I am unable at the moment with TWRP to mount my /system partition, which therefore has lead me not to have the ability to flash a custom ROM, but also at the same time I am ROMless, I have access to Recovery, at the moment, I'm attempting to sideload a Stock Rooted zip of my AT&T G2 ROM. However, I believe it won't have any progress, but I'm attempting anything at the moment in order to get my phone running.
Currently stuck on TWRP flashing a ROM and stuck on "Formatting" once again.
Any help would be appreciated. Quite frankly, I am scared out of my wit that I have bricked my phone, however there is some hope left in me with the fact that I have Recovery still running.
Kenchi* said:
I am unable at the moment with TWRP to mount my /system partition, which therefore has lead me not to have the ability to flash a custom ROM, but also at the same time I am ROMless, I have access to Recovery, at the moment, I'm attempting to sideload a Stock Rooted zip of my AT&T G2 ROM. However, I believe it won't have any progress, but I'm attempting anything at the moment in order to get my phone running.
Currently stuck on TWRP flashing a ROM and stuck on "Formatting" once again.
Any help would be appreciated. Quite frankly, I am scared out of my wit that I have bricked my phone, however there is some hope left in me with the fact that I have Recovery still running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im having the same issue too
Kenchi* said:
I am unable at the moment with TWRP to mount my /system partition, which therefore has lead me not to have the ability to flash a custom ROM, but also at the same time I am ROMless, I have access to Recovery, at the moment, I'm attempting to sideload a Stock Rooted zip of my AT&T G2 ROM. However, I believe it won't have any progress, but I'm attempting anything at the moment in order to get my phone running.
Currently stuck on TWRP flashing a ROM and stuck on "Formatting" once again.
Any help would be appreciated. Quite frankly, I am scared out of my wit that I have bricked my phone, however there is some hope left in me with the fact that I have Recovery still running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2451696
I finally solved the issue, miraculously, nothing was working so I just left the phone to continuing formatting for an hour so, came back, and it seemed to have done it, I installed Custom ROM, and it booted up normally, I'm not sure what triggered the phone to accept the system mount, but I am sure as hell happy it did. I was worried I was going to have a bricked device on my hands.
Hold strong, just allow the phone to continue doing what it needs to do I guess. Leave TWRP in all STOCK settings, I tried to modify multiple settings based on Devs saying to get a faster formatting to enable RM-F but I have no clue why and what didn't work.
Anyhow, problem resolved!
On another note, I would never use the recommended method from Droid_<3er as they would completely brick your phone unless you're specifically in the situation listed in that thread. As you would put your phone into a state where you lose both access to Recovery and ROM access, rendering your phone to a piece of plastic and metal. But it's definitely worth mentioning, I just had to do some research on the method cause I had the same thinking as well.
I can confirm by using normal make_ext4fs while formatting /system is the best way to avoid this. Was afraid of having a 5.2 inch brick, but thankfully, disabling the quick way to format has fixed it and allowed /system to be remounted.
I think (<-- that's the disclaimer) that it's OK to use the fast formatting method for Dalvik Cache and Cache, but not for System.
in my opinion it's best to use rm -rf /system aka delete_recursive("/system"); than formatting
I'm having the same issue, and I'd be willing to try this one. How would I do this?
I have the same issue with CWM and now got over to twrp with the same outcome.
Right here I see solutions that worked so far, but it seems like this was rather accidentially.
I want to try some of these, but in the thread posted above
"Try this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2451696"
it says "Do it the wrong way and your phone might get nuked"
unfortunately it doesn't say what the commands in there mean...
Can anybody be of assistence which method will properly work without nuking the phone?
I have the MOTO G 2014 (2nd Gen)
It is an updated bootloader
i got the latest twrp
and some titan roms.
only stock rom will work so far,
custom roms will result in a bootloop.
Related
I'll be as descriptive as possible.
I must have did a bad flash with CWM, so I tried to reflash with CWM, TWRP, and even the OEM recovery. When attempting to boot to recovery, the screen goes blank. My pc attempts to connect every drive letter I've got when I plug in the usb. Among which, I can access an image folder on the device. Can't figure out how a bad recovery flash does this, but I can't find a fix for the life of me. Phone works as it should. My problem is anything involving recovery will give me a black screen, so factory wipe will not work.
Any ideas would be well appreciated.
Thanks
I tried following this guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2471370
The program get's stuck at analyzing device and doesn't flash or download anything. It would be nice if I can perform at least a factory reset in case something wants to blow up in my face. If anyone has some ideas (ridiculous or not), feel free to let me know.
slicknessessity said:
I'll be as descriptive as possible.
I must have did a bad flash with CWM, so I tried to reflash with CWM, TWRP, and even the OEM recovery. When attempting to boot to recovery, the screen goes blank. My pc attempts to connect every drive letter I've got when I plug in the usb. Among which, I can access an image folder on the device. Can't figure out how a bad recovery flash does this, but I can't find a fix for the life of me. Phone works as it should. My problem is anything involving recovery will give me a black screen, so factory wipe will not work.
Any ideas would be well appreciated.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man you could try just using Flashify to flash a recovery...its a app...then boot to recovery
I tried using that method. It gives me the same thing. Maybe somewhere in the recovery location (or associated locations) seem to may have gotten damaged somehow during the bad flash? Flashing the phone completely I'm sure would do the trick. I came from the droid 4, so sbf/fastboot flash would solve all my problems. Searching around landed me to a kdz, which seemed to be an equivalent, but isn't working or maybe I'm doing something wrong? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.
I went and did a full flash using this method: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2448960. Since I couldn't find a recovery fix per se, I decided to flash the whole thing and start fresh (oh well).
It downgraded to 11A in the process, so the same can probably be said for 10B for compatible custom builds.
For the last two weeks, I've tried pretty much everything I can think of to get my TPT booted again. Symptoms of its current illness include:
Lots of error messages when booting into CWM recovery ("E:Can't mount /sdcard" for example)
If I attempt to boot normally, I get stuck on the Lenovo logo screen.
Randomly I'll boot into CWM recovery and get its logo on the screen, and a line of text, but no menus.
Other times I'll attempt to boot into CWM recovery, and just get a blank screen
So last night I used nvflash to put a new CWM recovery into partition 6: after which I was able to boot into CWM with no errors. (Yay) However, when I tried to reinstall CynogenMod (whose zip file was sitting on my external sd card), it hung during the installation. I rebooted anyway; this time it got as far as the CyanogenMod spinning logo and hung there. I went to bed, and seven hours later it was still spinning away.
Then I rebooted into CWM (without errors) and managed to install CM ROM this time also with no errors. However, again I can't boot. I get as far as the Lenovo logo, and if I boot into CWM recovery I have all the mount errors again.
Along the way I've erased the cache; done a factory reset, etc.
So: nvflash, new CWM recovery (but still errors), reinstalled CM ROM, but can't boot into it.
Any suggestions? Has this machine packed it in - is its hardware faulty in some way? Or is there something I could try which I haven't already?
Thanks folks - I think I've reached the limits of my fixing ability, and would be very gratefiul of some advice.
Thanks again,
Al
In CWM check to see if your /System folder is mounted with read-write privileges or only with read-only. If the former, then your bootloader may have locked itself. Also, what is your device model? If you have a have a US device then it cannot be unlocked as it has been encrypted by Lenovo...
Sent from my ThinkPad Tablet using Tapatalk
Thanks - it's not a US model (I bought it in Australia, where I live). I thought the bootloader was unlocked because I could use nvflash. When I boot into CWM recovery, I can't mount /system: if I try I get the error "Error mounting /system", along with other errors about not being able to mount or open /cache/recovery/{command, log, last_log}. And since I can't mount anything, I can't install zip files.
I can't remember the device model, although I suppose I could use nvflash to trawl through the partitions somehow. (Since I can't boot the device I can't do the usual thing of checking out the system settings.)
Anyway, at the moment it won't boot beyond the Lenovo logo, even after putting on a new CWM recovery (with nvflash - but as we see above this new recovery is still not working) and reinstalling a ROM (with CWM recovery, which I managed to do on the one occasion I could boot into CWM without mounting errors). It's a right pain, that's what it is.
amca1960 said:
Thanks - it's not a US model (I bought it in Australia, where I live). I thought the bootloader was unlocked because I could use nvflash. When I boot into CWM recovery, I can't mount /system: if I try I get the error "Error mounting /system", along with other errors about not being able to mount or open /cache/recovery/{command, log, last_log}. And since I can't mount anything, I can't install zip files.
I can't remember the device model, although I suppose I could use nvflash to trawl through the partitions somehow. (Since I can't boot the device I can't do the usual thing of checking out the system settings.)
Anyway, at the moment it won't boot beyond the Lenovo logo, even after putting on a new CWM recovery (with nvflash - but as we see above this new recovery is still not working) and reinstalling a ROM (with CWM recovery, which I managed to do on the one occasion I could boot into CWM without mounting errors). It's a right pain, that's what it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well there may be hope yet as I understand (not sure) that only the US models shipped with a locked bootloader. My US model locked itself and after some research I eventually replaced the motherboard with one from eBay. There are threads around here regarding the bootloader that might have a few "options" for you to try. On the other hand I read on the Lenovo forums that Lenovo actually replaced motherboards (during the warranty period) due to failures which caused the nand to lock read-only. If the "options" don't work then the latter may be the case and you might want to consider my approach or just move on to a newer device. Good look...
eKeith said:
Well there may be hope yet as I understand (not sure) that only the US models shipped with a locked bootloader. My US model locked itself and after some research I eventually replaced the motherboard with one from eBay. There are threads around here regarding the bootloader that might have a few "options" for you to try. On the other hand I read on the Lenovo forums that Lenovo actually replaced motherboards (during the warranty period) due to failures which caused the nand to lock read-only. If the "options" don't work then the latter may be the case and you might want to consider my approach or just move on to a newer device. Good look...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never thought of replacing the motherboard! I'm happy to try it, though, given instructions, and the correct (ROW; ie non-US) motherboard. Is it hard to do - and where can I find out how to do it? And how do I find out exactly what model I have?
Thanks for this - I'd really like to get this beastie working again.
amca1960 said:
I never thought of replacing the motherboard! I'm happy to try it, though, given instructions, and the correct (ROW; ie non-US) motherboard. Is it hard to do - and where can I find out how to do it? And how do I find out exactly what model I have?
Thanks for this - I'd really like to get this beastie working again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No offense intended but you are somewhat peculiar as you are familiar with NVFlash, can determine which partitions to flash with the correct images but you don't have a record of, or can't find your device's model number? Check on your SD Card port flap (or your invoice). Then check out this page for details.
However if you decide to replace the motherboard then search eBay for "thinkpad tablet motherboard" and choose either of the 1838 or 1839 options. Any will fit and work but you probably won't get your (non-US) choice of replacement motherboard so will probably just have to get what's available.
See here for some basic dis-assembly instructions. Then just take you time and the rest will be obvious. Good luck!
Thanks for that! I tried responding earlier, but my post was blocked by the system. Anyway, I'll check for a new motherboard and have a go installing it. Do you know how I might prevent this from happening again?
amca1960 said:
Thanks for that! I tried responding earlier, but my post was blocked by the system. Anyway, I'll check for a new motherboard and have a go installing it. Do you know how I might prevent this from happening again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem at all.
"I'm in the same boat": I replaced my motherboard with another US version about 6 weeks ago, rooted, installed CWM recovery and steady so far... "with fingers crossed"...
Let us know how it goes...
My N7 has been getting laggier recently - accepting the 5.1.x OTA updates was clearly a bad idea, and possibly the 5.0.x ones. So I have been thinking of giving it a new ROM after this past weekend.
Last night, it started bootlooping, getting to the initial 'swipe to use' main screen but not accepting any touches and then crashing to a restart after a few seconds regardless.
I long ago used the Nexus Root Tool Kit to root it and install TWRP. The most recent OTA 5.1.1 update involved an update to TWRP to version 2.8.6.0. So let's install a new ROM!
I can boot into TWRP and, while there, the NRTK will also talk to the Nexus 7 over USB.
In both of them, plus a console using fastboot commands, I can wipe and format partitions. By telling TWRP to use 'rm -rf' rather than formatting, I can also get its partition repair info to think, for a while, that the partition in question is empty. But looking again reveals that it's just as full as it used to be and indeed, whether or not the formatting, flashing and installing a .zip file appears to work - including fastboot commands reporting success - no files appear to actually change on the device. NRTK will believe it has successfully installed the latest 2.8.7.0 TWRP or any ROM, but rebooting finds the old ones still there. Even all my data is there, despite repeated wipes and reformats, including to different file systems.
What can I try next? At the moment, I am just grateful that this happened before I'd tried installing a new ROM because I'm not blaming myself for all this.
lovingboth said:
What can I try next? At the moment, I am just grateful that this happened before I'd tried installing a new ROM because I'm not blaming myself for all this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's now not powering up at all. Whatever it is, it looks terminal.
Poo.
The phone is a Moto g7, Verizon river xt1962-1, rooted with Magisk and TWRP.
I wanted to update to Magisk 19.4, so I made a TWRP backup and ran the unroot patch and went back to 19.3, but I still had the problem, so I decided to restore from the backup. After the backup, I am stuck in a bootloop, the whole "Your device is unlocked and cannot be trusted" screen over and over. I can get into TWRP, but no backup that I have tried will fix the boot loop. I tried a few things that just seemed obvious to me, clearing the cache and whatnot, but I am still stuck. I have adb and fastboot at the ready, but I don't know where to go from here.
I do not even know what build I am running, I cannot get into System / About to see, and I am not savvy enough to know any other way to find out. I know that it was current stock, missing only the most recent patches.
Is there a way that I can restore my phone? I would be grateful for any help. Damn, I love this g7 so much more than the Note phones that I had been using for years, but I was at least a little familiar with them. Thanks for any help.
Sounds like you'll need to fastboot flash a stock rom to your phone, use TWRP to get into the bootloader/fastboot mode, and also sounds like you messed up the boot.img when you were trying to go through that process. I just updated the Magisk app from within the app itself - no issues there. Might be a good time to update to a newer stock rom as well, might as well take advantage of the situation amirite?
But just for different options, here may be some useful links
Keep in mind, I haven't used either one of the methods in either links and I am not responsible for anything that occurs from your actions.
idk about this one but looks like it may help
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g7/how-to/how-to-fix-g7-xt1962-1-stuck-bootloader-t3917792
this next one has the flashboot commands you'd need to also update your ROM
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g7/how-to/moto-g7-xt1962-1-riverretail9-0ppos29-t3969067
Keep in mind, I haven't used either one of the methods in either links and I am not responsible for anything that occurs from your actions.
Anyways, good luck!
SmilingPerson said:
The phone is a Moto g7, Verizon river xt1962-1, rooted with Magisk and TWRP.
I wanted to update to Magisk 19.4, so I made a TWRP backup and ran the unroot patch and went back to 19.3, but I still had the problem, so I decided to restore from the backup. After the backup, I am stuck in a bootloop, the whole "Your device is unlocked and cannot be trusted" screen over and over. I can get into TWRP, but no backup that I have tried will fix the boot loop. I tried a few things that just seemed obvious to me, clearing the cache and whatnot, but I am still stuck. I have adb and fastboot at the ready, but I don't know where to go from here.
I do not even know what build I am running, I cannot get into System / About to see, and I am not savvy enough to know any other way to find out. I know that it was current stock, missing only the most recent patches.
Is there a way that I can restore my phone? I would be grateful for any help. Damn, I love this g7 so much more than the Note phones that I had been using for years, but I was at least a little familiar with them. Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to flash the stock boot.img and you'll be fine. If you haven't got a stock boot.img you will find a backup of it in your /data partition (magisk does a backup of it by default). Just unpack the TWRP backup of your /data or download the latest firmware to get a boot.img
WoKoschekk said:
Try to flash the stock boot.img and you'll be fine. If you haven't got a stock boot.img you will find a backup of it in your /data partition (magisk does a backup of it by default). Just unpack the TWRP backup of your /data or download the latest firmware to get a boot.img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mate, I can't thank you enough, now I am back up.
I took advantage of the oppotunity to do a Titanium backup and flash the latest firmware, since I was still running old security updates.
I am not sure why the TWRP backups caused a bootloop, that concerns me. I am diligent about making one before any significant change, and now I see that none of them were good. It might be that the backup I applied included boot, and somehow that caused an issue.
In any case though, thanks a million. I would PM you a beer, but they tend to go flat when they hit the first ATM gateway. Hops and TCP encapsulation don't seem to be compatible, especially at > 9600 baud ?
zenful said:
Sounds like you'll need to fastboot flash a stock rom to your phone, use TWRP to get into the bootloader/fastboot mode, and also sounds like you messed up the boot.img when you were trying to go through that process. I just updated the Magisk app from within the app itself - no issues there. Might be a good time to update to a newer stock rom as well, might as well take advantage of the situation amirite?
But just for different options, here may be some useful links
Keep in mind, I haven't used either one of the methods in either links and I am not responsible for anything that occurs from your actions.
idk about this one but looks like it may help
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g7/how-to/how-to-fix-g7-xt1962-1-stuck-bootloader-t3917792
this next one has the flashboot commands you'd need to also update your ROM
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g7/how-to/moto-g7-xt1962-1-riverretail9-0ppos29-t3969067
Keep in mind, I haven't used either one of the methods in either links and I am not responsible for anything that occurs from your actions.
Anyways, good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man, I really appreciate it! I did take advantage of the opportunity to update, something that had been bugging me for a while anyway.
I had updated Magisk to the beta through Manager, but a problem came up and I needed to step back to the stable version. That was where I messed up.
In a way though, it was just as well, since it forced me to spend a little time reading about the G7 ecosystem, something I really hadn't done much of yet. It used to be fun keeping up and flashing nightlies, etc, but over the past few years, it has got away from me. If it wasn't for a few specific things, I would almost stay stock. But I get uncomfortable thinking about the ridiculous amount of personal information a stock phone releases about us, so things like Signal and xPrivacylua are important to my sense of well being. Even if some of it is placebo.
zenful said:
Sounds like you'll need to fastboot flash a stock rom to your phone, use TWRP to get into the bootloader/fastboot mode, and also sounds like you messed up the boot.img when you were trying to go through that process. I just updated the Magisk app from within the app itself - no issues there. Might be a good time to update to a newer stock rom as well, might as well take advantage of the situation amirite?
But just for different options, here may be some useful links
Keep in mind, I haven't used either one of the methods in either links and I am not responsible for anything that occurs from your actions.
idk about this one but looks like it may help
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g7/how-to/how-to-fix-g7-xt1962-1-stuck-bootloader-t3917792
this next one has the flashboot commands you'd need to also update your ROM
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g7/how-to/moto-g7-xt1962-1-riverretail9-0ppos29-t3969067
Keep in mind, I haven't used either one of the methods in either links and I am not responsible for anything that occurs from your actions.
Anyways, good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man, I really appreciate it! I did take advantage of the opportunity to update, something that had been bugging me for a while anyway.
I had updated Magisk to the beta through Manager, but a problem came up and I needed to step back to the stable version. That was where I messed up.
In a way though, it was just as well, since it forced me to spend a little time reading about the G7 ecosystem, something I really hadn't done much of yet. It used to be fun keeping up and flashing nightlies, etc, but over the past few years, it has got away from me. If it wasn't for a few specific things, I would almost stay stock. But I get uncomfortable thinking about the ridiculous amount of personal information a stock phone releases about us, so things like Signal and xPrivacylua are important to my sense of well being. Even if some of it is placebo.
SmilingPerson said:
Mate, I can't thank you enough, now I am back up.
I took advantage of the oppotunity to do a Titanium backup and flash the latest firmware, since I was still running old security updates.
I am not sure why the TWRP backups caused a bootloop, that concerns me. I am diligent about making one before any significant change, and now I see that none of them were good. It might be that the backup I applied included boot, and somehow that caused an issue.
In any case though, thanks a million. I would PM you a beer, but they tend to go flat when they hit the first ATM gateway. Hops and TCP encapsulation don't seem to be compatible, especially at > 9600 baud
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad to hear that! Don't worry about the beer!
I had similar issues with my Moto g6+... Either the /data encryption or Magisk is the reason for a failed backup. Both can cause a bootloop. But it's always good to have a stock boot.img.
I'm reading this because of the same issue in a Moto G7 Power. I haven't been able to make it restore a backup at all of either stock or custom. Oh, it will restore it just won't boot. I think it has something to do with the A&B system slots. We use a TWRP that was made for system with A&B slots but then we flash a copy partition zip That I'm not sure what it does. Maybe I should take it apart and have a look. . Has anyone been able to restore a backup in the G7?
arkansawdave74 said:
I'm reading this because of the same issue in a Moto G7 Power. I haven't been able to make it restore a backup at all of either stock or custom. Oh, it will restore it just won't boot. I think it has something to do with the A&B system slots. We use a TWRP that was made for system with A&B slots but then we flash a copy partition zip That I'm not sure what it does. Maybe I should take it apart and have a look. . Has anyone been able to restore a backup in the G7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a full restore of boot, system and data.
Is data...
...encrypted => Then format data (not wipe!!) and reboot into system. When you see the "Welcome Screen" turn off your device and boot into TWRP again. Restore data and it should be fine.
...unencrypted => Then format data and restore data (w/o reboot!!)
My phone suddenly had a momentary display malfunction (some of the text on the screen just turned into garbled pixels) and then entered into a boot loop. I didn't make any changes or updates to the phone recently. It no longer boots normally - just the Samsung logo and some of the Verizon logo animation, then it reboots and starts again. How do I pull my user data off (photos mainly) before trying a factory reset? The phone is totally stock. I haven't unlocked it, rooted it, or installed any custom recovery/ROM/bootloader/whatever. (I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about because I don't, haha.) The touchscreen is fully functional. I'm sure this has been covered here before, but I haven't found anything that totally explains how to do this in this particular situation, so I'd really appreciate any help anyone can provide.
The only time I can get the phone to show up under adb devices is when I boot it in recovery mode and select "Apply update from ADB". But it says "sideload" next to it in adb devices, and the push, pull, and shell commands return errors. I've read that this is normal. Wiping the cache partition didn't solve the boot loop problem.
If it helps, this is what the top of the recovery screen displays:
Android Recovery
Verizon/heroqltevzw/heroqltevzw
8.0.0/R16NW/G930VVRSBCTC1
user/release-keys
I'm no Android expert, clearly. I've heard it mentioned that I need to install a custom recovery in order for this to be possible. To be clear, I want to make sure I don't erase the user data before I have a chance to pull it off the phone. These are the questions that I still have after reading information elsewhere (some of which I'm just asking out of an abundance of caution):
Is it correct that I need to install a custom recovery before I can pull this data off the phone?
Do I need to have it unlocked/rooted/anything else in order to be able to install a custom recovery? Or is there anything else I should do before installing it?
Which custom recovery should I install?
Do I need a custom ROM, if that's a different thing?
Do I need a custom...bootloader, if that's also a different thing?
Should I use Odin or Samsung Smart Switch to install the custom recovery?
(Extra credit: Does it sound from my description of how the boot loop started that this phone has hardware problems and should be replaced ASAP?)
Thank you so much for any help you can provide! Any extra information beyond my questions will be very much appreciated, too, of course. You guys never cease to impress.
You have a B version bootloader like me, and so far no root/custom recovery has been made for our versions of bootloaders. If I were you, I would check if you had maybe like a previous backup, and if Google made an automatic backup of your apps and photos? If you didn't use a 3rd party backup, and if you don't want to wait, you might lose some files. I also think you might be able to flash a certain part of stock firmware to get your phone to boot again, but I'm not sure
Also, if you don't care about files that can't be get through automatic backups, might as well flash a whole stock firmware, which as far as I know, may be the easiest way to get out of one.
Please correct me if I'm wrong
Also to answer your bullet points:
1. I'm not sure if you need a custom recovery, but from my experience from a Verizon s5, that's probably a yes.
2. Since this is Verizon, you would need to unlock your bootloader in order to install a custom recovery, which in where I posted my first reply, the B version of the bootloader is still locked down without any known way to unlock it. You and me are stuck with this, as I also have the B version.
3. If the heavens line up and you somehow unlock the bootloader, try to flash a recovery Called TWRP under the name "Herolqte" (that's what I think). If that doesn't work, try to find one that works with the phone on XDA. If neither of those show up try to use another custom recovery like CWM.
4. If your trying to recover data on a phone, flashing a custom ROM is probably the last thing you want to do. A custom ROM is a modified version of Android, which may mean you'll have to format your device anyways so this is probably not what you want (even though it would be nice :[ )
5. As in post 2, all you would need to get a custom recovery is to unlock the bootloader. I'm not even sure if you CAN get a custom bootloader, as Odin won't even let me flash a stock bootloader to my phone that is the same exact Version >:[
6. You would need to use Odin if you were trying to flash something to your phone. Smart switch I think WOULD let you back up your device, but you would need to be on the home screen on your phone, which in turn, would probably need you to be out of that bootloop.
7. This is probably a software issue. If you don't care to much about the idea, try flashing some parts of a stock firmware. I was personally in a boot loop 2 days ago, but I flash a stock modem file (I think that was the second file slot from the bottom in Oden) and that got me out, but for some reason wiped my phone clean, and I'm not sure why.
Anyways. Goodluck in recovering your data. Also I'm not sure if a factory reset would even fix a boot loop
yaas
yaas