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[Q] Two questions relating to fresh odin original FW flash, TWRP & encryption

I have been having a persistent issue trying to encrypt my phone's internal storage. (Samsung Galaxy S4 mini LTE (GT-I9195). I thought it might be related to me rooting the device, since I read that you can't encrypt a rooted phone.
So a few minutes ago I plucked up the courage to follow the tutorial to flash my original downloaded firmware to the phone, in an attempt to erase all trace of root. Well the phone came up and wanted my password, so I rebooted and installed TWRP via odin again, then did a factory reset and then used the wipe data option and proceeded to make a backup, assuming this would be as useful and as good as odin-flashing my original firmware back for future use and more convenient and less dangerous than using odin.
Well, after booting it up, going through the setup wizard and then adding a lockscreen password, I am still unable to encrypt the phone. It shows the green android robot, screen fades out, then very soon after that the phone reboots and it all comes back up as normal unencrypted. Bare in mind that this is still the stock firmware that was odin-flashed and then a factory reset.
After all this, what would I need to do to get the phone encryption working?
Also, is my assumption correct, that the new TWRP backup I made, after flashing the original firmware via odin, is that new fresh backup as good as flashing the original again via odin? At least in terms of the OS status? I know the recovery isn't changed by such a backup and odin wipes absolutely everything, but I think you know what I am asking.

Morthawt said:
I have been having a persistent issue trying to encrypt my phone's internal storage. (Samsung Galaxy S4 mini LTE (GT-I9195). I thought it might be related to me rooting the device, since I read that you can't encrypt a rooted phone.
So a few minutes ago I plucked up the courage to follow the tutorial to flash my original downloaded firmware to the phone, in an attempt to erase all trace of root. Well the phone came up and wanted my password, so I rebooted and installed TWRP via odin again, then did a factory reset and then used the wipe data option and proceeded to make a backup, assuming this would be as useful and as good as odin-flashing my original firmware back for future use and more convenient and less dangerous than using odin.
Well, after booting it up, going through the setup wizard and then adding a lockscreen password, I am still unable to encrypt the phone. It shows the green android robot, screen fades out, then very soon after that the phone reboots and it all comes back up as normal unencrypted. Bare in mind that this is still the stock firmware that was odin-flashed and then a factory reset.
After all this, what would I need to do to get the phone encryption working?
Also, is my assumption correct, that the new TWRP backup I made, after flashing the original firmware via odin, is that new fresh backup as good as flashing the original again via odin? At least in terms of the OS status? I know the recovery isn't changed by such a backup and odin wipes absolutely everything, but I think you know what I am asking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ODIN doesn't wipe everything. Perform a factory reset via stock recovery immediately after flashing the firmware via ODIN to set your phone back to stock. And who told you that enryption doesn't work with rooted phones?!

LS.xD said:
ODIN doesn't wipe everything. Perform a factory reset via stock recovery immediately after flashing the firmware via ODIN to set your phone back to stock. And who told you that enryption doesn't work with rooted phones?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a factory reset and deleted data and performed a new backup that I have saved to the computer.
But when I started to realise I could not encrypt I went googling and found a blog post by someone who claimed that he had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get it to encrypt after he rooted his S4 mini. But my problem is even non-rooted on default firmware with TWRP recovery installed I cannot encrypt So I am hoping someone here will have the answer.

Morthawt said:
I did a factory reset and deleted data and performed a new backup that I have saved to the computer.
But when I started to realise I could not encrypt I went googling and found a blog post by someone who claimed that he had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get it to encrypt after he rooted his S4 mini. But my problem is even non-rooted on default firmware with TWRP recovery installed I cannot encrypt So I am hoping someone here will have the answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point is that that KNOX detects the TWRP recovery. Enryption is possible with any rooted custom rom and probably with any roms but Samsung's S4 generation and newer due to the stupid KNOX security.

LS.xD said:
The point is that that KNOX detects the TWRP recovery. Enryption is possible with any rooted custom rom and probably with any roms but Samsung's S4 generation and newer due to the stupid KNOX security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I did get encryption working one time on a custom rom but I have no idea how I did it. What should I do to improve my chances of getting encryption working? I thought when I rooted the original rom it removed knoxx?

Best way to unroot and factory reset my Samsung Galaxy Note 4?

My problem is very simple at its core and I find myself resorting to extreme solutions such as factory reset to solve it. However, I am okay with this. I would like to know the best way to unroot and factory reset my Note 4 SM-N910U.
What follows is the original story and my attempts to fix it. It's rather long, so if you would like to skip this section there is a tl;dr at the end.
Originally, I had found myself unable to login to the app Snapchat because they had gone to extreme lengths to lock out rooted users (an infamous fact on online discussions).
A popular solution for this would've been to install the Xposed Framework with RootCloak to hide Root from Snapchat - this is where my first problem came along.
My Android phone is encrypted.
This means that I could not use TWRP to flash the Xposed Framework zip (because TWRP for my device does not support encryption, thus could not read /data directory.)
I tried using FlashFire to skip recovery and got the same result - /data encrypted.
I tried to flash with CWM to see if it would support decryption of /data partition, but CWM isn't even compatible with my device.
At this point I was running out of things to try (I had been after this problem for about three days) and I decided to just kick the bucket, unroot and factory reset, because apparently the only way to undo data encryption on Android is to delete everything .
Apparently, even this would be a challenge. To factory reset a rooted device, you apparently need a stock ROM.
I tried looking for stock ROMs for SM-N910U online but the sites that came up (there were about 9 hits on Google for my baseband) all seemed fake and potentially harmful.
Even then, I don't know how I would flash the ROM since my TWRP doesn't work but that's the least of my worries at the moment .
I'd be extremely grateful if anyone could offer any potential pointers on where to download a safe stock ROM for my device and how to flash this ROM when I have no working TWRP (since my /data partition is, again, encrypted).
It seems a bit like a paradox - to remove data encryption you need a TWRP stock flash, but for a TWRP stock flash you need to remove data encryption.
Please do help... thank you in advance.
TL;DR
- tried to install xposed to hide root.
- found out that i can't flash any roms from recovery, because my recovery (twrp) doesn't support android disk encryption.
- found out that to remove encryption, i need to factory reset.
- i can't factory reset, because I need a stock ROM and I don't know where to find said stock ROM.
- also, how would i even flash this rom without a working recovery (again, the recovery doesn't work because full disk encryption).
Device Details:
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note 4​Model: SM-N910U​Android version: 6.0.1 Marshmallow​Baseband version: N910UXXU1DPL1​

qnxo said:
My problem is very simple at its core and I find myself resorting to extreme solutions such as factory reset to solve it. However, I am okay with this. I would like to know the best way to unroot and factory reset my Note 4 SM-N910U.
What follows is the original story and my attempts to fix it. It's rather long, so if you would like to skip this section there is a tl;dr at the end.
Originally, I had found myself unable to login to the app Snapchat because they had gone to extreme lengths to lock out rooted users (an infamous fact on online discussions).
A popular solution for this would've been to install the Xposed Framework with RootCloak to hide Root from Snapchat - this is where my first problem came along.
My Android phone is encrypted.
This means that I could not use TWRP to flash the Xposed Framework zip (because TWRP for my device does not support encryption, thus could not read /data directory.)
I tried using FlashFire to skip recovery and got the same result - /data encrypted.
I tried to flash with CWM to see if it would support decryption of /data partition, but CWM isn't even compatible with my device.
At this point I was running out of things to try (I had been after this problem for about three days) and I decided to just kick the bucket, unroot and factory reset, because apparently the only way to undo data encryption on Android is to delete everything .
Apparently, even this would be a challenge. To factory reset a rooted device, you apparently need a stock ROM.
I tried looking for stock ROMs for SM-N910U online but the sites that came up (there were about 9 hits on Google for my baseband) all seemed fake and potentially harmful.
Even then, I don't know how I would flash the ROM since my TWRP doesn't work but that's the least of my worries at the moment .
I'd be extremely grateful if anyone could offer any potential pointers on where to download a safe stock ROM for my device and how to flash this ROM when I have no working TWRP (since my /data partition is, again, encrypted).
It seems a bit like a paradox - to remove data encryption you need a TWRP stock flash, but for a TWRP stock flash you need to remove data encryption.
Please do help... thank you in advance.
TL;DR
- tried to install xposed to hide root.
- found out that i can't flash any roms from recovery, because my recovery (twrp) doesn't support android disk encryption.
- found out that to remove encryption, i need to factory reset.
- i can't factory reset, because I need a stock ROM and I don't know where to find said stock ROM.
- also, how would i even flash this rom without a working recovery (again, the recovery doesn't work because full disk encryption).
Device Details:
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note 4​Model: SM-N910U​Android version: 6.0.1 Marshmallow​Baseband version: N910UXXU1DPL1​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to Sammobile .com or samsung-updates .com this use your model number to search for your stock firmware, find the firmware for your region then flash that via Odin.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Would I first need to "wipe" anything in TWRP?

qnxo said:
Would I first need to "wipe" anything in TWRP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wouldn't hurt
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

OnePlus One - Won't boot RR , boot loop happens

Hi!
A while back I had some issues with the phone, it was when I was supposed to boot it, it always took 2 tries. It always got stuck, then had to long press the lock key to hard reboot it, then it worked fine. This prevented me from doing a factory reset (in hope to fix (what I later found out was) a media rescan etc). Tried to root it, something happened and it wouldn't boot anymore. Yiti yata and the phone wouldn't boot. Finally I got it back to life with some guide on here and I used whatever 4.4.4 I downloaded.
The software wouldn't find any "normal" update phone updates, so I figured I would try Resurrection Remix 7.1.x (.2 I think it was). At first I got just that it failed with some 2.x twrp version. Updated to TWRP 3.1.x.x (3.1.1.0 if I guess). Now I got to know that it was a TZ error (ERROR 7) from TWRP. This happened to my "RR-N-v5.8.3-20170718-bacon-Official.zip" file. I managed to get around it by doing this: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2522762. So I could get this installed, sort of I think. The problem now was that it would show the very first oneplus boot screen for around 20 ish seconds, before it would reboot in a boot loop.
So I tried to install some other CM Lineage Os nightly thing (they said install that and then RR), but that didn't work either. This post was the one I donwloaded from (install this first, then RR should work).
I tried doing this both on TWRP 2.8.6.0 and 3.1.1.0 since I saw some post about the modem not being right from versions newer than 2.8.6.0.
Looking around a bit more I saw in some post someone talking about firmware..? Does this matter anything, also how is this different from the recovery or ROM? (new to this stuff)
In short, last working version of Android I had on there was 4.4.4 (think I followed this post). Using a Mac currently and have no problem with flashing, entering fastboot or recovery.
My procedure when I tried to install RR was:
Install the TWRP 3.1.1.0 or 2.8.6.0 (since I did it several times).
Wipe everything (Have nothing of value on the phone) cache, system, internal storage, dalvik and data. Also did a factory reset (from TWRP) before if that matters.
Copied RR and Gapps 7.1 ARM (not arm64) over.
Installed RR, wiped cache/dalvik. (or linear/cm (post above^^) when I tried that)
Installed Gapps, wiped cache/dalvik.
Boot loop.
Also tried with/without emptying cache/dalvik also chose to install both zips at once.
So can anyone clue in how I can proceed to get RR 7.1 onto my OPO? Any help is very much appreciated
I'm sorry if this wasn't the best post. Have an immense headache at the moment

wahlmat said:
Hi!
A while back I had some issues with the phone, it was when I was supposed to boot it, it always took 2 tries. It always got stuck, then had to long press the lock key to hard reboot it, then it worked fine. This prevented me from doing a factory reset (in hope to fix (what I later found out was) a media rescan etc). Tried to root it, something happened and it wouldn't boot anymore. Yiti yata and the phone wouldn't boot. Finally I got it back to life with some guide on here and I used whatever 4.4.4 I downloaded.
The software wouldn't find any "normal" update phone updates, so I figured I would try Resurrection Remix 7.1.x (.2 I think it was). At first I got just that it failed with some 2.x twrp version. Updated to TWRP 3.1.x.x (3.1.1.0 if I guess). Now I got to know that it was a TZ error (ERROR 7) from TWRP. This happened to my "RR-N-v5.8.3-20170718-bacon-Official.zip" file. I managed to get around it by doing this: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2522762. So I could get this installed, sort of I think. The problem now was that it would show the very first oneplus boot screen for around 20 ish seconds, before it would reboot in a boot loop.
So I tried to install some other CM Lineage Os nightly thing (they said install that and then RR), but that didn't work either. This post was the one I donwloaded from (install this first, then RR should work).
I tried doing this both on TWRP 2.8.6.0 and 3.1.1.0 since I saw some post about the modem not being right from versions newer than 2.8.6.0.
Looking around a bit more I saw in some post someone talking about firmware..? Does this matter anything, also how is this different from the recovery or ROM? (new to this stuff)
In short, last working version of Android I had on there was 4.4.4 (think I followed this post). Using a Mac currently and have no problem with flashing, entering fastboot or recovery.
My procedure when I tried to install RR was:
Install the TWRP 3.1.1.0 or 2.8.6.0 (since I did it several times).
Wipe everything (Have nothing of value on the phone) cache, system, internal storage, dalvik and data. Also did a factory reset (from TWRP) before if that matters.
Copied RR and Gapps 7.1 ARM (not arm64) over.
Installed RR, wiped cache/dalvik. (or linear/cm (post above^^) when I tried that)
Installed Gapps, wiped cache/dalvik.
Boot loop.
Also tried with/without emptying cache/dalvik also chose to install both zips at once.
So can anyone clue in how I can proceed to get RR 7.1 onto my OPO? Any help is very much appreciated
I'm sorry if this wasn't the best post. Have an immense headache at the moment
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Calm down.
You're right about that firmware thing,that is the one causing issue when you're trying to flash RR 5.8.3 over KitKat.
This is because the firmware that kitkat comes with,is old and don't support newer android versions,that's because it is made for KitKat only.
Always use latest Twrp(https://dl.twrp.me/bacon/).
Make sure you don't edit any zip like what you did with the Rom zip earlier(devs don't post non-working zips),I'm sure you've a backup of your non-edited zip,if not,re-download the zip.
Now boot into latest twrp,wipe everything except internal storage.
Firmware: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxysuRdzsJeWeW9JbTNwaUJKb1E/view?usp=drivesdk
Flash the above zip,then without wiping anything flash rom zip(unedited) then flash google apps package(opengapps.org)(optional).
Reboot.It should boot fine now.
Good luck!

Mr.Ak said:
Calm down.
You're right about that firmware thing,that is the one causing issue when you're trying to flash RR 5.8.3 over KitKat.
This is because the firmware that kitkat comes with,is old and don't support newer android versions,that's because it is made for KitKat only.
Always use latest Twrp(Can't post links withing 10 posts apparently...).
Make sure you don't edit any zip like what you did with the Rom zip earlier(devs don't post non-working zips),I'm sure you've a backup of your non-edited zip,if not,re-download the zip.
Now boot into latest twrp,wipe everything except internal storage.
Firmware:
Flash the above zip,then without wiping anything flash rom zip(unedited) then flash google apps package(Can't post links withing 10 posts apparently...)(optional).
Reboot.It should boot fine now.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much! Got it working on 1st try with what you provided! Seems like the firmware thing was the bad guy in this scenario. A little interest, what specifically is the firmware in this case? Either way, rocking RR now and I'm really grateful

wahlmat said:
Thank you so much! Got it working on 1st try with what you provided! Seems like the firmware thing was the bad guy in this scenario. A little interest, what specifically is the firmware in this case? Either way, rocking RR now and I'm really grateful
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad you got it up and running.
Here are some FAQs:
What is a Firmware? What is Modem?
- Firmware is the whole package of proprietary partitions of your device, modem itself is a NON-HLOS file responsible for your device's communications over Wi-Fi, Mobile Networks and other such stuff.
So what is the difference between firmware and ROM then?
- Firmware is the responsible partition for IMEIs, the modemst partitions hold your IMEI, persist holds your Mac addresses etc.
ROM is only a combination​ of system.img and boot.img (kernel)
What to restore if I loose my IMEI?
- Both the modemst partitions (IMP: considering you took a backup of them before)
What is the default firmware? (default= firmware which comes with the latest CM/ LineageOS 14.1 weeklies)
- c6-00241

Thanks a lot, once again

Help!
I'm not sure of all the specifics on my oneplus one but I accidentally updated the wrong update from my nightly bacon.. it now is stuck in Boot Loop I can get to the fastboot screen (it gets stuck there too) and I can get to the recovery, etc (but it is not the usual screen with all the folders (it was rooted).. it is now just four options in Cyanogenmod recovery.. none work. I do not want to lose my data :crying: .. Sadly my techy is not available to save me! Please help this untechy Cali Girl! I've googled and researched and its still like a foreign language.. Thank you!!

HisMuse said:
I'm not sure of all the specifics on my oneplus one but I accidentally updated the wrong update from my nightly bacon.. it now is stuck in Boot Loop I can get to the fastboot screen (it gets stuck there too) and I can get to the recovery, etc (but it is not the usual screen with all the folders (it was rooted).. it is now just four options in Cyanogenmod recovery.. none work. I do not want to lose my data :crying: .. Sadly my techy is not available to save me! Please help this untechy Cali Girl! I've googled and researched and its still like a foreign language.. Thank you!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not 100% sure, but I would say, boot into fastboot, flash something like TWRP recovery, then you will be able to access the device files from the recovery. Just reflashing the boot shouldn't mess up anything as far as I am concerned. After that (when you've grabbed all the files you want), flash the newest firmware the guy linked above and install your latest 7.0 ROM

wahlmat said:
I am not 100% sure, but I would say, boot into fastboot, flash something like TWRP recovery, then you will be able to access the device files from the recovery. Just reflashing the boot shouldn't mess up anything as far as I am concerned. After that (when you've grabbed all the files you want), flash the newest firmware the guy linked above and install your latest 7.0 ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can get phone to fastboot but it just stays on the screen that says fastboot.. do I need a computer?

HisMuse said:
I can get phone to fastboot but it just stays on the screen that says fastboot.. do I need a computer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you do. You need that + some software. Check out some "install custom recovery oneplus one" guides, you should be able to find something. Are you on Mac or Windows?

Yes I'm on Windows 10.. I tried removing battery overnight as well .. its not boiling hot anymore but still stuck in bootloop.

HisMuse said:
Yes I'm on Windows 10.. I tried removing battery overnight as well .. its not boiling hot anymore but still stuck in bootloop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download the Samsung ADB driver or whatever it was called, then flash a new recovery for it. There are multiple guides for doing that. After that you should be able to transfer your files to your pc while being in recovery mode

TWRP says no OS is installed, but I just flashed it. Can anybody help?

Hi,
Its been a while since I been attentive to my Pixel. I was a lucky one who managed to get a Verizon 7.1.2 with an unlocked bootloader. I unlocked the bootloader, flashed a ROM, and rooted and haven't had a single major problem since.
I was running Resurrection Remix from about March and I yesterday I wanted to try to use Android Pay, so I followed a tutorial I found in another thread here to install Magisk, and when it was all said and done I ended up in a boot loop where the phone would reset as soon as it reaches the Google logo, ramdump, and eventually boot back into TWRP.
In the attempts to delete out all kinds of caches and dalviks and factory resets and whatever else, nothing worked.
So in the end I decided to just flash a new ROM. Flashed the latest Pure Nexus, reflashed TWRP, flashed the vendor image... went to go reboot and it gives me the WARNING! NO OS INSTALLED! error. I thought that was odd and decided to just update to the latest Resurrection Remix - same problem.
At this point I am unsure what to do next. I don't care about any user data on the phone, I just want to get it back up and running with a new ROM.
I have a few questions and thank you in advance for all help you may be able to offer:
1) Why am I getting the NO OS INSTALLED issue directly after flashing a ROM? Logs indicate no errors whatsoever. /system/ is mounted. Every time I boot into TWRP it asks me if I want to Keep System partition read only. I always tell it to allow modifications and never ask me this question again - it asks every time. Is it possible that /system/ can actually remain empty even after a fresh ROM install that gives no errors in the log?
2) I believe that I am supposed to reflash to stock image that this phone shipped with to start all over. If I reflash back to stock, will my bootloader have any chance of locking again? I don't even know what version the stock image was, and I'm further confused/concerned about the fact that it was a 7.1.2 image I shipped with - from my understanding there were security updates which make unlocking/rooting impossible. I don't understand why you have to start that far back - is it even needed? The latest Resurrection Remix ROM install instructions assumes that I am on latest "Firmware" NOF26W. This is another issue I don't understand - what is a firmware? The full factory image? In any case, NOF26W is specifically for Rogers Google Pixel devices. Since I need to be on this "firmware" before I install latest, can I just flash the NOF26W Stock image despite the fact that I am using a rooted Verizon Pixel? The NOF26W image is 1.8GB: What exactly in this ZIP am I supposed to flash?
3) There were various weird things about this phone/flashing ROMs that I seem to recall such as having to boot an older TWRP before flashing ROM and then flashing the newer TWRP - is any of this stuff still relevant?
4) I also remember that many people were fastbooting TWRP rather than flashing TWRP for some reason - are there specific builds/non-standard stuff required for any of this to work on the Pixel?
I really appreciate all and any help that anybody can provide. If there's files that you're referring to, PLEASE send links. I need to get this phone back up and running ASAP.
Thanks again!!

when you wipe system, twrp wipes current active slot but when install a rom, it gets installed in the inactive slot (which will become active upon reboot). but twrp still thinks the currently active slots system is erased and complains that no os is installed.

rohitece06 said:
when you wipe system, twrp wipes current active slot but when install a rom, it gets installed in the inactive slot (which will become active upon reboot). but twrp still thinks the currently active slots system is erased and complains that no os is installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. I just reboot anyway after seeing that message and I've never had any issues.

can't get anything to boot

All I have access to is twrp 3.4 and the all in one tool. Through flashing I screwed up along the way. Can't say where @ this point but just need to make my phone stock again to start over. I've flashed factory OOS 10.3.3, 10.3.4. each time wiping data and dalvik. Re installed twrp 3.4 and magisk 20.4. I've tried flashing aosp roms as well. Had resurection remix installed and wanted to try and go back to OOS and flash renovate ice magisk mod and never got it to boot into 10.3.3 OOS. All that happens is it goes to bootloader unlocked screen and then black with vibration and reboots into twrp. I even have a rr back up and a stock backup that won't take either. This is all being done using an otg. Not familiar with adb on the laptop. I'm familiar with root, unlocking bootloader, and flashing things but from the nexus era. Things are a bit different now and I've been extensively reading and it seems each rom has its own method of flashing. wish I wouldn't have stopped with modding from years ago. Any help is greatly appreciated as I don't currently have a working phone

Format data. Phone will boot then.

Worked perfect, thanks!! Does that have to be formatted after any ROM install including backups? I've looked through the guides and other threads and there isn't a how to step by step explanation of how to flash new Roms or restore backups