(FIXED) Bootloader Locked but Device Won't Boot - General Topics

I recently ran into the issue during custom rom work. I reflash the stock android ZIP, it starts booting, then I hard reset it with the power button and try to reach bootloader again. This, as it turns out, is terrible to do if you want a fast setup. The moment it starts and you reboot it, the boot image is corrupted (that's my guess) because escaping the boot screen during a clean flash bricks your phone. If you're reading this, it happened to you as well.
The answer is so flipping obvious and it took me an hour to figure it out - nowhere on the internet is there a "solution" for this problem, no matter how frequent it is. But there are lots of people who deal with this, whether still on their factory images (like the Pixel 3 EDL issue) or like me bouncing from custom to stock. So here's the answer:
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SIDELOAD THE CURRENT SOFTWARE OTA OR A BETA OTA FROM ANOTHER FUTURE VERSION.
It doesn't recognize timestamps before your current software, so you'll need to assume you're on the latest of whatever you're on and do that. Future versions work as well, so if you wanted to reach 12 in one shot, your phone's bootloader would fully accept it as long as the file isn't corrupted. If you need a sideloading or flashing guide, here you go.
For me, I flashed the latest build of Android 11 (August patch) and rebooted during the boot up. What I did was download the OTA of the same exact file to my laptop, and entered adb sideload coral.xxx.x.zip. (The name of the file) It ran all the way through and it started up perfectly normal.
I hope this helps someone!
P.S. I don't have any pictures or tutorials, I only wrote this to help others understand what happened and how to fix it. Probably wouldn't have needed to say it if the forum for it existed.

Related

Pushing Recovery on 3.2.6

Hi All,
I'm probably one of the few here who is still using HoneyComb instead of ICS on my Xoom. I've been on 3.2.4 for some time now, and started getting the 3.2.6 update notification which I blew off until the other day when I said screw it, I'll update and go through the trouble of re-rooting, etc.
However, I attempted to use Solarnz's universal root method which I've used numerous times before and never had an issue with until now. So after pushing the recovery.img via Fastboot, everything appears to have been completed just fine, except when I reboot into recovery I get the damn android with an error.
I've tried pushing a few versions of recovery and each time it seems to work just fine, but again on reboot, I can't get into recovery like it never got pushed or somehow has been erased. I can even revert back to 3.2.2 and update to 3.2.4 and root and re-install clockwork no problem. But I keep getting that damn update notification every 5 mins, and I'm sick of it, hence why I bothered to update in the first place.
I know most people have by-passed this altogether by jumping to ICS, but I've had too many issues with the beta ICS versions out there (WIFI handoffs and disconnects mostly) and need to reliable daily driver vice ICS goodness (fortunately I have a GNex for that).
Anyway, since I hadn't seen much on this, I decided to post and see if its just me, or if this really is an issue?
I can probably go old skool and use the manual root method of pushing the SU files via ADB, but something isn't right here, and I wanted to get some feedback.
Thanks
DANOinSD said:
Hi All,
I'm probably one of the few here who is still using HoneyComb instead of ICS on my Xoom. I've been on 3.2.4 for some time now, and started getting the 3.2.6 update notification which I blew off until the other day when I said screw it, I'll update and go through the trouble of re-rooting, etc.
However, I attempted to use Solarnz's universal root method which I've used numerous times before and never had an issue with until now. So after pushing the recovery.img via Fastboot, everything appears to have been completed just fine, except when I reboot into recovery I get the damn android with an error.
I've tried pushing a few versions of recovery and each time it seems to work just fine, but again on reboot, I can't get into recovery like it never got pushed or somehow has been erased. I can even revert back to 3.2.2 and update to 3.2.4 and root and re-install clockwork no problem. But I keep getting that damn update notification every 5 mins, and I'm sick of it, hence why I bothered to update in the first place.
I know most people have by-passed this altogether by jumping to ICS, but I've had too many issues with the beta ICS versions out there (WIFI handoffs and disconnects mostly) and need to reliable daily driver vice ICS goodness (fortunately I have a GNex for that).
Anyway, since I hadn't seen much on this, I decided to post and see if its just me, or if this really is an issue?
I can probably go old skool and use the manual root method of pushing the SU files via ADB, but something isn't right here, and I wanted to get some feedback.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depending on what ROM your flashing if your trying to do the update from OTA then you have to have a 100% no bloatware removed rom, my suggestion is to download the one @ motodev and then flash 3.1 and update all the way to ICS (if wanted) otherwise I believe that when you get the (!) in recovery you can press once pwr+up fast (don't hold) and it will display the recovery window with the error message that's preventing you from upgrading.
after flashing the recovery, did you reboot into android and then into recovery? if yes, don't!
you have to reboot into recovery right after flashing the recovery.
Hi All,
Thanks for the feedback, I finally got recovery pushed and booted, along with root on 3.2.6.
As llama points out you must reboot into recovery upon rebooting from fastboot. I don’t believe this was a requirement previously. But once I did that, all was fine.
I’ve done this a thousand times before and even in my old notes I couldn’t find any reference to booting into recovery immediately after pushing the recovery.img. Is this something new with this update or has it always been this way? Call me crazy, but I can’t ever recall scrambling to catch the reboot and get into recovery before re-launching Android. I always rebooted in Android and made sure it actually loaded to ensure something didn’t get hosed, then I would reboot into recovery and flash the root zip.
DANOinSD said:
Is this something new with this update or has it always been this way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as far as I know, this is a 'feature' introduced with every ota-update. To my knowledge: get a xoom from a store and flash recovery right away-> everything is good; have the xoom install an ota-update and flash recovery afterwards -> do it this way

In a right mess trying to return to stock

Please could someone help ! I'm trying to unlock my XT1032. I have the correct Sim-Unlock (network unlock) code from my old telco, but... it won't work because the phone is rooted, bootloader unlocked (S-ON) running CM13.
I figured that returning it to a stock build would allow me to unlock the phone, then I could re-root and return to CM13 on my new network.
However..... there are about a dozen guides on returning a Moto G to stock and the first one I tried left the phone stuck on the 'Warning: Bootloader is unlocked' message. Since then, I've tried several other guides and have got nowhere fast. I've been on this for four hours now and the only thing I seem to be able achieve is to get TWRP or CWM recovery on there by flashing from fastboot. Every other image I try either gives 'preflash validation failed' messages, sticks on the Bootloader Unlocked screen or gets it stuck in a bootloop!
I just want to switch networks... Why is this so bloody difficult ?
What Firmware did your XT1032 originally come with? or which Carrier?
Kitkat I think, and it's Tesco (UK).
I subsequently did the OTA update to Lollipop and then.... WHOAAAAA.... hold on... it's booting !!!
I don't know how, or what I've done to get this far, but the only thing I can think of that's changed is that the battery is now at 100% charge. It appears as though it's successfully flashed the 5.1 untouched ROM from http://forum.xda-developers.com/devdb/project/?id=7981#downloads
But, I've tried flashing that loads of times this evening and it's failed everytime.
Having said that it's booting, it's sitting here on the Motorola logo - and it hasn't got that far in the last five hours.... I'll be back shortly !
Update: It worked ! It completed the boot, I put the new SIM in, it asked for the unlock code and this time it worked OK. Now I'm tackling putting CM13 back on it. I think I'll stick with TWRP rather than CWM recovery, as long as TWRP can handle the automatic updating for the CM nightlies.
I have no idea what went wrong there - maybe it was just that the battery had to be at 100% ?? Who knows... Thankfully I doubt I'll be tackling that again !
I don't know if things have changed, but I would be careful with OTA Updates in CM. People have hard-bricked (phone is effectively destroyed) applying updates in this way. I also suggest you avoid official Motorola updates, rather use the factory firmware images available here: (which already include the content of OTA Updates)
[INDEX] Moto G [Falcon][Peregrine] Factory Firmware Images​
Thanks for replying anyway mate. In the end, it's all good now. Unlocked and back on CM13 and on my new network !
Ahhh... not so good after all. The phone reboots every time you try to uninstall an app. I've tried flashing back to CM12.1, the latest stable release, and it does the same, so I've obviously screwed something up along the way.
Could someone help me flatten this thing completely and get it working normally please?
I've tried reflashing loads of times, even tried Cyanogen Recovery instead of TWRP but nothing I do gets rid of this reboot problem.
Can anyone assist please?
OK, so I've followed the procedure detailed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g/development/rom-stock-motorola-lollipop-rom-t3017510 and flashed the Untouched 5.0.2. EU Stock ROM successfully, but it still reboots when you try to uninstall any app.
Whatever it is that's causing this is not getting overwritten by the flashing procedures I'm using is it ?
HELP !!!!!
@aneng64 - You have not done what I told you to do. Read my post again.
Yes I did... and I still had the same problem. It was only once I stopped trying to flash zips from TWRP and used mfastboot to flash the whole set individually (non-hlos, motoboot etc) that I got it to behave. The issue, incidentally, seemed to be the same one mentioned elsewhere here that also causes settings to crash when you try to go into settings, security.
Once it was stable with a stock ROM, I was able to flash CM13 again and it's now sorted. Thanks for your help anyway.

[Completed] HTC One M9 Major Issue

I have an HTC One M9 (Sprint) software version 2.11.651.19 (OPJA2) with Android v5.1
Within the last couple months I unlocked the devices bootloader, and rooted it. Last night I left the phone under my laptop and I'm thinking it got way way way too hot, somehow the thing is still alive, however when I went to turn it on in the morning, I had no wifi or cellular capabilities. At first I assumed this was a hardware issue, however I then unrooted the device on a whim, and this fixed it (Until I turned it off again, to my dismay).
I'm thinking somehow my phone overheated (Which explains why my battery life won't go over 47%) and somehow my flash memory must have been corrupted because I can no longer boot into recovery mode, which is my serious catch 22. Since I figure this is some issue related to my firmware, which I would LIKE to reflash (This is my goal here). To my dismay, in order to flash a stock RUU or firmware to the device, you must have your bootloader relocked. However in order to relock your bootloader you must have root, and like an idiot I unrooted it. I can't reinstall SuperSU through my TWRP recovery because my phone refuses to boot into recovery mode. I attempted to re-flash TWRP to the device through download mode, the flashing is completed successfully, however I still cannot boot into my recovery. To break it down simply:
-Want to reflash stock firmware
-Must have root to reflash stock firmware/RUU
-Don't have root because I uninstalled it
-Can't re-root because my recovery is corrupted
-Can't re-flash TWRP (Already tried and it's not working)
-Can't re-root because I can't flash TWRP
-Can't reflash stock firmware because I can't disable it with root
Regardless of this I attempted to use adb and echo to relock the bootloader however instead of getting # I get $, so I'm not really able to do this either. Is there ANY way I can repair my recovery, has anyone ever run into an issue like this before? Or am I just completely screwed, hahaha.
Do you think I might be able to reflash Android V5.1 to try and fix the corruption and then maybe that would allow me to get into recovery mode so I can flash Super SU so I can at least factory reset my device with TWRP, or possible reload stock firmware and factory reset from there?
Thanks guys for any help you can provide.
*EDIT
If anyone wants to provide any advice great, but for now I'm going to try using HTC Sync Manager to load Marshmallow (v6.0) onto the HTC and see if this may allow me to actually get into recovery mode. Downloading the file from here: *nevermind can't post links yet, under 10 posts, you can find it on HTC's website* (This is for the HTC One M9, Sprint) in case anyone else EVER has to run into this awful issue, lol.
Moderators please feel free to update the thread to SOLVED status, I was able to update my phone to marshmallow to resolve the issue. This time around I WILL be backing up my phone, probably not going to root it this time around either, I have like 3 other phones so I'll just root them instead, lol. If you would like the download link I am happy to provide it VIA PM so you can update my OP with the link for the full fix. My phone is able to get wifi and texts now without an issue, unfortunately all my data is wiped but honestly I don't really care!!
Thanks everyone!
Good job on solving your issue.
If you have further questions or want to help out others, you can do so here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sprint-one-m9/help
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sprint-one-m9
Thread closed

The interesting story of how an OTA rendered my Z almost-useless

Just for background info, at the time it happened, my Z was running NPL25.86-30 from the following thread;
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-z/development/android-nougat-moto-z-versions-t3506342
It was running perfectly fine, then an OTA thing appeared. Well, I made the single big mistake of accepting it, and thus, it encountered an error and while the phone booted fine and even displayed the new build "NPLS-25.86-30-5", it started to randomly reboot when the phone either goes to sleep or when CPU loads are very low.
Well, I was distraught. The phone which was working perfectly fine just a few minutes ago was rendered almost useless as I had to keep turning it off after I used it to avoid it going into a reboot loop. So making calls was difficult enough as the phone would never receive a call as it would be endlessly rebooting anyway.
So, when I returned home, I fired up ADB, connected the Z in Fastboot mode and reflashed the NPL25.86-30 firmware from that link. For a while, it seemed to be fine, but then it started doing it again. I tried again and it still does so.
I was at a loss as I wasn't sure what else to do. Since the OTA update was there, I was afraid that the bootloader may have upgraded and causing me to lose my downgrade. However, when I used the command "fastboot boot xxx", I noticed the Marshmallow boot screen, indicating that the old bootloader was indeed intact and it hasn't changed.
It also happens that I kept the original firmware file which my phone came out of the box with. So I fired up RSDLite, put the entire .zip file in it (including GPT and bootloader) and flashed it right away. After it was done and I did a hasty setup, I left the phone alone to see if it would do so. Over an hour passed, and the phone never rebooted by itself, and would only do so if I was the one doing it.
So, there was light at the end of this very dark tunnel. Fired up ADB yet again and flashed the NPL25.86-30 firmware using the method that does not upgrade the bootloader. I also flashed TWRP and erfanoabdi's TurboZ kernel to disable forced-encryption and dm-verity, along with phh's Superuser for root access as SuperSU somehow does not install right even though the recovery says otherwise.
Booted up and it hasn't rebooted by itself until now. The only time it has rebooted is when I did it. It did necessitate a full data reset, but so far, it has been running well, with the OTA service fully disabled and the processor clocked to its Droid Edition levels.
Only issue I had with it is that the battery drain is a wee-bit high. Though this may be due to the process of installing and optimizing apps over time. If it all goes well, the battery drain should calm itself soon. As of right now, I've downclocked the processor and changed the governor to be as efficient as possible to reduce that battery drain until the phone is fully-set up. The other issue is that after a while, CPU-Z and AIDA64 fails to find the big cores, saying that they're either inactive or "sleeping", but Kernel Adiutor said otherwise. Other than that, I am enjoying it.
Also goes to show that if you have the MM bootloader, you should definitely keep it as it provides a very safe method of returning to a previous build with all your system files intact if anything breaks. It has proved to be extremely useful in this case.
As to the why it all happened,
Did you run the OTA with twrp installed, and/or any other system partition alterations?
Just curious, so others know why this happened to you and Van avoid it themselves. And with either of those things above, the OTA will fail, or worse like in your case.
OTA's are for stock systems, with stock recovery only.
Glad you got it sorted out though! :good:
Darth said:
As to the why it all happened,
Did you run the OTA with twrp installed, and/or any other system partition alterations?
Just curious, so others know why this happened to you and Van avoid it themselves. And with either of those things above, the OTA will fail, or worse like in your case.
OTA's are for stock systems, with stock recovery only.
Glad you got it sorted out though! :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock recovery.
I presume it's either because the build I ran was designed for a different region (same model code, though) or that the Marshmallow bootloader was incompatible with the OTA.
Regardless, it's been working fine for a bit, although one Busybox installer gave me a small scare when it said it was cleaning system/bin, although a later check found that it didn't actually do anything.
Just wanted to share my predicament.

I super messed up, need suggestions. [I fixed it like the chad I am :) ]

Cant flash twrp nor the patched magisk boot img to both slot a and b.
Bootloader is unlocked.
Flashing scripts via .bat files for stock zips of both android 10 and 12 results in "FAILED (remote: Partition product not found)" or "FAILED (remote: variable not found)" respectively.
I have no recovery.
When I had twrp, I've made the mistake of wiping my whole android 12 data, storage, and system and flashing an android 10 rom without reading up of the separate a and b boot slots nor the effects of my actions leading to bootlooping. (I've done with this other devices before with no problems). This in turn wiped the twrp recovery I had flashed and left me only fastboot commands and a twrp version up to 3.3 and 3.2 with no hope of getting usb otg to work as it was only available with the later versions of twrp and since I and now technically on an android 10 bootloader, any attempt at that time to flash twrp 3.6 was met with a (remote: Error calling AvbLoadAndVerifyBootImages Load Error) or some kind of other error I have no logs for. Now I cant even tetherboot to twrp 3.2 nor 3.3 and I get that error regardless.
[Boots to bootloader no matter what. Shows as UFS:Micron, Error reason - reboot bootloader - bootloader version is b1c1-0-4-7617406]
I believe I can get access to internal storage to flash these updates once I get a recovery tethered from the bootloader. I do not know if its possible to boot to fastbootd or whatever its called (used for write permissions/sideload update zips) even if I hadn't gotten into this predicament. I will be buying another Pixel 3 in the meantime as I have money to burn and like to hurt myself financially, and emotionally to get to my goal with this device. ( Didn't buy another one, I was committed to the cause!)
I am not a noob nor a pro, but somewhere in between. My biggest point of failure is not reading up on how the partitions are set up and the various issues others had when flashing android 10 and 11 roms. Any suggestions other than "uPdAtE tHe fAsTbOoT aNd AdB dRiVeRs" are not welcomed. Thank you. I will update once I find a soluton to my problem Which I Will.
Again, my main concern right now is getting tethered twrp to work again and need suggestions. I have older versions of platform tools and the latest so please non of those comments I see on literally every other thread.
Edit: I didn't mention this before, but I did have the ability yo sideload when I had twrp at the time before crapping everything out the window, but nothing would work and gave up. Just wanted to add if anyone was wondering.
First update, I used the propriatary "Tool All In One Tool" and I was able to boot to fastbootd, and wipe my data and storage, while updating my stock zip to android 12. Now I can tetherboot twrp 3.6.1_11-0 with the option for usb otg, wish me luck boys. I'm in.
Second update. Still stuck on first update, but weighing my options in the meantime. I flashed twrp via the flash current twrp option, but when I boot to it, touch is disabled so thats great... I can fast boot to only the twrp versions after 3.6+, so not so bad. I have no os installed, but I will try my hand again at that tool all in one tool again. I'll update tomorrow if anything comes of it.
3rd update. FROM THE BRINK OF DEATH!!! WHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I got the pixeldust rom flashed and working like a BOSS!!!!! You won't believe the 2 days I've had trying to get this thing to work. All in all 1 out of my 3 flashdrives finally worked with otg. I had a windows recovery drive premade on it so I just copied and pasted the files there without a hitch! Thank you Google for having to make me miss work and actually do research to get this thing working again! Thank you for the guys at Tool All In One Tool for making this recovery possible, I will shout out your thread. If anyone who's in a similar situation needs any help from me or any info, I'll be glad to help. This will be the second to last update. I can also make phone calls and use data so Pixel Dust rom is good to go if that was one of your concerns. See ya!
Final update, I got crdroid flashed with root and safetynet passed, I just found out that google Pay was imbedded in gapps so now I don't need the pay app anymore to do transactions! My banking app also works, got vanced finally installed (couldn't do it on regular stock ROM) some glitches with the ROM here and there but no worries. For who ever reads this. There's hope. I fd up as bad as you can get shy of a hard brick. I still don't know too much but learned near twice as much as I knew just a few days ago. If you need help just DM me and I'll work my hardest to bring the light. This phone is absolutely amazing and on god wished google was a better company to praise. I have more plans for these phones and hope more Roms come out to support it.
I have one question however, how do I make a backup of my system/system_ext partitions? I can make a back up of everything else but that with these two Roms... I have a backup of it with my stock ROM, but it resumed to mount when I used otg... Didn't try internal yet but I'll assume the same, is it a glitch with current twrp?

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