I goofed, and I don't know how I did it - AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshootin

Last evening, I put a new ROM on my phone, which has been rooted for quite some time running Goldeneye with no issues prior to earlier this week, and the rom installed without a problem, but when I went to flash an addon for the rom that came from the dev, the entire thing went south. I was using TWRP which is what's been on the phone since it was rooted, I do NOT have MF3 on the phone however after this install through TWRP, the phone how has the unlock icon on it, and won't boot past the samsung screen. If I try to get into recovery, it boots into odin, and freezes. I tried to do a recovery through Kies, and it just says connecting, then says the phone is not responding. For the first time since I've owned this phone, I feel well and truly stuck. Any help would be greatly appreciated, since after almost two years of rooting and installing ROMS on various devices from Samsung, HTC and Motorola, I made a mistake somewhere along the way and I am not even sure what the hell I managed to do, and the multiple forums I've been reading on here don't seem to be getting me anyplace. Apologies if this is a repeat and I missed a simple solution somewhere, but I've been at this for almost two hours now, so time to swallow the pride...

Think I figured it out
Well after writing this, for my own personal sense of masochism and an overall morbid curiosity, I kept reading, and figured out how to get the phone to actually boot into proper recovery mode (as in NOT Odin), and was able to get a ROM back on the phone, as I didn't care for any of the nandroids I had there. As I am not sure that anyone actually viewed this before I resolved my own issue much less had a chance to respond, it's not appropriate to thank anyone for solving my own problem, except for the poster of the thing that I read which led to my resolution, but I will throw out a blanket thank you to all those that take the time to develop, write, and help others solve the stupid stuff, it is appreciated, at least by this Ohioan, who sometimes manages to get in over his head!
dsly4425 said:
Last evening, I put a new ROM on my phone, which has been rooted for quite some time running Goldeneye with no issues prior to earlier this week, and the rom installed without a problem, but when I went to flash an addon for the rom that came from the dev, the entire thing went south. I was using TWRP which is what's been on the phone since it was rooted, I do NOT have MF3 on the phone however after this install through TWRP, the phone how has the unlock icon on it, and won't boot past the samsung screen. If I try to get into recovery, it boots into odin, and freezes. I tried to do a recovery through Kies, and it just says connecting, then says the phone is not responding. For the first time since I've owned this phone, I feel well and truly stuck. Any help would be greatly appreciated, since after almost two years of rooting and installing ROMS on various devices from Samsung, HTC and Motorola, I made a mistake somewhere along the way and I am not even sure what the hell I managed to do, and the multiple forums I've been reading on here don't seem to be getting me anyplace. Apologies if this is a repeat and I missed a simple solution somewhere, but I've been at this for almost two hours now, so time to swallow the pride...
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Sam issue than others, different behavior HELP please!

Hey guys, i received a Samsung Focus i917 rev 1.3 from a guy who wanted to put that phone back to factory state. Im dont have a lot of experience on windows phones other than the HTC versions. Anyway, i performed a factory reset on the phone but the data didnt deleted at all. Now, i understand as far as i know that those phones need the SD card in order to work fine. That phone didnt have one, but it was working though. Thing is i decided to flash it with stock ATTJK2 and when i flashed it everything went fine. But the phone now stays on the Samsung logo for some minutes and reboots. When i say this case is different is because i can get to download mode as many times as i want, i can perform factory reset using hardware buttons and everything. In fact, i even installed MAGLDR and a custom rom trying to solve this but even though everything went well phone is still stuck on that logo. So my question is, should i insert a working SD for that phone and then flash it? Is it worth the try? Or is this phone just a brick? Cus my guess unbricking it wont solve it since the phone can reach download mode.... Help please and thanks for your help as always
enelyam said:
Hey guys, i received a Samsung Focus i917 rev 1.3 from a guy who wanted to put that phone back to factory state. Im dont have a lot of experience on windows phones other than the HTC versions. Anyway, i performed a factory reset on the phone but the data didnt deleted at all. Now, i understand as far as i know that those phones need the SD card in order to work fine. That phone didnt have one, but it was working though. Thing is i decided to flash it with stock ATTJK2 and when i flashed it everything went fine. But the phone now stays on the Samsung logo for some minutes and reboots. When i say this case is different is because i can get to download mode as many times as i want, i can perform factory reset using hardware buttons and everything. In fact, i even installed MAGLDR and a custom rom trying to solve this but even though everything went well phone is still stuck on that logo. So my question is, should i insert a working SD for that phone and then flash it? Is it worth the try? Or is this phone just a brick? Cus my guess unbricking it wont solve it since the phone can reach download mode.... Help please and thanks for your help as always
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You can definitely try inserting a SD card and see. I'd say it's definitely worth trying. It would be best to match the original SD card it had, if possible. But even so, remember it's not guaranteed it will work.
If you'd search the forum for "stuck in loop" or "stuck at samsung logo" you'd see it's not a rare problem, unfortunately.
I have same problem with two different phones, the one started with be stuck in the loop. No matter what I have tried it will not break the loop, everything flashes fine but never boots. Second one started out working, but factory default wouldn't completely clear data. Very odd...
Well, seems like these phones are not worth a penny then. Its incredible that something like that could happen to a smartphone, So many things that go wrong with them, Im going to put them in the no no list togheter with the Razr. Worst phones to deal with... And yes ive seen its very common to find this issue. Which is why i think theyre worthless
enelyam said:
Well, seems like these phones are not worth a penny then. Its incredible that something like that could happen to a smartphone, So many things that go wrong with them, Im going to put them in the no no list togheter with the Razr. Worst phones to deal with... And yes ive seen its very common to find this issue. Which is why i think theyre worthless
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I'd say that is your experience and your perspective. Normally, you are NOT supposed to flash custom ROMs and you have been warned that if you do it you RISK bricking your phone. This is a new platform and the process of flashing is not yet 100% understood.
I've warned folks several times about flashing MAGLDR, it seems that only *some* phones have this "stuck" issue and in 99% cases they are related to flashing custom roms. To add more, no one has a fix (not even the guru's), which tells me the issue is most likely unfixable by software (much like an old bios reflash, might require taking out a chip). It might be a later batch of phones that use a specific chip, it might be something else. Point is you're flashing something on your own risk. And saying the phones aren't worth a penny just because you don't want to accept the risk of doing something potentially dangerous is a bit stretchy. And that's my perspective. To add on that, all phones should be looked for the capabilities and what they do, not just for modding. Focus has a replacement for the custom roms, you can achieve the same by installing packages yourself, without unnecessary risks.
Well, im sorry if something was misunderstood. I didnt mean to hurt feelings in here M8. But the thruth is that the phone was completely stock, i just wanted to delete the old data. So decided to flash it with official ATT firmware, it wasnt custom firmware. But since the phone didnt wanted to delete the data after factory reset(which for starters its odd) i tried flashing it and it flashed perfectly according to the flashing software. But it was stock Att, and the phone got stuck in samsung logo after the flash. Never made it further, i mean its not an unusual issue around here so thats why i said that. After that happened is when i tried to install MAGLDR, which installed perfectly also. But when i tried to flash a rom the phone just did the same, stuck in samsing logo also. In fact, i can still flash whatever i want on it, it goes to download mode perfectly, but no matter what i flash on it, it will stay on the samsung logo after that... Anyway, my bad on saying that those phones are not worth it. There maybe more people willing to have a phone which they wont know if it will boot when they turn it off, or maybe not delete their data when they wan to factory reset the phone. Im not one of those thats all. But i do respect your work dont get me wrong, its just that some odd situations like this makes people think twice when buying a phone.
Right mate, I get your point. No harm
If it makes any difference, happened to my wife's phone during normal Zune update, got the logo-loop. Was fixed by reflashing stock rom. Painful, but it worked. In your case it seems something was wrong with the flash, not being able to delete data after factory reset is indeed at least weird. Sorry you had a bad experience, I guess some of those happen every now and then...

[Q] Persistent bootloops

Hi folks.
So after a sleepless night and a lot of guessing and clicking around with no luck, I finally decided to ask for help.
The story:
Yesterday, I decided to open up my lovely N4 to perform the thermal pad mod (that can be found on these forums), as it was going really hot around the CPU at time and it seemed like a good solution.
Now, I'm no stranger to disassembling microelectronics without breaking them (few weeks ago, I successfully resoldered a broken power button in my old T989 that I've been using before N4).
What couldn't let me sleep at night:
And here is where the problem emerged. After re-assembling my sweet little phone (yes, i did it perfectly right), I tried to boot up and all i could see was an endless and really annoying bootloop, but as the device booted up, I did not worry much. While doing some research, I read that there's people experiencing bootloops with 4.3, so I thought that after disconnecting the battery, it just might've had happened on its own (I was using stock 4.3 with faux kernel before the nightmare started)
At this point, I booted into recovery and tried to flash the rom over, but unfortunately nothing positive happened. Then I tried factory reset and flashing different roms, also with no luck. This is when things started to get really frustrating, as no matter what I flashed, the bootloop was (and is) still there. But then I tries to restore a backup that I did right after getting my N4, back in November, and it WORKED. Why do i still have a problem then? Because it was 4.1 and OTA was giving me error every time I wanted to flash the update, so I kept flashing till i get some results. And then one of the N4 toolkits wiped my entire internal memory and I ended up with only being able to use sideload. Then I tried ALL of the N4 toolkits that can be found in here, to wipe everything and bring my phone back to everything stock, but the bootloader is locked so it cant do it, and it cant unlock it because I cant boot into the system.
Conclusion:
The phone works fine, and it proved it. But no matter what I try to flash (other than the old backup), the persistent bootloop is still there smiling at me like an a****le.
Any ideas?

[Q] Spontaneous bootloop on certain stock roms

Hello all,
This is yet another bootloop story, although I haven't found anything quite like it yet, hence the idea to post it here for reference and in case some of you have interesting ideas to explore...
This is gonna be a bit long, but TL;DR: After my phone got "spontaneously" stuck into a bootloop, I find that only the stock 4.2.2 rom works, and no other.
So, tuesday I get back home with an empty battery and a Nexus 4 (running latest OTA) that has switched itself of after a day of somehow intense usage. No worries, I plug the AC adapter, let it charge for a bit and switch it back on. Booting seems a bit long, but I have to take care of a few home chores so I let it do its thing before coming back to it a few hours later. Only to find it still displaying the animated nexus logo. After a few switch off/switch on cycles, I understand its pretty stuck and I need to be more radical about it. So I enter the bootloader menu, and OEM unlock the phone (I had never needed to do that) hoping the full wipe associated with that will clear things up.
Well, it didn't. So I guess I'll need to flash a stock rom, and so I do. Since 4.4 is available on Google's stock roms page I try that, the animated logo changes but the end result is the same. So I try again with the latest JB (4.3) and still the same result. I get more than a bit frustrated but it's late and I need some sleep.
The next day, I call Google's warranty desk in France. They tell me that since the phone fell a few month ago, they cannot take it under the warranty program, and so I have to ask LG. Knowing there's no reasoning that will get me past the clerk that answered the phone I hang up after saying I'll get back to them via snail mail. Which I'll probably do soon, because I'm very disappointed with the way that warranty desk works.
Once at work, everytime I have a few spare minutes, I try to reflash with a new tool just in case it does more than automate what I did manually (nexus root toolkit being the one I tried most). It doesn't change a thing and my phone is still a nice animated paperweight.
I don't know why I ended up trying that, but I finally tried flashing the original 4.2.2 rom, and lo and behold, my phone finally got to the SIM code screen ! Everything worked nice after that, so once back at home, I go for the offered OTA upgrade to 4.3. Well, guess what, back to paperweight. Before reflashing 4.2.2, I took the time to flash CWM and activate adb by modifying /system/build.prop in the 4.3 image. This showed a recurrent problem with "system_server" segfaulting at launch (and it might have been caused by hal_sensors_get_list not returning anything, I have no clue). Trying the same on 4.4 yielded the same result.
Back to 4.2.2 and everything works fine, but I get nagged by the OTA notification, and more than that I'm wondering if there's any hope I might understand and fix the problem with my phone.
So, ladies and gentlemen, any clue that would help me is very welcome !
I plan to try a CM rom this week-end to see if it has the same problems as the stock one, but I have little confidence it doesn't. My guess is I have a hardware problem that's non-critical except it triggers a bug in 4.3+...
Thanks for reading !
--
Alain Perry
Same case, mi phone is totally stock and stuck on logo
KRT16S: no luck
I only had the time to try KRT16S this week-end, and this latest update doesn't change a thing. Same symptoms. So I guess I'm stuck on JB 4.2 for the coming week...

Huge problem S4 not working anymore..

So this is my sad story..
I bought a second hand Samsung S4 (i337M Telcel) Unlocked, the day i got it, i tested in front of the seller everything was nice and smooth.. So i payed..
I was very excited and i proceed to make the Root proccess, at beginning i was having issues with the drivers and Odin, then i was able to fix it..
Anyways long story short i ended up with the ROOT, CYANOGENMOD CM11, and PHILZ 6.. The first day was working fine my cellphone.. (I must say i rooted in my life at least 4 devices even an S4 i9500 all of then with success and not a single problem.. Using them form months and even gears.. The latest was a Moto E..)
Ok so the i337M was working good since the first morning with the root, but in the afternoon it just turned off one time.. Was weird but i didnt pay much atention..
The second day i was listening music and suddenly it turned off, and since then the cellphone is not able to keep on for more than 10min..
Some times i can load the complete OS and ofter 2 min it turn off sometimes at the Samsung S4 logo turn off something i must say is that the Device every single time i turn it on, on the Samsung S4 screen says "kernel is not seandroid enforcing" in red letters, some people say it happens when the root process is not made correctly some says it normal because its rooted..
I already installed from Odin the Stock ROM from SamMobile, and the problem is exactly the same.. A friend of mine told me it could be the Logic Card AKA Motherboard.. But i want to believe its just a software problem.. Cuz' before i rooted cellphone was working..
- Download mode: Works like a charm not a single problem and basically its the only way i keep trying different options to install on the phone..
- Discovery mode: With CWM sometimes works good, sometimes it just turn off, with Philz runs good not turning off or something and its how i was able to wipe data, cache, dalvik, factory reset to the cellphone..
Im thinking in starting over like pretending i didnt do anything to the cellphone, try again the root, the rom, the PHILZ (dont know how to call it).. and hope for the best..
Any advice or reliable links where i can download the correct files for my S4 i337M.. You are basically the last reliable source i have to fix my S4 if you give up with me, then i must admit my cellphone has passed away ..
Hope you can help me thanks in advance and have an excellent day!!:laugh::good:
The first troubleshooting step (to determine if the issue is hardware or firmware related) is to flash back to stock with Odin. Since you have completed this step and find that the problem is still present, this suggests that it is a hardware problem.
I have seen a custom kernel cause sleep of death, which makes the phone appear to have turned off. But in those cases, flashing the stock kernel fixed the problem.
Perhaps you should see if you can return the phone to the seller for a full refund.
creepyncrawly said:
The first troubleshooting step (to determine if the issue is hardware or firmware related) is to flash back to stock with Odin. Since you have completed this step and find that the problem is still present, this suggests that it is a hardware problem.
I have seen a custom kernel cause sleep of death, which makes the phone appear to have turned off. But in those cases, flashing the stock kernel fixed the problem.
Perhaps you should see if you can return the phone to the seller for a full refund.
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Thanks for your reply.. I still dont know how but with Philz recovery, i was able to make a full wipe, i mean it deletes everything every single folder previously made was erased, and i can tell you that because i have a folder called ROOM where i places my ROM, Kernel, etc.. So i can flash them in discovery..
So i erased everything and then proceeded to install via Odin the Stock Rom and guess what it works like a charm, not a single problem.. So, so far the cellphone is ok.. I tested for two hrs.. Now i tried to install a custom ROM and its doesnt load from the Samsung S4 screen jaja... But im still having acces to discovery and download mode so thats ok..
Just two advices.. Never ever download files from Youtube ****y links.. Always go to the source.. Youtubers are assholes.. Real help and information comes from real people that knows what they are talking about like this forum and also updated and real ROM's come from the main source not Mega o Linkbucks...
Other advice embrace your self to do it.. Study every single question you have in Android, from KERNEL to ROM and ROOT.. Isn't that difficult..
One more question, Which ROM with Lollipop would you suggest to install i have the i337M?
SUNDR1V3R said:
So i erased everything and then proceeded to install via Odin the Stock Rom and guess what it works like a charm, not a single problem.. So, so far the cellphone is ok.. I tested for two hrs.. Now i tried to install a custom ROM and its doesnt load from the Samsung S4 screen jaja... But im still having acces to discovery and download mode so thats ok..]
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May I make a suggestion? Now that you have the phone working, can you possibly just use it for a week without doing anything to it? Don't try to root it or do anything other than text, make phone calls, and install a few programs. This will establish a baseline of behavior for your device, so you'll be able to tell when its behavior is out of the ordinary.
I understand your desire to make it your own. I got my S4 brand new from AT&T and said that I would wait at least a month before rooting it or changing roms, in case there was a problem and needed to return it. I had good intentions, but I couldn't stand it anymore and rooted it after only 3 days! It will take a lot of patience, but you really need to use it for more than a few hours to make sure that the hardware is okay.
I agree take baby steps, week stock, week root, week recovery. Figure out if its hardware or one of the steps is causing it.

Accidentally soft-bricked moto g4 plus xt1644

If this has been answered somewhere in this forum I apologize and please direct me to the answer. Back when I got my phone in march I rooted my phone using one of the guides on this discussion page so I could have open wifi tethering. While I did have some hiccups not the least of which being soft-bricking my phone and having to flash what I thought was a stock rom but ended up being a android 7.0 rom that seemed to work fine on my phone. Learning my lesson I made a backup right then and there of the stock install as well as two afterwords once I got everything set up the way I wanted. Flash forward to today my phone is bugging me for a seemingly benign system update and after ignoring it all day I dumbly install it without thinking. Now no matter what I do booting my phone only takes me to the TWRP recovery menu. I have tried running all of my backups and nothing is working. Of course because this has been a couple months the image I used is gone so I can't use that. Would that even work, wtf did I do. Let me know if anyone has an answer I will be eternally grateful
Ok problem solved.... after whiping my phone several times I attempted an install of cypherOS. and well.... it worked. I think I'll stick to this . Just let this post die I guess... I am going to set my alarm and go to bed I am very tired and have work in the morning

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