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Stock Pixel 2 Locking Up on Boot: What are my options?

Hi All,
First, thanks for clicking into my question! This is my first post, but I've been lurking here since I used to flash new roms on my original Nexus on a frequent basis, and a Gen1 Kindle Fire before that.
My fiancee is in a bind with her Pixel 2, so I'm hoping you all can help me out.
Her Pixel 2 threw a bunch of app errors over the course of two days, so she opted to reboot -- unfortunately it now locks up at the loading screen, with the Google 'G' and a loader bar (she's running the latest 8.1, pre-Pie) and hangs there, overheating until the battery runs out and we shut it down. We can get into the Recovery menu, but none of the reboot options there seem to help, and there is only the Factory Reset option remaining that we haven't tried.
This happened in the middle of a huge camping excursion as her Bachelorette, so there was limited WiFi and data access to back anything up -- so locked behind that endless boot sequence is a lot of irreplaceable images and video.
What are my options to pull the user data out of there before a factory reset? Is it possible on a (stock, non-root, Google sourced) phone to flash the Pie update? Would that restore functionality?
Can I get to the data somehow through ADB without the phone booting up and unlocked?
Maybe something crazy, like a take a full image of the phone that I then shove on the replacement Pixel 2 that Google is sending us?
Any guidance would be much appreciated!

You could try booting to TWRP with "fastboot boot <filename here>". Then copy the files from there. I'm not sure if this will work if she had the screen locked beforehand though. You could also try flashing the latest factory image but make sure your remove the "-w" from the flash-all.bat file before running the script so it will not wipe user data. Both of these options might not be possible though if you do not have the boot-loader unlocked.

cynnican said:
Hi All,
First, thanks for clicking into my question! This is my first post, but I've been lurking here since I used to flash new roms on my original Nexus on a frequent basis, and a Gen1 Kindle Fire before that.
My fiancee is in a bind with her Pixel 2, so I'm hoping you all can help me out.
Her Pixel 2 threw a bunch of app errors over the course of two days, so she opted to reboot -- unfortunately it now locks up at the loading screen, with the Google 'G' and a loader bar (she's running the latest 8.1, pre-Pie) and hangs there, overheating until the battery runs out and we shut it down. We can get into the Recovery menu, but none of the reboot options there seem to help, and there is only the Factory Reset option remaining that we haven't tried.
This happened in the middle of a huge camping excursion as her Bachelorette, so there was limited WiFi and data access to back anything up -- so locked behind that endless boot sequence is a lot of irreplaceable images and video.
What are my options to pull the user data out of there before a factory reset? Is it possible on a (stock, non-root, Google sourced) phone to flash the Pie update? Would that restore functionality?
Can I get to the data somehow through ADB without the phone booting up and unlocked?
Maybe something crazy, like a take a full image of the phone that I then shove on the replacement Pixel 2 that Google is sending us?
Any guidance would be much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADB sideload the latest OTA zip in stock recovery, that should get you up and running again without needing a wipe

crixley said:
ADB sideload the latest OTA zip in stock recovery, that should get you up and running again without needing a wipe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! I'll be giving this a try as soon as she's home on Monday.
Does recovery mode automatically enable the USB Debugging that ADB uses?

cynnican said:
Thank you! I'll be giving this a try as soon as she's home on Monday.
Does recovery mode automatically enable the USB Debugging that ADB uses?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep you can sideload without needing it toggled in developer mode

crixley said:
Yep you can sideload without needing it toggled in developer mode
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked perfectly, thank you!

cynnican said:
This worked perfectly, thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad to hear! Nothing worse than having to wipe and losing important things you can't get back. I've had that happen a few times. Happy to help.

I'm not very technical - please keep this in mind with my query below.
I have a Pixel 2 which overnight stopped working - my guess is that it rebooted due to an automated software update.
I now only get the page with the robot on it's back.
Options in green on this page are Barcodes, Power Off, and Start.
After reading a lot online I've tried all the usual key press combinations to no avail.
I've also downloaded ADB and FASTBOOT to my Mac.
ADB doesn't see the phone when plugged in via USB (ie. ADB DEVICES doesn't return anything)
FASTBOOT DEVICES does, however, show the serial number as listed on the page with the robot on it's back (and the -l option adds "usb:" plus an 8 digit number and the letter "X"
FASTBOOT REBOOT restarts the phone and brings me back to the robot on it's back page.
Other information on the Robot on it's back page include -
Product Revision: walleye MP1
Boot-slot: b
Console: DISABLED
Secure Boot: yes (PRODUCTION)
Device State: locked
Advice online suggests I need to unlock the phone, so I've tried FASTBOOT FLASHING UNLOCK, and FASTBOOT OEM UNLOCK but neither work.
When I try these I get "FAILED (remote: Flashing Unlock is not allowed)"
An article on Android Police suggests this may have been a bug on the Pixel 2 originally and that it's now resolved.
Unfortunately, my cat 22 situation seems to be that I need to do a factory reset, but the steps I've found as to how to do a factory reset all lead back to the Robot on it's back page, so I can't see how to move forward to with recovering my phone?
Can anyone help please?
Really frustrated that my new phone can put itself into this state without me having done anything and that it's seemingly impossible to recover from this state now that it's in it.
At very least I'd like to wipe all data from the phone so I can send it off for repair.
Thanks in advance.

Cannot load Android System. Your data may be corrupt.

Backstory: I upgraded to android 10 a few weeks ago, aside from a few user apps breaking, there weren't any system issues. Recently, I received another update (seems like a patch ?) to android 10 and updated as well. I'm not sure if this recent update actually completed.
Last night, it seems like my phone went into a boot loop while I was sleeping. When I woke up the phone was hot, and each boot was so short that there was no opportunity to go into recovery mode. I pretty much had no choice other than to let the battery drain.
So I walked away and came back a while later to a peculiar recovery screen that said "Cannot load Android system. Your data may be corrupt. If you continue to get this message, you may need to perform a factory data reset and erase all user data stored on this device."
There's only 2 options: "Try again" and "Factory data reset". `adb devices` from the PC is unable to detect my pixel 3 here. "Try again" simply attempts to boot, and I just return to this same screen again (at least it doesn't loop now). I'm reluctant to factory reset as I want to at least have the chance to back up some data.
I am able to enter fastboot from this screen using Power + Volume Down. `fastboot devices` from the PC is able to detect the phone. However, because the bootloader is locked (haven't unlocked the bl since i started using nexus/pixel phones), I don't know if there's much i can do here.
My question is, is there anything that I can try at this point to boot into android 10, recover some data, then do a factory reset ?

From fastboot, what happens if you try entering recovery? If you can get into recovery, you could sideload the OTA. https://developers.google.com/android/ota

sliding_billy said:
From fastboot, what happens if you try entering recovery? If you can get into recovery, you could sideload the OTA. https://developers.google.com/android/ota
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not the "normal" recovery mode. There was the message "Cannot load android system. Your data may be corrupt." Other only options are:
- "Try again" , basically a reboot, which eventually brings me back to this screen
- "Factory Data Reset"
adb is unable to detect the phone in this mode, so I am unable to sideload an OTA.

superc0w said:
It's not the "normal" recovery mode. There was the message "Cannot load android system. Your data may be corrupt." Other only options are:
- "Try again" , basically a reboot, which eventually brings me back to this screen
- "Factory Data Reset"
adb is unable to detect the phone in this mode, so I am unable to sideload an OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not knowing what is available with the BL locked... Is the new rescue mode option one of the power up/down choices from your BL/Fastboot screen? That rescue mode is supposed to allow ADB command to work. If not, you are going to have to do a factory reset and if that doesn't help contact Google and RMA. Ability to get out of bricks is the biggest reason to unlock your BL (if you purchased a Google unlockable BL phone) unless you purchased a Verizon phone and can't. In that case, back to the last comment about factory reset/RMA.

superc0w said:
It's not the "normal" recovery mode. There was the message "Cannot load android system. Your data may be corrupt." Other only options are:
- "Try again" , basically a reboot, which eventually brings me back to this screen
- "Factory Data Reset"
adb is unable to detect the phone in this mode, so I am unable to sideload an OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had this happen and I had to do a factory reset prior to unlocking bootloader ,which as was mentioned above is way easier to fix because you can reflash factory image without wiping all data

same thing happened to me; the previous comments gave me the outline of what was needed, so thank you. now for the op:
1. on the screen that offers try again or factory erase, choose "try again"
2. IMMEDIATELY press and hold volume down
3. when you reach the bootloader screen, you may release volume down
4. this is the standard bootloader screen for pixel 3. you should be able to cycle options do so to select 'recovery" (or whatever it says. I'm not going to reboot my phone to see exactly what it says, but I'm sure you get the idea)

Hi, I have encountered device corrupt error on my pixel 4Xl few days back, after reaching out to google support and waiting for 4hrs I haven't received any resolution. In few instances device worked normally for few hours but kept on switching off. I did factory reset once as suggested but currently issue is still persistent. I am out of warranty by few months so I cannot send it google support. Please help me in fixing this issue.

Prudhvi89 said:
Hi, I have encountered device corrupt error on my pixel 4Xl few days back, after reaching out to google support and waiting for 4hrs I haven't received any resolution. In few instances device worked normally for few hours but kept on switching off. I did factory reset once as suggested but currently issue is still persistent. I am out of warranty by few months so I cannot send it google support. Please help me in fixing this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like this problem. https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...xxxx_sn-xxxxxxxx.4205331/page-7#post-85981389

Prudhvi89 said:
Hi, I have encountered device corrupt error on my pixel 4Xl few days back, after reaching out to google support and waiting for 4hrs I haven't received any resolution. In few instances device worked normally for few hours but kept on switching off. I did factory reset once as suggested but currently issue is still persistent. I am out of warranty by few months so I cannot send it google support. Please help me in fixing this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So we know you get the corrupt message, support isn't helping, that in a few instances it worked normally for short periods, a factory reset didn't help, and yer out of warranty.
But can u get to fastboot? Is OEM unlocking on? Can u turn oem unlocking on in one of the "few instances", if it's not on?
If u can do the above, i'd follow googles instructions to unlock the bootloader and use the flash-all script and flash the latest firmware.

AsItLies said:
So we know you get the corrupt message, support isn't helping, that in a few instances it worked normally for short periods, a factory reset didn't help, and yer out of warranty.
But can u get to fastboot? Is OEM unlocking on? Can u turn oem unlocking on in one of the "few instances", if it's not on?
If u can do the above, i'd follow googles instructions to unlock the bootloader and use the flash-all script and flash the latest firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for responding back. Yes OEM is enabled on my device. I did reach out to google forums as well for support, they redirected to XDA for support with respect to flashing device.
PS: I am not at all a tech person and have very limited understanding in this area, I am just trying to save my phone.

Prudhvi89 said:
Hi, thanks for responding back. Yes OEM is enabled on my device. I did reach out to google forums as well for support, they redirected to XDA for support with respect to flashing device.
PS: I am not at all a tech person and have very limited understanding in this area, I am just trying to save my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so then first follow this link and choose which version of android you'd like to flash to your 4xl (probably the latest one).
On that site click 'link' next to the chosen version and it will download the firmware zip file (this is the latest generic version: SP1A.211105.002, Nov 2021 --- if you have verizon or other choose the latest for that carrier).
Then you'll need to follow the directions near the top of that page that starts with the following:
Flashing instructions​The factory image downloaded from this page includes a script that flashes the device, typically named flash-all.sh (On Windows systems, use flash-all.bat instead).
etc etc etc.
If you have trouble, post back here and people will try to assist you.
cheers

AsItLies said:
so then first follow this link and choose which version of android you'd like to flash to your 4xl (probably the latest one).
On that site click 'link' next to the chosen version and it will download the firmware zip file (this is the latest generic version: SP1A.211105.002, Nov 2021 --- if you have verizon or other choose the latest for that carrier).
Then you'll need to follow the directions near the top of that page that starts with the following:
Flashing instructions​The factory image downloaded from this page includes a script that flashes the device, typically named flash-all.sh (On Windows systems, use flash-all.bat instead).
etc etc etc.
If you have trouble, post back here and people will try to assist you.
cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for quick response. I am getting below error, not sure how to correct it.

Prudhvi89 said:
Hi, thanks for quick response. I am getting below error, not sure how to correct it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you're getting an error indicating you're trying to do something but it can't do it because the boot loader is locked. Obvious.
but here's what's not obvious; what are u trying to do? and why are u trying to do it?
from the looks of the output, yer trying to switch slots? why? there's nothing in those instructions I referenced above that tells u to switch slots? All yer gonna do is first unlock the bootloader and then use the flash all script.
maybe yer reading the wrong directions? Look again what I posted, find those exact words in the directions, do what's under that heading, not any other heading.

Currently I am not able to switch on my phone !!!

AsItLies said:
So you're getting an error indicating you're trying to do something but it can't do it because the boot loader is locked. Obvious.
but here's what's not obvious; what are u trying to do? and why are u trying to do it?
from the looks of the output, yer trying to switch slots? why? there's nothing in those instructions I referenced above that tells u to switch slots? All yer gonna do is first unlock the bootloader and then use the flash all script.
maybe yer reading the wrong directions? Look again what I posted, find those exact words in the directions, do what's under that heading, not any other heading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently I am not able to switch on the device !!

Prudhvi89 said:
Currently I am not able to switch on the device !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds ominous. You may now be afflicted with the pixel 'stuck in edl mode' problem, which unfortunately there's no solution for.
Try this; plug the device to pc using usb cable, then look in device manager, if you see the device connected with QUSB_BULK_CID (etc), that means it's in EDL mode.
if that's the case, follow this thread to learn more about that, but unfortunately there is no fix, as yet. And I've read just yesterday google is replacing devices with this issue for some.
Just an fyi, if your device is in this state, it's not anything you did, it's the fault of the device. Some believe it to be hardware failure, which seems the most plausible explanation.

AsItLies said:
That sounds ominous. You may now be afflicted with the pixel 'stuck in edl mode' problem, which unfortunately there's no solution for.
Try this; plug the device to pc using usb cable, then look in device manager, if you see the device connected with QUSB_BULK_CID (etc), that means it's in EDL mode.
if that's the case, follow this thread to learn more about that, but unfortunately there is no fix, as yet. And I've read just yesterday google is replacing devices with this issue for some.
Just an fyi, if your device is in this state, it's not anything you did, it's the fault of the device. Some believe it to be hardware failure, which seems the most plausible explanation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok got it !! Thanks for your prompt response & support.

The "Cannot load Android system, Your data may be corrupt" error is known as Rescue Party. Fortunately, fixing it should be relatively simple.
Try dirty flashing the factory image. Do not attempt to flash a patched boot image; leave everything stock.
If that fails, select "Factory data reset". It will wipe your phone, but it should reboot into Android system.
That bootloader message "Your device is corrupt. It can't be trusted" means that the signed key for Verified Boot somehow got screwed up. In this case, I would also recommend reflashing the factory image.
In both cases, the easiest option is to use the Android Flash Tool. It's like a GUI for flashing the factory image.

I need help flashing firmware on my bootlooping s10e to recover some files

After the most recent update my phone got put into a bootloop that wouldnt stop for some reason, it would boot and then after I wanna say less than 20 seconds it would reboot itself, and just kept going on in this cycle unless I powered it off when it was booted. Anyway I've been trying everything I can to get the damn thing working again so I can at the very least get my pictures off of it without factory resetting it and nothing is working, and I sorta feel like I've made things worse. I tried flashing with Odin but after that the thing just stopped booting alltogether so that kinda limited my options a lot. Now I'm trying to sideload an update from an sd card which might work if i can find the right thing to sideload onto it but before it gets anywhere it tells me error in /sideload/package.zip (status 7) so either I just need a different thing to sideload or something's broken. Either way I don't know how to get it working cause I have no idea what I'm doing here so now I need help.
My phone is SM-G970U SPR

Sounds like you are in a bad spot. If your pictures are on internal storage then flashing anything in Odin will wipe that.
I think you need to accept that they may be lost.

not so fast, i've used home_csc in all my flashes and when I finally got one working all my stuff was still intact. Now i just need to figure out how to get it to stop bootlooping.

Hello friends, I am currently crying in the same boat!
So, similar to Oske829 my phone ( Samsung Galaxy S10e ) has entered into a bootloop after a recent update that occurred roughly on February 06, 2021.
I am also experiencing the same symptoms as well:
My phone starts to boot up, then fails and Approximately 20 seconds after, it repeats that cycle. The phone continues to bootloop until drained of its battery then repeats this cycle again once if it is charged. **this is the current situation**
After playing around with the buttons, the only progress I've made is reaching the Download Mode. Ive yet to try odin or anything else and would like to ask for some help please! I really want to be able to save the data on there (pictures, music, apps, etc..)
Any help is appreciated, Thanks!

AlphaFeedback said:
Hello friends, I am currently crying in the same boat!
So, similar to Oske829 my phone ( Samsung Galaxy S10e ) has entered into a bootloop after a recent update that occurred roughly on February 06, 2021.
I am also experiencing the same symptoms as well:
My phone starts to boot up, then fails and Approximately 20 seconds after, it repeats that cycle. The phone continues to bootloop until drained of its battery then repeats this cycle again once if it is charged. **this is the current situation**
After playing around with the buttons, the only progress I've made is reaching the Download Mode. Ive yet to try odin or anything else and would like to ask for some help please! I really want to be able to save the data on there (pictures, music, apps, etc..)
Any help is appreciated, Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download the latest official firmware with Frija tool (no download caps unlike websites like Sammobile etc). Just be aware that if you download and use Android 11 you wont be able to downgrade to Android 10.
After you have downloaded it unpack the zip and run Odin. In order to preserve your data flash the HOME_CSC file not the regular CSC... file. Once you unpack the files you will see.
The phone needs to be in download mode for flashing and battery is suggested to be at 40% or more.
Btw a good way to get out of bootloop and get the phone to shut down is to connect the USB cable (could be from charger or PC) and then press Volume Down+Power buttons to force a restart. It may be nessesary to do this a few times.
At one point you will not see the boot screen but instead it will show the lightning bolt charging logo and the percentage. After that you can simply unplug the cable and the phone will turn off.
In order to enter Download mode the best way is to start with phone turned off. Hold Bixby+Volume Down buttons and connect the USB cable from PC. Once you see the confirmation screen you can release the buttons and press Volume Up to continue.

AlphaFeedback said:
Hello friends, I am currently crying in the same boat!
So, similar to Oske829 my phone ( Samsung Galaxy S10e ) has entered into a bootloop after a recent update that occurred roughly on February 06, 2021.
I am also experiencing the same symptoms as well:
My phone starts to boot up, then fails and Approximately 20 seconds after, it repeats that cycle. The phone continues to bootloop until drained of its battery then repeats this cycle again once if it is charged. **this is the current situation**
After playing around with the buttons, the only progress I've made is reaching the Download Mode. Ive yet to try odin or anything else and would like to ask for some help please! I really want to be able to save the data on there (pictures, music, apps, etc..)
Any help is appreciated, Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So incredibly glad to hear I'm not a lone soul dealing with this issue. I've tried a whole bunch of things to fix this issue but nothing is getting me anywhere. I tried flashing android 10 but as that other lad said you can't flash older versions of android.
At this point I think my only chance of saving the phone is to wait for a new system update to release and flash that in case it somehow magically fixes the phone for some reason. I wouldn't recommend trying to flash atm because it doesn't seem to help currently and if you donk it up you'll lose your data which is not something either of us want to do.
I'll let you know what happens if I try flashing a future update.

Well i had an even bigger problem initially. Not only was my S10e bootlooping. My EFS partition was missing files (dont know how that happened). That meant that IMEI was blank and there was not network connectivity aside from Wi-Fi.
Unfortunately even the stock firmware flash does not fix EFS. Thankfully i had a backup (multiple actually) stored away including EFS. So with some fiddiling around in custom recovery file manager (TWRP) i manged to get that restored. I did lose bunch of pictures in intrernal storage tho. Thankfully it was nothing important. Now i keep everything on SD card and SD Cards backup in PC.
Now im trying to get the phone rooted with Magisk but the damn thing is not working.
This underscores the importance of regular (i had weekly TWRP) backups. I had backups of all partitions except internal data like pictures etc. Lesson learned i guess.

Hey RaXelliX thanks for lending a hand! Unfortunately I'm using a Mac Pro and Frija is a Windows exclusive *tears*
it seems that my next best alternative is to use Samloader instead of Frija, and JOdin3 instead of Odin. After some research ive realized that I am way out of my depth , but shall continue nonetheless. I'm gonna try your method with these alternatives and hope for the best, that sounds good in theory I was just curious to the thoughts of others more experienced.
And Oske829 your definitely not alone, stay strong and best of luck
Thanks!

There was a new firmware on Sammobile that I just tried flashing, didn't fix the problem, still bootlooping. I am officially out of ideas on how to fix this. I think there's something funky at the hardware/software level that's throwing a fit about having to run android 11 that's causing this, but I have no clue what it could be or how to resolve it. Not sure if there's anything i can do at this point to save my data.

Oske829 said:
There was a new firmware on Sammobile that I just tried flashing, didn't fix the problem, still bootlooping. I am officially out of ideas on how to fix this. I think there's something funky at the hardware/software level that's throwing a fit about having to run android 11 that's causing this, but I have no clue what it could be or how to resolve it. Not sure if there's anything i can do at this point to save my data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try flashing a custom recovery (i suggest TWRP: https://eu.dl.twrp.me/beyond0lte/ S10e Exynos version) and the once in recovery connect USB cable to move the data off. If you succeed then you could wipe the phone and get out of bootloop.
When flashing recovery via Odin use the AP field and select the twrp-3.5.0_9-4-beyond0lte.img.tar file and make sure NAND Erase and Re-Partition are OFF. Auto-Reboot could be on or off.
This would touch only the recovery partition and will not wipe data unless you do it yourself inside TWRP.
There are a few caveats with this. The phone may complain about missing VBMETA header. If that's the case i will share a modified TAR file that includes that and TWRP itself. Or the phone could fail flashing custom recovery due to Vaultkeeper that prevents flashing unofficial binaries. This usually happens a day or two after flashing firmware. After that Vaultkeeper disengages.
Obviously your bootloader should be unlocked. You can do that by pressing Bixby+Vol Down before connecting the cable (with phone off) and then long press Vol Up to enter bootloader unlock mode. Bootloader can later be relocked again.

RaXelliX said:
You could try flashing a custom recovery (i suggest TWRP: https://eu.dl.twrp.me/beyond0lte/ S10e Exynos version) and the once in recovery connect USB cable to move the data off. If you succeed then you could wipe the phone and get out of bootloop.
When flashing recovery via Odin use the AP field and select the twrp-3.5.0_9-4-beyond0lte.img.tar file and make sure NAND Erase and Re-Partition are OFF. Auto-Reboot could be on or off.
This would touch only the recovery partition and will not wipe data unless you do it yourself inside TWRP.
There are a few caveats with this. The phone may complain about missing VBMETA header. If that's the case i will share a modified TAR file that includes that and TWRP itself. Or the phone could fail flashing custom recovery due to Vaultkeeper that prevents flashing unofficial binaries. This usually happens a day or two after flashing firmware. After that Vaultkeeper disengages.
Obviously your bootloader should be unlocked. You can do that by pressing Bixby+Vol Down before connecting the cable (with phone off) and then long press Vol Up to enter bootloader unlock mode. Bootloader can later be relocked again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this exclusively for exynos phones or can I run twrp on a qualcomm device?
nevermind i found the snapdragon version of twrp

I'm trying to unlock the bootloader the way you described but that doesn't seem to be doing anything, and any guides I'm seeing on how to unlock it all involve doing something that resets the phone which isn't what I'm going for.

Oske829 said:
I'm trying to unlock the bootloader the way you described but that doesn't seem to be doing anything, and any guides I'm seeing on how to unlock it all involve doing something that resets the phone which isn't what I'm going for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might be out of luck as Snapdragon versions do not allow bootloader unlocks. At least as far as i know. I wrongly assumed you had Exynos version. If the data is important the last resort might be to contact some data recovery company. Im sure they have tools to access the internal memory even if the phone bootloops or flat out refuses to boot.

Flash 4 file firmware
Use Home_csc
If you want keep your data

Hucin44 said:
Flash 4 file firmware
Use Home_csc
If you want keep your data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe he already tried that and the phone is still bootlooping. Im betting that whatever causes the bootloop is in the data, the data he needs to access.
A bad situation all around because if he wipes the data it will likely fix the bootloop but he will lose the data. If he keeps the data the phone will keep bootlooping and he wont be able to access it. Although i would argue that the data you cant access is effectively lost anyway and that the proper functioning of the phone is more important.

I've heard that theres tools you can use to recover deleted data after resets and stuff since data doesnt get wiped when its deleted its just marked as stuff that can be written over. So I would think there would be a way for me to reset my phone to get it working and then recover the data with one of those programs, but the problem is from what I've heard you need a rooted device to do any of that and since I can't unlock my bootloader I don't think that can happen.
The one last thing I'm going to try before I seek out help from data recovery people is to try pushing the smartswitch apk onto the phone with adb and then hoping I have enough uptime to install it before the phone reboots cause I've heard you can use smartswitch in download mode to backup data, but I haven't found any guides anywhere about how this is done so I don't know if its actually doable.

Oske829 said:
I've heard that theres tools you can use to recover deleted data after resets and stuff since data doesnt get wiped when its deleted its just marked as stuff that can be written over. So I would think there would be a way for me to reset my phone to get it working and then recover the data with one of those programs, but the problem is from what I've heard you need a rooted device to do any of that and since I can't unlock my bootloader I don't think that can happen.
The one last thing I'm going to try before I seek out help from data recovery people is to try pushing the smartswitch apk onto the phone with adb and then hoping I have enough uptime to install it before the phone reboots cause I've heard you can use smartswitch in download mode to backup data, but I haven't found any guides anywhere about how this is done so I don't know if its actually doable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I find myself here after 48 hours of s10e hell, with an almost identical issue. After a couple attempts and a trip to our local cell phone repair place, we ended up doing a factory reset, with the same hopes -- that the files were still there but the space marked as "free" and a 3rd party data recovery program could bring them back from the dead.
But they all require your phone to be rooted first - and this being my first venture into phone rooting I'm not really sure which route to go, or if it'll even be worth the effort. Does rooting the phone mean flashing it with a new OS, or simply unlocking superuser access so the recovery software can do its bit? (bear in mind, a lot of these products try to root the phones themselves, but none of them seem to work - I've tried about 4 different products thus far).
I'm convinced that if I can root this phone, the recovery software WILL find those lost sectors and recover the lost data, even after a factory reset -- there's plenty of youtube videos out there that say you can do this, but the rooting bit is what's got me tied up in knots!

huh.. jeah, latest update bricked my s10e too.
but my case, when power on phone, nothing happens, just black.. when conect cable to pc , then i can enter recovery and download mode..
till now nothing helped..
oem locked, frp locked, cant flash custom binaries!
hope next update will fix this madnes..
or need to find same firmware as update.zip what we can flash using stock recovery option (sadly saamsung dont give any update.zip files, i gues its money thing)
so, odin dont help, chimera tools dont help, and enginering combination file give some approval error to flash factory binaries!

houdini987 said:
I'm convinced that if I can root this phone, the recovery software WILL find those lost sectors and recover the lost data, even after a factory reset -- there's plenty of youtube videos out there that say you can do this, but the rooting bit is what's got me tied up in knots!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well ,as far as i know, thease all recovery lost data works with HDD type disks, flash memory are out of luck..
because, i easy restored deleted data from my HDD, if it wasnt multiple times formated or writed full hdd , deleted, writed full etc.. but with SSD that software isnt working, due flash memory.. but, maybe im just to old, and there are new softs who can do that, just, i have not seen any jet!

Did I just destroy my phone ? Japanese Pixel 4a can't boot after first reboot under LineageOS

Hi all,
I recently imported a used Japanese Pixel 4a (I wanted the jp-exclusive "Barely Blue" model), and immediately upon receiving it, installed LineageOS 19 on it.
The phone originally came in with some form of android 12 (I didn't check that very precisely unfortunately, could have been 12.0 and not 12.1)
Installing LineageOS went mostly fine, the phone managed to boot and I was able to use it for a few hours ... then wifi and mobile data stopped working. I thought rebooting would fix that, so I tried rebooting, but the phone never rebooted completely.
I've tried a lot of things to get it back to a working state :
Flash LineageOS again
Flash Google's Factory Image for the last 12.1
both via the online tool AND the flash-all.sh script
both on slot A and B
also tried the very old 10.0.0 JP-carrier-specific image
with a different USB cable
on a different USB2 port on my computer
on a USB3 port on my computer
Flash Google's Full OTA Image for the last 12.1
by using fastboot to boot into lineageos's recovery image
At one point in my attempts at making it work it even displayed the "Your device is corrupt" error message (it's now gone btw).
My phone is now in a state where I can reach fastboot, but everytime I try booting up any ROM (Google or LineageOS), it shows the boot animation for something like 2 seconds then shuts down.
Any help you guys could provide would be awesome

Stepland said:
Hi all,
I recently imported a used Japanese Pixel 4a (I wanted the jp-exclusive "Barely Blue" model), and immediately upon receiving it, installed LineageOS 19 on it.
The phone originally came in with some form of android 12 (I didn't check that very precisely unfortunately, could have been 12.0 and not 12.1)
Installing LineageOS went mostly fine, the phone managed to boot and I was able to use it for a few hours ... then wifi and mobile data stopped working. I thought rebooting would fix that, so I tried rebooting, but the phone never rebooted completely.
I've tried a lot of things to get it back to a working state :
Flash LineageOS again
Flash Google's Factory Image for the last 12.1
both via the online tool AND the flash-all.sh script
both on slot A and B
also tried the very old 10.0.0 JP-carrier-specific image
with a different USB cable
on a different USB2 port on my computer
on a USB3 port on my computer
Flash Google's Full OTA Image for the last 12.1
by using fastboot to boot into lineageos's recovery image
At one point in my attempts at making it work it even displayed the "Your device is corrupt" error message (it's now gone btw).
My phone is now in a state where I can reach fastboot, but everytime I try booting up any ROM (Google or LineageOS), it shows the boot animation for something like 2 seconds then shuts down.
Any help you guys could provide would be awesome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you walk us through the steps you took to initially flash LOS?
Also, have you tried flashing versions other than 12.1 of Google's factory images?
Can you boot into recovery? Did you root LOS?
How did you import the device? Are you sure it was a trusty site/seller? Could they have tinkered something with the device to not make it work?

Could you walk us through the steps you took to initially flash LOS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The very first time I flashed LineageOS I just followed these "official" installation instructions from the LineageOS website. The only mistakes I remember making were :
I forgot to really check that the phone actually was on the latest stock 12.1, the phone may have been on 12.0 or an older 12.1 prior to flashing LOS
I forgot to reboot between flashing LineageOS and GApps (MindTheGapps in my case), noticed my mistake, rebooted then flashed GApps again
After I saw things weren't working, I double checked the version numbers and the sha256 hashes of everything I had downloaded and they were all correct
Also, have you tried flashing versions other than 12.1 of Google's factory images?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes,
I tried flashing factory images of
10.0.0 (Android 10) QD4A.200805.001 (6583866) (JP carriers and Verizon)
12.1.0 (SP2A.220405.003, Apr 2022)
12.1.0 (SP2A.220505.002, May 2022)
12.1.0 (SQ3A.220605.009.A1, Jun 2022)
12.1.0 (SQ3A.220705.003.A1, Jul 2022)
13.0.0 (TP1A.220624.014, Aug 2022)
Can you boot into recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes
Did you root LOS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No
How did you import the device? Are you sure it was a trusty site/seller? Could they have tinkered something with the device to not make it work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By asking a person who's used to proxying things, this phone was from a listing on rakuten, it came from this seller. Since it came in with stock 12 (or 12.1, don't remember), I think it's unlikely they tinkered with it

Stepland said:
I forgot to really check that the phone actually was on the latest stock 12.1, the phone may have been on 12.0 or an older 12.1 prior to flashing LOS
I forgot to reboot between flashing LineageOS and GApps (MindTheGapps in my case), noticed my mistake, rebooted then flashed GApps again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These likely have nothing to do with the issue you're facing.
Since you're able to boot into recovery, would you be open to try to flash literally any custom ROM (with the provided custom recovery), and see if that works?
You can flash whatever you like, since you said you wanted to go for LOS, I'd recommend you flash PixelExperience, since it's the closest to that (I think). You can download the regular or the plus edition, doesn't really matter. Make sure you not only download the build (flashable zip), but also the recovery image.
I assume you're familiar with the process of flashing custom ROMs. Should you be unfamiliar, I followed this guide when I first flashed a custom ROM on my 4a.
(If you don't feel like watching a video made for newbies, here are some notes I took a while back, just so I can know I never skip a step):
Spoiler: Flashing steps
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot devices
fastboot flash --slot all boot <img_name>.img (i think this can be skipped?)
use power buttons to enter recovery mode
apply update
apply update over adb
adb sideload <zip_name>.zip
*/ if you don't want to root, you can skip everything below /*
reboot recovery (to change to active slot so that magisk flash goes to correct slot)
apply update over adb
adb sideload <magisk_name>.zip

Oh my GOD thank you SO much I'm finally getting somewhere !
I tried flashing PixelExperience, both recovery and the ROM itself, the flashing part went well.
Then I rebooted and the following things happened in order :
static google screen
phone reboots (before the animated G even appeared)
PixelExperience screen that warns "your data may be corrupt you may need to perform a factory reset"
I chose the factory reset / wipe data option
phone reboots
boot animation that lasts WAY longer than in any of my previous attempts, goes as far as 3/4 of the progress bar
phone reboots before reaching the welcome screen
PHONE SUCCESFULLY REACHES THE SETUP/WELCOME SCREEN ON THE NEXT BOOT
phone seems to freeze for a moment
"Bluetooth keeps stopping" message pops up
phone reboots + reaches welcome screen a few times
phone reboots, reaches welcome screen, then plays the "charging" chime (didn't hear it before even though it was plugged in the whole time)
It has now been a solid 10 minutes and my phone is showing the welcome screen and hasn't crashed !?!
What should I do to troubleshoot what caused the crashes ?
Thank you SOOOOOO much for your help so far !

Stepland said:
PixelExperience screen that warns "your data may be corrupt you may need to perform a factory reset"
I chose the factory reset / wipe data option
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, yeah, my mistake. You are supposed to perform a factory reset whenever you flash a different ROM. Step can only be skipped when performing a dirty flash.
Stepland said:
It has now been a solid 10 minutes and my phone is showing the welcome screen and hasn't crashed !?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by "showing the welcome screen"? Can you use your device? Can you log in to your Google account and set it up? If we don't take Bluetooth crashing into account, would you be able to use your device regularly?
Stepland said:
"Bluetooth keeps stopping" message pops up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stepland said:
[...]the phone managed to boot and I was able to use it for a few hours ... then wifi and mobile data stopped working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, these malfunctions you get regardless of the OS makes me think somebody tinkered with your phone/gave you a faulty unit to begin with.
You could try to flash any / of / these kernels to see if they stop the "bluetooth crashed" notification. If you do flash a new kernel, I'd suggest you do another factory reset after the kernel has been flashed (and before you boot your device up). Just to make sure nothing stays in cache and no configurations remain that could cause this error again.
If that doesn't help, for starters, I would suggest you flash radio.img provided by Google on this site. Make sure you download the one corresponding to your build number (which you can find out by going to Settings -> About phone -> Build number (it will be at the very bottom of the page)).
You can flash this downloaded radio.img using "fastboot flash radio radio.img"
If that doesn't help either, I would try to use the Android Flash Tool. I assume the PixelExperience you downloaded is A12.1, so I would choose the latest 12.1 version in the Flash Tool. Be sure you have the "Wipe Device" and "Force Flash all Partitions" boxes ticked!!

Lada333 said:
What do you mean by "showing the welcome screen"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It reached the setup assistant you are presented with the first time you power on a phone, without crashing
Lada333 said:
Can you use your device? Can you log in to your Google account and set it up? If we don't take Bluetooth crashing into account, would you be able to use your device regularly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately no :
Wi-Fi doesn't work
I can access the Wi-Fi menu in the settings, I can "turn it on" but it never finds any network. My other phone is doing just fine on my home wi-fi so it's not just that there's no network reachable​
my SIM card is not recognized
Not much to say, I placed it in and the phone says it has no SIM card inserted, even after I reboot​
it takes many attempts to successfully boot the phone
Last reboot took 8 tries​
Surprisingly, Bluetooth seems to be working just fine ? I was able to connect to a bluetooth speaker and play some sounds
Lada333 said:
You could try to flash any / of / these kernels to see if they stop the "bluetooth crashed" notification. If you do flash a new kernel, I'd suggest you do another factory reset after the kernel has been flashed (and before you boot your device up). Just to make sure nothing stays in cache and no configurations remain that could cause this error again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried blu_spark, exact same problems :
Takes many attempts before a "successful" boot
Wi-Fi broken
Can't detect my SIM card
Lada333 said:
If that doesn't help, for starters, I would suggest you flash radio.img provided by Google on this site. Make sure you download the one corresponding to your build number (which you can find out by going to Settings -> About phone -> Build number (it will be at the very bottom of the page)).
You can flash this downloaded radio.img using "fastboot flash radio radio.img"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That worked almost perfectly !
fastboot was refusing to flash radio when the phone was on fastbootd, regular fastboot worked just fine, I also flashed with --slot all because ... why not ?
After that the phone booted just fine on the FIRST TRY ! Wifi and mobile data both work !
Unfortunately it's still a bit unstable, after the first boot the phone shut down after about 10 minutes (while I was playing back a youtube video, if that's of any importance ?). It rebooted just fine without crashing even once, and it's now been running for half an hour without a problem.
If that doesn't help either, I would try to use the Android Flash Tool. I assume the PixelExperience you downloaded is A12.1, so I would choose the latest 12.1 version in the Flash Tool. Be sure you have the "Wipe Device" and "Force Flash all Partitions" boxes ticked!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well actually it was 13, so I tried flashing 13. it all went fine ! The phone rebooted fine on the first try, wifi and mobile data both work ... I'm speechless, I don't even understand what I did that made it work ... but it works !
I'll try using the phone for a few days and report back any problems if I don't forget about it.
Thank you so much for your help ! I owe you big time

Well uh, the joy was short-lived. The phone lasted a couple hours before shuting down and going back into a short series of failed boot attemps, but now every failed boot attempt gets noticeably "further" in the boot animation than they did at the time of my initial post.
The phone managed to boot yet again, wifi + data + bluetooth still work.
Keeping an eye on it for now

Stepland said:
Well uh, the joy was short-lived. The phone lasted a couple hours before shuting down and going back into a short series of failed boot attemps, but now every failed boot attempt gets noticeably "further" in the boot animation than they did at the time of my initial post.
The phone managed to boot yet again, wifi + data + bluetooth still work.
Keeping an eye on it for now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I honestly don't have any experience with custom ROMs on Pixels, but if you want to return to bone stock, you can use the Android Flash Tool. Since you've been using custom firmware, make sure you check the Force flash all partitions option.
Otherwise, you can refer to my guide to flash the factory firmware and root using Magisk.

Yup, that's what I did to get it to its current state.
The phone is still unstable, it rebooted itself twice just this morning.
If this is a hardware issue, how do I diagnose it ?

Stepland said:
Yup, that's what I did to get it to its current state.
The phone is still unstable, it rebooted itself twice just this morning.
If this is a hardware issue, how do I diagnose it ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you tried a stock rom, a custom ROM , with all the same results it's probably a hardware issue, have you noticed excessive heat coming from the phone? You could always trade it in for a 6a and get 300.00 credit as long as the screens good and it turns on.

hammered58 said:
have you noticed excessive heat coming from the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes in fact I have ?! How did you guess that, that's weirdly specific ?
It was heating up a bit, at least enough to be noticeable and to feel abnormal but not uncomfortable. I can't remember if it got warm while it was doing its updates or before. I would have guessed it was just working pretty hard if it had been happening during some updates. Weirdly enough now that it's doing nothing it's not warm anymore
hammered58 said:
You could always trade it in for a 6a and get 300.00 credit as long as the screens good and it turns on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, that's good to know. I think I'll pass tho, I chose the 4a specifically because it's small and lightweight while not being a completely out-dated phone, the 6a would take me back to more or less the same size and weight as my current phone (xiaomi vince) which I find too big and heavy. Oh the things I'd do for a flagship phone that's like, actually small

Stepland said:
Well uh, the joy was short-lived. The phone lasted a couple hours before shuting down and going back into a short series of failed boot attemps, but now every failed boot attempt gets noticeably "further" in the boot animation than they did at the time of my initial post.
The phone managed to boot yet again, wifi + data + bluetooth still work.
Keeping an eye on it for now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As the others have pointed out as well, it is likely a hardware malfunction. Your radio partition (?) was likely corrupt, so we got rid of that, but if random reboots still happen PLUS your device overheats, it's 99% not a software issue.
Not sure about the RMA process, since you imported the device from overseas. Try contacting your POS?

Stepland said:
Yes in fact I have ?! How did you guess that, that's weirdly specific ?
It was heating up a bit, at least enough to be noticeable and to feel abnormal but not uncomfortable. I can't remember if it got warm while it was doing its updates or before. I would have guessed it was just working pretty hard if it had been happening during some updates. Weirdly enough now that it's doing nothing it's not warm anymore
Hmm, that's good to know. I think I'll pass tho, I chose the 4a specifically because it's small and lightweight while not being a completely out-dated phone, the 6a would take me back to more or less the same size and weight as my current phone (xiaomi vince) which I find too big and heavy. Oh the things I'd do for a flagship phone that's like, actually small
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your right though,, it's the size and weight of the 4a that brought me here in the first place so I can see your point in not switching, good luck!!

You seem really ticked off, I'm sorry if my answer came out as snarky or something ? that really wasn't the intent
Nevermind, completely misread your answer, non-native english speaker moment

Hm, just when I was about to post that the phone seemed to be working fine because it hadn't rebooted for 30+hours ... it just rebooted again.
And yeah it also got warm again while I was installing some apps ... so uh ... no luck

Stepland said:
And yeah it also got warm again while I was installing some apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not necessarily an issue. Installing apps uses the CPU, which, in term, generates heat.
What we and hammerhead meant by 'the phone heating up' is it randomly becoming inexplicably hot.
Like for example when it's just sitting on your desk, not doing anything. No notifications popping up constantly, no music/video playback, nothing. Just when it's supposed to be in deep sleep.
This app is rather outdated and you need to type in 3 adb commands for the advanced stats to show up, but it still works perfectly for finding out if any apps are draining the battery in the background and to see if you have any wakelocks.
You could give it a shot, install it, enable in settings -> general "App Usage," "Device Usage Access" and "Record History," and wait a few days, see if you have any apps misbehaving.
Again, I'm still leaning toward it being a hardware issue, but hey, worth a try.

I give up, it just has to be a hardware defect.
Since with stock 13 it looked like the phone was almost stable (it would only reboot every 10 hours or so) I tried using it for a day, unfortunately it quickly went back to the exact same state it was in when I created this thread : the phone won't boot, it crashes two seconds into the boot animation.
Still, massive thanks to everyone who helped me through this !
I ordered a replacement.
If anyone wants the broken one my DMs are open

Question HELP PHONE STUCK ON BOOTLOOP AT GOOGLE WRITING AND CANT GET DATA OUT

Hi all,
Im in a desperate and urgent need of help.
My Mrs pixel 7 pro is stuck in a boot loop that restarts 5 seconds after the google writing appears when starting. I wasn't home when it happened but she doesnt really make sure her phone has some battery before turning it on, as soon as she sees 2% she starts it, so im guessing maybe she bricked it while the phone was trying to apply an update when turning it on as she said that the external battery didnt have any juice left inside.
Anyway,
I know i can wipe the phone from recovery mode and make it into a factory reset phone. The issue here is we have over 6000 photos and videos of our son in that phone that she hasnt copied to the external hard drive i gave her for months due to her not liking that her little laptop is slow.
I tried recovery mode Reboot, i tried going into safe mode (no luck as it will go straight into fastboot mode). She doesnt care about a lot of things and obviously she never unlocked the developer setting or bootloader so device state is also locked.
I am begging you, anything any info or advice on how i can get those pictures out of the phone. Is there any way i can flash the stock firmware just to make the phone start and copy them after?
Any possibility or chance or retrieval?
I am willing to pay anyone that can guide me in the right direction as there are over 6 months worth of photos and memories.
Thanks in advance and may the luck be on my side.

andyysk said:
Hi all,
Im in a desperate and urgent need of help.
My Mrs pixel 7 pro is stuck in a boot loop that restarts 5 seconds after the google writing appears when starting. I wasn't home when it happened but she doesnt really make sure her phone has some battery before turning it on, as soon as she sees 2% she starts it, so im guessing maybe she bricked it while the phone was trying to apply an update when turning it on as she said that the external battery didnt have any juice left inside.
Anyway,
I know i can wipe the phone from recovery mode and make it into a factory reset phone. The issue here is we have over 6000 photos and videos of our son in that phone that she hasnt copied to the external hard drive i gave her for months due to her not liking that her little laptop is slow.
I tried recovery mode Reboot, i tried going into safe mode (no luck as it will go straight into fastboot mode). She doesnt care about a lot of things and obviously she never unlocked the developer setting or bootloader so device state is also locked.
I am begging you, anything any info or advice on how i can get those pictures out of the phone. Is there any way i can flash the stock firmware just to make the phone start and copy them after?
Any possibility or chance or retrieval?
I am willing to pay anyone that can guide me in the right direction as there are over 6 months worth of photos and memories.
Thanks in advance and may the luck be on my side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can enter recovery mode try to sideload the same exact ota package of the rom she's running, maybe that can help. Good luck!

andyysk said:
Hi all,
Im in a desperate and urgent need of help.
My Mrs pixel 7 pro is stuck in a boot loop that restarts 5 seconds after the google writing appears when starting. I wasn't home when it happened but she doesnt really make sure her phone has some battery before turning it on, as soon as she sees 2% she starts it, so im guessing maybe she bricked it while the phone was trying to apply an update when turning it on as she said that the external battery didnt have any juice left inside.
Anyway,
I know i can wipe the phone from recovery mode and make it into a factory reset phone. The issue here is we have over 6000 photos and videos of our son in that phone that she hasnt copied to the external hard drive i gave her for months due to her not liking that her little laptop is slow.
I tried recovery mode Reboot, i tried going into safe mode (no luck as it will go straight into fastboot mode). She doesnt care about a lot of things and obviously she never unlocked the developer setting or bootloader so device state is also locked.
I am begging you, anything any info or advice on how i can get those pictures out of the phone. Is there any way i can flash the stock firmware just to make the phone start and copy them after?
Any possibility or chance or retrieval?
I am willing to pay anyone that can guide me in the right direction as there are over 6 months worth of photos and memories.
Thanks in advance and may the luck be on my side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As @acuicultor said;
Here's Googles official OTA updates and instructions etc.
From what i've read briefly and as far as i can gather (still running a stock pixel 7 pro - for the first phone in god knows how long, so i'm not well read on this device but...) if you can sideload the latest OTA update via sideload then you should in theory be able to save the data and boot again. But if you flash full firmware then your device will be wiped in the process (if that's even possible with a locked bootloader).
Very best of luck
EDIT: hmm thinking about it, you won't have enabled USB debugging in dev options, hang on, i'll reboot direct to recovery to see if i can get the device recognised without USB debugging enabled. Sorry to be vague (hopefully someone more experienced with this device will chime in with more advice), like i say, i'm not rooted, flashed with custom rom - nothing, just plain old stock so i've not read up much on proceedures for this device. Bare with me!!

Had another thought, do you or have you been using Google photos to view your images on the device. If so, did you enable backup photos online when you first set the app up? If so, they could be backed up automatically...
Edit: my bad..
Try this link
If that fails just Google 'Google photos sign in'

Just tried from recovery to run some adb cmd's, no joy without enabling debugging 1st
There may be hope... If your photos aren't backed online already from above link...
EDIT:
1. From power off state (make sure the device is charged before apply any ota update) Press vol down and power together. As soon as it boots to google logo, let go of vol down, then power. That will put you in fastboot mode where you use the vol up/down to navigate to Recovery mode and power button to select.
2. Then when you have the screen that says 'no command', press power button and CLICK vol up (releasing vol up straight away but keeping power pressed). That'll take you a blue menu at top of screen.
3. Use vol buttons to navigate to 'apply update from adb'. I have checked using 'adb devices' and 'adb reboot sideload' cmd's on PC and the device is now recognised...
Will write further instructions shortly. (no guarantees this will work tho without losing data...or even if it'll work at all - i suspect the OTA update with just fail to transfer)
OR there is another option, using the same instructions above (1) in fastboot mode use the volume buttons to navigate the menu, power button to select Rescue mode. Then contact your service center for support who will advise/offer support - hopefully, which may end up having to send the device in and still offers no guarantee of preserved data

reg66 said:
@acuicultor said;
Here's Googles official OTA updates and instructions etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Following the link it's all explained there:
- no USB-Debugging needed
- booting recovery by key combo
- no loss of any data when using the OTA files
Also turning on USB-Debugging in developer options is not necessary for the recovery. It's enabled by default and moreover the recovery doesn't consider any system settings like disabled/enabled USB-Debugging.

WoKoschekk said:
Following the link it's all explained there:
- no USB-Debugging needed
- booting recovery by key combo
- no loss of any data when using the OTA files
Also turning on USB-Debugging in developer options is not necessary for the recovery. It's enabled by default and moreover the recovery doesn't consider any system settings like disabled/enabled USB-Debugging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh cool. I obviously didn't read much of it! Dunno what's happened to the chap, maybe his wife has killed him lol

reg66 said:
Ahh cool. I obviously didn't read much of it! Dunno what's happened to the chap, maybe his wife has killed him lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, maybe...
FYI: Stock recovery only uses a minimal adbd with a very limited set of commands. That's why some known ADB commands won't work.
minadbd