Database Users

[Q] Can't wipe or factory reset encrypted phone

I made the mistake of encrypting my phone and am now paying the price. It is rooted and I had installed the Google Edition 4.4.2 ROM by Danvdh, Kryten2k35 & Ktoonsez. I'm using TWRP 2.7.0.1.
I first tried going into recovery and doing a factory reset and got the an "Unable to mount '/data'" error, followed by a big red FAIL. So I rebooted into the system and tried to do a factory reset from there. Went through all the steps, phone rebooted into recovery and I got the same error - unable to mount.
So I did a bit of searching on the forums here and someone had suggested using the format option in TWRP. So I did that and it seemed to work - did not get the dreaded unable to mount error. So I tried flashing the new rom (the updated version from a couple of weeks ago). Got a message indicating it was successful. Rebooted, and to my dismay, got the prompt for the encryption password. Saw the little line drawing Android, then... nothing - I found myself in brick land.
Managed to get back into TWRP and, based on another post I found, tried Advanced Wipe, selecting everything except Micro SDcard and USB-OTG. Tried installing the new ROM again, says successful, but nothing has changed - I still boot into blackness after inputting my encryption password.
Not sure what else to try. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

not_su said:
I made the mistake of encrypting my phone and am now paying the price. It is rooted and I had installed the Google Edition 4.4.2 ROM by Danvdh, Kryten2k35 & Ktoonsez. I'm using TWRP 2.7.0.1.
I first tried going into recovery and doing a factory reset and got the an "Unable to mount '/data'" error, followed by a big red FAIL. So I rebooted into the system and tried to do a factory reset from there. Went through all the steps, phone rebooted into recovery and I got the same error - unable to mount.
So I did a bit of searching on the forums here and someone had suggested using the format option in TWRP. So I did that and it seemed to work - did not get the dreaded unable to mount error. So I tried flashing the new rom (the updated version from a couple of weeks ago). Got a message indicating it was successful. Rebooted, and to my dismay, got the prompt for the encryption password. Saw the little line drawing Android, then... nothing - I found myself in brick land.
Managed to get back into TWRP and, based on another post I found, tried Advanced Wipe, selecting everything except Micro SDcard and USB-OTG. Tried installing the new ROM again, says successful, but nothing has changed - I still boot into blackness after inputting my encryption password.
Not sure what else to try. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you go into download mode, revert back to a stock rom (or flash a stock one or something) and turn encryption off? edit: on further research it looks like the only way to completely unencrypt is to reset your device. dunno if that's something you'd want to try, but considering you already wiped multiple times.. i'd say try it?
Also what carrier do you have? That's pretty important. AT&Ts i337 and Verizon's variant cannot flash AOSP roms (more specifically, kernels) due to the bootloader being locked. That might be the issue you're experiencing? I looked up the ROM and it's using ktoonsez kernel, so I imagine that'd be why. Someone just made a version that does not include the kernel and has multiple issues the ROM you're trying to use fixed here.

Rhymey said:
Can you go into download mode, revert back to a stock rom (or flash a stock one or something) and turn encryption off? edit: on further research it looks like the only way to completely unencrypt is to reset your device. dunno if that's something you'd want to try, but considering you already wiped multiple times.. i'd say try it?
Thanks - that's exactly what I've been trying to do. I haven't tried reflashing back to stock with Odin though. Hmmm...
Also what carrier do you have? That's pretty important. AT&Ts i337 and Verizon's variant cannot flash AOSP roms (more specifically, kernels) due to the bootloader being locked. That might be the issue you're experiencing? I looked up the ROM and it's using ktoonsez kernel, so I imagine that'd be why. Someone just made a version that does not include the kernel and has multiple issues the ROM you're trying to use fixed here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bell, up here in the Great White North. I don't think locked bootloader is an issue - I was on the previous version of Danvdh's ROM, and everything was hunkydory. I just made the unfortunate decision to encrypt. Big mistake.
May try flashing back to stock. Nothing to lose, at this stage...
Thanks!

Hey just wanted to mention for the benefit of anyone else who got into this bind, flashing back to stock using Odin did the trick. Still wouldn't boot, but then I rebooted into stock recovery and did a factory reset, and finally was able to reboot back into stock. What a nightmare. Ugh. Thanks for the tip though - never occurred to me to try to go back to stock. Lesson learned though - no more encryption for me!

not_su said:
Hey just wanted to mention for the benefit of anyone else who got into this bind, flashing back to stock using Odin did the trick. Still wouldn't boot, but then I rebooted into stock recovery and did a factory reset, and finally was able to reboot back into stock. What a nightmare. Ugh. Thanks for the tip though - never occurred to me to try to go back to stock. Lesson learned though - no more encryption for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to hear. Should be able to flash to the rom once again no problem now that it's unencrypted!

[Q] MyScript Resource Manager Stopped Working

Hi all,
I'm hoping someone may be able to help me. Here's the situation:
A few weeks ago, I updated and rooted my SGS4 to 4.4.2 using Odin. Worked alright, but kept getting random restarts. Did a factory reset, and all was good.
A few days ago, PlayStore had an update for SuperSU, so I applied it. The random restarts returned, so I considered doing a factory reset, but found that Titanium Backup wasn't allowing me to do any new backups because I had insufficient space. I didn't really - I had plenty of space. A little googling lead me to here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2675778
I followed the instructions, rebooted my phone, and was bombarded with [app] has stopped working right away. Thinking this was no good, and I had somehow messed something important up, I did a factory reset anyway with the hopes of just restoring back to my backups from a few weeks ago.
Things got even worse - I'm now stuck on the Samsung welcome screen, where it wants me to put in my wifi password, but Myscript Resource Manager keeps failing, making the keyboard disappear. I now have no way to get back into my phone.
The TL;DR version:
I factory reset my phone, but can't get past the 'Enter Wifi Password' part of setting it up becuase Myscript Resource Manager keeps failiing.
Things I've tried:
* Wiping Cache data
* Factory Resets (again)
* Reflashing my phone with the 4.4.2 update that worked for me a few weeks ago
Does anyone have any other ideas?

The only way was to reflash from Odin, fresh firmware. Download different version of your firmware, other than the one you stated. And reflash back with Odin, make sure your steps using Odin is correct.

Thanks for the reply. I finally got it working after my third time flashing it and formatting the cache a few times. Scary stuff!
Alas, the sporadic reboot still continues, so I'll have to work out how to fix that problem again now.
Thanks again.

Simpler fix from at&t device support center
c0dewana said:
Hi all,
I'm hoping someone may be able to help me. Here's the situation:
A few weeks ago, I updated and rooted my SGS4 to 4.4.2 using Odin. Worked alright, but kept getting random restarts. Did a factory reset, and all was good.
A few days ago, PlayStore had an update for SuperSU, so I applied it. The random restarts returned, so I considered doing a factory reset, but found that Titanium Backup wasn't allowing me to do any new backups because I had insufficient space. I didn't really - I had plenty of space. A little googling lead me to here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2675778
I followed the instructions, rebooted my phone, and was bombarded with [app] has stopped working right away. Thinking this was no good, and I had somehow messed something important up, I did a factory reset anyway with the hopes of just restoring back to my backups from a few weeks ago.
Things got even worse - I'm now stuck on the Samsung welcome screen, where it wants me to put in my wifi password, but Myscript Resource Manager keeps failing, making the keyboard disappear. I now have no way to get back into my phone.
The TL;DR version:
I factory reset my phone, but can't get past the 'Enter Wifi Password' part of setting it up becuase Myscript Resource Manager keeps failiing.
Things I've tried:
* Wiping Cache data
* Factory Resets (again)
* Reflashing my phone with the 4.4.2 update that worked for me a few weeks ago
Does anyone have any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just had the same problem, spontaneously, from an unidentified source. Went to my carrier's, AT&T, local Device Support Center on a Sunday at noon, and one of the techs fixed the problem in under 3 minutes, impressively simply.
You will have to keep clicking OK when the error message repeatedly appears to continue with this process. That is normal.
Go to Settings > Application Manager > (scroll right to: ) ALL > (scroll down to: ) My Script Resource Manager (which should not be running) > Turn Off
Problem solved without Factory Reset. She impressed me and saved me a lot of time.

[Q] Galaxy S5 android 5.0 and recovery

Hi guys
I'm using samsung galaxy S5 (4.4.2) and recently upgraded to 5.0 using custom rom which I found here. It was working just great. I created 2 Nandroid using TWRP. One after a fresh installation another one after restoring my file contents from Helium and Titanium backup..
However something went wrong and i decided to restore my nandroid backup to revert back my changes. To my surprise both nandroid backup failed. I got a success message (using recovery mode) however when i reboot my phone im getting tons of messages like "System failed to start" "process failed to start" wait or press ok.
When I reflash the custom rom, it works fine, however i couldnt recover my system from nandroid backup.
I repeated several times but both nandroid gave me this same error. I even tried fixing permissions but no use. Then I used odin to flash a stock rom (BOA3) and rooted that using TWRP and most recent SU binaries. Its working great now, however I just wanted to know what is the best method to take a nandroid backup now? I'm afraid TWRP will bail out on me once again.
All the while I used CWM and it was great however 5.0 requires latest binaries and only can be rooted via TRWP recovery. Any suggestion? I just want to take a complete nandroid backup and save it in case if something goes wrong.
Thanks

sam20e said:
when i reboot my phone im getting tons of messages like "System failed to start" "process failed to start" wait or press ok.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm being plagued by this problem since I updated, flashing stock Lollipop using odin.
The problem first appeared after trying to restore my app+data using Titanium.
I went back to the beginning and flashed again but my phone is still unstable and I still occasionally get the '"System failed to start" "process failed to start" wait or press ok' issue that you have. A reboot generally sorts it out but the update has made my phone very unstable.
I also have big problems entering recovery and download modes using the buttons.
Cleaning my cache/davlik hasn't solved it either.
Hopefully someone can help us.

Anyone?

Got "Reactivation Lock" disabled?
Settings > General > Security

*Detection* said:
Got "Reactivation Lock" disabled?
Settings > General > Security
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Trouble in Galaxy town
Hi, I'll try make myself short.
1) Back when I had an Galaxy S2 i modded it a little bit but I haven't done it at all since then.
2) Now a few years later I got bored/sick of the stock ROM that comes with the S5 so I wanted to install something I knew had a good reputation, Cyanogenmod.
3) Getting a new recovery was an nightmare itself but eventually I got it working and made an backup so I could roll back if needed to.
4) Now, 24 hours of using CM12 I can only say one sentence: "What kind of crap is this?!" It's so unstable it's almost ridiculous. Bluetooth hangs up all the time thus requiring a reboot which leads to most-annoying-thing-ever-#2. The clock resets itself upon EVERY boot which makes WhatsApp go bananas. Doesn't matter if I previously set the time/date manually or let the phone do it automatically. Then there are the random hang ups that occur all the time and one third thing. Hardware acceleration in BS Player doesn't work AT ALL!
5) Said and done I reversed to the back up but oh man the phone wasn't happy about this (yes I made a wipe before recovering the backup). Nearly every basic service malfunctioned and were forcibly shut down. A factory reset made no difference...
6) For some reason I opened KIES and found out that an update with android lollipop was available so I (in a moment of despair) installed that hoping for salvation.
7) The phone boots properly and everything seems to be going wonderful until I realize that my network connection is high on something. Loses connectivity to my provider all the time thus the phone is totally useless.
8) I HAD to have a working phone for work and since no support is given on Sundays from Samsung I again installed CM12 just for the day.
Now to the good part!
9) When trying to recover the backup once again it's gone corrupt! Can't recover so now I'm stuck with buggy-as-h*ll-cyanogemmod12 with no means of reverting.
What-the-actual-****-do-I-do? Been trying to make some sense from the thread "Galaxy S 5 Original Android Development" but I feel so lost. So if someone could point me in the right direction I would be very grateful!
EDIT: What I want is to reverse back to original stock ROM. Screw the bloatware. I just need the phone stable and working!
EDIT2: After some more googeling I've figured out I need a stock ROM with the right CSC. I use a swedish carrier other than 'tre'. Shall I look for ROMs with CSC 'HTS' anyway? Can't find any info about other carriers in sweden.
EDIT3: Now I've found what I think is right on sammobile.com/firmwares/database/ (search query: 'g900f', first hit 'Sweden' CSC 'VDS'). Worried thou as it's Android Lollipop which made my phone go nuts. Can't find the KitKat version on that site...
EDIT4: Found the KitKat version on samsung-updates.com. The download speed is sooooooo slow (~6 hours)! Download limits should be illegal...
Thanks! //R

[Q] sgh 1337 UN stuck on Samsung splash screen (safe strap broken)

So, I have gotten myself in a bit of a pickle I however think I can get out of it by sideloading using EXT. SD, Im not sure what to flash to solve the dillemma however. So this is the situation. I have a (had) a rooted Galaxy s4 (sgh-i337 ucufnc1) with 4.4.2 android. It had safestrap installed and back ups of everything else in sd card and other locations just in case. The phone was acting buggy, so I formatted the phone with safestrap, the problem persisted, ill get into the issue a bit further down. So I booted back into safestrap, and did a complete wipe, however my sd card must've bumped out, because it didnt delete any media files or so it said, and then after the wipe it crashed. and refuses to boot into safestrap or even past the splash logo. I can get into download mode, but usb debugging isnt on anymore since i wiped it, I can get into the other mode as well ( cant for the life of me remember the name of it atm although i use it frequently) with some luck. I also happen to have all .md5 files from a backup i did about 4 months ago in tact, I cannot for the life of me get them to convert properly to apply them to the phone without safestrap however, if anyone has any insight to this please let me know also.
I can/will list any other information I have if anyone needs it, and if anyone can help it would safe a life!
The reason i reformatted it to begin with, was because media would stall, and when i plugged in the audio jack it'd freeze the entire app using it, then the whole phone would freeze. I believe it was due to lucky patcher but im unsure. The issue began when I altered the auto update file, and even after i rectified it, it persisted. At this time i have a phone soft bricked because it didnt delete all the media files and I assume something bugged onto the kernel image but Im not sure. If I can simply try to restore it to stock kernel then im fine with that.

Ghujii said:
So, I have gotten myself in a bit of a pickle I however think I can get out of it by sideloading using EXT. SD, Im not sure what to flash to solve the dillemma however. So this is the situation. I have a (had) a rooted Galaxy s4 (sgh-i337 ucufnc1) with 4.4.2 android. It had safestrap installed and back ups of everything else in sd card and other locations just in case. The phone was acting buggy, so I formatted the phone with safestrap, the problem persisted, ill get into the issue a bit further down. So I booted back into safestrap, and did a complete wipe, however my sd card must've bumped out, because it didnt delete any media files or so it said, and then after the wipe it crashed. and refuses to boot into safestrap or even past the splash logo. I can get into download mode, but usb debugging isnt on anymore since i wiped it, I can get into the other mode as well ( cant for the life of me remember the name of it atm although i use it frequently) with some luck. I also happen to have all .md5 files from a backup i did about 4 months ago in tact, I cannot for the life of me get them to convert properly to apply them to the phone without safestrap however, if anyone has any insight to this please let me know also.
I can/will list any other information I have if anyone needs it, and if anyone can help it would safe a life!
The reason i reformatted it to begin with, was because media would stall, and when i plugged in the audio jack it'd freeze the entire app using it, then the whole phone would freeze. I believe it was due to lucky patcher but im unsure. The issue began when I altered the auto update file, and even after i rectified it, it persisted. At this time i have a phone soft bricked because it didnt delete all the media files and I assume something bugged onto the kernel image but Im not sure. If I can simply try to restore it to stock kernel then im fine with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UPDATE: I resolved the issue, by rooting, safestrapping, ripping the image files, from another galaxy s4 with alike descriptions. then i managed to side load it, then it booted properly, i then reformatted it completely back to 100% factory everything. Now my original problem persists, and i cant help feel that google services is causing it. (examnples of issues" proccess.gapps has stopped. anotrher process error code. phone calls can be made, but not recieved as it seems the server is too busy to n otice it, massive battery drain, audio takes several seconds to play, while video continues to play fine, audiojack is mostly unresponsive, phone calls that are made cannot recieve or send audio during call session, phone may freeze at unlock screen, or any time during operation, may even reboot from process overloading" now keep in mind. i removed every system file and app that the natural reformat will allow. so nothing applied by the user is on the phone, other than natural factory applications. Im digging a bit into the phone as i can but its a slow process whenit starts freezing. if anyone has any idea of what can be causing this, or how to fix this please inform me lol.

Ghujii said:
UPDATE: I resolved the issue, by rooting, safestrapping, ripping the image files, from another galaxy s4 with alike descriptions. then i managed to side load it, then it booted properly, i then reformatted it completely back to 100% factory everything. Now my original problem persists, and i cant help feel that google services is causing it. (examnples of issues" proccess.gapps has stopped. anotrher process error code. phone calls can be made, but not recieved as it seems the server is too busy to n otice it, massive battery drain, audio takes several seconds to play, while video continues to play fine, audiojack is mostly unresponsive, phone calls that are made cannot recieve or send audio during call session, phone may freeze at unlock screen, or any time during operation, may even reboot from process overloading" now keep in mind. i removed every system file and app that the natural reformat will allow. so nothing applied by the user is on the phone, other than natural factory applications. Im digging a bit into the phone as i can but its a slow process whenit starts freezing. if anyone has any idea of what can be causing this, or how to fix this please inform me lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best solution must be installing the stock firmware via odin. Since you are on NC1 , You can installed the stock NB1.
Here is guide explaining you using odin, installing NB1, root with towel root, updated NC1, install the safestrap. The guide was not specifically written for that but you can find those steps in the guide.

I will attempt to do this, since nothing since has work. I am about to get a new logic board for the system in the next 2 weeks. Towel root DOES typically work on this system, however the last time I attmpted it it failed to work outright. Im not sure what has changed with the device, but i believe reflashing stock is the best method. The phone now, will boot up, then skip the lock screen and go straight to the home screen, which is black with no pull down bar, or with no signal and there is no way to rectify it. Even if there were, it boots back down and launches back up and becomes locked at the ATT logo.
After a fair bit of messing with it, and recovery mode it will sometimes boot normally where it tells me that processes has failed and askes me to cancel the ''app''. This is the best option to update the phone and attempt root, but getting it here is so difficult because it reboots itself and the mode is rare to acquire. This problem either is due to the kernel, or the rom i believe. I also am to believe the powercell may have some issue, as i replaced the battery a few weeks back and it worked fine for about 1 week.
Booting into safemode doesnt work either as it skips over the lock screen straight to the home screen. Outsidce of replacing the logic board, or attempting another flash im at the end of the short rope i was already on in terms of options.

sway8966 said:
The best solution must be installing the stock firmware via odin. Since you are on NC1 , You can installed the stock NB1.
Here is guide explaining you using odin, installing NB1, root with towel root, updated NC1, install the safestrap. The guide was not specifically written for that but you can find those steps in the guide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UPDATE: I found therein two methods to flashback to stock. I did so, then proceeded to attempt to flash from nb1 to nj4. Progress stopped there when it flung an error 7 at me. So this means either something in my phone is corrupted or the file i downloaded from the above mentioned forum is corrupted. I also attempted flashfire, but seen as it STILL crashes at random due to process errors thats almost impossible to attempt.

Soft brick or hard brick?? /cache mount issues on N7 (2012 grouper, 32gb)

Hey all,
First post here on XDA and I'm hoping someone with more experience than me will be able to give me a hand! Until last week or so, I was running an up-to-date version of Lollipop (5.1.1), when my tablet started randomly freezing up on me, requiring "soft resets" to get it going again, or simply shutting off on me. Thinking it was software related, I tried wiping the cache with no success, so ended up doing a full factory reset. The issues *seemed* to clear up for a day or so, but came back, and so figuring it was Lollipop related, I wiped out the OS and installed CM12.1 (which was my first experience working with ADB and fastboot, and first time installing a non-stock ROM) with a TWRP recovery. A few days later, the freezing and shutting down issues began popping up again, with the shutdowns *usually* happening during sleep, but the freezing happening at anytime from initial "Google" logo to boot animation, to the middle of running an app. I had made a backup on TWRP when I got CM12.1 configured the way I wanted it, so I performed a soft reset when it froze on me, and booted into the bootloader. The tab kept freezing in the TWRP window before I could select a restore, so out of desperation I tried just doing a factory reset from within TWRP. Long story short, something must have happened during that reset, because it kept hanging on the boot screen. I thought I may have unknowingly messed something up, so I tried downloading and flashing a stock KitKat (4.4) ROM from Google's site, but kept encountering bootloader errors during the flashing and ended up only being able to boot to the bootloader screen (apparently got a faulty 4.3 bootloader in that ROM, which gave me a headache until I was able to get straightened out). I have been able to get a stock bootloader (4.23) up and running now, along with a stock recovery (going with Lollipop now, so stock for LMY47V) going, but that's it. I've tried flashing the stock lollipop image via shell script (I'm running a Fedora 23 machine), via individual commands, and via "fastboot update -w factory_image.zip" without success. ADB sideload still works via recovery, but I wasn't able to sideload the OTA packages for 5.1 either. The common errors that pop up seem to indicate an error (corruption? fragmentation?) on the cache partition, but I'm not a dev when it comes to Android, so I'm at a loss here... I keep getting "E: failed to mount /cache (Invalid argument)", and other errors associated with accessing/opening files further down the /cache tree. Would this error be more likely to be a hardware issue, or would it be a software/firmware issue? I've had similar errors before with USB drives, when they would start to bad and partitions begin failing, but have always been able to rebuild them and get my data back. If something like this is happening on my N7 and the cache partition has indeed become somehow corrupted and failed (but not physically....), is it possible at all to rebuild partitions on Android in a similar manner? I've scoured the web, but haven't been able to find anything that can help me out with something like that, so I figured my best bet before condemning the N7 to the junk drawer was to see if any of the pros around here had any words of wisdom that *might* get me back up and running. Thoughts and advice much appreciated!!
Thanks!
(Oh, I apologize for the lengthy post, but I wanted to be sure to provide enough background info..... Sorry for the lengthy read!!)

Honestly that sounds more like a hardware problem than a software problem.
During the early stages of booting, everything that happens is extremely deterministic - meaning that it should be completely repeatable in terms of the order & timing in which activities occur.
So, for it to behave erratically during early boot suggests that it is not software, but marginal hardware. If hardware is barely meeting logic levels or timing requirements, a small amount of random noise (which is always present) can cause a fault to occur at any time - and that sounds approximately like what you are observing.
Further, you replaced your ROM entirely and the problem persists - again suggesting that the problem is hardware, not software.
The most cost effective way of dealing with repair of a $200 tablet is - unfortunately - disposing of it and buying a replacement.
Sorry.

Thanks for the reply!! Shoot, that's what I was leaning towards too. What is the life expectancy of these tablets? I mean, I got 3 good years of use out of it, so I'm not going to complain, but it seems like they should have lasted longer... Would it be worthwhile to maybe grab a cracked screen N7 off eBay for parts and try to get my tab working with those parts maybe? I'm hoping the rumors are true about Google coming out with a new tab this fall, but I'd love to get mine working before then lol...