Database Users

Can you load a new recovery image via fastboot?

Something went haywire when trying to update Amon_RA's new recovery image. I now can't get into recovery and my ROM wont load. All I have is fastboot. I need to load a new recovery image to get into recovery but haven't been able to using the ADB. I've tried the various methods I've seen online with no success. Any advice?

I only rooted my phone around 6 hours ago, so I'm hoping this is what you meant. I was able to use fastboot to boot into a recovery ROM. Try using:
fastboot boot XXX.img
That should allow you to boot straight into it.

Yes I can...will you try copy recovery to SDK\tools?

Reavern said:
I only rooted my phone around 6 hours ago, so I'm hoping this is what you meant. I was able to use fastboot to boot into a recovery ROM. Try using:
fastboot boot XXX.img
That should allow you to boot straight into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a .zip file tho. I've tried "fastboot flash_image recovery..." command but it didn't work.
SarDroid...huh? What do you mean?

staunty said:
Its a .zip file tho. I've tried "fastboot flash_image recovery..." command but it didn't work.
SarDroid...huh? What do you mean?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you can only flash official images using fastboot. I'm you can use "fastboot boot recovery.img" to load something like Cyanogen's recovery image you will get ADB access. From there you should be able to flash anything.

put recovery in your sdk tools folder
and boot to fastboot
and
fastboot flash recovery recoveryxxxx.img
also check Amon_RA's post where you got the recovery from it tells you how to do it

sitimber said:
put recovery in your sdk tools folder
and boot to fastboot
and
fastboot flash recovery recoveryxxxx.img
also check Amon_RA's post where you got the recovery from it tells you how to do it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I'm still not having any luck. Here is what I've done...I found the .img file for a previous recovery image. All the newer ones seem to be .zip files. For the recovery image, it won't recognize a .zip. So, I put the "recovery-RA-dream-v1.3.2.img" image in my AndroidSDK\tools\ folder. Then, in fastboot, I did "fastboot flash recovery..." and it said okay. Rebooted but it still didn't reboot to recovery when I held down home button.

staunty said:
OK, I'm still not having any luck. Here is what I've done...I found the .img file for a previous recovery image. All the newer ones seem to be .zip files. For the recovery image, it won't recognize a .zip. So, I put the "recovery-RA-dream-v1.3.2.img" image in my AndroidSDK\tools\ folder. Then, in fastboot, I did "fastboot flash recovery..." and it said okay. Rebooted but it still didn't reboot to recovery when I held down home button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do
Code:
fastboot boot recovery.img
let the phone reboot, dont touch and anything. you could also try
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

have you unzipped the zip files they mght just be .img inside

I have the same issue. but when I follow the steps to flash or boot the recovery.img cmd prompt just says
sending 'recovery' <4166 kb>... FAILED <remote: not allow> finished.
cd to sdk tools (placed recovery.img here)
fastboot boot recovery.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
tried it again and

Install androidsdk and get a copy of a recovery image for your device. Copy the .img to the tools folder in \androidsdk and rename file to recovery.img (for simplicity later). Connect the phone to PC with USB. Power up phone while holding volume down. Get to fastboot USB, open up command prompt (elevated if vista or 7) and cd to androidsdk\tools. then "fastboot erase recovery" then "fastboot flash recovery recovery.img" then "fastboot reboot".

HI,
before begining you must put the android sdk in the root of the c;/, and suitch off your phone , and hold the back bouton and the end call bouton until you see the 3 android in your fone so ,you try this command to see if the pc reconize your phone :
C:\AndroidSDK>fastboot devices
List of devices attached
XXXXXXXXXXXX fastboot
if you cannot see your IMEI listed you must instal the drivers utilities on your pc
if you see the pc listed the IMEI ,then you can flash the recovery .img .
-Place the recovery image downloaded into the androidsk/tools folder and rename it to recovery.img and try with this command :
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
that all good luke

Hi guys, how I can achieve this with S-ON? I can't flash SPL because I haven't sdcard and using ADB don't know, any help on this?

I have the exact same issue.
I only have fastboot access however I always get remote: not allow. ( Perfect SPL )
Phone Stats
HTC Magic 32A S-ON H
HBOOT 1.76.0010 (SAPP50000)
CPLD-12
RADIO 6.35.16.19
I have created a gold card and tried flashing a sappimg.zip file but that gave me wrong model ID.
Anyone have any idea what I can do?

Nexus 7 Bricked??/Broken

Nexus 7 was rooted,unlocked bootloader and was running paranoid anroid 3.90+ i think . i plugged it into the computer to get a new rom using nexus root toolkit v1.7.2. i was asked to update a few things, so i clicked yes. i then tried to flash stock + unroot and chose 4.3 cause i wanted to try the new OS. but i guess something happened because when i turned my nexus 7 back on i was stuck on the load screen (GOOGLE image with a unlocked lock) i could cycle thru a few options using volume keys (start,recovery,power off) .all of them seemed useless as they would just bring me back to where i was.when clicking start "booting failed" come up on the upper left side. when trying to flash stock +unroot using NRT i get up to the sending "bootloader" part and my nexus 7 just freezes, how do i fix this. please and thanks

download the factory image from the google factory image and extract the archive.
try flashing the bootloader manualy with fastboot.
locate your fastboot binary and copy the bootloader image to that directory.
open a commandline in that directory and type
fastboot flash bootloader name-of-bootloader.img
after that you can try to flash the whole factory image with the flash-all.sh script.

Simple
dieselmonkeyy said:
i could cycle thru a few options using volume keys (start,recovery,power off) .all of them seemed useless as they would just bring me back to where i was.when clicking start "booting failed" come up on the upper left side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Boot failed??? That's a bad flash of the stock ROM. I had the same problem at my first attempt trying to flash Stock ROM, but don't worry! Let's do this:
WARNING: Before you continue you are accepting that I'm not responsible of anything can happen to your Nexus and your battery is fully charged.
When you download the stock ROM you have to uncompress the zip file. You will find the bootloader and another zip.
Uncompress that zip file, put fastboot program, the bootloader and the files together.
Then start your Nexus into bootloader mode, connect it to your PC, open a console (cmd for Windows, Terminal for Linux and Mac OS X) and type this:
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase userdata
WARNING: Your Nexus is FULLY EMPTY!!! Don't reboot it because it can get a full brick (It will not turn on any more).
Now type this:
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-grouper-X.XX.img
NOTE: Replace X.XX with your version.
Now type:
fastboot reboot-bootloader
Your Nexus will reboot.
Type this:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash cache cache.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash system system.img #Will take a very long time. DON'T INTERRUPT THE PROCESS!!!!!
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
Now reboot again with:
fastboot reboot-bootloader
Re-unlock bootloader to get a full wipe:
fastboot oem lock
Reboot again:
fastboot reboot-bootloader
And then unlock the bootloader:
fastboot oem unlock
Press "Yes" to the petition screen and reboot:
fastboot reboot
Ready the Nexus!
I had the same problem and I did this.
I hope I can help you.
Sorry for my bad English. I'm from Argentina and I'm learning.
Well,
Good luck!

MlucianoEze said:
Boot failed??? That's a bad flash of the stock ROM. I had the same problem at my first attempt trying to flash Stock ROM, but don't worry! Let's do this:
WARNING: Before you continue you are accepting that I'm not responsible of anything can happen to your Nexus and your battery is fully charged.
When you download the stock ROM you have to uncompress the zip file. You will find the bootloader and another zip.
Uncompress that zip file, put fastboot program, the bootloader and the files together.
Then start your Nexus into bootloader mode, connect it to your PC, open a console (cmd for Windows, Terminal for Linux and Mac OS X) and type this:
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase userdata
WARNING: Your Nexus is FULLY EMPTY!!! Don't reboot it because it can get a full brick (It will not turn on any more).
Now type this:
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-grouper-X.XX.img
NOTE: Replace X.XX with your version.
Now type:
fastboot reboot-bootloader
Your Nexus will reboot.
Type this:
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash cache cache.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash system system.img #Will take a very long time. DON'T INTERRUPT THE PROCESS!!!!!
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
Now reboot again with:
fastboot reboot-bootloader
Re-unlock bootloader to get a full wipe:
fastboot oem lock
Reboot again:
fastboot reboot-bootloader
And then unlock the bootloader:
fastboot oem unlock
Press "Yes" to the petition screen and reboot:
fastboot reboot
Ready the Nexus!
I had the same problem and I did this.
I hope I can help you.
Sorry for my bad English. I'm from Argentina and I'm learning.
Well,
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do i type into cmd inorder to be able to type
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase userdata
and get it to work. im a noob . thanks in advance

You have to be in the folder with fastboot inside else those commands will not work.
It will be easier if you put the images extracted from the zip into the zip together with the fastboot program.
If you don't understand yet I'll try to be more specific.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

dieselmonkeyy said:
what do i type into cmd inorder to be able to type
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase userdata
and get it to work. im a noob . thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can be intimidating... and the so-called tool-kits don't help you learn
I assume you are using Windows.
follow the unzip instructions from the previous poster. (not quoted here). note the directory.
find the directory containing your android tools... ADB.exe and FASTBOOT.exe.
transfer your unzipped files to this directory. Open your CMD prompt window and change to this directory if necessary.
plug in your Nexus.
type fastboot device at the prompt. MAKE SURE YOUR NEXUS 7 is listed (serial number)
proceed with the complete instructions from the previous poster.
that should do it.

YES!!!
thanks alot for the instructions, it worked!!! i hope people use ur instructions as reference if they have the same problem. THANKS ALOT!!!

dieselmonkeyy said:
thanks alot for the instructions, it worked!!! i hope people use ur instructions as reference if they have the same problem. THANKS ALOT!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad the problem is solved. Do not forget to click the THANKS button.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Hello. My brother's Nex 7 is also has this issue. I cannot follow any of the steps as it gets stuck on erasing any of the partitions. I tried erasing those partitions in any order and they still get stuck. His device was stock and bootloader locked too. When I try to unlock the bootloader, it gets stuck as well at the erasing userdata part. I suspect a bad memory chip. Anyone else experience this?

Yes, mine is sticking on the (bootloader) erasing userdata on bootloader unlock as well.
It also sticks on any fastboot ERASE command.
Factory reset had a bunch of errors and no longer comes up. none of the FLASH commands work because the BOOTLOADER is locked.
And since it freezes on the unlocking bootloader commands I believe I am screwed.
This was a factory installed, never flashed, unlocked or rooted Nexus 7 wifi 2nd gen. After installing the 4.4.2 that popped up it loaded once then crashed and never loaded again
I have tried every tool I can find. They all stick on the erase part.

jophisdrazin said:
Yes, mine is sticking on the (bootloader) erasing userdata on bootloader unlock as well.
It also sticks on any fastboot ERASE command.
Factory reset had a bunch of errors and no longer comes up. none of the FLASH commands work because the BOOTLOADER is locked.
And since it freezes on the unlocking bootloader commands I believe I am screwed.
This was a factory installed, never flashed, unlocked or rooted Nexus 7 wifi 2nd gen. After installing the 4.4.2 that popped up it loaded once then crashed and never loaded again
I have tried every tool I can find. They all stick on the erase part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Send your device for repair. My brother did so. My suspicions were correct. A faulty chip. They replaced the whole board, according to my brother.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Tutorial] Restore Nexus 9 to Stock

I have a defective device and in preparing to return it, I locked the bootloader and found a nasty little message at the top of the screen when booting:
Code:
This is a development device not intended for production use.
I was afraid that the N9 was like the N5 & 7 with the "tamper" flag, but after some digging (and advice from others out here), I decided to restore the factory image to see if that would overwrite the image. Yes! No more big fat red "I unlocked my bootloader and may have voided my warranty" message.
I can't take credit for this, but I thought I would consolidate everything I was finding in the Q&A threads into one spot, so I put this little tutorial together. Thank you @Pilz, @jd1639 & @PhilDX for your various posts.
Step 1 - Prepare your system
[Windows]
Since your bootloader is unlocked, you probably already have ADB and fastboot, but if not, grab the SDK from here, unzip and add the "platform-tools" directory to your PATH statement
If your drivers are set up properly and your device has Android debugging enabled, connect USB and execute `adb devices` from a command prompt you should see your device listed
Download the factory image for "volantis" here
The image is double zipped, so unzip, untar, then unzip the image-volantis-lrx21q.zip file into the same directory that contains the bootloader*.img file
Step 2 - Unlock bootloader
If you locked your bootloader, unlock again:
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot oem unlock
Step 3 - Flash stock image
The flash-all.bat script is broken, so you have to do it by hand:
Open a command prompt
cd into the directory where you unzipped the factory image files
Code:
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-flounder-3.43.0.0114.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase vendor
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash cache cache.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash vendor vendor.img
Before rebooting, relock the bootloader:
Code:
fastboot oem lock
Your N9 will reboot and do another factory reset (even though an oem lock is not supposed to).

Typo: fastboot oem unlock

hirndurst said:
Typo: fastboot oem unlock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahaha! Thanks.

always good to know! thanks!

Just a question, I'm still a beginner at adb fastboot flashing.
But doesn't the oem unlocking and subsequent oem lock, erase everything anyway, so are the erase commands still required?

AjunNg said:
Just a question, I'm still a beginner at adb fastboot flashing.
But doesn't the oem unlocking and subsequent oem lock, erase everything anyway, so are the erase commands still required?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The erase commands are required. I believe that a factory reset only clears userdata (and probably cache). You need to run the others to clear those partitions to make room for the factory images. Each of those commands run pretty quick anyway.

DarthSudo said:
The erase commands are required. I believe that a factory reset only clears userdata (and probably cache). You need to run the others to clear those partitions to make room for the factory images. Each of those commands run pretty quick anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could also use fastboot -w instead of the erases
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

Thanks for this thread. Great guide.

jd1639 said:
You could also use fastboot -w instead of the erases
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to the fastboot "help", -w only formats userdata and cache, does it actually format the other partitions as well? This wouldn't be the first time the documentation is wrong...
Code:
-w erase userdata and cache (and format
if supported by partition type)

Thanks for this. I RMA'd my Nexus 9 and sending it back tomorrow

DarthSudo said:
According to the fastboot "help", -w only formats userdata and cache, does it actually format the other partitions as well? This wouldn't be the first time the documentation is wrong...
Code:
-w erase userdata and cache (and format
if supported by partition type)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It only formats userdata and cache. But you don't need to erase the other partitions
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

AjunNg said:
Just a question, I'm still a beginner at adb fastboot flashing.
But doesn't the oem unlocking and subsequent oem lock, erase everything anyway, so are the erase commands still required?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jd1639 said:
You could also use fastboot -w instead of the erases
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jd1639 said:
It only formats userdata and cache. But you don't need to erase the other partitions
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You guys are all right. I looked back at some of my notes and I've flashed plenty of devices w/o formatting the other partitions first. Just userdata and cache. Thanks!

Hey guys, just wanted to thank you for the fixed "script". This is now my flash-stock.sh script I use whenever I need to flash a nexus device as the one delivered by google just doesn't work (reboot loop due to crashing apps on startup or "missing system.img").
Works perfect and I always like to not dirty but rather make a clean flash as it just reduces the number of possible faults .
Cheers
Creamy

Just got my N9. First thing I did was to apply all updates, then unlock bootloader, boot into TWRP and make a system image. Then I flashed TWRP and rooted. Now if I want to take an OTA update, all I have to do restore the system image and flash the stock recovery, right? Am I missing anything? Thx.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

bruce7373 said:
Just got my N9. First thing I did was to apply all updates, then unlock bootloader, boot into TWRP and make a system image. Then I flashed TWRP and rooted. Now if I want to take an OTA update, all I have to do restore the system image and flash the stock recovery, right? Am I missing anything? Thx.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OTA will run a check and will fail if the image isn't basically stock. For you, just do a full unroot in the SuperSU app (under Settings), then you need to replace TWRP with the stock recovery from fastboot:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
Reboot then take the OTA.
Of course, you will need to install TWRP and re-root again after the OTA...

DarthSudo said:
The OTA will run a check and will fail if the image isn't basically stock. For you, just do a full unroot in the SuperSU app (under Settings), then you need to replace TWRP with the stock recovery from fastboot:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
Reboot then take the OTA.
Of course, you will need to install TWRP and re-root again after the OTA...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx, that seems simple enough. But I made the initial system (stock) backup before I rooted. That's why I was thinking restoring that would work. I just wasn't sure about the recovery, whether the restore would put the stock recovery back or not.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

DarthSudo said:
I have a defective device and in preparing to return it, I locked to bootloader and found a nasty little message at the top of the screen when booting:
Code:
This is a development device not intended for production use.
Your N9 will reboot and do another factory reset (even though an oem lock is not supposed to).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
is there a way to get rid of that red message if your bootloader is locked and you cannot boot into OS?
Thanks!

EDIT* Nevermind

Hey. Sorry for reviving this thread.
I installed Remix OS on my N9 and (after discovering that performance is horrible, with ~80% RAM usage on idle) after a reboot, Remix OS won't get past it's boot splash. I am attempting to flash my device back to stock.
I never touched the bootloader (never did any 'fastboot flash bootloader ...' or anything), so it it still necessary to flash the bootloader image, or can I just flash the system.img, boot.img, vendor.img etc.?

The bootloader had never changed so there is no reason to flash it.
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

[Q] Nexus Player is dead?

I just try to root my new nexus player and I don't know what happened there.
After success installation tried to install SuperSu and rebooted it. And device still loading I don't know why?
I did it in MAC OSX Yosemite
I have this screen already 4 hours
What should I do here

Not dead, it just bootloops (softbrick)
Get familiar with fastboot and bootloader mode
google or youtube on how to start the nex player in bootloader mode.
Download the latest image from Google here https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#fugu
Untar and unzip the .img files. You should be able to flash the system via fastboot
Command is:
fastboot flash system "path/to/system.img"

I tried Chainfires root method and the same thing happened to me, I don't think he's updated root for 5.1.1 yet. Using ADB
Download the image from above and follow the commands in terminal. They all start with ./
fastboot flash bootloader <drag bootloader image from finder to here>
fastboot reboot-bootloader
sleep 5
fastboot -w update <drag image zip from finder here>

tomalak007 said:
fastboot -w update <drag image zip from finder here>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do this command without the -w flag and it'll leave your /data/ partition intact. That usually fixes things. Then you can boot chainfire's root image to get root back. But updating the binaries will get you stuck at the boot screen. I actually had to go through this myself when I flashed the 5.1.1 factory image.

Right after booting from the root image, i had a similar problem. I turned it off and turned it back on and it worked. Chances are you either flashed boot.img or system.img so i don't think you should have a problem reflashing if you still can't boot after restarting. Also you may need to wipe in recovery.

i am having same problem also please tell us how to fix this .

Not dead. Which guide did you follow?

Cannot flash anything < waiting for device > but found in fastboot devices

Hello, I am trying to flash TWRP to my zenfone, I managed to do it once by some miracle with the exact same setup as I have now.
by typing fastboot devices I get K6AXB7616289*** fastboot
but if I try to flash anything with the phone connected I get no output at all.
If I try to flash with the phone disconnected I get <waiting for any device> and no change when I connect it.
In both of these cases when I disconnect the phone I get:
Sending 'recovery' (31332 KB) FAILED (Write to device failed (No such device))
fastboot: error: Command failed
It is overall wonky and seems to change depending on nothing. Sometimes while writing sudo fastboot reboot bootloader I get to the bootloader as expected, but sometimes I get an error but still manage to get to the bootloader and other times it boots up normally.
I am running ParrotOS from a USB
I also posted in here as my problem is very similar but I hope this post resurrects this particular topic: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...but-fastboot-devices-is-working-fine.4295449/

What commands are you using?
Fastboot flash boot boot.img?
The boot.img could be the twrp.img renamed to boot. Img but it should be to recovery I believe.
Fastboot flash recovery twrp.img

Yeah im writing fastboot flash recovery and then the path to my twrp.img. I managed to flash it once after a lot of struggle but now I can't do it again.
After posting I saw that I'm using a USB 3 port and my laptop doesn't have a usb 2 one so I think that might be the issue.
Considering I can get three different outputs from the same command in the span of a couple seconds I think that the problem might be hardware related. I can update once I get my hands on a USB 2 port.

Kaynejulian said:
What commands are you using?
Fastboot flash boot boot.img?
The boot.img could be the twrp.img renamed to boot. Img but it should be to recovery I believe.
Fastboot flash recovery twrp.img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have now tried with a USB 2 port and there is no change.

I have had issue when the phones in fastboot and I'm able to flash via his method. Using platform tools I copy all my IMg's into the folder then open a command prompt window in that folder and fastboot reboot bootloader or fastboot reboot fastboot. Which I learned the hardway is fastbootd mode and then and only then did it actually flash. I also learned the hardway that you boot directly from in fastboot mode or it all just cycles back.
Fastboot reboot.
What version zenfone model and what is system is it running?

If your device is running android 10 or newer then is a different process as you'll need to flash the super.img rather than individual imgs like system vendor product ect
Tue shore image also means it matters where you flash the img
Get a fastboot getvar all printout to me and I'll do what I can to help u get it running again