Related
Hello,
I bought a cheap used live demo unit S7 that I want to use just for the GearVR.
It works great so far but the retail services are annoying, I've found articles that mention how to remove the software on S6 units...
I was wondering if the same instructions apply to the S7? Model is "SM-G930x"
I've also read a couple of posts about someone successfully flashing the stock rom using odin, but when going to sammmobile to download the firmware I don't know which country to choose. I bought it in the US but I don't know if there are different firmwares for Snapdragon versions or Exynos versions.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
In case someone stumbles upon my thread, I have successfully flashed a stock rom into my live demo S7.
I just used Odin and had to delete the same files that needed to be deleted for the S6 demo units using cygwin... cm.bin, sboot.bin and modem.bin. The difference here though is that with the S7 firmware, those files are spread between files, since the firmware zip contains 5 md5 files instead of 1... one is inside the CP file and the other two inside the BL file.
I deleted them all and then flashed with Odin by selecting the main AP file and the 2 modified BL/CP files.
Hope it helps someone in case they are looking to flash an S7 LDU, I'm guessing the same rules apply to the S7 edge though I have not tried that myself.
Everything works perfectly except cellphone calls/internet obviously, and the fingerprint sensor...which appears to commonly not work on live demo units.
Cheers
andrewe1 said:
In case someone stumbles upon my thread, I have successfully flashed a stock rom into my live demo S7.
I just used Odin and had to delete the same files that needed to be deleted for the S6 demo units using cygwin... cm.bin, sboot.bin and modem.bin. The difference here though is that with the S7 firmware, those files are spread between files, since the firmware zip contains 5 md5 files instead of 1... one is inside the CP file and the other two inside the BL file.
I deleted them all and then flashed with Odin by selecting the main AP file and the 2 modified BL/CP files.
Hope it helps someone in case they are looking to flash an S7 LDU, I'm guessing the same rules apply to the S7 edge though I have not tried that myself.
Everything works perfectly except cellphone calls/internet obviously, and the fingerprint sensor...which appears to commonly not work on live demo units.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any idea if this same method applies to Verizon demo phones that are actually consumer models running retail software?
I don't know...probably? If the model is the same I don't see why not. Don't take my word for it though... This was my first experience flashing an LDU model.
andrewe1 said:
I don't know...probably? If the model is the same I don't see why not. Don't take my word for it though... This was my first experience flashing an LDU model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, since you managed to do it with an X variant, I have pretty high hopes that it will work with an actual consumer model(SM-G935V).
How did you manage to power off the device and go into Download mode?
KillTheSprint said:
Well, since you managed to do it with an X variant, I have pretty high hopes that it will work with an actual consumer model(SM-G935V).
How did you manage to power off the device and go into Download mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Follow the same instructions here up to the part where you delete the files with cygwin... in that step do what I did:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/general/g920x-master-thread-guides-firmwares-t3267738
Same passwords and everything.
Hope that helps
andrewe1 said:
Follow the same instructions here up to the part where you delete the files with cygwin... in that step do what I did:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/general/g920x-master-thread-guides-firmwares-t3267738
Same passwords and everything.
Hope that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
I am not sure deleting files from the firmware is needed since you needed to delete them since you were flashing a different model firmware on to the demo model. In my case it is just a verizon stock firmware to a regular consumer phone so hopefully after removing the Retail software, Odin successfully flashes the stock firmware.
Hi, Is it possible to give a step by step process taken and the files used to flash with.
thanks in advance.
try to flash stock rom to your s7
---------- Post added at 04:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:11 AM ----------
or try to reset the phone from recovery
Please help guys, I have a Samsung galaxy s7 demo version SM-G930X and stuck in boot loop error. I am trying to install SM-G930F stock rom on this by following this method but don't know how to delete those files from the firmware .tar file. Please can anyone provide a stepwise instruction
flutenpsyte said:
Please help guys, I have a Samsung galaxy s7 demo version SM-G930X and stuck in boot loop error. I am trying to install SM-G930F stock rom on this by following this method but don't know how to delete those files from the firmware .tar file. Please can anyone provide a stepwise instruction
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here you go: basicly just the same but remember to flash s7 roms/firmware not s6.
Edit: /u/servili007 posted this thread on XDA developers forum which is probably a better guide. I'm not an expert so defer to that if it makes sense. /edit
In case you saw this thread a couple of weeks ago and thought you can get a GearVR capable Samsung S6 for cheap by buying a Live Demo Unit (LDU) here's some warnings:
It's a store display unit meaning it's likely used and abused.
There's no phone capabilities as the cellular antenna and SIM slot are removed.
The screen probably has burn in of some sort and has been on a lot.
It's not covered by warranty so you're getting it as is, and likely no return to the Ebay seller
The stock ROM automatically loads "Retail Mode" that's not simple to remove and it resets the phone
GearVR software likely will not load on it without effort.
If you understand the above, read what might be required before making the plunge.
First, watch this and write down the information he says to get: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8LMyRqBViM
Basically you need to disable "Retail Mode" by installing a ROM that's not retail. Again, this probably won't work and will BRICK your phone, but you've been warned. This works for S6 and not the Note 4 which needs different passwords.
Go to the app drawer and open an app called Samsung Retail (not the Retail Mode program).
Go to Configuration Settings and enter the password 5444 to unlock it.
Then uncheck “Disable the factory reset” and enter the following password M729Q16K8546.
Decline the "Factory Reset" and instead turn your Samsung Galaxy S6 off
Boot into Recovery mode by holding down Volume Up, Power and Home button all at the same time.
Go to Wipe data & factory reset and press OK.
Now comes the fun part: Flash a stock firmware with ODIN. These steps I've got from here, here and here.
Go to sammobile and download the fimware you think it is the right one. This firmware which is a 5.0.2 version from New Zealand worked for more than one person
Extract the firmware file which is a 1.5gb tar.md5 file.
You will now have something like this G920IDVU1AOC6_G920INZC1AOC6_G920IDVU1AOC6_HOME.tar.md5
Rename it to something shorter like G920IDVU1AOC6.tar and be sure to delete the .md5 at the end.
Download the pseudo-Linux emulator Cygwin from it's home site here and install it
Move the tar file (G920IDVU1AOC6.tar) to C:\cygwin\home\''username''
Open cygwin and delete all the ''.bin'' files by typing the following commands (use up arrow to reload last command and edit for next command). Takes a few moments per command.
tar --delete --file=G920IDVU1AOC6.tar modem.bin
tar --delete --file=G920IDVU1AOC6.tar cm.bin
tar --delete --file=G920IDVU1AOC6.tar sboot.bin
Close cygwin. You can check if cygwin really deleted the bin files by opening the .tar file with winRAR.
Make sure the Samsung drivers are installed on your computer. Something you should verify ahead of time (before any of this) by seeing if you can access it from "My Computer" when it's connected.
Download the latest Odin3 v3.10.6 from here and unzip it (the link is in the signature block of the comment). Odin is a program for service stores to reload stock roms into units in maintenance.
Open Odin
Click on AP button and choose modified .tar file from step 7.
Connect your Samsung phone to the pc. Turn it on using Down Volume (not Up), Power and Home buttons. When you get the warning screen about loading up roms can be dangerous, press Up volume to accept.
On Odin screen, you should see the phone connect. Click "Start" and hope it works .... your s6 should boot a few times, and then start up like new, if not, try another fimware from another country from sammobile.
Again, the firmware that seems to work is a 5.0.1 and only if you remove the .bin files. The above worked for myself and I was finally able to load up GearVR. However, as it was a LDU there is burn in easy to make out. In addition it was an S6 with older firmware meaning it's missing out on some improvements.
Please note I don't make a habit of rooting smartphones or messing around installing images into hardware. As such, I probably spent way to much time searching around for the above, downloading a few roms and trying to get it to work before finding the correct path. Hopefully the above saves you some headache if you take the unadvised route of using an LDU for your GearVR.
I found this somewhere on this website:
Free simple factory reset - how to
Okay this is how you do it, super easy
Download: https://apkpure.com/free-simple-fact....android?hl=en
1. Connect phone to PC
2. Place Simple Factory Reset.apk in the phone's storage
3. Install Simple Factory Reset.apk
4. Open Simple Factory Reset
5. Click reset
5. Wait untill you see a message that says something like "not allowed to shut down"
6. Once you see that restart the phone (hold: volume down, volume up, power and home button)
7. As soon as phone goes black, boot into recovery (hold power, volume up, and home button)
8. Let phone reset
Done, phone will restart and retail mode is no more.
This works on all samsung, ive tested it myself on s4, s5, s6, and s7 as well
Donnavarro said:
here you go: basicly just the same but remember to flash s7 roms/firmware not s6.
Edit: /u/servili007 posted this thread on XDA developers forum which is probably a better guide. I'm not an expert so defer to that if it makes sense. /edit
In case you saw this thread a couple of weeks ago and thought you can get a GearVR capable Samsung S6 for cheap by buying a Live Demo Unit (LDU) here's some warnings:
It's a store display unit meaning it's likely used and abused.
There's no phone capabilities as the cellular antenna and SIM slot are removed.
The screen probably has burn in of some sort and has been on a lot.
It's not covered by warranty so you're getting it as is, and likely no return to the Ebay seller
The stock ROM automatically loads "Retail Mode" that's not simple to remove and it resets the phone
GearVR software likely will not load on it without effort.
If you understand the above, read what might be required before making the plunge.
First, watch this and write down the information he says to get: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8LMyRqBViM
Basically you need to disable "Retail Mode" by installing a ROM that's not retail. Again, this probably won't work and will BRICK your phone, but you've been warned. This works for S6 and not the Note 4 which needs different passwords.
Go to the app drawer and open an app called Samsung Retail (not the Retail Mode program).
Go to Configuration Settings and enter the password 5444 to unlock it.
Then uncheck “Disable the factory reset” and enter the following password M729Q16K8546.
Decline the "Factory Reset" and instead turn your Samsung Galaxy S6 off
Boot into Recovery mode by holding down Volume Up, Power and Home button all at the same time.
Go to Wipe data & factory reset and press OK.
Now comes the fun part: Flash a stock firmware with ODIN. These steps I've got from here, here and here.
Go to sammobile and download the fimware you think it is the right one. This firmware which is a 5.0.2 version from New Zealand worked for more than one person
Extract the firmware file which is a 1.5gb tar.md5 file.
You will now have something like this G920IDVU1AOC6_G920INZC1AOC6_G920IDVU1AOC6_HOME.tar.md5
Rename it to something shorter like G920IDVU1AOC6.tar and be sure to delete the .md5 at the end.
Download the pseudo-Linux emulator Cygwin from it's home site here and install it
Move the tar file (G920IDVU1AOC6.tar) to C:\cygwin\home\''username''
Open cygwin and delete all the ''.bin'' files by typing the following commands (use up arrow to reload last command and edit for next command). Takes a few moments per command.
tar --delete --file=G920IDVU1AOC6.tar modem.bin
tar --delete --file=G920IDVU1AOC6.tar cm.bin
tar --delete --file=G920IDVU1AOC6.tar sboot.bin
Close cygwin. You can check if cygwin really deleted the bin files by opening the .tar file with winRAR.
Make sure the Samsung drivers are installed on your computer. Something you should verify ahead of time (before any of this) by seeing if you can access it from "My Computer" when it's connected.
Download the latest Odin3 v3.10.6 from here and unzip it (the link is in the signature block of the comment). Odin is a program for service stores to reload stock roms into units in maintenance.
Open Odin
Click on AP button and choose modified .tar file from step 7.
Connect your Samsung phone to the pc. Turn it on using Down Volume (not Up), Power and Home buttons. When you get the warning screen about loading up roms can be dangerous, press Up volume to accept.
On Odin screen, you should see the phone connect. Click "Start" and hope it works .... your s6 should boot a few times, and then start up like new, if not, try another fimware from another country from sammobile.
Again, the firmware that seems to work is a 5.0.1 and only if you remove the .bin files. The above worked for myself and I was finally able to load up GearVR. However, as it was a LDU there is burn in easy to make out. In addition it was an S6 with older firmware meaning it's missing out on some improvements.
Please note I don't make a habit of rooting smartphones or messing around installing images into hardware. As such, I probably spent way to much time searching around for the above, downloading a few roms and trying to get it to work before finding the correct path. Hopefully the above saves you some headache if you take the unadvised route of using an LDU for your GearVR.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the Info, I got my s7 LDU working, I just flashed a normal G930F stock room via Odin and it was stuck in bootloop, then flashed a twrp and later went to recovery mode where it showed "dm varity check failed, need to check drk first". I learned that it happens when you are not rooted, so I flashed cf auto root via Odin and after that it booted correctly. The retail softwares all gone. But there's only a problem that it hangs for 2-3seconds every now and then unfortunately.
https://www.s7fanclub.com/2016/04/flash-stock-rom-galaxy-s7-galaxy-s7-edge.html
https://www.s7fanclub.com/2016/03/download-flash-twrp-recovery-root-galaxy-s7-sm-g930f.html
https://www.s7fanclub.com/2016/02/how-to-root-samsung-galaxy-s7.html
I finally removed the Retail Mode from my Verizon Demo Phone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXrHmD-mee8
KillTheSprint said:
I finally removed the Retail Mode from my Verizon Demo Phone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXrHmD-mee8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't you post the method you used.. the video, is not only useless it doesn't work anymore....
All I did was flash it with the stock rom. The Verizon demos seem to have a different bootloader/recovery compared to regular demos. What model do you have?
vo_danh said:
Why don't you post the method you used.. the video, is not only useless it doesn't work anymore....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not surprising considering the post you just replied to is 9 months old....
*Detection* said:
Not surprising considering the post you just replied to is 9 months old....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to confirm, you got full retail S7 functionality, calls, text, fingerprint reader everything?
KillTheSprint said:
Thanks!
I am not sure deleting files from the firmware is needed since you needed to delete them since you were flashing a different model firmware on to the demo model. In my case it is just a verizon stock firmware to a regular consumer phone so hopefully after removing the Retail software, Odin successfully flashes the stock firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bump
---------- Post added at 02:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:07 PM ----------
flutenpsyte said:
Thanks for the Info, I got my s7 LDU working, I just flashed a normal G930F stock room via Odin and it was stuck in bootloop, then flashed a twrp and later went to recovery mode where it showed "dm varity check failed, need to check drk first". I learned that it happens when you are not rooted, so I flashed cf auto root via Odin and after that it booted correctly. The retail softwares all gone. But there's only a problem that it hangs for 2-3seconds every now and then unfortunately.
https://www.s7fanclub.com/2016/04/flash-stock-rom-galaxy-s7-galaxy-s7-edge.html
https://www.s7fanclub.com/2016/03/download-flash-twrp-recovery-root-galaxy-s7-sm-g930f.html
https://www.s7fanclub.com/2016/02/how-to-root-samsung-galaxy-s7.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bump
m.jordan89 said:
Just wanted to confirm, you got full retail S7 functionality, calls, text, fingerprint reader everything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a demo unit, and no, you won't get all that because there is no modem or fingerprint reader in demo units, so you can't call or text or use fingerprint security
Hi guys,
Not started a thread on XDA for years but I really am stumped.
I have claimed my girlfriends s6 (SM-G920F) after she upgraded and intended to root it and maybe try a few Oreo ROMs etc. After investigation I saw that (I think this is right) I don't need to OEM unlock this version of the device and rooting via Odin is the best way to do it. BTW if I do need to OEM unlock then that might be the solution to my issue, so if some one could clarify that'd be great.
So a week ago I downloaded Odin and also my old favourite CF-AutoRoot after putting in the device details. The package was generated, I unzipped and put it in a folder in my desktop
After putting the device in download mode I run Odin as administrator and plug it in. The device is recognised and I get the blue box to show this.
I then click the AP box and select the image file and click start, everything runs as expected to this point and I get PASS displayed in the info bar. On the phone the progress bar looks like it has not completed and I can see a small portion still to run. On the first try I left phone like this waiting for it reboot for over an hour. I was expecting 5he device to reboot and get the android with the red exclamation point. At this point I restarted manually and saw during the boot process an error message saying Recovery not SE Enforcing in red.
I have read a few posts saying this can be caused by the wrong image being used, so I downloaded the Auto root package again and made sure that it was all correct, but the same thing occurred.
I have been looking and reading for the last week to find a solution, but I'm still in the same position. Can anyone help or point me in the right direction?
If you need any more info let me know.
Thanks in advance
Jon
im in exacltly the same boat pal. was running nanorom on my rooted s6, but had no vr capability and just got some galaxy gear goggles. tried to reflash arter97 kernal and lost my whole setup. ive been in and out of hard brick for last 24hrs and am back now to where you are, i can access download and recoveries via three button combo, but any packages i flash with odin just fail out right.
ive been here before though and usually get out once i find the right stock rom and csc's for my version. iof i find anything ill come back and share it with you pal.
Cheers mate, it's really frustrating. I'll keep looking too and post back if I have any success.
Hi guys, this thread hasn't been responded to so I thought I'd just replied to it to give it a little bump up. I'd much appreciate it if anybody could help me out here.
Thanks again,
Jon
copernicus666 said:
Hi guys, this thread hasn't been responded to so I thought I'd just replied to it to give it a little bump up. I'd much appreciate it if anybody could help me out here.
Thanks again,
Jon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just try bro to reflash full stock rom again by odin and after flash it , reflash cf-autoroot again
also , can you provide more information about your android version and your csc stock rom ?
what a f**k about!!!!
Right then Jon,
sorry for my delay but not the greatest at reponding to things at the best of times, but with my own s6 in a right old state, and a 7y.o and 4 month old in the house, my pc time is limited.
anyways, im guessing you're a bit like me, and you've had your fair share of flashing roms and roots since the days of old! (Galaxy thru and thru for me s 1,3,4,6, plus tabs and watches).
this s6 gt-920f is a completely different kettle of fish mate. where you're at at the minute, if your still stuck in bootloop with no recovery, your gonna want to find twrp recovery, as you know mate, google will be your guide. you flash this just like a rom or the old cwm, download a zip, bang it in ap/pda in odin and let it flash. KEY NOTE IS MAKE SURE ODIN HAS ~"AUTO-REBOOT"~ UNTICKED, UNCHECKED, NO MARK IN THE BOX. THIS IS KEY TO THE RESTORATION PROCESS GOING FORWARD. Once odin shows that the file has flashed and passed, get ready to perform a three button power reset, Home button, Vol DOWN and Power for 8 seconds. when your pc makes the badong sound and the screen goes off, IMMEDIATELY SWITCH TO Vol UP, Home and Power, thus straight into recovery mode, AND WAIT.
You should see the blue and silver TWRP splash screen and then the recovery options. Firstly, wipe and format everything, dalvik, caches and perform a factory reset. twrp should ask you to type yes to confirm, do it, there's nothing there yet any ways. if you get any issues about cant mount data or some jazz, DONT PANIC, use twrp to reformat the partition to ext4, your pc should ping to show reconnection to the phone.
Now whilst still in twrp, nav to the reset options and reboot into download mode. if all has go well, the scren should have the regular greenish odin screen but without all the samsung odin mode in at the top. odin should show the phone as a connected device, you should be able to access your memory card from your pc to transfer rom zips etc and get the phone back up the way you are used to.
if on the other hand you want to get back to vanila stock style android, with the expense of a tonload of bloatware and crapps, you're gonna wanna take a goggle at stuff like "G920F Repair Firmware X.X UK YYY) , Where X.X is 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, depending on the original android version your brick was on, and YYY is your carrier or network operator, off the top of my head they are VOD, TMO, O2U, H3G.
AGAIN A KEY POINT IF YOUR GOING THIS ROUTE, THESE FILES ARE MADE FOR INDIVIDUAL MODELS OF S6 (THERES ABOUT 12 MODEL NUMBERS -YOURS IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE SM-G920F - SO DO NOT EVER STRAY FROM THAT NUMBER!!!! ) THAT MEANS YOU NEED TO BE FINDING FILES LIKE "G920XXU5EXUE 4 files repair firmwares", THESE ARE YOUR SAVIOUR. GET THE ONE THAT MATCHES YOUR PHONE AND CARRIER OR ONE THAT IS AS NEAR AS DAMMIT, AND AGAIN PLEASE MAKE SURE FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR PHONE THAT YOU ONLY GET FILES MARKED G920, ANYTHING ELSE WILL RESULT IN VERY SERIOUS ERRORS.
YOUR ALSO GOING TO NEED SOMETHING CALLED A PIT FILE, EASY TO FIND, LOOK FOR " S6 ZEROFLTE HIDDEN IMG FILE" IN GOOGLE.
USE OUR OLD BUDDY ODIN TO FLASH THE FOUR FILES YOU GOT FROM THE REPAIR FIRMWARE ZIP, WHICH ARE USUALLY LABEL AP, BL, CP AND CSC.. NOW TAP THE PIT TAB IN ODIN (IGNORE THE WARNING) AND NAVIGATE TO THE HIDDEN.IMG FILE YOU GOT AND BANG IT HERE. ON THE OPTIONS TAB YOU WANT TO TICK AUTO REBOOT, REPARTITION, and NAND ERASE ALL. i know, i know, you probably never use it out of some shear panic but right now its kosher.
start the flash and take a break. like a big break. the process is gonna wipe the phone in totalilty, rewrite every bit of code and software and reload like new after about forty minutes.
now, if it doesnt, there are a few things we can look at but am gonna leave it here and hope you can make some use of the ramblings of a lost man. my 6 is currently in an inverted touch bug where if i touch one side of the screen, the opposite side responds so its a proper nightmare, typing anything means that a becomes l, s becomes k etc. thisis down to me drunk flashing the wrong roms for and s6 edge, g925f, hence all my warnings earlier. anyways, i need a reefer and a scran after all this, God, allah, buddah i hope it helps someone.
shiko2007 said:
Just try bro to reflash full stock rom again by odin and after flash it , reflash cf-autoroot again
also , can you provide more information about your android version and your csc stock rom ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for replying.
I'm on the original stock, I've not flashed any thing just yet. To be honest, I'm not sure it'd work.
The android version is 7.0 and the build is NRD90M.G920FXXS5EQH6
Be glad if you have any advise.
Thanks
copernicus666 said:
Hi, thanks for replying.
I'm on the original stock, I've not flashed any thing just yet. To be honest, I'm not sure it'd work.
The android version is 7.0 and the build is NRD90M.G920FXXS5EQH6
Be glad if you have any advise.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if your not root yet just download latest your carrier/country firmware
from sammobile
and flash it by odin
but you are probably trip knox so you must root
so the steps you should do :
1-download your carrier/country firmware from sammobile
2-flash it by odin
3-flash cf-auto root to pass bootloop
or
download twrp recovery of g920f and flash it by odin to replace stock recovery then after flash it ,wipe delvik cash then flash su binary
DagsyMc said:
Right then Jon,
sorry for my delay but not the greatest at reponding to things at the best of times, but with my own s6 in a right old state, and a 7y.o and 4 month old in the house, my pc time is limited.
anyways, im guessing you're a bit like me, and you've had your fair share of flashing roms and roots since the days of old! (Galaxy thru and thru for me s 1,3,4,6, plus tabs and watches).
this s6 gt-920f is a completely different kettle of fish mate. where you're at at the minute, if your still stuck in bootloop with no recovery, your gonna want to find twrp recovery, as you know mate, google will be your guide. you flash this just like a rom or the old cwm, download a zip, bang it in ap/pda in odin and let it flash. KEY NOTE IS MAKE SURE ODIN HAS ~"AUTO-REBOOT"~ UNTICKED, UNCHECKED, NO MARK IN THE BOX. THIS IS KEY TO THE RESTORATION PROCESS GOING FORWARD. Once odin shows that the file has flashed and passed, get ready to perform a three button power reset, Home button, Vol DOWN and Power for 8 seconds. when your pc makes the badong sound and the screen goes off, IMMEDIATELY SWITCH TO Vol UP, Home and Power, thus straight into recovery mode, AND WAIT.
You should see the blue and silver TWRP splash screen and then the recovery options. Firstly, wipe and format everything, dalvik, caches and perform a factory reset. twrp should ask you to type yes to confirm, do it, there's nothing there yet any ways. if you get any issues about cant mount data or some jazz, DONT PANIC, use twrp to reformat the partition to ext4, your pc should ping to show reconnection to the phone.
Now whilst still in twrp, nav to the reset options and reboot into download mode. if all has go well, the scren should have the regular greenish odin screen but without all the samsung odin mode in at the top. odin should show the phone as a connected device, you should be able to access your memory card from your pc to transfer rom zips etc and get the phone back up the way you are used to.
if on the other hand you want to get back to vanila stock style android, with the expense of a tonload of bloatware and crapps, you're gonna wanna take a goggle at stuff like "G920F Repair Firmware X.X UK YYY) , Where X.X is 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, depending on the original android version your brick was on, and YYY is your carrier or network operator, off the top of my head they are VOD, TMO, O2U, H3G.
AGAIN A KEY POINT IF YOUR GOING THIS ROUTE, THESE FILES ARE MADE FOR INDIVIDUAL MODELS OF S6 (THERES ABOUT 12 MODEL NUMBERS -YOURS IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE SM-G920F - SO DO NOT EVER STRAY FROM THAT NUMBER!!!! ) THAT MEANS YOU NEED TO BE FINDING FILES LIKE "G920XXU5EXUE 4 files repair firmwares", THESE ARE YOUR SAVIOUR. GET THE ONE THAT MATCHES YOUR PHONE AND CARRIER OR ONE THAT IS AS NEAR AS DAMMIT, AND AGAIN PLEASE MAKE SURE FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR PHONE THAT YOU ONLY GET FILES MARKED G920, ANYTHING ELSE WILL RESULT IN VERY SERIOUS ERRORS.
YOUR ALSO GOING TO NEED SOMETHING CALLED A PIT FILE, EASY TO FIND, LOOK FOR " S6 ZEROFLTE HIDDEN IMG FILE" IN GOOGLE.
USE OUR OLD BUDDY ODIN TO FLASH THE FOUR FILES YOU GOT FROM THE REPAIR FIRMWARE ZIP, WHICH ARE USUALLY LABEL AP, BL, CP AND CSC.. NOW TAP THE PIT TAB IN ODIN (IGNORE THE WARNING) AND NAVIGATE TO THE HIDDEN.IMG FILE YOU GOT AND BANG IT HERE. ON THE OPTIONS TAB YOU WANT TO TICK AUTO REBOOT, REPARTITION, and NAND ERASE ALL. i know, i know, you probably never use it out of some shear panic but right now its kosher.
start the flash and take a break. like a big break. the process is gonna wipe the phone in totalilty, rewrite every bit of code and software and reload like new after about forty minutes.
now, if it doesnt, there are a few things we can look at but am gonna leave it here and hope you can make some use of the ramblings of a lost man. my 6 is currently in an inverted touch bug where if i touch one side of the screen, the opposite side responds so its a proper nightmare, typing anything means that a becomes l, s becomes k etc. thisis down to me drunk flashing the wrong roms for and s6 edge, g925f, hence all my warnings earlier. anyways, i need a reefer and a scran after all this, God, allah, buddah i hope it helps someone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Legendary post! Cheers mate you just made my morning. I knew the XDA guys would pull through.
I'm on my way to work, but I'll give it a crack later.
Cheers bud - Kudos
I've looked through the forums to identify a similar problem to mine in hopes I can resolve this issue but I've not found one. So here's my problem.
I have a UK Galaxy S7 running on the 6.0 firmware that came with the phone when it first released (Yes I know it's very old and should have updated along the way but I had plans to root and install customs at some point which obviously didn't happen). The phone is unrooted and the stock rom is the XEU version with Multi-CSC (according to recovery)
The phone was running fine until a few days ago when all of a sudden it shut off and wouldn't power on via the power button. So I pressed and held Home + Volume Down + Power. The green screen appeared and selected Volume Down to restart the device (as you do in odd situations like this).
PHONE IS NOW STUCK IN BOOTLOOP!!!
I have tried various means (not including flashing) to get the phone to boot to the home screen with no success. I have not performed a factory reset from recovery because I have various data, including pictures, music and other software on the internal storage which I wish to keep and not lose. The phone is still under warranty so I can take it to a Samsung repair outlet to get them to fix it for me but due to data privacy or whatever, they have to format it clean to then install the most recent firmware.
I've been scouring the forums for help on flashing OTA updates which retain data on phone whilst possibly allowing my phone to boot into the home screen so I can access my data. Is such a thing possible?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You can flash the latest firmware without losing data (as long as the hardware is not faulty) by downloading it from either sammobile, updato.com or using the samfirm tool here on XDA (Fastest option)
Then extract the firmware and add all 4 parts to ODIN 3.12.7 (Do not use ODIN 3.13.1 unless you want to flash BTU Oreo 8.0)
AP << (Takes quite a long time to add, be patient as ODIN will look frozen)
BL
CP
HOME_CSC
If you use CSC instead of HOME_CSC it will wipe the device after the flash, HOME_CSC will not wipe it
Put the phone into download mode (Home & Power & Volume Down)
Connect to PC USB and hit start on ODIN
Wait for the flash to complete (It can take quite a while) and the phone should hopefully boot back into Android
Thank you for the quick response.
It's imperative I get this right and ensure I've understood your reply correctly.
I have downloaded the following:
SM-G930F_1_20180417125627_cz5yqc22v0_fac - from SamFirm as it was much quicker like you said.
Odin3+v3.12.7 - This particular version was quite difficult to get a hold of. Various sites redirecting me to various pages without a direct link to download but I hope that is the correct one.
The firmware zip contains the following files:
AP_G930FXXS2DRDI_CL12365438_QB17789072_REV00_user_low_ship_meta.tar -------1
BL_G930FXXS2DRDI_CL12365438_QB17789072_REV00_user_low_ship.tar -------2
CP_G930FXXU2DRB6_CL648265_QB8952207_SIGNED.tar -------3
CSC_XEU_G930FXEU2DRB5_CL13061583_QB16917099_REV00_user_low_ship.tar
HOME_CSC_XEU_G930FXEU2DRB5_CL13061583_QB16917099_REV00_user_low_ship.tar -------4
I have labelled the files 1-4 in the order of flashing/installation (I presume?)
I will also follow your instruction of flashing HOME_CSC_XEU_G930FXEU2DRB5_CL13061583_QB16917099_REV00_user_low_ship.tar as this will NOT wipe any existing data on the phone?
Will following the above steps act as an upgrade to the phone and not wipe apps/pictures etc in the internal storage?
Have I missed out any other steps?
Cassie` said:
Thank you for the quick response.
It's imperative I get this right and ensure I've understood your reply correctly.
I have downloaded the following:
SM-G930F_1_20180417125627_cz5yqc22v0_fac - from SamFirm as it was much quicker like you said.
Odin3+v3.12.7 - This particular version was quite difficult to get a hold of. Various sites redirecting me to various pages without a direct link to download but I hope that is the correct one.
The firmware zip contains the following files:
AP_G930FXXS2DRDI_CL12365438_QB17789072_REV00_user_low_ship_meta.tar -------1
BL_G930FXXS2DRDI_CL12365438_QB17789072_REV00_user_low_ship.tar -------2
CP_G930FXXU2DRB6_CL648265_QB8952207_SIGNED.tar -------3
CSC_XEU_G930FXEU2DRB5_CL13061583_QB16917099_REV00_user_low_ship.tar
HOME_CSC_XEU_G930FXEU2DRB5_CL13061583_QB16917099_REV00_user_low_ship.tar -------4
I have labelled the files 1-4 in the order of flashing/installation (I presume?)
I will also follow your instruction of flashing HOME_CSC_XEU_G930FXEU2DRB5_CL13061583_QB16917099_REV00_user_low_ship.tar as this will NOT wipe any existing data on the phone?
Will following the above steps act as an upgrade to the phone and not wipe apps/pictures etc in the internal storage?
Have I missed out any other steps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost, you must flash all 4 files at the same time, load them all into ODIN before hitting start, doesn't matter which order you load them in as long as they are all loaded before flashing
And you are correct with the rest, HOME_CSC will not wipe anything, and yes it will act as an upgrade although it is a full ROM you are flashing, to you the user, it will appear exactly the same as an upgrade as long as you use HOME_CSC
No other steps needed
I have loaded all 4 files as seen in the screenshot however, after clicking on Start, about 5 or so minutes later, it says FAIL in the first box above where it initially said RECOVERY. It's stopped and not done anything else.
I'm not sure what to do here.
I've also added a shot of the top left of odin screen
Cassie` said:
I have loaded all 4 files as seen in the screenshot however, after clicking on Start, about 5 or so minutes later, it says FAIL in the first box above where it initially said RECOVERY. It's stopped and not done anything else.
I'm not sure what to do here.
I've also added a shot of the top left of odin screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea it's failed, you can close ODIN and disconnect now
You can try doing it again, but that should have worked, you could try downloading the latest 6.0.1 ROM and flashing that the same way first, it looks like your bootloader is version 1 where this ROM is version 2 as shown by the S2 number in the middle of the firmware version
*Detection* said:
Yea it's failed, you can close ODIN and disconnect now
You can try doing it again, but that should have worked, you could try downloading the latest 6.0.1 ROM and flashing that the same way first, it looks like your bootloader is version 1 where this ROM is version 2 as shown by the S2 number in the middle of the firmware version
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've gone to https://updato.com/firmware-archive-select-model?record=0DB04AD4C34211E69215FA163EE8F90B
From there I've selected the most recent 6.0.1 ROM which is dated 4th December 2016. Problem is that the download is EXTREMELY slow and I have no idea how to use SamFirm to download that particular ROM.
I guess all I can do now is play the waiting game and repeat the steps with the 6.0.1 ROM once it's downloaded.
Thank you for your responses and I will post back here once the download has finished.
Cassie` said:
I've gone to https://updato.com/firmware-archive-select-model?record=0DB04AD4C34211E69215FA163EE8F90B
From there I've selected the most recent 6.0.1 ROM which is dated 4th December 2016. Problem is that the download is EXTREMELY slow and I have no idea how to use SamFirm to download that particular ROM.
I guess all I can do now is play the waiting game and repeat the steps with the 6.0.1 ROM once it's downloaded.
Thank you for your responses and I will post back here once the download has finished.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea unfortunately all alternatives other than samfirm tool are slow, and samfirm only downloads the latest ROM
Judging by the bootloader version and the ROM version you have chosen, if this also fails, then I would assume a hardware failure
The only other thing I could suggest if this doesn't work, is to pick an older version of ODIN to flash the older firmware, ODIN 3.11.1 was used for MM 6.0.1 ROMs if I'm remembering correctly
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2711451
or
https://odindownloader.com/download/odin3-v3-11-1
I've restarted the device and it said An error has occurred while updating the device software use the emergency recovery function.
I attempted to reboot the phone a couple of times to get into recovery and I was successful. I now see the the Bootloader version is now 2 as opposed to 1. After seeing this I attempted to flash version 7 as initially suggested yet it did not work.
I'm not sure how Bootloader changed from 1 to 2 and is still failing to flash in odin. I am still waiting for the 6.0.1 ROM to download, fluctuating between 16-19 hours as of writing this response. Once it's ready I'll try and load up odin 3.11.1 as a second solution and try 6.0.1, even though Bootloader says 2.
Cassie` said:
I've restarted the device and it said An error has occurred while updating the device software use the emergency recovery function.
I attempted to reboot the phone a couple of times to get into recovery and I was successful. I now see the the Bootloader version is now 2 as opposed to 1. After seeing this I attempted to flash version 7 as initially suggested yet it did not work.
I'm not sure how Bootloader changed from 1 to 2 and is still failing to flash in odin. I am still waiting for the 6.0.1 ROM to download, fluctuating between 16-19 hours as of writing this response. Once it's ready I'll try and load up odin 3.11.1 as a second solution and try 6.0.1, even though Bootloader says 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your ODIN screenshot looks like it managed to flash the bootloader before it failed, so it's possible you are going to need to use a version 2 ROM from now on, I have the same phone, XEU G930F and it is running Bootloader version 2 (Running the BTU Oreo 8.0 stock ROM)
But if the 7.0 Nougat ROM failed again it's looking more like a hardware issue, seems to be failing when it should be starting to flash SYSTEM (AP)
You can try flashing the 7.0 ROM section AP on it's own with ODIN 3.12.7, see if that fails immediately, if it does that's likely where the problem lies, it's not unheard of for these S7's to fail like this out of the blue, I see it maybe a couple of times a month on XDA
Only solution is to get the mainboard replaced
But yea, give 6.0.1 a shot anyway, worth a try saying as everything else has failed up to now
(Looking for mirrors for that 6.0.1 ROM, I've got it on my main machine but it is offline right now with no graphics card so I can't access any files, stuck with a laptop, I always download and save every new firmware release for this reason)
There is Samsung SmartSwitch software for Windows for the emergency firmware recovery, but it WILL wipe your phone back to factory and delete all your data (Last resort if nothing else works, although if ODIN doesn't work, I'd say hardware failure)
Right so I've managed to download the most up to date 6.0.1 ROM and attempted to flash it with ODIN V3.11.1 and it idles at the recovery.img part and fails like the previous efforts.
I'm not sure if attempting to get OREO running with the latest ODIN might work? If not then I may have to give up and do a factory reset through Samsung SmartSwitch.
It probably is a hardware failure as I had noticed the lightning bolt appearing when the phone is off whilst plugged in the charge, it take about a minute or so for the percentage bar to appear, usually it was about 2 seconds before this disaster occurred.
Cassie` said:
Right so I've managed to download the most up to date 6.0.1 ROM and attempted to flash it with ODIN V3.11.1 and it idles at the recovery.img part and fails like the previous efforts.
I'm not sure if attempting to get OREO running with the latest ODIN might work? If not then I may have to give up and do a factory reset through Samsung SmartSwitch.
It probably is a hardware failure as I had noticed the lightning bolt appearing when the phone is off whilst plugged in the charge, it take about a minute or so for the percentage bar to appear, usually it was about 2 seconds before this disaster occurred.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worth a try flashing Oreo, BTU on samfirm tool will give you it for the G930F
If you're seeing problems with the charging now, you might get lucky and find the USB port is the only thing needing replacing, but if you send it off for repair it's unlikely even if that is the case that they won't just charge you for a new mainboard, you can likely get USB ports from eBay but opening the S7 isn't as straight forward as the back is glued on for IP68 water resistance and needs a heatgun to remove, not sure if anything else like the screen needs removing for USB, I've not opened mine
You've tried a new USB cable and a different PC too ?
*Detection* said:
Worth a try flashing Oreo, BTU on samfirm tool will give you it for the G930F
If you're seeing problems with the charging now, you might get lucky and find the USB port is the only thing needing replacing, but if you send it off for repair it's unlikely even if that is the case that they won't just charge you for a new mainboard, you can likely get USB ports from eBay but opening the S7 isn't as straight forward as the back is glued on for IP68 water resistance and needs a heatgun to remove, not sure if anything else like the screen needs removing for USB, I've not opened mine
You've tried a new USB cable and a different PC too ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The charging issue occurred immediately when the phone shut off by itself and wouldn't power on conventionally. The phone is still under warranty so if the Samsung SmartSwitch software is unable to recover the phone then I will take it to the repair center and have them fix/replace it. If it's a case of undoing the glue and whatnot then I'd rather they give me a replacement.
I did change the USB cable to a different one, and I've attempted to flash the 2 different ODINS with the 2 different ROMS on a laptop as opposed to the desktop I was using. Still fails at the recovery.img part of ODIN.
I'm going to try Samsung SmartSwitch now and see if this will give it some life. If THAT doesn't work then it's 100% hardware issue and my data was lost to begin with.
Considering both versions of ODIN didn't work with either ROM, I don't think I'll be looking for the BTU version of OREO to attempt to install with. If there's a direct download that's quick I might but I think I'll attempt to Emergency Recover through the Samsung tool.
I want to thank you plenty for your help and knowledge on this. It certainly has been helpful and given me better understanding of the problem I'm facing and potential solutions. I have a feeling that the SmartSwitch recovery won't work either and still be posting back here hahaha.
OK I've got bigger problems on my hands now.
SmartSwitch and Kies both say "SM-G930F" does not support initializing. Please contact our service center.
I've already inputted my serial number and it gives me the same message on both programs. When I called up customer support they said my warranty is till the end of May this year.
Would the service center be able to solve this problem?
Cassie` said:
OK I've got bigger problems on my hands now.
SmartSwitch and Kies both say "SM-G930F" does not support initializing. Please contact our service center.
I've already inputted my serial number and it gives me the same message on both programs. When I called up customer support they said my warranty is till the end of May this year.
Would the service center be able to solve this problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I'd get it repaired under warranty asap then if it runs out soon, they will most likely replace the mainboard I'd say, which means 100% data loss as the storage is on a chip on that board, or might even send you a new S7
Really does sound like hardware failure if all of these recovery options have failed, just keep quiet about what you've done to try and fix it, just act dumb and say it won't turn on or they could claim you nulled your warranty messing with ODIN
And no probs, that's what XDA is all about Let us know how the repair goes and buy a MicroSD card to save your important files to this time so you don't lose anything if it happens again
*Detection* said:
Yea I'd get it repaired under warranty asap then if it runs out soon, they will most likely replace the mainboard I'd say, which means 100% data loss as the storage is on a chip on that board, or might even send you a new S7
Really does sound like hardware failure if all of these recovery options have failed, just keep quiet about what you've done to try and fix it, just act dumb and say it won't turn on or they could claim you nulled your warranty messing with ODIN
And no probs, that's what XDA is all about Let us know how the repair goes and buy a MicroSD card to save your important files to this time so you don't lose anything if it happens again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had an SD card inside with all my pictures I took whilst in Japan (Thank GOD!). I took it out when this issue arose to avoid potential data loss there.
As far as ODIN is concerned, warranty still appears intact but yes I'll keep hush hush when I'm there. I believe they said they'd give me a refurbished S7 if they couldn't reflash it there.
Cassie` said:
I had an SD card inside with all my pictures I took whilst in Japan (Thank GOD!). I took it out when this issue arose to avoid potential data loss there.
As far as ODIN is concerned, warranty still appears intact but yes I'll keep hush hush when I'm there. I believe they said they'd give me a refurbished S7 if they couldn't reflash it there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, ODIN will not void warranty if you only flash stock, but telling them you used ODIN might, it's not a tool meant for us, it's Samsung's internal flashing tool not meant to be leaked online, sometimes they'll use any reason to blame you and not have to pay out / replace it so yea best not say anything other than official recovery methods suggested by Samsung themselves, if anything at all, I'd just say I didn't do anything, an OTA update came through and it never rebooted or something
Good job with the pics, I don't save any media to the phone itself, I create folders on the SDCard and move it over if I can't have it save there automatically, that way wiping the phone is nothing but a pain to set back up again, nothing actually lost
*Detection* said:
Yes, ODIN will not void warranty if you only flash stock, but telling them you used ODIN might, it's not a tool meant for us, it's Samsung's internal flashing tool not meant to be leaked online, sometimes they'll use any reason to blame you and not have to pay out / replace it so yea best not say anything other than official recovery methods suggested by Samsung themselves, if anything at all, I'd just say I didn't do anything, an OTA update came through and it never rebooted or something
Good job with the pics, I don't save any media to the phone itself, I create folders on the SDCard and move it over if I can't have it save there automatically, that way wiping the phone is nothing but a pain to set back up again, nothing actually lost
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to give flashing one last try.
I am currently downloading Android 8.0.0 for United Kingdom (BTU, NOT XEU). I have to head to work in a few minutes. When I get back I'll attempt to flash that without BootLoader as that will change it to version 3 and you can't downgrade from that from what I've read here and there. If that fails then it's off to the repair center. If it's some sort of hardware failure then it won't flash regardless what stock rom/ODIN version I'm using.
Not sure if BTU update with home CSC will retain my data (assuming it works)
Cassie` said:
I'm going to give flashing one last try.
I am currently downloading Android 8.0.0 for United Kingdom (BTU, NOT XEU). I have to head to work in a few minutes. When I get back I'll attempt to flash that without BootLoader as that will change it to version 3 and you can't downgrade from that from what I've read here and there. If that fails then it's off to the repair center. If it's some sort of hardware failure then it won't flash regardless what stock rom/ODIN version I'm using.
Not sure if BTU update with home CSC will retain my data (assuming it works)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your CSC will remain XEU as it is Multi-CSC containing BTU, and BTU contains XEU, I'm running it now with BTU firmware & XEU CSC
Bootloader for this Oreo 8.0 BTU firmware is still 2, with it being a new Android version you'll need to flash the BL too anyway
*Detection* said:
Your CSC will remain XEU as it is Multi-CSC containing BTU, and BTU contains XEU, I'm running it now with BTU firmware & XEU CSC
Bootloader for this Oreo 8.0 BTU firmware is still 2, with it being a new Android version you'll need to flash the BL too anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had no luck flashing it with Oreo. It's definitely going to the repair centre. Such a shame.
I'm very grateful for your time and help with this. I will report back this weekend with the results of what the repair centre will do regarding the device. Don't like to leave a thread without an end result.
Many thanks again!
Here is what I did so far to get here.
First I followed the guide to root my phone, and to be honest, all was perfect. I had to restore stock rom cause my first few tries failed. But seems I flashed a rom for a different provider. It worked anyway, but I don't have my sim card in that phone, it's temporarily in another device.
I had a little issue in settings, where battery was coming up two times in the list. That bugged me, I wanted to restore the rom and see if a full restore would take care of this issue, but somehow, after I installed twrp and rooted my phone, I can no longer flash anything stock with odin, it fails.
If I try to flash the AP tar.md5 file, it fails when it gets to system. And then after rebooting, I see this message:
"An error has occurred while updating the device software. Use the emergency recovery function in the Smart Switch PC Software"
I tried installing smart switch and kies, and both software doesn't detect my device in download mode or twrp (obviously)...
So to get rid of the emergency message, I flashed twrp again with odin, and been successful. If I tried to flash the AP image again, or CSC, it fails. And then I get the message back.
After flashing twrp, I'm stuck in a boot loop. Would need to restore system I think, but cannot seem to be able to do it with Odin.
Any possible way to recover my device?
Update: Turns out I must have made a mistake with the firmware I thought I had flashed, versus the one I was trying to flash and was failing. I downloaded the latest october firmware and it's currently flashing in odin!
This not be posted in development !
mchlbenner said:
This not be posted in development !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about that, I thought it was related to the topic. Obviously, you saw that I do not have a thousand posts around here, a wise thing to do would have been to suggest me where should I have posted this, and how can I move my thread around? Do I wait for a mod to move it himself?
pleclair said:
Here is what I did so far to get here.
First I followed the guide to root my phone, and to be honest, all was perfect. I had to restore stock rom cause my first few tries failed. But seems I flashed a rom for a different provider. It worked anyway, but I don't have my sim card in that phone, it's temporarily in another device.
I had a little issue in settings, where battery was coming up two times in the list. That bugged me, I wanted to restore the rom and see if a full restore would take care of this issue, but somehow, after I installed twrp and rooted my phone, I can no longer flash anything stock with odin, it fails.
If I try to flash the AP tar.md5 file, it fails when it gets to system. And then after rebooting, I see this message:
"An error has occurred while updating the device software. Use the emergency recovery function in the Smart Switch PC Software"
I tried installing smart switch and kies, and both software doesn't detect my device in download mode or twrp (obviously)...
So to get rid of the emergency message, I flashed twrp again with odin, and been successful. If I tried to flash the AP image again, or CSC, it fails. And then I get the message back.
After flashing twrp, I'm stuck in a boot loop. Would need to restore system I think, but cannot seem to be able to do it with Odin.
Any possible way to recover my device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You forgot to flash all of them
BL, AP, CP, CSC
pleclair said:
Sorry about that, I thought it was related to the topic. Obviously, you saw that I do not have a thousand posts around here, a wise thing to do would have been to suggest me where should I have posted this, and how can I move my thread around? Do I wait for a mod to move it himself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just because you have a lot of post you don't post question in development section.
587.saboor said:
You forgot to flash all of them
BL, AP, CP, CSC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did flashed all of them. But it always fails. No matter if I select only BL, AP, CP, CSC... or all of them. Almost seems like twrp is preventing write or something else does.
It fails after a few seconds in the process. Is there any kind of log generated by odin? If so, where can I find it? I don't see much information beside that it fails.
OEM unlock checked in dev options?
USB debuging checked? these were always the go to mischecks...
back when I had the galaxy a5 2017 520W canada unit I flashed a european rom to see if FM radio was going to work. it Worked, but I had the simular issue with battery showing up twice AND I ended up tripping knox while doing it. phone seemed to work fine other then that issue and the radio worked as well.
Flashed it back to 520W stock... later sold the phone... no issues. perhaps it was different with nougat
supertac said:
OEM unlock checked in dev options?
USB debuging checked? these were always the go to mischecks...
back when I had the galaxy a5 2017 520W canada unit I flashed a european rom to see if FM radio was going to work. it Worked, but I had the simular issue with battery showing up twice AND I ended up tripping knox while doing it. phone seemed to work fine other then that issue and the radio worked as well.
Flashed it back to 520W stock... later sold the phone... no issues. perhaps it was different with nougat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have those two checked. For some reasons, I was tired that night, and was actually trying to flash 7.1.1 firmware, while having already upgraded to 8.0. So I believe this operation wasn't getting thru because of that. I was tired, and picked the wrong folder, and flashed 7.1.1. Well, I was trying to flash, but it kept failing, but had a tiny bit done, enough to screw this up like this.
When I picked the right folder, 8.0, then it worked.
As for tripping knox, you probably tripped it while flashing twrp. I believe it trips it, haven't heard of a way to do it.
pleclair said:
Yeah, I have those two checked. For some reasons, I was tired that night, and was actually trying to flash 7.1.1 firmware, while having already upgraded to 8.0. So I believe this operation wasn't getting thru because of that. I was tired, and picked the wrong folder, and flashed 7.1.1. Well, I was trying to flash, but it kept failing, but had a tiny bit done, enough to screw this up like this.
When I picked the right folder, 8.0, then it worked.
As for tripping knox, you probably tripped it while flashing twrp. I believe it trips it, haven't heard of a way to do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope. NEVER flashed twrp once on the A5- the european firmware tripped it on the 520W
** PLEASE DO YOUR PART AND READ / SEARCH / RESEARCH BEFORE POSTING AND/OR ATTEMPTING ANY MODIFICATIONS TO YOUR DEVICE. THIS GUIDE ASSUMES YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW TO OR HAVE ALREADY UNLOCKED YOUR BOOTLOADER, ALREADY ROOTED YOUR DEVICE, HOW TO FIX KG STATE ISSUES, HOW TO USE ODIN, 7-ZIP, LZ4 TOOL, ETC. THIS POST IS SIMPLY MY OBSERVATIONS AND STEPS TO UPDATE THE FIRMWARE WHILE ROOTED WITH MAGISK, WITHOUT LOSING DATA / REQUIRING A WIPE. MODIFYING YOUR DEVICE COMES WITH INHERENT RISKS, AND IT'S NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU LOSE YOUR DATA. THE STEPS I SHARE HAVE WORKED WITHOUT FAIL FOR ME, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU MAY NOT RUN INTO PROBLEMS. BACKUP YOUR DATA.**
The reason I decided to write up this guide is because of the extremely large amount of misinformation, as well as general noob-ness (no offense to anyone, just my observations to be completely honest), that I seem to come across when it comes to the Samsung sub-forums around here. I've seen many people state that updating the firmware on this particular device (Galaxy Tab S6 LITE) will REQUIRE a data wipe, which is simply not true in my experience. However, I will admit that the procedure is extremely bass ackwards when it comes to this particular device, so maybe that's why people have been claiming this.
This guide only applies to stock Samsung firmware users.
Spoiler: Boring Backstory (click to read):
I ditched Samsung a long time ago, after the Galaxy S5 (not TAB, but the phone) days, when they really started locking up the bootloaders on the USA variants. Only T-Mobile was excluded on that particular model, but from what I understand, pretty much all Snapdragons since then have been completely locked down, across all carriers. So first of all, F*CK Samsung for being dickholes. Other than that, I recently decided I wanted to start using an Android tablet again, so at first I bought a Galaxy Tab S6 Lite several months ago. Eventually I got the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, after hearing (and it's true) that the S7 series tablets actually kept Widevine L1 status after unlocking bootloader / rooting. Heck yeah.
Anyway, my Tab S6 Lite just gathered dust over the last few months, but now that I'm donating it to a friend of mine who's in school, I reloaded it with stock firmware, but rooted and heavily modified (he's an art student, so having all the stock Samsung / S-Pen integrations will be very useful for him). I finally decided to take some rough notes (written and mental, lol) about the process of updating the firmware WITHOUT losing data. As in updating your device as if like taking a standard OTA, but needing to do it manually because we're rooted and modified.
Unfortunately, like I said this device is freaking weird. Not sure if it's because it's Exynos (it's my first Exy device) or what, but it doesn't follow the same procedure as I've been used to back in the Galaxy phone days, other Tabs I've come across, nor with the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus I now own... Which is to literally follow the instructions as the creator of Magisk himself, @topjohnwu, published on his Github (see the Samsung section): https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/install.html
But following those official Magisk instructions will result in this particular device not being able to boot, and you will need to wipe and start over. tl;dr - normally for sammy devices, you need to patch the full AP file in Magisk Manager and flash that in the AP slot in Odin because it also patches vbmeta to work around AVB. But for this device, this doesn't seem to be the case. At least in my experience.
Spoiler: Technical Rantings; Still Worth A Read IMO (click to read):
For some reason, on this particular device, you can't just patch the entire AP file. That will result in your device not booting, and eventually requiring a clean (wipe it all) Odin flash. Instead you need to flash the full, unmodified AP file (which normally would screw you over and is completely advised against), and then some extra steps... Anyway, I've outlined those steps below, as well as some preparation you'll need to do beforehand, which really just involves patching the boot image itself and placing in a .tar archive, which I would hope you already know how to do to be perfectly honest.
Not sure WTF is going on, as on other Samsung devices, you want to patch the entire AP file because Magisk will also automatically patch the vbmeta image thus working around AVB restrictions. It's really freaking weird to me because normally failing to patch vbmeta should normally result in inability to boot and subsequent SOL situation where you need to wipe... but with this device, it's ass backwards. And Magisk does indeed patch the vbmeta image when patching the full AP for this device... Why instead you need to skip patching the full AP file and flash just the patched boot image separately (thus skipping patching vbmeta) makes little sense to me. Not sure why this tablet is different, but again I'm not usually a huge fan of Samsung anyway so I really don't give AF. But they make the best Android tablets, so now that I've recently bought them (though I won't have this model S6 Lite for much longer), well I wanted to share with you guys; here are my working update instructions for the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, without losing data. At least it works for me.
FOLLOW THIS GUIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK! AND BACKUP YOUR CRAP BEFORE ATTEMPTING, JUST IN CASE.
I'm not responsible for any problems you incur, etc. etc. blah blah.
(BTW, this is for the SM-P610 - WiFi USA version. Not tested on LTE, and if you try on LTE, you'll also have a CP file to flash, fyi. I have no experience with the LTE model either). This guide assumes you already have your bootloader unlocked, know how to use Odin, aren't a complete noob, and can at least restore back to stock if crap goes sideways.
Below are some bonus resources anyway, to hopefully clear up some silly questions before they come up.
* Please thank the devs and OP's of these posts if you find them helpful and/or use their tools. It's the least you can do! *
[FRIJA] USE THIS TO DOWNLOAD THE LATEST FIRMWARE: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/tool-frija-samsung-firmware-downloader-checker.3910584/
[ODIN *PATCHED*] I RECOMMEND VERSION "Odin3 v3.14.1_3B_PatcheD": https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/patched-odin-3-13-1.3762572/
[LZ4 TOOL] DECRYPTS LZ4 EXTENSION'D FILES: https://github.com/lz4/lz4/releases
[BL WARNING TEXT REMOVAL] TO REMOVE UGLY WARNING TEXT AT BOOT: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...tock-firmwares-modded-bl-warningtext.4195829/
* Please thank the devs and OP's of these posts if you find them helpful and/or use their tools. It's the least you can do! *
***************************** STEPS TO UPDATE FIRMWARE: *****************************
Use Frija (download thread provided above), or download firmware from somewhere like samfw.com
Open / unzip the firmware, and then open the AP archive and pull boot.img.lz4.
Using LZ4 tool (download thread provided above), decrypt boot.img.lz4 to boot.img
* you can just simply drag and drop the boot.img.lz4 file over the lz4.exe binary in Windows explorer
Copy boot.img to your tablet. Open Magisk (Manager) and patch the file.
Copy the Magisk Patched boot file back to your PC. Rename it as boot.img
Create .tar file (tar file name doesn't matter) containing ONLY boot.img - do not use compression (if using 7-Zip, add the boot.img to archive, select archive format as "tar", and use compression level as "Store"). While the .tar file name doesn't matter, IT SHOULD ONLY CONTAIN A SINGLE FILE - boot.img
Reboot to download mode. Hook up your tablet to your PC.
**IT MAY GET SCARY HERE ON SOME STEPS, BUT CONTINUE FOLLOWING THIS EXACTLY**
(Use Odin3 v3.14.1_3B_PatcheD, link provided above)
Flash new stock firmware, using BL / AP / HOME_CSC (must use HOME_CSC to not wipe data, DO NOT USE THE REGULAR CSC FILE OR IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY WIPE). If you have LTE version, also flash the CP file in CP slot. WiFi version does not have CP file.
Using default Odin options is fine (F. Reset Time, Auto Reboot). In fact, I would recommend it for the sake of following this guide.
It'll be scary, but it will reboot a few times and eventually boot into recovery mode. Don't interrupt the process and let it eventually settle on its own into recovery mode (after a few seemingly failed boot attempts).
It'll make you think you're screwed and must factory wipe the device. DON'T FREAK OUT. Options will be:
Try again
Factory data reset
View recovery logs
While USB cable is still plugged into the tablet and computer, select Try again (tap power button, but don't hold the button down) and then immediately hold down volume up and down at the same time so that and until it goes back to download mode. As prompted, press volume up to continue.
Using Odin, flash ONLY the magisk patched boot image tar file (uncheck BL / CSC boxes if Odin is still open from before). Also you can flash the modified bootloader splash tar as well at this time, might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Again, you can just leave default options enabled (F. Reset Time, Auto Reboot).
Again, this will be very scary. It won't boot to system, but rather bootloader again. Probably an error at the bottom, something like "failed to load locales from the resource files" / "failed to compare" / whatever. However, the normal recovery options should now be available.
YOU WILL ONLY WIPE CACHE PARTITION (scroll down to "Wipe cache partition", and then confirm yes. Then select "Reboot system now".
It will take a while to boot, but this time you should eventually get to the lone "SAMSUNG" boot logo (this is a great sign), and then eventually get the "Tablet is updating..." box which shows the progress as it re-optimizes all of your apps.
That's it, and once it finishes optimizing your apps, should continue to load to your lockscreen! If so, congratulations, you've now updated to the latest firmware while retaining root without losing your data!
**********************************************************
Even with a heavily modified tablet, this has worked over several months, including the jump from A10 to A11. SafetyNet still passes (using kdrag0n's module), YouTube Vanced (my module), LSposed with Firefds kit and GravityBox R, and a bunch of other Magisk modules.
I'm very much aware you can save time by tweaking the above process, but this was the very safest exact procedure I could think of, so I recommend following it exactly as I wrote above.
Good luck, I hope it works for you, and enjoy your tablets!
just in case
and another
Damn, thanks dude. I'd just about given up clean flashing and thought I'll give your suggestion a go and it worked like a Boss! Im using the LTE version and not a single hiccup. Thank you for saving me a huge hassle. Only things i didn't follow was use frija, paid$2.99 and got the firmware. Everything else was exactly what you did. Worked man! Thank you so much again.
If anyone wants the latest. ACR firmware for SM-P615, lemme know and I'll share my drive link with you.
Cheers! Kudos. On latest may update now.
Didn't do the 2 birds one stone thing, was scared. I'm gonna do that later. Again, just to clarify, i run Magisk only for and root level file brousing, does it really matter if i don't pass the test? Everything runs as it should, just curious if there was a benefit to it.
Thanks a lot for this detailed guide!
It worked perfectly on my Galaxy tab S7, I updated it successfully with magisk already installed.
didnt work for me on the CUH2 update
sunmybun said:
didnt work for me on the CUH2 update
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually just tried it and it does still work for CUH2. I am happy for this firmware as I was having a weird system reboot every time I unlock with PIN.
shattacrew said:
I actually just tried it and it does still work for CUH2. I am happy for this firmware as I was having a weird system reboot every time I unlock with PIN.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it mightve not worked for me because i decrypted my data partition by factory reset and disabling the system to encrypt and check the partition before booting.
one of the tablets is encrypted and is using the KOO firmware, and the updating steps doesnt work either.
Ive flashed the tablets that were originally XAR firmware to KOO firmware.
im giving my inputs with my situation.
if anyone can find a way for my situtation, let me know =)
So I haven't updated my rooted tablet since the September 2020 update. Can I still jump to the latest version and still root or do I need to do some additional steps first?
still hasnt worked for me. I even went back to the tablet being encrypted.
for people who updated to DUL9 and rooted. please tell me the steps because it doesnt work for me
Can you specify the process of creating the TAR file? I patched the boot file from AP in Magisk already.
I used WinRar to make a .zip containing boot.img, then renamed it from AP-SLOT.zip to AP-SLOT.tar. Don't know if that's acceptable. I also used the "Store" compression method.
Afterwards what slot in Odin do you upload the .tar file to? I tried the AP slot but it hangs at "File analysis.....". It seems like it want a .tar.md5 file
TheCoryGuy said:
Can you specify the process of creating the TAR file? I patched the boot file from AP in Magisk already.
I used WinRar to make a .zip containing boot.img, then renamed it from AP-SLOT.zip to AP-SLOT.tar. Don't know if that's acceptable. I also used the "Store" compression method.
Afterwards what slot in Odin do you upload the .tar file to? I tried the AP slot but it hangs at "File analysis.....". It seems like it want a .tar.md5 file
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you cant just rename from zip to tar. you have to use a diff program like 7zip to make into .tar
Great instruction. Everything is up and running and that stupid splash screen is gone. Great job, @i5lee8bit.
Late for the party...
I've found a python utility to download Samsung firmware at full speed.
It's quite easy to use:
SamLoader
[Tool] Samloader (SamFirm / Frija replacement)
Hello, I recently wanted to download some firmware for my Samsung device, but I realized that there is no 100% open source program to do so. In fact, all the tools that claim to do so require a library that is packed by Themida (so it is...
forum.xda-developers.com
Thank you @i5lee8bit this worked like a charm.
One question though, using a patched Odin is a not a requirement, is it?
Thank you @eddiefive for samloader link.
I just completed this to upgrade to Android 13 on my Tab S6 Lite. It worked perfectly. Thanks so much. I'm always amazed at the community support here.
awtompson said:
I just completed this to upgrade to Android 13 on my Tab S6 Lite. It worked perfectly. Thanks so much. I'm always amazed at the community support here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had successfully used this method to update to Android 12 (SM-P610_2_20221024120141_tk8omuwosv_fac)
I just tried updating to Android 13 (SM-P610_3_20230118120131_f9h5nltlpa_fac) and after wiping the cache step and rebooting to system, it goes into bootloop.
I tried twice, and in fact I re-downloaded everything and did all the steps just in case there was any corruption in any step or I missed something. Same thing. bootloop.
Had to re-apply Android 12 to recover the tablet.
I used Odin3 v3.14.1_3B_PatcheD
Any ideas?
badabing2003 said:
I had successfully used this method to update to Android 12 (SM-P610_2_20221024120141_tk8omuwosv_fac)
I just tried updating to Android 13 (SM-P610_3_20230118120131_f9h5nltlpa_fac) and after wiping the cache step and rebooting to system, it goes into bootloop.
I tried twice, and in fact I re-downloaded everything and did all the steps just in case there was any corruption in any step or I missed something. Same thing. bootloop.
Had to re-apply Android 12 to recover the tablet.
I used Odin3 v3.14.1_3B_PatcheD
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really. I did not use the patched Odin but I don't think that'st the problem. The boot after wiping cache did take long time, but no boot loops. The trickiest part is getting it to reboot into download mode after the "Try again" step. Wish I could be more help.
awtompson said:
Not really. I did not use the patched Odin but I don't think that'st the problem. The boot after wiping cache did take long time, but no boot loops. The trickiest part is getting it to reboot into download mode after the "Try again" step. Wish I could be more help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, rebooting to download was easy for me, but the damn thing almost immediately would go into bootloop after the wipe, no long wait.