[Q] S6 non-rooted bootloop - Galaxy S6 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

My S6 is completely stock, (UK unlocked - updated the other day OTA to 5.1.1). It was sitting on the desk, not plugged in, and I noticed that the screen came on with the "Samsung" animation. I figured it had crashed somehow and was restarting. Unfortunately it now appears to be in a boot loop.
Device won't switch off by holding Pwr+vol down unless it's plugged in, and after that the LED is always on (pulsing between light and mid blue). When charging there is a blinking green circle at the bottom of the screen above the USB port that I don't think I've seen before.
I don't want to do a factory reset as there are some as yet unbacked up holiday photos on there. I've tried a cache wipe and reinstalling the stock firmware with Odin, both with no success
Does anyone have any ideas about either how to get the device to boot, or even how to pull files from the recovery (adb or similar)?

Incendiary said:
My S6 is completely stock, (UK unlocked - updated the other day OTA to 5.1.1). It was sitting on the desk, not plugged in, and I noticed that the screen came on with the "Samsung" animation. I figured it had crashed somehow and was restarting. Unfortunately it now appears to be in a boot loop.
Device won't switch off by holding Pwr+vol down unless it's plugged in, and after that the LED is always on (pulsing between light and mid blue). When charging there is a blinking green circle at the bottom of the screen above the USB port that I don't think I've seen before.
I don't want to do a factory reset as there are some as yet unbacked up holiday photos on there. I've tried a cache wipe and reinstalling the stock firmware with Odin, both with no success
Does anyone have any ideas about either how to get the device to boot, or even how to pull files from the recovery (adb or similar)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So weird, my ex girlfriends S6 did the same exact thing the day after we got them. At the time twrp didn't have working adb but it does now, you can flash twrp via odin and boot into twrp and probably pull your stuff you need.

Ah I didn't realise you can flash TWRP through Odin - thanks for that. Did you then fix this issue with your ex's phone by factory resetting?
Also, do you know if the S6 auto replaces TWRP with it's own recovery on reboot (I'm hoping that it does in case I need to take the phone in for repair!)

Incendiary said:
Ah I didn't realise you can flash TWRP through Odin - thanks for that. Did you then fix this issue with your ex's phone by factory resetting?
Also, do you know if the S6 auto replaces TWRP with it's own recovery on reboot (I'm hoping that it does in case I need to take the phone in for repair!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you flash TWRP it will trip knox.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Bugger. Well I guess I'll have to weigh up getting my photos back versus voiding the warranty!

I would not trip knox personally and you have tried the obvious already so you may have to face loosing your photos unfortunately.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:07 PM ----------
Noticed this maybe worth giving it a shot. (From another thread in xda)
Just done a bit of a search on the Internet and says to hold all the buttons down which I've done and has now restarted and seems fine.
Does not explain what's happened though

daleski75 said:
I would not trip knox personally and you have tried the obvious already so you may have to face loosing your photos unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm almost tempted to void the warranty to get the photos to be honest - as long as I was sure that I'd be able to fix the issue with a factory reset afterwards. I guess my worry is that it's a hardware issue and it's not fixable - although I went to the Samsung shop today and they said they'd be able to fix it (with data loss) in 40 minutes - which I assume is just a factory reset.
daleski75 said:
Noticed this maybe worth giving it a shot. (From another thread in xda)
Just done a bit of a search on the Internet and says to hold all the buttons down which I've done and has now restarted and seems fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This just took me to recovery unfortunately, no change after rebooting.

Incendiary said:
I'm almost tempted to void the warranty to get the photos to be honest - as long as I was sure that I'd be able to fix the issue with a factory reset afterwards. I guess my worry is that it's a hardware issue and it's not fixable - although I went to the Samsung shop today and they said they'd be able to fix it (with data loss) in 40 minutes - which I assume is just a factory reset.
This just took me to recovery unfortunately, no change after rebooting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had to learn this lesson the hard way. Always have some sort of cloud backup for photos setup on your phone. The new google photos is a really good option now. Or even dropbox. Copy is ok but doesnt auto backup photos as you take them so I've lost pics that way.

The stupid thing is I actually had that set up, but disabled it whilst on holiday as the wi-fi wasn't too great. Forgot to enable it when I got home. Typical!

Well I don't quite know how but I've fixed it without any knox tripping activities!
Came home from work, decided to reflash with Odin again - figured it couldn't hurt to give it another go. Bootloop still happened, but in my attempts to switch off the device with volume down + power, I managed to boot into safe mode (which I hadn't been able to get to when I was intentionally trying to do so!). Quickly grabbed all the files I needed from the device and I'm about to try to restart and figure out what to do next (and see if it will boot in not-safe mode).
I'm bloody delighted! Thanks for your help everyone.

Related

[Q] Accidental Update, Now Frozen - Please Help

This morning in my half-awake state I accidentally pressed "OK" to my phone asking me to go ahead with the (I'm guessing) 2.3.6 update. I KNEW I would end up doing something stupid like that. GRR!!
Anyway, the phone then launched itself into a white screen with blue text saying that it is doing the update, but nothing happens and it appears to be frozen.
I am rooted and was trying to avoid this update; like I said, I was half-awake.
I can't even get it to boot into download/recovery mode, it always goes straight to the white screen. Hopefully this isn't a double post; I checked here and google first but couldn't find anything for this phone. I'm really at a loss here. I have Titanium Backup and I got an external SD card, but I'm not sure if I actually backed up the apps to the external card (new to TB). I did a Kies contacts backup a few days ago so that at least is safe.
Is there any hope for my phone? If I can just get it back to a working state, I can live with my apps' data being erased. Any help appreciated.
Thank you!
Doh... sorry to hear that.. are you also running a custom rom, or customized ATT rom (I have the stock rom from the developers forums over the standard root after having tried a few custom roms).
I got the update message as well this morning, but I postponed it for 8 hours, however I am unable to get rid of the stupid notification, and am curious if after the 8 hours, it will force the update or let me postpone it agian (that will get annoying fast if I cannot disable the OTA update..)
I'd like to know how to cancel the update as well. I have it sitting in my notification bar. >_<
jvanbrecht said:
Doh... sorry to hear that.. are you also running a custom rom, or customized ATT rom (I have the stock rom from the developers forums over the standard root after having tried a few custom roms).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm still running stock 2.3.5. All I've had time to do is root and TB apps, haven't had the chance to play around with ROMs yet for this phone.
Yeah I postponed it for 8 hours, too. The 8hrs must have expired right as my alarm went off because the "Install this update?" message popped up and I hit it, thinking it was the snooze button -_-
Let me know if there's any way to get off of this screen my phone is stuck on! And then disable the obnoxious message for good.
Thanks again =)
Maybe try to remove battery.
lyndone58 said:
Maybe try to remove battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have about 10-15 times since it first happened this morning. I also tried taking out the SIM and microSD cards. It's the only way I can get it to stay off to try to boot to recovery mode (which it still won't boot into); if I hold the power button to turn it off it just resets back into the white Software Update Screen (won't stay off).
Has anyone successfully applied this update yet?
Any other ideas? I appreciate the feedback so far!
Similar thing happened to me. I pulled the battery and booted in to CWM just fine. Restored from there.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
I don't believe I have CWM installed? How would I have known if I did? When I volume up + volume down + power and wait until the Samsung logo comes up it boots back to the white screen. Maybe I'm doing that process wrong?
Same thing happened to me this morning!
almost identical story
I've tried literally every combination to get to the reboot screen. ugh :'(
mrl3086 said:
I have about 10-15 times since it first happened this morning. I also tried taking out the SIM and microSD cards. It's the only way I can get it to stay off to try to boot to recovery mode (which it still won't boot into); if I hold the power button to turn it off it just resets back into the white Software Update Screen (won't stay off).
Has anyone successfully applied this update yet?
Any other ideas? I appreciate the feedback so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't been rooting as much as some of the guys here, but I think if you take the battery out and it won't boot back even into recovery, you're hard-bricked and you're gonna have to start from scratch with a fresh stock rom. Go to download mode (turn off, hold vol up + down, insert powered usb cable) and put a stock rom back on using odin.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1342348
You will basically get back to what your phone was when you took it out of the box and you'll have to install everything, your data (other than the data that is on a microSD card) won't be there.
If you have a backup that you did with CWM, then you can restore the backup after you do all this.
I think you got unlucky with the worst case scenario of what shouldn't happen during an update.
Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try when I get home from work and will let you guys know how it goes.
For the future, is it generally recommended to de-root before doing any straight carrier update? Or is this just a total fluke that some of us are experiencing?
Will adb recognize your phone? If it does just adb reboot recovery
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
Lucidmike said:
I haven't been rooting as much as some of the guys here, but I think if you take the battery out and it won't boot back even into recovery, you're hard-bricked and you're gonna have to start from scratch with a fresh stock rom. Go to download mode (turn off, hold vol up + down, insert powered usb cable) and put a stock rom back on using odin.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1342348
You will basically get back to what your phone was when you took it out of the box and you'll have to install everything, your data (other than the data that is on a microSD card) won't be there.
If you have a backup that you did with CWM, then you can restore the backup after you do all this.
I think you got unlucky with the worst case scenario of what shouldn't happen during an update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AMAZING!! Thank you so much! Not only is my phone up and working but the update has installed!
I learned the following:
-you pretty much need a pc (not a mac) to do all the downloads correctly. I used a friends.
-to get your phone into download mode when it's frozen from the update, you have to hold down either vol + AND vol - (or just vol -) as well as the power button, simultaneously hold down power and also simultaneously plug in the usb. Then let go of the power button and remain holding down one or the two volume buttons.
THIS WAS JUST WITH MY SKYROCKET EXPERIENCE
I'm so happy. Thank you LucidMike
This just happened to my friend's phone. White screen no matter what. Stock everything, too. She's pretty bummed that there's no way to recover the videos and pictures on her phone before resetting it. Apparently she went to AT&T and they couldn't figure it out. They called tech support for her and THEY couldn't figure it out. She's currently on the phone with Samsung, but I doubt they'll be able to help either.
viralriot said:
This just happened to my friend's phone. White screen no matter what. Stock everything, too. She's pretty bummed that there's no way to recover the videos and pictures on her phone before resetting it. Apparently she went to AT&T and they couldn't figure it out. They called tech support for her and THEY couldn't figure it out. She's currently on the phone with Samsung, but I doubt they'll be able to help either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AHHH!! Tell her to hang up the phone right now!! Use this method to fix her phone!! All of her data will still be there after it's done! After the process is complete, back it up to a computer (enable USB storage and just copy + paste and I used Kies to copy my contacts) and THEN do a full factory reset (reset recommended by everyone to ensure smooth function of phone). The method in the link will return her to the original stock version; I believe it may trip a counter that AT&T can use to determine if you've hacked your phone, but if you want a working phone...and there's also a chance that it WON'T trip the counter (some people say it did and some say it hasn't).
EDIT: Pictures and videos that I took with the phone are saved in /sdcard/DCIM/Camera, so you know where to copy her stuff from.
jessielooloo said:
AMAZING!! Thank you so much! Not only is my phone up and working but the update has installed!
I learned the following:
-you pretty much need a pc (not a mac) to do all the downloads correctly. I used a friends.
-to get your phone into download mode when it's frozen from the update, you have to hold down either vol + AND vol - (or just vol -) as well as the power button, simultaneously hold down power and also simultaneously plug in the usb. Then let go of the power button and remain holding down one or the two volume buttons.
THIS WAS JUST WITH MY SKYROCKET EXPERIENCE
I'm so happy. Thank you LucidMike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm trying to fix my boyfriend's phone (he actually didn't hack/root it or anything...but yesterday's update messed up his phone so it was stuck in the "SOFTWARE UPDATE" and "Loading..." frozen white screen). We tried taking out the battery, restarting it, everything. I tried your method of holding all three buttons while plugging in the USB and then letting go of the power button. What do you press when it asks you if you want to continue (up vol +) or cancel (vol -)? I chose vol -, and when it took me back to the white screen, I did it again and pressed vol +. Now I'm on a ODIN MODE page...will this affect his warranty or anything? What do I do next?
You need to have odin on your pc and the stock .tar and flash it. Here go here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=1509978
Read carefully follow directions exactly
silver03wrx said:
You need to have odin on your pc and the stock .tar and flash it. Here go here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=1509978
Read carefully follow directions exactly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I read on the first page of the thread that it needs to be rooted though? This phone is brand new and never been rooted or hacked...will doing this void the warranty or anything unpleasant? (I'm the one that likes hacking my devices like my Nook Color...my boyfriend is a little more paranoid and would rather have it stay covered under warranty )
No actually. Thats incorrect..the stock tar. Is just as it sounds. The stock firmware the phone comes with.....dont need to be rooted to use odin. Actually if u odn the stock tar. It removes root.
mrl3086 said:
AHHH!! Tell her to hang up the phone right now!! Use this method to fix her phone!! All of her data will still be there after it's done! After the process is complete, back it up to a computer (enable USB storage and just copy + paste and I used Kies to copy my contacts) and THEN do a full factory reset (reset recommended by everyone to ensure smooth function of phone). The method in the link will return her to the original stock version; I believe it may trip a counter that AT&T can use to determine if you've hacked your phone, but if you want a working phone...and there's also a chance that it WON'T trip the counter (some people say it did and some say it hasn't).
EDIT: Pictures and videos that I took with the phone are saved in /sdcard/DCIM/Camera, so you know where to copy her stuff from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried doing this, but this is all I get.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 0)
<ID:0/006> Added!!
That's it. Nothing else happens. Help?
EDIT: Nevermind! Plugged it into a different USB port (COM:6) and it worked flawlessly. All data is still on phone and it works like new! Thank you!

Having the oddest problems. Fear a brick.

I am on a Verizon Razr Maxx HD (xt926). This all started when I decided to cleanly flash the newest version of CM10.2. I had been running it before. I wanted to start from a blank slate, so I went into TWRP and did the format wipe. Installed the newest CM10.2 nightly and gapps. This went fine and I booted into the ROM and started recovering all of my stuff. I installed F-droid and AdAway, and rebooted for that. The phone never got past the Bootloader Unlocked warning screen. I turned it off and went into TWRP to try some things. I tried to fix permissions, but it failed, referencing something to do with fdroid. I wiped again and reinstalled CM, but I still couldn't get past the Bootloader Unlocked warning.
I booted into TWRP again and wiped what I could, and accidentally wiped my external SD, and I had no card readers lying around to get the ROM zips back onto it. I downloaded the Razr HD utility, used the batch file, and tried to flash the stock rom through fastboot, but it got stuck in some kind of loop and would not flash correctly. I then tried to do it manually, but got some sort of buffer error. I tried again, and it started ok but I never saw it actually finish flashing.
By this time I finagled the ROM zips onto the SD card and stopped the fastboot and booted into TWRP. I did another set of wipes, and rebooted into TWRP again. I flashed the CM and Gapps. The ROM booted fine from TWRP and I was able to start setting up my account again. I tried rebooting after the initial setup just to see if it was working correctly, and was met with the fastboot screen with fastboot reason: Flash failed. I rebooted into TWRP from there, and tried to boot normally, but it still brought me to the fastboot. I went to the boot menu and tried the normal boot selection, and now my phone is stuck on the Bootloader Warning screen and now it won't even turn off when I hold the power button.
I have no idea what is going on, or why I could get to the working ROM once but not again. Does anyone know anything that could help me?
Kopiok said:
I am on a Verizon Razr Maxx HD (xt926). This all started when I decided to cleanly flash the newest version of CM10.2. I had been running it before. I wanted to start from a blank slate, so I went into TWRP and did the format wipe. Installed the newest CM10.2 nightly and gapps. This went fine and I booted into the ROM and started recovering all of my stuff. I installed F-droid and AdAway, and rebooted for that. The phone never got past the Bootloader Unlocked warning screen. I turned it off and went into TWRP to try some things. I tried to fix permissions, but it failed, referencing something to do with fdroid. I wiped again and reinstalled CM, but I still couldn't get past the Bootloader Unlocked warning.
I booted into TWRP again and wiped what I could, and accidentally wiped my external SD, and I had no card readers lying around to get the ROM zips back onto it. I downloaded the Razr HD utility, used the batch file, and tried to flash the stock rom through fastboot, but it got stuck in some kind of loop and would not flash correctly. I then tried to do it manually, but got some sort of buffer error. I tried again, and it started ok but I never saw it actually finish flashing.
By this time I finagled the ROM zips onto the SD card and stopped the fastboot and booted into TWRP. I did another set of wipes, and rebooted into TWRP again. I flashed the CM and Gapps. The ROM booted fine from TWRP and I was able to start setting up my account again. I tried rebooting after the initial setup just to see if it was working correctly, and was met with the fastboot screen with fastboot reason: Flash failed. I rebooted into TWRP from there, and tried to boot normally, but it still brought me to the fastboot. I went to the boot menu and tried the normal boot selection, and now my phone is stuck on the Bootloader Warning screen and now it won't even turn off when I hold the power button.
I have no idea what is going on, or why I could get to the working ROM once but not again. Does anyone know anything that could help me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the solution in the last few posts on this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2465695
I hope you get more knowledgeable advice than mine but, were I in your situation, my primary goal would be to get back to STOCK. Forget CM and modding for now. Either through TWRP or through the recovery settings on the phone itself I'd get to where I could do a factory reset. If you're continuously able to boot into TWRP I don't see how your phone could be bricked. My experience is, if I can get a phone to do ANYTHING I've got a shot at figuring out how to get out of whatever mess I've created. I don't know if this could be a factor but I'd put in a different micro SD card too, in case there's something on the card you've got in there.
Just an update. So, I got it to go back to fastboot this morning and I tried using the Razr Utility to flash back stock and stock recovery, but I got a "Failed" line with the reason "Remote Failure". Not sure what that's about. When it reset it got back to the Cyanogenmod boot graphic, but it never started. I left it there for a good 12 minutes.
Right now it's sitting in TWRP. I'm going to let it charge to 100% (it was a little less when I tried all of this) and attempt it again at 100% battery. Thanks for the help so far!
So, I tried using the Razr Utility to flash the system, kernel, radio and for system it was unsuccessful (something about too many threads or strings, something to that effect), but the rest said OK. Now my phone doesn't seem to turn on. My computer still makes the device plugged in sound when it's plugged/unplugged, but I cannot get the screen to show anything or seem to turn on the phone.
Is this it? Is it... bricked!? ;-;
Edit: I ordered the Factory Adapter as a last resort sort of thing. This is lame.
Edit Edit: I've seen the boot logo since my last edit! But... it's not coming back and I still can't even bring up the bootloader. I don't know why it will sometimes turn on or sometimes not. In any case, I'm now hopeful that not ALL is lost.
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
cellzealot said:
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the plan! One odd thing happening now... My phone's screen isn't showing anything, so I assumed it was off. I left it unplugged and went to see a movie..... and the phone is still warm. This leads me to believe the phone is still drawing power, for some reason... God this is weird. I'll wait for the adapter and try again. Thanks for the help!
cellzealot said:
Bottom line, the adapter will allow you to fix your phone and flash the stock FXZ in RSD Lite or fastboot and get back to a clean slate and start over.
That's why we went to the trouble of making them!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
according to the packaging on mine from tbh a chinaman made it, just sayin
Yes, we designed them and contracted through our US supplier who produced all of our cables who, in turn, had them produced in China according to our specifications. There is no longer any injection molded plastic production done in the US that can work at this small scale for affordable rates.
Sorry...that's the way the world works these days.
cellzealot said:
Yes, we designed them and contracted through our US supplier who produced all of our cables who, in turn, had them produced in China according to our specifications. There is no longer any injection molded plastic production done in the US that can work at this small scale for affordable rates.
Sorry...that's the way the world works these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for making it either way, better to have and not need.
havent had to use it so far
bweN diorD said:
thanks for making it either way, better to have and not need.
havent had to use it so far
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome! They are definitely the best $10 investment you can make in any Motorola phone.
Next time you want to invest many thousands of dollars of your own money in a wild, hairbrained scheme to help a bunch of anonymous people on the internet fix their phones that they recently finished destroying themselves, let us know...we have just the plan!
cellzealot said:
You're welcome! They are definitely the best $10 investment you can make in any Motorola phone.
Next time you want to invest many thousands of dollars of your own money in a wild, hairbrained scheme to help a bunch of anonymous people on the internet fix their phones that they recently finished destroying themselves, let us know...we have just the plan!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how many thousands, and whats the plan?
I got the Factory Adapter and used RSD Lite to flash stock. And it works! Yay! It's starting up reliably and everything.
Except... it won't start up without the cable attached, and the battery icon has a big question mark on it. It also won't connect to the cell network (but does connect to WiFi). What do I do now?
Edit: So I noticed that while the battery status said "Unknown", it did go from 2% to 3% charge level when I plugged it in normally for a little. My plan at the moment is to try leaving it plugged in for a while and then try taking the OTA update to see if that fixes everything. Good plan?
Edit Edit: Never mind! I just had to let it charge for a bit. It seems to be back in working order, now! Thank you so much for all the help everyone!
That is exactly what is supposed to happen. Congrats on fixing your phone!
The factory cable/adapter does not charge the device but powers it directly, allowing it to boot no matter what state the battery is in or even without a battery at all.
You cannot charge in bootloader, which is why the cable/adapter is so valuable. Once the device can boot/charge normally then you are all set.

[Q] Boot Loop with no recovery mode

Ok so I'm new to the thread and basically to android tablets, so please forgive my ignorance if it should become prevalent.
I bought a Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 32GB wifi and had it for about one day. I performed a factory restore on the device in which it froze for about 2 hours. (this is probably the stupid part) I turned it off since it was not progressing after a long time and it booted up as a new device. After about 5 minutes of use, it randomly restarted and went into a boot loop. About every 15 or so boot screens, it sometimes boots up, then freezes and goes back into a boot loop. The longest it stayed active without resetting was about 10 minutes. After hours of research, I have done the following
Tried to boot into recovery to no avail. It just continuously pops up the device name screen
I have tried to flash the device with a stock rom in odin 3.9.
It recognizes the device but hangs at the Initialization stage. Sometimes it will give me a fail notice saying that it couldn't open the COM port
I've tried it on another computer, changed usb ports, powered on and off multiple times and nothing changes.
please let me know if i've forgotten anything. Any help will be appreciated.
Also I live in Japan, so if I can fix it myself that would be nice since this device isn't sold here yet, I'm not able to get support from a store. I'd like to avoid waiting a month sending it back to america, replacing it, and getting it sent back. Thanks in advance ^_^
Make sure you have the correct and latest Samsung drivers for your tablet.
If you have an SD card installed, try removing it and see if you can boot up and get it stable.
roninb30 said:
Ok so I'm new to the thread and basically to android tablets, so please forgive my ignorance if it should become prevalent.
I bought a Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 32GB wifi and had it for about one day. I performed a factory restore on the device in which it froze for about 2 hours. (this is probably the stupid part) I turned it off since it was not progressing after a long time and it booted up as a new device. After about 5 minutes of use, it randomly restarted and went into a boot loop. About every 15 or so boot screens, it sometimes boots up, then freezes and goes back into a boot loop. The longest it stayed active without resetting was about 10 minutes. After hours of research, I have done the following
Tried to boot into recovery to no avail. It just continuously pops up the device name screen
I have tried to flash the device with a stock rom in odin 3.9.
It recognizes the device but hangs at the Initialization stage. Sometimes it will give me a fail notice saying that it couldn't open the COM port
I've tried it on another computer, changed usb ports, powered on and off multiple times and nothing changes.
please let me know if i've forgotten anything. Any help will be appreciated.
Also I live in Japan, so if I can fix it myself that would be nice since this device isn't sold here yet, I'm not able to get support from a store. I'd like to avoid waiting a month sending it back to america, replacing it, and getting it sent back. Thanks in advance ^_^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, you rooted (void warranty) on a day old tablet on a platform that is new to you? I've been rooting Android devices for over 3 years now and have had mine for a week now without root. Don't get me wrong, I have a list of things I want that require root and it will be happening but I figured I should at least run it for a couple weeks to make sure no defects pop up before I void the warranty. Good luck to you!
Russbad said:
Make sure you have the correct and latest Samsung drivers for your tablet.
If you have an SD card installed, try removing it and see if you can boot up and get it stable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've installed drivers a few times. No go.
I'm on it now and the boot loop seems to have stopped, but I still get random restarts. But each time it restarts, it's from factory, so it doesn't save anything I download or any settings such as enabling debugging in the developer settings.
rkirmeier said:
Wow, you rooted (void warranty) on a day old tablet on a platform that is new to you? I've been rooting Android devices for over 3 years now and have had mine for a week now without root. Don't get me wrong, I have a list of things I want that require root and it will be happening but I figured I should at least run it for a couple weeks to make sure no defects pop up before I void the warranty. Good luck to you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't root, and I haven't voided my warranty. I can still get into download mode and my flash counter is still at 0. I never tried to root, I simply wanted to flash to stock, from stock.
[Edit] I'd also like to mention that Odin has not successfully done anything, Every time I tried to flash it was done with a stock ROM, and everything that has gone wrong has occurred on nothing but the stock ROM
Is it possible that I need a pit file for the device since no version of Odin will get past initialization? ....if so where can I get one for the this model?
roninb30 said:
I've installed drivers a few times. No go.
I'm on it now and the boot loop seems to have stopped, but I still get random restarts. But each time it restarts, it's from factory, so it doesn't save anything I download or any settings such as enabling debugging in the developer settings.
I didn't root, and I haven't voided my warranty. I can still get into download mode and my flash counter is still at 0. I never tried to root, I simply wanted to flash to stock, from stock.
[Edit] I'd also like to mention that Odin has not successfully done anything, Every time I tried to flash it was done with a stock ROM, and everything that has gone wrong has occurred on nothing but the stock ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are not rooted and you have a boot loop I'd be returning the device for a new one...
rkirmeier said:
If you are not rooted and you have a boot loop I'd be returning the device for a new one...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to agree since you would have to wait for a while to get the replacement, however the device sounds to be defective. just my two cents as a developer, if you flash anything to the device, root, a new image, or even the factory software, Knox will be tripped and the counter will go from zero to a one. My advice would be to get a replacement for the defective one.
Developers don't need no stinkin' signature!
If I've been able to help you, please hit the "Thanks" button.
Huge 3rd.
Device should just plain WORK out of the box. There shouldn't have been a need to flash stock to begin with.
One last suggestion, factory reset from recovery. From complete power off, hold volume up+home button+power and after a few seconds let go until it boots into recovery. From there wipe cache, wipe davlik, and factory restore. Good luck!
Android.Ninja said:
I hate to agree since you would have to wait for a while to get the replacement, however the device sounds to be defective. just my two cents as a developer, if you flash anything to the device, root, a new image, or even the factory software, Knox will be tripped and the counter will go from zero to a one. My advice would be to get a replacement for the defective one.
Developers don't need no stinkin' signature!
If I've been able to help you, please hit the "Thanks" button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's unfortunate, but I have to suck it up and just pay the shipping back to Ameica....then again for it to come back. Just wanted to do everything I could before I had to send it. Thanks for the input though. I guess I learned quite a bit researching processes and terminology which will be helpful in the future. ^-^
Russbad said:
One last suggestion, factory reset from recovery. From complete power off, hold volume up+home button+power and after a few seconds let go until it boots into recovery. From there wipe cache, wipe davlik, and factory restore. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried many times. The device pretty much gives me the finger by going blank and repeatedly showing the boot up logo when I hold the buttons down.
rkirmeier said:
Wow, you rooted (void warranty) on a day old tablet on a platform that is new to you? I've been rooting Android devices for over 3 years now and have had mine for a week now without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I voided my warrant after having mine for about an hour (though not new to Android). I did all my random "OCD does it work as I expect/want" tests and it passed, so I rooted. Had it for one week now, and I absolutely love everything about this tablet.
roninb30 said:
Yeah, it's unfortunate, but I have to suck it up and just pay the shipping back to Ameica
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMO, it will be worth it. This is my fourth tablet, and is the first one I've not had buyer's remorse with. Luckily with the gift credit for Google I was able to get the non-Tegra equivalents of some of my favorite games, too.
ExtremeRyno said:
I voided my warrant after having mine for about an hour (though not new to Android). I did all my random "OCD does it work as I expect/want" tests and it passed, so I rooted. Had it for one week now, and I absolutely love everything about this tablet.
IMO, it will be worth it. This is my fourth tablet, and is the first one I've not had buyer's remorse with. Luckily with the gift credit for Google I was able to get the non-Tegra equivalents of some of my favorite games, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After doing research, I think that even if I get a new one, I want to root it. With the problems I've read about for kitkat 4.4.2 I need to know how to fix problems, and start with a fresh install of roms and know how to use custom recovery. I haven't done anything yet, but I was wondering...
Since I'm stuck in a boot loop with no stock recovery, can I flash a custom recovery to fix my issues, flash the stock rom that is on sammobile.com and then root after that? From what I understand this is a soft brick since I can still sometimes access the device. I worked out why I couldn't access the device with adb and now it shows the device as listed. It stays on long enough to where I could flash a recovery before it restarts itself. I'm not trying to do anything stupid, just getting information before I pay the shipping for it back to the states. I've checked the knox counter in download mode, and it is still set to 0, so I haven't voided the warranty yet.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
It's odd that a new device would not have recovery. I don't want to insult you, but just making sure we covered the basics, volume up+home+power gets you to recovery. The boot logo will flash about three times, make sure you're still pressing all three buttons, then let go after the 3rd flash of the boot logo then you should be in recovery. Volume down+home+power takes you to download mode, this is where you flash roms and recovery. I read in another post about someone not being able to get in recovery after numerous times, it turned out that he was hitting the volume down button instead of volume up. Just to be clear, if you do flash recovery, you will definitely trip knox, at this time there is no way around that.
Russbad said:
It's odd that a new device would not have recovery. I don't want to insult you, but just making sure we covered the basics, volume up+home+power gets you to recovery. The boot logo will flash about three times, make sure you're still pressing all three buttons, then let go after the 3rd flash of the boot logo then you should be in recovery. Volume down+home+power takes you to download mode, this is where you flash roms and recovery. I read in another post about someone not being able to get in recovery after numerous times, it turned out that he was hitting the volume down button instead of volume up. Just to be clear, if you do flash recovery, you will definitely trip knox, at this time there is no way around that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the skepticism. Yeah, I tried the button combination, usb in, usb out. I can power off the device completely only when it is plugged into power. When I hold the recovery combo from power on, the screen goes black with no flashing of the boot logo, looks as if it wants to go to recovery, and then then the boot logo comes up again, but just continues to the boot animation and continues the boot loop, even if i'm still holding down volume up and home buttons. It will sometimes boot up, then freeze after a couple of seconds, and return to boot loop. On rare occasions it will boot up, but turns me to setup like it's a brand new device. I can access everything for about 10 minutes, and then it will randomly restart and continue to boot loop again after that. I tried update/initialization in kies, but it would restart before the downloading and decompressing of binary could finish. It finished one time and then switch to a downloading screen (although it didn't say odin since you have to manually go there) but the update would freeze at 0 percent no matter how long I left the device there. It's all pretty lame ><

[Q] Android won't boot...

Hey folks...I'm running into a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with.
Earlier today I pulled my phone out of my pocket at work and saw that it was off...I thought that the battery must have died sooner than I thought. I started charging it in the car on the way home and it wouldn't boot up like normal. It would get to the google or "dots" screen and then reboot. I again thought that the battery might just be really low. After getting home and charging the phone all the way I still can't get it to boot up. As of now, one of 3 things will happen...
1-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and bootloop (usually when plugged in).
2-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and freeze.
3-Get to the "dots" screen and either swirl forever or eventually reboot and do one of the above again.
I've read some threads where people suggest this is a faulty power button, that doesn't seem to be the case for me though because I can get into fastboot and it won't select anything or turn off without me doing it.
I've used WugFresh NRT and wiped/reflashed android. I'm running out of ideas. Do you have any others?
I was running the stock 5.0.1, unlocked, not currently rooted.
Thanks!
kyle313 said:
Hey folks...I'm running into a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with.
Earlier today I pulled my phone out of my pocket at work and saw that it was off...I thought that the battery must have died sooner than I thought. I started charging it in the car on the way home and it wouldn't boot up like normal. It would get to the google or "dots" screen and then reboot. I again thought that the battery might just be really low. After getting home and charging the phone all the way I still can't get it to boot up. As of now, one of 3 things will happen...
1-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and bootloop (usually when plugged in).
2-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and freeze.
3-Get to the "dots" screen and either swirl forever or eventually reboot and do one of the above again.
I've read some threads where people suggest this is a faulty power button, that doesn't seem to be the case for me though because I can get into fastboot and it won't select anything or turn off without me doing it.
I've used WugFresh NRT and wiped/reflashed android. I'm running out of ideas. Do you have any others?
I was running the stock 5.0.1, unlocked, not currently rooted.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try flashing factory images?
ryukiri said:
Did you try flashing factory images?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that was what I flashed :/
If you can get into fastboot you "should" be able to flash stock images... Obviously this will revert any root and you will need to flash TWRP/CWM recovery after.
I assume you have a Windows PC with fastboot/adb setup and all drivers etc..
- Download latest "stock" hammerhead images (I cannot post links due to XDA rules... so: "developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#hammerhead"
- Extract the .tgz archive contents on your PC into a folder
- Boot the N5 into fastboot and plug USB cable from phone into your PC
- Go to the folder with the extracted files and run the "flash-all.bat" script on Windows
**Hopefully at this point your device will start to respond.. I.e, on fastboot screen, at the bottom you will see "writing" or something, as the script runs on the command window on your PC.**
If this works, you should be able to reboot once complete and then wait to see if you can get back into your phone.. then you can fastboot again and flash custom recovery, and then whatever rom.
If however you have a hardware issue (i.e, even after the above process it fails) then I am not sure what you could do... I guess ensure it has a complete charge. If you can get into fastboot and the buttons are responsive then it should not be a faulty power button.
Hope this helps :good:
Have you tried a simple factory reset? Reason I ask is it was working fine so sounds like something needs "flushing out" clear cache etc.
kyle313 said:
Hey folks...I'm running into a problem I was hoping someone might be able to help with.
Earlier today I pulled my phone out of my pocket at work and saw that it was off...I thought that the battery must have died sooner than I thought. I started charging it in the car on the way home and it wouldn't boot up like normal. It would get to the google or "dots" screen and then reboot. I again thought that the battery might just be really low. After getting home and charging the phone all the way I still can't get it to boot up. As of now, one of 3 things will happen...
1-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and bootloop (usually when plugged in).
2-The phone will turn on, get to the google screen and freeze.
3-Get to the "dots" screen and either swirl forever or eventually reboot and do one of the above again.
I've read some threads where people suggest this is a faulty power button, that doesn't seem to be the case for me though because I can get into fastboot and it won't select anything or turn off without me doing it.
I've used WugFresh NRT and wiped/reflashed android. I'm running out of ideas. Do you have any others?
I was running the stock 5.0.1, unlocked, not currently rooted.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you choose the right model and firmware before you flash in WugFresh NRT?
The above could be right, however when I've used it, it's pointed out if I made that mistake. Having used his software dozens of times I've found it will bring any Nexus 5 back to life.
howard bamber said:
The above could be right, however when I've used it, it's pointed out if I made that mistake. Having used his software dozens of times I've found it will bring any Nexus 5 back to life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello! I am apologize for that I didn't read the OP carefully. This happened to me once in that particulary way, but it was immediately after flashing. OP says that it happened suddenly, without reason. So now I am the one, who doesn't read, right? Sorry for that.
Regards, Zagor
Thanks for the responses, but I'm still having trouble.
I have been able to successfully write the newest stock android 3 times (1 without full wipe, 2 with) and the phone still can't boot up and goes through one of the three issues above.
I've also been able to get to the system recovery from the bootloader and I've tried wiping the cache and doing a factory reset from there and the problem remains.
I'd contact google, but I bought it at launch so I don't think they'll do anything for me since it's been 1+ years.
kyle313 said:
Thanks for the responses, but I'm still having trouble.
I have been able to successfully write the newest stock android 3 times (1 without full wipe, 2 with) and the phone still can't boot up and goes through one of the three issues above.
I've also been able to get to the system recovery from the bootloader and I've tried wiping the cache and doing a factory reset from there and the problem remains.
I'd contact google, but I bought it at launch so I don't think they'll do anything for me since it's been 1+ years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you have a bad nand sector. From fastboot try:
Code:
fastboot oem lock
Then reboot into fastboot and check if it's locked or not. If the device isn't locked your emmc is corrupt and there is nothing you can do. If that is the case call Google and they will most likely help you out with a RMA.
theesotericone said:
Sounds like you have a bad nand sector. From fastboot try:
Code:
fastboot oem lock
Then reboot into fastboot and check if it's locked or not. If the device isn't locked your emmc is corrupt and there is nothing you can do. If that is the case call Google and they will most likely help you out with a RMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was actually able to relock the phone.
Luckily I called google and they're going to send me a replacement.
If anyone else has any other ideas, I'll still take them...I'd rather not be without a phone for the next week!
You won't be without a phone - they are sending a refurbish unit to you , putting a block on your credit card and waiting for you phone to arive at them. Once that happens they will release the funds.

Samsung s20FE somehow bricked

Hello
my sister's phone somehow broke down. It's not rooted or anything, was use for mainly day to day use. She called me yesterday that her phone randomly resets (like 1x per hour).
I plugged phone to computer, wanted to transfer pictures and "important" data to pc and during the transformation phone closed and I am unable to open it again. I managed to transfer around 60% of pictures but mostly important ones so the loss is not that big.
-phone started "looping" at start screen logo to samsung for like 30minutes. After a while it somehow booted into the system and I tried to do software update. Downloaded the update and then installed it but at some point phone closed down and started looping loading screen again. Since then im unable to boot it into the system....
-I entered recovery mode and did Factory reset. Doesnt help. Wiped cache, doesnt help.
-i know little to nothing about android but my guess is that i somehow bricked the system when i did factory reset just when the phone was updating?
is there any solution to somehow "install" fresh android on the phone via PC? Phone is not rooted but it has activated USB debugging options.
****EDIT***
I was thinking that it could be hardware issue but phone can stay open in recovery mode for hours so I suppose it is software problem?
Phone is still under warranty but i cba dealing with services and would rather fix it myself.
Thank you for any help
You should simply done a factory reset.
It will need reflashed. In the long run it may be best to let Samsung hash it out.
Yeah i should've done factory reset while phone was still usable. But I wanted to recover all of the photoa, thats why i tried to do system update first....
dehumless said:
Yeah i should've done factory reset while phone was still usable. But I wanted to recover all of the photoa, thats why i tried to do system update first....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updates don't help especially in this case where the OS was teeter toddling on the abyss. Safe mode. The first mistake was not having the critical data redundantly backed up. All you can do is learn from the mistakes.
blackhawk said:
Updates don't help especially in this case where the OS was teeter toddling on the abyss. Safe mode. The first mistake was not having the critical data redundantly backed up. All you can do is learn from the mistakes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, right now im trying to find android firmware images and will try to flash them on with Odin later.
But I am sure that i will face several problems on the way
dehumless said:
well, right now im trying to find android firmware images and will try to flash them on with Odin later.
But I am sure that i will face several problems on the way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use SmartSwitch to do that, but I'm a total novice at flashing Androids and the best method. Pick and use the safest method...
A Samsung Experience center at Best Buy can also do it. They might be able to give you more insight as to why it failed.

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