Related
Greetings people!
Yesterday I got this message while booting up my TP (latest official ROM):
"The device is unable to boot because either you have turned off the device incorrectly or tried to install an application from untrusted source. Press END to reset your device or press any other button to cancel. This operation will delete all your personal data and restore the device to its factory default settings"
However apart from that message, phone works flawlessly without any noticable change in speed or stability! The only apparent problem is that it takes a while longer (about 10 seconds) to boot up because of that message. I tried a couple of backups, problem was solved at first, but returned later...
I do take daily backups, but since I hardly monitor my phone when I reset it, this problem could have been caused by an app or reg entry a while ago... and searching for the appropriate backup will be a pain in the ass.
Since there's no change in speed or stability, do you think it would be wise to keep using the phone as is, or is it possible this would cause further problems down the road?
Any other way to troubleshoot it (at least to find the program that's causing this) other than a hard reset?
Edit: couldn't wait so I reverted to a week-old backup, installed back most of my applications, and it seems to be fixed (for now)
Update! I just tried a new SD to try XDAndroid, and guess what, the error disappeared!
So there must be a program I had installed in the storage card, possibly trying to start a service or something on every reset... and failing.
Is there a way to troubleshoot this? Maybe through SKTools or anything similar? I have a ton of apps installed into storage card and it will be a pain in the back cover to try by trial-and-error.
Thank you in advance
edit: inserted my old storage card again, error did not appear, problem solved! At least for now
Still if anyone knows how to troubleshoot this, please let me know
Update: Seems this error occurs every time I use SPB backup.
Yesterday, after a scheduled backup, the error came back. To troubleshoot this, I removed the SD card, did a soft reset, the error was gone! I took another manual backup, and again, the error came back.
So there must be something happening with SPB Backup and my SD card. Probably messing with files on the SD, or the driver or whatever (no idea there, I'm a total noob when it comes to software).
Moved the issue to the SPB forum
I have this message to, but I have never used SPB Backup
Well, in my case, it was obviously something tampering with the SD card (even if not SPB backup, something else)
Have you tried rebooting your phone with the SD card taken off? I just wait till it boots normally, and then insert it back. Works for me every time.
If that still happens, that probably means whatever is causing the problem is in your main memory.
akpidis said:
Well, in my case, it was obviously something tampering with the SD card (even if not SPB backup, something else)
Have you tried rebooting your phone with the SD card taken off? I just wait till it boots normally, and then insert it back. Works for me every time.
If that still happens, that probably means whatever is causing the problem is in your main memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I tried that just to see what would happen and I did not get the error message. So it is something on the SD card, but booting without it is not an option for me as I have several boot-start apps that are housed on it.
Perhaps one of those apps is broken?
As far as my case goes, I kept on using it for three months after the error appeared, without noticing any lag or issues at all. The only downside was that it took me three minutes to boot up, something I got used to.
If that's no big deal for you, I'd suggest you just leave it as it is for now, and check for lagging or specific applications failing (maybe one of them will be the app that's causing the problem?). If nothing happens down the road I think it could be safe to leave it as it is.
Now, if you can't stand this, I guess the only practical solution would be a hard reset. You can always play around with removing/reinstalling those apps you mention (or even better, installing them in the phone's memory) to check if and which one is broken, but I can understand that this not only will be a huge burden, but you may come to the conclusion that no specific app is causing this and something went south in the OS.
Personally the only apps which include a boot-up service I have installed into my SD are Football Monitor and PocketWeather. I tried removing both of them them back when I first had that issue, it didn't work...
Sorry I couldn't help more :/
I have been experiencing some issues with my phone recently. I have flashed multiple roms and everything was working fine for the past 3 months or so. Last week I flashed Hebrew Valhalla, it worked fine for a few days then all hell broke lose! I started experiencing the following issues with the phone:
1. In calls, people can hear me but I cannot hear them through the front speaker. I have to either put it on speakerphone or use my headphones.
2. Whenever I cannot hear people in calls (issue #1 above) then there is also no sound coming from the back speaker when I play music. It only works with headphones.
3. Sometimes when I play music, sound only comes from the phone's speaker. Yes the tables literally turn! Even if I plug in headphones, it keeps playing through the phone's speaker. I use stock music player no mods nothing and yes my headphones and their jacks are good I tried multiple ones.
4. The screen does not turn off while in calls. I used 2 apps to test the proximity sensor and it is working fine. Sometimes when on a call the screen randomly turns on and off but most of the time it remains on.
5. Although the vibration intensity is set to max, when typing, the intensity is random. Sometimes it is strong, other times it is weak. Completely random and it is only for typing. It works fine for notifications and pressing back button or whatever. The keyboard is swype and it used to work fine before.
SOMETIMES when I reboot the phone, Issues #1,2 and 3 fixes themselves; I can hear people in calls, music works fine both in speaker and headphones when necessary, but issue #4 is persistent.
The phone has not taken any falls/hits or anything, so I doubt it can he hardware related? So I assumed it is software related, I went to flash other roms, including the ones I used previously that was working fine and still nothing!!! I even flashed Heimdall one click and started from scratch, and still the same problems in the stock rom.
I have spent days searching all over to no avail. Please if anyone knows the solution or workaround to any of the issues above it will be greatly appreciated!!!!!
How old is the phone? If I were you and it's still under warranty I would consider a handset exchange through your phone provider, and if you choose that method make sure you go back to stock an unroot first before you send
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA
Cannot do
The warranty has long expired, so that's not an option.
Look for the Gremlin Remover in the Dev section.
Trying
I have been trying for the past 5 hours to get the GR to connect to the phone but it just is not working. I have tried installing and uninstalling all drivers rebooting phone, pc, remove battery everything and it just does not work!!!
The only time GR connects to the phone is when it is starting up, or when the os has loaded up fully. whenever I reboot to download mode it disconnects and never connects back to odin when in download mode. What am i doing wrong? I used the drivers in the GR file but it does not work.
Can anyone link to the drivers that will make odin see the phone while in download mode?
Look at the guide in the second link of my signature. Read the notes about drivers, odin and heimdall. You need to completely, thoroughly and patiently make sure you remove them all.
Go to the wiki for the samsung drivers or use kies mini to install the drivers. ODIN is a samsung software and they use the same drivers.
Still not working
So I found the right drivers and just finished flashing GR twice and the problems are still there. after flashing GR the second time I just flashed Hebrew Valhalla and the problems are still there
I really dont think there is anything else I can do?
Did you do ALL of the steps that Thomas posted? Not just the flashing GR.
Yes I did all the steps: 1, 2 then 3, not the "Filesystem Cleaner" part.
You have nothing to lose doing all the steps.
Ok I will do the Filesystem Cleaner part now and update in a while
EDIT:
I installed the android SDK to connect to adb. Thomas's instructions says to go to recovery mode, but the pc only see's the phone as adb when the phone is booted up in normal mode, not when it is in recovery mode.
I used the universal driver installer, is there specific adb drivers for recovery mode?
So before I got the adb to work I kept rebooting the phone and pushed and removed the headphones in the headphone jack multiple times and I was suprised everything started working. I could how hear people in calls, the screen turned off fine during a call, music worked fine. Rebooted again and everything still worked fine! My memory card was formatted so I copied back some of the files that were on it (music, pictures and apk installers for certain apps, and titanium backup folder). I went to install my apps from the apk's not titanium backup, so I did not restore any data just fresh install the apk's....
.....Rebooted the phone and all the problems came back!!!! I tried uninstalling the apps and reboot multiple times but the problems remained, so I said I will try the entire process again.
Ok so I found the drivers and completed ALL the steps now including the adb stuff and the filesystem cleaner. The status was already clean but I still ran the cleaner just to be safe. Then I flashed Gremlin Remover again and the problems still exist. I flashed Octane 3, problems still exist. flashed Hebrew Valhalla and the problems were still there...rebooted multiple times and the incall volume is working FOR NOW, but the screen does not turn off anymore.
I pushed the headphones in and out many times as it worked the first time but it made no difference now. I really do not know what more is there to do
How are calls just using your phone? No headphones. If things were fine before restoring your sd card shouldn't that tell you there is a good chance something on your sd card is messing with your phone?
You should start over again. Be thorough. Do all the Gremlin Remover steps. Leave your sd card fresh after format. Install apps one at a time with time between from the playstore. Don't mess with your headphones yet. And see what state your phone is in.
It could be your phone. An app. Your sd card or some data on it. Or your headphones. Process of elimination.
Do you have accidental damage insurance? Hammer anyone?lol
Seriously though, with using the gremlin remover and system cleaner processes, everything bad should have been removed. However, you stated that the problems reoccoured after restoring your sdcard. My guess would be either a virus (yes it is possible to get a virus or malicious file on our phones) or a corrupt file/files that is contained in your files that you restored to your sdcard. As much of a pain in the ass it may be, you should restore each file one by one and test. Once the issue reoccours, then you know what is the cause. there are some directories/files you should not restore:
Code:
.android_secure
.cache
Android
CachedImages
data
gps
LOST.DIR
temp
tmp
Voodoo
and any folders that pertain directly to any apps you use like 360launcher, goweather, etc.
As lumin said, everything worked fine until you restored your sdcard...
lumin30 said:
How are calls just using your phone? No headphones. If things were fine before restoring your sd card shouldn't that tell you there is a good chance something on your sd card is messing with your phone?
You should start over again. Be thorough. Do all the Gremlin Remover steps. Leave your sd card fresh after format. Install apps one at a time with time between from the playstore. Don't mess with your headphones yet. And see what state your phone is in.
It could be your phone. An app. Your sd card or some data on it. Or your headphones. Process of elimination.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly, this is where I am right now. I did start all over again, formatted the card and only put Hebrew, Octane and Anton's kernel. This is all that is on the card, when I installed them some of the default folders were created. I am yet to put anything else on the memory card, and at the time of this typing I only have basic market apps installed, nothing from transferring from pc to memory card or anything.
1. I have fully cleaned the system using all the steps in GR so I doubt the problem can be with the software on the phone.
2. I doubt it can be an app causing it because even after restoring the official rom just after GR it still does not work.
3. I am not sure if it can be the memory card, since I formatted it so many times, if it had a virus shouldn't it be gone by now? Not sure, just asking. I have some other memory cards handy I will format them and start back from square one again to see how it goes.
4. As for the headphones, I tried different headphones all the same thing. If anything then the problem about the incall sound might be with the headphone port itself. Maybe the phone's hardware or something in that port got stuck or something just something that is making the phone detect a headphone when there is actually none, maybe that's why...that's the most plausible thing I can think of relating to the incall and music volume. Now since I pushed it and out multiple times that maybe fixed it? Not sure..
As for the screen not going off I have no idea; so I will do everything again using a new memory card, not restoring anything, only install market apps one at a time and let you know how it goes.
I followed all the instructions down to the last letter. Did everything over. Removed battery left for some time. Formatted new memory card and only put the cleaner, one mp3 song for testing, Octane and Anton's kernel on it. Did the adb cleaning. Flashed Gremlin Remover. Left for 15 min. Flashed Octane and then Anton's kernel. Reboot and waited 15 min. Did not install anything whatsoever. First thing I did: make a call and play the mp3 file and suprise!! All the problems were still there. Nothing changed. Screen still remained on, no sound in call, no sound from music player; only through headphones like in square 1. Pissed off to the max.
I quit.
sherman619 said:
I followed all the instructions down to the last letter. Did everything over. Removed battery left for some time. Formatted new memory card and only put the cleaner, one mp3 song for testing, Octane and Anton's kernel on it. Did the adb cleaning. Flashed Gremlin Remover. Left for 15 min. Flashed Octane and then Anton's kernel. Reboot and waited 15 min. Did not install anything whatsoever. First thing I did: make a call and play the mp3 file and suprise!! All the problems were still there. Nothing changed. Screen still remained on, no sound in call, no sound from music player; only through headphones like in square 1. Pissed off to the max.
I quit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, if you did all that, your device should be running it's best ever... You may have some sort of hardware malfunction. Even after trying different ROMs you still have the same issues correct?
I can tell you, I started experiencing some really bad things (not near as bad as yours) after I flashed a ROM WIP, and it took me several flashes to get my phone up and working again. But the only thing that was even remotely hardware related was the mis-calibration of the screen... I have to say, your problem is one of a kind...
However, have you tried pulling a logcat to see if by some chance there was something in there?
thomas.raines said:
Honestly, if you did all that, your device should be running it's best ever... You may have some sort of hardware malfunction. Even after trying different ROMs you still have the same issues correct?
I can tell you, I started experiencing some really bad things (not near as bad as yours) after I flashed a ROM WIP, and it took me several flashes to get my phone up and working again. But the only thing that was even remotely hardware related was the mis-calibration of the screen... I have to say, your problem is one of a kind...
However, have you tried pulling a logcat to see if by some chance there was something in there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know anything about logcat and how to interpret it. I see nearly 20k lines of text when I did it, what exactly should I look for?
I added it to my dropbox account if it is going to be helpful, here is the link:
This is the logcat I saved from my phone. Click it
I'm almost positive that it's some mechanical/electrical problem with the headphone jack. Something is stuck there, or it's dirty, so the controller erroneously detects like something is always plugged in. Hint: you said earlier that it suddenly started working when you were actively plugging-unplugging headphones.
AntonX said:
I'm almost positive that it's some mechanical/electrical problem with the headphone jack. Something is stuck there, or it's dirty, so the controller erroneously detects like something is always plugged in. Hint: you said earlier that it suddenly started working when you were actively plugging-unplugging headphones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I believe so too. I will try to open the phone to see what I can find concerning the headphone issue.
What about the screen not going off? Any suggestions?
The 4.0.4 OTA update was waiting for me when I woke up this morning. I started the install but when it went to reboot it hung up with a picture of the Android man on his back with a red error/warning triangle.
I haven't done anything with it, hoping someone might be able to help me out.
The phone is rooted but running 4.0.2 stock rom. the battery was a little low when i started the install, but i plugged it in before starting.
Thanks in advance for help,
jvoosh
the reason is that your phone is rooted ,so ... if you want OTA ,you had better unroot you rom or ruu
so can I hard reset the phone (pull the battery) without screwing anything up and then figure out how to unroot the phone?
thanks for your help,
j
Ditto
I'm in exactly the same boat, and hope someone answers this before I try a battery pull.
EDIT: I read around and found some people describing our situation, and mentioning that they did battery pulls to no avail. So I did, and nothing broke. However, the update didn't go through, and now I'm trying to figure out why this happened.
Same issue
I'm having the same issue. Phone got the IMM76k update, and after downloaded, was prompted to restart and install. So i did, gets through part of the install, and then goes to the android man on his back with a red exclamation mark. Have tried multiple times, all to no avail. Now, when I click check for update, it says system up to date, but still on 4.0.2.
Non-rooted, bootloader unlocked...anyone have any luck fixing this?
After downloading update, get Android man on back with red exclamation point
I'm having some difficulty getting the update to install, along the lines of some of the comments posted before mine:
I was able to force download the OTA update (IMM76K) according to the instructions on this original post. (It took a few tries, but eventually worked.)
I select the "Restart & Install" option (which is the only option available to me), and it restarts.
I get the relatively familiar Android man with his blue-green glowing polyhedron wireframe guts spinning, and a progress bar beneath him. After getting through what looks like about 20%, it slows down significantly, and I get the Android man on his back with a red exclamation point above him where the polyhedron used to be. I don't recall seeing any specific error message any of the three times that I tried this. (The first time, I did a battery pull; the second and third times, I just waited, and it eventually restarted on its own.) Needless to say, I'm still on 4.0.2.
I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with different version names and so forth (e.g,. I don't know what yakju is), but this was a phone that Verizon sent me in December 2011 here in the US.
Here's the information from my "About phone" page:
Model number: Galaxy Nexus
Android version: 4.0.2
Baseband version: I515.09 V.EK05 / I515.EK02
Kernel version: 3.0.8-gaaa2611 [email protected] #1
Build number: ICL53F
When I first got the phone, I immediately unlocked the bootloader and rooted it. I did NOT install a custom recovery, nor did I install any custom ROM.
It sounds like there might be some kind of validation error, but I do not recall doing anything that would make my OS non-stock, except perhaps side-loading Google Wallet, but since that doesn't even require root, I can't imagine that it would have any effect. My Superuser app shows only the following apps to have ever used root permissions: BusyBox Free, Secure Settings, Superuser, Terminal Emulator, and Titanium Backup. I've only used BusyBox and Secure Settings with Tasker to automate certain tasks, but nothing crazy! Mostly, I just need root for Titanium Backup. (I cannot recall exactly what I restored from my stock Gingerbread Droid X, but I was very careful to only restore apps and their corresponding app data--and I avoided restoring any Google-provided apps.) Even my tethering is done through an app not requiring root (SVTP).
Any advice (not requiring that I do a factory reset or flash a custom recovery or ROM) would be greatly appreciated! I'd also like to hear about people who have similar circumstances, but didn't have problems updating (so that I can rule out various factors).
Thank you in advance!
same exact issue here.
A "solution", albeit less than ideal
The OTA update eventually came to my phone naturally, and it still didn't work. (No surprise there.)
I called up Verizon tech support, and they had me do the Google Services Framework workaround to try to force the update again. Of course, it didn't work.
They said "We're going to need you to reset your device." (i.e., to factory default).
I told them that was wholly unacceptable, since I want to make sure that all my settings are preserved. (I'm kind of obsessive compulsive about things being set the way I like them, and Titanium Backup, as great a program as it is, has sometimes caused some trouble for me when restoring system settings, and especially since I'd be doing a restore after upgrading the OS, I was nervous about that option.)
Verizon got Samsung on the phone. They had no advice except "We're going to need you to reset your device." Both the Verizon rep and I told him that wasn't acceptable.
So Verizon's "solution" was to send me a new device, allow me five days to get everything transferred over, and then have me return the old device.
Up side: In case there was something wrong with my hardware or something else got messed up, I get a new device that I can get set up with the exact same settings as the old one.
Down side: The "new device" is refurbished, so there could potentially be some kind of baggage.
The "new device" came with 4.0.2. I booted it up without the SIM card, skipped all the logging in to Google, and immediately started going through the steps to unlock the bootloader and root the device. (I used the Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit, which worked like a charm on a 64-bit Windows 7 machine I had lying around.) After unlocking and rooting, I logged into the device with my Google credentials and let it restore my settings and apps that I had downloaded from Google Play.
Then, it notified me that the 4.0.4 (IMM76K) update was available, so I installed that, and it worked without a problem.
Then, I installed the SIM card and got the new device activated through Verizon's website for activation.
Then, with both devices side by side, I went through every phone setting and made sure it's what I wanted, I made sure every app was installed (and if it was a non-Google Play app, I restored it through Titanium Backup), and I restored data for apps that don't store their data in the cloud (e.g., various games) through Titanium Backup. (I made a backup of my old device with Titanium Backup and transferred it over to the new device after getting the new one up and running.)
Everything seems to be working just fine, and the "new device" runs a bit faster and smoother than the old device, and that's with both devices rebooting and then going through the exact same "click paths", side by side.
So it's a bit of a hassle, but everyone who has a Galaxy Nexus should still be under warranty, so if you're polite with your Verizon tech support representative, they may be willing to help you out.
Verizon can sometimes be infuriating with their update release schedule and keeping their customers informed, but they sure do a good job accommodating their customers in other ways.
I realize this isn't really a "solution" to the Android man on his back problem, but this seemed to be the path of least resistance for me, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome so far. (It's been less than 24 hours since I got the "new device" set up!)
Other things I realized I should have tried (and still may, before I wipe my phone and send it back):
- uninstalling BusyBox (through the app itself, since it makes modifications to the system) and Secure Settings
- unrooting
Good luck!
My friend who has a nexus has his bootloader unlocked and CWM on it. He got the OTA today on his way into work and like you guys, he has a broken android when he boots up. We can get into CMW but we are unable to mount his internal SD storage onto our computer and he has no ROM zips on his phone. Any advice as to how to get his phone up and running?
Will wiping the system/data fix it? Is there a way to get a ROM like AOKP onto the device outside of CWM?
Edit: After several reboots it decided to just boot into the stock ROM. Really strange. Anyhow, flashed AOKP and all is well now.
Ok, so as the title says, I'm looking to completely undo having rooted my tablet, and all the customization I did to it, but I'm having a bit of trouble.
According to multiple apps my tablet is no longer rooted, and I got the stock rom from Sammobile flashed on it, and I have the stock recovery back, but I seem to be suffering from the wifi problem that CM suffers, I know this as I can connect to my 5G wifi as well, which I'm never able to do when the tablets wifi is working correctly, and also even connected I barely have any speed, if even any.
Now I know of the wifi fix you can flash through TWRP, but as I said, no more TWRP, and I don't want to reinstall it, I want everything back to stock.
Now, I know of Wifi Fix's for other tablets, like the Galaxy S4, that you can flash on with Odin, but I can't seem to find one like that for the Note Pro 12.2. So if anyone can send me a link I'd really appreciate it.
And also, I can't remember, but did the Note Pro 12.2 ever get anything higher then Android 5.0.2? Because I try to update it, and it says because my tablet was modified I can't do so. Plus Sammobile doesn't have higher then 5.0.2 but I read somewhere that it got 5.1.1 so I really don't know, any help on that front as well would be great.
Now, you may be wondering why I want to do this, in truth I'd rather have my tablet rooted, I save so much battery life getting rid of all the bloatware. But no matter what I do, there always ends up being a problem with my tablet.
I follow all the instructions given, I do exactly what everyone else does, even having someone walk me through it step by step once, and always it goes horribly wrong.
The first time my Nova Launcher would crash constantly, and then everything else would start crashing with it. Then the second time all my videos would play stuttering and jerky, and the audio would be out of sync horribly, and nothing I did would fix it. And now most recently, even though the tablet it connected to the computer, the drivers always fail installation, and even when they are successful, I'm still unable to actually access the tablet from my pc.
I read somewhere that it may be because I disabled Media Storage, but with Media Storage I have just as many problems, it drains my battery like crazy, it causes things to load up extremely slow when accessed through the computer, if a folder has a hundred files for example, it will take almost twenty minutes for them all to load up, and you can't do anything until they do, and if you try copying something into a folder without going into it you'll just be stuck in an endless loop of copying that never ends.
But without Media Storage everything loads up just as quickly as say an SD Card, so said 100 files only takes a few seconds.
And worse thing it caused, which troubled me for a long time before I found out what caused it, at random the media storage would decide to claim 20gb's of space, saying it was all taken up, when it isn't. And it would keep happening at random times, and at random sizes. Near the end it had taken up every bit of free space I had and didn't change back even after several days which is what led me to looking up what was causing that in the first place.
So as you can see, leaving Media Storage enabled is a big no for me. So as such I'm unable to root and customize my tablet for that reason as well.
Now, before you say how weird it is that I have such trouble, and how you have no idea why it would happen, there is a very key reason, Technology HATES me. Trust me, more often then not when I try to do something that works for literally everyone else it fails for me, like say connecting an Xbox controller and getting it to work on my pc. Yeah, never works even after almost 5 hours of trying. So yeah, technology hates, maybe even dispises me.
So anyway, if you can help me fix the wifi, and the update problem if that's possible, I'd really appreciate it.
Are you able to get it connected to a PC?
There are tutorials on how to go back to complete stock if you haven't tried Knox I might search for what people have done before they take the their device back to the carrier. Many people want to un-root before they give up their old devices.
I'm on stock rooted ROM 20H sep 2018. Last time I checked (just now) this is still the latest verion.
However my H910 keeps bugging me about new update available from AT&T.
Does that happen to you guys?
It didn't give me any info about versions and so on.
Should I proceed?
I got it too. Came here to see if it was just me. I'm on H910 Oreo stock rooted.
Warning: DO NOT try to silence the nagging by blocking the notifications. AT&T/LG will treat "quit bothering me" like "go ahead, have your way", and simply go ahead and try to install the update without even bothering to ask you next time. If you're running RootedStock, you'll end up in a slow semi-bootloop where Android boots, you'll have about 3-5 minutes, then it will forcibly install the update, reboot, you'll end up in TWRP, and when you reboot to system (or power off, then power up later), the whole cycle will repeat.
I'm not sure how robustly my solution worked, but here's how I broke out of it. So far, about 15 minutes after rebooting, it seems to have worked. Since I'm writing this AFTER seemingly fixing the problem, I'm writing it from memory, and can't say with 100% certainty which step was actually the one that fixed the problem for me. I actually began the process of installing Titanium backup about a half-dozen FOTA-reboot cycles before tripping over another post here that advised deleting /cache/FOTA. Titanium Backup might, or might not, be an essential element of my apparent success. I honestly don't know. If you own it, use it... you have nothing to lose. If you don't already own it, try just deleting /cache/FOTA first from TWRP's file manager and see whether it works (temporarily or permanently).
Anyway... here's the approximate path to slaying the FOTA beast:
1. I installed Titanium Backup from Google Play. It actually took two reboot cycles to do this... you REALLY have to be ready to unlock the phone, launch Google Play, search for Titanium, and trigger its installation while standing a few feet from your wifi AP for it to finish the download and begin installing it before the next forced-update attempt begins. When it does, swear violently. It'll make you feel a tiny bit better.
1b. When FOTA forces the reboot into TWRP, try deleting /cache/FOTA before rebooting. It might work to temporarily slay the FOTA beast, it might not. If it does, it'll save you about 30 minutes of FOTA-reboot misery for the remaining steps. Feel free to repeat this after each of the following steps. It can't hurt.
2. On the next cycle, launch Google Play the moment your phone finishes booting, and go back to Titanium Backup. Hopefully, it'll be installing. With a little luck, installation will finish before FOTA begins. Then sigh, and let FOTA waste another 5 minutes of your time.
3. On the next cycle, launch Ti backup, give it permanent root permission, and give it permission to do everything it wants. Then, try to launch Google Play, search for Titanium, scroll down, select Ti Backup pro key, and try to initiate installation before FOTA kicks in yet again.
4. On the next cycle, launch Google Play, search for Titanium, scroll down, select the pro key, and begin installation if it isn't already downloading and/or installing. 99% likely you'll end up going through another round of FOTA misery.
4b. If FOTA is still forcing reboots up to this point, repeat step 1b before step 5.
5. On the next cycle, launch Titanium Backup, give it any additional permissions it wants, then select Backup/Restore, scroll down to "FOTA Update 8.0.0", and freeze it.
5b. If FOTA kicks in again, repeat step 1b.
If, despite deleting /cache/FOTA, then freezing FOTA Update 8.0.0 using Ti backup, then deleting /cache/FOTA again, it's still happening... well, then my solution didn't work for you (and possibly not for me. I'll start breathing again normally if my phone is still working normally tomorrow).
Anyway, hopefully this will help someone. I suspect a lot of people running RootedStock Oreo are going to get stung by this. I'd guess that more than a few v20 owners actually bought theirs long after AT&T's previous forced update, and have never actually HAD to deal with blocking forced updates with their current ROM.
It's entirely possible that purchasing Ti backup (I don't think the free version can freeze apps) will be essential for the H910 going forward if you want to keep using what was, prior to yesterday, the newest rooted-stock Oreo ROM without having AT&T's FOTA harass you every few hours (or wipe your phone and reflash once someone releases a newer build based on the current update). Trust me, you can't swat it away forever. I went through this forced-update nagging bull**** years ago with my Motorola Photon. Someday, when you least expect it, the dialog will come flying at you when you're driving and trying to select a song using Amazon Music, or in the middle of a phone call, or semi-distracted, or scrolling down a web page while the phone is bogged down because it's grinding its wheels in the background preparing to harass you about updating again, and you WILL accidentally click "ok" & have your life go down the toilet for the next few hours until you're able to dig yourself out of the mess.
Bite the bullet, and freeze FOTA Update 8.0.0 now, while you can still do it without burning an hour of your life waiting for reboot after reboot.
For those finding their way here, make sure to back up in the brief period of time before you get hamstrung if you can't freeze the process. I am/was bone stock H910 and after ATT forced the update on me, my phone now won't finish starting up and functionally boot-loops now until I pull the battery.
It will start, get to the home screen, I might get 5-15 seconds of actual usable time with the phone before it freezes, goes back to the bootscreen and will get warmer and warmer and give me less and less time until it freezes in the middle of the ATT logo. Tried pulling SD card and SIM card, just in case. The sim card removal bought me enough time to get the phone to tell me it was "finished updating" but upon attempting to power down and start re-inserting cards, the phone locked up and bootlooped.
No idea what this update is for but it seems to have killed my phone rather handily, beware.
FWIW, airplane mode does not stall the update either.
bitbang3r said:
Warning: DO NOT try to silence the nagging by blocking the notifications. AT&T/LG will treat "quit bothering me" like "go ahead, have your way", and simply go ahead and try to install the update without even bothering to ask you next time. If you're running Roote
Bite the bullet, and freeze FOTA Update 8.0.0 now, while you can still do it without burning an hour of your life waiting for reboot after reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hope I'm not jinxing myself, but this appears to have worked for me.
I have gotten a "update could not be installed" popup, which I'm taking to be a good sign.
Still annoying, since I have auto-updates turned off.
Ugh, it popped up again. Confirmed, FOTA is still frozen.
It initiated the update for me on its own. Luckily I noticed and plugged it in or it would have died and maybe bricked the phone.
I don't notice a difference. Same Android version (8.0) same security patch (Sept 2018). The ATT version might have gone from H to I.
Yep, it started nagging me again, too. Goddamn it, this is really starting to piss me off.
Okay, on mine I think when I delete /cache/FOTA while in TWRP, it might not actually be deleting the folder.
I deleted the folder in recovery mode, then rebooted and went straight to X-plore file manager. The FOTA folder was either still there, or it just recreated itself on boot. I deleted it again in X-plore and it's now been working since my previous post.
Fingers crossed.
I just rooted a H910 yesterday, and this morning the same "slow boot loop" with the update started. I tried different things, and what so far seems to have worked was:
1. Entered TWRP recovery (from the last "update cycle." (Not like I had a choice.)
2. Wiped everything and re-installed Oreo, and all other zip and img files back to the way I originally set it all up.
3. After phone was booted up, I DID NOT have a SIM card in it, nor did I enable WiFi.
4. Temporarily skipped all the Google sign in stuff.
5. Enabled Developer options, and turned off "automatic system updates." (Not Google Play Updates!)
6. Re-booted phone and then confirmed that the above setting still showed "off."
7. Enabled WiFi and connected.
8. Set up Google account and other misc settings.
9. Restored a backup that I had made prior to the phone doing the update reboot loop, but was careful to uncheck settings. I did not use Titanium Backup. I used the built in one.
NOTE: This is not my daily driver phone. It is meant to be used as an emergency backup phone in the event that my regular phone (Samsung Galaxy S Series) falls in a canal or gets run over by a truck. (Or City Bus)
So far so good. I will use the phone for the day and check again the following morning to see if it starts the forced update. I will check back here in a few days and let everyone know what the end result was.
My theory is that if the phone does not have a chance via cell data or WiFi to get any FOTA updates prior to me turning off the "automatic system updates" that is in the Developer Options, it will never check in with AT&T's update server.
I am not sure about this, and if someone else knows, please correct the following:
I don't think AT&T "pushes" updates out. At least the type of updates we are talking about. I believe the software in the phone periodically polls an AT&T update server, and "pulls" any update at a schedule time, or time interval. My working theory is that turning off the automatic system updates will disable this automatic check, or polling routine. If it already has an update that it downloaded prior to turning off automatic system updates, its too late.
Thanks for everyone's input on this in advance.