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[Q] Factory reset doesn't unmodify so I can update my software

Way back when, I modified my 4.1.2 tab so I could use the Switchme app. Since it hasn't had a software update since then, I need to unmodify my system, so I did a hard reset but that doesn't seem to unmodify it so I can get it updated. Do I have to flash to a stock ROM, or won't that help either? I've done a hard reset twice now and restoring my Samsung account does seem to work either. Help PLEASE!

Nope it does not.
Stoney60 said:
Way back when, I modified my 4.1.2 tab so I could use the Switchme app. Since it hasn't had a software update since then, I need to unmodify my system, so I did a hard reset but that doesn't seem to unmodify it so I can get it updated. Do I have to flash to a stock ROM, or won't that help either? I've done a hard reset twice now and restoring my Samsung account does seem to work either. Help PLEASE!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory reset only Clears out use added content apps and Personal Settings. To get back to stop you will ..
1 Download the Correct Latest Version Of Android From Sam-mobile or Samsung For your Device.
2. Download odin for your device
3. Make sure you can access your device from windows or os your using.
4. Follow instructions for getting into download mode and flashing the samsung firmware with odin from your computer.
5 . Reboot the device and Leave it be..
Never flash anything on any Device until you know how to get back.
There are many Threads with step by step details on the above. even many youtube videos..
Good Luck

Hey,
I don't think you have to flash back to a stock ROM in order to upgrade to a different ROM. I was able to upgrade my tab with 4.1.2 (I can't remember what ROM it was) right to GNABO then a few hours later to Carbon, and a few hours later to Hyperdive and I'ts running fine with no issues besides the Aroma freezing, but what else is new...
You shouldn't have to flash back to a stock ROM to flash to a modified ROM, reason being is the modified ROM Flashes over the current ROM on the device, so the original ROM will be deleted anyways. The new ROM contains the updates for you, that's the advantage of androids. I recommend trying a few OS's before you pick the one for you stick with it. If you want to go stock there is a thread somewhere in the DEV section with the stock ROM just do some searching.
Make sure when you install a ROM to ;
Backup your device and make sure to keep a copy of the backup to your pc!
Boot into CWM Recovery or TWRP
Wipe data / factory reset
Wipe cache
Wipe dalvik cache
Install ROM from SD
Good Luck

[Completed] Restore OS After Wiping System Partition - Galaxy S5

Due to problems with Google Services on my rooted Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F) I opted for a reset from TWRP and it returned to a condition where after some initial screens it was just stuck at "Checking for Updates" so I went back into TWRP and told it to wipe the other partitions. Whoops - now I have no OS (I was sort of assuming that the factory reset OS was somewhere else)
Which is the stock ROM for my Region - UK, unbranded - where do I get it from and how do I load it using Odin and/or TWRP?
TIA

Hello,
Did you make a nandroid backup of your stock ROM or a nandroid backup of a custom ROM if you installed one? If you have a nandroid backup of either of those then you can restore them in TWRP by choosing the restore option and then your nandroid then swipe the slider at the bottom of the screen. If you installed a custom ROM at any time before this and you still have the ROM file then you can reflash the ROM and Gapps.
If you don't have a custom ROM stored anywhere but can still get to recovery, then you can download any of the custom ROMs compatible with your device and a Gapps package that matches it and put them on your extsdcard then boot to recovery and flash the ROM and gapps, do the normal wipes in recovery after flashing, the normal wipes(wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache and wipe dalvik cache), DO NOT CHOOSE THE ADVANCED OPTIONS THAT LET YOU WIPE PARTITIONS.
Check this thread to see if it is your stock firmware, it SHOULD be but double check first, it also has instructions for rooting again and installing recovery.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/development/stock-rom-root-recovery-sm-g900f-t2967725
If that doesn't work then go to Sammobile.com and search for your stock firmware by using your device model number.
The firmwares can sometimes be found at samsung-updates.com also.
Find the right firmware for your exact model number and flash through Odin.
For further assistance, post your question in the forum linked below.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5/help
Good luck.

Droidriven said:
Did you make a nandroid backup of your stock ROM or a nandroid backup of a custom ROM if you installed one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly not - wasn't expecting to need it, thought it would revert to factory default - I have Titanium backup of apps and data.
I am hopefully a few minutes away from downloading the stock ROM and hopefully can reflash that using ODIN.
KD

colehill said:
Sadly not - wasn't expecting to need it, thought it would revert to factory default - I have Titanium backup of apps and data.
I am hopefully a few minutes away from downloading the stock ROM and hopefully can reflash that using ODIN.
KD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Making nandroid backups in recovery is the most important and valuable function of custom recovery, flashing ROMs is its' secondary purpose Android is not like PC with a recovery partition that restores a factory IMG, on PC that factory IMG is stored in a recovery partition. The factory reset feature in stock android does not restore an IMG, it deletes all data from the user partition and leaves everything in system partition the way it is, if you delete a system app and then do a factory reset then you will still not have the system app that you deleted. Anything you modify in system remains the way you modified it if you use the factory reset option. You should only use the factory reset in recovery, not the factory reset in system settings when you have a rooted device with custom recovery.
I'm sure that when you found the recovery, the directions had to have mentioned making a nandroid backup of your stock ROM before flashing anything, your present situation is why you do that, so that if anything goes wrong then you can easily restore to the one ROM that you know for sure works with no issues.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
I'm sure that when you found the recovery, the directions had to have mentioned making a nandroid backup of your stock ROM before flashing anything, your present situation is why you do that, so that if anything goes wrong then you can easily restore to the one ROM that you know for sure works with no issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed the TWERP recovery as part of the rooting operation and I didn't pay any attention to the backup option - I thought that's what Titanium did.
I am learning and will make sure that I take a Nandroid backup once I have it back up and running. Life would be so much simpler if only Samsunng didn't stuff their 'phones with bloatware that can't be deleted in stock mode.
KD

colehill said:
I installed the TWERP recovery as part of the rooting operation and I didn't pay any attention to the backup option - I thought that's what Titanium did.
I am learning and will make sure that I take a Nandroid backup once I have it back up and running. Life would be so much simpler if only Samsunng didn't stuff their 'phones with bloatware that can't be deleted in stock mode.
KD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium backup can only backup data that you installed or downloaded, it does not backup anything that comes on the phone itself, that is what custom recovery is for.
When following guides to mod your device, read and understand ALL instructions before you even make the first move to touch your device. Get used to being thorough about reading and understanding first or you'll end up in a mess, possibly even hard brick your device, all it takes is one wrong move. Not all mistakes are fixable with android devices.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

Best way to unroot and factory reset my Samsung Galaxy Note 4?

My problem is very simple at its core and I find myself resorting to extreme solutions such as factory reset to solve it. However, I am okay with this. I would like to know the best way to unroot and factory reset my Note 4 SM-N910U.
What follows is the original story and my attempts to fix it. It's rather long, so if you would like to skip this section there is a tl;dr at the end.
Originally, I had found myself unable to login to the app Snapchat because they had gone to extreme lengths to lock out rooted users (an infamous fact on online discussions).
A popular solution for this would've been to install the Xposed Framework with RootCloak to hide Root from Snapchat - this is where my first problem came along.
My Android phone is encrypted.
This means that I could not use TWRP to flash the Xposed Framework zip (because TWRP for my device does not support encryption, thus could not read /data directory.)
I tried using FlashFire to skip recovery and got the same result - /data encrypted.
I tried to flash with CWM to see if it would support decryption of /data partition, but CWM isn't even compatible with my device.
At this point I was running out of things to try (I had been after this problem for about three days) and I decided to just kick the bucket, unroot and factory reset, because apparently the only way to undo data encryption on Android is to delete everything .
Apparently, even this would be a challenge. To factory reset a rooted device, you apparently need a stock ROM.
I tried looking for stock ROMs for SM-N910U online but the sites that came up (there were about 9 hits on Google for my baseband) all seemed fake and potentially harmful.
Even then, I don't know how I would flash the ROM since my TWRP doesn't work but that's the least of my worries at the moment .
I'd be extremely grateful if anyone could offer any potential pointers on where to download a safe stock ROM for my device and how to flash this ROM when I have no working TWRP (since my /data partition is, again, encrypted).
It seems a bit like a paradox - to remove data encryption you need a TWRP stock flash, but for a TWRP stock flash you need to remove data encryption.
Please do help... thank you in advance.
TL;DR
- tried to install xposed to hide root.
- found out that i can't flash any roms from recovery, because my recovery (twrp) doesn't support android disk encryption.
- found out that to remove encryption, i need to factory reset.
- i can't factory reset, because I need a stock ROM and I don't know where to find said stock ROM.
- also, how would i even flash this rom without a working recovery (again, the recovery doesn't work because full disk encryption).
Device Details:
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note 4​Model: SM-N910U​Android version: 6.0.1 Marshmallow​Baseband version: N910UXXU1DPL1​

qnxo said:
My problem is very simple at its core and I find myself resorting to extreme solutions such as factory reset to solve it. However, I am okay with this. I would like to know the best way to unroot and factory reset my Note 4 SM-N910U.
What follows is the original story and my attempts to fix it. It's rather long, so if you would like to skip this section there is a tl;dr at the end.
Originally, I had found myself unable to login to the app Snapchat because they had gone to extreme lengths to lock out rooted users (an infamous fact on online discussions).
A popular solution for this would've been to install the Xposed Framework with RootCloak to hide Root from Snapchat - this is where my first problem came along.
My Android phone is encrypted.
This means that I could not use TWRP to flash the Xposed Framework zip (because TWRP for my device does not support encryption, thus could not read /data directory.)
I tried using FlashFire to skip recovery and got the same result - /data encrypted.
I tried to flash with CWM to see if it would support decryption of /data partition, but CWM isn't even compatible with my device.
At this point I was running out of things to try (I had been after this problem for about three days) and I decided to just kick the bucket, unroot and factory reset, because apparently the only way to undo data encryption on Android is to delete everything .
Apparently, even this would be a challenge. To factory reset a rooted device, you apparently need a stock ROM.
I tried looking for stock ROMs for SM-N910U online but the sites that came up (there were about 9 hits on Google for my baseband) all seemed fake and potentially harmful.
Even then, I don't know how I would flash the ROM since my TWRP doesn't work but that's the least of my worries at the moment .
I'd be extremely grateful if anyone could offer any potential pointers on where to download a safe stock ROM for my device and how to flash this ROM when I have no working TWRP (since my /data partition is, again, encrypted).
It seems a bit like a paradox - to remove data encryption you need a TWRP stock flash, but for a TWRP stock flash you need to remove data encryption.
Please do help... thank you in advance.
TL;DR
- tried to install xposed to hide root.
- found out that i can't flash any roms from recovery, because my recovery (twrp) doesn't support android disk encryption.
- found out that to remove encryption, i need to factory reset.
- i can't factory reset, because I need a stock ROM and I don't know where to find said stock ROM.
- also, how would i even flash this rom without a working recovery (again, the recovery doesn't work because full disk encryption).
Device Details:
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note 4​Model: SM-N910U​Android version: 6.0.1 Marshmallow​Baseband version: N910UXXU1DPL1​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to Sammobile .com or samsung-updates .com this use your model number to search for your stock firmware, find the firmware for your region then flash that via Odin.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Would I first need to "wipe" anything in TWRP?

qnxo said:
Would I first need to "wipe" anything in TWRP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wouldn't hurt
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

All EMUI backups are unbootable when restored to

Throughout my phone's lifetime, I've made a lot of backups, most of which have ended up saved on my hard drive. I recently wanted to go back to stock from a custom rom, so I copied one of the emui backups over and restored to it. Everything seemed to go smoothly, no error messages, but attempting to boot only got stuck on the blue honor boot animation. Tried several other backups, some rooted and heavily customized, some fresh unmodded installs, but all of them did the same thing. Meanwhile, all my custom rom backups work just fine. What gives?

I tried it too and it doesn't work. I think its because to install a custom ROM we format the data using twrp which also removes the encryption of some sorts, when we restore the backup that encryption is lost so it stays stuck at the blue Honor logo. That's my two sense on this. I don't know the real details.

asaditya379 said:
I tried it too and it doesn't work. I think its because to install a custom ROM we format the data using twrp which also removes the encryption of some sorts, when we restore the backup that encryption is lost so it stays stuck at the blue Honor logo. That's my two sense on this. I don't know the real details.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That does make more sense than anything I've thought of so far. So to restore from one of these backups, would I just have to reinstall emui from scratch first to get that encryption back? Is there another way to restore them without first having emui? Or are they just useless now?

Gannondalf said:
That does make more sense than anything I've thought of so far. So to restore from one of these backups, would I just have to reinstall emui from scratch first to get that encryption back? Is there another way to restore them without first having emui? Or are they just useless now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't been able to find a solution to this. What I do is use firmware finder to download the firmware+region zip and then install them together in any order via twrp. By this process you lose the data and twrp too as it is replaces by stock recovery. Before booting you must try to get into the stock recover and hit factory reset. You'll get EMUI back but no matter what you do you won't get your data back. Twrp backup is helpless I think because I've tried all sorts of things to get my data back.

asaditya379 said:
I haven't been able to find a solution to this. What I do is use firmware finder to download the firmware+region zip and then install them together in any order via twrp. By this process you lose the data and twrp too as it is replaces by stock recovery. Before booting you must try to get into the stock recover and hit factory reset. You'll get EMUI back but no matter what you do you won't get your data back. Twrp backup is helpless I think because I've tried all sorts of things to get my data back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried flashing emui firmware through twrp before and the region zip always works, but I've never gotten it to load the update.zip (using adb sideload for everything). But I'll try a few different things and see if I can get that to work. Getting back to emui is my primary focus since most of my data is backed up somewhere else, but if I find a way to successfully restore data from backups I'll let you know.

Gannondalf said:
I've tried flashing emui firmware through twrp before and the region zip always works, but I've never gotten it to load the update.zip (using adb sideload for everything). But I'll try a few different things and see if I can get that to work. Getting back to emui is my primary focus since most of my data is backed up somewhere else, but if I find a way to successfully restore data from backups I'll let you know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I'm telling is probably the easiest way let me break it down for you again.
1. Download firmware+region zip file from firmware finder.
2. Go to twrp, clear everything (format data).
3. Install the two downloaded zip I usually flash firmware and then the region zip.
4. After installation is over don't reboot go back to twrp home screen and reboot to recovery, which will be stock.
5. Format data using stock recover and then clear cache.
6. Restart and everything should work.
And if you find a way to get the twrp backups do post here.

Samsung Galaxy J320FN - update fail/loop

Hi everyone! Before I describe my problem, I need you to know that I'm somewhat a noob when it comes to resolving and tinkering with software on Androids, but have some basic knowledge. I've look into all options and posting here is my last resort, please be patient
So recently, a customer brought in a J320FN. It is running on an older update (J320FNXXU0APH1, August 2016), and a few days back, after updating it to the lastest version the phone seized up. The owner has pictures and contacts that he really want to recover. After surfing through some forums, I saw that some phones, when being flashed with stock ROM via Odin, don't lose personal data, and some do. Before I try to flash this device, I want to make sure I can flash the stock ROM and eventually save the data.
I've tried wiping cache partition, because that's what I usually do when encountering software issues.
Also, the phone boots to the point where I can see the current time, and swipe down the notification bar. After some seconds, the phone reboots and the whole thing just goes on.
So my questions are;
1. Do I flash the latest version of Android or just reflash the current one?
2. Do I lose personal data, such as photos, videos and contacts?
3. Is there anything else I can do, before flashing fresh ROM on the device ?​

bregaryevich said:
Hi everyone! Before I describe my problem, I need you to know that I'm somewhat a noob when it comes to resolving and tinkering with software on Androids, but have some basic knowledge. I've look into all options and posting here is my last resort, please be patient
So recently, a customer brought in a J320FN. It is running on an older update (J320FNXXU0APH1, August 2016), and a few days back, after updating it to the lastest version the phone seized up. The owner has pictures and contacts that he really want to recover. After surfing through some forums, I saw that some phones, when being flashed with stock ROM via Odin, don't lose personal data, and some do. Before I try to flash this device, I want to make sure I can flash the stock ROM and eventually save the data.
I've tried wiping cache partition, because that's what I usually do when encountering software issues.
Also, the phone boots to the point where I can see the current time, and swipe down the notification bar. After some seconds, the phone reboots and the whole thing just goes on.
So my questions are;
1. Do I flash the latest version of Android or just reflash the current one?
2. Do I lose personal data, such as photos, videos and contacts?
3. Is there anything else I can do, before flashing fresh ROM on the device ?​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When it comes to flashing Samsung devices via Odin and whether or not the user data is erased or not, it depends on whether you are flashing a firmware that has an upgraded or downgraded bootloader.
The user data only gets wiped if you flash a firmware that has a bootloader that is older than the one currently installed on the device or if the bootloader is newer than the one currently on the device.
The user data does not get wiped if you flash the exact same firmware that is currently installed on the device, or at least, a firmware that has the exact same version of bootloader as the one currently installed on the device.
So you basically have 2 questions to answer.
1) does the firmware that I want to flash have an upgraded bootloader version compared to the bootloader version that is currently installed on the device?
2) does the firmware that I want to flash have a downgraded bootloader version compared to the bootloader version that is currently installed on the device?
If the answer to either of these two questions is no, then you can flash without it wiping the user data.
If the answer to either of these two questions is yes, then the user WILL be wiped during flashing.
If you want to try to save the user data before flashing the firmware, you can try finding a version of TWRP for J320N and flash it on the device then use the backup feature in TWRP to create a full backup of all data on the device. Then flash the firmware of uour choice via Odin, then the data can be extracted from the backup that was created via TWRP and restored on the device after flashing the firmware.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
When it comes to flashing Samsung devices via Odin and whether or not the user data is erased or not, it depends on whether you are flashing a firmware that has an upgraded or downgraded bootloader.
The user data only gets wiped if you flash a firmware that has a bootloader that is older than the one currently installed on the device or if the bootloader is newer than the one currently on the device.
The user data does not get wiped if you flash the exact same firmware that is currently installed on the device, or at least, a firmware that has the exact same version of bootloader as the one currently installed on the device.
So you basically have 2 questions to answer.
1) does the firmware that I want to flash have an upgraded bootloader version compared to the bootloader version that is currently installed on the device?
2) does the firmware that I want to flash have a downgraded bootloader version compared to the bootloader version that is currently installed on the device?
If the answer to either of these two questions is no, then you can flash without it wiping the user data.
If the answer to either of these two questions is yes, then the user WILL be wiped during flashing.
If you want to try to save the user data before flashing the firmware, you can try finding a version of TWRP for J320N and flash it on the device then use the backup feature in TWRP to create a full backup of all data on the device. Then flash the firmware of uour choice via Odin, then the data can be extracted from the backup that was created via TWRP and restored on the device after flashing the firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thanks for the quick response.
I tried what you recommended but the problem still persists. After flashing the current version, the phone did the exact same thing and started looping.
Also tried TWRP but there's an FRP lock, preventing me from flashing it.
Now that the stock rom flash thing failed, guess there's only TWRP left. I did FRP unlocks before, but not on phones that are soft bricked. Is there anyway around it except wiping all data?
I may have forgot to mention, that the phone indeed has a passcode. And god knows what did the owner install/do with the device, that made ot to seize up.