Database Users

[Q] Epic Adventure, Noob 101?

I'm still pretty new to Android, I want to get into customizing my epic, specifically learning how to load custom roms.
I'm looking for some good how to resources, I've done some preliminary forum searches with some success.
So far I've updated to 2.2, and had the gps problem. Searched for a solution, found multiple threads for the fix, most involve using Oden, I've had zero success with getting oden to see my phone.
So I searched for alternative methods,
I finally fixed the gps problem, by doing one click root > made a clockwork back up > flashed back to DI18 > stepped outside, got gps lock > Flashed to the DK28 > Then Restored my clockwork back up. After that the gps has been super fast to lock, usually under 5 sec.
But I'm still chasing the dragon, I want the AOSP Lockscreen, I've tried clockwork installing different versions from the popular thread about the AOSP Lockscreen, to no success.
But now I get an occasional black out screen, the phone is still on, it if I leave it alone, the stock tw lockscreen comes back.
Now frustrated that I've come across another quirk, I want to try one of the 2.2 based roms, particularly the Nebula.
One problem, I can't find instructions on how to install it.
I do see instructions for other roms, I'm assuming that it's a similar procedure.
The Epic experience says oden to a stock 2.2, then in clockwork "wipe data/factory reset" before flashing the rom.
One question, when I do an oden flash to 2.2 and "wipe data/factory reset" will it delete my clockwork back up?
Current mission.
1. Have a backup of my data and apps.
2. Install a custom rom
3. Restore my data from backup.
Questions:
1. Anyway to use a custom rom with out Oden?
2. Is it completely necessary to do a factory reset?
3. Factory reset, will this effect my phone account information, such as being associated with my phone number and sprint account?
Any information is greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.

I'm a linux user, I've never used odin and I'm running the current rom of mammons.
When using clockworkmod to do the resets for factory and cache, it will not wipe anything stored on the sd card. So as long as your clockworkmod backup is on your sd card, and it should be, you won't lose it.
Factory reset and deleting cache its required. Do it 3 times to make sure its done before flashing the me rom.
It will not mess with your phone number our account info.
I recommend downloading titanium backup and backing up all app data and user system info.
If you have more questions that you couldn't find on the forums, our need clarification, ask away.
Sent from my shoe, I mean....Epic shoe... I mean Samsung Epic! http://mobilehighway.blogspot.com/

Thanks
Thanks mxcoldhit, I'm now running my 1st rom, Nebula, so far so good.
A few notes from my experience:
From my previous clockwork back up, restored that, installed titanium, backed up my most used apps & info, exported my contact info from the contacts app.
Went ahead and wiped 3 times, loaded my rom, installed titanium, restored all my apps and info that I've had since day one.
Things of note to noobs like me, clockwork is awesome, back ups seem to work like ghost images, whole frozen snapshots of the os with all data & apps.
Titanium and clockwork both store the backup data on your micro-sd card.
So you can play with different setups and if you want to go back, just restore the back up file, they don't get wiped when you wipe the phone.
Titanium works in much the same fashion, install it on your system and you can make back ups of apps and phone data, when you load a new rom, just go ahead and install Titanium if it's not already there, and you can restore your favorite apps and data.
One thing that confused me before realizing what i was doing wrong, was that after I flashed the custom rom, I restored my backup thinking that it would just add my data and apps back, well it does that and the os also, so just keep that in mind.

[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] Need Help! Milestone 2

ok, so here's the thing... I have almost no experience with android, but I want to be messing with my phone so I can learn from experience...
I read that motoblur eats up a lot of CPU from the phone, so I tried to remove some parts that I though they would not affect the functionally of the phone. basically I uninstalled the socialmedia and other similar software that was "related" or had socialmedia on the name.
as a result, my contacts that sync from facebook were deleted from the contact list.
so before I started to remove these programs, extensions, or whatever, I made a backup of each using titanium backup, but when I tried to restore the backup, no matter with which one I started, the thing didn't restore the program, it just stayed as "performing installation" or something and nothing happen. I leave a "restoration" of one of the programs all night and nothing...
so I decided to make a hard rest to the phone. And the nighmare begins...
Once the phone boots, the first thing you see is the configuration of the motoblur account, so I just input my user and pass and hit next and nothing happens...
well, that's no true, it goes back to home screen of the motoblur configuration and ask me to do the account setup again, and again and again... you get the point. it's cycled or I remove something that does not allow the process to continue... and since I cannot configure the blur account, I cannot access the Phone to use it, or make a system nandroid backup, a restore of app o even make a phonecall that it's not a emergency (911) call.
I'm affraid to start messing with the phone since I'm located in Mexico, and my provider is telcel, so I don't know if all of the roms and hacks will leave my phone working in my country (I've only seen rom from argentina, china, europe, so I'm a little scared to start messing with the roms)
Is there any way to patch the motoblur 2.2.1 like in this post? http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...169038&page=68
can the phone be booted to install gingerbread without any special software installed? the phone was rooted, but since I made a hard reset, I don't know if it remains rooted...
help please

Hey there.
Hard reset only deletes any settings or apps you have applied/installed. Once you start playing with root and deleting system apps, the only way back is either restoring any backups of the system apps (if you made any, AND if it will even let you - one time I uninstalled the software that installed APK's by accident -__-) or you can flash your stock firmware (froyo) with RSD lite. If you made a nandroid backup with Clockwork mod recovery prior to messing with stuff, and can still enter CWM, you could restore that backup too.
All firmwares available here http://and-developers.com/sbf:milestone2
You can get RSD lite here http://www.motorolafans.com/forums/e6-general-chat/31983-flashing-tool-rsd-lite-v5-3-1-a.html
You have to go into bootloader (with phone off, hold the hardware key d-pad up and power button and release once powered on)
It's all pretty straight forward, download your SBF from that site, open rsd lite, load your sbf, enter bootloader, connect phone via usb, click start.
If you were only on froyo, you can only load CWM from the OS. So if droid2bootstapper and super user aren't there you probably can't install any of the gingerbread roms from this forum at this stage. EDIT whoops ignore that just re-read your post. Man, too many beers
Bottom line, garunteed you can just flash your stock firmware with rsd lite, root, install clockwork mod recovery and install the custom roms from then on!
Also a guide to restoring your ms2 is located here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1032372

Thanks! I'll do this right away and find out if I did it right.
Thanks a LOT! =D

Deleted TouchWiz, can't use UPSM.

I got my new S5 (SM-G900W8, Telus) and I rooted using Towel Root. I installed a bunch of root apps, including Titanium Backup. I then proceeded to remove apps (backing them up first). I removed TouchWiz (backing it up) and used Nova. A few days later, I decided to activate UPSM (Ultra Power Saving Mode), and found that my entire screen went black, I could only drop down the notification bar, I had no apps, no ability to deactivate it.
I googled and found no way to force UPSM to turn off. I tried charging to full, no. I eventually restarted, and my phone got stuck on the "Samsung" logo, in black and white. I everything I could think, and then just decided to factory reset. I re-installed all my apps, and stuff, and just remembered that I didn't backup Titanium Backup, so I couldn't re-install TouchWiz.
What do I do now? I'd like to use UPSM, but I would prefer to not soft-brick it, and have to factory reset it after everytime I use it. I know I'm n00b, and it was my first rooted phone, and I should have researched first, but oh well.
Is there anything I can do to get TouchWiz back without tripping the KNOX counter (i.e. reflashing my phone to get it back)?

Once rooted I don't think you can use UPSM. You could install a TouchWiz based ROM with safestrap and probably get similar functionality, but I don't believe ultra power saving mode is available after rooting.

Find a rom for your device and either flash that, take the apk out and put it in your system/priv-app, or find someone here to post it for you. It's called TouchWizHome.apk. Seeing as how you don't want to trip Knox you will need to put it back yourself using something like root explorer.

Actually. Look at this thread here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2732110. The second post has all the bloatware that was removed that I think you can add back.

Help with Root and Recovery please!

Hello.
My Galaxy S4 was dying so T-Mobile just replaced it with an S5. It came with:
LMY47X.G900TUVS1FOJ4
I clicked on Software updates in About device and it did whatever updates, but the version stayed the same. Then I went to autoroot [dot] chainfire [dot] eu and downloaded the correct file to root. I unzipped the file and ran Odin 3.10.6 that came with it. I was able to root the device no problem.
What seemed like a problem afterward was that I couldn't find SuperSU in the Application list. I know the phone was rooted though because I could launch Titanium Backup to restore all my stuff from the S4. I went to the Play Store to download SuperSU. It kept complaining that I needed a new binary, but it would fail every time to update. I even tried downloading the latest SuperSU zip to install in the recovery mode, but that failed too. I really wasn't too worried about this.
While looking up how to root the S5, I saw some posts where people mentioned their root access stopped after 24 hours. I just experienced this when I launched Titanium Backup to begin uninstalling bloatware. I was informed that I didn't have root access anymore.
I figured I'd try to reflash the auto-root through Odin. According to Odin, everything passed, but looking at the device, it said it's already patched and the restore failed, so it aborted.
Now the device is stuck in an infinite reboot loop. I can access both the download and recovery modes, but that's it.
I'd really really like to not have to do a factory wipe as it was a pain to get everything copied over from the S4.
Can I flash it with something else?
Once I can get back in the device, how do I keep the device rooted? Do I have to flash TWRP or CWM?
The only root program I use is Titanium Backup and would really really like to keep using it to makr regular backups.
Thanks a lot.

Try booting into recovery and wiping the CACHES
If it still won't boot, grab a stock ROM from sammobile .com for your model S5 (G900T by the looks of the ROM name) and flash it with ODIN from download mode
That won't wipe your data or anything you've restored, as long as you don't reset
If it still won't boot, you might have to suck it up and factory reset after flashing stock
Was the TiBu backup you restored, rooted? Maybe restoring the backup restored an old version of SuperSU and broke the CF AR version
Might need to go down the TWRP and SuperSU from TWRP recovery route to get it rooted properly if CF AR isn't woprking 100%, which it doesn't for a fair few people

I tried clearing the cache, but that didn't work.
Is there a way to download the stock ROM without having to create an account on the download site?
The Titanium Backup I restored was rooted. Everything was totally fine, until I went back to TB and it suddenly told me I wasn't rooted anymore.
I did try TWRP after I made the original post. I think messed up the device, but I can get in now. I flashed the latest version and booted into Recovery Mode. I clicked on Fix Permissions and possibly one other thing. It let booted farther before the infinite bootloop. It'd show my lock screen and give me 1-2 seconds before rebooting. If I swiped quickly, I could see the home screen with most of my icons gone. Clicked on Apps shows most of the apps are gone. When I removed the SIM card, I stopped getting the infinite bootloop. Here are the list of important programs I have left:
Contacts (all cleared out), Gallery (all present), Messages (all present), My Files (shows files from previously installed programs that I can no longer access), Phone (works when I put the SIM card back in), Settings
Unfortunately, TB and the Play Store are both gone. I might be able to install stuff using adb or by copying files over. I haven't tried, but it doesn't look good. I tried reflashing the CF ROM. It didn't change anything. I suspect I may be looking at a factory reset at this point. I'm happy to try any other suggestions.
Thank you.

whynoteel said:
Is there a way to download the stock ROM without having to create an account on the download site?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wut? lol, just make one, it's free...
XDA does not spoon feed

I created an account and downloaded the stock ROM. I flashed the device and got most of the programs to appear again though the Play Store was still missing. I decided to cut my losses and just do a factory reset. I rooted again and put everything back in place. Now I'm experiencing the problem where I lost root after a day or so of use. I'll start a new thread.
Thanks for your help.