Until yesterday, my Galaxy S II was working fine and I was recharging it as usual using my AC Adapter and it suddenly started to reboot itself constantly.
I thought nothing more of it until I found out that it wouldn't work at all.
I keep getting "System UID Inconsistent" messages and I try to force close the device but it doesn't work.
I'm using VillainROM 1.2 as my custom ROM as well as using the CF-Root Kernel to install it via Odin.
Is there anyway I can update VillainROM to fix the problem without wiping the data on the internal partition as well as accessing the internal partitions themselves?
(Ironically enough, I actually installed Titanium BACKUP itself on my device but for some reason, even though I paid for the full version, it would never let me upgrade to it!)
Apologies for bumping this thread but I really could do with some advice on how to fix this problem without having to flash the phone.
If phone turns on copy VR 1.4 file to sd card and flash through CWM as per roms instructions .
Or if you still have VR 1.2 on sd card reflash via CWM .
That fails a factory reset ( wipes all data ) may fix .
, I actually installed Titanium BACKUP itself on my device but for some reason, even though I paid for the full version, it would never let me upgrade to it!
You have the pro file on your sd card .
jje
Thanks for the advice and I'd try it if I could, but my phone still won't let me force close.
On a related note, I'm still trying to find out why I can't access the partitions on my mobile phone via USB even though the partitions appear in Windows Explorer.
I can't remember where I installed the upgrade file for Titanium, to be honest. I take it that where the upgrade file is installed could be the reason why the free version can't be upgraded?
Related
I thought I should share this with everyone in case it helps someone out there. I might have gotten lucky, so YMMV.
Basically like everyone else my SGS (I9000M from Bell) died due to an internal SD error, but in my case I haven't updated the phone since I got it in September 2010 (it had the JG9 firmware). The good thing is I was able to flash it to the stock Froyo 2.2, and I'm currently using it as normal and can access the internal SD without problems.
Summary of steps that most likely fixed the problem:
Go into recovery mode and "wipe data/factory reset". If your phone boots (but still have problems accessing the SD card) then it's a good indication that you maybe able to fix it.
Flash JL2 (from samfirmware.com) using ODIN. Not sure if this is needed, but you may need to ask ODIN to Re-partition. You still get an error "Can't mount DBDATA", and the phone won't boot. That's ok.
Flash the SpeedMod Kernel using ODIN (I used SpeedMod K12J with HZ=256). Your phone should boot into JL2 and the SD card should be accessible again.
At this point your internal SD card is fixed and you should be able to flash whatever you want. Just note that Kies will sometimes not work properly with the SpeedMod installed. In my case I flashed 2.1 (JH2) again (this won't work if you have 2.2 without speedmod kernel), then used Kies to update to 2.2 (JL2).
For those who are interested in the details, please read on.
Bought the phone in September, it's a Samsung Galaxy S I9000M from Bell. It says 10.07 on the back of the phone, and it had the JG9 firmware on it.
Since the 2.2 update came out I've been following closely the problem of the internal SD failures and the grief it's causing to a lot of people. So I decided to hold off updating until Samsung gets their act together. (I know it's better to update as soon as possible in case it dies so that I can use the warranty, but I had 9 months remaining so I decided to wait a little more.)
Close to the end of 2010 I noticed that my Android Market has changed, and that it now allows me to "Update All", so I just hit that and noticed that after updating several apps, all the remaining updates failed. I knew this wasn't a good sign. My SD card was still fine though.
After the above incident the phone felt a bit sluggish and less responsive than it used to be. I hadn't correlated this to anything yet, but now I know it was most probably due to the internal SD on its way to die.
On January 7 the phone suddenly died. When I rebooted it, I got the infamous symptom of seeing the S logo animation then black screen, then if I touch the two buttons at the bottom they light up indefinitely. At that point I knew it was the internal SD card.
I put the phone into recovery mode and confirmed my guess when I saw the red error message "Can't mount SDCARD".
I took the phone to the Bell store, the guy told me Bell now has an expedited shipping process for this problem and gave me a number to call to get a new replacement phone.
I called the number and they verified the symptoms with me, and said they're going to send me a new phone. I asked for the $100 credit but I was told I can't get it since I didn't update to 2.2. Apparently they only give you the credit if you actually tried to update and the update caused the phone to die (which doesn't make any sense to me).
So, while waiting for the new phone to arrive, I decided to try a few things. Here's what I did:
First thing I did was going into recovery mode and doing a "wipe data/factory reset". To my surprise, the phone actually booted after I did that, but I got force closes on almost all apps, and when I checked the internal SD card it wasn't mounted at all. The phone response was extremely slow and barely usable. I was able to make phone calls though.
I wondered if the SD problem is a corrupt partition rather than a physical error. After searching for a while I found someone posted a solution to fix a problem with his internal SD card by using the "parted" tool to mkfs the partition. Unfortunately I couldn't copy the tool using adb; my phone wasn't rooted and I couldn't access the SD card, so there was no place to copy the binary to. I get either a read-only error when trying to copy to the root, or a permission denied error when trying to copy to other mounted partitions.
Then I figured if I could flash 2.2 somehow (even if it doesn't work) I can try to ask Bell for the $100 credit Kies was useless as it couldn't recognize the phone, so I grabbed the stock JL2 firmware from samfirmware.com and used ODIN 1.7 to flash it. I asked it to Re-partition (not sure if this was needed). After reboot I saw another red error message, but this time it was complaining "Can't mount DBDATA" (as opposed to SDCARD). Then all reboots after that resulted in the same problem (S logo then black screen).
I searched for the "Can't mount DBDATA" error and found a post on xda that shows a method that should fix this by first using a 512 PIT file to repartition (no ROM involved), then flashing a stock firmware. I did that but it didn't help.
Then I found a site called "AKA skriller" that shows a way to reflash a stock firmware after the phone is bricked. So I followed the instructions by flashing a "nobrick" image (apparently made by someone called eugene), and then flashing a stock firmware. I flashed nobrick then JH2 in attempt to go back to 2.1. After doing this the phone went into a boot loop where it keeps showing the I9000M screen then rebooting. At that point I couldn't go into recovery mode, but I could go into download mode.
After searching again I found out that this was due to a new bootloader in 2.2 that prevents going back to a 2.1 firmware. I wanted to stop the boot loop so I flashed JL2 again, which stopped the boot loop but still the phone won't boot (black screen).
After more searching I found that I could go back to a 2.1 firmware only if I flash a custom kernel, someone suggesting the SpeedMod kernel (not sure if it has to be SpeedMod or any other kernel). So I flashed SpeedMod (I used SpeedMod K12J with HZ=256) using ODIN 1.52. First thing I got is a custom recovery menu with more options, I just skipped it and rebooted. THE PHONE ACTUALLY BOOTED this time into 2.2. Not only that, but the SDCARD problem was FIXED, and the phone was responsive and fast again.
I wanted to load my contacts again using Kies from a backup I made earlier. Kies recognized the phone but for some reason the contacts widget keep saying "please connect your phone" and I couldn't copy back my contacts.
I thought this might be due to the custom kernel and I was right. I flashed a stock 2.1 (JH2) with a bootloader included using ODIN. It just worked. I could copy my contacts again back to the phone.
I was also able to update to 2.2 (JL2) again using Kies this time, and it even kept my contacts. This is what I have now on the phone.
P.S. I can't post external links due to a restriction by the forum (since I'm new).
I had my doubts when I opened this thread... I've gone through 5 phones already and just finished killing my sixth...
I had tried flashing JL2 stock after killing it through the usual process (transferring over my music collection)... and got the EXACT same errors you wrote about.
What I didn't try was then flashing the custom kernel... so I tried that...
and it was too good to believe... didn't work for me. after the boot animation, display goes blank and buttons off... you can tell it's not going to work if it starts vibrating during boot.
I'm sorry it didn't work for you. As I said I might have been lucky.
Although that I just found another thread on androidforums where the guy managed to fix his sd card in a very similar way to what I described*. I actually haven't seen his post before I fixed my card, so it was independent.
Here are the commonalities between what I did and what he did:
* We both flashed a 2.2 firmware with a PIT file and Re-partition (using ODIN)
* We both got the black screen afterwards
* We both then flashed a custom kernel with no Re-partition
* We both got recovery menu right after flashing the kernel
* We both ended up in Android 2.2 aftwerwards with the SD card fixed
Here are the differences between us:
* I used JL2 firmware while he used JPM
* I used a 512 PIT while he used an 803 PIT (that's just what samfirmware.com said to use for each firmware)
* I flashed the firmware using ODIN 1.7 while he used ODIN 1.3
* I used the SpeedMod kernel while he used the YAOK kernel. He flashed using ODIN 1.3 while I flashed using ODIN 1.52.
* Once in the recovery menu I rebooted right away into 2.2, while he "ended up selecting every option that had something to do with mounting, formating, erasing. Anything to do and sounding to do with the SD card [he] pressed." then rebooted successfully with no SD card errors.
(*)http: //androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s/235987-clueless.html
what slaman encountered was REAL hardware failure, like I did
what you encountered was just a Corrupt SD card, which can be fixed all the time, using the process you described, and many other methods.
Real hardware failure, even if you manage to boot into the OS, it will show no internal SD, or 0 available space, or simply an error message complaining about the internal SD
You can only see that with custom ROMs, with a stock ROM you wont even get past the black and white SGS logo screen
internal SD card
Hi,
I have followed a few discussions on this board as also my internal and external SD card was "gone". I couldn't access or mount it any more after flashing with Odin to european JPY 2.2.1 ... and I found out where at least my internal memory has gone.
In fact the internal memory couldn't be accessed after installing an exchange email account. My OWA account requires security like password protection and NO external SD card.... but it seems that version 2.2.1 does not make a difference between internal and external SD card and removes the access to both away. It looks like disappeared but it comes back after uninstalling your exchange email account.
May be this is all known and logic but I couldn't find the explanation to it therefore I would like to post the information.
Thanks
Thank you very much for this! I indeed had the mpbk01 (whatever) error, and did exactly what was posted above (using 512 pit, and 1.7 odin) and now have my pone working just fine.
Again, thanks a lot for the post!
Edit: While all this is true.. seems like i have 0.00b of internal phone storage available, so I cannot install any apps. The internal SD card space is reporting normal at 13.03gb though.
Glad it worked for you. Hope you can solve the internal phone storage problem though.
As I mentioned I might have been lucky, I don't expect everyone to be able to fix the internal SD card problem by just flashing custom roms/kernels. If it works for a few people then I'm happy I saved them the hassle of going through Bell to replace the phone.
just a suggestion to send it out for repair, before you run out of warranty
Uss_Defiant said:
Thank you very much for this! I indeed had the mpbk01 (whatever) error, and did exactly what was posted above (using 512 pit, and 1.7 odin) and now have my pone working just fine.
Again, thanks a lot for the post!
Edit: While all this is true.. seems like i have 0.00b of internal phone storage available, so I cannot install any apps. The internal SD card space is reporting normal at 13.03gb though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
uys I have a very serious problem. I'm on Darkkys latest rom...
I took out my battery for 1 hour... put battery back in and the phone did not boot up.
All I got was the screen saver and the phone kept on virbarting...
I tried wiping cache through clock work recovery, resetting to factory settings via clock work.. still nothing..
I just updated phone via odin to latest JPY...the phone goes to black screen and keeps vibrating... It won't boot.
Guys what's wrong with my phone? I am really worried...and I need to use it
I appreciate your help.
Ps. Phone can go into download mode..
Edit: XWJM8 worked
jUsT2eXy said:
uys I have a very serious problem. I'm on Darkkys latest rom...
I took out my battery for 1 hour... put battery back in and the phone did not boot up.
All I got was the screen saver and the phone kept on virbarting...
I tried wiping cache through clock work recovery, resetting to factory settings via clock work.. still nothing..
I just updated phone via odin to latest JPY...the phone goes to black screen and keeps vibrating... It won't boot.
Guys what's wrong with my phone? I am really worried...and I need to use it
I appreciate your help.
Ps. Phone can go into download mode..
Edit: XWJM8 worked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well I have this problem and cant get it sorted at all, it seems to have also created another partion and i have no idea how to wipe the sd card clear of all partions so it can recreate them!!!!
please help !!!
Hii there,
this thread seems to be very helpful, so I want to value your help with something in return. if any of you can get me out of this mess I will donate you appropriately so that you can constantly offer this helps to others too.
some details are as follow:
1. my Galaxy S (korean) M110s was on USB downloading Market update when I disconnected it abruptly to make a call. It was downloading some updates then.
2. moment than its showing SD card damage error and even showing 00 for external SD card which I inserted post that.
3. this means neither internal nor external SD card are being detected. Though it shows that ext SD card is mounted when I insert in and also let me unmoutn it.
BTW I have tried flashiing using odin and eclair 2.1 version which didnt help much.
Need urgent help
usb jig only gets me into download mode. and not recovery mode
so can Odin still get it to work while in download mode instead
It worked for me but I can't access the internal memory nor the external one. Hence, I can't use the camera or install any app. I don't have any kind of warranty so I believe this is the best I can get, right?! At least I can use as a phone and browse the internet!
Thanks for your help, even though it worked half-way for me!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1020278
Please take a look of this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1188482
It may fix your internal sd card problem permanently.
So here is my problem. I downloaded and installed slimkat 4.4.2 rom with the suggested kernal but decided to go back to what I had before (stock rooted). Like others here I restore a nandroid backup using The latest CWM. Since then I've had nothing but force closes. I am at a point where the samsung keyboard, and the samsung pen input is force closing every 2 seconds and I am getting system process errors.
I've tried flashing stock through odin
I've tried the efs fix through command line and the brick_loop_fix_after.zip file
I've tried removing the sd card, the sim card and the airplane mode solution
I still get to the Pen input and samsung keyboard errors
It's not boot looping per say...I just can't do anything.
Please, any advice would be appreciated.
Tmobile Samsung Galaxy Note 3
I reckon the issue has got to do with the kernel which you've installed, it is not compatible. I had similar FC issue too. Just reinstall back whichever custom rom you want n kernel.
Epyoch said:
So here is my problem. I downloaded and installed slimkat 4.4.2 rom with the suggested kernal but decided to go back to what I had before (stock rooted). Like others here I restore a nandroid backup using The latest CWM. Since then I've had nothing but force closes. I am at a point where the samsung keyboard, and the samsung pen input is force closing every 2 seconds and I am getting system process errors.
I've tried flashing stock through odin
I've tried the efs fix through command line and the brick_loop_fix_after.zip file
I've tried removing the sd card, the sim card and the airplane mode solution
I still get to the Pen input and samsung keyboard errors
It's not boot looping per say...I just can't do anything.
Please, any advice would be appreciated.
Tmobile Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might be extreme, but I would advice a 'TOTAL' wipe. A fresh start. Wipe everything. Wipe User data and internal sd card. maybe even external sd card. Of course back up everything you need on both memories to a pc first. Then flash A complete Stock ROM that contains all the files, then restore ur files back. Would take some time but should be worth it in the end. And there should be no FC then. Fresh starts can be fun too
stanley08 said:
Might be extreme, but I would advice a 'TOTAL' wipe. A fresh start. Wipe everything. Wipe User data and internal sd card. maybe even external sd card. Of course back up everything you need on both memories to a pc first. Then flash A complete Stock ROM that contains all the files, then restore ur files back. Would take some time but should be worth it in the end. And there should be no FC then. Fresh starts can be fun too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that, but without the restore, IT WORKED!!! thank you so much! I can re download my stuff and I back up every image to the cloud so nothing lost. Thank you
Epyoch said:
I did that, but without the restore, IT WORKED!!! thank you so much! I can re download my stuff and I back up every image to the cloud so nothing lost. Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A smile on ur face is always a good thing. Cheers mate!
Hey guys
Just got a S5 (previously owned a S2 and S4 Active, which I have rooted and put custom ROMs so many times. Hence I'm familiar with Odin, Recovery, etc etc).
About a week ago, I installed Shohat v5 ROM, everything went fine. I was quite happy with it.
I installed back my app from my S4 Active through a big update.zip (backed up with Titanium paid version) thanks to custom recovery.
And just now, when my battery was like 5% left, I decided to make a hard reboot (as Xprivacy warned me that I needed to restart to have my changes into effect).
I charged my phone and THEN I push the reboot button (not the hot boot).
While charging, the screen went normally black, but stayed black with the blue LED notification ON (not sure if that info is important).
Then, black screen stays forever:
- no logo
- no download mode
- no recovery
- When phone is connected through USB to my laptop, I hear the usual "tadaam" sound from Windows, but no "USB notification".
It seems a JIG would be the solution, but no idea if that would work for a S5 (I guess Samsung has now worked to avoid that solution)
Well, if anyone can help, that would be cool
Obvious I know but you have pulled the battery for a while and tried again right?
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
Goldie said:
Obvious I know but you have pulled the battery for a while and tried again right?
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello
Indeed, I just removed the battery for a few hours a tried, no success.
But is it normal that a hardbrick can occur 1 week after installing a custom ROM?
Right now I can't bring it to Samsung store for repair...
(Adding a new post as editing is not working properly)
Isn't there a way to use ADB with commands through Windows (as there is the "tadaam" sound when I connect it through USB)?
A friend of mine bricked his Nexus tablet and went through such solution to remove the brick ...
OK ............
Here's the magic
After removing on and off the battery many times, trying to boot in recovery or download (trying about 15 times)
Now I managed to boot in recovery (I was like "huh?" and "wooohoooooo")
Did Wipe cache
Did Wipe Dalvick
No Factory reset
Fixed root (seems like I lost it, no idea why)
Let's see if I can reboot it
I think maybe the issue came from the huge update.zip created from my S4 Active (i9295) with Titanium backup (I was in Android version 4.2.2).
Maybe the reinstalled apps, messed up something as the ROM was in version 4.4.2...
Desanusseur2porc said:
OK ............
Here's the magic
After removing on and off the battery many times, trying to boot in recovery or download (trying about 15 times)
Now I managed to boot in recovery (I was like "huh?" and "wooohoooooo")
Did Wipe cache
Did Wipe Dalvick
No Factory reset
Fixed root (seems like I lost it, no idea why)
Let's see if I can reboot it
I think maybe the issue came from the huge update.zip created from my S4 Active (i9295) with Titanium backup (I was in Android version 4.2.2).
Maybe the reinstalled apps, messed up something as the ROM was in version 4.4.2...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK ... bad news again
I performed a hard reboot to check that everything was stable, and phone rebooted fine.
then I turned off and removed to battery to put back the SD card and the SIM card, and now the phone is not being turned on again.
And now the phone is not able to be turned ON again...
What's going on, any idea?
*** EDIT ***
I managed to reboot in custom recovery totally randomly after playing with the battery (removing, putting it back, trying to boot)
I made a full factory reset and reinstalled the custom ROM Shohat.
After rebooting, it went directly to ODIN as it was displaying error messages "ddi: MMC_read failed"
I guess the internal SD card is dead.
Questions:
1/ Is warranty OK if
- KNOX counter is at 0 (no idea why it is at zero)
- Current Binary is set to OFFICAL
- BUT SYSTEM STATUS is set to "CUSTOM"
2/ Can a custom ROM do this or is it a hardware failure?
Did you try with another sd card did you have apps installed on this sd card for me this sounds like a dead sdcard issue with some apps on it. I had the same issue with my X8 when a lot of apps ware running from the sd card btw sd cards are totally unreliably for storing important data as they usually die after some writing on them.
Change the SD Card and I think your phone will come back to normal.
SD Card Reader
Desanusseur2porc said:
After rebooting, it went directly to ODIN as it was displaying error messages "ddi: MMC_read failed"
I guess the internal SD card is dead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if this helps but I had an GS-900H (S5 octacore version) and struggled with it for a week trying to debug this problem, ordered new memory cards, installed different ROMs, etc. only to find out that the card reader was bad.
In my case it would corrupt the card every time so that my PC would need to 'repair' it before I could begin using it in the PC.
Maybe the card reader is a common point of failure?
EDIT: I also had issues with different cards working and not working based on the speed of the SD card (different S5). I know for a fact that it will switch you over to main memory when taking pictures that require advanced features -- I got a popup telling me that my memory card wasn't fast enough.
alex_tytn said:
I don't know if this helps but I had an GS-900H (S5 octacore version) and struggled with it for a week trying to debug this problem, ordered new memory cards, installed different ROMs, etc. only to find out that the card reader was bad.
In my case it would corrupt the card every time so that my PC would need to 'repair' it before I could begin using it in the PC.
Maybe the card reader is a common point of failure?
EDIT: I also had issues with different cards working and not working based on the speed of the SD card (different S5). I know for a fact that it will switch you over to main memory when taking pictures that require advanced features -- I got a popup telling me that my memory card wasn't fast enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello guys
Thanks for your input.
Unfortunately I do not have an external SD card, the issue is with the Internal memory
So i can not request new ones or try to replace it, or work on the card reader...
Amazing that you are about to lose your phone forever and you don't even consider installing the original Samsung firmware.
What da f*** are you doing?
100%. Numb nut doesn't deserve the great phone It's like he got OCD.
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Free mobile app
lcmazza said:
Amazing that you are about to lose your phone forever and you don't even consider installing the original Samsung firmware.
What da f*** are you doing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello
Well, not sure that ODIN will work as the internal MMC is not recognized, so where would that be installed?
Furthermore, I'm waiting for the feedback from Samsung (as knox counter is at 0, Binary is set to OFFICIAL and only status is set to Custom).
I did not want to change these counters with manipulating ODIN.
If Samsung gives it back to me with a new one, then wooohoooo
If Samsung says "f*** off, you manipulated it, warranty is off", then I'll use ODIN with STOCK ROM from Samfirmware + PIT file (they are ready for use on my computer)
If you can't get to download mode how do you propose to use Odin to flash stock ??
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
Hello! I have a note 4 sm n910f build number n910fxxuanj4.
Recently, I have rooted it, installed twrp and flashed the infamous rom. It does not recognize my Italian sim card, so I decided to restore the phone with twrp from the backup I had previously done ( with twrp) . Then, I tried flashing cm12 with twrp, but it gave me an error, saying that my device was different from the one that should've been used, so it stopped before even trying. I went back to touch wiz after that, and now, I have the following issues: I can't download images / videos or audios from whatsapp , telegram , dropbox or facebook ( they are the only ones I have tried) I can't even send any of those in fact. Also, I can't save any python script with the app
"Qpython" as it either sais that the place where I want to save it is unwritable, or that he can't save it in the temp file ( no idea what the second means...). I though that there was some problem with my sd card...I fact there is: I went to do an sd card data a wipe with twrp, but it would always fail. I then tried to format the sd card from the phone's settings, and that worked, but I still have the same problems I had before. I tried restoring again with my twrp backup, but I every time, the problems remain. I am starting to get a little worried and scared...I don't mind losing all the data, or having to format the entire phone or things like that....I just want to get it working like before... will flashing the stock firmware with odin do any good? Or would that risk bricking the phone ( maybe it tries to wipe the sd and it fails...I don't know)? Is there any other way? Someone please help me! Thanks a lot!
If you want to read the below learning experience you may gain some knowledge but at this point I believe my method may have flaws. While it seemed fine at first the problem listed directly below could not be fixed without using Odin to flash a stock ROM back onto the phone. It had checked the hidden menu settings for MTP and ADB and PDA, CP etc and all were correct (I have another good working S5 to compare these values to). I tried an earlier restore of a TWRP backup and that just blew up with all sorts of FC's on boot. So thank goodness for Odin. After flashing the stock rom it booted fine and I can now write files from the PC to the phone again via USB. In the process right now of re-rooting, installing TWRP and doing a restore of my last backup.
Note : I have found one problem I am currently working on after using this method. I can hook up the phone to the PC and get a link, open folders on the phone and can copy file from the phone to the PC but can NOT copy files from the PC to the phone. More later .....
I've got a Samsung Galaxy S5 from US Cellular. Other than a few people in the Motorola subforum here trying this I haven't seen this exact method described here so apologies if I missed it somewhere - tried many searches. It seemed so easy - maybe it is just considered SOP for some - don't know so I'm going to run the details by here anyway in case it saves anyone some trouble. Do read my warnings below though before you attempt this.
1 - You want TWRP installed (or Philz CM Touch will probably work too - seems a bit more complex though) If you are flashing ROM's having TWRP or some other custom recovery is always a good idea and I'm sure most people have one of them.
2 - Always do a complete backup with TWRP before flashing anything new. You did a backup before going to Lollipop didn't you?
3 - So you are tired of the white screen, battery sucking, quirky Lollipop or maybe that Cyanogen Lollipop mod didn't quite work for you and you want the old Kitkat back. So fire up TWRP, go into Advanced wipe and wipe Dalvik Cache, System, Data and Cache. You aren't done wiping yet though. After you swiped to wipe those go back to the previous page and Swipe to Factory Reset. That may not actually make any difference but I just did it for good measure and my method worked great.
4 - Now without out even needing to reboot find your latest backup of Kitkat 4.4.2 that you have on your Internal SD or External SD card (you do keep one there don't you in case your phone glitches on you while you are out and about?)
5 - Do a Restore of everything - Boot, Recovery, System, Data, Cache.
6 - Reboot. You are done.
Firstly I need to add that I had flashed Cyanogen Mod 12.1 (Lollipop 5.1) after following directions here in the main Cyanogen subforum to flash that on my KitKat 4.4.2 Galaxy S5 phone. What may be noteworthy is that after flashing CM 12.1 I ran the App PhoneInfo Plus (made mostly for Samsungs) and the OS version showed as Lollipop 5.1 but some of the build numbers to my recollection showed 4.4.2. So this was not a stock Lollipop OTA - it was the Cyanogen mod of Lollipop made by developers here. I just assumed they started with Lollipop to make that latest 5.1 build but I haven't followed the Cyanogen mod much at all so I don't know if they have borrowed bits and pieces of Kitkat in their builds. If they have done that then this downgrade method may not work the same for an OTA Lollipop.
Another warning - I noticed in the Motorola subforum here that some people bricked their phone trying this type of downgrade with TWRP however I believe that is because they had Verizon phones with locked bootloaders and that is not the case for my phone (US Cellular) or any other phones beside VZ as far as I know. If you have a Verizon with locked bootloader beware! I will also add that on my first boot after restoring Kitkat 4.4.2 that the second the home screen was up I started quickly scanning through my app pages and the phone rebooted itself. I believe it wasn't fully done loading the OS and it just was a hiccup. It has not happened since after trying all sort of things. Everything is working great.
I saw most people recommending to use Odin to flash a stock Kitkat firmware back on the phone in order to downgrade from Lollipop. Then you need to re-install all your apps or maybe do a restore of a recovery but with this method using TWRP you bypass most of that and get it all done in one TWRP session.
Another note about what I read people having a problem with upon downgrading - some were losing their IMEI when using Odin to flash the original firmware. I still have my original IMEI with no problem. That is another reason I think this method may be better than using Odin for this downgrade. I'll add that there are a lot of people around here with a whole lot more knowledge about flashing and custom ROM's than me so don't take my ideas as hard fact without doing your own research for your particular phone and particular situation.
I can copy FROM the internal and external SD card to PC but not PC to either internal or external SD card and the permissions seem to be correct for the folders I'm trying to copy into. Anyone have any ideas on that? However I was able to use AirDroid (Wifi) to copy files to the phone from the PC - no real surprise there but it reaffirms that I can write to those folders - just not with the USB cable.
More info. I just decided to run the App KitKat external SD Card patch. It failed. I believe I ran that before flashing Lollipop and it worked but now it fails. ?? I don't know if it is related to this problem since both internal and external SD are having a problem - but only via USB.
I tried another Galaxy S5 with same computer and cable and that one works fine to copy to the SD cards so that eliminates the cable or computer. AirDroid - Wifi works but only a problem one way with USB - WTF?
droidzer1 said:
I tried another Galaxy S5 with same computer and cable and that one works fine to copy to the SD cards so that eliminates the cable or computer. AirDroid - Wifi works but only a problem one way with USB - WTF?
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Well thanks to TWRP AND Odin all is well once again in Androidland