[Q] Recovering pictures from unrooted, locked, boot looping Nexus 4 - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi, after researching for the 3rd day straight I'm ready to make a post about this. Hopefully someone has some information I may have overlooked that can help me.
I have a completely stock, not rooted, boot loader locked Nexus 4 that was on the latest 4.4 OTA update (received OTA from Google). It was completely stock until I decided to enable the ART java runtime in developer options. The phone then updated my applications, rebooted and now displays the KitKat four circles boot animation for an unlimited amount of time (I've let it run for up to 30 minutes so far).
My question is: Is there any way to recover my pictures?
Every method I've looked into involves a step that requires wiping the phone and deleting my pictures. I've researched the ADB pull command and it appears that I can't run it successfully without being rooted, and I can't root without unlocking the boot loader, and unlocking the boot loader always wipes the phone (which deletes my pictures).
-USB debugging is not enabled
-I can boot into fastboot and I can load stock recovery.
-I downloaded the latest 4.4 full OTA zip file and sideloaded it ("adb sideload update.zip") but my phone still will not continue beyond the KitKat loading animation.
-I have tried wiping the cache and had no improvements.
-When I boot into recovery and use the command "adb devices" it reports my phone's serial number with the message "sideload" next to it.
I am uncertain about exactly how to use adb pull but the following attempts result in the message, "error: closed"
adb pull /data/media c:\android\backup
adb pull /data/media c:/android/backup
I have Wug's Nexus Root Toolkit v1.7.9 but it says that in order to use the "backup data/media" tool on Android 4.4 my boot loader must be unlocked (which will wipe my pictures).
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? The pictures were recently taken and I delayed a little too long on backing them up.
Thanks for your time!

Android-SV650 said:
Hi, after researching for the 3rd day straight I'm ready to make a post about this. Hopefully someone has some information I may have overlooked that can help me.
I have a completely stock, not rooted, boot loader locked Nexus 4 that was on the latest 4.4 OTA update (received OTA from Google). It was completely stock until I decided to enable the ART java runtime in developer options. The phone then updated my applications, rebooted and now displays the KitKat four circles boot animation for an unlimited amount of time (I've let it run for up to 30 minutes so far).
My question is: Is there any way to recover my pictures?
Every method I've looked into involves a step that requires wiping the phone and deleting my pictures. I've researched the ADB pull command and it appears that I can't run it successfully without being rooted, and I can't root without unlocking the boot loader, and unlocking the boot loader always wipes the phone (which deletes my pictures).
-USB debugging is not enabled
-I can boot into fastboot and I can load stock recovery.
-I downloaded the latest 4.4 full OTA zip file and sideloaded it ("adb sideload update.zip") but my phone still will not continue beyond the KitKat loading animation.
-I have tried wiping the cache and had no improvements.
-When I boot into recovery and use the command "adb devices" it reports my phone's serial number with the message "sideload" next to it.
I am uncertain about exactly how to use adb pull but the following attempts result in the message, "error: closed"
adb pull /data/media c:\android\backup
adb pull /data/media c:/android/backup
I have Wug's Nexus Root Toolkit v1.7.9 but it says that in order to use the "backup data/media" tool on Android 4.4 my boot loader must be unlocked (which will wipe my pictures).
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? The pictures were recently taken and I delayed a little too long on backing them up.
Thanks for your time!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
u can use adb while unrooted, but the error: closed is because the device is in fastboot mode. u can try to backup /data/media while on stock recovery.if it dosent work, then just sending to jtag, so they dump the nand.

Your adb command is right but that's only for custom recovery. ABD is not allowed in stock recovery for good reasons, otherwise it's a huge security risk.
There really isn't a way to back up your data of you have stock recovery and locked bootloader. You'll have factory reset to lose everything and see of it boot or unlock and install factory image.
Next time sync your photos with Google or DropBox, or leave the bootloader unlocked so you can not into recovery and retrieve the data.
sent via tapatalk

hey, there is jtag dump BUT, some ppl say that if u clear cache on stock recovery,then restart and connect to pc u can backup your things because of adb being enabled.other says that on boot with cleared cache it will mount on pc as normal.u can try that.

Related

Cannot root 4.1.2

After I got my new nexus, I decided to root it. I used mskips toolkit with 4.1 and it worked like a beaut. But I can't for the life of me root 4.1.2.
Checklist:
Downloaded the drivers succesfully
Can enter ADB succesfully. Under device manager it says "Google Nexus 7 ADB interface"
Tried WugFresh's toolkit
Unlocked bootloader
Tried installing custom recovery (see below)
(Checklist to know what I have done, for people to help me and future people with problems)
The reason adding CWM or TWRP doesn't work is because the device can't be rooted. You need to be rooted to change recovery file names, and whenever I boot recovery, I get the dead android and a red ! (stock recovery).
When it sees if busybox is installed, and sends the command, it comes back negative.
I'm having the exact same problem -- generating the same set of error messages as you show at the top of your screen capture. I bought a new Nexus 7 32GB and updated it to 4.1.2 before trying to root it. At the time I hadn't read anything that told me this might be a bad idea. I figured -- update to the latest version then root it. I've tried changing how I have it connected (media or camera), what USB port I connect to, what USB cable I use, which boot options I select -- NOTHING makes a difference. I have gotten my bootloader to unlock, or so it seems, as I've got the unlocked padlock image during boot up. But I'm totally stuck on how to proceed to get root.
lesdense said:
I'm having the exact same problem -- generating the same set of error messages as you show at the top of your screen capture. I bought a new Nexus 7 32GB and updated it to 4.1.2 before trying to root it. At the time I hadn't read anything that told me this might be a bad idea. I figured -- update to the latest version then root it. I've tried changing how I have it connected (media or camera), what USB port I connect to, what USB cable I use, which boot options I select -- NOTHING makes a difference. I have gotten my bootloader to unlock, or so it seems, as I've got the unlocked padlock image during boot up. But I'm totally stuck on how to proceed to get root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you run wugs toolkit to root, does it reboot your nexus? I have not rooted a 32GB yet but I have done a 16GB on 4.1.2 factory image without any problems.
There is nothing different between rooting an 8/16GB unit versus the 32GB ones. Nor does 4.1.1 or 4.1.2 matter.
I bought a 32GB one a few days ago, upgraded to 4.1.2, and had the bootloader unlocked, custom recovery installed and device rooted in about 5 minutes.
The issues you are having are why I hate these "toolkits". They don't always work properly, and when they fail, the user has no idea what's going on. It's much better for people to actually perform the steps manually so that they understand what's going on behind the scenes. Because when you understand, you can better troubleshoot problems.
Based on the errors, it looks like the toolkit failed to remount /system as writable. As such, it couldn't push the APKs for superuser, nor make the su binary suid root. Which of course would break the rest of the install script.
It's a very simply process and doesn't need a toolkit. Use the android development toolkit tools adb and fastboot.
1) adb reboot bootloader
2) fastboot oem unlock
(select yes on tablet)
3) fastboot reboot-bootloader
(confirm bootloader is unlocked)
4) fastboot erase recovery
5) fastboot flash recovery <recovery.img>
(recovery.img should be a downloaded custom recovery file - CWM or TWRP, your choice).
6) Reboot into recovery
7) adb push <superuser.zip> /sdcard/superuser.zip
(superuser.zip should be whatever recovery flashable 'root' zip you want to use).
8) Using recovery, flash the zip file.
9) Reboot
10) Done.
phonic said:
There is nothing different between rooting an 8/16GB unit versus the 32GB ones. Nor does 4.1.1 or 4.1.2 matter.
I bought a 32GB one a few days ago, upgraded to 4.1.2, and had the bootloader unlocked, custom recovery installed and device rooted in about 5 minutes.
The issues you are having are why I hate these "toolkits". They don't always work properly, and when they fail, the user has no idea what's going on. It's much better for people to actually perform the steps manually so that they understand what's going on behind the scenes. Because when you understand, you can better troubleshoot problems.
Based on the errors, it looks like the toolkit failed to remount /system as writable. As such, it couldn't push the APKs for superuser, nor make the su binary suid root. Which of course would break the rest of the install script.
It's a very simply process and doesn't need a toolkit. Use the android development toolkit tools adb and fastboot.
1) adb reboot bootloader
2) fastboot oem unlock
(select yes on tablet)
3) fastboot reboot-bootloader
(confirm bootloader is unlocked)
4) fastboot erase recovery
5) fastboot flash recovery <recovery.img>
(recovery.img should be a downloaded custom recovery file - CWM or TWRP, your choice).
6) Reboot into recovery
7) adb push <superuser.zip> /sdcard/superuser.zip
(superuser.zip should be whatever recovery flashable 'root' zip you want to use).
8) Using recovery, flash the zip file.
9) Reboot
10) Done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you, the problem of the tool kits, I experimented two of then
M, is that you are lost when something don't work, I lost hours and hours before understand it and do it by myself for 50 per cent .
Now that everything is good, I am very prudent with theses helpers,:good:

Softbrick?, stuck in fastboot

Hello,
I was attempting to update from 4.3 SlimBean to 4.4 SlimKat Weekly.
I booted into CWM Recovery, wiped system, cache, dalvik cache etc, and went to flash the rom.
The rom must have been corrupt or something, as I was unable to and received an error.
I rebooted and was stuck in fastboot.
From here, I've tried both Wug's Nexus Root toolkit, and the Skip Root toolkit.
Running the return to stock and unroot whilst in fastboot in either of them caused a crash of fastboot.exe and the Skip Root equivalent.
After a reboot Wug's allowed me to atleast run the program, but I received link errors, so tried again. This time it couldn't find it, unplug, replug. Link errors, cant find it and this repeated.
Skip also allowed me to after reboot, but gave the exact same faults.
That's as far as I've really got. I occasionaly get it to run, and it seems to work only for it to get part way in, sometimes after sending the bootloader, or on the bootloader and it can not find any devices.
For some extra info, this is Running Windows 8.1, using a USB 3.0 Front panel header and tried using default cable, samsung and kindle ones too.
I'm looking for any ideas? Worst case scenario is I can try when I'm back home at the weekend and there I have a PC with XP that I have used previously to fix this style of boot error.
Cheers,
WiiManic
Stop using toolkits, issues love to pop up for those who do
Make sure bootloader is still unlocked
If not
fastboot oem unlock
Flash latest twrp or cwm or whatever, just download the image and open cmd in this location
fastboot erase system -w
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery nameofrecovery.img
Now boot to new recovery
Go to advanced
Adb sideload
On PC go to ROM of choice, maybe slimbean
adb sideload nameofrom.zip
When complete
adb sideload nameofgappsoranythingelseneeded.zip
Reboot
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

[Q] Bricked Nexus 7 only recognized by ADB when sideloaded

My Nexus 7 has had a hard time ever since it went out of warranty, both getting stuck in boot loops and encrypting itself, thus requiring multiple hard resets.
The most recent time it got stuck in a boot loop was after the Kit Kat OTA update. It never gets past the Google logo (in previous times, it would make it to the X or colored dots). Performing a factory reset from the Bootloader > Recovery Mode menu never succeeds and still gets stuck at the Google logo.
I downloaded the Android SDK and was trying to attempt to reimage the tablet with the 4.2.2 image directly from Google and clear out/replace the corrupted factory restore files. I'm running into an odd issue right at the beginning - the only way I can get adb to recognize my device is when I go to Recovery Mode > Apply Update from ADB, at which time it sideloads my tablet. Otherwise, I cannot get my tablet to show up when executing "adb devices". Problem is, when it is sideloaded, I cannot execute any commands to the device. I manually installed the drivers directly from \android-sdk\extras\google (which allowed for the successful sideload).
Anyone know how to get my device to be properly recognized, when I can't boot it to enable USB debugging, etc? Or, is there a better way for me to get a clean image on my tablet? Can I do it via a sideload update and still clear out/replace the corrupted factory restore files?
Also, I was working off the following guide, but I'm not sure if it is exactly what I should be using, since I want to replace everything so that if I need to do a factory reset in the future, I can successfully do so via Bootloader > Recovery Mode without having to go through this process again!
I am new to Android debugging and images/flashing/etc, so I'm not fluent in the terminology and any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

[Q] Nexus 4 Bootloop, locked, stock rom, no dev, backup data?

Hi,
today a friend of mine woke up with his phone (Nexus 4, 8GB, Android 4.4.4 stock) being off. When powered on, it gets stuck in the boot animation (4 coloured dots moving).
Bootloader is LOCKED on this device. Developer-Options are OFF.
Is there ANY way to recover this device without losing the data on its virtual sdcard OR backup this data?
What I've tried:
- Boot into stock recovery (PWR+DOWN - Recovery - PWR+UP) and wipe cache. Cache wiped, no effect.
- Boot maintenance mode (whatever it is called) by holding down DOWN a moment before the boot animation and a moment after boot animation... tried all, device never exits the boot animation
- use NRT to boot temporary custom recovery... A message shows up on the device in fastboot mode for <1s... I can't read it, but I guess it says it wont boot that with device locked... nothing boots
- use NRT to boot modified boot img... same as above
- Boot into stock recovery (PWR+DOWN - Recovery - PWR+UP) and select "apply update from adb". Device says I should apply updates with adb sideload. "adb devices" does not list any device. "adb sideload update.zip" says "device not found" (I generated an update.zip from stock image without userdata.img)
- "fastboot update update.zip" says "FAILED (remote: not supported in locked device)"
I've read that stock recovery with "apply update from adb" can be used to backup data, but it is not working... is this because developer options are not enabled on this device?
What options do I have now? If I use the stock image and flash it as is (including userdata.img) with "flash-all.bat", the data will be lost, right? If I use "fastboot update stock-update.zip" (didn't try it so far), which is almost the same but without "-w" option on fastboot, will the data survive even with userdata.img in the zip?
Thx so far
UPDATE: driver for adb in sideload mode was not installed correctly. Now "adb devices" lists the device, but "adb pull" or "adb backup" show "error: closed"
RFZ said:
UPDATE: driver for adb in sideload mode was not installed correctly. Now "adb devices" lists the device, but "adb pull" or "adb backup" show "error: closed"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not going to be able to pull data off with a locked bootloader and the stock recovery. Sorry
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=38160111&postcount=4
states that "wipe and factory reset" from stock recovery does NOT wipe users media data. Can someone confirm that?
okay, after lots of research I found more sources that told me that factory reset would not delete data from the internal media storage...
So, we tried it. And ... it deleted all data. After doing the reset in stock recovery, all data is lost.
That's really a good example why I hate devices without sdcard...
RFZ said:
okay, after lots of research I found more sources that told me that factory reset would not delete data from the internal media storage...
So, we tried it. And ... it deleted all data. After doing the reset in stock recovery, all data is lost.
That's really a good example why I hate devices without sdcard...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you look closely at the post you linked, he was also surprised that the wipe data didn't remove his data, which is what he was expecting. As far as I know, factory reset within the stock recovery and inside Android both always wipe user data including the internal storage (yes, I learned this the hard way, too.)
I agree with you though, devices with non-removable storage are a pain.
Hey!
It's a softbrick but don't panic do this--->
1. Go to Google developers download the nexus 4 factory image under 'occam'
2. Download wugfresh toolkit
3. Open the toolkit.. Unlock your bootloader
4. After unlock... Go to 'flash stock+unroot'
5. Navigate to downloaded image and tick "device is softbrick/bootloop"
6 voila! It will start to revive your device
PS: don't forget to unlock the bootloader
Don't interrupt the flashing process
Thank me if it helps
-nexus⁴
---------- Post added at 06:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:35 AM ----------
This will erase all data!
-nexus⁴

[Q] N4 stuck in boot loop after OTA update

Hello,
I saw that the OTA update to Lollipop was available on my phone today, so I went ahead and let it download. Upon completion of the download, it restarted and applied patches, then restarted again and has been stuck in boot loop for about an hour. After reading several other threads on how to try to reset the phone, I'm stuck. When I try power + volume up or down, the LED status indicator flashes red and I never get to any kind of other screen. Am I completely screwed? I previously had stock 4.4.2 with no modifications.
Finally was able to get to the bootloader menu. Apparently having the phone plugged into the charger was preventing me from getting there for some reason. I ended up having to wipe the phone to get it to boot
so you can get into clock recovery right? download nexus 4 toolkit..that might save your phone. I suggest you to unroot and flash everything to stock and then unlock again and start everything from scratch. good luck.
Similar issue on an OTA upgrade to an unrooted N4. It's stuck on the Lollipol boot screen with the rotating Circle thingies.
I can get to the Android System Recovery but there's no CWM or TWRP on my N4. I'm guessing a factory reset will fix it but is there a way to preserve my pics/files on the phone before doing so?
Sportfreunde said:
Similar issue on an OTA upgrade to an unrooted N4. It's stuck on the Lollipol boot screen with the rotating Circle thingies.
I can get to the Android System Recovery but there's no CWM or TWRP on my N4. I'm guessing a factory reset will fix it but is there a way to preserve my pics/files on the phone before doing so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess TWRP Recovery has option to enable MTP and you can access the internal SD card by connecting mobile with computer using usb cable.
---------- Post added at 06:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:37 PM ----------
Sportfreunde said:
Similar issue on an OTA upgrade to an unrooted N4. It's stuck on the Lollipol boot screen with the rotating Circle thingies.
I can get to the Android System Recovery but there's no CWM or TWRP on my N4. I'm guessing a factory reset will fix it but is there a way to preserve my pics/files on the phone before doing so?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash TWRP Recovery using fastboot.
1. If you have otg y cable, connect it and use file manager to copy all the files.
2. OTG method is failed then select “Mount”, then select only “Data” and connect your Nexus 4 to your computer and Enable MTP in TWRP. now you can use adb pull and push commands.
I ended up going the factory reset route, which wasn't really a bad thing. My photos had been backed up in dropbox and the play store remembered all the apps and were able to reload them. The only things I really had to do was reload some music onto the phone and re-enter passwords for apps.
Same story here: sideloaded the OTA zip file, then had bootloop. Tried a few approaches, but none worked. In the end only wiping the data was the solution for me. Lost some userdata in a few important Apps...
I went through this yesterday. The only way to get it to boot is a Factory Reset from Recovery. It works like magic, but sucks you lose the data.
Got the OTA yesterday and also got a bootloop(stuck in boot screen animation). I couldnt afford losing my photos/videos as i had no backup , so i figured out a super easy to get it to boot without wiping data .
I was unrooted with stock recovery running stock 4.4.2, bootloader was unlocked. I flashed CWM recovery through fastboot and wiped chache+ Dalvik from there then simply rebooted the phone .
I had already tried wiping cache from the stock Android recovery,needless to say that didnt work for me.
If anyone else is having the same problem please try the method above and report back, cheers!
I post this on Google Product Forum 2 days ago. Hope it helps
https://productforums.google.com/for...Q/wDzRUm4b2UsJ
(updated 29/11/2014)[not perfect but it is a SOLUTION]
The idea of this is to downgrade your nexus 4 without wiping your data, which means stuff you will need includes:
1. adb and fastboot on your computer (I am using mac but you can find it on windows as well. There are tones of website and forums telling you the latest method of getting it onto your computer)
2. factory image of nexus 4(I use 4.4.4, since that's what it was. I don't have the time and energy to try to do the same thing with lollipop. you can try can leave a comment).
update: do NOT try to flash 5.0 rom using this method. You will be stuck at boot loop again
3. usb cable
4. nexus 4 with unlocked bootloader(the process of unlocking bootloader will wipe your device)
5. computer
steps
1. unzip the factory image (something.tgz)
2. for me, after unzipping the .tgz, I still find another .zip inside. unzip that too.
3. hold vol+, vol-, and power button simultaneously to enter fastboot mode
4. open terminal(mac)(it would probably be cmd for windows)
5. connect your nexus 4(in fastboot)
6. to make sure it connect successfully, type "fastboot devices". if something like "005040c0d54bb291 fastboot" appears, you are good. Otherwise, try reconnect your device/boot to fastboot again/use another usb cable
7.now we need to tell the terminal to navigate to the location of the unzipped factory image. to do that, i suggest you put the unzipped folder to somewhere easy to find, like desktop. these are some commands to help you navigate:
"ls" allows you to look at whats inside the current directory of the terminal. For example, this is the output after typing "ls" for me:
some folder Photos
nexus4image.tgz how many folders do you have
5.zip occam-ktu84p
more folder occam-ktu84p.zip
after knowing where you are, use "cd" (below) to go to your folder
"cd" means change directory. For example. "cd Photos" will brings me to the "Photos" folder. And then if I type ls, I will see a whole bunch of photos in my photos. If you go to the wrong folder, type "cd ..", and it will bring you back to the previous folder.
8. flash bootloader.
enter the following command, BUT REMEMBER TO CHANGE THE NAME TO FIT YOURS(DIFFERENT VERSIONS HAVE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FILE NAME AT THE END(type ls first to help you type the correct name)
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-mako-makoz30d.img
9. reboot bootloader. just copy and paste
fastboot reboot-bootloader
10. flash radio
enter the following command, BUT REMEMBER TO CHANGE THE NAME TO FIT YOURS(DIFFERENT VERSIONS HAVE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FILE NAME AT THE END(type ls first to help you type the correct name)
fastboot flash radio radio-mako-m9615a-cefwmazm-2.0.1701.03.img
11. reboot bootloader. just copy and paste
fastboot reboot-bootloader
12. flash system
system.img is located inside the zip, use ls to help you navigate. This steps takes the longest time, total time on this step is 87 seconds while the others are less then 1 second
fastboot flash system system.img
13. flash boot
boot.img is located inside the zip, use ls to help you navigate.
fastboot flash boot boot.img
14. flash recovery
fastboot.img is located inside the zip, use ls to help you navigate.
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
15. format cache(not the memory, so everything should be fine)
fastboot format cache
16. reboot and wait
this will reboot your device. You probably have to wait for a while to initialise all the apps. after than you are good to go!
fastboot reboot
credit: my friend for giving me this idea + http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexu...image-t2010312 + HelpMyNexus

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