Wondering if anyone can think of anything I can try before returning the phone this afternoon.
What happened:
Yesterday, I rebooted the phone because a prog had hung and wasn't responding to force quitting via Applications. When I tried to turn it on, it didn't respond -- zilch. I plugged it in and tried a few times to turn it on over the next hour with no luck. Finally it started to boot and hung at the ATT screen, but after sitting there for a min, horizontal lines appeared across the screen. Tried again over the next hours with the same result.
Left the battery out overnight. A few minutes ago, I tried it again and it actually got past the ATT screens, but after the Samsung logo sequence was done it hung on the blank screen. The phone is rooted and clockworkmoded, so I tried to boot into recovery to do a nandroid restore. No dice: I get an error about not being able to write/read to the sdcard.
So at the black screen, I can shell into the phone. Can't SU (seg fault). Can't get to the internal SD storage (which is all I really want at this pt. I took a bunch of awesome pics while surfing yesterday and want em).
It looks to me like there is some sort of corruption of the internal storage. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
From the looks of it your nand crapped out...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Yeah thats what I'm thinking.
This does highlight a flaw in the storage setup: having internal storage like the iphone is seriously awesome from the usability standpoint. But android is set up to assume that when you back up, it's to a removable card. So I have a Ti backup, but that doesnt help me if I can't get to it if the phone dies.
Seriously bummed. I've had a really crazy # of dead iphones (like 6 over two models -- its one of the reasons I finally switched) but the upside was that when it was switched out I was rocking all my stuff on the new phone within an hour. With this, I'm now starting from scratch.
FWIW: I got the phone working again by wiping user data and reformatting the internal storage. I'm guessing that there was something corrupted.
Here's the warning I'd offer though: Ti backups etc do you no good if they're on the same file system as the phone boots off of. I was backing up regularly, but since they were on the internal drive that did me no good. Unless I'm missing something, Ti doesn't allow you to choose a location (just a folder name) for backups.
if it lets you choose a folder name then choose sdcard/sd that is where the phone's linux mounts your external SD Card.
Also I keep my Titanium backups and Nandroids on my Computer for extra safety.
This is a strange one for me. Stumped. Been working on it all night, no improvement. New one for me, long-ish description (with detail), but a TL;DR too.
Last night I applied the 1.3 OTA for the K1. Being my K1 was rooted, I followed the process I have always followed by restoring the system images to stock, applying the OTA via recovery, then re-rooting. Process:
Shutdown tablet
Swap married/paired SD card with temp SD containing flashables (OTA, SuperSU)
Boot to bootloader, fastboot (re)flash tablet's current system images (recovery was already stock but flashed again for good measure, boot, system, blob -> staging)
Boot to custom recovery using fastboot boot -recovery image-
Flash OTA from temp SD, wipe caches, apply SuperSU
Shutdown, replace married SD, boot, enjoy life
This time I didn't immediately apply SuperSU, as I thought I'd flash 1.3 and let it go fully stock a bit to ensure no other updates were pending (nVidia seems to like incremental updates, so flashing to 1.1 won't give you an OTA to 1.3 directly, but to 1.2 first, then 1.3). I've also followed this process with the K1 for every update since 1.1 without a hitch, and although there haven't been many OTAs, it has still worked perfectly every time. Because of this and because I've done this a billion times on a million different devices with zero issues ever, I didn't take a backup before the update. Woe is me.
When I rebooted this time after flashing the OTA (no root), it booted up seemingly fine to the "Android is upgrading" modal, so I left the tablet alone for a bit to let it do its thing. When I came back, the tablet was HOT, was at a completely black screen save for the status bar (no wallpaper/launcher besides the clock/wifi icon which showed a connection, that's it). I tried to interact with it and couldn't (totally locked up, also a first), then it rebooted on its own. Subsequent times, during troubleshooting, I noticed that it's totally locked -- NOTHING responds, unless you can get to it before it reboots and hold power to kill it.
First thought was a bad flash. NBD, so went back and reflashed, double-checking everything and carefully following the same process. No dice. I did use a newer TWRP recovery from April of this year initially, which was a recommended version for the K1 specifically, rather than a really buggy but working one from last year. To test I did I try using the older TWRP on one of the next flashes thinking maybe the new one borked the partitions, or at least wasn't writing the partitions/symlinks properly (and the older one was the TWRP I had used for previous updates, with no issues). But, no change..
It took me a long time and many reflashes and cache formatting and digging before I realized if I pulled the married SD out, it booted just fine. Weird, and gets weirder. After leaving the married SD out and booting, and having the tablet working just as expected (except for missing the SD), Android shows a notification saying to reinsert the married SD. Once the married SD is reinserted, things seem OK for a few seconds before the whole system goes unresponsive again, heats up, and begins bootlooping. Before it sh'ts the bed, the message on the status notification asking to reinsert the married SD card doesn't change, but in the Storage settings, it shows it's "checking" the card, followed by a sudden hot death spiral into non-function. If you select the SD from Storage settings to take a look around its contents, the tablet basically locks up instantly. Inserting other SDs works fine (for the most part, still some other weirdness), it's just the married SD that totally kills the device without fail.
Obviously I'd like to avoid wiping and reinstalling the whole thing if it can be avoided, not just because my dumb ass didn't take a backup so I'd lose a ton of app/game data, but also because it's a just huge pain. A lot of the sites that offered "fixes" for these types of problems say to just wipe data, which is not a solution and is the nuclear option (like telling someone to to replace a car due to a flat tire).
Ideas? Is this as simple as recreating some symlinks that somehow disappeared and refuse to come back after all the flashes, and if so, how? I've been looking for hours and haven't found anyone with this particular issue or steps to correct.
[size=+2]TL;DR[/size]: Applied K1 1.3 OTA, married/paired SD card is no longer recognized, causes tablet to hard-lock and enter bootloop when inserted (other SDs do not cause this issue).
Other potentially pertinent bits:
Initial flash was dirty, second and subsequent flashes included a wipe of system first
Installed 1.2 images first, then tried going back to 1.1.1 and taking nVidia's OTAs to get back up to 1.3
1.1.1 does not recognize the married SD but doesn't kill the tablet, while 1.2 and 1.3 kill the tablet when the SD is inserted
When married SD is not inserted, using shell or ES Explorer or otherwise, not seeing a /storage/emulated/0, or /sdcard, or /data/media, or any other familiar storage related directories
When married SD is inserted, it dies too fast to look around much or try to do anything to check/fix the SD itself
/storage is totally empty except for a folder called "self", and inserting a working SD creates a directory under /storage labeled with the SD's serial number (not an emulated/0 directory or anything similar)
Not sure if this is expected behavior since the SD was married -- do those directories/symlinks live on the SD now since it's married, and won't show up in the device filesystem until everything's properly mounted?
Tried following these steps, which although written in the N5 forum, still seemed relevant.. no change
Tried the referenced SD permissions update with the card inserted and not, in case of the directories it touches only being visible/available with the card inserted, no change
Noticed even within TWRP, going to the "mount" menu seemed flaky, labored, and didn't show what I expected, but this could be because there isn't a "proper" or official custom recovery for the K1 yet and things are just buggy
ES File Manager still seems to think an /sdcard directory exists and tries to open to it, and just spins in an open directory.. as expected
Going to /data in ES File Manager shows me an empty directory with a message stating the SD card is missing
Using a working, freshly formatted SD in the tablet and trying to point Titanium to a directory on the SD gives me messages about the directory being unwritable, no matter where I go on the SD
Titanium's app permissions (including r/w storage) are proper, SD is not write protected (freshly formatted on the tablet)
Tried using SDFix, which also gave me an error re: "platform permission file is invalid"
There's probably more I'm missing, but can't remember it all -- I have tried everything, I feel like, and have been at it for 13 hours now (apologies if this is written spotty, fighting to keep my eyes open).
So is it totally hosed, or is this recoverable? Is there a way to fix the tablet to recognize the SD, or fix the SD itself if that's the issue (but I'd wonder how it got corrupted in the first place, since it has only been removed once fully powered down)? Is there at least a way to check the married SD for corruption or issues?
Thoughts?
EDIT: Formatting
You removed the sdcard that was set as internal storage? Well you probably broke it/the data on it because that's not what you should do at all
GtrCraft said:
You removed the sdcard that was set as internal storage? Well you probably broke it/the data on it because that's not what you should do at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And why is that? When the OS is running, sure, you can't. It'd be equivalent to just deleting /data while the OS was running. It seems pretty unlikely that removing and reinserting it while it's powered off, though, would make it suddenly unable to read the SD or forget its pairing. Adopted storage is "married" to the device via a generated encryption key, which is stored on the device's internal storage. It's all handled in software, not like the SD fuses itself to the device Removing the SD (while off) would not (and does not) break this pairing method, unless the internal storage or SD decides to spontaneously erase itself while the device was off.
The process outlined is the recommended process for upgrading rooted devices with adopted storage. I've followed this process on multiple tablets/phones with adopted storage with zero issues, including this one several times, like I mentioned.
If it WERE the case that simply removing it (again, while off) made it forget the SD, I could understand the tablet reading the card and saying "nope not going to accept it, you done f'd up" and spitting out a dialog telling me to format it or whatnot.. lesson learned, if that were the case. However it's completely hard-locking the device (again, NOTHING works, no physical buttons, screen is unresponsive, only holding power to kill it works) when it's just reading the SD, and apparently pinning the CPU when doing so (hence the absurd heat)..? It's not just a matter of the tablet forgetting the SD
grivad said:
When the OS is running, sure. Maybe that is the case, but it seems pretty unlikely that removing and reinserting it while it's powered off would make it spontaneously unable to read the SD or forget its pairing.
This is the recommended process for upgrading rooted devices with adopted storage. I've followed this process on multiple tablets/phones with adopted storage with zero issues, including this one several times, like I mentioned.
If it WERE the case that simply removing it (again, while off) made it forget the SD, I could understand the tablet reading the card and saying "nope not going to accept it, you done f'd up" and spitting out a dialog telling me to format it or whatnot.. lesson learned, if that were the case. However it's completely hard-locking the device (again, NOTHING works, no physical buttons, screen is unresponsive, only holding power to kill it works) when it's just reading the SD, and apparently pinning the CPU when doing so (hence the absurd heat)..? It's not just a matter of the tablet forgetting the SD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still, you better off formatting it
Sent from my XT1562 using XDA Labs
Been running adopted storage in my mxpe since mm was released and have never removed the card to flash.
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using Tapatalk
lafester said:
Been running adopted storage in my mxpe since mm was released and have never removed the card to flash.
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool.
Regarding the YOU CAN'T REMOVE IT belief (which is categorically false), if this were a serious issue like people speculate it is, Android would simply not ALLOW you to remove it. Meaning if it was ever detected as being removed or missing, first time, Android would tell you "too bad, now it's unpaired", and would also make it REEEEALLY clear not to remove it at all, ever, during the pairing process, which it does not. Nor would it let you eject adopted storage, which you can, safely. Like I mentioned above, when booting without the SD present, the system runs fine and has a persistent notification asking you to reinsert the paired SD, and begins to check the SD as soon as it's inserted so it can be remounted. If you select the notification before putting the SD back in, it takes you to a panel explaining how the SD has all your apps, so you really should put it back in, or you can choose to "forget" the SD and you're back to square one. If you REALLY weren't supposed to remove the SD EVER, none of this would exist.
Additionally, pretty much every piece of documentation around adoptable storage says it can be removed just fine (but is only readable/usable by the device it was paired to), but the system kinda needs it to, you know, run all the apps you put on the thing, and will persistently remind you to reinsert it, unless you choose to break the adoption. So there's that.
Storage adoption isn't this magical, complicated thing. It mounts certain directories to your SD instead of internal storage (e.g., /storage/emulated), generates a key, then encrypts the card to prevent it from being read outside of the device it was paired with. That's really pretty much all there is to it. None of those things necessitate a or even imply that removal of an adopted SD would lead to sudden disaster. That's like believing if you take your hard drive out of your computer, but then plug it right back in, that it's going to be unbootable and dead. Doesn't work that way.
I appreciate you guys trying to help, but the problem is not simply that I removed the SD so now it's broken.
The thing that should get your attention is that when the SD is inserted, it begins to scan the SD and subsequently HARD-LOCKS. And PEGS THE CPU. Also that I cannot write to a working SD with Titanium. These things are pretty abnormal for Android devices, to say the least. There is something else going on here besides "You took the SD out and you weren't supposed to."
grivad said:
Cool.
Regarding the DON'T REMOVE IT belief, if this were an issue like people speculate it is, Android would simply not ALLOW you to remove it. Meaning if it was ever detected as being removed or missing, first time, Android would tell you "too bad, now it's unpaired", and would also make it REEEEALLY clear not to remove it at all, ever, during the pairing process, which it does not. Nor would it let you eject adopted storage, which you can, safely. Like I mentioned above, when booting without the SD present, the system runs fine and has a persistent notification asking you to reinsert the paired SD, and begins to check the SD as soon as it's inserted so it can be remounted. If you select the notification before putting the SD back in, it takes you to a panel explaining how the SD has all your apps, so you really should put it back in, or you can choose to "forget" the SD and you're back to square one. If you REALLY weren't supposed to remove the SD EVER, none of this would exist.
Additionally, pretty much every piece of documentation around adoptable storage says it can be removed just fine (but is only readable/usable by the device it was paired to), but the system kinda needs it to, you know, run all the apps you put on the thing, and will persistently remind you to reinsert it, unless you choose to break the adoption. So there's that.
Storage adoption isn't this magical, complicated thing. It mounts certain directories to your SD instead of internal storage (e.g., /storage/emulated), generates a key, then encrypts the card to prevent it from being read outside of the device it was paired with. That's really pretty much all there is to it. None of those things necessitate a or even imply that removal of an adopted SD would lead to sudden disaster. That's like believing if you take your hard drive out of your computer, but then plug it right back in, that it's going to be unbootable and dead. Doesn't work that way.
I appreciate you guys trying to help, but the problem is not simply that I removed the SD so now it's broken.
The thing that should get your attention is that when the SD is inserted, it begins to scan the SD and subsequently HARD-LOCKS. And PEGS THE CPU. Both of those things are pretty abnormal for Android devices, to say the least. There is something else going on here besides "You took the SD out and you weren't supposed to."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you tried with another sd and there is no problem. So the cause of the freezing problem is your sd.
But be my guest and find another solution. I just gave an answer to your question and a solution for the problem. If you don't believe that then you shouldn't ask it in the first place
GtrCraft said:
Well you tried with another sd and there is no problem. So the cause of the freezing problem is your sd.
But be my guest and find another solution. I just gave an answer to your question and a solution for the problem. If you don't believe that then you shouldn't ask it in the first place
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not that I don't believe the solution, I don't believe the premise because it is provably false There is absolutely nothing unsafe about ejecting adopted storage, which is why the OS lets you do it, even while it's running and using the storage. Even less of a risk if the thing is off. The "solution" offered wasn't much of a solution, and in the OP it was stated that I wasn't looking for that answer (already know that's an option, which is why I mentioned in the OP).
I appreciate you trying to help, but simply saying "format it", again, is the nuclear option. Not what I'm looking for. Either information as to what's happening (if anyone else has dealt with this) with a justification as to why it's irrepairable, or things to try based on the information I gave. Spending a lot of time being thorough just to get a "format it" response, to be frank, isn't very helpful It's like telling someone to reinstall their entire OS because they can't figure out how to install a driver, or to raze their house because a painting fell off the wall.
The SD didn't spontaneously corrupt itself in the 5 mins it was out of the device. No gamma bursts or EM storms in my area that I know of, either Because the only thing that changed was installing the OTA, this really seems to be a software problem (albeit a bit bizarre, to me) so it should be fixable via software. The fact it's pegging the CPU when the SD is inserted makes me wonder if it's getting stuck in a loop, maybe due to partition changes (looking for a file or partition it can't find). If that's the case, again, that should be fixable via software, with instruction from someone knowledgeable on how the Android FS and mounts work.
Again thanks for trying to help. I know formatting is an option (the easiest one), but I'm looking for just that -- options.
You did update the firmware with the sd out, nothing to do with lightning or gamma bursts.
Did you try downgrading firmware back to where it was?
lafester said:
You did update the firmware with the sd out, nothing to do with lightning or gamma bursts.
Did you try downgrading firmware back to where it was?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, the SD was out, however this is how I've both read to do it in multiple places, and how I've applied every OTA so far without issue (with the same adopted SD every time). As part of my troubleshooting, I did try flashing the OTA with the adopted SD inserted, though. It didn't make a difference.
I did try downgrading.. When I started the tablet was on 1.2, OTAd to 1.3. Every time I'd reflash I would do so to 1.2. I did try flashing down to 1.1.1 (the "recovery OS image") and OTAing back up, and like I mentioned that allowed me to use the device with the SD inserted, but it wouldn't recognize it as the adopted storage.. just kinda did nothing, as if the card wasn't inserted at all. This happened in 1.2 as well (OTAd from 1.1.1), and once it got up to 1.3 from 1.2 it all started all over again.
I'm creating an image of the SD right now (using dd) to try restoring it to another SD. I've read that doing this preserves the pairing information, so if it's a bad SD, this would hopefully fix it. I also wanted to try flashing directly to 1.3, but the images aren't available yet Only 1.2 and 1.1.1..
Honestly I would divorce the card before update then redo it after this whole method is janky anyway no reason to remap the data links like they do and all it would be required is if app devs were forced to comply with a data space method... The feature of installing to SD card should be available to non married storage.
Old thread, haven't been on in a while, but thought I'd post an update.
The problem ended up being a hardware issue. I contacted nVidia after absolutely nothing I tried resolved the issue (different SDs, different OS versions, different process to set up, etc.). I simply explained the problems I was having and my troubleshooting attempts, asked if it was a known issue or if they had any suggestions, and they immediately responded with RMA info, no questions asked. The replacement turnaround time was very fast (within a week IIRC), and the new K1 has had zero issues.
Hi all, I have had my S8+ for several months now, everything was fine until this morning when I woke up to unlock my phone, it unlocked as per normal. I enabled wifi and opened google chrome and checked the weather. The, the phone shutdown and within a few seconds the blue screen appeared with a message (erasing). It took a while for the phone to boot up and go through the initial setup like a brand new phone.
Now, all the data on the phone and my 32GB micro SD card are gone. I have tried half a dozen recovery software on my PC but none can see any files on the micro SD.
I have no idea what happened and why it has wiped the micro SD card. I have lost images and videos of the last few years, I know silly not to have them backed up.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Wow, that is a great disappointment losing all that personal info. I suspect you are running a recovery software app from a PC or a Mac? If you are not getting any meaningful results from the data restore apps, and you know those apps to be of good/high reputation, then I am wondering of your phone uses a type of 'wipe' function that performs a military/DOD sort of erase?
If that is the case, that stuff is likely gone forever. If that is not the case, hopefully you can find another app to try and restore your stuff.
Now, on the other note, that's an odd behavior for your phone to just reboot and do it's thing, wiping your system. Do you have any type of security going where it might have thought the phone had been stolen, and performed a wipe as protection for the owner. . . (you)?
Good luck.
I do have company email on my phone and I have agreed to their security policy which wipes all your data. This could be one of the reason, however could they erase data from SD card?
I had over 60GB of personal files on it and I thought the SD card will not get wiped in any case.
I have been reading around but can't find any solution. Stuffed to the max.
gunner007dc said:
You can check the phone's memory - sometimes it has a "SD RESTORE" folder if it backed up anything.
By chance is this a company phone, or had a company e-mail on it? Sometimes those e-mails require device administrator and can be remotely wiped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good info.
gunner007dc said:
You can check the phone's memory - sometimes it has a "SD RESTORE" folder if it backed up anything.
By chance is this a company phone, or had a company e-mail on it? Sometimes those e-mails require device administrator and can be remotely wiped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, where would I find this folder? I have checked by can't find it.
Well, this is rather vexing.
I've been hard at work trying to backup / transfer data from my extremely old Samsung Galaxy S5 that seems to be coming to the end of it's useful lifespan. The S7 was next, but aside from running out of internal storage, I thought I still had time on that one (I wasn't experiencing a lot of slowdown or any crashes).
I went out for a couple hours (taking my newer phone), and when I came back, I saw my S7 on the insert the pin code screen. When I put the correct pin code in, the "unlocked padlock" stays on the screen for ages, before the phone restarts and I am shown the pin screen again (if I insert the wrong pin, it says so, so I am sure that I am not inserting the wrong pin).
So for the first time in my life, I am dealing with a spontaneous boot loop. This device has never been rooted, had a custom recovery installed or even the bootloader unlocked (it's the Exynos version, so presumably it would have been possible, but I decided that I wanted *one* unrooted device just in case, and given Knox, I decided that this was the device that will remain unmodded).
Anyway, that's for the story, but the question is, is there anything that I can try before the nuclear option (factory reset etc.).
Fortunately most of the photos are on the MicroSD. There are perhaps two or three apps that I would have liked to backup (they did not have a convenient built-in backup system) but I am just wondering if there is anything I might be able to do at this point? For instance, would wiping the cache be an option? Or is there anything I might be able to do with adb?
(Note: The device is running on Android 7)
Thanks.
Don't set security passwords for device access as you are the one most likely to be locked out.
If the boot loop wasn't caused by a hardware failure it's likely a app you loaded. Launchers and power management apps are prime candidates. Leave at least a couple gb of headroom on internal storage.
A factory reset is the easiest solution. Be careful what you load next time... take out the trash.
Use the SD card as a data drive, all critical data and everything you need for a reload goes here. No apps. Only apps, and the temporary download folder go on the internal memory.
The DCIM folder can be set to the SD card as well, but there can only be one DCIM folder and don't change its name. If a second backup folder is used on the SD card instead do not name it DCIM.
ApkExport can be used to make installable copies of apps for transfering them and added the data drive as well, no Playstore needed.
Do not use Kies or SmartSwitch when going between different type devices or OS versions. It can cause issues.
Cut/paste critical data, verify the data is readable and all there. Don't trust Kies or SmartSwitch with critical data.
Never clone data drives.
Never encrypt data drives.
Regularly redundantly backup the SD card data drive to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC.
Thanks for the reply.
1. No app was recently installed (past couple of weeks)
2. Hardware failure? Maybe, but it is rather out of the blue. Phone has not displayed any unusual behaviour, it hasn't been taken out of the house for a week or so (it is really in the process of getting retired). And I would like to ascertain it.
3. I am aware I can just nuke the whole thing with a factory reset, but before taking that easy option and effectively lose some data I'd like to retrieve if possible, I would like to other options.
And rather than tips on what I should've done or can do next time (much of which I am already doing), I am looking for advice on anything I might be able to try -before- nuking the whole thing.
For instance, could the log-files (there are quite a few of them) provide hint in what went wrong? Any option of re-installing the OS without wiping the data partition? Since I am on a fairly old version of Android I may also have the option of doing a minor update. That kind of things. I am thinking that there might also be the possibility that the system files somehow got corrupted and perhaps a re-install or system update might be worth trying.
I am basically looking for options that will not, for the time being erase the data partition. If it comes down to it in the end, then fine, but that is the last option not the first.
It sounds like it got spontaneously corrupted. Perhaps a flash memory cell failure. If so it may or may not be "self healing" with a factory reset or a reflash.
If you have ADB access you may be able to fix it.
Otherwise your options are limited to what's on the boot menu.
Try doing a hard reboot (simulates pulling battery).
If you try booting it a bunch of times it may go into go safe mode. I've seen that behavior in Android 9.
That's extent of my skills, sorry.
The reason why I posted how to prevent data lose is because sometimes that's all you can do.
Internal memory data I consider expendable, the SD card data... potentially expendable.