Database Users

[Q] Did I f* up my Play?

Hey guys. I hate making my first post a really noobie question but here it goes.
I just updated my rooted Xperia Play to 2.3.3 and it erased and/or re-wrote all of my system apps. I stupidly converted some of my downloaded apps into system apps using Titanium (because system apps turn red on the list. It helped me quickly figure out what was external and what was internal. Stupid, yes, and more trouble then it was actually worth.) so those apps were lost. Didn't matter, I had backups but I lost my root so I couldn't access them.
Forgetting what I used to root my phone originally I decided to use z4root after reading about it somewhere. The site I got it from is usually trust worthy but when I downloaded the file my OfficeScan (its a school bought computer) warned me of a potential virus threat. I wrote it off as just the pop-up ad and un-zipped and transferred the file to my phone. I still am not sure if it was a virus or not... Running z4root it got up to "acquiring shell root..." or something like that before kicking me back to the home screen with no change. I, again, stupidly, re-ran it several times without rebooting between each attempt. Giving up I then realized to reboot. Strangely rebooting was A LOT faster then it was usually is and I don't know if that was z4 or 2.3.3.
Anyway I remembered that I used Gingerbreak last time and re-installed that. I made several attempts with that with no change either. Too many to count, but at least more than 8. Several attempts I got a call or a text and, checking them, ended the process. 2 attempts I left running for about half an hour (I know that the instructions say it will never take more then 10 minutes) and some I ended with a battery pull after more then 10mins(as per instruction).
So I guess I have several questions:
1. How bad did I f* up, If I did so?
2. Any suggestions on how to re-root/fix it?
3. Will switching to an empty SD card, successfully rooting it, and switching back to the full card still keep the root?
4. Does an in phone factory reset work the same as flashing the same rom or will I need to actually flash that new rom?
5. If I do need to flash, where can I find a regular Play rom? Or do you have suggestions about a better rom?
6. Is the fast reboot the work of the half done, possibly a virus, z4root process or just the 2.3.3 update?
7.Lastly Was this tl and you ;dr?
Normally, I wouldn't care if there was no fix; My phone boots much faster, I didn't lose all my apps and only some apps launch a little slower then before. But I made tons of progress on Zenonia 2 and I want my back ups for that... lol.
Any help appreciated. Also thanks for putting up with a noob that's writing way to formally

1. Messing with the system apps, and not backing them up probably caused you to not have an OTA update. I'm guessing you flashed it? Not restoring anything and not doing an OTA was mistake number one. Trying to use z4root was mistake number 2.
2. Get the generic UK firmware from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1097591
-Flash that with Bin4ry and Androxhyde's flashtool
-Put in your carrier's APN settings, configure your google account, wifi etc. etc.
-Get Gingerbreak 1.2, run it(I used Astro to open the apk, and you need uunknown sources enabled).
Gingerbreak only worked for me when I formatted an SD card right before running it. I used a spare that was lying around, not the usual one with all my data, and I suggest you do the same if you kept your titanium backups. Hopefully you'll get rooted after about 3-5 minutes. Do not mess with any apps/bloatware after you have the root.
-After you have root, go into the settings menu and start an OTA update.
You should now have 2.3.3 WITH root.
-Once the phone is updated, install Titanium Backup and start backing up your old apps from before you messed up the phone and lost root.
-At this point feel free to remove the bloatware, but make sure you back it up in titanium for later.
3. Switching SD cards won't affect root at all.
4. A factory reset will reset whatever ROM was installed last. In other words, you can't revert back to 2.3.2 with a reset, it'll just reset 2.3.3 - It's really just for wiping data and settings.
5.The regular play ROM is the UK generic I posted above. The only "better" roms are customs that you need an unlocked bootloader to install. Currently they're still buggy and in development and not worth getting unless you like incomplete ROMs with bugs, and wanna lose the ability to update normally. Both OTA updates and the Sony Ericsson Update Service will brick your phone once the bootloader's unlocked.
6. My phone was booting a bit faster after updating to 2.3.3, and became even faster after removing some bloatware.
-Root doesn't speed up the boot process.
-I highly doubt an Android phone would have a virus that makes it boot faster, it's probably just from the update.
7. No, it wasn't. No, I didn't.

Thanks for the (semi-)quick response. Been browsing around the web with this tab open, constantly refreshing like a creep. I'll try your advice soon but its like 3am, just wanted to say thanks and love your Stocking pic.
Btw is there a difference between A US, UK or CAN rom or do those even exist?

The only real differences are carrier specific apps, and some versions have different games installed.
Sent from my R800

Seems like I was to late to flash and the link to the rom you gave me may have been updated to 2.3.3 as well. I was looking for a Canada/Rodgers rom anyway but the forum search isn't turning up anything and google seems to hate me...
Help anyone?

The link was for 2.3.2 in the generic.
The only rogers rom available is for 2.3.3 so you won't be getting root without an unlocked bootloader with that one.
Just follow the directions and it should be fine.
The rogers apps are available in the android market separately.
Sent from my R800

[Q] what 4.2.2 to get OTA updates? and some questions

so i was gonna go with a custom 4.4.2 rom but decided otherwise
so since my phone didnt get the 4.2.2 update yet n900xxucmk2 i thought getting one for another country russia decided
will i get ota updates even if i dont live in russia?
2-is there a way to root the phone 4.4.2 AND still get ota updates?
3-anyone found a way to remove mymagazine from 4.4.2 without causing the touchwiz to crash?
4-im backing up all my important apps using titanium backup, after i flash the phone with 4.4.2 will i loose all the apps? and if i loosed them will i loose the back up since titanum will be removed?
thanks

lhikari said:
so i was gonna go with a custom 4.4.2 rom but decided otherwise
so since my phone didnt get the 4.2.2 update yet n900xxucmk2 i thought getting one for another country russia decided
will i get ota updates even if i dont live in russia?
2-is there a way to root the phone 4.4.2 AND still get ota updates?
3-anyone found a way to remove mymagazine from 4.4.2 without causing the touchwiz to crash?
4-im backing up all my important apps using titanium backup, after i flash the phone with 4.4.2 will i loose all the apps? and if i loosed them will i loose the back up since titanum will be removed?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 yes
2 yes, but some users reported error occurs in the installation process.so just use sammobile and odin.
3 i don't know.
4 no you won't lose any apps if you flash it dirty(but you will lose your root) , but if you want to make a clean flash(recommend) just move your titanium backup folder from internal sd to external sd, then after you flashed the new rom move it back to internal sd then root your phone and restore your apps.
I just did the same when I updated to kitkat and everything works well.

Downgrade to 4.3 from 4.4.2 (or Root)

Hey guys,
So I recently updated to KitKat 4.4.2 from 4.3 whatever, and it's been really nice. However, my battery length plummeted, and w/o root, I do not know what to do. So, I'm asking to see if anyone knows how to either root the XT926 or downgrade to 4.3?
Thanks

Neither are possible.

Even with an unlocked bootloader, you would you never get to 4.3 because 4.3 was never released for this phone.
As for battery, when you updated to Kit Kat, did you do so with all your apps installed, etc and not do a Factory Data Reset?
I would really encourage users to do the following before taking the OTA:
Backup whatever data you can to your PC or external SD card (pictures, etc). If you are rooted (and have an unlocked bootloader), then use a tool such as Titanium Backup to backup your apps and their settings. If you're not rooted and/or have a locked bootloader, then you won't be able to retain your app settings with TiBu. Sorry. That's the glory of having root I guess.
Do a factory data reset BEFORE taking the upgrade. This will wipe out your user data completely, including application data.
Apply the OTA and profit.
I have found my battery life is just as good, if not better, than under JB. People who are having issues with Wifi, Blue Tooth, battery life, usually have not done a FDR on their phones, so you have old cache sitting around, etc, that bogs down the phone as well as causes a host of issues.
The same holds true when upgrading Windows on your PC (for those that use Windows). I always backup user profiles and then I go and do a complete fresh install. There is so much gunk that gets left behind that it's just best to wipe the slate clean and start anew. The same goes for upgrading the OS on your mobile phones, especially when going from JB to KK.
KK is much better than JB, especially on this phone. No way I go back to JB. No way, no how. :good:

iBolski said:
Backup whatever data you can to your PC or external SD card (pictures, etc). If you are rooted (and have an unlocked bootloader), then use a tool such as Titanium Backup to backup your apps and their settings. If you're not rooted and/or have a locked bootloader, then you won't be able to retain your app settings with TiBu. Sorry. That's the glory of having root I guess.
Do a factory data reset BEFORE taking the upgrade. This will wipe out your user data completely, including application data.
Apply the OTA and profit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be clear, you can restore apps with TiBu without root? Because root = bye bye after OTA, I've only used TiBu with root..Thx
Edit, reading on Motopocalypse now, very helpful thread pages 3 4 5

No soup for you without root

iBolski said:
Even with an unlocked bootloader, you would you never get to 4.3 because 4.3 was never released for this phone.
As for battery, when you updated to Kit Kat, did you do so with all your apps installed, etc and not do a Factory Data Reset?
I would really encourage users to do the following before taking the OTA:
Backup whatever data you can to your PC or external SD card (pictures, etc). If you are rooted (and have an unlocked bootloader), then use a tool such as Titanium Backup to backup your apps and their settings. If you're not rooted and/or have a locked bootloader, then you won't be able to retain your app settings with TiBu. Sorry. That's the glory of having root I guess.
Do a factory data reset BEFORE taking the upgrade. This will wipe out your user data completely, including application data.
Apply the OTA and profit.
I have found my battery life is just as good, if not better, than under JB. People who are having issues with Wifi, Blue Tooth, battery life, usually have not done a FDR on their phones, so you have old cache sitting around, etc, that bogs down the phone as well as causes a host of issues.
The same holds true when upgrading Windows on your PC (for those that use Windows). I always backup user profiles and then I go and do a complete fresh install. There is so much gunk that gets left behind that it's just best to wipe the slate clean and start anew. The same goes for upgrading the OS on your mobile phones, especially when going from JB to KK.
KK is much better than JB, especially on this phone. No way I go back to JB. No way, no how. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a factory reset after I upgraded, doesn't that do the same thing?

[Q] Back up an app's data still useable if I revert from Lollipop to KitKat?

Tl;dr version: The big question in my mind is: If I backup and app and its data from Lollipop, when I restore it to KitKat will it work fine?
The full story:
My wife's Nexus 7 got the Lollipop OTA a little while back and has been having a terrible time with the lag, etc. We've done all the suggested fixes short of doing a factory reset, which I want to try but have a problem to overcome....
My wife has a game which she has played for many many months which doesn't sync game progress to the cloud anywhere... Her sisters are quite competitive and constantly compare their each other's progress in this game.
She is having a miserable time with the Lollipop update, but wants this game data SO BAD that she is willing to suffer through the lag to keep it... but its driving me nuts...
I have a plan to move forward, but want to see if I can get some confirmation that my plan *should* work. I unlocked the bootloader on it in the past. it has since lost root, but I should be able to get it rooted again without hassle and without wiping data (correct?).
Plan A - Factory Reset Lollipop:
I should then be able to use either Titanium Backup or maybe Helium to back up that app's data. In fact, I may skip rooting and just use Helium with the desktop companion app. Then pull those backups to the cloud or onto the pc. Then do a factory reset on the device. Push back over the app's data backup then restore it. Does that plan seem correct? I've done similar in the past so I don't think I'll run into issues.
Plan B - Revert back to KitKat:
This is my secondary plan, and the one I have the most questions about...
After doing the above, if the tablet is still laggy, I'd like to revert it back to a factory image for KitKat since she was fine with that version until they release some bug fixes, etc. for lollipop. If I backup and app and its data from Lollipop, when I restore it to KitKat will it work fine? My concern is the difference between ART and Dalvik, etc. etc. I've seen a few places that talk about using backups when moving 'forward', but can't find a good answer on moving 'backward'.
Thanks,
Zeustopher

[Q] Got Lollipop, don't got WiFi

I installed Lollipop 5.0 with Odin and had no problems with the process. However, WiFi no longer starts up. That is, I can't turn WiFi on from Settings or anywhere else. What's really strange, though, is I can create a FoxFi hotspot and it works as expected, supporting a Nexus 7 WiFi-only tablet.
How do I revive WiFi support?

Did you factory reset after updating to LP ?
Always a good idea

I'd really rather not. The recovery process from an FDR is never fun.
What puzzles me is that FoxFi works. Thinking it might be a backdoor, I started FoxFi then tried to start WiFi. I got the expected "you can't have FoxFi and WiFi" message. I said OK, FoxFi shut down and... no WiFi. V. Weird.

I know it's a PITA to reset, but upgrading from KK to LP leaves rubbish files behind that cause all sorts of weird bugs, I had to reset when I upgraded thanks to battery drain, after the reset, battery drain was cured, and all LP updates since then have not needed a reset, it is purely moving from an older Android version > Newer Android

Sigh... I soooooooo hate doing this. And, yes, I want crackers and cheese with that whine.
Stupid n00b question: Before I blow everything away with the FDR, what's the best way to preserve all of my photos, and other app data? FWIW, before I started this project, I used Titanium to back up everything it knows about, but IIRC it doesn't anything photos, music, etc., etc.
I suppose I can just do a drag and drop of the phone legacy "SD" and stuff it all back in again after the FDR. Or doesn't that fly?

RBEmerson said:
Sigh... I soooooooo hate doing this. And, yes, I want crackers and cheese with that whine.
Stupid n00b question: Before I blow everything away with the FDR, what's the best way to preserve all of my photos, and other app data? FWIW, before I started this project, I used Titanium to back up everything it knows about, but IIRC it doesn't anything photos, music, etc., etc.
I suppose I can just do a drag and drop of the phone legacy "SD" and stuff it all back in again after the FDR. Or doesn't that fly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were rooted, and had a custom recovery, you could use that to backup your DATA partition, and restore it later, but yea, definitely backup your photos and vids to PC before doing anything, apps and stuff can be reinstalled, not great losing photos
Titanium backup is great for apps and data, not sure about photos and other user files that I know of, it's been years since I used it last

This gets worse and worse. In hopes of reviving WiFi and root, I went back to 4.4.4. And soft-bricked the phone.
Reverting to 5.0 undid the soft bricking but now I'm back to no WiFi.
At the moment, since I now have access to the data, photos, etc., I'm moving all of them out of harm's way. From there I guess I'm condemned to doing a FDR, installing 4.4.4, rooting, and trying to retain root as I go into 5.0. Damn VZW for making this so hard. [/Snarl]

Mostly out of desperation, I tried going back to 4.4.2 (NCG, not NE9), where the phone was when I started. Once again the phone is soft-bricked. What is going on here??? I'm using the files from Sammobile (forked over €7.50 to get things done somewhat faster...).
Under 5.0, at least I can read much of what I need to save, but things like wpa_supplicant.conf are closed to me because of I can't root the S5 under 5.0. Or can I?? If so, I'd be home free. D/l all the files I want to preserve, do an FDR, use Ti or Helium (I'm trying both) to restore much of the stuff lost in an FDR, and move forward from there.

Yea you can root lollipop with CF Auto Root, but it will trip KNOX

This project is driving me insane!
KitKat soft-bricks the phone, making any backup impossible, making rooting impossible, all under 4.n.n. 5.0 almost works except for the Settings flavor of WiFI (FoxFi works as expected, trying to revert to "normal" WiFi from FoxFi doesn't work).
Rooting under 5.0 will trip Knox. Maybe I'm being silly about that, but I'd like avoid that. I've had the phone about a year, so maybe I should just build a bridge, etc.
Meanwhile, in trying to set up to FDR, I went to Helium (Carbon as was) Pro to put the backup in Google Drive. Why? Because any internal backup ground to a halt at Titanium (37 of 87 backed up by Helium's accounting). Thinking I was hitting a space issue (not enough room for a full internally stored backup), I moved to Pro to store the backup off the machine (whyinhell doesn't Helium let you use the PC needed to enable Helium in the first place???). And that backup also ground to a halt at Ti. ARGH!!!!

OK, I fixed the Helium issue. For some reason, Helium refuses to backup Titanium. Is this hating because clockmod doesn't like Ti or is this one of life's very weird coincidences? Either way, I have 85 of 87 possible apps covered. The rest I can revive some other way without too much pain.
So I guess an FDR is coming soon...
I spoke too soon. Since I tinkered around a bit with trying to see if Helium keeps multiple date and time stamped backups (it doesn't! what's up with that??) I decided to do another full backup (less Ti, of course). and the backup ground to a halt at item 37 of 85 items. Yes, item 37, whatever it is, is a toxic item. What a crock! Worse, I'm out of the refund period for Pro. Dis sux.

OK, the FDR woke up WiFi and left me in 5.0. Now to try to regress to NCG...

I think this ends the thread. I got 5.0 running with WiFi but no root - FDR did the trick. I used Odin to put in 4.4.2 NCG and seemed to be soft-bricked. I used the bootloader(?) to do an FDR on the 4.4.2 install and that cleared up the soft-brick. 4.4.2 is now rooted with towelroot. If I have things right, I can get from a rooted 4.4.n to 5.0 and keep root without changing 0x0. We'll see if that's true... Meanwhile, for this thread, I'm out.