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A day or two ago I unlocked my ChaCha using the HTCDev.com instructions. I then used DooMLoRD_v4_ROOT-zergRush-busybox-su to root it. Everything was going fine until I apparently deleted one too many system apps and now my phone is in extremis.
The problem: As the phone boots up and reaches the HTC logo screen, just when the main interface should appear, an error pops up. It says:
Code:
Sorry!
The process com.htc.bg has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.
[Force close]
When I close it, the HTC logo appears again as the main GUI is reinitialised, which leads to the same error popping up again, thus entering into an infinite loop.
I can just about manage to connect the phone to my PC as a disk drive, but it's not connected in such a way that RUU or unrooting applications can "find" it from within Windows, so if I'm to fix this it's gotta be from the SD card/Hboot.
Details:
* HTC ChaCha with the latest Android firmware.
* Unlocked and rooted, but remains S-ON (Superuser was installed and worked).
* Used Titanium to delete apps, but made backups and have them on my hard drive for safe keeping but can't access the phone in order to restore them properly.
* I was unable to restore backed-up system apps prior to this critical problem emerging, which I think is because my phone isn't "truly" rooted. I can apparently remove from but not add to the protected areas of the phone.
* I've tried flashing the device with numerous recovery ROMs and they all fail (wrong image, etc.). I'm having an extremely difficult time finding the original ROM anywhere and more importantly finding one which will work without the phone being connected to the PC at any stage of the flashing job.
* Factory resets and recovery boots don't seem to have any effect.
* It's a carrier-locked/branded phone, from Three/Hutchison 3G UK. I'm locked into my contract for another year at least.
* Before I rebooted the phone for the last time [prior to the beginning of the above problem] I noticed that my ringtones and related media were all gone and I was unable to download new ones even using third-party apps; the "unable to download sound" error was constantly popping up and when I received messages or phone calls the phone would vibrate but wouldn't play any tones.
* My brother and I spent the better part of 6 hours scouring the net and trying every combination of steps we could think of to try and resolve this. I wouldn't have posted here if I wasn't at the end of my tether and if I hadn't tried every solution I could find from others on various forums including this one, nor would I be so quick to reveal myself to be a deletion-happy moron to a forum of experts (I saw that anti-noob YouTube clip!).
Is there any hope of fixing this issue given my obvious lack of critical faculties?
Thank you for reading this.
You can always install clockworkmod recovery and from there a custom rom. Check the relevant thread, it is pinned.
OK,
don't panic. I almost thought you'd hard bricked your phone when modifying the NAND. This is a soft brick and ALL soft bricks can be recovered, they just take a bit of pain and suffering. Sometimes more suffering than others, but that's irrelevant.
Question, you say you can't restore system apps? How did you try? If a phone is perm rooted, it's rooted. Obviously a temp root is different to a perm root, but I believe this is a perm root as you can REMOVE apps from the system memory. If a root wasn't perm, every app would be sandboxed so no app, including titaniumbackup would work.
* Unlocked and rooted, but remains S-ON (Superuser was installed and worked).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S-ON is part of HTC's snap on BL protection. The fact your phone is S-ON is now not that important, the BL is unlocked, thats what matters.
* Used Titanium to delete apps, but made backups and have them on my hard drive for safe keeping but can't access the phone in order to restore them properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, important advice here (for future ref), you shouldn't go mad with deleting unless you've tried freezing first. Freezing allows you to recover by simply doing a factory reset. Most bootloaders (including HTC's) allow you to perform an emergency factory reset from there. You might lose all the **** on there, but you will have a working phone. You also need to be careful with TitaniumBackup, I'm sure you didn't remove the obvious important ones, but the fact you lost access to your audio means you removed a sound/media package. Next time, google "HTC chacha, safe to remove" as more people root this phone in the next few weeks, safe to remove lists will appear. For SGS (my phone) there is a whole shared google doc with a list of system apps, and the consequence of removing them.
* I was unable to restore backed-up system apps prior to this critical problem emerging, which I think is because my phone isn't "truly" rooted. I can apparently remove from but not add to the protected areas of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't restore a system app if there is a conflict. Try and identify the conflict.
* I've tried flashing the device with numerous recovery ROMs and they all fail (wrong image, etc.). I'm having an extremely difficult time finding the original ROM anywhere and more importantly finding one which will work without the phone being connected to the PC at any stage of the flashing job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the sounds of it, you are using ROMs designed for CWM. If you are going to do that, flash CWM first. There are shed loads of tutorials. If you want to install the stock rom all over again, just download the stock RUU.
* Factory resets and recovery boots don't seem to have any effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See above about freezing.
* It's a carrier-locked/branded phone, from Three/Hutchison 3G UK. I'm locked into my contract for another year at least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't matter, you'll fix it, guarantee it.
* Before I rebooted the phone for the last time [prior to the beginning of the above problem] I noticed that my ringtones and related media were all gone and I was unable to download new ones even using third-party apps; the "unable to download sound" error was constantly popping up and when I received messages or phone calls the phone would vibrate but wouldn't play any tones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See what I said above.
* My brother and I spent the better part of 6 hours scouring the net and trying every combination of steps we could think of to try and resolve this. I wouldn't have posted here if I wasn't at the end of my tether and if I hadn't tried every solution I could find from others on various forums including this one, nor would I be so quick to reveal myself to be a deletion-happy moron to a forum of experts (I saw that anti-noob YouTube clip!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried every combination of steps? You've clearly not tried CWM. I'm not suggesting that as a silver bullet (personally, I try to avoid CWM if I can) but it's the best way to give you low level access to the NAND so you could easily flash an OTA ROM, modded ROM or even return it to stock dead quick.
For a safe to remove list, check the Themes and Apps section.
skezza said:
OK,
don't panic. I almost thought you'd hard bricked your phone when modifying the NAND. This is a soft brick and ALL soft bricks can be recovered, they just take a bit of pain and suffering. Sometimes more suffering than others, but that's irrelevant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Music to my ears!
skezza said:
Question, you say you can't restore system apps? How did you try? If a phone is perm rooted, it's rooted. Obviously a temp root is different to a perm root, but I believe this is a perm root as you can REMOVE apps from the system memory. If a root wasn't perm, every app would be sandboxed so no app, including titaniumbackup would work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Titanium Backup I tried restoring the backups I made; the "Recovering Backup" notice would just hang indefinitely until I forced TB to close. This only happened with system apps. The backed up files are still on my PC hard drive from when I copied them from my SD card, but I'm not sure they're of any use at this stage.
skezza said:
S-ON is part of HTC's snap on BL protection. The fact your phone is S-ON is now not that important, the BL is unlocked, thats what matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhh, this is probably my problem then. I ignored most of the fixes and workarounds listed as [S-OFF] because I didn't think they'd work for my device haha.
skezza said:
Ok, important advice here (for future ref), you shouldn't go mad with deleting unless you've tried freezing first. Freezing allows you to recover by simply doing a factory reset. Most bootloaders (including HTC's) allow you to perform an emergency factory reset from there. You might lose all the **** on there, but you will have a working phone. You also need to be careful with TitaniumBackup, I'm sure you didn't remove the obvious important ones, but the fact you lost access to your audio means you removed a sound/media package. Next time, google "HTC chacha, safe to remove" as more people root this phone in the next few weeks, safe to remove lists will appear. For SGS (my phone) there is a whole shared google doc with a list of system apps, and the consequence of removing them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm disappointed in myself for being so haphazard in my deleting, I'm usually not that stupid but I think I was a little overexcited to have finally gotten rid of some of the bloatware that'd irritated me for so long haha. I was like "oh boy, I can save even more battery power and internal space if I just remove a little more!". Lesson learnt
skezza said:
By the sounds of it, you are using ROMs designed for CWM. If you are going to do that, flash CWM first. There are shed loads of tutorials. If you want to install the stock rom all over again, just download the stock RUU.
...
Have you tried every combination of steps? You've clearly not tried CWM. I'm not suggesting that as a silver bullet (personally, I try to avoid CWM if I can) but it's the best way to give you low level access to the NAND so you could easily flash an OTA ROM, modded ROM or even return it to stock dead quick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said above I didn't realise I could make use of [S-OFF] materials so I didn't even attempt them for fear of making matters worse. I just now attempted to flash CWM and it hung on "parsing" which is what happened with previous flash attempts. If a flash attempt doesn't hang on "parsing" it parses for a second and then goes back to the main menu, apparently having no effect.
I'd be lying if I said I'm not overwhelmed by all of this; the tutorials I've read seem to assume a fair degree of prior knowledge that I definitely don't have haha. I hope I don't stretch anyone's patience here, but if you could explain it to me like a 6-year-old whose mother drank heavily during pregnancy I think it will help move things along!
Thank you for the thorough reply, much appreciated
Follow this to flash CWM, you need to do it with your computer and using fastboot, this is needed for S-ON phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681
dapaua said:
Follow this to flash CWM, you need to do it with your computer and using fastboot, this is needed for S-ON phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I can't do anything via my computer; my phone isn't "discovered" by the command line, unrooting tools or anything else. It does allow me to access the SD card as a hard drive but that's all it does. Obviously this wasn't the case before my problems started, because I used my PC to root and unlock the phone originally, but now the phone's boot process can't reach a point where it becomes receptive to the PC's commands. I don't know why it lets me access the SD card though.
Is there any way to do this without my PC being involved beyond transferring files to the SD card? If not, am I screwed? haha
Thanks mate!
Can you boot into the bootloader (Whith the phone off, press Volume down + power for five seconds)?
Then boot into it, move up with the volume keys and then choose fastboot.
Then follow the procedures in the link I posted previously http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681 (start from step 3). Fastboot mode should be recognized.
The fastboot binary is here C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools , if you installed the android SDK, which I asume you did.
Good luck, I hope this works!
dapaua said:
Can you boot into the bootloader (Whith the phone off, press Volume down + power for five seconds)?
Then boot into it, move up with the volume keys and then choose fastboot.
Then follow the procedures in the link I posted previously http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681 (start from step 3). Fastboot mode should be recognized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear CHRIST thank you for that - I didn't know about this feature, and it worked! I was able to connect to my PC and do everything I needed to. I used the command line to flash the CWM, then followed instructions for partitioning the SD card and installing a custom ROM. I feel like a real [email protected] I wonder if Anonymous are looking for any new recruits...
dapaua said:
Good luck, I hope this works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It did - I'm back in business!! Thank you mate, if I could fellate you via WiFi I probably would. You'd have to be wearing some anti-virus trousers though, I'm not a slut.
Cheers!
PaddyM said:
Dear CHRIST thank you for that - I didn't...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great news (I thought you already knew about the recovery menu feature otherwise I'd have mentioned it).
As I said in my reply earlier, every soft brick can be fixed somehow. Some are just harder than others. If I'm honest, it seems like yours was pretty straightforward once you got into the Recovery menu.
By the way, if you decide you want to return to stock, you can do that quite easily. Also, if I was you, do the freezing technique I suggested earlier and use the safe list that's available.
If you keep CWM, do a Nandroid backup. You don't have to keep it on your SD, but they are great for doing a very fast recovery. I can usually restore my phone in about 10 - 15 minutes using Nandroid.
PaddyM said:
Dear CHRIST thank you for that - I didn't know about this feature, and it worked! I was able to connect to my PC and do everything I needed to. I used the command line to flash the CWM, then followed instructions for partitioning the SD card and installing a custom ROM. I feel like a real [email protected] I wonder if Anonymous are looking for any new recruits...
It did - I'm back in business!! Thank you mate, if I could fellate you via WiFi I probably would. You'd have to be wearing some anti-virus trousers though, I'm not a slut.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm happy it worked. Let's hope WiFi technology improves in the future
skezza said:
Great news (I thought you already knew about the recovery menu feature otherwise I'd have mentioned it).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I knew about the recovery menu (the stock one, at least) but I didn't realise I could go into the Fastboot option and for the phone to then be recognisable to the PC, thus making it possible to flash via the command line. If I had known that I probably wouldn't have needed to post this thread at all haha.
skezza said:
As I said in my reply earlier, every soft brick can be fixed somehow. Some are just harder than others. If I'm honest, it seems like yours was pretty straightforward once you got into the Recovery menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah... I think if it happened to one of you guys you probably would have had it sorted in about 6 minutes. 3 days isn't bad for my first attempt though! hahaha
skezza said:
By the way, if you decide you want to return to stock, you can do that quite easily. Also, if I was you, do the freezing technique I suggested earlier and use the safe list that's available.
If you keep CWM, do a Nandroid backup. You don't have to keep it on your SD, but they are great for doing a very fast recovery. I can usually restore my phone in about 10 - 15 minutes using Nandroid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice man, I'll definitely be looking into the Nandroid backup option, although I hope I've learnt enough from this experience to have no need for it
Thanks to everyone who posted here, I appreciate the patience and the tolerance of my noobery.
Funnily enough, I tried TitaniumBackup today and the original poster is correct. While you can freeze, remove apps etc, you can't return them. especially system. I've not tried any of the alternative install methods that TB uses, but it's quite interesting.
TB is a bit quirky, I think. The system apps won't restore at all, but sometimes apps that I've downloaded myself will restore and other times they won't (the "Restoring App" notice just hangs there indefinitely). I usually find that forcing TB to close and then trying again does the trick, but I can't figure out why it happens in the first place.
Im wondering if anyone else has worked out a good configuration that will allow it to work every time?
I'm sure it's been beaten like a dead horse... Yes I have searched all over XDA and other resources. It seems every time I think I find something... I'm one setting short or one model away from what would work.
Been working on this way too long and now I ask for your help.
I have a client who lost her daughter. (She drown). She has her phone (S3 I535 verizon) but no idea what the lock pin would be and has tried a couple but none work. Unfortunately she's on attempt 8/10 so two more tries and the phone factory resets and all is lost.
She really wants to recover her daughter's pictures and if possible remove the screen lock without losing data (either works for her if it can be done).
I've tried everything I can find.
While she has her gmail and password, when we logged in device manager listed no active devices. (was able to recover some pictures from a backup, but it appears gmail didn't back up more than a couple from a couple years ago.)
Logged into samsung to remote unlock it, but again, no devices on account.
ADB is a no-go because USB debugging is OFF
Tried to put TWRP on it but odin failed
(Found a thread here that seems to be quality but can't load the program in stock recovery and cant get CWM or TWRP on it without debugging.)
Any ideas?
I do not know the android version, but I suspect it is the newest. I used my old S3 to replicate it so I could try these things without damaging her phone and losing the data, and it's running 4.4.2
If you couldn't flash a recovery using Odin then you're probably right about it being on one of the newer versions(your phone), the boot loader got locked up tight and the only recovery we have available is Safestrap. This is a tough one. I'm no expert by far, take what I'm saying with a grain of salt and do your own researching before taking any action after reading this! I see two ways of recovering some or all data if the bootloader is locked(and the device storage isn't encrypted)
1. If you don't have equipment to directly read/write to the internal storage then point her somewhere that specializes in data recovery on smart phones.
2. Factory reset the device, try to recover "deleted" data.
If the bootloader wasn't/isn't locked down then you could probably flash a rom that didn't have the lock screen pin/pattern ect implemented. I don't have the i535 but I know that the prepaid version checks the system partition when flashing via Odin so this probably wouldn't work if it's locked but I can't confirm wether or not this is checked on the i535
Can you enter the stock recovery on the daughters phone just to verify if its updated or not. Should be a string near the top. If it ends with ne1 its on 4.4.2 and I don't recall the one for 4.3. If you're unable to enter the recovery because you have to enter the pin before there's an actual lock screen(with the clock, status bar, wallpaper ect) then it's likely encrypted and there's nothing that you can do about that.
OpenSourcererSweg said:
If you couldn't flash a recovery using Odin then you're probably right about it being on one of the newer versions(your phone), the boot loader got locked up tight and the only recovery we have available is Safestrap. This is a tough one. I'm no expert by far, take what I'm saying with a grain of salt and do your own researching before taking any action after reading this! I see two ways of recovering some or all data if the bootloader is locked(and the device storage isn't encrypted)
1. If you don't have equipment to directly read/write to the internal storage then point her somewhere that specializes in data recovery on smart phones.
2. Factory reset the device, try to recover "deleted" data.
If the bootloader wasn't/isn't locked down then you could probably flash a rom that didn't have the lock screen pin/pattern ect implemented. I don't have the i535 but I know that the prepaid version checks the system partition when flashing via Odin so this probably wouldn't work if it's locked but I can't confirm wether or not this is checked on the i535
Can you enter the stock recovery on the daughters phone just to verify if its updated or not. Should be a string near the top. If it ends with ne1 its on 4.4.2 and I don't recall the one for 4.3. If you're unable to enter the recovery because you have to enter the pin before there's an actual lock screen(with the clock, status bar, wallpaper ect) then it's likely encrypted and there's nothing that you can do about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can enter recovery mode and I do believe it is 4.4.2.
because of the delicate nature of her phone (being her passed on daughter's and she used 9 of 10 attempts to guess her pin) I pulled my S3 out of the drawer (coincidentally I stopped using it about 2 weeks after she passed) and everything is identical down to the recovery string at the top. I know it's running the same software and I have all kinds of old pictures and texts on it like she would have and I am logged into gmail on it like she is. I locked the screen on MINE and I know the PIN on MINE. I also saved a backup of my stuff so I'm using my phone as the tester since I was able to put in in the identical situation
I have room to play because of that. Once I have success on mine, I'll try what worked on mine on hers.
So far I've tried...
play.google unlock... While I have now been able to get her device to appear on device manager on google's site, they changed it so that when I remote lock it the screen lock pin does NOT change.
I called Google, Samsung, and VERIZON. None have the ability to change or remove lock screen pin.
I tried ADB, but it doesn't detect any devices when I ADB shell or ADB device.
USB DEBUGGING IS OFF (or we wouldn't be having this convo)
It has stock recovery and not CWM or TWRP (again if I could get one of those on there, we wouldn't be having this convo) (tried ODIN flashing TWRP on, but fails)
---------------------------
Every direction I head I hit a brick wall.
I've never heard of being able to recover data from internal SDcard after reset. Didn't think that was possible.
FYI. recovery mode string is...
ANDROID system recovery <3e>
KOT49H.I535VRUDNE1
Wking46 said:
I can enter recovery mode and I do believe it is 4.4.2.
because of the delicate nature of her phone (being her passed on daughter's and she used 9 of 10 attempts to guess her pin) I pulled my S3 out of the drawer (coincidentally I stopped using it about 2 weeks after she passed) and everything is identical down to the recovery string at the top. I know it's running the same software and I have all kinds of old pictures and texts on it like she would have and I am logged into gmail on it like she is. I locked the screen on MINE and I know the PIN on MINE. I also saved a backup of my stuff so I'm using my phone as the tester since I was able to put in in the identical situation
I have room to play because of that. Once I have success on mine, I'll try what worked on mine on hers.
So far I've tried...
play.google unlock... While I have now been able to get her device to appear on device manager on google's site, they changed it so that when I remote lock it the screen lock pin does NOT change.
I called Google, Samsung, and VERIZON. None have the ability to change or remove lock screen pin.
I tried ADB, but it doesn't detect any devices when I ADB shell or ADB device.
USB DEBUGGING IS OFF (or we wouldn't be having this convo)
It has stock recovery and not CWM or TWRP (again if I could get one of those on there, we wouldn't be having this convo) (tried ODIN flashing TWRP on, but fails)
---------------------------
Every direction I head I hit a brick wall.
I've never heard of being able to recover data from internal SDcard after reset. Didn't think that was possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With HDDs I know it's possible as I have done it before. The only issue is not overwriting the data when reinstalling a operating system ect. Flash is abit dififfrent but still doesnt overwrite deleted data as soon as its deleted. If you're willing to try it on your gs3 first then go for it. Since the data is very important, I would have her take it to someone who specializes in data recovery instead of trying to wipe it and get the data off it just in case.
Are you able to remotely install applications though the Google Play site or by other means? Might be able to get a shell from one of the ssh server apps if they run the server on startup. If you can get a shell you should be able to work from there.
OpenSourcererSweg said:
With HDDs I know it's possible as I have done it before. The only issue is not overwriting the data when reinstalling a operating system ect. Flash is abit dififfrent but still doesnt overwrite deleted data as soon as its deleted. If you're willing to try it on your gs3 first then go for it. Since the data is very important, I would have her take it to someone who specializes in data recovery instead of trying to wipe it and get the data off it just in case.
Are you able to remotely install applications though the Google Play site or by other means? Might be able to get a shell from one of the ssh server apps if they run the server on startup. If you can get a shell you should be able to work from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can remotely install apps via google play site. If I could find a shell that works on startup... please let me know what that does for me?
Wking46 said:
I can remotely install apps via google play site. If I could find a shell that works on startup... please let me know what that does for me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SSH access may let you transfer some files on the device to another machine. (Assuming that it will connect to known wifi networks while locked)
OpenSourcererSweg said:
SSH access may let you transfer some files on the device to another machine. (Assuming that it will connect to known wifi networks while locked)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No such luck. Looks like all of them would need me to log in to set them up, which defeats the purpose.
I may have to wait and see if tech changes over time and keep trying until it does.
Wking46 said:
No such luck. Looks like all of them would need me to log in to set them up, which defeats the purpose.
I may have to wait and see if tech changes over time and keep trying until it does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a look at this, https://www.nowsecure.com/blog/2015/06/16/remote-code-execution-as-system-user-on-samsung-phones/ may be able to remove the pin. Sorry if discussion about this isn't allowed or frowned upon. Seems like a pain and it may not work for the s3
OpenSourcererSweg said:
Take a look at this, https://www.nowsecure.com/blog/2015/06/16/remote-code-execution-as-system-user-on-samsung-phones/ may be able to remove the pin. Sorry if discussion about this isn't allowed or frowned upon. Seems like a pain and it may not work for the s3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't effect S3 vzw. only S4 and up
Wking46 said:
Doesn't effect S3 vzw. only S4 and up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah I read "swift" as Swype and my Prepaid Verizon GS3 came with Swype preinstalled.
I have an idea, perhaps try the Verizon repair software "repair" the device to back up data while in Odin mode? I don't recall if it will require a password or anything.I don't believe it required USB debugging to be enabled, don't know if it works while in Odin mode. I don't know if the backups are encrypted or not. You can try using sandboxie to see where it keeps the backed up data. I don't know if it will backup data while you're in Odin mode though. Worth trying I suppose. Don't have time try my The self or I would. Sorry for the rushed message, I'll be home in about an hour though.
I just hard bricked my phone, and I'm hoping I can try to get it working again.
I have made backups using flashfire in the past. (I had a few different backups I made).
Prior to getting hard bricked, I was running the PIA firmware, but I was trying to restore from a backup that I had through flash fire, and due to a total rookie move I ended up restoring (or attempting to) restore to a PG1 unintentionally, and well now I can't do anything.
I think I may have a jig at home from a previous samsung phone (I believe an S3), would that work for my S7?
I also came across this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2476353
Would that work for me?
I have a macbook pro I can use terminal with, I have a microSD card and reader, and I already have the stock PIA rom on my hard drive.
Is there hope still?
Right now regardless of what key combination I hold down my phone has a black screen.
Any help would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
If you can't get into download mode then you don't have much to lose by trying what the other thread suggested.
@sacnotsack, thanks for the response, and that is my intention, however I am missing 1 crucial part to that thread and that is the debrick.img
Can someone with the PIA (G930TUVU4APIA) rom please post a dump of a partial system img for me? If I'm not mistaken, you can dump it with these commands in ADB.
adb shell
dd if=/dev/block/sda20 of=/sdcard/debrick.img bs=4096 count=128
Just to clarify...
sda20 should be the system partition. Any way that's what it is for me.
You can check yourself by doing typing this in ADB:
ls -al /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name
You will get something like this:
lrwxrwxrwx root root 2016-01-08 10:35 system -> /dev/block/sda20
And to get the block size you would type this:
blockdev --getbsz /dev/block/sda20
So the command
"dd if=/dev/block/sda20 of=/sdcard/debrick.img bs=4096 count=128"
If I get this working, I'll compile a nice tut for S7 users and post all the results with files in case anyone else runs into this issue.
Thank you in advance
I don't mean to be an annoyance, but does anyone have any thoughts or could point me to some direction? I know there are a lot of you that are much more knowledgable in this than I am, and all I'm hoping I can get assistance for is if someone can just make a dump of the debrick.img file so I can try to load it on my SD card.
Thanks
Hi, the easiest way to restore back to stock is to download Odin. I think it's Windows exclusive so you'll need bootcamp and install windows. After that, download Odin and extract it. Download stock firmware from androidfilehost.com, then extract. Open Odin and you'll see the options BL, AP, CP, and CSC. The firmware will have 4 or 5 files and will include these labels. Put each respective files into each options in odin. (Sometimes Odin will freeze, but let it do it's thing) After that, go into download mode (hold Volume down, Power, and Home whole turning on). Wait for Odin to recognize your device, if it doesn't, then download Samsung drivers. After it recognizes, press start and wait for the process to finish. That's it! Hopefully I was able to help.
MetalPhoenix45 said:
Hi, the easiest way to restore back to stock is to download Odin. I think it's Windows exclusive so you'll need bootcamp and install windows. After that, download Odin and extract it. Download stock firmware from androidfilehost.com, then extract. Open Odin and you'll see the options BL, AP, CP, and CSC. The firmware will have 4 or 5 files and will include these labels. Put each respective files into each options in odin. (Sometimes Odin will freeze, but let it do it's thing) After that, go into download mode (hold Volume down, Power, and Home whole turning on). Wait for Odin to recognize your device, if it doesn't, then download Samsung drivers. After it recognizes, press start and wait for the process to finish. That's it! Hopefully I was able to help.
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Click to collapse
MetalPhoenix45, thanks for your response. I have a Windows computer as well and I am very familiar with ODIN. The issue is, that in your explanation my guess is you are thinking the phone is in a "soft bricked" mode. The difference between a hard brick phone and a soft brick phone is that in a hard brick phone nothing is recognized when plugged in, it doesn't power on and it also doesn't show any sign of charge when it's plugged into the power.
In a soft brick mode, your phone can be stuck in a boot loop, or at the very least it still shows signs of it getting power. In which case I can just force into download mode and do what you stated above. I don't think that the things you mentioned above would work for me because when I have my phone plugged in to my computer, in device manager it doesn't detect anything. It doesn't even say unknown device or unrecognized hardware. It doesn't see it at all, and I have loaded the Samsung drivers on my pc because ODIN recognized the device prior to my issue.
I do have the stock firmware and everything on my machine, but I just can't get my phone to power or on into download boot even with a JIG.
m0d hipp¥ said:
I just hard bricked my phone, and I'm hoping I can try to get it working again.
I have made backups using flashfire in the past. (I had a few different backups I made).
Prior to getting hard bricked, I was running the PIA firmware, but I was trying to restore from a backup that I had through flash fire, and due to a total rookie move I ended up restoring (or attempting to) restore to a PG1 unintentionally, and well now I can't do anything.
I think I may have a jig at home from a previous samsung phone (I believe an S3), would that work for my S7?
I also came across this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2476353
Would that work for me?
I have a macbook pro I can use terminal with, I have a microSD card and reader, and I already have the stock PIA rom on my hard drive.
Is there hope still?
Right now regardless of what key combination I hold down my phone has a black screen.
Any help would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
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Click to collapse
Have you had any luck on fixing s7 I've got same issue I've even got device broken down minus the charger port due to cost of screen replacement! Not sure exactly how to test battery itself but every combination of testing battery externally I've nothing any ideas? I'd rather replace the battery vs charger port or is it completely done? This is.the first root I've ever had go wrong and haven't found any solutions yet and been looking since November
Thanks in advance for any advice
On rooted 910v now have a 920t rooted but let's just say my temper got the best of me and we'll will be replacing screen? Oddly enough as many times as the note 4 has been dropped either by myself or son not even a single scratch s7 definitely a pot more brittle!!
crazynate121 said:
Have you had any luck on fixing s7 I've got same issue I've even got device broken down minus the charger port due to cost of screen replacement! Not sure exactly how to test battery itself but every combination of testing battery externally I've nothing any ideas? I'd rather replace the battery vs charger port or is it completely done? This is.the first root I've ever had go wrong and haven't found any solutions yet and been looking since November
Thanks in advance for any advice
On rooted 910v now have a 920t rooted but let's just say my temper got the best of me and we'll will be replacing screen? Oddly enough as many times as the note 4 has been dropped either by myself or son not even a single scratch s7 definitely a pot more brittle!!
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Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I had no luck. I ended up haing to replace the PCB to fix the issue. Basically I learned the hard way that samsung isn't very "dev friendly". I don't blame them, but for any phone enthusiasts that plan on tinkering with their phone if you get the snapdragon version of the S7 vs the exynos version, you WILL run into trouble.
This is because the bootloader can't be unlocked on the SD models. Furthermore, if you get flagged for custom roms your warranty gets void. Over the years I've noticed Samsung is getting more and more strict about this. Honestly if you want a phone that will play nice with modding it, you should look into the google variants, Nexus, or the OnePlus. I can tell you from personal experience, OnePlus plays well with dev users. In fact they don't void the warranty for using custom roms or anything like that; in fact they're very pro and open about supporting the user base and providing a phone that the user is happy with.
Any way, that was my experience. I don't want to go off topic here, so if you have any questions you can PM me if you like, but the short answer is, if you're hard bricked then you will need to replace the motherboard/pcb. I even contacted places to see if they can jtag or jig or anything and they're not able to do it with the snapdragon S7.
bah double post, sorry I can't delete this
Funny you said nexus just ordered 2 two days ago older 7 but 4g and and what not strictly for experimental and ethical purposes of course was actually shocked at the still high priced note 5 Screen tbh but we live and learn!! SOMETIMES? LOL
m0d hipp¥ said:
Unfortunately, I had no luck. I ended up haing to replace the PCB to fix the issue. Basically I learned the hard way that samsung isn't very "dev friendly". I don't blame them, but for any phone enthusiasts that plan on tinkering with their phone if you get the snapdragon version of the S7 vs the exynos version, you WILL run into trouble.
This is because the bootloader can't be unlocked on the SD models. Furthermore, if you get flagged for custom roms your warranty gets void. Over the years I've noticed Samsung is getting more and more strict about this. Honestly if you want a phone that will play nice with modding it, you should look into the google variants, Nexus, or the OnePlus. I can tell you from personal experience, OnePlus plays well with dev users. In fact they don't void the warranty for using custom roms or anything like that; in fact they're very pro and open about supporting the user base and providing a phone that the user is happy with.
Any way, that was my experience. I don't want to go off topic here, so if you have any questions you can PM me if you like, but the short answer is, if you're hard bricked then you will need to replace the motherboard/pcb. I even contacted places to see if they can jtag or jig or anything and they're not able to do it with the snapdragon S7.
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Click to collapse
I am in the same boat, and considering your experience after this sore event, maybe you can help a lot of us guys here in the same situation.
My case is even worst, because, here in my country, there are NO Snapdragons, just G930F Equinoxes.
You may help im providing us lames the debrick.img file, but you must be rooted to do so. This would ve much appreciated.
Another way is to insert a blank 16GB+ SD card on the phone and format it through Odin. You just insert the card on the slot, enter download mode in the phone and load all files in Odin including the .pit. In Odin options select "Re-format" and "T Flash" that will say to the phone to format the ExtSDCard and use the ExtSDCard as destination instead of the internal emmc!
Post the image of the SD, that you can extract it with the Win32DiskImage, and you and your family will be blessed for ten generations. Also save the file in case you mess things again.
There is one method using QFil,but i'm stil trying to asemble all required files and don't now if it will even work. Should work...!!!
Anyway, can you please help us?
Best regards..
PadsPCB said:
I am in the same boat, and considering your experience after this sore event, maybe you can help a lot of us guys here in the same situation.
My case is even worst, because, here in my country, there are NO Snapdragons, just G930F Equinoxes.
You may help im providing us lames the debrick.img file, but you must be rooted to do so. This would ve much appreciated.
Another way is to insert a blank 16GB+ SD card on the phone and format it through Odin. You just insert the card on the slot, enter download mode in the phone and load all files in Odin including the .pit. In Odin options select "Re-format" and "T Flash" that will say to the phone to format the ExtSDCard and use the ExtSDCard as destination instead of the internal emmc!
Post the image of the SD, that you can extract it with the Win32DiskImage, and you and your family will be blessed for ten generations. Also save the file in case you mess things again.
There is one method using QFil,but i'm stil trying to asemble all required files and don't now if it will even work. Should work...!!!
Anyway, can you please help us?
Best regards..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I won't be of much help. If you have the exynos S7, you would need to ask someone else with the same version of your phone for the software because the SD versions would run on different software due to different hardware.
Is there a reason why you don't try sending it out to get serviced so they can replace your PCB ?
I tried to get the debrick.img file a while back as well, but had no luck in doing so and actually I don't have my S7 phone anymore. I bought the OnePlus 3T and it's been working much better for my needs. I'm sorry to say this, but If you have any intention of modding a phone you have 2 options. 1. Get a phone that supports modding and allows you to unlock the bootloader 2. Get the unlocked variant of the phone.
If I have learned anything from my experience, it's that it is incredibly important to do your research. Not only look at the specs of the phone, but look at reviews from other users with the phone. Also if you plan on modding it, go through some threads and see how easy/difficult it is to mod that version of phone you're interested in.
m0d hipp¥ said:
Unfortunately, I won't be of much help. If you have the exynos S7, you would need to ask someone else with the same version of your phone for the software because the SD versions would run on different software due to different hardware.
Is there a reason why you don't try sending it out to get serviced so they can replace your PCB ?
I tried to get the debrick.img file a while back as well, but had no luck in doing so and actually I don't have my S7 phone anymore. I bought the OnePlus 3T and it's been working much better for my needs. I'm sorry to say this, but If you have any intention of modding a phone you have 2 options. 1. Get a phone that supports modding and allows you to unlock the bootloader 2. Get the unlocked variant of the phone.
If I have learned anything from my experience, it's that it is incredibly important to do your research. Not only look at the specs of the phone, but look at reviews from other users with the phone. Also if you plan on modding it, go through some threads and see how easy/difficult it is to mod that version of phone you're interested in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then i think got stuck, beacause in these forums there is no one willing/able/interested in helping anyone.
I said i'm in the SAME boat == I got an SM-G930T (from T-Mobile) that has a SnapDragon cpu but HERE in my country THERE ARE NO Snapdragons only Equinoxes. If we had such phones here surely i would have done this already, but G930F's won't do, as i have already tried.
So, as you know how i feel about a brand new SM-G930T Bricked, you wold be my last hope. There is no way to send it back to Samsung beacause it was bought from a friend and surely no warranty.
Anyway, best regards and rest in peace
Oh sorry, I misunderstood you. I'd like to think that it's not so much people don't want to try to help out, it's just that there is nothing that can be done for users on the snapdragon device so no one bothers unfortunately. Sorry to hear about this, and it really is unfortunate that you had to go through the same thing I went through with no help. Trust me, if I was able to do anything to provide any guidance I would.
Good luck!
Hello, here's my problem: I accidentally put a schematic as a code on my phone that I immediately forgot. Now that I only have access to the lock screen, I can't put my phone in file transfer mode because I'd like to retrieve it before resetting my phone (which is, by the way, a Redmi Note 6 pro up-to-date, not rooted, no TWRP, and the bootloader is still locked). It's possible to use ADB to retrieve files, but I can't allow access to the computer from my phone either, so ADb is unusable when my phone is turned on. Nevertheless, it's obviously possible to use it in recovery mode, if you have the right drivers. I went to look for them, but during the installation, Windows tells me that a better driver, ADB devices, is already installed, and I can't install my driver. I obviously tried to find a way to ignore this warning, notably by asking during the manual driver installation to search the hard drive, but it tells me via this method that no driver is contained in the indicated directory (which is wrong, at least from what I see, the necessary files are all there).
So I search either :
- a driver that won't have this problem and that will allow adb to work in recovery mode;
- a way to force the installation of this driver;
- another way to use ADB in recovery mode;
- another way to recover my files while the phone is locked and I can't give it access to the computer.
Otherwise, any idea that can solve my problem is fine with me.
Thank you in advance and have a nice day!
https://c.mi.com/thread-2207444-1-0.html
For drivers.
And use OrangeFox Recovery
He can't install any custom rec. The phone not unlocked. I don't think you have a Chance to get your data. For future make the most files that you don't wanna Lose on a sd card not on intern storage.
Update: on little search on Google i found this Blog. https://www.androiddata-recovery.com/blog/how-to-retrieve-deleted-data-from-xiaomi-redmi-phones
On method 4 is maybe a reason for your matter.
ALcAtRas500 said:
He can't install any custom rec. The phone not unlocked. I don't think you have a Chance to get your data. For future make the most files that you don't wanna Lose on a sd card not on intern storage.
Update: on little search on Google i found this Blog.
On method 4 is maybe a reason for your matter.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, I will try this and and I'll up the topic and say whether or not I passed. And don't worry, I won't make that mistake twice, that'll teach me...
Kyrela said:
Thanks, I will try this and and I'll up the topic and say whether or not I passed. And don't worry, I won't make that mistake twice, that'll teach me...
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Click to collapse
The message wasn't sent... well, I was saying that the website was affiliated with a software, and was totally lying since the data recovery function is only compatible with samsung. So it looks like there's no solution for me...
Kyrela said:
The message wasn't sent... well, I was saying that the website was affiliated with a software, and was totally lying since the data recovery function is only compatible with samsung. So it looks like there's no solution for me...
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Click to collapse
Unfortunately for you you cannot recover your files. As your phone's bootloader is locked and even though some softwares claim to work even with formatted phones they don't because of encryption and this new type of formatting where the data gets destroyed. Even It happened to me once I had unlocked and rotted my phone by for some reason when I was going back to stock ROM my phone data got destroyed dueto my carelessness during encryption and that's the story. After that I tried different softwares to recover photos but non of them worked. Only thing is you can get your Device unlocked
Hi, I'm having a lot of troubles. My old Samsung S6 was accidentally factory reset and I did not have photo backup through google enabled. My mother died last April and this phone has many photos of her that I have not backed up anywhere else. I've been trying for days to figure out what to do, but I can't make heads or tails of a lot of the information. Some places say the phone can be rooted, some say not, and there are a lot of dubious websites offering the tools needed to root them. I don't know what to do, my phone model is SM-G920V, hardware version is G920V.07, and the build number is MMB29K.G920VVRU4CPF4.
I saw one tool, CF-Autoroot that generated a file set for me to root the phone, but it also said that the bootloader being locked could result in the phone being flashed. Can anyone please help me understand what my options are? If it's complicated, I will learn how to do it, I just need a definite direction to move in. Otherwise, I think I will keep the phone turned off and hope that someday the data can be recovered. I'm very distraught, I used this phone for a long time and a great period of memories will be lost if I cannot restore it. Photorec will not recognize the phone in either Windows or Linux, I assume because I do not have root.
EDIT: Android Version 6.0.1, security patch level June 1st, 2016, Kernel Version 3.10.61
EDIT 2: I've seen some threads talking about downgrading from 6.0.1 to 5.1.1 and then getting root with Odin and TWRP recovery. What's the likelihood any of the photos would be recoverable after all that using Photorec? I'm just looking for any way to get any of the photos. I definitely need root to get Photorec to recognize the phone at least, right? Or is there another program that would work better maybe? I've had good luck with a scrambled flash drive and Photorec in the past so I feel like that's my best option.
I think it only needed adb access if it OEM Unlocked
I have restored using only ADB from Linux
Edit: I don't know about factory reset would have permanently erase the files, I don't know..
But if you erase phone from Odin it is permanent. That is what I know