Ok, so as the title says, I'm looking to completely undo having rooted my tablet, and all the customization I did to it, but I'm having a bit of trouble.
According to multiple apps my tablet is no longer rooted, and I got the stock rom from Sammobile flashed on it, and I have the stock recovery back, but I seem to be suffering from the wifi problem that CM suffers, I know this as I can connect to my 5G wifi as well, which I'm never able to do when the tablets wifi is working correctly, and also even connected I barely have any speed, if even any.
Now I know of the wifi fix you can flash through TWRP, but as I said, no more TWRP, and I don't want to reinstall it, I want everything back to stock.
Now, I know of Wifi Fix's for other tablets, like the Galaxy S4, that you can flash on with Odin, but I can't seem to find one like that for the Note Pro 12.2. So if anyone can send me a link I'd really appreciate it.
And also, I can't remember, but did the Note Pro 12.2 ever get anything higher then Android 5.0.2? Because I try to update it, and it says because my tablet was modified I can't do so. Plus Sammobile doesn't have higher then 5.0.2 but I read somewhere that it got 5.1.1 so I really don't know, any help on that front as well would be great.
Now, you may be wondering why I want to do this, in truth I'd rather have my tablet rooted, I save so much battery life getting rid of all the bloatware. But no matter what I do, there always ends up being a problem with my tablet.
I follow all the instructions given, I do exactly what everyone else does, even having someone walk me through it step by step once, and always it goes horribly wrong.
The first time my Nova Launcher would crash constantly, and then everything else would start crashing with it. Then the second time all my videos would play stuttering and jerky, and the audio would be out of sync horribly, and nothing I did would fix it. And now most recently, even though the tablet it connected to the computer, the drivers always fail installation, and even when they are successful, I'm still unable to actually access the tablet from my pc.
I read somewhere that it may be because I disabled Media Storage, but with Media Storage I have just as many problems, it drains my battery like crazy, it causes things to load up extremely slow when accessed through the computer, if a folder has a hundred files for example, it will take almost twenty minutes for them all to load up, and you can't do anything until they do, and if you try copying something into a folder without going into it you'll just be stuck in an endless loop of copying that never ends.
But without Media Storage everything loads up just as quickly as say an SD Card, so said 100 files only takes a few seconds.
And worse thing it caused, which troubled me for a long time before I found out what caused it, at random the media storage would decide to claim 20gb's of space, saying it was all taken up, when it isn't. And it would keep happening at random times, and at random sizes. Near the end it had taken up every bit of free space I had and didn't change back even after several days which is what led me to looking up what was causing that in the first place.
So as you can see, leaving Media Storage enabled is a big no for me. So as such I'm unable to root and customize my tablet for that reason as well.
Now, before you say how weird it is that I have such trouble, and how you have no idea why it would happen, there is a very key reason, Technology HATES me. Trust me, more often then not when I try to do something that works for literally everyone else it fails for me, like say connecting an Xbox controller and getting it to work on my pc. Yeah, never works even after almost 5 hours of trying. So yeah, technology hates, maybe even dispises me.
So anyway, if you can help me fix the wifi, and the update problem if that's possible, I'd really appreciate it.
Are you able to get it connected to a PC?
There are tutorials on how to go back to complete stock if you haven't tried Knox I might search for what people have done before they take the their device back to the carrier. Many people want to un-root before they give up their old devices.
Related
Hi!
First thread, but have been on this forum a lot lately, since I finally got around to rooting and getting my Hero to run Cyanogen! If there's a similar post, I am sorry to double it, but I have not found anything that relates to my issue so far.
The problem I have is minor, yet still annoying. Whenever I get around to charging my phone, which is at least once per day, I have to use the USB port since I lost the wall-plug months ago. This in itself has never been an issue since I put Cyanogen on it. See, after I remove the cable, my SD-card won't remount automatically, causing all my photos etc. to be invisible until I manually unmount and mount it through settings.
This is especially annoying since the ringtone app I use puts the ringtone in a folder on the card whenever it's downloaded. Charging the phone thus hides the file away in a foul place, and causes me to have to redo the entire process of downloading and all that.
As a follow-up to this, I have two questions:
1) Is there any way of solving this easily, or did I do something wrong while putting Cyanogen on my phone?
2) The data that becomes inaccessible, is it still on the card taking up space, or is it deleted?
I might add that I tried turning USB debugging on and off. Also, I noticed that this issue seems to be quite spontaneous with everything except my ringtones. Photos, for example, sometimes show up no matter what, and Spotify-files are always accessible. Could it be an issue with the app?
Thanks guys!
I am one of the many who have been experiencing the random reboots. I have seen talk about it, but have not seen anyone really looking into why this is happening. Some people claim it happens only when docked, or when SD card is in etc. Yet others post that they still get the reboots without doing those things either.
I have been monitoring my reboot problem very closely. I have yet to determine the cause other than it only happens when the device is put into sleep mode manually or automatically, and I am looking for some help from some of the DEV's around here.
When our TF's do this reboot, it is a system crash. When this happens, a ROMDUMP file is placed on the internal "sd card".
These can be viewed with a simple txt editor, like windows notepad. I myself can not read the code and understand what info it is revealing to me. According to an Asus tech on the phone this file can tell you what went wrong and made the device reboot. However the buggers won't tell you crap over the phone and want me to send the device in with the ROMDUMP files.
When I try and read the files, I do see one thing in common, in 99% of them, right near the end of the file, or the very last line before the crash, this line is present,
Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt
<2>[ 162.985309] CPU1: stopping
If our reboot issue is kernal based, which would indicate it's a firmware issue;
I was thinking one of the talented DEV's around here could fix us up.
Hell maybe even just a reflash of the current firmware would fix the issue.
Anyway, if a DEV around here want to or willing to look into this, I have some ROM dumpfiles they can look at, just send me a PM.
For reference,
I have a B60K modle
Stock 3.1
GPS 1.3.1
Wifi 5.1.42
BluT 6.17
Kernal 2.6.36.3-00001-gf377a2b [email protected] #1
Build HMJ37.US_epad-8.4.4.5.2-20110603
Thanks.
I don't have any more dumps recently, deleted them so I can't pull up and see what mine said to give you, but wanted to just say I was having these multiple times a day every day and it started once I bought an AData 16GB SDCard for the dock. Then I ended up removing that card and bought a MicroSD 16GB card instead and it has quit doing the random reboots, so definitely seemed to be something with my SDCard in the dock.
Post your whole log here (as .txt or .zip) and I will look at it.
I've had these once or twice but have always deleted the file.
The Kernel Panic is the kernel's way of telling you that something unrecoverable has happened and the integrity of the whole OS is in question. Think of a kernel panic like a BSOD on Windows.
I've never seen that specific one before, but a quick Google search indicates it may be a problem with I/O operations - like bad RAM or a bad SD card.
sassafras
Thanks for the response. I have included 4 RAMDUMP files. I find these 4 special because they all happened in quick succession. Four separate reboots all within 8 mins of each other without any interaction of the device myself. I never touched the device, I just sat there and staring at the device rebooting 4 times in 8 mins. On the final reboot the device never came back on. AT this point I picked up the device and had to hold the power button down for over 10 seconds for the device to come back on to an Asus splash screen. This was mins after I did a fresh factory reset via the OS options internally then a hard reset using the hardware buttons.
...It's a bug alright...
It doesn't seem to be caused by the same problem though, just that the watchdog program invokes a kernel panic and reboots. Weird. I'll backtrace it later and see what's up.
sassafras
went a whole day without a reboot. I did have an odd lock up/freeze at the lock screen where i couldnt unlock the device or get it to rotate the screen. It was locked up tight. Held hte power button down for 20 secs before it shut down. Rebooted, no new RAMdump created. No issues since.
sassafras_, Did you have any luck reading those ramdumps?
I did - sort of.
They're all related to the watchdog program assuming it's soft locked up. Which it may very well have been, but since you weren't using the device at the time, it's hard to know for sure.
The function's that were called immediately prior to the fault were different, which to me indicates that it's just buggy software. Honestly, without doing a backtrace I wouldn't know, but I can't without a system.map from around the time of the lockup. I'm going to assume it's just buggy code from 3.1 and wait and see if the 3.2 release lowers the rate of these. If not, then maybe I'll do some more digging.
sassafras
sassafras_ said:
I did - sort of.
They're all related to the watchdog program assuming it's soft locked up. Which it may very well have been, but since you weren't using the device at the time, it's hard to know for sure.
The function's that were called immediately prior to the fault were different, which to me indicates that it's just buggy software. Honestly, without doing a backtrace I wouldn't know, but I can't without a system.map from around the time of the lockup. I'm going to assume it's just buggy code from 3.1 and wait and see if the 3.2 release lowers the rate of these. If not, then maybe I'll do some more digging.
sassafras
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there any progress on this issue? I bougth a brand new tf and during day random reboots maybe 50 times. And that romdumps are appeared on my internal storage. I dont have external sd by the way. Im stuck.
Hi.
Im having a same problem with my Transformer. Its a week old B60 and its reboots probably 50 times a day and give me log files.
Also im using Honeycomb 3.2
I really want to find out what is going on
i guess its a hardware issue or something.
i'm going to give back my TF today and take back a new one.
if i get same errors, i'll let you know.
I posted a workaround that helps immensely for rooted tablets somewhere around here. I can't find it tonight, but it's in one of the other 'random reboot' threads.
sassafras
sassafras_ -
Did you ever find anything with this issue? I am on my second TF and it is exhibiting the same random reboot while sleeping issue as the first. I know you have a post on another thread indicating how to tell the kernel to ignore "oops" conditions - have you received any feedback on how that is working? I assume this requires root access, I haven't yet rooted my device.
I have collected a few ramdump log files, but as of now only one out of 6 shows a kernel panic. I am new to Android, and I am trying to make sense of the dump logs. It appears that these dumps are maintained in a ring buffer, so the last entries are usually somewhere in the middle, is that correct? All of them also have some garbage at the end, but I assume that is just another effect of the ring buffer strategy.
Like I said, I am new to Android, but I am a long time embedded and real-time programmer, and pretty handy in Linux. It seems to me that the log files aren't providing enough information, but I'm not sure how to debug kernel/system crashes in Android. If anyone could point me in the right direction of where I should look next to get more information on these crashes, perhaps we could get to the bottom of this problem.
From what I can tell via the logs, when the TF is sleeping, it wakes up from time to time for various reasons, then suspends when it is done. It looks like it is during this wake/suspend cycle that something occasionally goes wrong and causes the tablet to reboot.
I am hoping that this is a software/firmware issue (or a hardware issue that can be worked-around with software), because I really like the TF platform and this issue makes keeping apps like IM or email running while it the device sleeps kinda iffy.
Any help from the awesome experts here at XDA would be greatly appreciated, and I look forward to learning more of the gory details and inner workings of Android.
I have had the same issues. Configuring the kernel to ignore oops only helped a bit. The tf would still freeze in standby eventually (once a day or so). My supplier (i.e. not Asus) replaced it and my new tf (a SBK v2 one, unfortunately) has not rebooted once in 2+ weeks. So my guess is that it was a hardware issue (memory, something not coming out of backup mode properly, ...?). Not sure if one could work-around it in software.
Now, this was probably not very helpful but I thought I'd share my experience here. And possibly my tf suffered from an entirely different defect, although the symptoms were the same (ramdump logs from random reboots in standby, independent from wifi on/off, sync on/off, and lots of other settings I tried).
flipflipflip -
Thanks for your reply! I was hoping that it wasn't a hardware issue, and since I got two in a row with the identical problem I was thinking that maybe a software fix could get around it. After reading about your experience, I went ahead and returned it and ordered another one from a different source. Hopefully the third time's a charm!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one is not an SBK v2, but I'll be happy just to have one without sleep-apnea!
This did give me a chance to load up ADB and poke around a bit under the hood of the last one, so if nothing else it is a learning experience. Hopefully I will have something to contribute to the community once I get my hands on a working device.
I know it's been a while (had a big work-related headache), but just wanted to post and let people know that I finally received a TF101 (B50!!) that seems to be working just fine - so I guess it was just a combination of bad luck and a hardware issue after all.
The only issue I have now is that sometimes when it is sleeping, it loses its internet connection (it still seems to be connected to the AP) - but I think I can work around that.
Cheers!
Hello, I am seeking advice/help...
I can see by looking and reading some of your writings and posts that yours and others time is worth alot... I am not sure on how much I could spend as I have already lost funds and had my bank accounts hacked. However I will gladly see what I can do if someone can hopfully help me...
I have been without proper internet for well over a month now.. I have changed my wireless routers out twice even added in a AP(hardware firewall)... My internet provider also suppliea optik TV and that is all ran through the same router.
At first I noticed some new programs would appear, things would be moved around some things would go missing... it was very unnoticeable unless you were paying attention.
Then the windows start up acreen would freeze for 5 minutes sometimes almost as if somethinf had froze the screen so that I wouldn't be able to see whats happening(Basically started getting worse - passwords being changed on me etc... - would lose my elevated privledges almost as if I was just a guest account)...
I even tried using CMD in dos to get my permission settings back and at first this would work but then the dos/cmd commands(whoami / ICACLS / and a few other commands would not work and say they don't exist... I also started to notice the size of my harddrive change.. I was never able to get it back to the right amount of GB. I tried to restore it many different methods as well (win7, linux, dos) nothing worked.. I then also noticed the MBR would constantly become corrupt and same with the hard drive.
So I looked into things and figured it must be the bios or cmos.. I tried to flash it and just decided I would start from scratch... However, everytime the computer restarts the old cmos/bios is back. I then also found things saved on (A: , B: and X) ... They were all write protected so I decided to pull the hard drive out. They still showed up even if I had the hard drive removed.
** X: is the boot drive as well so every time I tried to reinstall anything a bunch of extra files would get installed as well**
**Drive B had a volume named RamDrive..**
I ran some system/ tests in dos on the memory and kept getting errors but would not tell me what the problem was I finally figured out that it was a system error because the range went higher(above the 4gb that it's supposed to be)..
Now 4 laptops ruined... I just got a new laptop (win8.1) was never used and had never been turned on and after the initial startup/setup had extra software etc and now is stuck in infiniti boot loop....
Also similar stuff has happend or is happening with fax/printer, pvr, tv, ipad, iPhone, Android, wii, ps3, ps4.. dvd player, basically all media devices and anything wireless..
I have seen lots of evidence on remote connections through IOT, P2P/PHP, IPv4, IPv6, ssl, http(local group/work group) now it seems like things are communicating through a technique called air hopping or coupling. (RF, NFC, WIFI, IR, GPS/GSM, RFID, Altel Bluetooth and a few others). **I can remove the wireless card and laptops still connect**
They even got into a desktop computer that has no wirelsss or bluetooth card... and never gets plugged into the internet. Odd internet type numbers started calling my house phone also my house phone if I unplugged it etc... then powered it back up and didn't set date or time it would reset itself... The play stations would turn on and off them self... I tried reformattibg and missing a huge amount of GB.
Also, money was taken out of bank account as well.... anyone who goes to where this all is happening there cell phones get infected tooo... it seems to update tbe phones in fhe form of a push update aka broadcast signal.. Any help or input would be greatly appreciated...
another thing i noticed was files like index.dat/index.ini... desktop.ini. doubles of everything in my registry... and the fonts i couldnt change or delete... i noticed files from other devices listed on my phones and vice versa for things listed on the computer... if this isnt the right place for this i apolohgize...
also it appears as if my phone is rooted.. judging by the files and folders that are on my phone but it says not rooted. there is apps installed that i didnt put there and cant remove without being rooted.. my phones are constantly connected. factory reset doesnt work anymore... Neither does wipe cache. also constantly streaming data even if data is off and airplane mode. i keep seeng something about a 299-amtel.. redirect in any and all browsers...lots of adware as well.
im not even sure i will be able to ge back on here... if not you can try emailing me [email protected]... i appreciate any and all help.. thank you and sorry for the grammer juat trying to type this as fast as possible.
Your MEANINGLESS title is discouraging people from helping you.
Please at least use a simple sentence to summarize your problem in your title.
Anyway from what you're saying, you should report to the police, or if you have some friend with network and PC knowledge, ask him for help.
Device is locked and never been rooted. Took the 5.1.1 update and apps like Netflix and HBO GO fail unerringly after 1-5 minutes of streaming.
Somethings...
-Neither app actually crashes to the desktop. It crashes to the apps main menu.
-Both apps attempt to "redraw" (3-4 times in quick succession) after the player fails, then I can usually reload the video.
I have...
-Cleared data/cache
-uninstall/reinstall the apps
-did a full factory reset
ANY thoughts would be really appreciated. Not having much like finding any resolution here. Thx in advance
I have the same problem. I have flashed the latest firmware with Kies and Odin to make sure there were not issues and still Netflix stops playing as does Youtube, Plex etc...
I have spent around 8 hours trying to find a fix to no avail. I made sure that Display > Smart screen options were disabled. In developer options I checked Force GPU rendering and Turn off hardware overlays. I also tried and unending list of other settings to no avail. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks Chris
Khazaad said:
Device is locked and never been rooted. Took the 5.1.1 update and apps like Netflix and HBO GO fail unerringly after 1-5 minutes of streaming.
Somethings...
-Neither app actually crashes to the desktop. It crashes to the apps main menu.
-Both apps attempt to "redraw" (3-4 times in quick succession) after the player fails, then I can usually reload the video.
I have...
-Cleared data/cache
-uninstall/reinstall the apps
-did a full factory reset
ANY thoughts would be really appreciated. Not having much like finding any resolution here. Thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go in to About Device in Settings. Does your status show "custom?" If it does, remove your SD card and transfer the files on it to your PC. Reformat the card on your Note and afterwards put the files back on it. There's a strange SD card glitch that occasionally causes the system status to show custom when it's not.
BarryH_GEG said:
Go in to About Device in Settings. Does your status show "custom?" If it does, remove your SD card and transfer the files on it to your PC. Reformat the card on your Note and afterwards put the files back on it. There's a strange SD card glitch that occasionally causes the system status to show custom when it's not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No my Device Status is Official. I tried using a different launcher "Google Now" hoping that a more simple launcher might clear things up but no luck. Netflix stops playing after a couple of minutes and youtube pauses. I want to be clear Netflix does not crash it just goes back to the menu where I can hit play again.
This fixed my tablet!
I may have found a fix. At least this fixed the issue for me.
The Back Story: (for you to compare similarities in device errors)
I have been having the same which started after the update. and my tablet has never been rooted either. I chatted with Samsung several times. They acted like this has never happened before and they kept saying it might be a bad wifi antenna. Which sounded like BS since I was able to surf the web and even watch youtube through chrome no problem. If I tried to watch videos on youtube, netflix, vudu it would reset as you mentioned. I even noticed that when I was using Polaris word it would erase everthying I had written randonmly. Samsung also tried to say it could be the app itself. Which I instantly doubted since the apps are made by different companies. I did the factory reset. I even took the tablet to Best Buy to have them do a system re-flash with no luck. I almost sent the tablet to samsung to have them try to fix it, but I had a feeling it was something easy to fix and I could save myself money.
THE FIX:........ I have no clue why this worked. If anyone knows why it worked I sure wouldn't mind hearing your thought!
1. Pop the sim card out.
2. Try playing videos on your apps. (Be sure to check a couple apps) It worked like a charm for me. I dont think I had to reboot to get it to work, but the fix stays after a reboot.
3. What you do not want to do is put the sim card back in because you will have the issue again.
- If you do put the card back in dont worry. You can simply remove it again and it will work again.
One thing to keep in mind.....I stopped my subscription on my verizon data plan. So it doesn't matter to me if the sim card is in. So If you still use Verizon Data plan and this fix worked then you should contact Verizon and let them know whats going on. Maybe you just need a new Sim Card. Like I said I don't know why it worked, but it did. I had data turned off completely so my device shouldn't have been trying to use anything other than wifi.
Please let me know if this works for you as well!
Thanks are always welcome!
****Please keep in mind that anything you try is done so by your own free will and I am in no way liable. ***
Khazaad said:
Device is locked and never been rooted. Took the 5.1.1 update and apps like Netflix and HBO GO fail unerringly after 1-5 minutes of streaming.
Somethings...
-Neither app actually crashes to the desktop. It crashes to the apps main menu.
-Both apps attempt to "redraw" (3-4 times in quick succession) after the player fails, then I can usually reload the video.
I have...
-Cleared data/cache
-uninstall/reinstall the apps
-did a full factory reset
ANY thoughts would be really appreciated. Not having much like finding any resolution here. Thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ceblume83 said:
I may have found a fix. At least this fixed the issue for me.
The Back Story: (for you to compare similarities in device errors)
I have been having the same which started after the update. and my tablet has never been rooted either. I chatted with Samsung several times. They acted like this has never happened before and they kept saying it might be a bad wifi antenna. Which sounded like BS since I was able to surf the web and even watch youtube through chrome no problem. If I tried to watch videos on youtube, netflix, vudu it would reset as you mentioned. I even noticed that when I was using Polaris word it would erase everthying I had written randonmly. Samsung also tried to say it could be the app itself. Which I instantly doubted since the apps are made by different companies. I did the factory reset. I even took the tablet to Best Buy to have them do a system re-flash with no luck. I almost sent the tablet to samsung to have them try to fix it, but I had a feeling it was something easy to fix and I could save myself money.
THE FIX:........ I have no clue why this worked. If anyone knows why it worked I sure wouldn't mind hearing your thought!
1. Pop the sim card out.
2. Try playing videos on your apps. (Be sure to check a couple apps) It worked like a charm for me. I dont think I had to reboot to get it to work, but the fix stays after a reboot.
3. What you do not want to do is put the sim card back in because you will have the issue again.
- If you do put the card back in dont worry. You can simply remove it again and it will work again.
One thing to keep in mind.....I stopped my subscription on my verizon data plan. So it doesn't matter to me if the sim card is in. So If you still use Verizon Data plan and this fix worked then you should contact Verizon and let them know whats going on. Maybe you just need a new Sim Card. Like I said I don't know why it worked, but it did. I had data turned off completely so my device shouldn't have been trying to use anything other than wifi.
Please let me know if this works for you as well!
Thanks are always welcome!
****Please keep in mind that anything you try is done so by your own free will and I am in no way liable. ***
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It Worked!!!
Thanks very much for the suggestion. As it turns out the tablet came to me with a sim card in it. I never intended on using it with Verizon so I did not look. Once I removed the inactive sim card everything worked great.
Thanks again I really appreciate the help.
I have an HTC One E8... I know, it's ancient... But... It's been a good phone until this past year when it really started dragging. Takes forever to do anything. A year ago, the main camera (is that the front or back camera) stopped working (phone doesn't even recognize that it's there -- flash doesn't work either with a flashlight app). Before that, phone dialing using my Bluetooth earpiece stopped working. Maybe related, but the phone doesn't work as a phone (holding it to your ear). If I'm not using the Bluetooth earpiece, it will only work on Speaker-phone mode (voice command apps such as Google Assistant and song recognition apps like Sound Hound don't 'hear' anything). Lastly, the Bluetooth has been disconnecting for no apparent reason. My earpiece will say 'Phone 1 disconnected', but when I look at the Bluetooth icon on the phone, it still thinks it's connected. Tapping the icon to turn off Bluetooth and then tapping again 'fixes' the problem and it connects again. It's just annoying when it does this in the middle of a conversation (and because, when it happens, the other party doesn't hear me yelling at them to wait because my Bluetooth disconnected because the phone doesn't know that anything is wrong). I had read ones that the Bluetooth drivers for this phone were sketchy. It's strange, though, this this problem has really gotten worse over the past couple of months without me making any changes to the phone. Lastly, the battery has really gone downhill. The phone will unexpectedly shut off around 30% battery. (I even tried the HTC battery recalibration technique -- no joy.) I chalked all of this up (except for the battery issue) to software. I thought maybe a good ol' factory reset (wipe) would fix the issues. For years (literally) it's been nagging me about a system update (Android 6.0). I never did it because the phone was already running slow and it's always screaming about being out of storage space. It hovers around 500MB free most of the time. I don't have that much installed on it. Any apps that will allow it, have been moved to the SD card.
That's the back-story to give you some insight as to what's going on with the phone. I included all of that 'other' stuff (camera and voice dialing issues) in case someone has seen them before and can offer any suggestions there.
So here's where I'm at. I decided to try to do a factory reset to 'refresh' the OS (remove all the patches and updates) and start over. Afterwards, I wanted to run Link2SD with a 64GB SD card so I wouldn't have the space limitations that I'm experiencing now after all of the apps have updated. The other night, after backing up the internal memory and the SD card, I started the process. (BTW, I have another SD card that I'm going to use that I've already partitioned per the Link2SD instructions.) After much trial and error, dead download links, incompatible versions of adb.exe and fastboot.exe I finally managed to get TWRP recovery installed. Then there was the issue of getting a working SuperSU installed. Finally did that. The phone booted and started walking me through the process of setting up my Google account. Everything seemed to go well. The phone was just as speedy as the day I got it. I was even able to restore my 15000 text messages and it was still zippy. It was wonderful! Unfortunately, the camera still doesn't work. Seems like voice dialing isn't working at the moment either. The Bluetooth issue seems to have gone away. Since the camera still isn't working, it looks like I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and get a new phone. This one will just become a 'toy' or a temporary backup phone in the event something tragic happens to the new phone. I'll just use this one on Wi-Fi only to check the weather and maybe play some games (which I had pretty much stopped doing because it was so slow and always out of storage). I would also use it as my portable media device for listening to downloaded podcasts and music while I'm running or riding my bike. It could also (maybe without mobile data) track my runs and rides, etc. As long as it doesn't get slow like it was before, I think it'll do just fine in its re-purposed life. (It was so slow I could barely play music from Google Music and have Google Fit tracking my run at the same time. It would take forever to switch screens!)
Ah, what's this?! Oh, there's that software update again. I guess I'll go ahead and do it before I start setting up a bunch of apps and tweaking the phone to my preferences. Nope! It downloads the OTA update into the Downloads folder and starts the process, but when it reboots, it reboots in Recovery mode into TWRP. I'm now finding that you can't easily do an OTA update after you've rooted your phone and put a custom recovery on it. I've seen lengthy instructions on how to put get a stock recovery.img out of the OTA zip file in the Downloads folder. I've moved it to my PC and pulled the firmware.zip file out. When I try to open the firmware.zip file to get to the recovery.img file, Windows is saying it's corrupted. I also see something about using an RUU.exe or RUU.zip file to restore the phone to stock. I've downloaded the correct RUU .exe file for my Sprint e8 in case I decide to go that route.
Here's my question... I know, finally! Since I don't have really anything on this phone since I did the reset and root, would it just be simpler to use the RUU method to blow it away and start over instead of trying to resolve the corrupt firmware.zip file issue and all of the other steps that follow? That's question #1. Question #2 is this... Will this RUU that I downloaded actually take the phone straight to Marshmallow before it starts walking me through setting up my Google account? If so, that's great! I'm all for the ease of that. I noticed that OTA download was about 250MB, while the RUU download is 1.5GB. Why such a difference? Is it because the RUU is the full-blown deal and not just the patches? I'm fine doing the RUU and then reinstalling and rooting the phone afterwards if that'll work. I still have all the files that I previously downloaded.
Sorry for the novel, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible to eliminate the back and forth "Did you try this?" "Did you try that?" However, if there is anything that I left out that would help with your answer/advice, please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks in advance for any guidance you can give a noob.
lrbarrios