[Completed] GT-I9060L stuck in bootloop after setting up "Android Device Manager" - XDA Assist

Ok, so I think I was prepared for something like this, but it seems that this is too much for me:
(I don't want to bother any of you, so you can skip the story and go to the summary down there)
I have a very normal Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo, GT-I9060L (the "L" stands for latin, as I'm chilean). Since with an older phone (Galaxy Y) I had some... issues, this time I wanted to play safe and decided to not root it. Ok, so no problem since 2014... until now. This morning I went to the Google's Android Device Manager website, and noticed that, where the buttons "Lock" and "Erase" should have been, there was something like "Setup Lock & Erase". I didn't do that before? So I clicked it, and it sent a notification to my phone, requiring the activation of "Android Device Manager" as a "Device Administrator". Ok, I read and accepted. The problem then began. I mean, the phone rebooted immediately, and it got stuck in the "SAMSUNG" splash screen, with a little vibration every few seconds (usually it's once, and then it shows the lock screen). Damn! As I had enabled USB Debugging, I thought that I could do something to at least backup the data there. Well, executing `adb devices`, and trying different states of the phone (I can get it to recovery mode, and ODIN mode, but not to safe boot), the only things that I could get to were "offline" (Linux) or "unauthorized" (OS X) under Recovery Mode (there wasn't anything to do, as any command lead me to an "error: device offline."), and "sideload" under Recovery Mode > apply update from ADB, which I think is one of the two only ways to try a firmware update (I don't know if that would solve anything), but I don't know if it would delete any data. Going to the main boot loop and trying `adb wait-for-device` didn't work (it just goes offline), so there isn't a way to get the phone to a normal state of "device" in adb (in other words: i cannot start the daemon on the phone, I suppose). Another thing I could do is to install Kies and try that "Firmware Upgrade and Initialization" thing, but I'm afraid that it could also mean to wipe the data there. I don't want to do so.
I'm sorry, I always write that long (in every language...), but at least there are more details with all of it.
So, summary:
– Grand Neo stuck at the SAMSUNG boot screen, right after setting Android Device Manager as a Device Administrator.
– USB Debugging is enabled, the phone is not rooted, and the firmware is the official, I mean, never touched.
– Some time ago I dumped the ".pit" file and also got the firmware (I9060LUBUANG1) from samsung-updates, just in case.
– I can get the phone to Recovery and ODIN modes, and so I just could do `adb sideload <file>` with some <file> (zip?).
– Can't even wipe the cache partition. I think it's game over with that one.
– I could try reinstalling the firmware with Kies, but don't know (as it doesn't recognize the phone) if I could do a backup.
– I don't want to wipe, erase, nor delete any data in the phone. It's the last resource for me.
Could I get some help with this? What should I do? ADB sideload? Kies? Something about Heimdall? I use OS X, but I've got a Pi, so there shouldn't be any problems with software (also, I've got a super-slow-netbook with Win XP hidden somewhere... I wish I could install Win 10 in Boot Camp inside this MBP Mid 2009). Thank you if you get to read this, and try to understand and help me with this.
Also, I'm sorry if this doesn't belong here (or anywhere...), but I couldn't post this on the Grand Neo forum (and it confuses me: is that forum for I9060i Grand Neo Plus as it states or for every I9060?).

Hi !
Please refer to this forum
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/galaxy-grand-neo
Good luck !

Thaanks i solved it!!
xanthrax said:
Hi !
Please refer to this forum
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/galaxy-grand-neo
Good luck !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, simply thank you! Thanks to you I solved it! I owe you my phone's warranty!! (now voided, but whatever!)
[((Solution: DELETE THAT FILE `/data/system/device_policies.xml` through any recovery that lets you delete such file))]
You know something? I looked there before, but after your post I decided to go further (on my own!) into that forums, did some research about some things... and decided to flash a recovery. And I researched that it wouldn't do anything to the partitions I didn't want to lose, because the recovery has its own partition. Well, looking into the Grand Neo forum, I chose the TWRP recovery over the CWM one, because the latter was way older. And as I don't have Win, I used Heimdall with my Pi (Raspbian), but when I started I had some problems with the connection to the device. I discovered that the problem that I had with this version of the Heimdall package (1.4.0) had been already solved with the commit #329 on GitHub, so I tried compiling from source, and it successfully worked.
Then, I got amazed because, on recovery, I could get root access to every file, and also the device was detected over ADB as "recovery", and could do everything. Gladfully, I copied every file in the internal storage and the external SD Card to my Mac, then formatted the SD, then made backups of the Data and System partitions. Later, I discovered the difference between the Data, System, Internal Storage, Micro SD Card, Cache, Dalvik Cache, and Recovery partitions.
So if anyone out there wants a bit of info (at least about my phone), the System partition works like the Mac's System folder, containing things that almost never get modified by the end user, unless you flash some image to that partition (a custom or stock ROM, ideally), or delete accidentally causing broken things. The Data partition is mounted in /data, and contains (almost) everything that gets modified over the time. It also contains mount points for the Internal Storage, at /data/media/0 (there are several mount points for this over all the drive, and it's quite confusing), and I don't know exactly, but I think for Dalvik Cache and the Cache. The Micro SD Card partition is almost independent from everything else, but it also has several mount points along the Internal Storage one. the Cache is, well... the cache, and is mounted at /cache. The recovery partition is what I touched, and I think it explains itself a lot if you've used a Mac (pressing command+R at startup). The Dalvik Cache is quite interesting. I think it's mounted at /data/dalvik-cache, but I'm not sure. Well, it apparently has "optimized" versions of your apks stored in /data/app.
When I thought that wiping the Dalvik Cache would solve something, I discovered that the phone almost booted properly, but came back to the boot loop after the process of "optimizing" all of my 157 apps, with the difference that the device got recognized this time (only when booting after wiping the Dalvik!) by the ADB as a "device". Well played, at least. I went back to TWRP and made a backup of the Data, so now I can come back to that error whenever I want.
As I could get back in time, I decided to look for that little thing that was preventing my phone from booting. First, I dumped over 15 MB of logs, by ADB, the Recovery and the Shell. Now I can see that everything relates to some "policies" (more on that later). Then, I wiped the /data partition, as I had a backup. And I saw the phone booting to that "Welcome to your new Android!" thing. Thanks, the problem wasn't on the system! It was the Data! And, to confirm myself, I went to the settings, and activated that Google Device Administrator Thing again. Boom! Bootloop. It got wiped again by me, just to go there and do some "testing". I was going to see exactly what changed with that option, so went to that menu, and just before "pressing the button" (!), I went to recovery, and got every regular folder and regular file (because any symlink and stuff just made the copy fail) copied from /data to my computer. Then, I booted the phone, changed the setting, powered it off, and copied the /data again. In bash I made a `diff -r`, and also listed (from the original /data that I wanted to recover) every file there (this time of any kind) and on my computer sorted them all by date, to see the last files touched. Well, the diff resulted on various things, like a new line on the file /data/data/com.android.settings/shared_prefs/com.android.settings_preferences.xml:
Code:
<boolean name="pref_device_provision" value="true" />
It wasn't so important, as I deleted it and rebooted and nope, the bootloop continued. Backup restored again.
Then, something more interesting on the file /data/data/com.google.android.gsf/shared_prefs/update.xml: some name "provisioned" changed its value from zero to a UNIX timestamp in milliseconds. I didn't do anything on that because it wasn't so important, a timestamp. There was a ton of files with such timestamps, and also some new files from certain background apps, and the diff also showed up several xml files differing because the sorting. Dismissed all that and kept looking, and...
THERE IT WAS:
Code:
Only in /Users/Benja/Desktop/pos/data/system: device_policies.xml
(for the record: there was a "pre" and a "pos" folder, one for each /data)
I HATE IT. Out of rage, I looked at the file:
Code:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8' standalone='yes' ?>
<policies>
<admin name="com.google.android.gms/com.google.android.gms.mdm.receivers.MdmDeviceAdminReceiver">
<policies flags="28" />
<allow-storage-card value="true" />
<simplepassword-enabled value="true" />
<allow-wifi value="true" />
<allow-text-messaging value="true" />
<allow-popimap-email value="true" />
<allow-browser value="true" />
<allow-internet-sharing value="true" />
<allow-bluetooth-mode value="2" />
<allow-Desktop-Sync value="true" />
<allow-IrDA value="true" />
<require-StorageCard-Encryption value="false" />
<allow-list-thirdparty value="" />
<block-list-InRom value="" />
<allow-unsignedapp value="true" />
<allow-unsignedinstallationpkg value="true" />
</admin>
</policies>
THAT FILE WAS CAUSING ALL OF THIS. There was also a backup of that file, that had nothing else than the xml header and an empty `<policies />`. But well, that file appeared also in the list of the most recently touched files (it took a while to do that list, because I couldn't figure out a better way than listing /data recursively and with full dates with the `-re` options (looked up for those at the help there, because the options were different and `find` didn't have printf) and parsing it with awk (stackoverflow #1767384), then on my Mac did the rest of the date parsing and sorting with date and cut and date again).
I DELETED THAT FILE `/data/system/device_policies.xml` (and obviously made a backup, even though I'll never want to bootloop it again, lol). Then rebooted and... finally I was able to see again my Little Prince lock background: Il tomba doucement comme tombe un arbre.
Now I'm restoring the files that I got from the Internal and External Storages. Then everything will continue as usual. Thank you so much for referring me to that forum again.
Also, after all of this, I googled the file and magically found this russian website (to prevent spamming, I cannot post a href): http://juick.com/PoZitron/2801749
That site (through the Google Translator (irony)) had just the info that I'd want to have read before (in russian, lol).
Well, as the site points, всегда делайте бэкапы!
Thanks again, and good luck to everyone else with problems out there.

Hi !
I`m glad you solved it , thanks for letting us know
Cheers !
thread closed

Related

[Q] Unfortunately Launcher has stopped and other issues

Hi guys,
I've been reading you for a while, but this is actually my first post.
Currently stuck with a "Unfortunately, Launcher has stopped" on my tablet, with no access to any menus except my Settings. The menu bar (back, home and multitasking) is now gone. I've got my keyboard to navigate, but something in the display is also quite wrong, image seems to be zoomed, or set at the wrong resolution. Tried to search on the forum, but all posts found were not about the same rom or the same issue. Sorry if I missed one.
Here's a little background story:
I've rooted my TF300T about a month ago and installed Hydro 4.1. It has been working very well since then, but in the last days, I thought that my tablet felt a little slower than usual, so I started searching if an update to 4.2 was available.
I'm not sure if this is what caused the issue or not, but I went into my "Power button" menu and went into "Recovery" mode (instead of Shutdown, reboot, etc.), which then restarted my unit into TWRP menu.
I then selected the "System" submenu and simply touched "Reboot". (terms might not be exact). At the first reboot, I got the problems that I described.
Can't do much, popup keeps appearing on my screen. I haven't tried yet to clear the cache of my Launcher, which I'm trying to avoid as I would prefer to avoid rearranging 5 pages of icons, but between that and reinstalling everything, obviously I prefer to simply lose my display preferences.
Can anyone help me about what caused my issue, and what can I do now?
Here are 2 screenshots that I took, showing that my bottom menu is missing and that the fonts aren't set right (clock and left icon). Also, my notifications menu now appears near the middle of my screen.
EDIT: I unfortunately cannot post links yet
I remember installing an app (with root access) that gave me a menu about my resolution. One thing that I'm wondering, could it be that the resolution got changed and I simply never rebooted since the change, which now caused my Launcher to crash? How can I launch an app without having access to the app menu?
Thanks in advance for your help.
irepressed said:
Hi guys,
I've been reading you for a while, but this is actually my first post.
Currently stuck with a "Unfortunately, Launcher has stopped" on my tablet, with no access to any menus except my Settings. The menu bar (back, home and multitasking) is now gone. I've got my keyboard to navigate, but something in the display is also quite wrong, image seems to be zoomed, or set at the wrong resolution. Tried to search on the forum, but all posts found were not about the same rom or the same issue. Sorry if I missed one.
Here's a little background story:
I've rooted my TF300T about a month ago and installed Hydro 4.1. It has been working very well since then, but in the last days, I thought that my tablet felt a little slower than usual, so I started searching if an update to 4.2 was available.
I'm not sure if this is what caused the issue or not, but I went into my "Power button" menu and went into "Recovery" mode (instead of Shutdown, reboot, etc.), which then restarted my unit into TWRP menu.
I then selected the "System" submenu and simply touched "Reboot". (terms might not be exact). At the first reboot, I got the problems that I described.
Can't do much, popup keeps appearing on my screen. I haven't tried yet to clear the cache of my Launcher, which I'm trying to avoid as I would prefer to avoid rearranging 5 pages of icons, but between that and reinstalling everything, obviously I prefer to simply lose my display preferences.
Can anyone help me about what caused my issue, and what can I do now?
Here are 2 screenshots that I took, showing that my bottom menu is missing and that the fonts aren't set right (clock and left icon). Also, my notifications menu now appears near the middle of my screen.
EDIT: I unfortunately cannot post links yet
I remember installing an app (with root access) that gave me a menu about my resolution. One thing that I'm wondering, could it be that the resolution got changed and I simply never rebooted since the change, which now caused my Launcher to crash? How can I launch an app without having access to the app menu?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you describe is likely caused by changing the resolution. Are you still running hydro 4.1?
You can likely recover by replacing your build.prop or editing the one you now have. build.props are usualy rom specific so you need one from the rom you are using.
tobdaryl said:
What you describe is likely caused by changing the resolution. Are you still running hydro 4.1?
You can likely recover by replacing your build.prop or editing the one you now have. build.props are usualy rom specific so you need one from the rom you are using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, still using Hydro 4.1. I do have a build.prop editor installed on my tablet, but since I can't launch app, I don't know how to do it.
I'll try to connect the tablet to my PC and see if I can get access to my file from there.
Thanks!
irepressed said:
Yes, still using Hydro 4.1. I do have a build.prop editor installed on my tablet, but since I can't launch app, I don't know how to do it.
I'll try to connect the tablet to my PC and see if I can get access to my file from there.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm presently downloading 4.1 hydro to retrieve the build.prop. If you unzip it the build.prop is /system/build.prop also located there on your tab. I have another fifteen minutes to download if you wish for me to supply the file!
tobdaryl said:
I'm presently downloading 4.1 hydro to retrieve the build.prop. If you unzip it the build.prop is /system/build.prop also located there on your tab. I have another fifteen minutes to download if you wish for me to supply the file!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you could, I would appreciate it!
Only thing left, how can I send the file to my TF300T without access to my apps? I'm currently trying to cheat by opening my apps using the Share feature with screenshots taken, but so far, no success.
irepressed said:
If you could, I would appreciate it!
Only thing left, how can I send the file to my TF300T without access to my apps? I'm currently trying to cheat by opening my apps using the Share feature with screenshots taken, but so far, no success.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We should be able to push with adb, set permissions, and reboot.
---------- Post added at 04:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------
http://www.mediafire.com/?tk3cifzci0vw24e
place the build.prop from the zip file into the directory with fastboot.
Open terminal or cmd in the directory with fastboot.
Boot into twrp – twrp provides adb access by default.
Use twrp mount menu and check mount system.
Then type
adb push build.prop /system/build.prop
adb shell chmod 644 /system/build.prop
in twrp reboot system
type
adb kill-server
tobdaryl said:
We should be able to push with adb, set permissions, and reboot.
---------- Post added at 04:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:36 PM ----------
place the build.prop from the zip file into the directory with fastboot.
Open terminal or cmd in the directory with fastboot.
Boot into twrp – twrp provides adb access by default.
Use twrp mount menu and check mount system.
Then type
adb push build.prop /system/build.prop
adb shell chmod 644 /system/build.prop
in twrp reboot system
type
adb kill-server
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, my Fastboot folder is currently at the root of my C drive on my PC
I entered your command and got after the first one "adb server is out of date. killing...
* daemon started successfully *
error: device not found
FYI, before I got your last post, I used Android commander to push the build.prop that I still had on my PC when I installed the custom hydro 4.1 rom.
After my reboot, I got the Asus logo, than a black screen that does nothing.
I then rebooted in Fastboot and followed your instructions.
So now, it seems that my pc doesnt see my tablet anymore when in TWRP. is this normal? Do I need to restart it after checking "Mount system"?
irepressed said:
Ok, my Fastboot folder is currently at the root of my C drive on my PC
I entered your command and got after the first one "adb server is out of date. killing...
* daemon started successfully *
error: device not found
FYI, before I got your last post, I used Android commander to push the build.prop that I still had on my PC when I installed the custom hydro 4.1 rom.
After my reboot, I got the Asus logo, than a black screen that does nothing.
I then rebooted in Fastboot and followed your instructions.
So now, it seems that my pc doesnt see my tablet anymore when in TWRP. is this normal? Do I need to restart it after checking "Mount system"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I just killed my adb.exe, tried the command again and that got rid of the out of date error.
But, still stuck with the "device not found".
irepressed said:
Ok, my Fastboot folder is currently at the root of my C drive on my PC
I entered your command and got after the first one "adb server is out of date. killing...
* daemon started successfully *
error: device not found
FYI, before I got your last post, I used Android commander to push the build.prop that I still had on my PC when I installed the custom hydro 4.1 rom.
After my reboot, I got the Asus logo, than a black screen that does nothing.
I then rebooted in Fastboot and followed your instructions.
So now, it seems that my pc doesnt see my tablet anymore when in TWRP. is this normal? Do I need to restart it after checking "Mount system"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Slowdown, I'm getting behind. I'm willing to help but you are now worse off than before.
Sit tight for five minutes and I'll try to give you a twrp flashable zip for your build.prop and hope that is the extent of the damage.
If not we'll try to go from there.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ybplc1ws8uvskhf
This is a twrp flashable zip that only replaces your build.prop with the one from hydro 4.1.
tobdaryl said:
Slowdown, I'm getting behind. I'm willing to help but you are now worse off than before.
Sit tight for five minutes and I'll try to give you a twrp flashable zip for your build.prop and hope that is the extent of the damage.
If not we'll try to go from there.
This is a twrp flashable zip that only replaces your build.prop with the one from hydro 4.1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, I'll wait for your answer before trying anything else.
So now, I've got your latest .zip file.
Still can't see my TF300T from my PC, so, ADB is a no go for now.
In fact, I do see it in the Device Manager, but since my last reboot, it now shows an exclamation mark on it as if my drivers weren't good.
Since you mentioned the file is a flashable zip, I'm guessing that I can flash it using TWRP without going through my PC?
Can you give me precise info on that, since I do not want to mess with my system more than I already did.
Thanks
irepressed said:
Alright, I'll wait for your answer before trying anything else.
So now, I've got your latest .zip file.
Still can't see my TF300T from my PC, so, ADB is a no go for now.
In fact, I do see it in the Device Manager, but since my last reboot, it now shows an exclamation mark on it as if my drivers weren't good.
Since you mentioned the file is a flashable zip, I'm guessing that I can flash it using TWRP without going through my PC?
Can you give me precise info on that, since I do not want to mess with my system more than I already did.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look at the bottom of my previous post. You will find a new link there. Just flash with twrp and reboot. Don't worry about wiping or any of that, just flash and reboot.
tobdaryl said:
Look at the bottom of my previous post. You will find a new link there. Just flash with twrp and reboot. Don't worry about wiping or any of that, just flash and reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that's the file I was talking about.
I now need to flash and reboot, your file is at the root of an SDcard in my TF300T, I go through the Install menu and then, can't seem to view the content of my sdcard. Tried to mount it first but can't select it either, it will simply stay on "Internal Storage".
EDIT: The RCK icon is the only one right now that boots me into something. If I try the USB icon, it just stays on that screen forever.
Trash the two zips you have downloaded. I'm providing a new one for when we get back to that point. And there will be no doubt about which zip you are using.
http://www.mediafire.com/?hagehu5qu5ky6sf
OK. First I'll explain your earlier comment about adb being old. Twrp expects a recent adb or refuses to allow adb access ( we'll not worry at the moment about that but it is something you need to address later (I hope).
If you have a cord between your tablet and pc remove it. The sdcard may be mounted as data on the pc and not allow twrp to mount it.
You have been using this sdcard prior to this exercise?
Do you have any backups or flashable zips or anything of that nature on your internal sdcard?
If so what?
tobdaryl said:
Trash the two zips you have downloaded. I'm providing a new one for when we get back to that point. And there will be no doubt about which zip you are using.
OK. First I'll explain your earlier comment about adb being old. Twrp expects a recent adb or refuses to allow adb access ( we'll not worry at the moment about that but it is something you need to address later (I hope).
If you have a cord between your tablet and pc remove it. The sdcard may be mounted as data on the pc and not allow twrp to mount it.
You have been using this sdcard prior to this exercise?
Do you have any backups or flashable zips or anything of that nature on your internal sdcard?
If so what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Zips trashed, kept only the one provided in your latest answer.
No cord between PC and tablet. Still unable to click on "Using external SD" or "Mount SDCard". It simply won't let me check the box or switch the bullet.
As for using this SDcard before, yes in a PC, but no, first time in my Asus. Also tried with another one just in case and same result.
As for backups and flashable zips, I kept everything from when I did my root and rom install.
I do know that I have a backup in the Restore menu of TWRP, which seems about the time I installed it. I suppose I could simply do a restore and avoid additional headaches, but my question is, what exactly will it restore? At this point, I'm mentally prepared to go back to what I had after installing Hydro 4.1, as long as I can use the tablet ASAP.
Asap = restore your backup.
If I'm restoring a different rom I'll wipe Cache, Dalvik Cache, and Factory Reset. If the backup is from the same rom I'm flashing and I want to keep the apps I have Installed since the backup I won't Factory Reset.
Good Luck!
tobdaryl said:
Asap = restore your backup.
If I'm restoring a different rom I'll wipe Cache, Dalvik Cache, and Factory Reset. If the backup is from the same rom I'm flashing and I want to keep the apps I have Installed since the backup I won't Factory Reset.
Good Luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I did the restore, and I'm up and running, but, no more Hydro 4.1. I guess my backup was probably what got done right before the installed it.
The good thing is, my tablet is working again and my root is still active. The bad part is that I'm gonna have to dig my head again in all the tutorials and try to find the best one.
Hey, I wanted to say a huge thank you for all your help, if it wasn't for guys like you, newbies like me would be stuck with useless thin computers.
irepressed said:
So, I did the restore, and I'm up and running, but, no more Hydro 4.1. I guess my backup was probably what got done right before the installed it.
The good thing is, my tablet is working again and my root is still active. The bad part is that I'm gonna have to dig my head again in all the tutorials and try to find the best one.
Hey, I wanted to say a huge thank you for all your help, if it wasn't for guys like you, newbies like me would be stuck with useless thin computers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great I'm glad you are happy. I had hoped for the outcome you expressed but this works also.
You're welcome!

Device isn't working properly after wiping...

So I have a problem with my Nexus 5. Yesterday I tried all kinds of different Lollipop roms and at the end of the day I sticked to Cataclysm. I liked it and my phone was all set up but I noticed there were a lot of unnecessary folders on my internal storage and a nested 0 folder (0 inside /0). I didn't like that so I thought about making a nandroid backup, storing it on my computer (together with my music etc.), wiping everything and restoring it by using TWRP and then eventually putting my music back.
So after I stored a backup on my computer, I started my device into recovery mode and chose the option 'advanced wipe'. Usually I would do a lot of research for everything I do but in this case I was a bit lazy to do that, I tried digging into the search results of Google concerning wiping but I gave up after some unsatisfying results. So I checked every box in the list, including data and system and went through with the wiping. So because my storage was completely wiped I didn't have a 'WRTP/BACKUPS' folder anymore. I made a backup from the stuff I had (which was only a few mb's) so I would have that folder again (otherwise I wouldn't be possible to locate my nandroid backup). I wanted to transfer my nandroid from my computer to my phone by connecting it through USB but for some reason the Nexus 5 didn't show up on my PC when it was booted in recovery (this sometimes happens for some reason)
I managed to do it by using 'adb push Cataclysm folder' in cmd. I went into recovery and restored my backup. My phone booted and I thought everything was as it should be. The wallpaper was black but that was logical because my internal storage was wiped, including my custom wallpaper. But then I noticed something strange, my status bar disappeared, sames goes for my navigation bar. I really have no idea what happened because I've restored nandroid backups before and everything went fine.
So then I put a clean version of Cataclysm on my phone and for some reason it asks me to insert a SIM-card into my device while it has one. I skipped that step and then it asked for my home Wi-Fi and I chose mine, then it checked the connection way longer than it would normally do. After I was done with all the steps my homepage entered my screen and guess what, my status bar and also my navigation bar were absent. It was like my cell phone was in immersive mode all the time. Then I tried flashing the KitKat factory image by going into recovery with my phone and opening 'flash-all.bat' on my PC but then it said '< waiting for devices >' while I enabled USB debugging... I opened cmd and typed 'adb decives' and mine showed up, so it was connected (although it now says 'unauthorized' when my phone is normally booted).
Then I flashed clean Cataclysm again and it again said I had to insert my SIM-card and it then again checked the connection with the Wi-Fi for a couple of minutes. When I was done with the installation I tried replacing the wallpaper with one from Lollipop but it didn't work although there was a preview available. There was again no status bar and navigation bar. I then opened chrome and went to this website and now I'm typing this on my Nexus 5 which has a permanent immersive mode now.
So I don't have much in my internal storage anymore, only a TWRP folder with backups, nothing more, not even a 0 folder if I'm not wrong. There's something wrong with my mobile connection and definitely something going on with my navigation bar and status bar. I hope anyone could help me with this because this is really frustrating becausr I tried to fix it for the last couple of hours, unfortunately without any result...
EDIT: I forgot to mention that when I was trying to figure out how to send the nandroid without being able to access my internal storage via my computer, I booted in recovery, went to 'advanced' and then to 'adb sideload' and tried that because I saw it somewhere on the internet. I somehow believe this contributed to the problem I have.
EDIT2: Now, when I try to power off my phone by holding the power button, it reboots the device instead, what's going on... And as I said, I have a black screen as wallpaper for some reason and I can't change this, but if I open my weather widget, the widget window shows up with my chosen wallpaper on the background, what kind of sorcery is this?
EDIT3: I wanted to download a terminal emulator from Google Play to do this but I couldn't get to 100% so I thought there was something wrong with the app on my device. I googled the apk and I wanted to download it from Zippyshare and when I clicked on the button 'download now', the phone showed the message 'no SD card', so I guess that's the culprit of all of this?
TL;DR My phone is acting really weird (no status or navigation bar, phone reboots instead of asking whether I want to have it shut down when I hold the power button, the wallpaper being strange, SIM-card isn't being recognised) after I wiped data and system and actually everything...
Reboot to bootmanager , flash a factory image , wipe , start over . Something must have gotten corrupted in your nandroid backup.
Regarding ADB not working , you also need to authorize the pc you are working from . You will get a prompt on your phone when connecting . If you dont , go to developer setting , wipe ADB credentials , reconnect the phone.
Also , adb push works fine for single files but it sometimes borks when you are pushing big/many files.
Edit : I hope you didn't wipe EFS as well ( though AFAIK TWRP doesn't wipe it on a advanced wipe) . If you did it's time to return it to stock and send it to LG/Google
Niflheimer said:
Reboot to bootmanager , flash a factory image , wipe , start over . Something must have gotten corrupted in your nandroid backup.
Regarding ADB not working , you also need to authorize the pc you are working from . You will get a prompt on your phone when connecting . If you dont , go to developer setting , wipe ADB credentials , reconnect the phone.
Also , adb push works fine for single files but it sometimes borks when you are pushing big/many files.
Edit : I hope you didn't wipe EFS as well ( though AFAIK TWRP doesn't wipe it on a advanced wipe) . If you did it's time to return it to stock and send it to LG/Google
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for reading my huge explanation. After hours of searching and trying a lot of things with my device I figured out how to fix it. Do you remember I said that when I tried to flash the factory image with 'flash-all.bat' that it responded with '< waiting for devices >' ? Well, after reinstalling the drivers countless times and trying to find the culprit I realised I was trying to flash it with TWRP being open, and not the bootloader... So after I was aware of that I finally managed to put stock Lollipop on my phone, then I wiped everything and flashed Cataclysm. It felt pretty satisfying to have a working phone again, it's a pity I had to start from scratch but on the other side, I now how a phone without any rubbish.
Regarding adb push, if I would like to ever push a rom or a big file onto my phone in case I would ever have a similar annoyance, what do you recommend me to do it with?
And what is EFS exactly and what happens if I would ever wipe that? Thank in advance!
Regarding ADB push / twrp MTP mode you jst need to remember not to try and upload the entire content of a sdcard backup or > 3-4 gigs. Big files rarely missbehave , but I screwed up my SD permissions when trying to restore my sdcard ( thousands of files and about 14 gb total).
EFS is a secure partition that stores your GSM/network id and profile - IMEI and so on. AFAIK it's pretty hard to erase but it is possible if you play around with format/repartition commands. Just follow the guides and instructions on this forum and it should be fine.
Corrupted or erased EFS = no network connectivity besides WiFi . And since tampering with it is illegal in some countries the only way to fix it is by RMA/warranty.
I'm glad you've fixed it - I'm not surprised it was a simple mistake , I've been there myself ( tried for an hour to flash a factory image unsuccessfully only to realize I had my phone plugged in a USB3 socket ) .
Don't forget to make a nandroid now that you are set up with your fav. ROM - it will come in handy sometime.
Niflheimer said:
Regarding ADB push / twrp MTP mode you jst need to remember not to try and upload the entire content of a sdcard backup or > 3-4 gigs. Big files rarely missbehave , but I screwed up my SD permissions when trying to restore my sdcard ( thousands of files and about 14 gb total).
EFS is a secure partition that stores your GSM/network id and profile - IMEI and so on. AFAIK it's pretty hard to erase but it is possible if you play around with format/repartition commands. Just follow the guides and instructions on this forum and it should be fine.
Corrupted or erased EFS = no network connectivity besides WiFi . And since tampering with it is illegal in some countries the only way to fix it is by RMA/warranty.
I'm glad you've fixed it - I'm not surprised it was a simple mistake , I've been there myself ( tried for an hour to flash a factory image unsuccessfully only to realize I had my phone plugged in a USB3 socket ) .
Don't forget to make a nandroid now that you are set up with your fav. ROM - it will come in handy sometime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll definitely make a nandroid, just in case. Thanks for the help and the clarification!
Try wiping your bum more thoroughly

Accidentally deleted /system partition, PC doesn't recognize the phone anymore

Hello there.
My phone is in a state which is widely being reffered to as "bricked". After hours of reading through hundreds of forums and trying out everything possible/impossible, I came to this - I'm posting here, and desperately asking you guys for help.
I have Moto G XT1032. I converted it to GPE, to install a 5.0.1 ROM few months ago. I used it without any problems. However, today I decided to try out the stock 5.0.2 ROM. But I read that I'll have to change my Data partition to F2FS (from EXT4). I did that (using TWRP v2.8.5.0), and then I did this terrible mistake: I decided to do a clean install, so I wiped everything. I wiped System, and Internal storage as well. Yes, I know that I'm stupid.
Now my phone is stuck at my custom recovery (TWRP) or at bootloader. I can switch between these two, but I can't boot to the system, because I don't have any system installed (because I wiped the /system partition - what an Einstein I am -_-). I thought that it would be easy - I just have to somehow push the zip file of the new ROM to my phone, and then install it from TWRP. The thing is - I can't transfer any files to the phone. I'm probably missing some drivers, but the problem is, that the phone doesn't have any operating system installed (besides bootloader, I guess) - so I can't get any drivers working. My PC is running Windows 7 64bit.
I tried installing Motorola Device Manager, I tried using the drivers from android-sdk, but nothing helped. When I type a command "adb devices" to a command line, it says: "List of devices attached >emtpy line<". When I connect the phone to the PC, it doesn't even try to look for drivers anymore. I tried deleting them (drivers), placing there some new, but again - nothing helped. If anyone can provide any help, I'd be very, very, very glad.
Thanks in advance.
//edit: Nevermind, I made my phone alive again. I just had to use mfastboot tools. Moderators can close or delete this thread, please. I'm sorry for creating it, since it was kinda useless.
temme how to recover the system folder. i have a system folder on my desktop. help me. my phone isnt turing on
If you can get into fastboot and recover you can restore your phone. You just need a complete ROM, and restore it with mfastboot method.
It doesn't matter if you wiped system, you can do that in TWRP, if you reboot it won't boot into the OS (obviously) but go into fastboot mode.
Download mfastboot, a ROM image, and go through the command lines. There is a FAQ on how to restore.
felmaster said:
Hello there.
My phone is in a state which is widely being reffered to as "bricked". After hours of reading through hundreds of forums and trying out everything possible/impossible, I came to this - I'm posting here, and desperately asking you guys for help.
I have Moto G XT1032. I converted it to GPE, to install a 5.0.1 ROM few months ago. I used it without any problems. However, today I decided to try out the stock 5.0.2 ROM. But I read that I'll have to change my Data partition to F2FS (from EXT4). I did that (using TWRP v2.8.5.0), and then I did this terrible mistake: I decided to do a clean install, so I wiped everything. I wiped System, and Internal storage as well. Yes, I know that I'm stupid.
Now my phone is stuck at my custom recovery (TWRP) or at bootloader. I can switch between these two, but I can't boot to the system, because I don't have any system installed (because I wiped the /system partition - what an Einstein I am -_-). I thought that it would be easy - I just have to somehow push the zip file of the new ROM to my phone, and then install it from TWRP. The thing is - I can't transfer any files to the phone. I'm probably missing some drivers, but the problem is, that the phone doesn't have any operating system installed (besides bootloader, I guess) - so I can't get any drivers working. My PC is running Windows 7 64bit.
I tried installing Motorola Device Manager, I tried using the drivers from android-sdk, but nothing helped. When I type a command "adb devices" to a command line, it says: "List of devices attached >emtpy line<". When I connect the phone to the PC, it doesn't even try to look for drivers anymore. I tried deleting them (drivers), placing there some new, but again - nothing helped. If anyone can provide any help, I'd be very, very, very glad.
Thanks in advance.
//edit: Nevermind, I made my phone alive again. I just had to use mfastboot tools. Moderators can close or delete this thread, please. I'm sorry for creating it, since it was kinda useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also TWRP/CWM has support for adb, u just need to install the drivers manually. Then you can push whatever you want.
Of course you can try restoring stock as suggested above.
How did u fixed it? :/
As a last resort there is always OTG (this thing has OTG support right?). Life was so much simpler when you could just put your sd card into a card reader and put your zip on there. A quick google search makes me think its got support, but who knows

Hipstreet Flare stuck in factory settings

I have an older Hipstreet Flare (1) HS-9DTB4-8GB which worked fine for the past years. And before someone says it; yes, some might consider it as a China knockoff.
The device is rooted by default. I can for example write files into / via ADB. A few weeks ago I tried to install busybox but it ended up in a loop. So I deinstalled it and could continue working.
Next time I booted all was in Chinese, with the main screen having no icons (links to) apps. In the secondary app menu only default apps were there, none of those I installed over the years. Still the SD card directory (is all internal though) was unaffected.
Listing the file system of the underlying Linux showed most files with a date stamp of 2-1-1970 and a few with 2013, the year I purchased it. I still could create files there via ADB. Could also install apps and set it to English again. But the next time I booted all this was forgotten (apps and files I created gone and it was in Chinese again).
I used volume-up and the power button to get into the (what ever you call it) and selected "wipe data". Rebooted, set it to English and rebooted again. But again it came back in Chinese. Same when I used the menu "Backup/Restore".
Assuming the firmware (rom?) was damaged I was also contacting the Hipstreet support. Who were friendly but also only told me to wipe the data into factory reset. But I did this already several times, see above. They also couldn't help with firmware.
Before I throw it away. Does anyone has any idea what I could to? May be with suggestions taking in account I am a Linux user on my PC (no Windows or Mac installed here)?
Does anyone know if phones (like this) store a copy of the firmware somewhere? If, what's the file name? default.prop?
Thanks you.

[Completed] SOLVED Galaxy Tab 10.1 help

Edit: SOLVED
Hoping someone can roughly point me in the right direction. I'm not very savvy in flashing new ROM's, but I had success with my phone recently, so I decided to try and update my tablet and it's not going so well. It's a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, model GT-P7510MA, which I believe is wifi only. I started off by following the youtube tutorial: 0eAQzxwEVjY
I did *not* make a backup, so shame on me right off the bat, but at least now I've learned this lesson.
There is no OS, but TWRP v2.2.0 is installed and I'm able to boot into it just fine. I'm able to transfer/push files via command line on my windows machine, but I did find something that seemed odd, which is that the top level directory is not named "/sdcard", instead it's just "/". When I transfer files, I have to name the the path "/" for them to show up in the top level directory. If I use "/sdcard", it looks like they upload, but I have no idea where they go. Not sure if there's any significance there, but figured I'd mention it.
The problem is that I can't seem to install any OS. I've tried Nameless 4.4.4, Clockworkmod 10.1, and AOSP 6.0. They all fail the same way, I'll type out what it says below:
--Install /aosp-6.0-p4-20151211.zip ...
Finding update package...
E:unknown volume for path [/aosp-6.0-p4-20151211.zip]
E:Can't mount '/aosp-6.0-p4-20151211.zip'
* Verifying filesystems...
* Verifying partition sizes
Error flashing zip '/aosp-6.0-p4-20151211.zip'
Another strange thing is that when I tried the aosp-6.0-p4wifi, it said that this device was a p4, which I don't think is correct, but that's why I tried the p4 version. It errors just the same. I've also tried to update TWRP, but I'm not sure you can update TWRP from within TWRP? I've tried using the file "twrp-2.8.7.-picassowifi.zip" and it errors the same as the OS'.
Edit: It's been sitting here powered on for a bit and then went to the blue teamwin screen and would flash off every five seconds or so. I figured this was maybe a screensaver? Next it powered off and on restart, all the files I've uploaded are no longer visible.
Any guidance is much appreciated.
Final edit: Kind of embarrassing...all I needed to do to find the /sdcard directory was just scroll down a little through the folders on the left (I thought it was supopsed to be the top directory). I'm pretty sure the 7510 is a wifi only version, but for some reason, none of the wifi ROM's I've tried will work. It gives an error and says my device is a p4 and not a p4wifi. Anyway, neither of the wifi/p4 Marshmallow ROM's will work, but all I had to do was wipe cache/delvic/system (I did do this several times) and factory reset (had not done this before) and install Cyanogenmod for p4 with the recommended Google Apps and all is working well.

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