Possible to clone a phone using TWRP backup? - OnePlus 7 Pro Questions & Answers

Sorry for the noob question, but not understanding whether a TWRP backup is attached to a particular device with a particular ID, or if it can be used to restore two identical devices.
So let's say you buy two of the exact same model phones, unlock bootloader and root both the same way.
After setting up phone #1, you do a TWRP backup.
Can that backup be used to set up phone #2?

I've done it many times with the HTC One M8, HTC 10, and Motorola Z2 Force. The first two devices weren't A/B partitioned like the Z2 Force though. Bricked and went through 3 Z2 Force's during the process, but I have restored multiple TWRP backups on different (but same) devices.

I am entirely sure if it works, but I suspect so
TWRP however does not offer to save all partitions for me, you might have to manually flash the stock rom images first to make sure things like bootloader modem etc. match in both slots on both phones

It may only cause problems if the backup you trynna restore is older than the already installed OS on the second device.

Thanks guys.
From what I'm understanding, if the same OS is installed the same way, there's a decent chance of success.
Good to know in case there's a chance to buy the same phone at a giveaway price.

Related

New OnePlus One Came Rooted With Adware

Brand New OnePlus One rooted and with adware etc
I am a very newbie to not all but many of the particular issues in this post so would be grateful of any newbie taylored advice.
Background:
==============
I purchased a Oneplus one recently, stocked and fulfilled by amazon with amazon returns policy but seller was a chineese company.
It was advertised as 100% Original Oneplus One New Cell Phone
The phone arraived and appeared to already be rooted
evidence:
Barclays App says it is rooted and won't run. It ran fine on my Nexus 4
I can connect via adb and set to su straight away
The phone appeared to have arrived with significant malware / adware with popups and auto launch ad in browser pages and bloteware / PUPS(?), and other issues. After a great deal of research checking notifications and trial and error I disabled the following, some via settings\apps some via adb, pm ... disable ...
2048 (com.digiplex.game)
App Manager (com.shyz.steward)
Browser (com.android.browser)
Caller ID (com.android.tools.callassistant)
Clean Master (com.cleanmaster.mguard)
Cool Browser (com.cool.coolbrowser)
DU Speed Booster (com.dianxinos.optimizer.duplay)
Magic Photo (cn.dotui.magicphoto)
Videos (com.haolianluo.video)
and disabled gestures due to torch issues
The phone now seems quite stable.
I installed MalwareBytes, however None of the items it identifies is it able to disable/uninstall I set it not to scan automatically but it continues to tell me I have not responded to its list of issues, but I have responded by selected them, but on selection it tries to uninstall them but fails.
I was able to disable one of them via adb because it provided the package name for that one but:
CallerID.apk (disabled in settings\apps)
coolbrowser.apk (disabled in settings\apps)
201507140923731g.apk
AppStore.apk
I do not know how to uninstall (or disable at least on 2 of them) and I do not know how to refer to them from package manager because I don't have the package name.
Key Questions:
================
I am familiar with much of software engineering and programming but not with mobile phone OS / disk / memory / file system, etc. I am having a lot of difficulty getting to grips with the vocabulary, definitions and terminology depending what you read.
- Some say OnePlus from factory comes with cyanogenmod but is not rooted
- So one wonders how my phone go to be rooted if the seller is a retailer
- Some say if the phone is rooted the warentee is invalidated. What do you think?
- WhatsApp says the phone has a custom rom and watsapp may not work properly with a custom rom
It is very difficult to get to the bottom of exactly what the difference is between a stock rom
and a custom rom. Some seem to be saying cyanogenmod is a custom rom, but then others say what
comes on the phone from the mobile manufacturer is a stock rom, eg HT Sense or in the case of
OnePlus, cyanogenmod! Is it only a custom rom if it is somehow NOT proven to be a
custom rom validated by the mobile manufacturer in factory (i.e. stock rom)?
- Some say having a custom rom invalidates warrantee, is this right?
- How do i prove that the rooting and the custom rom were not introduced by me?
- I have thought about factory reset, but I cannot manage to find anything that tells
me what this actually means and does, only how to do it.
- does a factory reset actually do what it suggests. I have read that factory reset does
not involve going to the manufacturers site and obtaining an appropriate image and flashing
it to the phone so I do not quite understand how else it could guarantee it
- If a factory reset will just make it like it was when I received it then that I do not want.
- Can I and ought I to flash a fresh image on the phone to get it like it WOULD HAVE been
had I bought it from OnePlus factory on invite and not through a mediator
- Finally. There is a notification "System Update is ready" . When I select this it appears
to download something (next version of cyanogenmod I guess though I don't recognise the version
number against any cyanogenmod versions) then it restarts and goes to a recovery app.
At this stage it is not completely intuitive what one should do and it seems to want you
to navigate to a location.
Now, I think I could probably figure this out with some reading but two things come to mind:
1) Presumably for a from factory OnePlus phone this kind of ambiguous unintuitive update
process would not be going on for people who just bought their phone and knew nothing
so it suggests the phone is in a different state to that. I also read you need root
already to install a (good) recovery app.
2) I am loath to do this update since it is not clear whether the update is this retailers
system update and will reintroduce all that I have disabled to create stability. Therefore
up to now I have always selected just do nothing and reboot. I favor stability over
features.
I am kind of inclined now I have managed to get it stable to just stick with it as it is and just use it without any further updates / resets / flashes and without returning it, but...
Sorry to ask all these questions. I would be grateful of any advice. Can be given with the assumption that I understand foundational general stuff ram, rom (though this word seems to be used differently to what I'm used to), flash, image, partition etc, but not that I actually know all about how the android/cyanogenmod platform is laid out and behaves as an installation.
Thank you.
Hi, All Oneplus One phones comes with CyanogenMod without rooted. One must Unlock bootloader and Flash custom recovery and Flash SuperSu to get root access.
Yours already says rooted means either you bought the used phone or refurbished. However even when a phone is refurbished OnePlus company locks it and make it unrooted.
OnePlus Phones warranty doesn't get over bu rooting. OnePlus actually supports rooting. Warranty becomes void when you do something blunder while flashing and your devices becomes dead aka bricked.
What I am suspecting is the chinese seller bought new OnePlus and Installed different ROM as the chinese OPO comes with ColorOS which doesn't have PlayStore. Now in the procedure they introduced unwanted Adwares which may be Intentional or Unintentional.
Now you have 2 options.
Either ask Amazon for a refund.
Or if the time is passed then I suggest you to start fresh. If you have already custom recovery installed then go ahead and install fresh stock CyanogenMod ROM from xda.
sent from Bacon (OnePlus One)
Hi Abhinav_Rakesh,
Thank you so much for your response, I really appreciate your advice. I think I understood most of what you said, generally but I am still a bit unclear on some points:
Is there any way to tell if the phone is refurbished. I would rather it were new even if they have installed a different rom.
What do you mean by "time is passed" I have only had the phone a few days. I am in a quandary whether to return it or not, whether amazon will believe it was not me who rooted it and whether I will be able to get another one that is not just the same as this one anyway since you cannot get them direct from OnePlus any more.
I saw some kind of recovery screen over one reboot but did not do the install. How do I know if this is the "custom recovery" you describe, if it is not how do I obtain / get to "custom recover"?
Can you direct me to a script that shows me how to "install fresh stock CyanogenMod ROM from xda"? Will that completely blank out everything that the chineese company may have done on the phone, or might some stuff still be left behind? Is there a risk to that process, given that I at least have a fairly stable phone now? Will it include or do I have to get separately "PlayStore" so I can download my usual apps?
Thank you again, I really appreciate it?
i suggest you to start from fresh, since obviously your OPO is not in stock state and has been tampered with..
the (general) steps to make the OPO like new are as follows..
(1) connect it to a pc via usb cable
(2) in command prompt, issue "adb reboot bootloader" (and wait for it to boot into bootloader/fastboot mode)
(3) issue "fastboot oem unlock" (to unlock the bootloader.. all data will be wiped but the warranty is not voided)
(4) issue "fastboot flash recovery custom_recovery.img" (replace "custom_recovery.img" with the actual recovery file name)
(5) power off mobile and disconnect from pc
(6) press power button together with volume down button (to boot into custom recovery we just flashed)
(7) while in recovery, install rom image (which should be put in the internal storage beforehand)
(8) reboot to enjoy the reborn mobile
to be able the complete the above steps, you need to get some files in advance:
- adb.exe/fastboot.exe (which you should already have since you could do adb)
- custom recovery (TWRP suggested.. get the image for OPO, whose codename is bacon, at http://twrp.me/ ), and put it in your pc..
- stock or custom rom (the stock for OPO is cyanogenmod, and there is also a OnePlus provided OxygenOS rom.. go to respective sites to get a copy), and put it into the mobile's internal storage..
mind you that by doing so (the fastboot oem unlock step) all your mobile's data will be wiped..
@hardya Hi .. You can follow this link to restore your phone according to OnePlus Standards. This will remove all that chinese ads and all and will make it fresh.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2970390
sent from Bacon (OnePlus One)
I feel like i need to reanswer a some of your question even though some already have answered them. You seem very interested and it seems fair to clear up some things.
hardya said:
- Some say OnePlus from factory comes with cyanogenmod but is not rooted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a little misconception about what cyanogenmod is.
The offical Oneplus One comes preinstalled with CyanogenOS (or CM12S), which is derived from Cyanogenmod. It get's a bit complicated. Cyanogen is a company founded by the lead programmer of Cyanogenmod. CyanogenOS is a commercial product, that is licensed to phone manufactures.
Cyanogenmod is the codebase for CyanogenOS. CyanogenOS adds some functionalities that are not present in the community maintained Cyanogenmod. (e.g. a alternate dialing app, theme store, etc.)
The offical Oneplus One comes NON-rooted. You need to manually enable root.
Please keep in mind that it gets REALLY complicated from this point!
The Oneplus One debuted with CM11S (CyanogenOS, the commercial version of Cyanogenmod). Cyanogen (the company) promised users 2 years of support and updates for the owners on the Oneplus One. But Oneplus and Cyanogen had some major issues that resulted in ending the partnership.
Oneplus had to offer an alternative Android Firmware for their upcoming phone Oneplus Two. So they did another android version called OxygenOS. This was installed onto all Oneplus One phones from a certain date onward!
THIS is the OFFICAL Android Software Version for your Oneplus One!!!
See: https://oneplus.net/de/support/answer/how-can-i-download-oxygen-os
I would strongly recommend to install OxygenOS, as it is the easiest way of experience the phone as Oneplus intended it to be.
Most tutorials on here are a little bit older so they are offering guides which mention either CM11S, CM12S, Cyanogenmod or OxygenOS. (or if you are more familiar with other customroms, whatever you'd like to install! But this is something you should look into, when you are more familiar with what costumroms are and what they do! There are so many excellent guides on here, which i'd recommend you to read sometime!)
- So one wonders how my phone go to be rooted if the seller is a retailer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He rooted it either manually or used an android version (e.g. something downloaded off XDA or got one from some developer). Such versions are often called Customroms.
Also note, that there are no official retailers of Oneplus phones. They are officially offered from the website only. However, there are some shops in China, that offer Oneplus phones.
- Some say if the phone is rooted the warentee is invalidated. What do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most phone manufactures actually tell you that your warranty is void when rooting your phone.
Oneplus however is very, very supportive when it comes to rooting!
And of course installing other Android Versions and Roms!
See: https://oneplus.net/de/support/answer/will-rooting-or-unlocking-the-bootloader-void-my-warranty
- WhatsApp says the phone has a custom rom and watsapp may not work properly with a custom rom
It is very difficult to get to the bottom of exactly what the difference is between a stock rom
and a custom rom. Some seem to be saying cyanogenmod is a custom rom, but then others say what
comes on the phone from the mobile manufacturer is a stock rom, eg HT Sense or in the case of
OnePlus, cyanogenmod! Is it only a custom rom if it is somehow NOT proven to be a
custom rom validated by the mobile manufacturer in factory (i.e. stock rom)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cyanogenmod is indeed a custom rom. (or sometimes aftermarket firmware)
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyanogenMod
A stock rom is the firmware that is installed by the manufacturer. (in your case: CyanogenOS, called CM12S. the 12 stands for the version number of Cyanogenmod. 12 = Android 5, 13 will be Android 6. There was a CM11S version, when the phone debuted last year.). The S marks it as CyanogenOS, the commercial product. So CM12 would be the community maintained Cyanogenmod. CM12S the product by the company Cyanogen. As said before, it's a bit complicated, as the current OFFICIAL rom is OxygenOS
Your findings of software not present in the official stock Oneplus One rom (which is either CM12S or OxygenOS), suggests your software on the phone is actually a unofficial costum rom.
- Some say having a custom rom invalidates warrantee, is this right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See the answer to the rooting question. Almost all major phone manufactures void your warranty if you flash a custom rom. As it involves tampering with system files and most people are not very knowledgeable when it comes to "computery things". It's just a security measure, so that people won't sue the company when something bad happens (most likely deleting precious pictures, etc.)
Oneplus actually encourages people to try other roms. This made the Oneplus One a very popular phone for tinkerers and as you can see on this forum there are a lot of custom roms you can choose from.
- How do i prove that the rooting and the custom rom were not introduced by me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the seller was not so careful, there will be a notice, which can be read by software programs available here on XDA, that say how many times a custom rom was installed.
However, i think your main concern is, that you wouldn't be able to get support form Oneplus, because you think your warranty is not valid anymore. As said above, your concerns are not that problematic. Especially as you seem to be knowledgeable enough to actually fix things on your own!
- I have thought about factory reset, but I cannot manage to find anything that tells
me what this actually means and does, only how to do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A factory reset will delete all your apps and reset the system to the state"it came out of the factory". So when you start up your phone, you need to set it up again. Enter your name, configure your WiFi settings, install your favorite apps.
However. Your photos and your music files will not be deleted! Be careful though. Resetting your system will delete your app settings. I just want to point that out, because the first time a did a factory reset and reinstalled everything i thought i lost all my Whatsapp photos. They were there in the Picture folder, but weren't linked to the images in my chat window! This is a bit complicated, but can be solved quite easily, if you know what your doing (backing up your apps with certain programs, e.g. Titanium Backup).
- does a factory reset actually do what it suggests. I have read that factory reset does
not involve going to the manufacturers site and obtaining an appropriate image and flashing
it to the phone so I do not quite understand how else it could guarantee it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory reset is a internal function of your phone (to be precise of your phones recovery!)
However, as most people said and your suspected is: Your phone does not run the official factory image, provided by Oneplus (or Cynaogen).
The official software can be obtained from
https://oneplus.net/de/support/answer/how-can-i-download-oxygen-os
- If a factory reset will just make it like it was when I received it then that I do not want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it will most likely to what you fear. It depends on what the retailer did. Most costum roms include software in their phones, that will be installed again with a factory reset. If your seller did install the programs AFTER the phones original state (e.g installing it from an appstore or from the APK's (Androids Software Packages)) they won't be present!
- Can I and ought I to flash a fresh image on the phone to get it like it WOULD HAVE been
had I bought it from OnePlus factory on invite and not through a mediator
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely! I'd recommend you to flash a new image to your phone!
There are a lot of great programs here on XDA that offer easy and intuitive options of doing that, without even knowing anything about flashing programs! Try to take a look around and see what you can make of it.
I personally think they are great, but can be dangerous if you didn't read the proper instructions. I'm just saying, as they often delete EVERYTHING on your phone. So whatever you do to your phone, backup everything before!!!
But these simple programs are what you are looking for. They will install the firmware (Cyanogenmod or OxygenOS) that are bloatfree and as the Oneplus intended them to be.
- Finally. There is a notification "System Update is ready" . When I select this it appears
to download something (next version of cyanogenmod I guess though I don't recognise the version
number against any cyanogenmod versions) then it restarts and goes to a recovery app.
At this stage it is not completely intuitive what one should do and it seems to want you
to navigate to a location.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This further suggests, that your are not running an official version. The official update process is fully automated and doesn't need any user intervention! From your description it doesn't do anything and you are stuck in recovery, that is waiting for user input. This is not the case with proper official roms!
Now, I think I could probably figure this out with some reading but two things come to mind:
1) Presumably for a from factory OnePlus phone this kind of ambiguous unintuitive update
process would not be going on for people who just bought their phone and knew nothing
so it suggests the phone is in a different state to that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely correct! See above.
I also read you need root
already to install a (good) recovery app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do not need root to install a recovery. This is a bit complicated, as there are some misconceptions about what is what. You need to "unlock" your phone to install another recovery. This is not rooting, but is also restricted by many manufacturers. But as with rooting, Oneplus is offering support on unlocking your phone and there are lots of guides on how to do it.
2) I am loath to do this update since it is not clear whether the update is this retailers
system update and will reintroduce all that I have disabled to create stability. Therefore
up to now I have always selected just do nothing and reboot. I favor stability over
features.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wise decision.
I am kind of inclined now I have managed to get it stable to just stick with it as it is and just use it without any further updates / resets / flashes and without returning it, but...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would strongly recommend to NOT leave it this way! As you yourself found out, there are chances that there are programs on the phone, that are not to be supposed to be there. I'm not saying that there is spyware on your phone, but it is most likely that there could be malicious code running in the background of your phone. I would strongly recommend NOT to use apps, that need sensitive information of yourself!
Try to look for guides and tutorials here on XDA and just install CM12S, Cyanogenmod or even better OxygenOS, the official ROM from Oneplus! OxygenOS is not everyone's favorite choice, but that way you can be sure, that NOTHING fishy is going on on your phone!
There is an easy app available from the offical oneplus site!
https://oneplus.net/de/support/answer/how-can-i-download-oxygen-os
Or use the app that is mentioned in the post above! Will to the same thing!
Use the instructions on there and you are much safer on using your phone than you are in the present state!
BUT PLEASE, PLEASE DO A BACKUP OF YOUR DATA! I mean, your photos, contacts and everything important before doing anything to your phone. I'm just stressing that out, as so many people complain afterwards that they lost everything, etc.! Not just because the process they did was unsafe, but becaus the didn't properly read the instructions that tell people that they should make a backup, BEFORE tampering the system. It says factory RESET, so it should be clear, that everything will be reset!
I'd suggest you return it and get one through official channels. Official OnePlus devices can only be purchased through the OnePlus store.
I'd suggest you to read this story:
https://medium.com/@tuesdev/as-many...ve-a-oneplus-2-invite-ba20ac8606ae#.qgq3fhmn7
Ctuiku,
Sorry I wasn't able to respond sooner. I really do appreciate your very clear and detailed response and it's care to address each point very clearly and to make clear distinctions between similar things gives me significant confidence in its accuracy.
I must say I appreciate the significant amount of time you have taken and I do hope that at least some of your responses were cut and pasted from text you had already written else where.
I think I may have a number of minor follow up questions, but for now I shall digest your advice and decide on my plan of action.
Thank you again for being so helpful and understanding.
Andrew
I actually didn't read much of it and the comments, but I'd suggest you to unlock the bootloader, flash TWRP, take a backup, wipe everything(not the internal storage of course) , and perform a clean flash of CM13.0 by sultanxda. It's the smoothest and the most stable ROM out there.
Well, that was all in brief. You gotta read(and understand) and perform. It's fun, just like programming. Keep flashing!
~noob (you gotta start from somewhere)
Ctuiku
Thank you again for all your help. Sorry for the delay in responding been busy with other things and also since had some time to digest...
THIS is the OFFICAL Android Software Version for your Oneplus One!!!
See: <I am not allowed to include this link in quote>
I would strongly recommend to install OxygenOS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This link appears to be out of date
or even better OxygenOS, the official ROM from Oneplus! OxygenOS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My search and his post
_forums_oneplus_net_threads_mirrors-for-official-oxygen-os-roms-and-ota-updates.387615
suggests you cannot get the official OxygenOS ROM from Oneplus, doesn't this pose some risks using TP apps to download and flash OS ROM?
There is an easy app available from the offical oneplus site!
<I am not allowed to include this link in quote>
Or use the app that is mentioned in the post above! Will to the same thing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't this pose some risks using TP apps to download and flash OS ROM?
Also the official link
_account_onepluscontent_com_downloads_tools_oneplus-one-reflash_zip
appears to be out of date
I cannot seem to find a way to find an official location or to identify the genuineness of CM12S image or OxyGenOS image. Is there some kind of published standard hash of the file or something? How does it work?
a lot of what I read, like on the oneplus site or the way links are named seems to suggest that OxygenOS is just for OnePlus Two. I believe that OnePlus One moved to OxygenOS at some point, but I don't want to apply an OS version to a device that is under resourced. Is there a version of OxygenOS that the OnePlus One should not go beyond.
P.S. How do I get your XDA user name to appear as a link?
iamelton
Thank you so much for your advice I really do appreciate the time you took to help me. Sorry for the delay in responding. Difficult circumstances.
regarding your point (7)
(7) while in recovery, install rom image (which should be put in the internal storage beforehand)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- I wonder if you would mind indicating where beforehand in this list putting the rom image in the internal storage ought to occurr?
- Also, so sorry, but I wonder would you mind elaberating just a little on how to put the rom image in the internal storage?
Regarding the files, I am happy with adb.exe, fastboot.exe, TWRP.
However I understand that the genuineness of OxygenOS images are not provided by OnePlus, is this right?
_forums_oneplus_net_threads_mirrors-for-official-oxygen-os-roms-and-ota-updates_387615
How do confirm the genuineness of OxygenOS images?
Is it a kind of hierarchy of trust, i.e. n users use and recommend this location for the images.
Or is there some kind of standard hash for the images that is published on secure OnePlus site?
I have similar issue / understanding issue with CM12S
It would appear after roaming around forums etc that the official Cyanogen OS (not mod/custom) are located below here _builds_cyngn_com_ but the site itself seems to have no web pages I visit cyngn.com_get-cyanogen-os but can find no page with a list of rom images and their corresponding dates, attributes and inclusions etc.
I hear that some versions of CM12S do not support 64GB (as per my OPO) but I seem to have no clear certified single source way to know exactly the name/url of the CM12S I should get.
I am probably misunderstanding the philosophy behind things, but it seems if anyone can do anything with the source you would think that OnePlus would into the bargin also provide users (of which there will be a variety) a "sure fire" way to get their (grey market?) phone to (original) factory standard. They still apparently cover it for warentee, so...
Many thanks
P.S. How do I get your XDA user name to appear as a link?

Smartisan U1 YQ601 (tut)

So, my wife decided to buy this phone, and I am to stay away from her phones. She smashed the screen one day, and that was a door open for me. I hastily get some version of TWRP to boot on it and grab a backup, and also do an adb backup (which was crap). Then, I did a full wipe before taking it in to get repaired.
SO, what I want to walk through here boys and girls, is never, never, never, never, put Smartisan OS 2.5.3 on this phone. When my wife got her phone back I harmlessly believed that updating would not disallow me from TWRP again to recover. What this version does to the device is completely disable recovery altogether. You are always pushed to fastboot, and fastboot cannot flash anything After this realization, I borked the phone, I dd'ed out the aboot and the sbl. She had insurance, we live in China it is cheap, and after the difficulties I realized this was happening to lots of people. I figured the local service center could re-write the partitions I had pooped on and they would re-write it with an earlier firmware. My gamble paid off.
Got the phone back with 2.5.0. I immediately followed the guide here http://tinyurl.com/z7ekyxp , Russian site, to revert back. I then, deviating from the guide to be careful, fastboot boot "twrp.img". I used commands the whole way, no flashify or anything (I love flashify on my nexus 5 but I had already borked this phone once. It booted TWRP, I copied all the old SD files over to the phone. Then, the moment of truth, would a restore from my previous backup work. Yes, it did. I even followed the guide through and flashed the 2.3.5 modified update. It worked, the SuperSU and open gapps flashed without issue also.
Not a horrible phone for being extremely cheap, but they messed up an update. For those fooling around with the device, remember the partition table has a bak for all boot related things. I also see on Chinese forums that they use the headphone jack for diagnostics (My Chinese isn't great, but I looked around when I bricked my wife's phone).
One thing of note with this device is there are three versions that appear in build.prop 32, 32_younger, 306_younger, I think, but Smartisan has confirmed they are all the same, just different production batches. If you get errors in the update process, modify this to match.
Don't drink and post children, I was editing to say I ran with what smartlinux on that site said, nothing here is my idea except for running the commands yourself.
Another good dev on the device but Chinese http://blog.cofface.com/archives/1139.html. He has an app that will boot into either (stock or custom) recovery, but like I said, do not take that 2.3.5 thing. I see they have 2.5, so let's see what happens.
wangdaning said:
Another good dev on the device but Chinese http://blog.cofface.com/archives/1139.html. He has an app that will boot into either (stock or custom) recovery, but like I said, do not take that 2.3.5 thing. I see they have 2.5, so let's see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey bro, you're a native American working in Chengdu?
xcjchandler said:
Hey bro, you're a native American working in Chengdu?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep.

Revive Soft Bricked Device through Identical 2nd? (LG l21g Destiny Tracfone)

Long story short:
How do i get my current working android device to revive an identical soft-bricked device. More challenging than you think: there is no boot menu accessible in the devices. Which means the only other choice is to use a usb connection to a PC to perform all tasks, i.e. create a rom system image backup of the working device, then use that to restore the system onto the soft-bricked one.
So is there a way to revive the s/bricked device with a rom image of the working twin?
The long story:
After using the super-sume app, my device got softbricked. Phones of my type are uncommon and are therefore not worked on by the android hacker community as much as flagship devices are. And little is known or discovered about them. So after doing more research, i've sadly come to know that there are other users here and there, having suffered the same problem as I. But enough about that.
As far as i've read and come to understand, i would need to re-flash the firmware to bring it back from it's softbrick issue easiest/safest way.
Though am not sure how the android platform would work. With PCs, i could restore a messed up system from a cloned image. What i need to confirm is if the firmware is separate from the OS (roms i believe) the same way device drivers are separate from the windows OS on PCs.
So am not sure if flashing firmware is enough and would need to stock rom too. Or is the rom considered both firmware and OS all in one?
I mentioned "restore from a clone image backup" because I have another, exact same model of my softbricked device, that functions still properly.
So i wonder if there is a way that i could use my working device to revive the soft-bricked one. In the sense that i would need to make a system image copy of my working one, to restore onto the s/bricked one.
What the problem looks like when starting the phone:
As for the softbrick appearance, the phone boots into the LG logo screen and is frozen there. It doesn't quite look like it's boot looping since the screen Never fades to black quickly just to come right back. It's just frozen there. This recovery mode screen is the only other thing i can get to besides the frozen LG screen: https://wcrates.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/lg-g3-recover-mode.jpg
I've come to learn (but may need correction on) that Tracfone devices are deliberately handicapped in a way i've never seen before. That is, their devices have no other boot type of menu besides the Recovery Menu (found before os begins boot) that is basically a factory reset. It just deletes all user data and resets system settings so that the phone works like it would at first when right out of the box. For the s/bricked device, that screen can be accessed, though executing that just resorts to the frozen boot screen again. If there is a boot menu to backup/restore from, clear cache, install from zip and what not, then please enlighten me. Because as i've tried everything, the tracfone-devices have nothing compared to non-tracfone-devices
So in order to install an updated rom, i may need to get into a type of system boot menu from where i would be able to select the option to install a rom or update it and what not. To some degree i assume that connecting the device through USB to a computer, one may do the same rom installation action through the PC, but it's in cases like these where i would need the help of and expert's first hand experience with such things or ways.
I don't mind if you want to leave a link to some tutorial some other guy has made that may closely related to (if not exactly) to help solve this issue. But i do prefer to get into contact with someone who i can report to with how the solution process is progressing. Mostly because me being a noob at this point of my android experience, but am confident since i've done this with pc's a lot.
I'm still trying to figure out what most of the android community speaks of when it comes to methods of backing up their stock roms and what kinds of software on PC or apps on the device are needed to accomplish a worthy backup. I do realize i'd need ADB and what other LG device compatible PC software out there. Here is a link where i think firmware files can be found, but since it's all in Chinese, i'm not sure how reliable the site is/can be. It's been about a month since i contacted some of their users. At this point it seems like they're no hope:
http://mobile.gaodi.net/Firmware-669539-1-1.html
I hope that i can find success so that i can post it up to help others who are in the same situation as me, and also for the many more who may yet fall into this situation.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Device: LG l21g (aka lgl21g) Destiny (model) by TracFone
Android: 5.0.1

Proper OS cleanup of new OnePlu7 Pro

Hi Everyone,
Living in Japan, we have no official channel to purchase a OnePlus handset here.
Really wanted to get a OnePlus 7 Pro as I felt it is the best model on the market as of today.
Knowing that, I got mine on Amazon Japan from a HK online shop which had very good reputation.
Now, the problem is these phones always come already opened as they say they need to confirm operation before sending it.
I have been reading news and article about this where we see more third party companies flash their roms with malware/ransomeware already built in...
In these situation, the best way to clean the phone is to do a full re-install of the OS.
I did review a bunch of article on XDA and it seems that now, due to the A/B partition setup, we can't just use official OnePlus image to load from the fastboot easily.
We have to rely on community provided too and stock rom to be able to do so....
When I raised the question to OnePlus and Oneplus forums, they mentioned to me that installed the updated like here (Page: support.oneplus.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4312/~/oxygen-os-for-oneplus-7-pro)would do the trick using the local update function.
What I was directed to do is use the recovery boot to delete system settings/cache and everything data user and then, run the local update. Doing so, that would do it while not using community tools.
Here are my questions and which I would hope to get your experience:
1 Is the process I did really does use a brand new clean OS and do not rely/integrate part of the OS that came with the handset originally (that was the target).
2 Is there a way for me using OnePlus only provided tools and image to fully delete the phone and install the OS (maybe I am thinking this too much like a PC which I have more experience with...)
3 The OS looks fine and no strange apps shows up at all but how can I be sure nothing dodgy is running? Is there tools I could use to confirm this?
Sorry if I sound paranoid. Ideally, I understand the best thing to do was to buy directly from Oneplus and work a way to have it shipped to Japan but thought it would be interesting for me to learn more about android.
With previous Oneplus, it was easier as they were provided this type of official file for recovery but they stopped...
Thank you again for your time and hopping to learn more about how new android setup works.
Is the bootloader locked? Is Widevine (Netflix HD) certification still there? You can check these things to see if the phone has been tampered with.
brissoukun said:
Hi Everyone,
When I raised the question to OnePlus and Oneplus forums, they mentioned to me that installed the updated like here (Page: support.oneplus.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4312/~/oxygen-os-for-oneplus-7-pro)would do the trick using the local update function.
What I was directed to do is use the recovery boot to delete system settings/cache and everything data user and then, run the local update. Doing so, that would do it while not using community tools.
Here are my questions and which I would hope to get your experience:
1 Is the process I did really does use a brand new clean OS and do not rely/integrate part of the OS that came with the handset originally (that was the target).
2 Is there a way for me using OnePlus only provided tools and image to fully delete the phone and install the OS (maybe I am thinking this too much like a PC which I have more experience with...)
3 The OS looks fine and no strange apps shows up at all but how can I be sure nothing dodgy is running? Is there tools I could use to confirm this?
Thank you again for your time and hopping to learn more about how new android setup works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good questions. Before you start, check the model number of your device through Settings > About. I'm assuming it's the international/global/unlocked version (GM1917).
With regard to question 1, a full build downloaded from the link you provided should contain every part of the OS, and flashing it through local update should overwrite anything that was there before. Before flashing, I would perform a full data wipe through recovery like you mentioned.
Q2: There is an MSM tool that will completely flash a system image for the OP7 Pro. I don't think they're generally intended for public use but they always get leaked anyways. They write an image (in the case of OnePlus, a .ops file) to the phone using a PC and USB connection. Here is a link to a thread which contains the MSM tool:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-7-pro/how-to/guide-mega-unbrick-guide-hard-bricked-t3934659
Download the tool for the model of your phone (probably the international, firmware GM21AA), and extract its contents into a directory. In order for the tool to work, you need the OnePlus USB drivers installed on your PC. Plug the phone into your PC with it on, and enable USB file transfer. Open File Explorer and you should see a drive labeled "OnePlus drivers" or similar. Open it and run the driver setup executable file. You'll also need ADB to make your phone reboot into a mode that will allow the tool to perform its tasks. Here is a guide to installing ADB:
https://www.xda-developers.com/what-is-adb/
Once you've set that up, make sure the phone is plugged into the PC and the MSM tool is open. Make the phone boot into edl mode by typing
Code:
adb reboot edl
and once it says Connected next to a COM port in the tool, press start. Don't interrupt the process until it completes the download and the status message turns green. The phone should automatically reboot. This method is arguably more risky than using the local upgrade option, so do it at your own risk.
Q3: Make sure that OEM unlocking is turned off in developer settings and that the bootloader is locked (if the bootloader is unlocked, you'll see a yellow warning message after you power on the device from a power off state). Without an unlocked bootloader it would be pretty difficult to make any deep modifications to the device.
Hi @Zocker1304 and @TManchu,
Please let me thank you very much first for your kind and detailed reply, this is really welcome.
@Zocker1304:
I checked using the ADB/Fastboot connection that indeed, the Bootloader is locked so, that looks good.
Also installed (using a separate Google account) DRM Info app to confirm that the Widevine is properly installed and at L1 level which indeed again, looks good.
@TManchu
Thank you again for your very detailed reply! This was exactly what I needed as information.
I did already exactly as mentioned for the #1 so, it looks I should be good now with a proper rom from OnePlus (and did a full wipe in the Recovery boot mode)
For #2, I think I will skip that since as you rightly said, with #1, it should be fine so, prefer to keep with the recommended step.
For #3, we are covering what Zocker1304 mentioned too and I could confirm it.
My only concern about #3 was that you can actually relock the bootloader but (and please correct me If I am wrong), you can only do so if you are using stock OnePlus images (to date...seems like dev teams are working to have this changed? Bootloader locked with custom firmware?) which then means the image is safe.
I suppose the last item was my only open query for your thoughts but so far, the handset looks fine.
Thanks to you and the community, I have learned about the A/B partition scheme, msm tool, Fastboot/Recovery mode and Bootloader and ADB tools.
It is always good to learn more about the tech we use (especially phones, we have so many sensitive information stored into them today).
Not being careful could potentially means quite a lot of troubles down the road with Ransomeware/data leak tools.
Of course again, I could have simply purchased a JP phone from a brick and mortar shop next to my place and be fine with it. :silly:
brissoukun said:
.
For #3, we are covering what Zocker1304 mentioned too and I could confirm it.
My only concern about #3 was that you can actually relock the bootloader but (and please correct me If I am wrong), you can only do so if you are using stock OnePlus images (to date...seems like dev teams are working to have this changed? Bootloader locked with custom firmware?) which then means the image is safe.
I suppose the last item was my only open query for your thoughts but so far, the handset looks fine.
Thanks to you and the community, I have learned about the A/B partition scheme, msm tool, Fastboot/Recovery mode and Bootloader and ADB tools.
It is always good to learn more about the tech we use (especially phones, we have so many sensitive information stored into them today).
Not being careful could potentially means quite a lot of troubles down the road with Ransomeware/data leak tools.
Of course again, I could have simply purchased a JP phone from a brick and mortar shop next to my place and be fine with it. :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem! I’ve just done some reading and from what I understand, re-locking the bootloader on anything other than a completely stock ROM will result in a bricked phone. I believe this is due to the way Android handles data encryption. If what you’ve heard is true, being able to lock your bootloader on a custom ROM would be great for device security. However, should something go wrong with the ROM having a locked bootloader might make it more difficult to fix.
I know that there are ways to sign system and boot images so that you can lock the bootloader with them installed, but I think that would still show a warning though I'm not sure.
Anyways, if all the build dates and numbers in the system info are correct, the firmware should be stock and as long as the bootloader is locked too, I don't believe you can tamper with that.
Hi Gents,
Thank you very much for the answer to the thread and much appreciated.
Apologies for not getting back to you all earlier as yesterday was family day...haha!
Well, since things looked good on the OS and the build, I went ahead and started to use the phone properly setting up my accounts. It did give me some incentive to get all my sensitive accounts setup with 2FA so that in case I get hacked with my passwords in the future...they would still need the 2fa (using Google Authenticator).
I did check also all system apps/running process and didn't see anything shady.
Just for reference, here were the type of articles I was refering too for the OS being plagued with malware even out of the box:
Page_theverge.com/2019/6/6/18655755/google-android-malware-triada-ota-rom-ads-spam-oem (sorry gents, new account, cannot put links yet)
However here, it seems it is due to lax review from the maker to third party tools which were including malware...
To have the same level on the oneplus I bought from the HK shop, they would have needed access to OnePlus Dev team to inject the malware in official image (knowing anyway I have re-installed a new image from the local update).
Otherwise, I was reading on the web about the fact to relock the bootloader with a custom roam and there seems to have a lot of messages but not concrete steps. It seems it depends a lot on phone model and brand.
When you are checking
Page_gizmochina.com/2019/06/10/relock-bootloader-oneplus-7-pro/
This is where you can read at the end:
"The above method only works if OnePlus 7 Pro is running on stock recovery and stock firmware. The ability to relock devices running custom recovery is expected in the next few weeks. "
That was published last month so, not sure if they got this to work on the OnePlus 7 pro yet.
So that's it, I am now using my new device which looks to work great and hopefully, won't get any bugs down the road.
I appreciate you taking the time to get back to me and will continue to learn about android.:good:

Can you fix EFS Partition?

Hey all, I did a bad thing. Please help.
Just wanna start off by saying I'm really stupid and things like this make me not want to modify my device anymore. I recently updated to 10.3.0, and after flashing something in the wrong order, I soft bricked my OP6. Since I wanted to basically start over with Android 10, I decided to just do a full wipe, without reading how to. I wiped all partitions through TWRP (Which I very quickly learned is a stupid thing to do) because that it how I went about installing new ROMs on my old phone. That left me with just the bootloader on my phone and nothing more. So I used fastboot to flash recovery and 10.3.0 and everything was fine, or at least I thought.
Everything has been fine for about a week now, until my phone randomly restarted. Upon reboot, my sim card wasn't reading and whenever I tried going to it's settings, it would say "com.android.phone keeps stopping" and after a bunch of searching around... I learned what an EFS Partition is and I'm pretty sure that bad boy is gone. Putting *#06# in the keypad gives me a MEID number, but no IMEI number.
So my question now is, is there anything I can do? I found a few posts that say you could try flashing ColorOS (but there is only an unofficial port for OP6), one comment I found said to use a program called EFS Professional and flash back to stock, and some others suggested MSM tool? Which I haven't used, so I have no clue what that's about. Does anyone have experience or a suggestion for me, please? Any help is greatly appreciated.
My phone is also completely working right now, apart from sim card use. The sim was also 100% working for about a week, before it randomly rebooted, is that normal? I just want to get my phone back to working order, I'm done with modifying. I feel stupid and defeated lmao, oh man, pls help.
Juwapa said:
Hey all, I did a bad thing. Please help.
Just wanna start off by saying I'm really stupid and things like this make me not want to modify my device anymore. I recently updated to 10.3.0, and after flashing something in the wrong order, I soft bricked my OP6. Since I wanted to basically start over with Android 10, I decided to just do a full wipe, without reading how to. I wiped all partitions through TWRP (Which I very quickly learned is a stupid thing to do) because that it how I went about installing new ROMs on my old phone. That left me with just the bootloader on my phone and nothing more. So I used fastboot to flash recovery and 10.3.0 and everything was fine, or at least I thought.
Everything has been fine for about a week now, until my phone randomly restarted. Upon reboot, my sim card wasn't reading and whenever I tried going to it's settings, it would say "com.android.phone keeps stopping" and after a bunch of searching around... I learned what an EFS Partition is and I'm pretty sure that bad boy is gone. Putting *#06# in the keypad gives me a MEID number, but no IMEI number.
So my question now is, is there anything I can do? I found a few posts that say you could try flashing ColorOS (but there is only an unofficial port for OP6), one comment I found said to use a program called EFS Professional and flash back to stock, and some others suggested MSM tool? Which I haven't used, so I have no clue what that's about. Does anyone have experience or a suggestion for me, please? Any help is greatly appreciated.
My phone is also completely working right now, apart from sim card use. The sim was also 100% working for about a week, before it randomly rebooted, is that normal? I just want to get my phone back to working order, I'm done with modifying. I feel stupid and defeated lmao, oh man, pls help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright calm down, yes what you have done isn't smart to do but nothing is gonna change that, we can't go back in time.
First of I would start with restoring your device by using the the MSM Download Tool which you can find here --> https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/tool-msmdownloadtool-v4-0-international-t3798892
All you need to know is described in the thread, read it carefully before attempting to restore your device. It will re-lock the bootloader, wipe the internal storage and restore all the partitions on your device. Make sure you made a backup of all your important files which might be stored on your device. If those instructions are still not clear enough you could watch this video which shows how to restore your device, here is a link to that video --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtc7EhNsfPA&feature=youtu.be
After restoring your device you should check if your device shows it's IMEI number again, if not I can't help you further. I've never used the EFS Professional tool with the OP6. So attempting to restore the IMEI with that tool is on your own risk.
I hope you learn from this experience, you should always make backups of the important partitions of your device before even thinking about modifying the system on your device in any way. This won't change your current situation by saying this but it will be helpful in the future.
Good luck!
Mr.FREE_Bird said:
Alright calm down, yes what you have done isn't smart to do but nothing is gonna change that, we can't go back in time.
First of I would start with restoring your device by using the the MSM Download Tool which you can find here --> https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6/how-to/tool-msmdownloadtool-v4-0-international-t3798892
All you need to know is described in the thread, read it carefully before attempting to restore your device. It will re-lock the bootloader, wipe the internal storage and restore all the partitions on your device. Make sure you made a backup of all your important files which might be stored on your device. If those instructions are still not clear enough you could watch this video which shows how to restore your device, here is a link to that video -->
&feature=youtu.be
After restoring your device you should check if your device shows it's IMEI number again, if not I can't help you further. I've never used the EFS Professional tool with the OP6. So attempting to restore the IMEI with that tool is on your own risk.
I hope you learn from this experience, you should always make backups of the important partitions of your device before even thinking about modifying the system on your device in any way. This won't change your current situation by saying this but it will be helpful in the future.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thank you so much for the quick reply. So apparently it was just a problem with xXx NoLimits, I think? I tried uninstalling it right after making the original post and now my sim is working like normal. I'm confused because I don't think I had any settings with NoLimits that should of affected the sim or even storage of my phone. So why would it work fine for a week and just randomly decide to kill itself like that? As you can see in the screenshots, my IMEI was missing and is now back.
But I'm still worried about when I had wiped all partitions, is there something funky going on with the partitions/storage of my device? Is the "EFS Partition" the only partition that can be permanently lost? If I can still make a backup of it, I should definitely do that, and is there anything else I specifically should make sure I have backed up?
Juwapa said:
Hi, thank you so much for the quick reply. So apparently it was just a problem with xXx NoLimits, I think? I tried uninstalling it right after making the original post and now my sim is working like normal. I'm confused because I don't think I had any settings with NoLimits that should of affected the sim or even storage of my phone. So why would it work fine for a week and just randomly decide to kill itself like that? As you can see in the screenshots, my IMEI was missing and is now back.
But I'm still worried about when I had wiped all partitions, is there something funky going on with the partitions/storage of my device? Is the "EFS Partition" the only partition that can be permanently lost? If I can still make a backup of it, I should definitely do that, and is there anything else I specifically should make sure I have backed up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem!
Strange, sounds like something you configured in your xXx NoLimits config caused some trouble. Maybe you debloated an app that causes this behavior? It would be a guessing game for me.
If I was you I would restore the device using the MSM Download Tool to start clean again. After that I would make a full system backup using TWRP. So in case you do lose the EFS partition or something else you will have something to fall back on.
The EFS partition can indeed be lost but you would really need to badly mess with the system on your device. I've only once experienced a lost IMEI number after a system update on my LG G4 but I could restore it using the EFS Professional tool. The actual EFS partition was still there I think but got corrupted somehow. Luckily I had made a backup of that partition with TWRP but I still needed to write the IMEI number to it manually. You should just always make backups before attempting to modify the system on your device. Lesson learned right?
Mr.FREE_Bird said:
No problem!
Strange, sounds like something you configured in your xXx NoLimits config caused some trouble. Maybe you debloated an app that causes this behavior? It would be a guessing game for me.
If I was you I would restore the device using the MSM Download Tool to start clean again. After that I would make a full system backup using TWRP. So in case you do lose the EFS partition or something else you will have something to fall back on.
The EFS partition can indeed be lost but you would really need to badly mess with the system on your device. I've only once experienced a lost IMEI number after a system update on my LG G4 but I could restore it using the EFS Professional tool. The actual EFS partition was still there I think but got corrupted somehow. Luckily I had made a backup of that partition with TWRP but I still needed to write the IMEI number to it manually. You should just always make backups before attempting to modify the system on your device. Lesson learned right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for this info. May I ask what the best way to actually backup the EFS Partition would be? After a quick google search, a few different apps popped up. But based on your reply, I'm assuming you've done this before, so is there a certain method you would suggest for a noob like myself?
And as far as using the MSM Tool for a complete reset/backup, do you think that would really be necessary? From what I've read, newer versions of TWRP don't even let you delete/backup the EFS Partition, which means it would be unlikely that I even actually touched that partition, right? And my experience was most likely caused by some xXx NoLimits setting then, I'd assume. I think what messed me up when I first upgraded to 10.3.0, was that I accidentally wiped the Vender partition (which I believe is what the recovery is now on?) Which is why I had to flash via fastboot. But still, I would like to backup the EFS Partition just to be assured I won't have this come up in the future. But outside of the EFS Partition, isn't it pretty easy to fix any Partition/Bricks that might occur on the OnePlus 6?
And again, thank you so much for taking the time to respond to a silly goose like me. I've made it this far without damaging ant of my phones but I think it's about time I stop playing with fire and actually read/backup important stuff haha.
Nolimit and random reboot in android 10.0.3? Turn off kernel tweaks in Nolimit profiles, and then flash Nolimit. It will be fine.
Juwapa said:
Thank you so much for this info. May I ask what the best way to actually backup the EFS Partition would be? After a quick google search, a few different apps popped up. But based on your reply, I'm assuming you've done this before, so is there a certain method you would suggest for a noob like myself?
And as far as using the MSM Tool for a complete reset/backup, do you think that would really be necessary? From what I've read, newer versions of TWRP don't even let you delete/backup the EFS Partition, which means it would be unlikely that I even actually touched that partition, right? And my experience was most likely caused by some xXx NoLimits setting then, I'd assume. I think what messed me up when I first upgraded to 10.3.0, was that I accidentally wiped the Vender partition (which I believe is what the recovery is now on?) Which is why I had to flash via fastboot. But still, I would like to backup the EFS Partition just to be assured I won't have this come up in the future. But outside of the EFS Partition, isn't it pretty easy to fix any Partition/Bricks that might occur on the OnePlus 6?
And again, thank you so much for taking the time to respond to a silly goose like me. I've made it this far without damaging ant of my phones but I think it's about time I stop playing with fire and actually read/backup important stuff haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have always used TWRP for making a backup of the EFS Partition, the option to do so is still available in the backup section in TWRP. It is indeed very unlikely you ever touched that partition but as you experienced it isn't hard to mess up the installation of your system so you should definitely back it up just to be sure you could restore it if something goes wrong. If I'm not mistaken the recovery is actually written to the boot partition and not the vendor partition or that has changed since Android 10. But I don't see any reason to ever wipe the vendor partition. You should always carefully read instructions before installing any kind of software so you are sure you are doing it right. And yes, fixing soft bricks on the OP6 isn't hard to do when you know what you are doing. Doing research is very important, by doing so you know what you are doing, how you should do it and you will have a higher chance to fix errors in case things don't turn out to work as they should. Luckily things didn't go very wrong for you but I hope you'll spend some time doing research before you are going to modify the system on your device. It will prevent a lot of trouble. But by making mistakes you will learn to right. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that you should copy your backups to an other device or storage in case your internal storage gets wiped.
It's not a problem to give a helping hand, that's what this place is for. I'm always glad to help those who kindly ask for help. :good:
Mr.FREE_Bird said:
I have always used TWRP for making a backup of the EFS Partition, the option to do so is still available in the backup section in TWRP. It is indeed very unlikely you ever touched that partition but as you experienced it isn't hard to mess up the installation of your system so you should definitely back it up just to be sure you could restore it if something goes wrong. If I'm not mistaken the recovery is actually written to the boot partition and not the vendor partition or that has changed since Android 10. But I don't see any reason to ever wipe the vendor partition. You should always carefully read instructions before installing any kind of software so you are sure you are doing it right. And yes, fixing soft bricks on the OP6 isn't hard to do when you know what you are doing. Doing research is very important, by doing so you know what you are doing, how you should do it and you will have a higher chance to fix errors in case things don't turn out to work as they should. Luckily things didn't go very wrong for you but I hope you'll spend some time doing research before you are going to modify the system on your device. It will prevent a lot of trouble. But by making mistakes you will learn to right. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that you should copy your backups to an other device or storage in case your internal storage gets wiped.
It's not a problem to give a helping hand, that's what this place is for. I'm always glad to help those who kindly ask for help. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I finally had time to sit down and make backups of my device. I made a backup of just the EFS and Modem Partition only and I made another complete backup of everything. This should be all I need right?
And yes, I will keep the backups on my PC and on the flash drive I keep my current rom, recovery, kernel, and magisk on.
Shyciii said:
Nolimit and random reboot in android 10.0.3? Turn off kernel tweaks in Nolimit profiles, and then flash Nolimit. It will be fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could be wrong, but I don't think I had KernelTweaks on to begin with. I keep reading people are having problems with it, so I think I'll just stop using it. And it wasn't reboots that were the problem, I only had the one reboot. The problem was my phone wasn't recognizing my sim card nor did it give me my IMEI number, which is why I thought I might of messed up the EFS Partition. But thank you for the reply.
I'm about out of options anyone tried using smt download mode on msm tool.? Then restoring efs partitions.? And had any success. I'm getting a sha 256 does not match error on msm tool when trying to download super partition. Op8 verizon bricked.

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