Database Users

[Q] All methods of factory/hard reset seem to work, but then boots into old system

I'm having the weirdest problem and I'm wondering whether it is hardware or software. I have searched everywhere and only found one person with a similar situation and he had already sent it back for repair before anyone responded with things for him to try.
My 16gb Nexus 7 is rooted/unlocked using the Nexus Root Toolkit and at the latest OTA version. It had been working fine for months. Suddenly one day I had serious problems (which I can discuss if anyone cares, but I don't think the original problems are relevant at this point.) I gave up troubleshooting and decided to do a factory reset. But no matter what method I do, the next time I boot the device it comes back into my same buggy system and nothing was wiped or reset at all. All of these methods appear to work and give the normal messages you would expect, but then nothing changed. It's like the Flash ram is somehow set to read-only so attempts to write to it are failing.
What I have tried:
Settings Factory Data Reset and press the Erase Everything button. The tablet pauses a while, then shuts down and reboots. The old system comes back.
I go into recovery mode, choose function wipe data/factory reset, scroll down to Yes to confirm it. A bunch of progress messages show on the screen that the partitions are being formatted. I boot afterwards and the old system comes back.
I follow all the steps in articles like this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1907796
Every fastboot command completes normally with progress messages showing that it worked. I reboot and the old system comes back.
Here is another clue: The fastboot oem lock command completes normally, but nothing changes. The padlock icon at the next boot is still open.
That's why I say that the tablet is acting as though the Flash memory is set to read-only somehow because nothing ever changes. Is it possible that this is a hardware problem, or is there something else I can do in software?

Bump One for OP
hope your problem gets solved...

I go into recovery mode, choose function wipe data/factory reset, scroll down to Yes to confirm it. A bunch of progress messages show on the screen that the partitions are being formatted. I boot afterwards and the old system comes back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. If you wipe this way and then do not install another rom, then the old system will just reload.
2. Which recovery are you using TWRP or CWM? Maybe try an alternative recovery?
3. Go into recovery/mounts and storage/ then select format system and then install another rom such as stock and see what happens..

killall said:
1. If you wipe this way and then do not install another rom, then the old system will just reload.
2. Which recovery are you using TWRP or CWM? Maybe try an alternative recovery?
3. Go into recovery/mounts and storage/ then select format system and then install another rom such as stock and see what happens..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I guess my wording was ambiguous. When I said that the old system comes back, I didn't mean only that the old OS comes back, but that EVERYTHING comes back immediately including all my apps, settings, wallpaper, widgets, everything looks like it always did. I don't get the first-time screens inviting me to log in, or anything like that. The system boots completely normally as though I hadn't used those methods of wiping the user data.
Also one of the things I tried was loading a new system using fastboot commands and the new system seemed to get loaded OK. But I reboot and the buggy system is back and my user data has not been wiped.
2. I'm not sure what you mean and will research that later this evening. For now, I can tell you that I used the Nexus Root Toolkit and I am using whatever it installed.
3. I'm not sure what you mean, but will research that and if I can figure it out, I will try it this evening.
Is it a clue that the command "fastboot oem lock" seems to work, but the lock status doesn't change?

What I am trying to say (very badly) is the system on your phone will hold all your settings along with the OS. When you factory reset/wipe data, it will clear everything out....but, if you then reboot the phone, it will have to reload the old OS as it has nothing to load otherwise. This will include all your previous apps and settings.
When you have wiped all your data, you need to install another 'system/rom' to allow the phone to boot it. Or as I said, it will just reboot the old one.
Try looking for a rooted stock rom in a zip file like this one and put it on your sd card. When you have entered recovery and wiped data/factory reset, then select install from sd card, find the zip and select. The recovery will then flash it and when you reboot, you should be at the setup pages.
Using the Nexus toolkit and ADB is challenging at the best of times. Maybe it is easier if you just use the recovery method as explained above.

killall said:
What I am trying to say (very badly) is the system on your phone will hold all your settings along with the OS. When you factory reset/wipe data, it will clear everything out....but, if you then reboot the phone, it will have to reload the old OS as it has nothing to load otherwise. This will include all your previous apps and settings.
When you have wiped all your data, you need to install another 'system/rom' to allow the phone to boot it. Or as I said, it will just reboot the old one.
Try looking for a rooted stock rom in a zip file like this one and put it on your sd card. When you have entered recovery and wiped data/factory reset, then select install from sd card, find the zip and select. The recovery will then flash it and when you reboot, you should be at the setup pages.
Using the Nexus toolkit and ADB is challenging at the best of times. Maybe it is easier if you just use the recovery method as explained above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I go into the recovery mode at boot time, the menu says I am using "Android system recovery <3e>"
According to all documentation I have seen, erasing the user partition is all I should need to do to wipe out all of my data, and this works perfectly on a different tablet that I have. I really shouldn't need to do anything else, which is why my situation is so strange.
The Nexus 7 doesn't have an SD card slot so I can't do the things you are saying that involve installing things from sd. Maybe there is a way to do the same thing via the portion of Flash that simulates an sd card, but the recovery menus don't have any way to do that, at least not that I can find.

I saw that you are rooted then I assumed you were using a custom recovery like Clockworkmod or TWRP.
When I wrote SD I meant the internal storage, sorry for the confusion.
I would be flashing a recovery again, it seems to be causing the problem. You can do this through Nexus tools.

killall said:
I saw that you are rooted then I assumed you were using a custom recovery like Clockworkmod or TWRP.
When I wrote SD I meant the internal storage, sorry for the confusion.
I would be flashing a recovery again, it seems to be causing the problem. You can do this through Nexus tools.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say to use "Nexus tools", do you mean the the tools that are part of the Nexus Root Toolkit? I did use those tools to format and rebuild the recovery partition, and it didn't help at all.
If you mean tools that I need to install as apps within Android, that isn't possible at the moment because the tablet is so unstable that when I reboot, I get all my old stuff for a few seconds so I know nothing changed, and then it reboots before I have a chance to do anything.
If you mean that I should mount the Android flash ram as a folder on my PC, I only seem to be able to do that for the few seconds that the system is booted and then the folder drops off. The only mode where I can keep the tablet powered on and stable is the boot menu and the recovery menu. Is there a way to mount the drive at that time?

Phonetrips said:
When you say to use "Nexus tools", do you mean the the tools that are part of the Nexus Root Toolkit? I did use those tools to format and rebuild the recovery partition, and it didn't help at all.
If you mean tools that I need to install as apps within Android, that isn't possible at the moment because the tablet is so unstable that when I reboot, I get all my old stuff for a few seconds so I know nothing changed, and then it reboots before I have a chance to do anything.
If you mean that I should mount the Android flash ram as a folder on my PC, I only seem to be able to do that for the few seconds that the system is booted and then the folder drops off. The only mode where I can keep the tablet powered on and stable is the boot menu and the recovery menu. Is there a way to mount the drive at that time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fast boot a custom recovery. Fastboot recovery c:/path/recovery.IMG
Path being whatever path you have to the recovery you chose to download. Then wipe data/factory reset, maybe wipe cache and dalvik since you're there. Then reboot, see what happens. Still buggy, download another ROM, there are stock-ish ones out there, or you can choose cm or AOKP
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

VonEsch said:
Fast boot a custom recovery. Fastboot recovery c:/path/recovery.IMG
Path being whatever path you have to the recovery you chose to download. Then wipe data/factory reset, maybe wipe cache and dalvik since you're there. Then reboot, see what happens. Still buggy, download another ROM, there are stock-ish ones out there, or you can choose cm or AOKP
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Iv'e done all that and nothing changes whatsoever. The problem isn't that I have a buggy Android system, but rather that all commands to format and erase that system are ignored.

Actually I was wrong, I never did load a recovery image like you said, although I did at one point use one that the Nexus Root Toolkit installed.
So I found a recovery image, downloaded it, and did this:
fastboot flash recovery openrecovery-twrp-2.3.3.0-grouper.img
But nothing changes, partly because maybe I don't know what to do with this thing that I just loaded. If I use the menu to go into recovery mode, I get the normal recovery menu I have always gotten.

Phonetrips said:
Actually I was wrong, I never did load a recovery image like you said, although I did at one point use one that the Nexus Root Toolkit installed.
So I found a recovery image, downloaded it, and did this:
fastboot flash recovery openrecovery-twrp-2.3.3.0-grouper.img
But nothing changes, partly because maybe I don't know what to do with this thing that I just loaded. If I use the menu to go into recovery mode, I get the normal recovery menu I have always gotten.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash the cwm one, maybe that will work?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Phonetrips said:
Iv'e done all that and nothing changes whatsoever. The problem isn't that I have a buggy Android system, but rather that all commands to format and erase that system are ignored.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VonEsch said:
Flash the cwm one, maybe that will work?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before I try a different one, can you please tell me what is supposed to happen after I give that fastboot command to flash the recovery image, Should the tablet go into that recovery manager immediately, or do I need to do something first to make it show up?
I went ahead and found/downloaded the cwm one. The same thing happened: I don't see it running and if I go into recovery mode I get the normal recovery, not this one.

killall said:
What I am trying to say (very badly) is the system on your phone will hold all your settings along with the OS. When you factory reset/wipe data, it will clear everything out....but, if you then reboot the phone, it will have to reload the old OS as it has nothing to load otherwise. This will include all your previous apps and settings.
When you have wiped all your data, you need to install another 'system/rom' to allow the phone to boot it. Or as I said, it will just reboot the old one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but this is completely wrong. When you do a factory reset, it wipes /data and /cache, which doesn't affect the OS at all because the OS resides on the /system partition. When you do a factory reset and reboot, you will run into the initial setup screen for whatever ROM you have installed. No user data/apps will be present.
Phonetrips said:
Before I try a different one, can you please tell me what is supposed to happen after I give that fastboot command to flash the recovery image, Should the tablet go into that recovery manager immediately, or do I need to do something first to make it show up?
I went ahead and found/downloaded the cwm one. The same thing happened: I don't see it running and if I go into recovery mode I get the normal recovery, not this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This seems really screwy. I'd say either your device is defective, or... Well I don't really know what else it could be. The fact that fastboot commands fail is a good indicator that something is screwed up. Have you tried wiping things through fastboot? It may be worth a shot, just know how to flash a ROM through it when you're done. I'm talking "fastboot erase -----" where ---- is replaced by system, data, or whatever. Just DO NOT erase the bootloader. Boot, however, is fine.
If all of this fails, it would seem that the device memory is defective.
About your recovery question, it will only go into recovery when you tell it to either from bootloader or ADB. And stock Android will try to remove CWM, so first time you need to go to recovery straight from the bootloader and let it make itself permanent when it asks.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

korockinout13 said:
Sorry, but this is completely wrong. When you do a factory reset, it wipes /data and /cache, which doesn't affect the OS at all because the OS resides on the /system partition. When you do a factory reset and reboot, you will run into the initial setup screen for whatever ROM you have installed. No user data/apps will be present.
Yes, this is what is supposed to happen, but on my machine when I do all those things, there is absolutely no change and the system continues to boot exactly as it was.
This seems really screwy. I'd say either your device is defective, or... Well I don't really know what else it could be. The fact that fastboot commands fail is a good indicator that something is screwed up. Have you tried wiping things through fastboot? It may be worth a shot, just know how to flash a ROM through it when you're done. I'm talking "fastboot erase -----" where ---- is replaced by system, data, or whatever. Just DO NOT erase the bootloader. Boot, however, is fine.
If all of this fails, it would seem that the device memory is defective.
About your recovery question, it will only go into recovery when you tell it to either from bootloader or ADB. And stock Android will try to remove CWM, so first time you need to go to recovery straight from the bootloader and let it make itself permanent when it asks.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used fastboot erase ---- and fastboot format --- for system and everything else. Whether or not I flash new code to those partitions, all of this is ignored and the system continues to boot as it always has, with all my stuff.
After flashing the alternate recovery images, absolutely nothing changes when I choose Recovery Mode from the fastboot menu.

I talked to Google Play support and they sending out a replacement one. They never asked whether I had ever unlocked or rooted it and I didn't volunteer anything, just told them the symptoms I am having. But I have to send the old one back after I receive the new one, and there is a chance they won't accept if for warranty service when they see it,

Phonetrips said:
I talked to Google Play support and they sending out a replacement one. They never asked whether I had ever unlocked or rooted it and I didn't volunteer anything, just told them the symptoms I am having. But I have to send the old one back after I receive the new one, and there is a chance they won't accept if for warranty service when they see it,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is true, since you can't change anything, they will probably know you voided the warranty. The only thing you could do is brick it permanently by erasing the bootloader... Not sure if that would work/help.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[Q] Help, boot issue

Hi everyone,
So I have never ran across this issue before. I haven't had any problems with my device and yesterday I wanted to test out the new Jelly Bam update rom from their site. The rom would not boot pasted the "Google" spash screen so I rebooted in to recovery and did a full wipe and restored via backup to my previous rom just like normal. Well then I noticed that normally when I connect my phone to my computer I see my internal memory drive pop up which I am able to click on and then access my files, but this time when I accessed it I have a hand full or folders like 0, twrp, android, etc and I had to double click on o folder to access my memory with all my files. I thought that was weird so I went on about my day. Later I tried to do a fresh install of my current rom PACman but even after doing a fresh install the phone will not boot passed the Google spash screen, and now twrp doesn't even see my backup file because its being directed to this new partition with all the folders I was talking about. I even tried using the file manager in twrp to move the backup to that twrp folder but twrp doesn't even see it.
So as of right now I can get in to twrp but I can not boot my device pasted the google splash screen. I also can't access my memory through my pc since nexus does not allow it with twrp. What do I do? My thoughts are that something got screwed up with the partitions when I flashed the Jelly Bam rom so I will need to go back to stock, does that sound about right? I was thinking of following these instructions to go back to stock and then move on from there, any thoughts or alternatives? http://www.androidrootz.com/2012/12/how-to-unroot-nexus-4-to-stock-42-jelly.html
Thank you

Trying this method to return to stock: http://www.wugfresh.com/nrt/
If no one has any input I will assume I am following the right path.

I flashed factory images a couple weeks ago and in order for TWRP to see the nandroids I copied back to my phone I put them in the following path: /sdcard/TWRP/BACKUPS/stringofrandomnumbersandletters/
Are your TWRP backups in a similar location?
If you've decided to go back to stock, I'd suggest using the following guide by efrant... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34552123
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

It is twrp fault. That recovery is crap to be honest.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

It looks like twrp is now looking at my twrp folder in my sd card 1 not sd card 0 where I have had my backups and all my files. After trying again, I moved the TWRP backup to the sd card 1 twrp folder, twrp recognized it and I restored from backup....but when I reboot I am still stuck on the Google screen. Not sure what to do.

Underground_XI said:
It is twrp fault. That recovery is crap to be honest.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since I can't move anything to my memory, any suggestions?

If you've got adb and the proper drivers installed on your PC you could try:
Code:
adb push ROM.zip /sdcard/ROM.zip
from the command prompt. Obviously use the name of the actual ROM.
Edit: ignore that, just read the post where you managed to restore! D'oh!
Have you tried clearing both caches?

The only issue is that my phone is not recognized as having debugging on when I use the Nexus Root Toolkit. Would it matter trying to push via adb? Also with your code, can you specify exactly what I should type. Mine shows C: \Users

synergeticink said:
The only issue is that my phone is not recognized as having debugging on when I use the Nexus Root Toolkit. Would it matter trying to push via adb? Also with your code, can you specify exactly what I should type. Mine shows C: \Users
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I were you I would not rely on a toolkit at this point. If you boot into recovery you can use adb commands to push the files from your computer to your phone.
Edit... Spec-Chum's suggestion of wiping caches is a good one. Have you tried that while booted into TWRP?
You could also try the following from within TWRP:
1. Factory reset
2. Wipe system
3. Restore nandroid backup
4. Wipe caches
5. Reboot
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

chef_christoph said:
If I were you I would not rely on a toolkit at this point. If you boot into recovery you can use adb commands to push the files from your computer to your phone.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And that's were I am stuck right now. I am not a pro at using adb commands, never used it till I got my nexus 4. Right now when I launch the cmd it shows "C:\Users\My User Name\Desktop>", not sure where to go next. I guess I am not sure what I should be pushing at this point either.

Oops...it seems I was editing my post at the same time you were responding to it...take a look at my previous response again
I'm fairly new around here but I can help with the adb commands if you need. Hang in there
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

chef_christoph said:
If I were you I would not rely on a toolkit at this point. If you boot into recovery you can use adb commands to push the files from your computer to your phone.
Edit... Spec-Chum's suggestion of wiping caches is a good one. Have you tried that while booted into TWRP?
You could also try the following from within TWRP:
1. Factory reset
2. Wipe system
3. Restore nandroid backup
4. Wipe caches
5. Reboot
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. I tried wiping cache/dalvik/system/factory reset and then both restoring from backup or flashing the latest PACman rom which is in my sd card. Right now I am reading the http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2018179 guide to see if I can use adb to flash my rom or another recovery. Makes sense if its the recovery not letting me flash anything, but i'm not a dev. At least I am able to get in to recovery to begin with, good sign I guess.

If you can boot into bootloader and recovery there are many options to help get you up and running again. That guide by Jubakuba is really good but if wiping and restoring your backup from within TWRP didn't work I would highly suggest reading efrant's guide on returning to stock...I posted the link in an earlier reply.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

I was able to flash cwm using adb, now trying to do a fresh install

Nope, doing a fresh install didn't work. Now its time to restore to stock. ......

One problem:
"
5) Extract the files from within the .tgz file which you downloaded in step 3 using 7-zip, not WinZip or WinRAR or whatever.
6) Make sure you have extracted ALL the files (including extracting any files in any archives inside the .tgz file). You should have six (6) files ending with .img in the directory you created in step 1. The other files you extracted from the .tgz are not necessary;"
UPDATE; Got it, instructions were not clear.

synergeticink said:
UPDATE; Got it, instructions were not clear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was just checking how it appeared on my own computer before responding... I'm glad you got that part cleared up.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

chef_christoph said:
I was just checking how it appeared on my own computer before responding... I'm glad you got that part cleared up.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its weird adb will not work on the computer unless the files are in the platform-tools folder in androi sdk. trial and error, just finished flashing system....

should I do this command, I really don't want to lose my stuff:
10) Optional (NOT optional for n00bs) -- Flash the data partition: fastboot flash userdata userdata.img Note: this command will wipe your device (including /sdcard), EVEN if your bootloader is already unlocked. See note 2 below.
Well, I didn't and finished the process...did a reboot when I was done...now its on the Google screen...just waiting....I'm seeing a Nexus X splash screen!!!...
Update: Its taking a very long time, hopefully it works...going to give it another 10 mins

And we have BOOT... thank you everyone! Now I have to root this sucker!

Factory Reset wiped out the internal SD card! I thought it's not meant to happen?!

This is the first time I'm using a device that doesn't have an external SD card, but I've all along understood that the internal SD card does not get wiped when you do a factory reset, and I'm sure I read that again on another thread just the other day.
My N7 is rooted using Wug's toolkit, with CM10.2 and Bulletproof kernel.
Yesterday I decided to do a factory reset (under Settings, Backup & Reset, Factory Data Reset), but after I did it, all the stuff I had on the internal SD was gone, including my backup files, the ROMs I had transferred there, etc.
Surely this is not meant to be the case, is it??

internal sdcard used to be a different partition.
Now it is just a directory in your /data and the "sdcard" is an emulated sdcard.
I know stock ROM and stock recovery wipes /data and everything in it including the virtual sdcard.
TWRP recovery will only remove the /data user stuff, leaving the virtual sdcard alone.
Which recovery are you running?

sfhub said:
internal sdcard used to be a different partition.
Now it is just a directory in your /data and the "sdcard" is an emulated sdcard.
I know stock ROM and stock recovery wipes /data and everything in it including the virtual sdcard.
TWRP recovery will only remove the /data user stuff, leaving the virtual sdcard alone.
Which recovery are you running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that! (Thanks coming your way). Well, better to know now than later! The down side is that I lost my CWM backups and my Titanium Backup files, but the good thing is that I think I have a TWRP backup that's on my computer.
I'm using TWRP, but not really liking it, cos I cannot boot into recovery from the phone and have to keep relying on the Wug Toolkit. I've just downloaded CWM and will be switching to that.
So the moral of this story is that if we are to do a factory reset, we should do it via recovery, correct? I'm presuming CWM will also leave the virtual sd card alone, yeah?

Oh one more thing, I think I lost root after the factory reset!!
I checked my All Apps and SuperSu wasn't there anymore. Just rooted it again using Wug kit.

oohyeah said:
I'm using TWRP, but not really liking it, cos I cannot boot into recovery from the phone and have to keep relying on the Wug Toolkit. I've just downloaded CWM and will be switching to that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure what issue you are having with TWRP, but you can flash it to the recovery partition and boot to it automatically. If that's the only reason you don't like it, I'd work on fixing the install rather than jumping to another recovery.
oohyeah said:
So the moral of this story is that if we are to do a factory reset, we should do it via recovery, correct? I'm presuming CWM will also leave the virtual sd card alone, yeah?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would probably do it from recovery. I don't know what CWM does on this platform as I've only used it on other platforms.

What do you mean you can't boot into recovery with twrp? I'm using twrp and have no problem booting into recovery.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

geckocavemen said:
What do you mean you can't boot into recovery with twrp? I'm using twrp and have no problem booting into recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I try to boot into recovery, it ends up showing a dead android with the red triangle "!" sign. I remember doing some searches and it seemed like this was normal. I remember the reason was that the N7 would always rewrite the recovery or something. From your responses, I'm guessing it's not normal?
The only way I could get into recovery was using the Wug toolkit using USB debugging/ADB, which really sucked, cos if it bootlooped and I can't get into the system to turn on USB debugging, then I'm not sure what I would do (though I read there's some way around it or something). I had never encountered any such thing with all my many other devices which all run CWM.
So what's up with all that?

"su" enter' next line "reboot recovery" in the Android Terminal window should also boot your device into recovery

User_99 said:
"su" enter' next line "reboot recovery" in the Android Terminal window should also boot your device into recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will work fine. If you have no aversion to installing apps, Rom Toolbox Lite gives you power widgets you can put on your desktop then go to recovery with one touch. I use Quick Boot PRO, although the free version of that all may do recovery also. One might work for you until you want to play with mods.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

oohyeah said:
When I try to boot into recovery, it ends up showing a dead android with the red triangle "!" sign.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is stock recovery.
You need to get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh
You can get rid of it by hand, or just install SuperSU from TWRP. Then flash TWRP to the recovery partition.

Thank you everyone for your input!
I'm happily back on CWM right now. If I revert back to TWRP next time at least I'll know what to do!

oohyeah said:
Thank you everyone for your input!
I'm happily back on CWM right now. If I revert back to TWRP next time at least I'll know what to do!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None of your blunders has anything to do with TWRP.

khaytsus said:
None of your blunders has anything to do with TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK let me get something straight.
Obviously, the factory resetting that wiped out all internal storage (the original point of the thread) has nothing to do with TWRP, and I never said it did. On this point though, I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to be more well known that a factory reset would do wipe out all your data (did several searches and only found 'confirmations' that your internal SD data would be left untouched), though I'm glad that I know it now.
The suggestions on different ways to boot into recovery were helpful, though I believe that I would still have encountered the dead android, or would I not have?
What's certainly still not clear to me though is regarding the problem of not being able to boot into recovery and getting the dead android with the exclamation/triangle. After the first few replies, I expected to hear that this was NOT meant to be the case and that I did something wrong in the process or whatever.
However, what I seemed to get was that this is the expected behavior, and what I needed to have done was to "get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh".
So let me ask these questions for clarification:
1. Is the dead android normal, given what I did/didn't do?
2. Is deleting /system/etc/install-recovery.sh part of the process of installing TWRP in order to be able to boot into recovery?
3. Would I also need to get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh if using CWM?
(so far it doesn't seem to. After installing CWM I'm not getting the dead android and I didn't delete the install-recovery.sh).
Thanks. And just to be clear, I hope no one takes it the wrong way that I'm bashing TWRP or anything, because I"m not. Just been a long time user of CWM and this is the first time using TWRP and encountering the dead android.

oohyeah said:
So let me ask these questions for clarification:
1. Is the dead android normal, given what I did/didn't do?
2. Is deleting /system/etc/install-recovery.sh part of the process of installing TWRP in order to be able to boot into recovery?
3. Would I also need to get rid of /system/etc/install-recovery.sh if using CWM?
(so far it doesn't seem to. After installing CWM I'm not getting the dead android and I didn't delete the install-recovery.sh).
Thanks. And just to be clear, I hope no one takes it the wrong way that I'm bashing TWRP or anything, because I"m not. Just been a long time user of CWM and this is the first time using TWRP and encountering the dead android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dead android = stock recovery, so normal there.
When you flash a custom recovery on a stock ROM, there is a file, /system/etc/install-recovery.sh, or I actually prefer just renaming /system/recovery-from-boot.p, which will automatically verify your recovery image and restore it to stock if it doesn't match. So you must always remove this file, or the ROM will restore the stock recovery on boot.
TWRP makes it easy to remove either file by mounting /system in read-write mode and using its built-in file manager to remove it. You can do the same in CWM using adb.
As for point 3, yes, try to reboot into recovery again. If you didn't remove (either file), you'll find stock recovery again.

Thanks, Khaytsus. I booted into recovery (long press power button, reboot menu, recovery), and it booted straight into CWM, like it always has with my other devices. (And to confirm, I have not even looked for the install-recovery.sh file, let alone removed or renamed it.)
So far it seems to me that TWRP requires removal of install-recovery.sh, whereas CWM does not, but this doesn't seem to be what you guys are telling me is supposed to be the case.

oohyeah said:
Thanks, Khaytsus. I booted into recovery (long press power button, reboot menu, recovery), and it booted straight into CWM, like it always has with my other devices. (And to confirm, I have not even looked for the install-recovery.sh file, let alone removed or renamed it.)
So far it seems to me that TWRP requires removal of install-recovery.sh, whereas CWM does not, but this doesn't seem to be what you guys are telling me is supposed to be the case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really depends on what ordering you do your actions in.
/system/etc/install-recovery.sh doesn't exist on a stock factory shipped system.
It only gets put in place after you install an OTA. If you do all your upgrades using the factory images, you'll never encounter it.
What it does is during your boot process, it will check to see if your recovery is different than what it expects (ie stock). If so, it will install stock recovery by taking the stock kernel and patching it.
If any of the following are true, it will not overwrite your recovery:
/system/etc/install-recovery.sh is missing (or modified to not run as the original file)
/system/recovery-from-boot.p is missing
you are not running the stock kernel
The most common way for install-recovery.sh to be missing is you always used factory images.
The most common way for install-recovery.sh to be modified to not do the original function is if you installed SuperSU. It will overwrite install-recovery.sh with its own.
So in all the back and forth, it is quite possible you got rid of install-recovery.sh or had it modified simply by installing root.
If you then subsequently installed custom recovery, it would stay in place.
Previously you were installing TWRP and flashing it onto the tablet, but upon booting into android, install-recovery.sh realized it wasn't stock recovery, and overwrote TWRP with stock recovery.
That is why whenever you rebooted, you got fallen android (which is stock recovery)
If the way you installed cwm is to use "fastboot flash recovery cwm.img" then the only reason it is around is because something else you did got rid of or modified install-recovery.sh. cwm would be no more immune to install-recovery.sh than twrp was.

oohyeah said:
Oh one more thing, I think I lost root after the factory reset!!
I checked my All Apps and SuperSu wasn't there anymore. Just rooted it again using Wug kit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to clarify, you didn't lose root. You just lost the supersu app, a root permission manager, because it was installed to your /data partition. The su binary was still in /system, all you would have had to do was install supersu from the market.

I'm not sure what else you were expecting from a "factory reset"

creaturemachine said:
I'm not sure what else you were expecting from a "factory reset"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you read the thread? He explained his reason for expectation quite well.
I just started up on a Nexus 4, and was also surprised to see this. Coming from a Galaxy S2, the "sdcard" being left intact was pretty convenient when flashing from ROM to ROM. Albeit, leading to some messiness. When did Nexus change to this behavior?

Skaziwu said:
I just started up on a Nexus 4, and was also surprised to see this. Coming from a Galaxy S2, the "sdcard" being left intact was pretty convenient when flashing from ROM to ROM. Albeit, leading to some messiness. When did Nexus change to this behavior?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depending on which level you are looking at, it didn't really change the behavior, but rather how your data is organized.
Factory reset has always wiped out /data.
On older devices, they put the /sdcard in a separate partition and formatted fat32.
These are the ones that were surviving a factory reset.
On newer devices, the internal /sdcard is starting to migrate onto a directory in /data and the "sdard" you see is "virtual". Since it is on /data, when you wipe data, the virtual sdcard is also wiped.
Some recoveries try to simulate the previous behavior by doing a "rm" of every directory except the virtual sdard when you choose to wipe, instead of the erase/format that Android is doing.
The advantage of keeping the sdcard as a directory under /data is you don't need to decide how much space to split between the sdcard and your /data. Also permissions on files are more flexible being in an ext4 filesystem. Finally since everything is emulated and accessed via MTP, you don't need to unmount the filesystem, so your PC can access it.
There are also cons with this approach, but that is what Google is going with.

LG G2 ADB unauthorized device (unable to get into system)

Hey guys, I was running 4.3.x for a while with the loki twrp solution and all was well, after many attempts to flash 4.4 I finally decided to ditch twrp and go to CWM, that went without a hitch and brought me into the latest nightly of CM, yet I wanted a fresh install (No accounts, no pictures media etc etc) so I tried to do factory reset from within the OS and it wouldn't let me. so I then went into recovery and tried to format things from there...
Since then I have been unable to get past the spinning CyanogenMod boot screen and though adb sees there is a device, it is telling me it is "unauthorized". Of course since I can't get into the OS the RSA confirmation thing can't come up and I can't select any system preferences. Before I went messing around in recovery formatting things ADB was working flawlessly.
Any ideas on where to go from here?
Thanks guys,
Lokin

HellaBester said:
Hey guys, I was running 4.3.x for a while with the loki twrp solution and all was well, after many attempts to flash 4.4 I finally decided to ditch twrp and go to CWM, that went without a hitch and brought me into the latest nightly of CM, yet I wanted a fresh install (No accounts, no pictures media etc etc) so I tried to do factory reset from within the OS and it wouldn't let me. so I then went into recovery and tried to format things from there...
Since then I have been unable to get past the spinning CyanogenMod boot screen and though adb sees there is a device, it is telling me it is "unauthorized". Of course since I can't get into the OS the RSA confirmation thing can't come up and I can't select any system preferences. Before I went messing around in recovery formatting things ADB was working flawlessly.
Any ideas on where to go from here?
Thanks guys,
Lokin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had an issue with my adb, it was out dated. I updated the sdk system, and it detected the lg g2, this could possibly help you.

osugsxr said:
I had an issue with my adb, it was out dated. I updated the sdk system, and it detected the lg g2, this could possibly help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I considered that but no everything is up to date. It seems more like the RSA auth fingerprint is not being recognized. Plus it does recognize the phone, it just tells me it is unauthorized.

Get back into Recovery mode and use ADB from there

votinh said:
Get back into Recovery mode and use ADB from there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I get into recovery without being able to "adb reboot recovery"?

unomicu how
Bump. Anything guys? Really struggling here....

Can you get in recovery using button combination?

votinh said:
Can you get in recovery using button combination?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, doesn't seem like it. Though I can get into download mode no problem.

Alright guys, since it seems like not many people out there know whats going on with me I'll dow what i can to keep an update.
Finally got back into Recovery using this super convenient little trick I did not know existed.
Though now I am unable to mount anything at all from recovery "E:Can't mount /cache.. etc"

HellaBester said:
Alright guys, since it seems like not many people out there know whats going on with me I'll dow what i can to keep an update.
Finally got back into Recovery using this super convenient little trick I did not know existed.
Though now I am unable to mount anything at all from recovery "E:Can't mount /cache.. etc"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never been able to mount anything using the recovery. Not sure if it because of the LG phone or of my recovery. But I've tried different ones (CWM, TWRP, Philz Touch), none was able to mount my phone from recovery. Your best bet right now is to flash the files from a OTG cable and flash drive. Also when you said you formatted the phone from the recovery, did you format the system partition as well? TWRP has that option so I assume CWM has it as well

super114 said:
I've never been able to mount anything using the recovery. Not sure if it because of the LG phone or of my recovery. But I've tried different ones (CWM, TWRP, Philz Touch), none was able to mount my phone from recovery. Your best bet right now is to flash the files from a OTG cable and flash drive. Also when you said you formatted the phone from the recovery, did you format the system partition as well? TWRP has that option so I assume CWM has it as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heyoo, just in the last hour or so I've got it all fixed!
I did a full system, data and cache format om CWM after that there was no OS or amnything of the sort, then I was able to mount the SD and adb push cm11 + gapps-kk to the sdcard, I flashed those two zips restarted, failed, then i did a system reset (resets everything but the OS) and I popped out in CM11 with a perfectly fresh install. got all that setup and am golden now ::

Congratz

Check the .android folder
My problem started when I tried to connect another phone which happened to be the same type of phone as the previous one. Not sure if that's actually related, but my working hypothesis is that ADB gets confused in this scenario. I tried everything listed here and in many other places, and nothing seemed to work. Finally, I did this:
1. Rename .android folder in your user directory (~/username/.android on Mac OSX) to .android_bak (for safe keeping).
2. Restart the adb daemon: "adb kill-server" followed by "adb start-server"
After that, I got the authentication confirmation on the phone (don't forget that part, of course) and all was well.
These steps merely recreate the .android folder and get rid of any authentication credentials you already have. Note of course that this will impact all other phones you may be connecting.

Wiped internal Storage... HELP :(

When i was trying to flash Chroma for nexus 6p, i accidently wiped my internal storage. I wasnt thinking and clicked everything in TWRP to wipe and now when i plug in my phone to my computer all i see is internal storage but no space specifics and i cant copy the chroma rom over. What do i do?
I also lost all my backups because of the wipe. Can someone help me please ?

LifeOfNexus said:
When i was trying to flash Chroma for nexus 6p, i accidently wiped my internal storage. I wasnt thinking and clicked everything in TWRP to wipe and now when i plug in my phone to my computer all i see is internal storage but no space specifics and i cant copy the chroma rom over. What do i do?
I also lost all my backups because of the wipe. Can someone help me please ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you still boot in to TWRP or do you get stock recovery? I'm not sure why you can't copy Chroma over but if you can still boot in to TWRP it allows you to mount USB storage. I haven't tried this option myself but you may be able to flash Chroma from an external storage device. You can also boot in to bootloader and follow Heisenberg's guide listed in the index and fastboot the stock images which is probably your best bet.

What happens when you try to move the file over? Have you tried to adb push the file over like so:
Code:
adb push [I]file_location_on_computer[/I] /sdcard

nathanchance said:
What happens when you try to move the file over? Have you tried to adb push the file over like so:
Code:
adb push [I]file_location_on_computer[/I] /sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do u have teamviewer by any chance

LifeOfNexus said:
do u have teamviewer by any chance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not and I prefer to keep stuff in the forum so that everyone can benefit from this
Additionally, if you can't push the Chroma file to your phone, you can flash back to stock using Heisenberg's guide here (step 11) then do step 7 to install Chroma.

nathanchance said:
I do not and I prefer to keep stuff in the forum so that everyone can benefit from this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
because i could not get it to work

LifeOfNexus said:
because i could not get it to work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what exactly happens when you try to either copy or push the file over to the phone? Does it error out? Gonna need some more information. And I edited my previous post to include some instructions to get back to stock with fastboot if that is easier for you.

nathanchance said:
So what exactly happens when you try to either copy or push the file over to the phone? Does it error out? Gonna need some more information. And I edited my previous post to include some instructions to get back to stock with fastboot if that is easier for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i actualyl started that. Im almost done oging back to stock. Does that mean i need to reflash TWRP?

LifeOfNexus said:
i actualyl started that. Im almost done oging back to stock. Does that mean i need to reflash TWRP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you flash the stock recovery image, you will need to reflash TWRP. I usually just omit that command when flashing back to stock so I don't have to reflash TWRP.