So just wanted to share this in the event anyone else runs into the problem. I was running CWM 2.5 and CM7 RC2 just fine for a while now and I decided to clean my SD card yesterday since I have tons of empty folders from prior app/rom installs. After deleting some folders, my SD card would not be read by the phone. I rebooted and it sent it into a bootloop. Tried to format SD card in recovery and the settings menu, no avail. Tried to partition in adb to correct the issue and /DATA would not mount for the life of me. I could get it to mount via adb, but not in recovery. Any time I tried to factory reset or format DATA, it would say it cant mount the partition.
Anyway, I tried the latest version of CWM (3.8) and it managed to format each partition without any issues. I could then install CM7 without any issues and it booted right up.
So if anyone is experiencing SD card issues when altering the filesystem in any way, try upgrading the recovery image. It would have saved me a good number of hours troubleshooting, but hey at least I learned adb better lol
I am having the same exact problem, bootloop with no way to access card. How did you get CWM updated?
i THINK i know what i did wrong:
i flashed firmware that i found from another site (not filefactory) with mobile odin. i had done a few backups, but did a fresh one anyway from cwm, and moved it to the "external" sd card. i unchecked everroot--i dunno why, i was going to root with the zip file... this may have been my mistake. but i also checked, "factory reset/wipe data/wipe cache etc" from within odin. THIS may have been my mistake... well, when it rebooted, mobile odin went to it, said everything went fine, then rebooted. now i'm stuck on the gTab start-up screen. it doesn't load the boot animation even. i can get into download mode, and i can get into recovery. tried flashing a rom and a kernel on top of whatever is on the device. that didn't work. mobile odin DID take away root. so i rerooted it thinking that cwm may require root to work.
the problem from within cwm is that it isn't seeing the "internal" sd card, or it thinks the external is the internal... that's how i was able to root again, by applying zip from sd card. it worked. so it IS still seeing internal storage.
this may have already been fixed had i not LOST the USB cable.... another one is on order and en route. i can see no solutions with it as is, i'm going to need desktop odin to reflash...
so the problem as i see it: i can't just restore because i erased the "internal" sd card. i moved my cwm folder to the "external" so even though it's on there, and cwm is reading my "external" as "internal" it's still unable to access the cwm folder with my backups available.
so the solution still requires the usb cable, even if i were to just move the cwm folder BACK to the internal card once i get it plugged in. in the mean time i'm dead in the water...
thanks for any help!!!
So, in an earlier post, i mentioned the problems caused by converting my SD card to internal storage. In trying to fix that, i ended up not being able to boot my device, so i went to restore a backup and realized that since TWRP doesn't see the sdcard, i'm in some trouble. I have a stock image that i'm trying to restore to, but no matter where i put it on my phone, TWRP is not seeing it when i try to 'restore'. I've put it in /TWRP/BACKUP and in /sdcard/TWRP/BACKUP (which isn't really my actual SD card). neither shows in the selection list while in TWRP.
Where do i need to move this so i can restore the file? Again, i can't select 'MicroSDcard' from TWRP. If there is a way to convert the card back to portable storage from recovery, i'm fine formatting it and doing that.
Today I used a SanDisk USB 3.0 128gb flash drive to create adoptable storage. When I boot TWRP and create a backup everything goes fine and the backup is created because I can see it under Restore. But when I boot into Android I can't find the backup anywhere. I looked in all the normal places. /Sdcard/ and /storage/emulated/0 and /sdcard/usb I looked for two hours. I rebooted to TWRP and it's still there /sdcard/USB/sda1/TWRP . I want to be able to allocate a backup somewhere else in case of thermonuclear meltdown. I got my first shield a month ago and rooted and unlocked the bootloader. And I tried flashing TWRP but apparently it's not possible so I've been booting twrp. I know I can't flash because the partition will correct itself on first boot and fix recovery.
Where are my TWRP backups? And why is removable storage ( non-adopted storage) like a thumb drive not showing in TWRP?
If I backup my system on tw recovery, and flash a new rom, will wiping my phone delete the tw recovery backup in case I have to restore my phone? Feel free to correct me on this, but to my understanding teamwin has it's own partition, and wiping does not mess with this partition?
matthewbhass said:
If I backup my system on tw recovery, and flash a new rom, will wiping my phone delete the tw recovery backup in case I have to restore my phone? Feel free to correct me on this, but to my understanding teamwin has it's own partition, and wiping does not mess with this partition?
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I think TWRP backups are normally stored on your internal storage partition, so if you perform a (EDIT full factory reset doesnt wipe this, thanks Silesh) or wipe your internal storage, your backups will be erased too. The TWRP itself does install to the recovery partition (which will only be affected by a flash to the recovery, which a wipe will not perform), you're correct on that but the backups are held separately to that. You can copy your backups to another computer or SD card, I found my backup under /SDcard/TWRP/BACKUPS - you could either copy the folder with a root browser or use the ADB pull command (with the ADB terminal), though the TWRP backup may not show on a Windows desktop even if it's been copied correctly. However, if copied back to your phone, the TWRP backup should function.
Edit: thanks Silesh for correcting me, I was thinking of app data rather than user data!
echo92 said:
I think TWRP backups are normally stored on your internal storage partition, so if you perform a full factory reset or wipe your internal storage, your backups will be erased too. The TWRP itself does install to the recovery partition (which will only be affected by a flash to the recovery, which a wipe will not perform), you're correct on that but the backups are held separately to that. You can copy your backups to another computer or SD card, I found my backup under /SDcard/TWRP/BACKUPS - you could either copy the folder with a root browser or use the ADB pull command (with the ADB terminal), though the TWRP backup may not show on a Windows desktop even if it's been copied correctly. However, if copied back to your phone, the TWRP backup should function.
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Thanks for replying. I can't transfer files from my computer to my phone, but I have thought about using the ADB sideload option from recovery. Is there a way that I can move my backup from my phone to my computer (and to my phone from my computer) using the sideload option, just in case I need the backup? I refuse to flash a new ROM without access to my complete backup, lol.
Internal storage is not formatted during a normal wipe. You have to specifically go into the advanced wipe and select internal storage to wipe it completely. So there is no issue while flashing a new rom if you don't choose the advanced wipe option.
You could also create the twrp backup in your external sdcard. That way your backup stays even if you wipe your phone using a factory reset or by mistake.
Strange. What's the problem of making backups to external SD? The function is right there (as Silesh mentioned). BTW: the very last version of TWRP is able to make backups straight to pc. This needs to be done FROM a pc though. TWRP is capable to work with fastboot now (using special command though, or with this GUI for pc: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/tool-twrp-backup-restore-tool-pc-t3572241 )
You can choose whether you want to use internal storage or SD card when making a backup. It doesn't matter which you choose as long as you (and I learned this the hard way) pay attention to what you are doing and DO NOT WIPE internal storage or your SD card. Advantages of SD card is you won't lose your backup if you decide to flash stock. Disadvantage: if your card craps out on you backup is lost unless you have copied to PC or saved on cloud.
My Solution
I solved my problem by using the pull command in adb. Now if I decide to flash a new ROM, I can push my TWRP recovery back to my phone using adb and then recover it in my TWRP recovery.. I also backup using adb backup which backs it up directly to my computer anyways.
I knew about storing my TWRP backup on an sd card, but I haven't made time to get one. . I recently switched to the Motorola G4 Plus after my iPhone 6s decided to turn off and not turn back on. I eventually grew tired of the iPhone anyways due to lack of accessibility and freedom. Back in the day I owned androids but never rooted one or had one that was rooted. I did jailbreak my 4th generation iPod a few years ago. But I went through an iPhone 5s, and upgraded to a 6s and had that for a few months. I eventually just switched back to android after the longest time and I can't say that I regret it.
My Moto G4 Plus has been an amazing phone. I've only had it for a few weeks now, but I rooted it the day after I got it . So I'm a bit of a noob in the rooting community, . Since then it's been a pretty smooth transition. I've only got root access and xposed framework as of now. I was thinking about flashing a ROM so I made backups just in case, but I don't plan on making any major changes to the kernel or flashing another ROM. I'm satisfied with the stock ROM since Motorola pretty much made it as minimal as possible. I would recommend this phone to anyone. It's the most solid phone I've had yet.