Alright... where to begin? Lets start at what happened around yesterday. Prior to the whole weekend, I had CyanogenMod 10.1 installed on my rooted S4. Come Friday, I start to miss some of the stock Samsung features such as Air Gestures, Smart Stay, the stock Samsung camera, and all that. So, I install WanamLite (a custom rom) on my phone. It's good and all but for some reason, the Smart Stay isn't working. To fix this, I go online and start digging; I find people saying "yo, revert back to the original firmware and re-install the Rom, that should fix your LTE problem." I think to myself, "maybe this could help me too." And that's exactly what I do. I go online to SamMobile and download this ROM (http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/?page=1&model=SGH-M919V&pcode=0#firmware). It installs with Odin and I was able to get back to the Stock Samsung firmware. I then proceed with my plan and install WanamLite; that also worked. So I'm all happy and stuff 'cause Smart Stay finally works but, shortly after fiddling with the re-stocked device, I get bored again. So, I start searching the forums for another rom to replace WanamLite (it was a good rom, but I wanted to try something else before settling down on it).
I find this ROM in the XDA-Developers S4 forum: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2303239. I try installing it; it works fine. But then, I notice that half my SD card is used up. So, I go into TWRP and click on Format Data (I'm not too sure about the name, I had CWM prior to the re-installation of Samsung stock firmware). After resetting the Data, I boot back into the phone and notice that the default layout is Easy Mode. (On the bright side, I freed 4 GB from my SD card). Easy Mode's incredibly annoying, so I wrestle with the phone for a while to change the launcher to Nova launcher, but to no avail. In the end, I decide to reflash the FoxHound ROM. I place the rom on my phone and boot into TWRP. That's where the problem comes. I selected: wipe cache, wipe delvic cache, wipe data. Then I wiped the cache and data, flashed the rom and, after that is when the phone started refusing boot up. From then on, it just displayed Samsung Galaxy S4 logo on the screen whenever I tried to start it.
What I tried to fix the issue: Re-installing the stock samsung firmware. (I think I ended up screwing up the phone even more with this. Before, I had TWRP installed but I couldn't boot into it, now I don't have any custom recovery installed and I still can't boot into the phone).
I can access the Download Mode and use Odin. I cannot boot into the recovery. When I hold Volume Up + Power + Home, it just says recovery in blue above the logo, and then, the phone reboots.
So, any ideas on how to fix it?
TL;DR: Tried installing FoxHound Rom. I wiped Delvic Cache, Cache, and Data, and after flashing the rom, the phone refused to boot up; it gets stuck on the Samsung logo. Before flashing, I did Format Data. After being unable to boot into the phone, I tried to flash the Stock Samsung Firmware on my S4. Nothing worked. Any ideas on how I should proceed?
splitinferno said:
So, any ideas on how to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try using Odin mode to install Stock Samsung Firmware...
If it doesn't work,
Install Samsung Kies, put Phone into Odin mode, connect the USB and let KIES reinstall the whole firmware... Go to "Tools" -> "Emergency Firmware Recovery"
psycovirus said:
Try using Odin mode to install Stock Samsung Firmware...
If it doesn't work,
Install Samsung Kies, put Phone into Odin mode, connect the USB and let KIES reinstall the whole firmware... Go to "Tools" -> "Emergency Firmware Recovery"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've already tried flashing the Stock Samsung Firmware using Odin, it didn't work. Also, I'm having no luck with Kies; it won't connect. Any other suggestions? :/
EDIT 1: Okay, so here's the deal right now: I was able to flash TWRP using ODIN. This granted me access to my recovery, somehow. So right now, I have the FoxHound_GearEngine0.2 ROM installation files on my SD card and I am booted into the recovery. What should I do? Should I try flashing again? For now, I'll just wait for a response.
EDIT 2: Out of curiosity and impatience, I tried flashing FoxHound but got an error:
Updating Partition Details
E: unable to mount data
E: unable to mount internal storage
TWRP v. 2.5.0.3
Go into the advanced menu in TWRP and try to mount data / internal storage. If you can't, then you're back to odin unless someone can find out something else
maazali said:
Go into the advanced menu in TWRP and try to mount data / internal storage. If you can't, then you're back to odin unless someone can find out something else
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Click to collapse
I tried to; it didn't work. I also tried clockworkmod recovery. That recovery said it said that the data was already mounted. For some reason, now the phone is stuck in a bootloop. On the bright side, I can freely access my recovery (although I can't do much in it). Should I try flashing other stock roms?
EDIT: Flashing the stock rom brought it back to the state it was in earlier. So now, it just hangs on the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen and no longer reboots continuously. I'm thinking of downloading other stock roms and flashing those.
UNBRICKED
splitinferno said:
I tried to; it didn't work. I also tried clockworkmod recovery. That recovery said it said that the data was already mounted. For some reason, now the phone is stuck in a bootloop. On the bright side, I can freely access my recovery (although I can't do much in it). Should I try flashing other stock roms?
EDIT: Flashing the stock rom brought it back to the state it was in earlier. So now, it just hangs on the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen and no longer reboots continuously. I'm thinking of downloading other stock roms and flashing those.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, after struggling around with the device, I was able to unbrick it. I downloaded the stock ROM from samfirmware and flashed it using odin. After flashing it, it would stay on the Samsung Galaxy S4 logo and that's it and I wasn't able to boot into the recovery either. So, I flashed TWRP using odin and download mode, and found I was able to boot into recovery again. Screwing around with the recovery, I couldn't manage to do much so I decided to re-flash the stock firmware. After re-flashing, I had the same problem. This time, I tried accessing the stock recovery. I got access, which was something I couldn't get before. After getting access, I did Factory Reset/Data (it was something along those lines) and did a wipe cache. After wiping cache, the phone rebooted and, much to my delight, it was unbricked. After going through this, I think I might just like chill for like a month, or a year now with stock... .__.
Hahah nice job
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda premium
splitinferno said:
Alright, after struggling around with the device, I was able to unbrick it. I downloaded the stock ROM from samfirmware and flashed it using odin. After flashing it, it would stay on the Samsung Galaxy S4 logo and that's it and I wasn't able to boot into the recovery either. So, I flashed TWRP using odin and download mode, and found I was able to boot into recovery again. Screwing around with the recovery, I couldn't manage to do much so I decided to re-flash the stock firmware. After re-flashing, I had the same problem. This time, I tried accessing the stock recovery. I got access, which was something I couldn't get before. After getting access, I did Factory Reset/Data (it was something along those lines) and did a wipe cache. After wiping cache, the phone rebooted and, much to my delight, it was unbricked. After going through this, I think I might just like chill for like a month, or a year now with stock... .__.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Next time don't wipe data in custom recovery because it will corrupt your data which would most probably end with not booting past the Samsung logo, if you want to wipe in a custom recovery for now you have to manually wipe system, cache and dalvik cache located in mounts in cwm recovery (not sure where to find it in twrp).
You should read a little before messing with things in recovery.
Ahahah that's funny because something similar happened to me. And I was going to suggest doing a factory reset via recovery because that's how I resolved my problem, then I see you did just that! (Y)
Sent from my GT-I9500
EDIT: Well it's not solved, but in the process of trying to fix it I soft-bricked it so I forced myself to have to tot back to 4.2.2 using this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2687768 . Now I'm simply trying to get it to OTA back to D80020y (on Cricket... using a prepaid AT&T sim to try and force an OTA... no luck).
I'm sure I'll end up facepalming as I've gotta be missing something simple.
I was running stock D80020y, rooted with a few exposed tweaks - nothing major. I flashed TWRP using Autorec, did a full "nandroid", then proceeded to install Blisspop 3.3 by doing the following steps:
A full wipe
Flashing LP_30d loki'd bootstack (my hunch is this is the problem)
Flashing the rom + gapps
I had lots of issues with it not recognizing my sim card and acting as if I had no service, despite the APN settings looking accurate. So I got back into recovery (had to install/run autorec again as I couldn't get into it from the rom), restored my EFS just in case, then did a full wipe and restored the nandroid - all of it.
The first time it booted up, it went through the update of every app and just hung on "starting apps". I let it go for a good 10 minutes before rebooting and it just hung at the logo prior to full boot. I got back into recovery and restored again, but no luck - it just hangs every time.
Is the bootstack my problem? I REALLY don't want to have to flash back to stock via kdz or tot as I'm on cricket and won't be able to OTA back to D80020y. Any input is appreciated!
Hello,
today I managed to brick my device and restore it to working state, and I wonder at what point I made an error.
So here's what I did:
Had stock lollipop 30b
Rooted using oneclick root+recovery
Installed twrp using autorec
Xposed etc. and used it for a while without problem
Decided to flash something new
AOSPA 5.1.1 seemed like a good choice
Flashed bootstack, that was mentioned in aospa thread, system and gapps
Wow, that was smooth, but I needed my apps next day so I decided to restore my stock backup
Restored backup and ended up with phone in 9006 mode
Later I did some stupid moves that made whole situation worse, but that's not the point.
I backed up and restored everything that twrp allowed me to, so not only system and data, but also boot, efs, modem, recovery, sns etc. Could this be the cause? I didn't change bootstack, because I thought, that I had the needed one (autorec puts kk bootstack, right? and aosp roms also require this).
What should I do to avoid such problems in the future? I'll probably flash a lot, trying to find best possible rom for me, so it's neccesary to now whatto avoid.
And tip for future newbies like I was: if you can enter download mode, then use it, flash tool won't wipe your device data when you're using normal flash. When you've got normal working system to begin with then you can tinker further.
(Also there seems to be no way to recover from demigod critical error, even though it says it enters recovery. Then it's only this method with shorting capacitors on motherboard (fix real hardbrick)).
Cheers,
Marmelada
You can flash the patch (go back to LP from Sombons), flash, reboot recovery, restore stock rom and reboot.
So, yesterday i tried to install Euphoria OS on my phone, but in all of a sudden, the /cache partition corrupted, i was dumb enough and deleted it via TWRP, making my phone fall into the QPST status.
After fixing it, i proceeded and reflashed KitKat, but the phone only shows 8GB instead of 16GB, so i tried to fix this by flashing TWRP, everything went well, until i upgraded to Lollipop again.
It always bootloops no matter what i do, i really need my phone with my 16GB of storage back, it isn't a Hardware failure since the QPST diagnosis didn't say anything about mobo failures.
I can mount all the partitions, i can wipe it all, i can boot into bootloader and recovery, i can do basically everything but booting the system.
Any light on this? it either happens after i flash TWRP or after i try to root it.
Im running Android 5.1.1 stock.
List of tutorials i have tried (In order): http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-4/general/wip-unbricking-nexus-4-using-qpst-t2208289
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nex...unbrick-n4-t2347060/post43164157#post43164157
http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/nexus-5-stuck-boot-loop-lollipop-t3098632
Don't you dare tell me to reflash the ROM again, this is the first thing i have done, i did this 20 times already and it never worked. It isn't a ROM problem. It is a partition problem somewhere.
Fixed, had to use LGNPST to reflash JB 4.4.2, then upgraded to a ZIP version of the Lollipop ROM, then flashed the stock one.
I'm having the same problem with my Nexus 4. I read also about LGNPST, but I remember something about flashing the Optimus G cache partition I believe, then manipulating one of the prop files afterwards in order to get your 16gigs back. The problem is that all of the files needed to do this flash are attached to a stupid downloader site and so its full of pop up windows and adware from what I've seen. I can't get mine to boot into system, or bootloader, or recovery, etc. The device will not finish looping for debugging to be enabled, and even trying to boot into download mode is not happening. I've tried all I know to do, especially considering fastboot and adb both utilizeusb debugging. I really am baffled. Any root kits I've tried also don't work so far. Help please.
My phone was rooted for the longest time without any problems, but some time ago (I'm assuming after the Treble update) apps would not detect root, although any app that was already using root could continue doing so.
I checked Magisk, which said root was not installed. I booted my phone into recovery, and somehow my phone had the stock recovery flashed on it. I tried flashing TWRP on it again, and it worked. Except, when I rebooted my phone into recovery later again, it went back to stock recovery.
I have no idea what's going on, and would really appreciate some help.
(PS: I do know how to update my phone without the phone reverting to stock recovery, I've done it many times before, so that can't be the problem)
update: I tried flashing TWRP again (through bootloader), and this time I jumped straight to recovery. It showed all the directories as if my phone had just been completely wiped. Internal memory 0M. No files anywhere. Didn't even have a downloads folder.
In a panic, I rebooted my phone, but my phone was actually untouched, no data wipe whatsoever. I'm even more confused about what the hell is happening now.
The stock OOS will automatically reflash the stock recovery if it detects it has changed to something else.
You have to boot into TWRP right after installing it and either let it mount /system read-write (likely to cause problems later) or install something like Magisk that will prevent overwriting the recovery.
TWRP was not able to read your data partition, which can happen depending on which kind of encryption you have. Try the BlueSpark TWRP, it supposedly supports encryption better than the official one.
It's the version. If I use 3.2.3.0 or 3.2.2.0 I get no files. But 3.2.1.1 works for some reason. You can also install pie now. There is a link in the one plus 5 forums here to hydrogen os. It's Chinese version but that doesn't matter. It is in English. You will need to uninstall a few Chinese bloatware apps and flash gapps. But besides that I don't see much difference. If anything the hydrogen os looks nicer. I'll add some screenshots . Developer options was enabled from first boot, with the advanced reboot menu I noticed.
Also, if you have root the TWRP app can flash recovery from in the OS.
Fif_ said:
The stock OOS will automatically reflash the stock recovery if it detects it has changed to something else.
You have to boot into TWRP right after installing it and either let it mount /system read-write (likely to cause problems later) or install something like Magisk that will prevent overwriting the recovery.
TWRP was not able to read your data partition, which can happen depending on which kind of encryption you have. Try the BlueSpark TWRP, it supposedly supports encryption better than the official one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's frustrating for sure. Lol