Data recovery after clean install / format phone? - Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers

Hey all,
I've got a question. Most likely a question I know the answer to and I'm in denial. My phone crashed on vacation and wouldn't boot anymore. Not sure how it append but it did. A software failure. After many attempts I've tried to recover some of my vacation photo's an video's. (luckily I've added a cloud sync before going on vacation in case of theft and havn't lost all) In the restore attempts I've soft bricked my phone (from bad to worse) And had to make a clean install with odin. I've installed a clean Stock Rom and rooted it with Magisk (supersu resulted in bootloop). I've tried a few recovery programs from the first page googleling. But no results.
I'm pretty sure the previous version was encrypted and I'm hitting a dead end here.
As for my question: Have I've really given myself the answer not getting it back because of the (possible) encryption or are there better recovery options?

As soon as you started writing over everything with a new flash, you effectively became SOL. There's likely nothing left to recover.
Even before that, while recovery might have been possible, you wouldn't have liked the price tag.

Yeah, thanks. I've figured that. By now I've accepted the fact that I've lost the content and moved on.

Related

[Q] Bricked LG Volt - Research Questions

Hey there team. I've been a long time lurker here and might not have made many posts. Getting this phone and given my time flashing, rooting, and following guides here, I really want to start getting in on the conversations and discussions. Let me go through with what happened to my last LG Volt...
I had successfully rooted the device using towelroot and been playing around with the usual root access apps. I had superuser, busybox, etc. What I came across as a problem with the device was it's RAM usage on a lot of apps and the problem was largely just OS (after purging a lot of apps off the device). The biggest problem I was having was with Skype crashing and ending calls anytime you switched out of the Skype app itself.
Being the idiot I am, I began looking into possibly using SWAP memory to try to extend my RAM a little to see if I could correct what Skype was doing (assuming it was a RAM issue, which, now thinking about it, I don't think it was because my EVO V worked fine [On custom roms granted]). So I tried doing some swap stuff and it overall just would not go. I figured it was a KitKat issue involving the SD Card and how the file structure on the LG Volt seemed to handle SD related stuff, all going to emulated memory. So. I decided it wasn't worth the trouble and research anymore, and considering not too much work had been done on the Volt yet, I decided to give up that campaign and wait for more research to get done.
In the mean time, I told the phone to do a factory reset so I can start back fresh and go about using the device normally. This might have been where I made a mistake. I told the device to factory reset and format everything through the Android OS instead of booting into the stock recovery and telling it to do a factory reset. The phone shut off and never came back. I was not able to get it to charge, I could not enter LG Download Mode, I couldn't get into the recovery, absolutely nothing. Tried seeing if I could use the LG Mobile support tool to push anything to the phone since my computer could still see the phone connected... No luck.
So, my questions to the team here on XDA is:
1. What exactly happened to cause the phone to start the factory reset, but, lose everything? I could only assume that the phone kicked the system, data, boot, recovery, and... well.. everything off and fried it's memory. I assume it had to do with what I was trying to do with swap memory and something getting seriously messed up.
2. More specific on what the phone did after, it would not turn on, charge, go to recovery, or download mode. It was completely unresponsive. Would there have been a way to resurrect this phone back from the dead that I wasn't able to find after all the looking and research I had done?
3. With the new LG Volt I recieved from Virgin, how safe would you say things would be to go about rooting again and being more careful with my apps while I wait or get involved with some of the future ROM development for the device?
4. Is there something with how LGs recovery and download partitions are set up that would cause these to be unable to function? Or something that is particular to the LG Volt?
Finally, 5. I noticed that the work done and the team researching the Volt right now have managed to get an unlocked bootloader and a custom recovery that works. Would it be safe with the research done now to go about unlocking and flashing the custom recovery on?
These questions all take into account common knowledge stuff such as, the potentially to brick a phone again is always there and to continue doing as much research and reading as I can to know what I'm doing with the device accurately. Hope my questions can be answered here, until then, cheers gentlemen.
marth141 said:
Hey there team. I've been a long time lurker here and might not have made many posts. Getting this phone and given my time flashing, rooting, and following guides here, I really want to start getting in on the conversations and discussions. Let me go through with what happened to my last LG Volt...
I had successfully rooted the device using towelroot and been playing around with the usual root access apps. I had superuser, busybox, etc. What I came across as a problem with the device was it's RAM usage on a lot of apps and the problem was largely just OS (after purging a lot of apps off the device). The biggest problem I was having was with Skype crashing and ending calls anytime you switched out of the Skype app itself.
Being the idiot I am, I began looking into possibly using SWAP memory to try to extend my RAM a little to see if I could correct what Skype was doing (assuming it was a RAM issue, which, now thinking about it, I don't think it was because my EVO V worked fine [On custom roms granted]). So I tried doing some swap stuff and it overall just would not go. I figured it was a KitKat issue involving the SD Card and how the file structure on the LG Volt seemed to handle SD related stuff, all going to emulated memory. So. I decided it wasn't worth the trouble and research anymore, and considering not too much work had been done on the Volt yet, I decided to give up that campaign and wait for more research to get done.
In the mean time, I told the phone to do a factory reset so I can start back fresh and go about using the device normally. This might have been where I made a mistake. I told the device to factory reset and format everything through the Android OS instead of booting into the stock recovery and telling it to do a factory reset. The phone shut off and never came back. I was not able to get it to charge, I could not enter LG Download Mode, I couldn't get into the recovery, absolutely nothing. Tried seeing if I could use the LG Mobile support tool to push anything to the phone since my computer could still see the phone connected... No luck.
So, my questions to the team here on XDA is:
1. What exactly happened to cause the phone to start the factory reset, but, lose everything? I could only assume that the phone kicked the system, data, boot, recovery, and... well.. everything off and fried it's memory. I assume it had to do with what I was trying to do with swap memory and something getting seriously messed up.
2. More specific on what the phone did after, it would not turn on, charge, go to recovery, or download mode. It was completely unresponsive. Would there have been a way to resurrect this phone back from the dead that I wasn't able to find after all the looking and research I had done?
3. With the new LG Volt I recieved from Virgin, how safe would you say things would be to go about rooting again and being more careful with my apps while I wait or get involved with some of the future ROM development for the device?
4. Is there something with how LGs recovery and download partitions are set up that would cause these to be unable to function? Or something that is particular to the LG Volt?
Finally, 5. I noticed that the work done and the team researching the Volt right now have managed to get an unlocked bootloader and a custom recovery that works. Would it be safe with the research done now to go about unlocking and flashing the custom recovery on?
These questions all take into account common knowledge stuff such as, the potentially to brick a phone again is always there and to continue doing as much research and reading as I can to know what I'm doing with the device accurately. Hope my questions can be answered here, until then, cheers gentlemen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. im not sure what is going on lately, but there seems to be an influx of jacked phones lately from botched modding and attempting to fdr to fix it.
a note for future reference, a fdr will fix nothing you did that required root. so if you mess something up, just go right for the stock flash to try and fix it, if it can be fixed.
2. i doubt it.
3. i would go for it.
4. cant answer that, sorry.
5. absolutely, as long as it is stable.
any body knows how te get correct spc or msl..i try with meid converter but wrong msl..please.

[Completed] Corrupted backup? Big problems

Hi guys, wasn't sure where to post this and I've been searching the web for hours without coming up with an answer with the best way to fix the problem I've got.
So yesterday my sister gave me her phone saying it was shat and slow and generally rubbish (S4 i9505 running 4.4.2). So I had a brief look at it and she had absolutely no room on the phone at all, it was completely clogged. So I deleted all the cache data (4 gigs!!), as soon as I did this the phone came back to life and started updating everything it could, then made a backup in CWM. Thought while I'm here I may as well put the official Lollipop firmware on it from Sammobile. All was good until I realised that she has never backed anything up to google or any other cloud storage (pretty dumb!) and all of her important stuff I couldn't get back.
So I then had to try and extract some data from the CWM backup... couldn't do it. I just couldn't find the files that she wanted restored. Mainly whatsapp messages and pictures and also Smemo. These are all she needs, there's really important memos apparently, why the hell she never backed them up or had another copy of them is beyond me if they were that important!
So I tried restoring just the data part of the 4.4 CWM restore to the 5.0 rom, looking back now I see this is where I went wrong and was asking for trouble.
So I then tried rolling back to the full CWM backup, all went well so I assumed and it said it was successful. This was until the phone booted. Constant spamming of gapps has stopped working, and no matter what I did I couldn't get it to stop, the phone was unusable with it constantly pinging up, every app was failing, and then it would turn itself off and reboot.
So I Factory reset again and wiped everything, installed the backup again, same thing happened again. Even tried flashing the latest version of gapps, but nothing had any effect.
So now I'm thinking oh feck... I didn't make a backup of the Lollipop install as I thought the rollback would have just cured it, and she had already started messing about with it, making it look pretty and getting people to send her some of the important files she had.
So I thought balls, tough luck and you'll have to start again, your fault for never backing anything up. So I reflashed Lollipop, and for some reason it wouldn't boot. Would just hang at the Samsung logo, this was 4am, I was panicking as I'd effectively bricked her phone. So after lots of boot loops and countless flashes I was looking on ebay for a new phone for her, then suddenly it finally boots on one of the flashes.
Anyway after a lot of faffing about, flashing 4.4 which worked, so flashed 5.0 again, and luckily it booted, I don't know what happened, maybe I missed something as I was so tired, so I signed her into google and let all the apps download while I slept.
Now the question is, I seem to have found a site that explains how to extract individual files vaguely, I just need to get the smemos and whatsapp files and I'm not entirely sure where to look and extract these files. Also, will they corrupt if I try to install them on the 5.0 firmware?
Any help would be much appreciated as I'm really in the stinky brown stuff.
Morning bump if anyone can shed some light on this :crying:
Hi
Thanks for writing to us at XDA Assist. Have you tried using this tool?
[Tool] Cwm nandbackup file Extractor ( .img/ .tar files )
It should extract exactly what you need. If you're only reinstalling those specific apps with their data you should have no issues, just don't restore any system data, that's what caused your problems after restoring the KitKat backup on top of the Lollipop ROM.
No response in two days, thread closed, thanks.

I think I've bricked my phone and am not sure what to do

Hey all, before I start I'd like to apologise for making the post here but I don't know what you guys would classify the state of my phone as, "bricked, soft-bricked, hard-bricked", I have no clue! As a result I have no idea what threads to start looking in so I've come here to make this, sorry again!
I'm here looking for help because I think I've completely destroyed my Moto G and really really would like to fix it.
Basically, I had been running an old version of CyanogenMod for months and was not able to update due to the fact my bootloader was not updated. After finally updating it through a tool on XDA, I installed the newest version of CyanogenMod onto the phone and it was all going well, except for the fact all of my Google apps were crashing and making it impossible to use.
Now, I'm not sure why, but without taking any precautionary measures or looking into it at all or what I needed to do, I then decided to try and flash a Paranoid Android rom onto the phone, which installed fine. I load the phone up and something comes up with a passcode saying I need to unlock it to use the phone. I put in some random things and eventually get it, but it says my data is corrupted and therefore I need to reset to factory settings and there's a button there to do it. I think "why not" and click.
So now, the phone did something weird and basically went into a bootloop of the PA logo, so I restarted the phone and went to the bootloader thing. When doing "Normal Startup" it loads the phone with the PA logo like before, comes up with a brief "Android is Upgrading" screen before showing me the passcode screen for half a second, before repeating this, thus having a bootloop. Every so often, I can put my code in and press the reset button again, but it does the same thing.
On the other hand, if I try to access my ClockworkMod recovery system, the screen repeatedly flashes with the CWM background of the Android Alien guy, as if to say it keeps trying to start but it cannot.
TLDR: I cannot access my phone through a normal powerup or through my recovery, have I screwed it completely?
I'd hugely appreciate any help here guys because I'm stressing like I never have before here, thanks!
EDIT: it is the X0123 version!
Spaciouz said:
TLDR: I cannot access my phone through a normal powerup or through my recovery, have I screwed it completely?
I'd hugely appreciate any help here guys because I'm stressing like I never have before here, thanks!
EDIT: it is the X0123 version!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a few questions before I start suggesting a full flash to stock.
Did you have any SIM passwords, boot passwords, CWM passwords before flashing?
Also In CWM does it flash before any options are selected and did you dirty flash the new ROM over the old ROM?
Anyway, your phone is not hardbricked as it can get to recovery so thats good news.
I would suggest flashing your phone back to factory stock using the tools here on XDA (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2542219). That should hopefully resolve most of the issues and then if you feel like it you can start flashing custom ROMs again.

Stuck in a bootloop + CWM question

Edit: Solved, see bottom
ROM (D6633_Customized HK_1290-5630_23.4.A.0.546_R6C_HK_SuperSU2.46_XZDR2.8.21-signedv2)
Bit of a dumb move on my part. It all started when my snapchat stopped working, I updated, and then Titanium Backup wouldn't restore the data properly (giving me "parse error"). I was trying to fix that and read online that sometimes this is caused by improper permissions, so I booted into recovery mode, couldn't find the option, but somehow decided "hey, maybe my root permission (?) is wrong slash it's 6am and I just watched a wild 2016 election end" and I hit the button. Now my phone is stuck in a bootloop.
So my question:
1) What exactly does re-root phone do (in CWM), and why would that have messed me up? Is it because I have a pre-rooted rom?
2) I wiped cache and delvik and it doesn't help
3) How do I fix this? I was thinking of loading a SuperSU zip on the SD card from my computer and flashing that, assuming somehow a corrupted root is at fault. I can't seem to get the thing in ADB mode as a side note.
3b) If that seems like a good idea, does it matter what one I use?
4) If I reflash the ROM, it should keep my apps and stuff, ya? I don't actually care if my phone is crippled, I just need it to work long enough to properly back up some media, and mainly get my whatsapp over to my new SIM card. If I can't get in it's forever stuck on my old number which I don't have the SIM for anymore.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
Edit: I don't know how to delete this. Anyways, with other resources I found out that because I used a pre-rooted ROM, there were issues with using CWM to try to do the rooting with its built in functions, softbricking the phone. Reflashing the original pre-rooted ROM worked fine.

Bricked my OP7P - Can't decrypt data partition anymore

Hey Guys,
this could propably be posted in r/TIFU as well since I think I screwed up big time today -.-
I basically just wanted to update my rooted OP7P to 10.0.5 (EU) using the latest OTA - so I followed the usual steps as always:
Uninstall Magisk
Install OTA - No Reboot
Install TWRP retention script in Magisk
Re-Install Magisk
Reboot
This procedure worked fine the last 2 times an OTA was released but this time I'm not able to boot into the system anymore. TWRP is still in places but won't read the data partition anymore - it also doesn't ask for my pattern to decrypt it. Problem is that idiot-me of course didn't do a backup before (yea, I know -.-) and obviously doesn't want to loose the data on it.
I of course checked the forum and googled my ass of trying to find a non-destructive way to access the system but couldn't find anything fitting my scenario. So my last resort is to ask you guys directly: Did anybody ever encounter such a situation and if yes, how did you resolve it? Right now any support would be much appreciated
//Edit: Symptoms and current behaviour:
Boot into system (partition A) ends in the OP logo cirling endlessly
Boot into system (partition B) sends me directly to TWRP
TWRP doesn't ask for encryption pattern
The answer to TWRP's initial question (Keep System r/o) is not persisted
Fastboot/ADB are working (but obviously w/o access to /data)
I'm technically running a stock OxygenOS with Renovate ICE. I know technically its instuctions say to install the OTA directly from within TWRP and and then re-flash TWRP and Magisk but that wasn't neccessary the last times... one idea of mine is to just do that now and see where it leads me but I really don't wanna risk my data.
the.cybertronic said:
Hey Guys,
this could propably be posted in r/TIFU as well since I think I screwed up big time today -.-
I basically just wanted to update my rooted OP7P to 10.0.5 (EU) using the latest OTA - so I followed the usual steps as always:
Uninstall Magisk
Install OTA - No Reboot
Install TWRP retention script in Magisk
Re-Install Magisk
Reboot
This procedure worked fine the last 2 times an OTA was released but this time I'm not able to boot into the system anymore. TWRP is still in places but won't read the data partition anymore - it also doesn't ask for my pattern to decrypt it. Problem is that idiot-me of course didn't do a backup before (yea, I know -.-) and obviously doesn't want to loose the data on it.
I of course checked the forum and googled my ass of trying to find a non-destructive way to access the system but couldn't find anything fitting my scenario. So my last resort is to ask you guys directly: Did anybody ever encounter such a situation and if yes, how did you resolve it? Right now any support would be much appreciated
//Edit: Symptoms and current behaviour:
Boot into system (partition A) ends in the OP logo cirling endlessly
Boot into system (partition B) sends me directly to TWRP
TWRP doesn't ask for encryption pattern
The answer to TWRP's initial question (Keep System r/o) is not persisted
Fastboot/ADB are working (but obviously w/o access to /data)
I'm technically running a stock OxygenOS with Renovate ICE. I know technically its instuctions say to install the OTA directly from within TWRP and and then re-flash TWRP and Magisk but that wasn't neccessary the last times... one idea of mine is to just do that now and see where it leads me but I really don't wanna risk my data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The bad news is once twrp loses access to data. The only fix is to format data and everything will be fixed.
So... you're basically telling me I ****ed up completely and my data is gone? Never was a profile picture more fitting than yours right now :/
What I'm wondering is that, from a technical perspective and on a working phone, the decryption takes place not during the boot but only after you've entered your code/passphrase/pattern on OS level. Meaning the system should theoretically be able to boot up to there without /data access. TThat's why I had the idea to flash a clean stock Oxygen from TWRP (no root), boot the system and hopefully be able to access the data this way. Respectively any encryption can be broken somehow, can't it? Even if it might take quite some time to do so this should theoretically be possible...
I mean... I definetly don't know enough about Android internals to understand its encryption mechanics completely but from a technical perspective it should be possible.... like the saying "there is no such thing as 100% security"
the.cybertronic said:
So... you're basically telling me I ****ed up completely and my data is gone? Never was a profile picture more fitting than yours right now :/
What I'm wondering is that, from a technical perspective and on a working phone, the decryption takes place not during the boot but only after you've entered your code/passphrase/pattern on OS level. Meaning the system should theoretically be able to boot up to there without /data access. TThat's why I had the idea to flash a clean stock Oxygen from TWRP (no root), boot the system and hopefully be able to access the data this way. Respectively any encryption can be broken somehow, can't it? Even if it might take quite some time to do so this should theoretically be possible...
I mean... I definetly don't know enough about Android internals to understand its encryption mechanics completely but from a technical perspective it should be possible.... like the saying "there is no such thing as 100% security"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude try flashing the stock rom from twrp onto both slots by mounting an otg drive..or adb sideload(very slow I think..still worth a try if you don't wanna lose data)..stock rom can manage the encryption I suppose.
Encryption is an issue when you flash different roms(I think so..I am no expert,just my experience so far).
Breaking encryption is not like what you think..it might take ages to break using brute force (again from what I heard..I lost my data a lot of time flashing roms without twrp backup..nowadays I just backup my apps using tb coz restorings the apps is really a pain in the ass process)
the.cybertronic said:
So... you're basically telling me I ****ed up completely and my data is gone? Never was a profile picture more fitting than yours right now :/
What I'm wondering is that, from a technical perspective and on a working phone, the decryption takes place not during the boot but only after you've entered your code/passphrase/pattern on OS level. Meaning the system should theoretically be able to boot up to there without /data access. TThat's why I had the idea to flash a clean stock Oxygen from TWRP (no root), boot the system and hopefully be able to access the data this way. Respectively any encryption can be broken somehow, can't it? Even if it might take quite some time to do so this should theoretically be possible...
I mean... I definetly don't know enough about Android internals to understand its encryption mechanics completely but from a technical perspective it should be possible.... like the saying "there is no such thing as 100% security"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason that format is the only answer is because when twrp does not ask for password. It believes you are unencrypted. What has happened is the file that store your password and encryption key is corrupted so any answer you give is wrong.
There's nothing you can do but format data. I've encountered this issue already.
You can try to salvage personal photos and videos using an otg drive (external ssd, hdd, sd card reader...), also back in 6t days I had this encryption problem twice, I remember that one time flashing the stock rom from the otg fixed it but I don't remember if I rebooted to recovery of the other slot.
Anyway, for the others, if he used DM verity removal and so decrypted data, he would have never face this problem again?
Joker123## said:
Dude try flashing the stock rom from twrp onto both slots by mounting an otg drive..or adb sideload(very slow I think..still worth a try if you don't wanna lose data)..stock rom can manage the encryption I suppose.
Encryption is an issue when you flash different roms(I think so..I am no expert,just my experience so far).
Breaking encryption is not like what you think..it might take ages to break using brute force (again from what I heard..I lost my data a lot of time flashing roms without twrp backup..nowadays I just backup my apps using tb coz restorings the apps is really a pain in the ass process)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vegetaleb said:
You can try to salvage personal photos and videos using an otg drive (external ssd, hdd, sd card reader...), also back in 6t days I had this encryption problem twice, I remember that one time flashing the stock rom from the otg fixed it but I don't remember if I rebooted to recovery of the other slot.
Anyway, for the others, if he used DM verity removal and so decrypted data, he would have never face this problem again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried flashing the stock Oxygen yesterday but to no satisfying result... afterwards it just showed a clean default-structure on the SD. Long story short: I accepted the fate that my data is gone and learned a valuable lesson... first thing I installed after rooting was Titanium^^
Zhuang zhuang said:
There's nothing you can do but format data. I've encountered this issue already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As hard as it is to admit, you were completely right... I just lost 6 months worth of photos incl. my last vacation in Vietnam - fml.
the.cybertronic said:
I just tried flashing the stock Oxygen yesterday but to no satisfying result... afterwards it just showed a clean default-structure on the SD. Long story short: I accepted the fate that my data is gone and learned a valuable lesson... first thing I installed after rooting was Titanium^^
As hard as it is to admit, you were completely right... I just lost 6 months worth of photos incl. my last vacation in Vietnam - fml.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For future reference, brick means a brick. Like, can't boot to fastboot/twrp/or use msmtool
the.cybertronic said:
As hard as it is to admit, you were completely right... I just lost 6 months worth of photos incl. my last vacation in Vietnam - fml.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the recent OS (10.0.5 & beta 13) I think Oneplus they add something that prevent user from using the TWRP retention script. I always use this solution for lower version and have no issue but with both 10.0.5 and beta 13 have the same issue
Zhuang zhuang said:
In the recent OS (10.0.5 & beta 13) I think Oneplus they add something that prevent user from using the TWRP retention script. I always use this solution for lower version and have no issue but with both 10.0.5 and beta 13 have the same issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
damn, good to know if I ever install OOS again - I now switched to Havoc... even though I had to skip rooting it all together after I couldn't get Magisk running with the latest safety net changes (thanks Google -.-)

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