's also completely unresponsive or detectable by my computer after bricking it. The only other thing I can get it to do is make the orange light blue by holding the action button and turning on the device. That way the light on top of the device is blue when it turns on. Still unresponsive at that point.
This is my first android device, but not my first htc device (I've had MANY MANY different ones.) so I'm a bit familiar with trying different combinations to get a response.
I am not the first person who's had this happen, unfortunately. There have been a couple others, who've described the exact same encounter. Perhaps it's a mistake that I made, and perhaps they also made it themselves. I would like to figure out how it's happening, though, and perhaps write a tutorial for people like us unlucky few.
Again, a really big thanks. I've sent my phone back and am getting a new one soon. I much appreciate your reply, however, as it's probably the most understanding and considerate reply I've seen on these forums.
Cheers.
Caid.
444

One more quick question out of curiosity, when you press and hold back and press end to turn on the device (it still goes to the htc magic screen) SHOULD it go to a different screen, other than the "htc magic" screen? Or is that a process that runs without some sort of visual notification on the device itself?
The usb was completely unresponsive after this happened, but in the event that bootloader may have been running, (only possible if it runs without any visual notification on the device itself), I'll go pick up the device and see if my usb drivers on my computer just became unresponsive after being accessed too many times. Sometimes windows does that, right? Perhaps a reboot would have allowed fastboot and the drivers to connect again, if the device was trying to talk to the computer, but I just didn't know on account of not having any notification.
So, again, should pressing back and power bring me to a different screen? or would it also look like it was hanging on htc magic screen?
Caid.
444
p.s. Sorry for the confusing wording, I'm tired and trying very hard to be as specific as possible.

back+end/power should lead you to the fastboot screen right after it shows the HTC Magic screen or whatever splash screen you have installed.
Home+end/power should lead you to the recovery screen.

ok, it was bricked. Thanks for the answer.
Caid.
444

Caid444 said:
Before I reply, I'd just like to say thank you very much for your extremely in depth reply.
To the first answer.
It's not THAT easy, the guides are kinda (you should already know what you're doing at this point) in nature. It's confusing for newcomers, as we've no idea what to expect, that and there are a multitude of variations. More specification as to which guide works with which model, and which updates would be nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, we all should be here to learn, and to help (except for the trolls)
This is the guide I followed for both Vodafone branded Magics: http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=Magic_Rooting
Maybe not for now, but for the next magic you get it may come handy
Caid444 said:
As for the second part, I could not get the phone working with any button variation pressed. I'm sorry I was not more clear in my description, to begin with. I could press (and hold) any button (or buttons) + power (end key) and the phone would just vibrate (briefly) and then display the original screen "htc magic"(endlessly). The orange light does come on when plugged into the usb or computer, but only while it is off, as soon as the device turns on, the light turns off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When the phone is off with the charger connected and you press the power button, the light goes off, as for the others, you really should be able to enter the SPL if it could the magic bootlogo and vibrated upon boot...
Maybe you didn't try enough or maybe your bootloader behaved differently than mine... I should be more clear anyway, to get to the bootloader, the best way to make it go to the bootloader is press and hold back key, then while holding it, hold the power button too. It should take about a second or two before showing the three skater droids.
Caid444 said:
Another thing of note is that, after bricking it, I had to remove the battery to turn it off (every time if it was on), and if I put the battery back in while it's plugged into the usb port of the computer, the phone would turn back on without pressing any buttons. It's also completely unresponsive or detectable by my computer after bricking it. The only other thing I can get it to do is make the orange light blue by holding the action button and turning on the device. That way the light on top of the device is blue when it turns on. Still unresponsive at that point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you put the battery while USB or charger is connected, the phone boots up, that's the normal behaviour. About the blue led, that's the Radio bootloader. That's quite dangerous to play with, but it gives a lot of other functions. Another sign that your phone wasn't completely dead Even if you wipe the SPL (the three skater droids), you may be able to boot into the Radio bootloader and write or boot another one to fix it. But that's waaaay harder
Caid444 said:
This is my first android device, but not my first htc device (I've had MANY MANY different ones.) so I'm a bit familiar with trying different combinations to get a response.
I am not the first person who's had this happen, unfortunately. There have been a couple others, who've described the exact same encounter. Perhaps it's a mistake that I made, and perhaps they also made it themselves. I would like to figure out how it's happening, though, and perhaps write a tutorial for people like us unlucky few.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess the first advice when you start tricking with a phone is be careful with what you're doing. That's the good thing of fastboot.
When booting on fastboot mode, you can pick, for example a recovery image, and boot it without overwriting the original rom:
Code:
fastboot boot [recovery_image]
Then, when you see it's working, you can flash it:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery [recovery_image]
fastboot flash boot [boot_image]
fastboot flash system [system_image]
fastboot flash data [data_image]
You can't do that with the system.img since it's too big, but you can do it also with a boot.img
About the key combinations on the phone, it goes like this:
Code:
BACK + END KEY -> Fastboot mode (you shouldn't see the boot logo)
VOLDOWN + END KEY -> Hboot mode (you shouldn't see the boot logo)
ACTION (trackball center) + END KEY -> Radio Bootloader (you shouldn't see the boot logo)
HOME + END KEY -> Recovery mode (you should see the boot logo, then get the recovery menu)
SEND + MENU + END -> Reboot the phone (while the phone is on)
Maybe there are more (android has kind of 'safe mode' but I don't know it it goes there automatically if there's a problem or if it has to be called manually)
Anyway, I hope these things will be useful for the next phone, and for anybody who's a bit lost on this
Regards!

Let us know where you live , so maybe one can help you , I live in Sweden and will be glad to help you if you are near ;-)

Hey! Thanks again for all the help, and the offer to come help. Unfortunately, I'm in China. Coming here from Sweden (although it's a single large landmass) would take quite a bit of time
I appreciate all the support, though. Very cool community we're building here for the magic.
Caid.
444

htc semi-brick?
Hi to all. I'm in the same condition described in this tread; after installing SPL i get the htc block in Vodafone brand red screen.
None keys combination bring me to the boot menù. Only Action(trackball) + power have effect, but with a black screen...
Any suggest?

What do you do if you can boot into fastboot but can't flash anything because absolutely everything gives the error "FAILED (remote: signature verify fail)"?
I have a card reader and have tried just about every sappimg.zip, every boot.img, every recovery.img i could find. I can't even boot a recovery img because the screen just hangs at the HTC Magic logo.
I don't know what kind of warranty i have on this thing, but i might take it in tomorrow and see if i can get it replaced. I've only had it for just under two weeks.

Newbie need help
ok so i can still go to recovery mode but everytime i reboot my phone the mytouch 3g logo never goes away im new to Android but not htc can somebody plz help me out.

gruppler said:
What do you do if you can boot into fastboot but can't flash anything because absolutely everything gives the error "FAILED (remote: signature verify fail)"?
I have a card reader and have tried just about every sappimg.zip, every boot.img, every recovery.img i could find. I can't even boot a recovery img because the screen just hangs at the HTC Magic logo.
I don't know what kind of warranty i have on this thing, but i might take it in tomorrow and see if i can get it replaced. I've only had it for just under two weeks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instead of flashing something, you boot a recovery image, and then, from there, you flash whatever you need (using adb & flash_image for example)
PS: Be a little patient, if fastboot is letting you boot a recovery image, the recovery needs to boot, and that takes a little while, and while it's booting, you see the bootlogo until the menu appears. Also, you can try running adb shell after boot process started to try to get an error message (or at least to know if the thing is booting in some way)

I couldn't boot any recovery images. I had tried a few different Hero ROMs but decided i wanted to use Cupcake again because i have a 32B board and it just doesn't have enough RAM, though Swapper makes it usable at least. I don't know what exactly i did, but i've learned a lot from my mistakes. Everything i tried failed the signature check because the hboot version didn't match. If i could just flash the 1.33.2005 hboot again, i would have been in business, but no matter which recovery image i tried, it just sat there doing nothing. And believe me, i waited.
Fortunately, T-Mobile gave me a new device after i took it in and played dumb. And I just rooted it =]

Caid444 said:
ok, it was bricked. Thanks for the answer.
Caid.
444
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not flashing it with an RUU from HTC. Not sure that would work but it is worth trying.

Hi there, people!
First of all, thanks because while I was reading ur posts I realized that my phone had been bricked, 100 %
I tried official ROM upgrade to Android 1.6 using the folowing steps
1. Copied radio zip to my sd card by renaming it in update.zip
2. Recovery screen was started by pressing HOME+END key
3.Applied update.zip, process was going on: Opening package, verifing package, installing radio...and message about success was shown and phone restarted
4. Phone stucked on HTC Magic logo screen...15 minutes
5. I removed a battery, put it back and tried to reach recovery or boot mode again
6.Unsuccessfully! Phone vibrates and turns on...but always stucks on the HTC Magic screen
7. USB does not recognize my phone is connected (I tried any adb and fastboot commands)
8. So, I just pray to give me a new phone if my warranty will be accepted

iivanovic said:
Hi there, people!
First of all, thanks because while I was reading ur posts I realized that my phone had been bricked, 100 %
I tried official ROM upgrade to Android 1.6 using the folowing steps
1. Copied radio zip to my sd card by renaming it in update.zip
2. Recovery screen was started by pressing HOME+END key
3.Applied update.zip, process was going on: Opening package, verifing package, installing radio...and message about success was shown and phone restarted
4. Phone stucked on HTC Magic logo screen...15 minutes
5. I removed a battery, put it back and tried to reach recovery or boot mode again
6.Unsuccessfully! Phone vibrates and turns on...but always stucks on the HTC Magic screen
7. USB does not recognize my phone is connected (I tried any adb and fastboot commands)
8. So, I just pray to give me a new phone if my warranty will be accepted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. I get up hboot and fast boot menus can not get it in recovery. try to add in sappimg but no luck

I'm having the exact same problem...
Any solution yet?

Hello! I can assure you that your phone is not fully bricked! Awhile ago I flashed a new radio only to discover that I hadn't done my research and was a complete and total idiot. I flashed the 1.76.xxxx on a 32B. It didn't like it. I got a quick HTC logo that disappeared then the phone never responded again. When I say never responded it was dead. no combination of buttons would get any response. If you can get into fastboot you have options. All that's necessary is to make sure you have the appropriate sappimg file. Try the Unlockr's gold card method file. He has a .zip file that may work for you. Just make sure that you find an image that is compatible with your board (32A or 32B). Hope this helps!

Moto g bricked

Hello,
I was bought moto g 8 GB and i used it one day.
My phone does not work
I made factory reset and after that phone works but after 2 hours when i turn on phone, i see only Moto logo, after that he appeared black screen. I will record video tomorrow if you need it.
When i hold power down and power button i can see fastboot flash mode. I can see normally options in flash mode but also i see "Device is LOCKED". http://postimg.org/image/oa3blyd2n/
http://postimg.org/image/9pm8r4i3z/
When i click on recovery mode phone has restart and i see moto logo and black screen...
I wait 7 hours but nothing happened.
Please help me

Joomlar said:
Hello,
I was bought moto g 8 GB and i used it one day.
My phone does not work
I made factory reset and after that phone works but after 2 hours when i turn on phone, i see only Moto logo, after that he appeared black screen. I will record video tomorrow if you need it.
When i hold power down and power button i can see fastboot flash mode. I can see normally options in flash mode but also i see "Device is LOCKED". http://postimg.org/image/oa3blyd2n/
http://postimg.org/image/9pm8r4i3z/
When i click on recovery mode phone has restart and i see moto logo and black screen...
I wait 7 hours but nothing happened.
Please help me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The good thing about development phone like Moto G are that you can never brick your phone. It is very much recoverable. Try unlocking bootloader and then flash official firmware from this link http://sbf.droid-developers.org/phone.php?device=14
Use this link to unlock bootloader,
https://accounts.motorola.com/ssoau...ct/standalone/bootloader/unlock-your-device-b
You can bring your phone back to life.
Hope it helps.

smohanv said:
The good thing about development phone like Moto G are that you can never brick your phone. It is very much recoverable. Try unlocking bootloader and then flash official firmware from this link http://sbf.droid-developers.org/phone.php?device=14
Use this link to unlock bootloader,
https://accounts.motorola.com/ssoau...ct/standalone/bootloader/unlock-your-device-b
You can bring your phone back to life.
Hope it helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or he can ask for replacement
Sent from Samsung Chat

jaspreet997 said:
Or he can ask for replacement
Sent from Samsung Chat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would not wait for two weeks for replacement when we can bring the phone to life within 30min.
I agree a risk element in it. If the phone is basically faulty, then it is not worth trying the way I suggested. Has this worked before you started mess around?
Good luck..

smohanv said:
I would not wait for two weeks for replacement when we can bring the phone to life within 30min.
I agree a risk element in it. If the phone is basically faulty, then it is not worth trying the way I suggested. Has this worked before you started mess around?
Good luck..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the phone is basically faulty (a potential hardware issue) the last thing one should do is unlock the bootloader and lose the warranty.
Sent from my Nexus 5

If you have ordered from flipkart Just call them and pretend that its not turning on at all.....and they will give you a hand to hand replacement!

I can return phone but it cost more then 60 EUR via DHL and i must wait long time...
Today i will try to unlock bootloader and flash firmware. Thanks you all, have you more suggestions?
I dont know what happened. This is strange problem because telephone work fine 5 hours and after power off, i see only Motorola Logo. I hope that i will not miss guarranty when i unlock bootloader.

Unlock device is finished. Can you give me tutorial for flashing stock firmware? I am noob
U used this tutorial: http://www.theandroidsoul.com/install-moto-g-uk-generic-firmwarestock-rom/
but after flashing i have the same problem
Is there any solution? If not, how i can lock bootloader because now i lose guarranty

Joomlar said:
Hello,
I was bought moto g 8 GB and i used it one day.
My phone does not work
I made factory reset and after that phone works but after 2 hours when i turn on phone, i see only Moto logo, after that he appeared black screen. I will record video tomorrow if you need it.
When i hold power down and power button i can see fastboot flash mode. I can see normally options in flash mode but also i see "Device is LOCKED". http://postimg.org/image/oa3blyd2n/
http://postimg.org/image/9pm8r4i3z/
When i click on recovery mode phone has restart and i see moto logo and black screen...
I wait 7 hours but nothing happened.
Please help me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had exactly the same issue, after I unlocked the bootloader this happened to me, don't worry is not bricked just a software issue with some providers firmwares, what did I do? The good about this is, you should be able to put it in fastboot.
Read all before try it please
* I unlocked the bootloader (seems like you already did it)
* I flashed CWM http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2563599
Here the next issue was I needed to flash a ROM but I wasn't able to put any file in my device even mouting the USB in CWM or adb push, so: sideload
* I downloaded this rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2606943 (you could use other but that worked for me)
* I Put the zip file in the fastboot directory
* I turned on my device in recovery mode (CWM, you can do it by the fastboot, select recovery, use vol up to enter, vol down to move, power button doesn't work here).
* Wipe factory, cache and dalvik (just in case I think factory wipe is enough)
* I went to the option flash from zip file, flash from sideload (or similar not sure about the name but it says sideload)
adb sideload myromfile.zip
once the adb finish, CWM will notify you and you can flash your rom regularly. It will finish, then you should reboot, It should take about 5 minutes for the first boot. Then my phone worked again.
Sorry if I said something wrong, first time I talk here and I felt identified with your issue and wanted to help you.

Thank you. I flashed CWM but i can not enter to it. When i hold volume down + power button i enter in fastboot flash mode. How i can enter to recovery cwm? When i enter to recovery trough fastboot mode nothing happened. Phone has restart and appeared moto logo. When i flash it i got ".mismatched partition size".
Is there any tutorial for me ? I am very frustrated with this phone

sounds like the phone might be faulty if it happened and you didnt do anything to cause it ,
anyway another option for you is to try a external reset,you have attempted too flash other firmwares so not 100% sure it will work but give it a try through fastboot recovery.
click the link below and halfway down the page follow the instruction for "external reset"
https://motorola-global-portal.cust..._detail/a_id/97329/p/30,6720,9050/action/auth

This is my steps:
-Flash this falcon_retgb_user_4.3_14.10.0Q3.X-76-LGG-8_54_release-keys-cid7-Retail_GB via this tutorial http://www.theandroidsoul.com/install-moto-g-uk-generic-firmwarestock-rom/
-flash CWM V3 or V2
Do i need to flash some other stock ROM before i do external reset? EDIT; external reset does not work becase i can not enter to recovery and wipe data/cache...

smohanv said:
The good thing about development phone like Moto G are that you can never brick your phone. It is very much recoverable. Try unlocking bootloader and then flash official firmware from this link http://sbf.droid-developers.org/phone.php?device=14
Use this link to unlock bootloader,
https://accounts.motorola.com/ssoau...ct/standalone/bootloader/unlock-your-device-b
You can bring your phone back to life.
Hope it helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except it isn't a development phone and of course you can brick it. Try erasing the bootloader and recovery and see how you get on then. Im pretty sure it'd be bricked??
To OP - you should have returned phone especially as you are a noob, no offence but a noob trying to recover a phone which has 'broken' by itself is not going to end well especially as its impossible to tell if its hardware or software issue in the first place.
I wish you luck though.

Joomlar said:
Thank you. I flashed CWM but i can not enter to it. When i hold volume down + power button i enter in fastboot flash mode. How i can enter to recovery cwm? When i enter to recovery trough fastboot mode nothing happened. Phone has restart and appeared moto logo. When i flash it i got ".mismatched partition size".
Is there any tutorial for me ? I am very frustrated with this phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To get into CWM after flash it, go to fastboot mode, then in the menu, use ONLY vol down and move to the recovery option, once in the recovery option push vol up.
It also could be you phone has a fault from factory.

scott_doyland said:
Except it isn't a development phone and of course you can brick it. Try erasing the bootloader and recovery and see how you get on then. Im pretty sure it'd be bricked??
To OP - you should have returned phone especially as you are a noob, no offence but a noob trying to recover a phone which has 'broken' by itself is not going to end well especially as its impossible to tell if its hardware or software issue in the first place.
I wish you luck though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can perfeclty recover an erased or corrupt bootloader, and from there flash anything you want, including recovery. Yeah, it's an unbrickable phone.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2623587

Joomlar said:
Thank you. I flashed CWM but i can not enter to it. When i hold volume down + power button i enter in fastboot flash mode. How i can enter to recovery cwm? When i enter to recovery trough fastboot mode nothing happened. Phone has restart and appeared moto logo. When i flash it i got ".mismatched partition size".
Is there any tutorial for me ? I am very frustrated with this phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i got the same error, but i just kept flashing cwm like five times in a row then vol down then up and it loaded cwm.
try it.

Yes, it can be bricked depending on the version... Mine can't have the bootloader unlocked...
Sent from my XT1032 using xda app-developers app

I must return phone. My bootloader is unlocked, i hope that manufacturer will give me new phone.
IF you have any solution respond me please.

Maybe you could try this way http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2542219 !?

Joomlar said:
I must return phone. My bootloader is unlocked, i hope that manufacturer will give me new phone.
IF you have any solution respond me please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your phone seems to be fine. the only option worth a try is to flash official firmware that should go ok with a locked bootloader forget about custom recovery and rooms
and in any case do not unlock the bootloader until you some how solve this and in the picture you posted the phone already is in flash mode just make your PC to recognize your phone by installing the necessary drivers and flash
Find everything you need in the post above mine

bootloop and no recovery

Good day.
Thanks fore reading my post.
I had root on my phone like for 3 or 4 months. everything was great and all. I did not dwell in any ROM installing or playing with the firmware.
But I am not sure what I did that this happened.
When I restarted my phone, I experienced everything until the Logo faded to the rotating circle(loading). And it stays there. Always.
I did check on many sites and it seems to be a bootloop. I tried going into recovery, used every button combination possible(I have only 3 and also tried and for my phone and for others to work) and I can't.
It just continues normally and to the position I explained before.
I have a Vodafone Smart 4 Max and even though I want the fix for my phone, I know there are other users that also experience/experienced this problem on different phones.
Might there be a way to fix this?
Thank you for your time
EDIT:: I managed to enter in recovery mode and tried a hard reset of the android. The situation is still the same, the bootloop remaining

Go to bootloader and flash factory firmware with fastboot

I wish I could. I have no idea how to access the bootloader(as I see no function like that).
I only have 4 options:
1).Reboot system now
2). Wipe Data
3)Wipe Cache
4). Recovery from back-up on SD (which I am stupid and don't have)

andreinit said:
I wish I could. I have no idea how to access the bootloader(as I see no function like that).
I only have 4 options:
1).Reboot system now
2). Wipe Data
3)Wipe Cache
4). Recovery from back-up on SD (which I am stupid and don't have)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you get to recovery? Wasn't it through bootloader? I found the information you get into bootloader like this: (power off) press and hold "end call"+"power on"+"volume up". If it doesn't work try the same but with "volume down". I guess you tried it, but you never know (plus I've got a feeling you can flash new rom with option 4 you've got there)

minimale_ldz said:
How did you get to recovery? Wasn't it through bootloader? I found the information you get into bootloader like this: (power off) press and hold "end call"+"power on"+"volume up". If it doesn't work try the same but with "volume down". I guess you tried it, but you never know (plus I've got a feeling you can flash new rom with option 4 you've got there)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, I know what you are saying. For me to enter in recovery mode though, I needed to do the following.
1). Fully shutdown the phone for like 30 seconds
2). Volume UP + power button until the first logo with android appears
3). Let the buttons go and I enter
The problem is that adb and fastboot don't see my device at all. I have been tweaking with the drivers for so long, thinking that may be the cause, but I have no results.
And I can use the backup thing to flash a new rom? It requests an update file though, not an image(a zip file)

I think this is about your phone, maybe it will point you in the right direction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKHEZbj4NHo

They are figuring out firmware installation on a similair model here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/stock-rom-vodafone-888-t3002958

Frozen on Google screen and recovery splash

Unlocked, rooted, TWRP, Cataclysm Final Lollipop (my phone never played nice with any MM ROM I tried, so I just went back to this and have been great ever since)
My phone has been rock stable for months, today I pull it out of my pocket and the screen is black. I turn it back on and it freezes on the Google screen with the unlock logo.
I can get into bootloader via power+voldown, but if I launch recovery it gets past the Google screen but then freezes on the TeamWin page.
Any suggestions, please? Searches intimate power button issues, but given I get no bootloops, I can turn the phone off reliably by holding the power button down, and it freezes at the same point consistently, it's hard for me to think that's the issue in my scenario, too. Thank you!

As an update, I used fastboot to successfully flash the newest version of TWRP, just to be sure, but it still gets stuck in the same spot, as does trying to boot normally.

Try flashing a stock ROM including userdata.img file.

audit13 said:
Try flashing a stock ROM including userdata.img file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. Is there any way to get my personal data off before I do this?
I guess beggars can't be choosers, but I'd hate to lose anything I don't have backed up already if it ends up being another issue after all (the power button, etc.).
A corrupted ROM can prevent a clean, freshly-installed recovery from launching properly?
Thanks again.

Try flashing different version of TWRP? Maybe one of them will allow you to mount the data partition and copy off your data.

While trying to flash the (stock) new system images, I keep getting "remote: flash write failure" and/or "remote: failed to erase partition." This is via a toolkit or manually via fastboot.
The bootloader remains unlocked through all this
It's especially odd, since now I'm getting it on my recovery partition, which I was able to write to earlier today.
A cursory search of this forum suggests I'm SOL unless I replace the whole motherboard, at which point I might as well get a new phone. Do you (all) concur?
Last ditch thought: I went jogging when it went dead--outside chance a connection to the memory on the motherboard got jostled and could be reattached? Or is it fried?
Continued thanks.

The memory is soldered into place but it is possible that something happened during your jog. I also jog with my nexus 5 for 20 to 30 km per week and have done so for the past year without any issues.

[WARNING] Do not boot TWRP to inactive partition

Wow, been buying new phones every year (sometimes more frequently) since the Galaxy Skyrocket and ROM'd every single one.
This is my first ever hard brick!!!!
Not getting any display at all.
Charge was ~30% at the time if I remember correct.
Can't get to fastboot or any display output at all.
Just a dead black screen. ugh
This isn't a questions thread, since there is no recovering from hard-brick like you can from soft-brick.
So I'm not here to ask for help, because there is no help.
This thread is just to let you see what I did wrong that caused a hard brick.
TWRP Booted to slot B.
Wiped cache/dalvik & system & data.
Flashed Bootleggers ROM zip (unofficial, not available to public, I kinda wasn't supposed to flash it but hey, it's not at fault here, so don't think that).
Rebooted to recovery.
But it rebooted to stock recovery, so TWRP got lost.
Booted up to Bootleggers.
Let it settle.
Looked around and it's neat.
Rebooted to Bootloader.
Fastboot booted TWRP.
Installed TWRP zip.
Noted that I'm on slot A again.
Rebooted to slot B to verify nothing was installed there.
It never actually booted, of course. Just got a black screen.
Held power button/volume-up buttons down forever and got nothing.
Waited 5 seconds and tried holding power button down forever and got nothing.
Waited five minutes.
Tried holding power button for a long while. Nada.
Let it charge for 10 minutes (never got charging symbol).
Held down power button 60 seconds. Nada

I wish there was something I could offer - I have thought I was hard bricked on other devices I have owned but thru the help of others was able to eventually get to a point where I could flash a stock image. I don't know if you are really past that point or not but I wish you luck and hope you find a solution.
Might be worth contacting GOOGLE for a warranty repair - worst case, they will charge you something to bring the phone back from the dead .....
Good luck my friend, hope you figure something out.

Google Fi "support"
lol
Google Support
You are number 97 in the queue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'm usually the guy helping others recover from soft brick.
This one is just dead-dead.
Even tried checking if my PC recognized it for ADB or fastboot after various key press combos.

CZ Eddie said:
Google Fi "support"
lol
Yeah, I'm usually the guy helping others recover from soft brick.
This one is just dead-dead.
Even tried checking if my PC recognized it for ADB or fastboot after various key press combos.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't feel too bad. I did pretty much the same thing. You don't want to try and boot to the inactive partition with twrp. It's like there is no system there and voila, your hard bricked. I did rma the device.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

jd1639 said:
Don't feel too bad. I did pretty much the same thing. You don't want to try and boot to the inactive partition with twrp. It's like there is no system there and voila, you're hard bricked. I did rma the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know, I suspected this was the issue.
Me booting to an unused, inactive partition.
We didn't have this issue on Pixel 1 though.
At least not when I was still flashing my P1.
I never had a Pixel gen 2.
I just did some Googling and see there are warnings out there not to do what I did because it could cause a non-recoverable brick.
So I edited my thread title for any other fools like me. :good:

This might sound strange, but I once thought I hard bricked my original Pixel. Tried for 2 days to get it to boot. Then finally I got it to boot by holding down the Power Button & Volume Down Button, then plugging in the charger cable while still holding the buttons down. It booted up bootloader screen and I was able to fastboot twrp and bring the phone back to life. Not sure if you tried that or not.

wtyler2505 said:
This might sound strange, but I once thought I hard bricked my original Pixel. Tried for 2 days to get it to boot. Then finally I got it to boot by holding down the Power Button & Volume Down Button, then plugging in the charger cable while still holding the buttons down. It booted up bootloader screen and I was able to fastboot twrp and bring the phone back to life. Not sure if you tried that or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I tried that but thanks.
Let it charge a while.
Let it sit a while.
Then pressed vol+ & power and plugged in charger.
Also did vol- & power and plugged in charger.
And power and plugged in charger.
And vol- and plugged in charger.
And vol+ and plugged in charger.
Also did this by pressing the buttons and waiting a second before plugging in charger.
lol I did it all.

****ty!
I wonder if there's is a way for twrp to warn that that partition is empty and not to boot. Or something twrp can do to prevent booting in that?
Anyone able to talk to the twrp team about this?

I noticed that when you wipe system it goes to black screen. It happen to me twice. I was able to get back to bootloader by pressing volume down and power button at the same time.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 07:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 PM ----------
c_86 said:
****ty!
I wonder if there's is a way for twrp to warn that that partition is empty and not to boot. Or something twrp can do to prevent booting in that?
Anyone able to talk to the twrp team about this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I wiped system and flashed a rom system image which flashed ok, I press reboot. TWRP said there is no system OS to boot.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

rimgarciag said:
[/COLOR]When I wiped system and flashed a rom system image which flashed ok, I press reboot. TWRP said there is no system OS to boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, it does this!
I should have known better but as an Android tinkerer, I always do things I shouldn't do.
Anyhow, I'm sort of back up and running.
I kept trying and trying and trying to get to bootloader.
And finally got it!!
At first, it started by an occasional white line that would briefly show up on the screen for 1/4 of a second.
A kept trying and trying, and eventually I would get fastboot briefly flash on the screen for one second and then go away.
After four or five times of getting fastboot to flash up on the screen like that, on the sixth try (?) it finally stuck!!
So I ran flash-all.bat and the OS booted up just fine. :good:
I then encountered nothing but issues with trying to get TWRP installed again.
It was failing to decrypt anything even after installing it three times.
And before that, my PC kept refusing to recognize the phone after booting TWRP, so I had a heck of a time just trying to transfer the TWRP.zip to the phone to install.
I gave up on all that.
And I did the following:
fastboot erase partition (A & B individual partitions for everything below)
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase recovery
Now I'm gonna flash-all.bat again and hope things go better this time around. :good:

Yep, I'm back up and running again.
Got Bootlegger's ROM installed.

CZ Eddie said:
Yep, I'm back up and running again.
Got Bootlegger's ROM installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great that you're up and running. Maybe I should have kept trying on my device. But after a number of attempts and it not charging at all I gave up. You just kept trying to boot into the bootloader?
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

You never got hard bricked, it's just that holding power button plus volume down to boot is also the hard reset key combination, and while trying to boot into bootloader, you get the almost exact timing as the hard reset.
Timing is the key here to get into bootloader, you've got release the key combo super quick. It's a really stupid behavior, but I had the same situation and that's what happens.
Maybe having flash all already started with fastboot in waiting for device could help in getting the timing right, as as soon the device would be in bootloader, fastboot would start flashing the stuff ?

Paradoxxx said:
You never got hard bricked, it's just that holding power button plus volume down to boot is also the hard reset key combination, and while trying to boot into bootloader, you get the almost exact timing as the hard reset.
Timing is the key here to get into bootloader, you've got release the key combo super quick. It's a really stupid behavior, but I had the same situation and that's what happens.
Maybe having flash all already started with fastboot in waiting for device could help in getting the timing right, as as soon the device would be in bootloader, fastboot would start flashing the stuff ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure I understand the timing to do a hard reset. When I boot into the bootloader I typically press and hold power and volume down until it boots into the bootloader. I do notice the first time I do that it doesn't seem to do anything but if I do it again it boots. If I do a quick press and release of the keys it didn't seem to do anything.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

jd1639 said:
I'm not sure I understand the timing to do a hard reset. When I boot into the bootloader I typically press and hold power and volume down until it boots into the bootloader. I do notice the first time I do that it doesn't seem to do anything but if I do it again it boots. If I do a quick press and release of the keys it didn't seem to do anything.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's simple really.
If you hold the key combo too long, you'll end up hard resetting instead of going into fastboot. You have like half a second to react to release the keys and not hard reset and stay into bootloader.
Press both buttons->Hold till bootloader screen appears->Release immediately->If not released HardReboot.

Paradoxxx said:
You never got hard bricked, it's just that holding power button plus volume down to boot is also the hard reset key combination, and while trying to boot into bootloader, you get the almost exact timing as the hard reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I'm familiar with this behavior.
But I don't think it's what was happening for me.
Well, maybe it was, but the timing was off.
Because I've done this hard reset before.
As well as booted to Bootloader thousands of times.
I'm pretty good with the timing when they're working properly.
Paradoxxx said:
Maybe having flash all already started with fastboot in waiting for device could help in getting the timing right, as as soon the device would be in bootloader, fastboot would start flashing the stuff ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually did try this!
And nope, it didn't work for me but maybe it would for others.
Because when I finally got bootloader to stick, it wasn't recognized by my PC.
I had to reboot my PC.
All in all, I'm happy it wasn't a hard brick after all.
Just a unusually bad soft-brick. :good:

Continue to hold volume down key when you release the power button.

CZ Eddie said:
Yep, I'm back up and running again.
Got Bootlegger's ROM installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW, so glad you got it back. Gave me severe indigestion before seeing that you're OK.

HI Guys, just curious, as I've not worked on A/B partitions before (my P3xl will be the first time), but how does one boot TWRP to an inactive partition? My guess is inactive means there is nothing in there since an erase was done on system, and perhaps a fastboot set_active_<the inactive partition> was issued?
Just a thought so that I know what not to do. Thanks in advance everyone!

CZ Eddie said:
Yep, it does this!
I should have known better but as an Android tinkerer, I always do things I shouldn't do.
Anyhow, I'm sort of back up and running.
I kept trying and trying and trying to get to bootloader.
And finally got it!!
At first, it started by an occasional white line that would briefly show up on the screen for 1/4 of a second.
A kept trying and trying, and eventually I would get fastboot briefly flash on the screen for one second and then go away.
After four or five times of getting fastboot to flash up on the screen like that, on the sixth try (?) it finally stuck!!
So I ran flash-all.bat and the OS booted up just fine. :good:
I then encountered nothing but issues with trying to get TWRP installed again.
It was failing to decrypt anything even after installing it three times.
And before that, my PC kept refusing to recognize the phone after booting TWRP, so I had a heck of a time just trying to transfer the TWRP.zip to the phone to install.
I gave up on all that.
And I did the following:
fastboot erase partition (A & B individual partitions for everything below)
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase recovery
Now I'm gonna flash-all.bat again and hope things go better this time around. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think i may be fully bricked
https://forum.xda-developers.com/pi...reen-fastboot-one-catch-t3875953#post78351724