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Factory image wont boot

I flashed the latest 4.2.2 factory image from google. but it wont boot. stuck at ''X'' boot animation. I can access bootloader. I have tried several times but no luck. it still stucks at boot logo. then i flashed team win recovery and tried to install a custom rom(xenon hd stable 6.0) by pushing rom files by adb. But unfortunately recovery cant factory reset or wipe the cache. it fails. and even it fails to flash the custom rom zip file. Now i have fallen in a completely stupid situation. Please somebody help. Before flashing i was in xylon rom with twrp recovery. Before that i had cwm recovery. But I thought flashing factory image will completely wipe everything. But I cant figure out why it is happening. Please help.

I figured out something ! I have flashed CWM 6.0.23 recovery now. and it says it cant mount anything. I think there is the problem. What can i DO ppl?

Flash the stock recovery and clear cache.

Solved
Solved !!
At first I tried all types of ''mounting sd card'' process in adb. none worked.
Finally
in CWM recovery > Mounts and storage > format /data and /data/media (/sdcard) [ not to be confused with the full ''format /sdcard'' option ]
and it worked. Thanks BTW

[Q] Please help, TWRP will not flash/ wipe/ restore anything

I was running CM10.1, I was switching to Google Rom, wiped data/ factory restore, flashed zip, but forgot to flash Loki.
Went back, tried to flash loki, but it comes out as failed. looking through logs, I get
E:Unable to mount /data
E:Unable to mount Internal Storage.
I tried to do wipe of system, data, cache, and nothing wipes.
When I was rebooting 2nd time, I got a prompt to install Root as I was not rooted, but I did root weeks ago, when I went to CM.
Any help/ advise/ suggestions are welcome.
I would really rather not ODIN to stock, but will if I have to, is there a way to snatch internalSD files before the flash?

Dimon1990 said:
I was running CM10.1, I was switching to Google Rom, wiped data/ factory restore, flashed zip, but forgot to flash Loki.
Went back, tried to flash loki, but it comes out as failed. looking through logs, I get
E:Unable to mount /data
E:Unable to mount Internal Storage.
I tried to do wipe of system, data, cache, and nothing wipes.
When I was rebooting 2nd time, I got a prompt to install Root as I was not rooted, but I did root weeks ago, when I went to CM.
Any help/ advise/ suggestions are welcome.
I would really rather not ODIN to stock, but will if I have to, is there a way to snatch internalSD files before the flash?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can't boot into system, and TWRP will not restore your Nandroid I think ODIN to stock is inevitable. It really doesn't take too long. ODIN stock, re-root, install TWRP/CWM and restore your backup or flash Google Rom and LOKI this time.

blyndfyre said:
If you can't boot into system, and TWRP will not restore your Nandroid I think ODIN to stock is inevitable. It really doesn't take too long. ODIN stock, re-root, install TWRP/CWM and restore your backup or flash Google Rom and LOKI this time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, from what I read, ODIN does not wipe our internalSD, is that correct or am I misreading it?

Encryption that can't be formated

Hi,
I set up TWRP 2.8.7.0 and cm-13.0-20160129 on my Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A (GT-I9506), and run into an odd problem where it would work after install, but would not work after a reboot (booting screen would just roll for ever). Installing CM again, would work, and than the problem would still be there. Mindlessly I decided to play a little anyway and set up encryption. The phone ended up rebooting, and not loading, so I'm here without a password (default_password doesent work) and with an encrypted /data that TWRP cant wipe or format
Unable to mount storage.
Unable to decrypt data
Unable to wipe '/data' -- unknown file system 'auto'
Unable to format to remove encryption
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've attempted to use ADB to format it, but it seems parted isnt installed. With that phone being a less popular variant I'm kind of afraid to just flash whatever there, but I guess I need a recovery with a least parted, or possibly one that would be able to format the drive itself. Any pointers?

Have you tried flashing a stock ROM via Odin? Is this your phone: http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/database/GT-I9506/ ?

not yet; I don't have windows, and didn't see any point in changing the soft used for flashing, will try but cant download the polish rom at the moment o0 (ends up with a dead link or a server down?)

I know of no other way to flash a stock ROM from sammobile.com other than Odin.
Did you create a free account on sammobile.com to enable the regular download?

harce said:
not yet; I don't have windows, and didn't see any point in changing the soft used for flashing, will try but cant download the polish rom at the moment o0 (ends up with a dead link or a server down?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also flash it with Heimdall. It's the open source variant of Odin.

aaaand I'm back, managed to download, got some windows, flashed to stock using odin, and it's still encrypted. is running 'repartition' from odin safe? I've noticed some warnings against it but without any explanations.
edit; running the same operation with repartition failed. this bloody encryption might be able to survive nuclear war.

After flashing back to stock via Odin, did you perform a factory wipe before booting the rom for the first time?
I assume you have a pit file for the phone since you repartitioned?

audit13 said:
After flashing back to stock via Odin, did you perform a factory wipe before booting the rom for the first time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just now, seamed to go thorough properly (no error messages) and worked!
audit13 said:
I assume you have a pit file for the phone since you repartitioned?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
never managed to do that. I wonder what advantage does the wipe from factory ROM have over custom recoveries... anyways thanks to all who helped, the issue is solved. also it seems that the problems with non-rebooting CM were my mistake of not wiping the cache/dalvik after install

I find that a wipe using a custom recovery is not always as through as a stock recovery. Can't say how or why, it's just based on my experience with Samsung and Nexus phones.

harce said:
just now, seamed to go thorough properly (no error messages) and worked!
never managed to do that. I wonder what advantage does the wipe from factory ROM have over custom recoveries... anyways thanks to all who helped, the issue is solved. also it seems that the problems with non-rebooting CM were my mistake of not wiping the cache/dalvik after install
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
audit13 said:
I find that a wipe using a custom recovery is not always as through as a stock recovery. Can't say how or why, it's just based on my experience with Samsung and Nexus phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the difference is that a custom recovery only wipes /data partition so that the internal sdcard will not be wiped. The stock recovery formats /data partition. When you want to lose encryption you need to format /data partition.
You can also format the /data partition with a custom recovery, but that option is hidden for good reason. Because it will also format your internal sdcard and that's not something we want to do when changing roms.

Got stuck at formatting cache in the latest TWRP (I9505 - jfltexx)

Phone is working, I suppose doing his job in the process. The problem is that I am waiting already 20 minutes. I am afraid of getting CPU burnt (it is at 51 grades of Celsius).
I have read about the issue and about also the solution [enabling rm -rf in the twrp settings]... But now I am in the process, so not sure if I should shut the phone down or not..

Did you do a factory reset or advanced wipe?

I used advanced wipe, I got really angry with formatting so I removed the battery ... but now I have a problem: failed to mount system... I installed the twrp through odin... And before that I did not do anything, do I have to unlock bootloader or something like that?

binuralka said:
I used advanced wipe, I got really angry with formatting so I removed the battery ... but now I have a problem: failed to mount system... I installed the twrp through odin... And before that I did not do anything, do I have to unlock bootloader or something like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Your bootloader is already unlocked, otherwise it wouldn't have let you flash TWRP.
Have you tried factory reset? Or mounting system manually?
You can also try to mount system by using TWRP's built-in terminal emulator.

Now I flashed 4.4.2 with and Odin, phone was ok. Then I flashed latest twrp and now the system was mounted. I did a backup and wiped all again with advanced wipe. Then I tried to install ROM but it fell again to a error 7 - system not mounted. How can I mount it manually? what command is that?

binuralka said:
Now I flashed 4.4.2 with and Odin, phone was ok. Then I flashed latest twrp and now the system was mounted. I did a backup and wiped all again with advanced wipe. Then I tried to install ROM but it fell again to a error 7 - system not mounted. How can I mount it manually? what command is that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Error 7 means the ROM is not compatible with your model.

Have you tried different version of twrp?

That was a really terrible testing day... I tried every twrp till version 2.8.6 that worked after odin flashing. I managed to mount system and do all wipes. I flashed ROM and gapps, everything went smoothly... But the thing was that the phone started to shut down by itself. Without a message, simply black screen and restart and bootloop after samsung logo. I decided to load 4.4.2 stock with repartitioning (pit file)... 10 hours ok and then again shutting down by itself.
Have you experienced this kind of behaviour?

Galaxy Tab A 8 (SM-T350) stuck on boot loop after trying to recover stock firmware

Hey folks. I'm hitting a brick wall trying to figure out this issue and I'm hoping someone will know how to fix this.
I have a Galaxy Tab A 8 (SM-T350) that I rooted and successfully flashed with first crDroid, then Lineage (both Android 9.0) using TWRP. I had made a backup before attempting this just in case I wanted to revert to stock.
Well, that didn't go as smoothly as I was hoping. Ever since trying to restore my backup, I've been stuck on a continuous boot loop that I can't seem to fix.
I keep getting "E:failed to mount /efs (Invalid argument)" and "dm-verity verification failed. . ." no matter what I try. I've googled the error and tried every solution suggested but I still can't get it to boot.
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

skorpien said:
Hey folks. I'm hitting a brick wall trying to figure out this issue and I'm hoping someone will know how to fix this.
I have a Galaxy Tab A 8 (SM-T350) that I rooted and successfully flashed with first crDroid, then Lineage (both Android 9.0) using TWRP. I had made a backup before attempting this just in case I wanted to revert to stock.
Well, that didn't go as smoothly as I was hoping. Ever since trying to restore my backup, I've been stuck on a continuous boot loop that I can't seem to fix.
I keep getting "E:failed to mount /efs (Invalid argument)" and "dm-verity verification failed. . ." no matter what I try. I've googled the error and tried every solution suggested but I still can't get it to boot.
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ignore the EFS error its probably a red herring. Your issue is dm-verity.
3 ways around it. Return to complete stock, including wiping the data partition or flash root (magisk suggested) or disable dmverity using one of the zips out there.

ashyx said:
Ignore the EFS error its probably a red herring. Your issue is dm-verity.
3 ways around it. Return to complete stock, including wiping the data partition or flash root (magisk suggested) or disable dmverity using one of the zips out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply ashyx.
I've done two of the three things you suggested. I've tried returning it to stock using an image matching my exact model, and I've tried disabling dmverity. I've also tried rooting it but using a method other than magisk.
The flash seems to go well enough, but then I get stuck at the Samsung logo whenever I try rebooting into the system.
I've tried waiting, thinking I'm just being impatient, but it doesn't ever seem to get past the logo. I've tried googling ways to fix it being stuck on the logo but nothing I do seems to work. Is there any other way around it?
Side note: I've been able to flash Lineage OS again and might just have to stick with that if I can't flash it back to stock. Do you know any resources for replacing the default apps? I've tried GApps but I was wondering if there's a similar Samsung installer?

skorpien said:
Thanks for the reply ashyx.
I've done two of the three things you suggested. I've tried returning it to stock using an image matching my exact model, and I've tried disabling dmverity. I've also tried rooting it but using a method other than magisk.
The flash seems to go well enough, but then I get stuck at the Samsung logo whenever I try rebooting into the system.
I've tried waiting, thinking I'm just being impatient, but it doesn't ever seem to get past the logo. I've tried googling ways to fix it being stuck on the logo but nothing I do seems to work. Is there any other way around it?
Side note: I've been able to flash Lineage OS again and might just have to stick with that if I can't flash it back to stock. Do you know any resources for replacing the default apps? I've tried GApps but I was wondering if there's a similar Samsung installer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to wipe the data partition, aka factory reset before or after installing the stock firmware then it will take anything up to 15 mins to boot.

ashyx said:
You need to wipe the data partition, aka factory reset before or after installing the stock firmware then it will take anything up to 15 mins to boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried leaving it for a few hours in hopes that it would boot, but unfortunately it stays stuck on the logo.
Is there a way to check where or why it's getting hung up?

skorpien said:
I've tried leaving it for a few hours in hopes that it would boot, but unfortunately it stays stuck on the logo.
Is there a way to check where or why it's getting hung up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you back up the efs partition with twrp?
If so try restoring it.

ashyx said:
Did you back up the efs partition with twrp?
If so try restoring it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did and I have been restoring it.
So far, this is what I've attempted:
Flash TWRP (twrp_3.1.0-1_sm-t350_18317.tar using Odin3 v3.10)
Reboot into recovery
Wipe everything from tablet
Format tablet
Reboot into download mode
Flash stock image with Odin
Reboot into recovery
Wipe dalvik cache
Restore backup (including efs partition)
Wipe dalvik cache (again)
Reboot
Get stuck on Samsung logo (left it for hours with no change)

skorpien said:
I did and I have been restoring it.
So far, this is what I've attempted:
Flash TWRP (twrp_3.1.0-1_sm-t350_18317.tar using Odin3 v3.10)
Reboot into recovery
Wipe everything from tablet
Format tablet
Reboot into download mode
Flash stock image with Odin
Reboot into recovery
Wipe dalvik cache
Restore backup (including efs partition)
Wipe dalvik cache (again)
Reboot
Get stuck on Samsung logo (left it for hours with no change)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't restore everything just EFS No need to keep wiping dalvik it serves no purpose when formatting or wiping the data partition.
Also FORMAT not wipe the data partition (note this wipes internal storage)
If it still doesn't boot install the combo firmware. Let it boot, factory reset from settings then reboot to download mode and install the stock firmware again.