Database Users

[Q] Boot stuck at colorful X

I was trying to install the Cyanogenmod M2 release on my Nexus 4 phone but I seem to have gotten stuck. The LG Nexus 4 phone is a very finicky phone when it comes to installing custom ROM's. My computer has 64-bit Windows 8 Professional installed. Here's what happened:
1. At a command prompt typed "adb reboot bootloader".
2. Once at the bootloader menu typed "fastboot oem unlock". Got the warning screen, selected Yes.
3. At the command prompt typed "fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-touch-6.0.2.3-mako.img".
4. Immediately after the flash completed successfully selected Recovery from the bootloader menu. Got the Clockworkmod Recovery menu.
5. Selected the option to reboot in the Clockworkmod Recovery menu. Realized I made a stupid mistake and forgot to copy the Cyanogenmod ZIP file to my phone's internal storage space. My phone is now stuck at Google's colorful animated X for 10 minutes and counting.
What is causing this? Following these steps in this exact order did not cause this problem on the Sprint Nexus S I had before switching to AT&T.

You can push files (like CM10 rom and Gapps) with adb from the pc to the phone`s sdcard, look here for how to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1667929. Then flash in recovery. Good luck.

Thank, but I have to ask though. Is the command "fastboot oem unlock" wiping the ROM itself from the phone? The act of flashing a custom recovery immediately after this command shouldn't prevent the stock Android ROM that was already on the phone from booting.

techguy378 said:
Thank, but I have to ask though. Is the command "fastboot oem unlock" wiping the ROM itself from the phone? The act of flashing a custom recovery immediately after this command shouldn't prevent the stock Android ROM that was already on the phone from booting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it should have wiped the phone. Sometimes you'll have to clear cache manually in recovery as well.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

techguy378 said:
Thank, but I have to ask though. Is the command "fastboot oem unlock" wiping the ROM itself from the phone? The act of flashing a custom recovery immediately after this command shouldn't prevent the stock Android ROM that was already on the phone from booting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
boot into recovery and clear your caches

ScumDroid said:
boot into recovery and clear your caches
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This right here. Boot into fast boot flash a recovery and clear caches. It had mainly work for me by clearing /data which is found under mount / something something.
Did this last night when I loaded stock images.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Factory image restore fail : stuck at writing system

Hello everyone!
I tried to restore the stock image using Nexus 4 Tool Kit (both the original one and the Wug's one), and everytime I tried, the script stucked at "writing system".
I manually flashed system and userdata images with Wug's tool kit and everything went well but I only have 5Gb memory instead of 16.
Does anyone know why?

Try this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2033692
[HOW-TO] Fix internal storage if 16GB now shows 8GB
Sent from my Nexus 4

OP...
In future, don't use a toolkit. Do it yourself

I'm having a similar problem to the OP - I'm trying to do a factory restore, and am unable to flash the "system" image. I can't boot, recovery mode won't work anymore (I get a red warning sign instead)...
I think all of this has to do with me being naieve and following a youtube video instead of the CM wiki to install CM 10.1.
How can I unbrick my phone?

4OnTheFloor said:
I'm having a similar problem to the OP - I'm trying to do a factory restore, and am unable to flash the "system" image. I can't boot, recovery mode won't work anymore (I get a red warning sign instead)...
I think all of this has to do with me being naieve and following a youtube video instead of the CM wiki to install CM 10.1.
How can I unbrick my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When going into recovery the warning sign is the splash screen for stock recovery. This likely means that you have not yet flashed a custom recovery yet, which is necessary to flash CM. First read this guide to unlock the bootloader (if you havent already), then flash a custom recovery (preferably TWRP). After you have installed the recovery, download CM as well as the latest gapps package and place them somewhere on your internal sd. Boot into recovery and go to the wipe menu, then swipe to factory reset. Finally flash the rom and gapps, and then reboot.

4OnTheFloor said:
I'm having a similar problem to the OP - I'm trying to do a factory restore, and am unable to flash the "system" image. I can't boot, recovery mode won't work anymore (I get a red warning sign instead)...
I think all of this has to do with me being naieve and following a youtube video instead of the CM wiki to install CM 10.1.
How can I unbrick my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you are doing a factory restore and DONT need to flash everything individually than don't. yes its good to know how to do it manually but if your flashing everything back just use the script that google provides.
reboot to bootloader/fastboot and run the flash-all.bat file and its all done for you. no toolkits no playing with commands that you dont know properly etc.
if you dont know how to do it right pick the least complicated option.

noobdeagle said:
if you are doing a factory restore and DONT need to flash everything individually than don't. yes its good to know how to do it manually but if your flashing everything back just use the script that google provides.
reboot to bootloader/fastboot and run the flash-all.bat file and its all done for you. no toolkits no playing with commands that you dont know properly etc.
if you dont know how to do it right pick the least complicated option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using the .bat file... I've also tried the toolkit, and both appear to use the same basic procedure, and they stop at "writing system" no matter what.
Does anyone happen to know how the .bat file and toolkit get access to the phone? ...because I can't see it in adb (I'm guessing it's because I can't boot the phone.) However I can get into fastboot and recovery modes on the device.
I cannot get the device (nexus 4) to boot or connect in ADB mode to my computer. What can I do??
UPDATE - PROBLEM FIXED
I un-bricked my phone
SOLUTION this is what worked for me, your mileage may vary
Install ADB drivers, etc. from Android SDK (google how to do this)
Flash custom recovery (can be done easily with Nexus 4 Toolkit here on XDA) - I used TWRP Touch Recovery.
Once that is done, shut the phone off completely and boot into Fastboot (hold volume down and power)
Use volume keys to select Recovery Mode, then hit Power
In recovery mode:
Wipe > Advanced Wipe > Check off the box beside "System" > Swipe to Wipe
Go back to recovery mode main screen:
Wipe > Format Data > Follow the instructions on the screen
I think this step is what did it. When having problems with partitions, just format everything and start over
Now we should be able to write to the System partition, meaning you can flash a ROM and get your phone to boot again.
Follow the rest of these instructions to quickly flash the stock Android image from Google onto your phone.
Go back to recovery mode main screen, once again:
Reboot > Bootloader > Follow any additional instructions it gives you
Download Google Nexus 4 factory stock image "occam" (Google it)
When that is downloaded, open it with 7zip. Inside there are some files, one of which is called image-occam-jdq39.zip. Inside are some images - unzip those as well. You'll need the system.img file in a bit...
Using Wug's Nexus Root Toolkit (Google it - install it on your Windows PC):
Open the program
Launch advanced utilities
Hit the System button to permanently flash to System partition. Hit "ok" on the window that pops up.
Find the system.img file I mentioned back on step 10 and select that, when prompted, and open it.
If all went well, your device will now boot into the stock Android ROM.

noobdeagle said:
if you are doing a factory restore and DONT need to flash everything individually than don't. yes its good to know how to do it manually but if your flashing everything back just use the script that google provides.
reboot to bootloader/fastboot and run the flash-all.bat file and its all done for you. no toolkits no playing with commands that you dont know properly etc.
if you dont know how to do it right pick the least complicated option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too am stuck at writing system. I"m not sure what you mean when you said "run flash-all.bat". Where do I get that?
Thanks.

Soundchasr said:
I too am stuck at writing system. I"m not sure what you mean when you said "run flash-all.bat". Where do I get that?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The system takes awhile to write, how long have you guys wait before you say its "stuck"?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

About 20-25 minutes.

Yea, that's way too long.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Stuck, but working
I was flashing the 4.3 image using the included flash-all.bat (but I edited it to remove -w parameter so that it wouldn't wipe my data).
In the 'writing system' step, the command window got stuck. In the phone screen, at the bottom, it said 'writing' for a while and then that also went away. I waited for ~40 min, and still the command window was at 'writing system', so I closed the command window, and booted my phone by selecting start from the bootloader.
And voila! It worked. Booted in under a minute, the flash was a success, I got JB 4.3 without losing any of my data.
Lost my root and custom recovery though. But I knew that would happen. Gonna try SuperSu for 4.3 now, after flashing TWRP.

Had the same problem, tried everything! With my tiny powers, but it kept stucking at "writing system" . I thought that I bricked the device, so for the last hope, I installed WugFresh's Nexus Toolkit and did a Fast Stock + unroot. It Installed everything flawlessly! I'm gonna donate to that guy! He's a godsend savior.

[Q] Recovering pictures from unrooted, locked, boot looping Nexus 4

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.

[Q] Stuck in boot loop - Save Photos?

Hi,
my Nexus 4 is stuck in a boot loop since 2 days. I found it turned off and assumed it crashed (has done that once or twice before), but after turning it on it's gets stuck on the boot up screen. I've tried restarting it numerous times, left it on the boot screen for hours - nothing.
I can access the recovery mode and according to most things I've found while searching the internet for a solution a "wipe data/factory reset" would hopefully do the trick, but the thing is... I haven't backed up my device in ages. (Stupid, I know.) I'm travelling and took a lot of pictures that I would hate to loose.
Is there any way to save them? I don't care for app data or anything else.
I wouldn't mind rooting it (was thinking about doing that anyway), but I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to Android, haven't done more with it than simply using it.
I have read up quite a bit about rooting in the last two days (here on the forum and everywhere else) but I'm still not sure how exactly to do it, since all methods seem to require unlocking the bootloader and therefore deleting my photos (or just don't give much in the way of explanation).
I'm using a mac, but if necessary I also have Windows installed. I have installed Adb and fastboot following this guide.
The phone is not rooted, I don't have developer options or USB debugging enabled and it's running on 4.4.4.
I would be really grateful for help.

If you can boot into the bootloader you can install a custom recovery, I'd recommend twrp. Then booting into the custom recovery you could use adb to pull files off your device . But your bootloader needs to be unlocked. If it isn't I'm afraid you won't be able to get your photos
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I957 using XDA Free mobile app

bootloop issue
A.
Try to go into safe mode and backup your data.
Boot into Safe Mode:
1. Press/Hold Power button until power menu shows up
2. Tap/Hold Power off option
3. Choose OK to reboot in safe mode
B.
For bootloop problem:
Boot into Stock Recovery
1. Power+VolUp while booting to enter recovery
2. You can release buttons after you see Google on screen
(Note: Must be this sequence Press/Hold Power, THEN Press/Release VolUp, release Power)
3. Android fallen down screen - VolUp to toggle recovery menu
Now wipe Cache & Dalvik Cache in recovery and reboot the phone.
C.
If the (Option B) does not solved then try to flash the stock rom with the below given mentioned steps.
First download any stock rom and also the related usb drivers. Install the drivers into the PC.
Boot into the bootloader.
Open (fastboot.exe) Cmd prompt as admin. Put the stock rom into that particular folder.
fastboot flash bootloader filename.img
reboot the phone and return back to the bootloader.
Then, we will flash all other partitions.
fastboot flash radio filename.img
Again reboot the phone and go back into the bootloader
fastboot flash boot filename.
fastboot flash recovery filename.img
fastboot flash userdata filename.img
fastboot flash system filename.img
If you want to relock the bootloader of your device after flashing the device, put the device back in fastboot mode. Then type in the following command in the Terminal or Command Window you had opened earlier -:
fastboot oem lock
This will re-lock the bootloader of your Nexus device, restoring your warranty and putting the device back to complete stock.
I hope this helps you out.

Thank you, but is there a way to boot into safe mode if the phone isn't turned on? I can not get to the power menu since I can't turn the phone on...
I can only access the recovery menu.

Data backup
Alternate method you can do is that you have to download a software by name 'DROID EXPLORER' - (try to google it) you will find this software from the internet. Then install the software on your PC or Laptop. Once you open the software it will take some time to download the sdk files from the internet then install the windows sdk files also.
Later you go into the recovery mode with the usb cable connected to your PC. Then open the Droid Explorer software you will see your phone connected picture. Now double click and open it go to sdcard and copy all your pictures and other files to your system.
Finally, Once you backed up all your files now you can reflash with the proper rom from the recovery mode. From directly inserting the rom.zip file into the sdcard and run the custom rom after you wipe the partitions properly in recovery.
Note: Before wiping the partitions always unmount the system, data, cache and then wipe it.

[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