Objective: I am hoping to be able to boot my existing system to recover data such as SMS, call logs, app data, and so on - obviously it was inadvisable to start messing around without backing up my data, particular with my amateurish capabilities. But that's the situation I am in. For some reason I thought that just replacing the Recovery was not going to risk my data. Its been over 5 years since the days when I would regularly flash my new phones with cyanogenmod, and my abilities were very basic even then.
Context: G930FD with stock rom, baseband ETC? - apparently for Dubai, which does not allow VoLTE or WiFi calling, which is what I was trying to fix when I got myself into this.
the Events:
- I enabled ADB and used Heimdall on Windows 7 to flash twrp-3.3.1-0-herolte.img
- initial attempts failed to complete download. I booted back into the system and applied OEM Unlock. Flashed successfully.
- chose the 'allow modification' option or whatever it says, not the Read-only option
- I did NOT check at that point to see if the system would reboot properly. I instead right away made a full back-up to my external SD.
That's all I did. After the back-up was complete I rebooted, and arrived at "SAMSUNG Galaxy S7" endless boot loop.
best guess: this is related to samsung encryption? TWRP file manager says that DATA is 0MB.
Again, I am desperately hoping that someone can help me recover my existing system. The threads I found on this subject all lead to wiping the phone and flashing a new rom.
thanks.
digging in deepr
I went ahead and rooted by loading SuperSU otg through TWRP.
Now I get passed the first splash screen that was previously boot looping (Galaxy S7, powered by Android), and I get to the 2nd splash screen (glowing SAMSUNG logo). It does not boot loop, just glows in and out endlessly and never loads.
Is that progress? Or maybe its worse.
t.krug said:
I went ahead and rooted by loading SuperSU otg through TWRP.
Now I get passed the first splash screen that was previously boot looping (Galaxy S7, powered by Android), and I get to the 2nd splash screen (glowing SAMSUNG logo). It does not boot loop, just glows in and out endlessly and never loads.
Is that progress? Or maybe its worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reflash TWRP with Odin, boot TWRP, wipe cache, reboot.
Thanks.
I think greenman at sammobile had the answer --> NEW: S7 5 file firmware options (this forum wont let me post a link).
But I botched the execution and the CSC file overwrote my data. Crushing blow. I would say lesson learned, except that I already knew better and risked my data anyway. Sad.
I have a backup I made at the first launch of TWRP - but I assume its worthless since TWRP was not reading the encryption. Its only 3.7GB.
Side note - I did achieve the original goal of replacing the Emirati rom with one that activates WiFi calling and VoLTE.
Has this issue been solved?
I never recovered my data if that's what you mean. Did you look up greenman at sammobile? It sounds like someone followed his directions and was able to flash just the system files without overwriting their data. I think you had to modify the csc_home file. It was a bit beyond my skill level.
Oh, I was just wondering if your phone was still bricked. I didn't read your last message properly before replying lol. My bad.
I'm not personally having issues with a device, I was just curious if I could help at all.
Related
Alright, so yesterday I tried to root my tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 Wifi) yesterday by installing TWRP and then loading the Superuser zip found in their link in the play store. It worked fine--I had root access and all was going fairly well. I then tried to make a small tweak to the build.prop file by changing ro.build.version.codename from REL to L.
When I rebooted to apply that change, I could not start up, so I did a factory reset (not a big deal, no essential files on there). It then booted fine, but when I reinstalled/updated all my apps, the Google services were crashing like mad. So I reverted the build.prop file back to REL and again it would reboot, so I did another factory reset and all was good; the Google apps were fine.
Well I was still rooted and I wanted to take advantage of all that time I spent doing it, so I downloaded the bootanimation zip found on this thread and replaced my bootanimation.zip that was already on there. I restarted to see the animation, and this is when the real nightmare started happening. I could not boot now at all.
I did another factory reset, and still it wouldn't boot. I then used TWRP to do a full reset, and still nothing. I did an advanced reset and somehow managed to delete the operating system files (I have no idea how), causing TWRP to say that no operating system was installed. I still couldn't boot, of course.
Finally, I decided I had had enough of this rooting ****. I searched all over the internet looking for a North American version of my stock ROM, and finally found one posted on this forum post. I wouldn't normally trust any random file, but I was getting desperate here. I used Odin to flash that ROM, and there were no errors. Now when I go into recovery, it gives me stock and not TWRP, so I know that was probably successful.
However, I still cannot boot. I get stuck on the screen that says Samsung Galaxy Tab 3, which sometimes goes away and then comes back. I can't send it in for warranty, because it still says "custom" in the recovery mode. How can I fix this? any ideas?
I really want my tablet back :crying:
Good day.
I got a Nexus 5 D820 from my mom who dropped it in the river about a year ago at which time the phone was dead. It had indication of power but would not turn on. It was in a drawer powered off until yesterday.
I was able to power the phone on although it would not boot. The Google logo appeared and the android loading animation, but it would always reboot or freeze at different points. From the bootloader the phone seemed stable and I never had an issue pushing/flashing files. At this point I flashed a few different recovery images for the device, but only Philz would work, while TWRP and CWM would only freeze or bootloop.
From Philz I was able to flash a few different ROMS including the latest official one from google and also a few custom roms with/out gapps. None of these would boot and had the same freeze/bootloop at the google logo or android animation with no consistency.
I figured at this point possibly the sdcard had become corrupted/damaged by the water since I was able to flash pretty much anything I wanted. This is where things went downhill.
I followed a guide to use the partition editor from within an ADB shell. The guide assumed I was formatting an external SD card and suggested deleting all partitions. I did make a backup of the configuration of the partitions just in case but followed the instructions and removed everything. I was concerned what would happen once I rebooted the device at this point so I looked around a bit and it was suggested that flashing a google factory image would recreate the missing partitions so I didn't have to do it manually, so I rebooted thinking I could just flash the google package from the bootloader. This was the last time the phone ever showed any indication of working.
Now I have no indication of even power, no LED's, no bootloader.
Please let me know what you think... Thanks.
Before deleting the partitions, did you perform a full factory wipe before or after flashing different ROMs?
Does the phone appear as a device in Windows Device Manager when connected via USB?
If you deleted all of the partitions you deleted the bootloader partition.
Stock Galaxy S7, no root, no dubious apps, only AirWatch Agent: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.airwatch.androidagent required for installing a corporate email client on the personal phone.
Everything worked fine for months, until yesterday, when the app AirWatch crashed, and would not start.
The user decided to reboot the phone. On the reboot, the phone got stuck on the second Samsung logo animation.
Wipe cache, force restart, reboot, reboot bootloader were tried, hoping to fix this boot issue, but without success. The phone still stays stuck at the Samsung logo animation.
What I'm looking for: to avoid phone ROM reflashing, because it has no backup and the data on the microSD card is encrypted.
I want to recover the personal data, by any means.
Any suggestions on how to achieve this?
Thank you.
If you can't flash stock, and have already wiped cache, and the guy doesn't have a backup (dumb), then there's not much else you can do really
I'm not sure which part of the phone the encryption key is stored, but you could try flashing just the Bootloader part of the ROM with ODIN
Also not sure if flashing the same stock ROM over the top, but using HOME_CSC instead of CSC to avoid the factory reset, would mess up the encryption, but as a last resort it would be what I would do
Backups are good, if the data is so important to encrypt I can't see why it would not also be backed up
I understand your point and I agree with it.
As a sidenote, that encryption was required by the app AirWatch, not by the phone's owner.
We'll try those steps as a last resort, but for the moment, we're gathering information, since most of the options are a "no way back" process.
For example, I'm thinking about a way to inspect the boot process, and alter it if there's something there that hangs.
Could this be possible? Is there any documentation about this?
germanino said:
I understand your point and I agree with it.
As a sidenote, that encryption was required by the app AirWatch, not by the phone's owner.
We'll try those steps as a last resort, but for the moment, we're gathering information, since most of the options are a "no way back" process.
For example, I'm thinking about a way to inspect the boot process, and alter it if there's something there that hangs.
Could this be possible? Is there any documentation about this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could trying running a logcat with the phone connected to USB during boot, not sure if it will connect to adb though, worth a shot
https://www.xda-developers.com/install-adb-windows-macos-linux/
If it works it should show you what it's hanging on, no idea how you would fix it though without a custom recovery
I am running stock ROM and have bootloader unlocked and TWRP already installed. The phone was rooted without problems. I was getting an error from Super SU, so I looked up how to fix it online and the suggestion was to install an older version and then try to upgrade it. It was hard to find a zip from a legitimate source but once I found it, TWRP did not show the directory I was looking for (this was previously available when I rooted it). This is where I did something stupid and looked around in the settings and found the Slot A / Slot B option. I switched from B to A and the phone got stuck on the boot animation for several minutes after rebooting. I decided to reboot into TWRP and switched the slot back to B. This brought the phone back but WiFi is off by default and whenever I try to turn it on, it doesn't change.
I have seen a couple of other people mention similar issues about losing wifi after a root or changing the slot. What's the fix? I am wondering if there is anything else "broken" after the slot change and if I should do a factory reset (I would hate to do that as I was almost finished setting up this device). I have also received the error message saying "Process System isn't responding" in the settings menu a few times. It also seems like the finger print scanner isn't recognizing fingerprints any more and face unlock isn't working
One possibility is, that SuperSU isn't that compatible anymore. Magisk does a wonderful job and no problems so far. Maybe you should give it a try and switch from using SuperSU to Magisk.
shagexpert said:
I am running stock ROM and have bootloader unlocked and TWRP already installed. The phone was rooted without problems. I was getting an error from Super SU, so I looked up how to fix it online and the suggestion was to install an older version and then try to upgrade it. It was hard to find a zip from a legitimate source but once I found it, TWRP did not show the directory I was looking for (this was previously available when I rooted it). This is where I did something stupid and looked around in the settings and found the Slot A / Slot B option. I switched from B to A and the phone got stuck on the boot animation for several minutes after rebooting. I decided to reboot into TWRP and switched the slot back to B. This brought the phone back but WiFi is off by default and whenever I try to turn it on, it doesn't change.
I have seen a couple of other people mention similar issues about losing wifi after a root or changing the slot. What's the fix? I am wondering if there is anything else "broken" after the slot change and if I should do a factory reset (I would hate to do that as I was almost finished setting up this device). I have also received the error message saying "Process System isn't responding" in the settings menu a few times. It also seems like the finger print scanner isn't recognizing fingerprints any more and face unlock isn't working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue when I first got my 6 when I was playing around with the slots. Also my original TWRP install for some reason would crash and reboot whenever I plugged in the data cable while in TWRP. I ended up flashing back to stock OOS 5.1.5 through fastboot (used the flash-all command) and then reinstalled TWRP and everything has been working great since then.
MickyFoley said:
One possibility is, that SuperSU isn't that compatible anymore. Magisk does a wonderful job and no problems so far. Maybe you should give it a try and switch from using SuperSU to Magisk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The instructions I followed already installed Magisk to the phone. I wanted Super SU because some of the other chainfire apps like Liveboot and rooted apps like Titanium backup said Super SU is needed (Titanium said Magisk will work but may not be reliable for some newer versions of the ROM). I can live without liveboot but really need Titanium to reliably transfer data from my older phone.
To be honest I didn't know they did the same thing (magisk and Super SU). I am curious now, what if I factory reset my phone and attempted to install Super SU instead of Magisk this time?
If I do a factory reset (let's say I want it just like it was out of the box and I format the data partition as well), will I need to root the phone again? I am asking because I don't know which part of the instructions I should ignore. I am sure TWRP will already be installed after the reset so I would only need to install the extra apps...
You don't have to format data. Just factory reset it. Then use "fastboot boot twrp.img", don't allow modifications, flash a kernel you want (if you want one - I really recommend ElementalX) and then the latest version of Magisk (16.4 BETA currently). Did so - all fine. And yes: Even Titanium Backup works without any issue with Magisk.
We had similar problems with TWRP on the Razer Phone when it was new. We solved the problem by using the TWRP boot image to flash the stock boot image and then flashing a TWRP zip. I just got the OnePlus 6 yesterday and haven't really messed with it yet but everything sounds the same to me so far.
I read more about TWRP and realized what I was doing wrong when the directory with zip files wasn't showing up. When TWRP showed up I was supposed type in my regular unlock password to decrypt storage. When I did that the folder I was looking for showed up. I made a backup through recovery (which took like an hour, may be because the external flash drive I attached was really slow - and the size of the backup was about 12GB). After that I installed the zip file for Super SU, just to see if it worked - it showed the installation was successful but the app was still missing from the app drawer. Now I wanted to factory reset the device and start over.
I went into wipe and there was nothing listed under the wipe screen. I went into Advanced wipe and wiped whatever was selected by default. The selected items were Dalvik / ART Cache, System, Data. There was also "Internal Storage and USB Storage" that wasn't selected.
I swiped to wipe, it wiped everything. Then asked reboot, I rebooted, got a blank screen with white LED for a long time. When I plugged it into the computer it recognized the device as Qualcomm HS-USB Diagnostics 900E (COM4). I rebooted it by holding Power + Volume Up + Volume Down. I tried to boot into boot loader next. This brought me to another blank screen. The computer still makes a noise when it reboots but screen stays black. The only message that shows up is the one saying boot loader is unlocked. Did I brick my phone? This keeps getting progressively worse.
shagexpert said:
I read more about TWRP and realized what I was doing wrong when the directory with zip files wasn't showing up. When TWRP showed up I was supposed type in my regular unlock password to decrypt storage. When I did that the folder I was looking for showed up. I made a backup through recovery (which took like an hour, may be because the external flash drive I attached was really slow - and the size of the backup was about 12GB). After that I installed the zip file for Super SU, just to see if it worked - it showed the installation was successful but the app was still missing from the app drawer. Now I wanted to factory reset the device and start over.
I went into wipe and there was nothing listed under the wipe screen. I went into Advanced wipe and wiped whatever was selected by default. The selected items were Dalvik / ART Cache, System, Data. There was also "Internal Storage and USB Storage" that wasn't selected.
I swiped to wipe, it wiped everything. Then asked reboot, I rebooted, got a blank screen with white LED for a long time. When I plugged it into the computer it recognized the device as Qualcomm HS-USB Diagnostics 900E (COM4). I rebooted it by holding Power + Volume Up + Volume Down. I tried to boot into boot loader next. This brought me to another blank screen. The computer still makes a noise when it reboots but screen stays black. The only message that shows up is the one saying boot loader is unlocked. Did I brick my phone? This keeps getting progressively worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK good news! I tried one more time and fast boot showed up. I was able to get into recovery. I have the backup so I will try to restore that. I don't know what to do after that. I am thinking wiping without getting into advanced mode.
shagexpert said:
OK good news! I tried one more time and fast boot showed up. I was able to get into recovery. I have the backup so I will try to restore that. I don't know what to do after that. I am thinking wiping without getting into advanced mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When your phone booted straight into that mode with black screen and the led, then you bricked it. Same happened to me 2 days ago. The solution was to use the Msmtool from another thread and it worked great. Just follow the guide. But it will wipe your device. And you have to install oxygenos manually via "local upgrade". If you have a question, just ask
What I ended up doing was restoring from the backup I had. This was the "bad backup" without WiFi and broken finger print and facial recognition. After the restore, I did a normal wipe (not advanced). This reset the phone to factory settings. Once I configured WiFi and signed into my Google account, Google offered to recover from a cloud backup of my One Plus - I didn't know Google made these backups. It downloaded all the apps automatically. I don't know yet if I have sign into all of them all over again.
The bad back up saved my ass, I wasn't even planning on making it. I was just testing the backup feature. That's why you should always do a backup, even if the device isn't in ideal configuration.
shagexpert said:
The instructions I followed already installed Magisk to the phone. I wanted Super SU because some of the other chainfire apps like Liveboot and rooted apps like Titanium backup said Super SU is needed (Titanium said Magisk will work but may not be reliable for some newer versions of the ROM). I can live without liveboot but really need Titanium to reliably transfer data from my older phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I rooted my phone with Magisk and installed the 5.1.6 via OTA (and reroot via installed Magisk Manager). So no need to install TWRP so far.
Titanium Backup runs flawlessly with Magisk (already on my OP 3T and my OP 5).
So give Magisk a try, I never had such an easy and reliable update as the one from 5.1.5 to 5.1.6
Helium is a great alternative to titanium.
I'm really hoping you guys can help me out here. This is an S7 I bought from a Best Buy when I visited the US in 2017, and I got the Unlocked version so I would be able to use it back in my home country. Unfortunately, this is the second time I've had trouble with it in a span of 4 months and the first time it was a hardware problem and ended up quite expensive to get fixed.
Today I was using my phone normally when I decided to use the Google instant translation to translate something on my computer screen. That caused my phone to freeze, restart, and then tell me I was using an unauthorized flash and it was going to be locked, or something like that. Even after restarting a few more times, the phone would never get past that screen. I proceeded to factory reset/cache reset and from then on the phone just got stuck in a boot loop.
I learned that the fix would be to flash the phone. After a lot of work I found the G930UUESACSI1-20190930144640 firmware (the XAA version, for Unlocked) and successfully used Odin 3.13 at the Download Mode screen to flash my phone. It then restarted, went back to the blue screen, started installing some updates, when it was 100% it restarted again. Unfortunately, the loop remained. Galaxy S7 logo first, then the Samsung logo, then it just repeats.
I have also tried turning the phone off with the Recovery screen shut down option (since I can't seem to be able to turn it off with the power button right now), wait a few minutes, then turn it back on. Nothing changed.
Please, does anyone have any insight into this? What else could I possibly try, or what could I be doing wrong? I really don't want to send it to repair yet again in such a short time.
Many thanks in advance.
gabeblack said:
I'm really hoping you guys can help me out here. This is an S7 I bought from a Best Buy when I visited the US in 2017, and I got the Unlocked version so I would be able to use it back in my home country. Unfortunately, this is the second time I've had trouble with it in a span of 4 months and the first time it was a hardware problem and ended up quite expensive to get fixed.
Today I was using my phone normally when I decided to use the Google instant translation to translate something on my computer screen. That caused my phone to freeze, restart, and then tell me I was using an unauthorized flash and it was going to be locked, or something like that. Even after restarting a few more times, the phone would never get past that screen. I proceeded to factory reset/cache reset and from then on the phone just got stuck in a boot loop.
I learned that the fix would be to flash the phone. After a lot of work I found the G930UUESACSI1-20190930144640 firmware (the XAA version, for Unlocked) and successfully used Odin 3.13 at the Download Mode screen to flash my phone. It then restarted, went back to the blue screen, started installing some updates, when it was 100% it restarted again. Unfortunately, the loop remained. Galaxy S7 logo first, then the Samsung logo, then it just repeats.
I have also tried turning the phone off with the Recovery screen shut down option (since I can't seem to be able to turn it off with the power button right now), wait a few minutes, then turn it back on. Nothing changed.
Please, does anyone have any insight into this? What else could I possibly try, or what could I be doing wrong? I really don't want to send it to repair yet again in such a short time.
Many thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to clear the cache after flashing to get out of the boot loop.
Use the download key combo to restart. As soon as the screen goes black move to Volume up+home+power.
In the recovery menu choose clear/ Wipe cache, then choose reboot.
I apologize for not updating this thread before when it was still recent. The fact is that I didn't manage to fix my phone; clearing the cache after flashing did nothing to stop the loop.
I ended up taking the phone to the people who have fixed it in the past and after more than one month, they gave up. So I got my phone back and I want to try to give it another go before I just sell it for parts.
Unfortunately, my phone has come back even worse. Now it has no Recovery Menu to speak of, at least none that I can access; after a few seconds of the blue text on the top saying that it's entering recovery mode, it then proceeds to a blue screen saying: "Security Error: This phone has been flashed with unauthorized software and is locked.". I can still access Download Mode.
I have attempted flashing a few firmwares that I believe should have worked with my SM-G930U. Odin listed the attempts as "pass" and, after restarting and going back to the Download screen, it says the binary is Official. However, after trying to restart the phone normally, it starts displaying the blue screen again, and then, after going to Download mode, the binary is reverted to "Custom".
I believe right now the order of the day is to get the recovery menu to work again so I can do all the cache cleaning that seems to be required after flashing firmware. Any ideas at all on how I should proceed? Is there something specific I should download to fix the recovery menu?
How many files are you flashing in Odin, is it just 1 file in the AP slot, or 4 files: AP, BL, etc.? Also, is your phone rooted?
Drunkpilot said:
How many files are you flashing in Odin, is it just 1 file in the AP slot, or 4 files: AP, BL, etc.? Also, is your phone rooted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never rooted, was using the phone legit before it froze and entered boot loop. I flashed all 4 files, multiple times.
Someone tried fixing my phone a few days after I replied to this thread and some progress seems to have been made, but now the phone cannot get past a black screen with a "SBL Error! rdx_init!" in red text, and "upload mode" in yellow text. Still cannot access Recovery Mode, but Download Mode still works.
I did a little Googling on rdx_init errors and it seems I need a firmware dump from another G930U or something like that...any ideas on how I can proceed?
Flash it with Eng Boot in all slots using patched Odin. Reboot to recovery and wipe it. Reboot system. Then root it with advanced adb root. Links for all of this are here in xda. Enjoy
STA1NL3SS said:
Flash it with Eng Boot in all slots using patched Odin. Reboot to recovery and wipe it. Reboot system. Then root it with advanced adb root. Links for all of this are here in xda. Enjoy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I'm not an expert at this by any means, I'm not sure what files to get. So far I've found and downloaded the following:
S7_Oreo_Nougat_Adb_Advanced_Root_V10
S7_Oreo_Nougat_Adb_Advanced_Root_V12
S7_Oreo_Su_Binary_Only_ADB_Root
But I had no luck flashing any of these cause my binary is 10. Is there any more help you can provide me? I really don't know how to proceed
gabeblack said:
Sorry, I'm not an expert at this by any means, I'm not sure what files to get. So far I've found and downloaded the following:
S7_Oreo_Nougat_Adb_Advanced_Root_V10
S7_Oreo_Nougat_Adb_Advanced_Root_V12
S7_Oreo_Su_Binary_Only_ADB_Root
But I had no luck flashing any of these cause my binary is 10. Is there any more help you can provide me? I really don't know how to proceed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought I had one in my phone, but I don't. If you look at the thread where you downloaded the Root_V12, you will see it. It's near the end of the thread somewhere.