Database Users

[Q] defy cant get to any bootloader at all

first off im not a noob at this kinda stuff ive rooted tablets and other phones before. so ive spent the past week or so every night for hrs searching around for an answer to my problems.
phone info
carrier:Straight Talk
MN: XT555C
AV:2.3.7
Base band vr: PCR
Kernel vr:Apps_2.6.38.6-perf
Build number:1_67D_1014
OK on to the proses i used:
first rooted phone with VROOT
pic 1(the pic with the Foreign letters)
gained root
pic2 (pic with root checker)
easy enough right
then tried 2int every vr of it witch said they installed just fine
but every time i would try to go in into the boot-loader nothing no blue light no auto boot loader screen just nothing.
so i searched for different kinda boot loaders witch lead me to twrp and only like two more
nothing couldn't get any of them to work on account of the fact that they needed a Boot-loader to install them.
then i decided i would try rsd lite
downloaded sbfs
http://sbf.droid-developers.org/umts_jordan/list.php
ive tried the first and last one not sure witch one is for my phone
when i hit VOL+ power i get this screen:
pic 3(white screen with blue letters)
and rsd reconised the phone but phone info came up mostly as
N/A and nothing would flash just kept giving me
error:failed flashing process. failed flashing process phone 0000 error sending ram to bootloader
then when i had the phone try to just boot normaly with rsd open i got this screen:
pic 4(black screen with white letters)
all things aside i have gained root but to no avail can i get a Boot-Loader to work. im just looking for some one to help shed some light on this matter and help me get off of Ginger Bread

jimbob60 said:
sorry about pic i cant post them
they are on my fb my only public album
my fackbook url:
/jacob.g.shaffer
first off im not a noob at this kinda stuff ive rooted tablets and other phones before. so ive spent the past week or so every night for hrs searching around for an answer to my problems.
phone info
carrier:Straight Talk
MN: XT555C
AV:2.3.7
Base band vr: PCR
Kernel vr:Apps_2.6.38.6-perf
Build number:1_67D_1014
OK on to the proses i used:
first rooted phone with VROOT
pic 1(the pic with the Foreign letters)
gained root
pic2 (pic with root checker)
easy enough right
then tried 2int every vr of it witch said they installed just fine
but every time i would try to go in into the boot-loader nothing no blue light no auto boot loader screen just nothing.
so i searched for different kinda boot loaders witch lead me to twrp and only like two more
nothing couldn't get any of them to work on account of the fact that they needed a Boot-loader to install them.
then i decided i would try rsd lite
downloaded sbfs
when i hit VOL+ power i get this screen:
pic 3(white screen with blue letters)
and rsd reconised the phone but phone info came up mostly as
N/A and nothing would flash just kept giving me
error:failed flashing process. failed flashing process phone 0000 error sending ram
then when i had the phone try to just boot normaly with rsd open i got this screen:
pic 4(black screen with white letters)
all things aside i have gained root but to no avail can i get a Boot-Loader to work. im just looking for some one to help shed some light on this matter and help me get off of Ginger Bread
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1743764
It worked for me.

i have now tried that and it was useful as far as the commands in the bat file but still nothing i did worked
i unrooted it the wipe cash and factory restore the Zerg Exploit did not work it would not root it so i used the commands to install bootloader it worked with no errors my led turned green to show success but still no blue light or Boot-loader. even when i use
E:\android\adt-bundle-windows-x86-20131030\sdk\platform-tools>adb shell
$ su
su
# reboot boot-loader
reboot boot-loader
it just reboots normally

any one else have some info?

so i still cant get a bootloader to come up ive been at this for a while and am still stumped i gain root and su but no custom boot loader just the stock one.

Root, install 2ndinit, install CM10, install CM10.2, install update-recovery.zip, REBOOT (without any wipe), install CM11 and GApps.
^
so this is just so people can see where im at in the chain of things here. im at the install 2ndinit

nother update so i desided i needed to push the files from bootmenu.tar.gz onto my system and see if it changed anything(also did the same for twrp and a few vrs of other bootloaders)
so i went and got http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1687590
witch worked well and after i used the program to send the files where they need to be and tryed to reboot into bootmenu the phone still just restarted normally.so now the files are where they need to be adn it should let me into the bootloader but no im at a loss i dont understand how sompthing so simple could turn out to be like this. every one else can get it and ive followed like every set of direction i could find on this site over and over agen then i started experimenting with it and still nothing no matter how the files get there still no bootloader all i want is to be able to install JB and get the hell off of GB. and its not like im getting any help from this post i hope a dev can come by here soon and help me shed some light on things. untill then ill keep updating the post

jimbob60 said:
nother update so i desided i needed to push the files from bootmenu.tar.gz onto my system and see if it changed anything(also did the same for twrp and a few vrs of other bootloaders)
so i went and got http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1687590
witch worked well and after i used the program to send the files where they need to be and tryed to reboot into bootmenu the phone still just restarted normally.so now the files are where they need to be adn it should let me into the bootloader but no im at a loss i dont understand how sompthing so simple could turn out to be like this. every one else can get it and ive followed like every set of direction i could find on this site over and over agen then i started experimenting with it and still nothing no matter how the files get there still no bootloader all i want is to be able to install JB and get the hell off of GB. and its not like im getting any help from this post i hope a dev can come by here soon and help me shed some light on things. untill then ill keep updating the post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think the XT555c has a JB or even a ICS ROM. You can debloat GB and stay on it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2392187
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1216982
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1768702
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1032212
ive read thru a few threads other than those also and other people with the same mn and build have done it......
thats from my understanding that they wer able to get a boot-loader to work witch i can not get into a bootloader at all.and RSD wont flash anything to the phone evern tho ive used diffrent vr of rsd and the moto drivers.

so am i to assume that it just cant b done? that i could understand but other people with this phone/67d have done it and ive sent them pms but no reply same with some of the devs here who have helped others get this phone going so i guess im at a loss with this straight talk phone at least with installing a custom boot-loader/ROM.at least the phone works.....just outdated.screw you motorola

just a reply
@jimbob it my feelings that the "USA Moto defy xt555c, Straighttalk" does not have a blue LED built in. There is no evidence of it other than i have never seen one during the last year or so of having the phone (yes i do a lot of bluetooth stuff). Also to shed some light on your situation it is my understanding that 67d firmware has patched an exploit with the older bootloader and now has been upgraded to bl7. if this is your bl ver number then it is slim you will find the answer to your problems here. the only option i can come up with is to get or make fixed sbf for the device and flash/ downgrade. fixing the sbf only lies to the phone and tells it you have a higher ver android than you really do.... go figure motorola would be good at burning bridges! LMAO

thanks for replying. not to sure how to make a fixed sbf and the ones i found would not work because i couldn't get the program to flash anything to the phone. but then agen i never made a custom one

[Q] Vzw having SERIOUS issues flashing with no download mode!!!

ok, so i have the verizon lg g2, i have flashed numerous phones before and never had anything like this happen. First off, it took me hours to just get the thing rooted after going thru about 15 different walkthrus before one worked.
Then i decided i wanted Malladus ROM so i tried flashing twrp recovery with loki, didnt work, went thru damn near every forum about it coming out with nothing....until...found one talking about flashify and everyone said it worked fine. So i do it, took about 1 second and said it worked, restarted and nothing had changed, except now i cannot enter download mode! When i do it just shows "firmware update" it never changes, left it on all night still at 0%.
I have unrooted it (even though it still says its rooted, but no longer have permissions) and i did a full reset, NOTHING works!!
So before you guys chime in, let me tell you what i have tried....EVERYTHING lol .....I know the only way to fix my phone to fully unroot it is to flash back to original rom, so i went to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2448960 and that wont work because 1. cant get into dl mode, and 2 it wont let me open the flash tool (did everything right, researched and came up with nothing)
then i went to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2432476 cant get that to work either because cant get into dl mode, so now i have TWO 2.2gb rom files on my comp that i cant use,
And just to be clear, I KNOW HOW to go to dl mode lol, i have wrote it several forums and all people keep saying is the stuff ive already said.
Oh and i cant push with adb either...that is how i originally tried twrp and after 3 hours of trying to figure it out i finally got it to go thru (it was wrong i think but it worked) and that may be what has caused it to crash the dl screen.
Ive never used adb before and after reading 7 diff forums beginning to end (bout a 1000 pages) i realized they were all the same but do not actually explain enough for someone who has never one it. It said to push, well idk what that meant! lol I need step by step instructions in order to fix this, even the tiniest of things may be something i would miss.
PLEASE HELP ME!!!! Thanks guys!

Download mode should work... The first night I got my G2 it was about 4 in the morning, and I immediately installed TWRP on it (3.2 is what you want 3.3 doesn't work), and promptly erased everything on my phone... Partition, data, and everything.
But download mode was still intact, and that first thread you linked worked just fine for me. If you're having issues with that flash tool and being stuck at a login screen, you missed the part where it tells you to download a DLL file and place it the flash tool install directory. That file will bypass the system login and let you use the program.
I don't know how long you've been up, but I'd say take a break and come back to it in a bit. If you still can't download mode to work, have a friend come over and look up how to get in download mode, then have them try it. I've done that many times... Thought I was doing everything right and a second pair of fresh eyes found some tiny thing I overlooked in the process.
I hope you get your phone working man, sorry I can't be of more specific help.
Sent from CAMACHO, my Verizon G2 (VS980) running PAC ROM.

[Q] rooting my s4 mini lte SGH-I257M rogers

well im totallly new to this , so i will be as fast as possible with description of problem. i used odin 3.07 and another file not sure where i put it a md5 i thought anyway. i went thru process and it said PASS. was having boot loop i gather and i unplugged it. it didn't work for a while then it all of a sudden came back on. it says that my phone is now custom and cant update. other programs tell me no superuser or phone is un rooted.what step did i miss should i have wiped kalvik or im kinda lost now and there's not a lot of help on my specific phone. i want to get the 4.3 update but not sure how. i want to root i guess but so much info out there. i was told to flash with stock or root with this or that. any help would be great.the phone works great still. i also d/l a program root browser and through searching found out it says thatmy CSC version is I257MOYAAMK5. Doesnt sound right.in my (about device in settings it say I257MVLUAMK5. CONFUSSING
thanks steve

There's no 4.3 OTA update for S4 Mini that I'm aware of...
I also had trouble rooting the first time. Thing you have to be sure is you're following each and every step to the t. Now that you've "unsuccessfully" rooted, I'd suggest flashing the stock rom again and then try again following the root instructions like I said.

[Q] SGH-I337 Download Mode Problem?

Greetings everyone,
So will not try to type out a book here, but want to try to include all the info/everything I have done do this point. I recently purchased a Galaxy S4 ( SGH-I337) ATT model. My end goal was to have it rooted with CM 11 installed on it. This is only the second phone I have attempted to root ( First was Atrix HD which went overall fine). I'm basing my end goal off of it, in that I am wanting to have it rooted with CM 11 installed. I started off by downloading Odin and used towel and was able to get the phone rooted. That seemed to have gone without too many problems. I tried to do as much reading as I could, but I'm sure I either misread or overlooked where I went wrong next. I then installed TWRP in the hopes of getting CM 11 installed. This is where the problems start. After installing TWRP ( later reading I saw I probably should have used Philz soft touch??) and restarting my phone it would only go into " Download Mode" and would forever just sit there. I did some searching and saw how to get past this simply by just restarting and holding the volume up and selecting now that I did not want to enter into Download mode. At this point I decided to go download the stock ROM and start over. I downloaded and followed the instructions from
Greetings everyone,
So will not try to type out a book here, but want to try to include all the info/everything I have done do this point. I recently purchased a Galaxy S4 ( SGH-I337) ATT model. My end goal was to have it rooted with CM 11 installed on it. This is only the second phone I have attempted to root ( First was Atrix HD which went overall fine). I'm basing my end goal off of it, in that I am wanting to have it rooted with CM 11 installed. I started off by downloading Odin and used towel and was able to get the phone rooted. That seemed to have gone without too many problems. I tried to do as much reading as I could, but I'm sure I either misread or overlooked where I went wrong next. I then installed TWRP in the hopes of getting CM 11 installed. This is where the problems start. After installing TWRP ( later reading I saw I probably should have used Philz soft touch??) and restarting my phone it would only go into " Download Mode" and would forever just sit there. I did some searching and saw how to get past this simply by just restarting and holding the volume up and selecting now that I did not want to enter into Download mode. At this point I decided to go download the stock ROM and start over. I downloaded and followed the instructions from
androidrootz.com/2014/03/how-to-unrootunbrick-at-galaxy-s4-sgh.html . From that point is where things went to hell in a hand-basket. My phone will load but whenever I try to turn on Wifi to try to re-root I get a Security Information message saying that it has blocked Wifi from turning on. Quick Google search says this is built in security "Knox"? that is causing this. Posts say that I have the wrong firmware for this phone? The bigger problem seems to be that now when I try to boot into recovery, I get a background that says "No Command" and red lettering at the top that says " Android system recovery <3e>. I have options to reboot system now, update from ADB and others. At the bottom it says #Manual Mode# Successfully applied multi-CSC. So somehow I think i have corrupted the boot loader. Of course Odin will not recognize the phone in this state to try to push any kind of firmware or boot-loader to it. At this point I truley am clueless and lost. Not at all above saying I'm above my head and need some guidence or help from someone who knows a lot more about this then I do. I really thought I had read and done plenty of research before I tried this, but non the less I have a phone I can't get into recovery and once booted, I can't get wifi to work. Thanks for your time and insight. From that point is where things went to hell in a hand-basket. My phone will load but whenever I try to turn on Wifi to try to re-root I get a Security Information message saying that it has blocked Wifi from turning on. Quick Google search says this is built in security "Knox"? that is causing this. Posts say that I have the wrong firmware for this phone? The bigger problem seems to be that now when I try to boot into recovery, I get a background that says "No Command" and red lettering at the top that says " Android system recovery <3e>. I have options to reboot system now, update from ADB and others. At the bottom it says #Manual Mode# Successfully applied multi-CSC. So somehow I think i have corrupted the boot loader. Of course Odin will not recognize the phone in this state to try to push any kind of firmware or boot-loader to it. At this point I truley am clueless and lost. Not at all above saying I'm above my head and need some guidence or help from someone who knows a lot more about this then I do. I really thought I had read and done plenty of research before I tried this, but non the less I have a phone I can't get into recovery and once booted, I can't get wifi to work. Thanks for your time and insight.

Tl,dr sure looks like a book to me. If you just got an s4 I'm sure the bootloader can't be exploited and you can't use cm. Look through this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=53758227
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

jd1639 said:
Tl,dr sure looks like a book to me. If you just got an s4 I'm sure the bootloader can't be exploited and you can't use cm. Look through this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=53758227
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link. Very helpful info. Problem I can't seem to get around is that since any ROM i download will not pass the signature inside the recovery mode, I don't know how to get to where I can flash any kind of ROM to it. Yes sorry for the book, I just see too often people don't ever post enough info on what they have or what they have done. In essence how do i use Odin if i can't get into download mode and recovery mode will not accept any file cause it says it fails the md5 signature? Thanks for the help

bryantjb said:
Thanks for the link. Very helpful info. Problem I can't seem to get around is that since any ROM i download will not pass the signature inside the recovery mode, I don't know how to get to where I can flash any kind of ROM to it. Yes sorry for the book, I just see too often people don't ever post enough info on what they have or what they have done. In essence how do i use Odin if i can't get into download mode and recovery mode will not accept any file cause it says it fails the md5 signature? Thanks for the help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't want to give you useless information, but make sure you're using the right steps to get into download mode.
1) Power off your device
2) Remove battery for 10 seconds
3) Replace battery
4) Hold POWER + HOME + VOLUME DOWN until you see the "Warning" Screen
5) Quickly hit the VOLUME UP button.
Then you can connect to ODIN, and go from there.

Failed to flash GApps, soft brick, nightmare.. A novel with a solution.

This started as a beg for help thread, but since the GS4 is coming up on 3 generations old, help is quite slow, yet does still exist as of this edit (3-20-15).
None the less, I will try to explain what happened so that people searching for similar problems might find this thread and resolve their issues.
I soft bricked the phone flashing PacMan. ... The instructions CLEARLY stated that you need to flash the rom, then flash GApps. Well, I forgot to Flash Gapps because I was so excited that I had a successful root and new rom to test that I finger ganged the phone.... The phone booted just fine and worked just fine, but I did not have ANY google apps, and went into a panic... LESSON #1 DO NOT PANIC......
What I failed to realize is that Android Lolipop (at least PacMan's version) requires the user to select options in the developer section of the settings menu to enable you to boot into your custom recovery after you have flashed your custom rom.... I DID NOT KNOW THIS and the information was NOT readily available. So what happened was I panicked and tried to flash another recovery which was apparently NOT the correct recovery for my phone.. (the cascade of errors began here). My phone was soft bricked and NOTHING I did would get me out of it.
So, after at least 50 attempts using Odin to try and flash a good recovery, re-root the phone, whatever I could think of, I finally got out of soft brick, and back to a working phone, yet still no google apps, and no recovery (or so I thought).
By this time, I had asked ....no. begged for help on 2 or 3 different threads to no avail when what I thought was a brain storm came to me.... I googled and located the google play store apk, and google play services apk and thought that if I could just get these 2 things installed, I would be able to log onto the google play store and download the apps I need and all would be right with the world....... Yeah.... Remember the cascade of errors thing I mentioned a few lines up ^^^ ?
Once I installed those 2 apk's and rebooted the phone, I was in nag screen hell with no way out, no custom recovery (remember...or so I thought) and no way to access ANYTHING on the phone because literally the second I hit "ok" on the nag screen, it would immediately pop back up...This "nag screen" was the one that pops up and tells you that "google play services has stopped working".. I came inches away from launching the phone against the wall and buying another one... something... anything but a Samsung GS4.
So here we are, 14 hours (of actual face in the phone, Odin, XDA, Google, YouTube) frantically searching for ANY solution.....and NOTHING presented itself, when I decided to take a step back and walk away from it for a couple of hours.......
The next thing I tried was pounding my way through the nag screen... Literally hitting the "ok" toggle to clear the screen, while instantly trying to hit any other button on the screen to get me into the settings menu, because during my little self imposed time out, I had an epiphany.... of sorts..... What really happened is that I remembered seeing a "factory reset" toggle in the settings menus somewhere.....and I was determined to find it........ SO....... 13,386,329 clicks of the "ok" button later, I managed to engage the factory reset switch at the exact right moment, followed by another 4,388 presses of the "ok" button to get to the "confirm" button.......... and like a beacon from heaven...... My phone rebooted, and factory reset, and the #%g^7**&^|@# nag screen was GONE !!!!! Oh my GOD it was GONE !!!!!!! After recovering from my full blown conniption, catching my breath and feeling like a raver must feel after a good night of Molly and glow stick euphoria, I had a working phone again..... almost.
What I did next was go immediately to Odin, re-root the phone, install a DIFFERENT rom, and the latest version of TWRP and like another beacon from the gods I had a wonderfully functional phone with all of the google apps I needed.... and all was good with the world........Pretty much....
I am nearly certain that I cost myself 5 years of healthy living with the stress I imposed upon myself throughout this ordeal ---- The following are lessons learned. Hopefully they save you from madness...
(1) Do NOT use a USB hub to connect your phone to the computer. The phone MUST be connected directly to a USB port on your machine.
(2) Understand the workings of the rom you are going to flash BEFORE you flash it.
(3) DO NOT PANIC
(4) DO NOT randomly install apk's just because you think you are smarter than a 5th grader, and you are so mad your phone doesn't work, you are going to try anything regardless of how retarded it might be.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST and actually probably the MOST IMPORTANT thing to do is locate, download and CONFIRM GOOD a stock firmware for YOUR phone BEFORE YOU ROOT or flash a new rom..... If you get to brick he11 like I did, you will spend more time searching for the tools to get back to zero than you can imagine. You will be revved up, angry with the world, and your google fu will fail you......miserably I might add......
Get all of your ducks in a row BEFORE you root, and before you flash a new rom. That means finding the stock firmware and opening it up in Odin with your phone connected to CONFIRM you have a good firmware to go back to should you fail miserably.... Your very sanity could depend on it...

Team Scream said:
Does anyone have and is willing to share a stock Galaxy S4 rom so I can go back to stock on my phone? I am currently soft bricked and completely dead in the water...
I need to be able to flash the rom using Odin since that is the ONLY way I can communicate with this phone right now....I can flash whatever recovery I want using Odin, but I cannot boot into that recovery once successfully flashed with Odin. It boot loops and goes back to the completely useless PacMan 5.02 rom I flashed previously that repeatedly shows the "google play services has stopped working" screen.... and no number of attempts to clear it by hitting ok will get me to a working desktop
I bricked my phone by flashing PacMan and forgetting to flash GAPPS before rebooting, then trying to install google play services apk and google play store apk manually because I could not get back into recovery for whatever reason....
I have spent the ENTIRE day searching for a stock rom that I can flash with Odin so I can at least get back to zero with this S4 which is actually a brand new phone for me....
PLEASE do not link me to mediafire or rapidgator downloads because I have tried every one of those that google will reveal.. I need one that YOU know is good, and will work. NONE.... NOT ONE of the files I have been able to find online are legitimate .tar files... They ALL unzip with errors and I have tried them on multiple computers.....Multiple download attempts and NOTHING... I have literally been at this for 10 hours now and really need some love.
On a side note, if I can pull the stock rom from my wifes brand new S4 without screwing up her phone, PLEASE tell me how to do that. She literally picked up her brand new replacement S4 today...
Any help is genuinely appreciated... PLEASE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.php?dir=Files/Devices/Samsung Galaxy S4 (SPH-L720)/Stock ROMs

KennyG123 said:
http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.php?dir=Files/Devices/Samsung Galaxy S4 (SPH-L720)/Stock ROMs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man thank you! THANK YOU! I really appreciate it... I woke this morning to find this reply after leaving my computer running all night for another corrupted downloaded image file.... I have my fingers crossed !!! THANK YOU
P.S. how do I know which one of those files I actually need? I have no idea what the difference is in each of those folders.... Forgive me for noob but I really am pretty noob at this.....

I just looked at the link to help you and noticed that Wilco stops at the NAE baseband. A lot of phones are on the NG2 baseband and if you have a 720T, it could be even a different baseband. Go to settings, "About Phone". Look for" "Baseband" and "Model Number". Write that information down. Once you have that, the last three characters are what is in the list in the link KennyG123 sent you. (For example, I have the original S4 so I have a SPH-L720 and my baseband is L720VPUFNG2 (or NG2 for short. Which was not on that list.) If it is not on the list, go to www.sammobile.com and search for your model number (For example, I am on the SPH-L720. If you just bought your phone from Sprint, you probably have the SPH-L720 or SPH-L720T). You can download the tar file from there. It is a little slow but it will get it done for you. The tar file for both phones are here in this forum if you want to search but going to Sammobile would probably be a little easier from the sounds of it.

dyandell said:
I just looked at the link to help you and noticed that Wilco stops at the NAE baseband. <snip>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey brother, thank you so much for the help and reply. I might have forgot to mention that I cannot get into the phone to read the model # or get any information from it at all. The nag screen telling me that google play services has stopped working is so persistent that I can't do anything with the phone once it boots.
Is there a way to brute force wipe the phone so that the only thing left when that process is done is a custom recovery like TWRP or Philz or anything other than stock?
If so, would you be so kind as to point me in the direction of a tutorial that would help me get through that process.... I am either not using the right search terms or I am just too old to be good at this and should have stayed home when the rooting lessons were being handed out...
Anyway, I genuinely appreciate your help... Thank you so much !!

Ok I was able to pound my way through the nag screen to the settings menu and eventually got to the baseband and model #
baseband: L720TVPUBOA3
model #: SPH-L720
I have tried 3 times to download the only version I can find on the sammobile.com website using the baseband to search and the file fails to download after getting about 2/3 complete.... I have tried it on 2 separate computers from 2 different locations now...... This is horrifying ...... Every single force that can be working against me, is working against me.
Ugh...... If you have a link to a method I can use to force wipe the phone without a stock rom, but with a recovery I can boot into to flash a rom I have on my external SD card, I would love to see it...... im losing my mind here...
<<<<<<<< EDIT>>>>>>>>>
I was also able to pound my way into the settings menu and do a factory reset which removed the google play nag. From there I was able to root around in the developer options folder where I discovered that in order to be able to boot into recovery, you need to select the "boot options" tab and allow the device to boot into recovery....
I know this device is old now and most people have moved on, and I am pleased that there are some people who stick around here to keep this device alive. I only wish that someone would have advised me to check the boot options selection when I indicated I could not boot into recovery... That would have saved me 2 days of manic obsessive he11....... This was complete he11...... But I am on the other side of it now, and have reflashed another rom... I am back among the living.

Team Scream said:
Ok I was able to pound my way through the nag screen to the settings menu and eventually got to the baseband and model #
baseband: L720TVPUBOA3
model #: SPH-L720
I have tried 3 times to download the only version I can find on the sammobile.com website using the baseband to search and the file fails to download after getting about 2/3 complete.... I have tried it on 2 separate computers from 2 different locations now...... This is horrifying ...... Every single force that can be working against me, is working against me.
Ugh...... If you have a link to a method I can use to force wipe the phone without a stock rom, but with a recovery I can boot into to flash a rom I have on my external SD card, I would love to see it...... im losing my mind here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sprint phones have always been able to downgrade and thinking that has not changed. You should be able to Odin the last one listed on the link I gave you...NAE...then your phone should boot...you can then take the Sprint OTA if you like then root and recovery as normal. Then you can get to the stuff on your SD and flash. The only issues I remember popping up these days is if you mismatch the modem and OS...which wouldn't be the case if you Odin'd NAE.

Team Scream said:
Ok I was able to pound my way through the nag screen to the settings menu and eventually got to the baseband and model #
baseband: L720TVPUBOA3
model #: SPH-L720
I have tried 3 times to download the only version I can find on the sammobile.com website using the baseband to search and the file fails to download after getting about 2/3 complete.... I have tried it on 2 separate computers from 2 different locations now...... This is horrifying ...... Every single force that can be working against me, is working against me.
Ugh...... If you have a link to a method I can use to force wipe the phone without a stock rom, but with a recovery I can boot into to flash a rom I have on my external SD card, I would love to see it...... im losing my mind here...
<<<<<<<< EDIT>>>>>>>>>
I was also able to pound my way into the settings menu and do a factory reset which removed the google play nag. From there I was able to root around in the developer options folder where I discovered that in order to be able to boot into recovery, you need to select the "boot options" tab and allow the device to boot into recovery....
I know this device is old now and most people have moved on, and I am pleased that there are some people who stick around here to keep this device alive. I only wish that someone would have advised me to check the boot options selection when I indicated I could not boot into recovery... That would have saved me 2 days of manic obsessive he11....... This was complete he11...... But I am on the other side of it now, and have reflashed another rom... I am back among the living.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad you got it fixed! I have had my phone for over a year now and never heard of a boot options tab. I guess you learn something new every day.

Also glad you got it fixed. But let's keep this open in case someone else has the same or similar issue.

KennyG123 said:
Sprint phones have always been able to downgrade and thinking that has not changed. You should be able to Odin the last one listed on the link I gave you...NAE...then your phone should boot...you can then take the Sprint OTA if you like then root and recovery as normal. Then you can get to the stuff on your SD and flash. The only issues I remember popping up these days is if you mismatch the modem and OS...which wouldn't be the case if you Odin'd NAE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well not being able to leave well enough alone, I locked my phone up again.
Because I was able to get out of soft brick without needing a stock firmware, I never bothered downloading NAE from the link you provided.
Turns out after 2 separate downloads (one using Chrome and one using Firefox) I have determined that the md5.tar files on that site http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.php?dir=Files/Devices/Samsung%20Galaxy%20S4%20%28SPH-L720%29/Stock%20ROMs are worthless.... BOTH downloads failed in Odin before I could even get out of the gate....
They failed the md5 check that Odin performs and would not allow me to continue.... IS there something I am missing?

Team Scream said:
Well not being able to leave well enough alone, I locked my phone up again.
Because I was able to get out of soft brick without needing a stock firmware, I never bothered downloading NAE from the link you provided.
Turns out after 2 separate downloads (one using Chrome and one using Firefox) I have determined that the md5.tar files on that site http://www.rwilco12.com/downloads.php?dir=Files/Devices/Samsung%20Galaxy%20S4%20%28SPH-L720%29/Stock%20ROMs are worthless.... BOTH downloads failed in Odin before I could even get out of the gate....
They failed the md5 check that Odin performs and would not allow me to continue.... IS there something I am missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remove the .md5 extension at the end and try again.

KennyG123 said:
Remove the .md5 extension at the end and try again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet baby Jeezes please tell me that is not all I had to do.... I spent 4 hours staring at the screen downloading files last night .... I waited 4 hours and finally could not stay awake any more but I finally got the OA3 firmware from SamMobile downloaded successfully. I left the .md5 extension and it is now flashing via Odin as I type this.... I could have saved myself a few more hours of misery if I had known you can remove the .md5 extension..... This learning curve is hard on an old man like me hahaha!
Thanks Kenny
<edit> Ahhhhh.... the sweet smell of success !!! I am now booted back into a stock phone!!!
Man I hope this thread can help save someone else from the anguish I have put myself through with this thing....

Team Scream said:
Sweet baby Jeezes please tell me that is not all I had to do.... I spent 4 hours staring at the screen downloading files last night .... I waited 4 hours and finally could not stay awake any more but I finally got the OA3 firmware from SamMobile downloaded successfully. I left the .md5 extension and it is now flashing via Odin as I type this.... I could have saved myself a few more hours of misery if I had known you can remove the .md5 extension..... This learning curve is hard on an old man like me hahaha!
Thanks Kenny
<edit> Ahhhhh.... the sweet smell of success !!! I am now booted back into a stock phone!!!
Man I hope this thread can help save someone else from the anguish I have put myself through with this thing....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sure it will! Glad you got it working and glad I helped! Some versions of Odin don't care about the md5 extension and others barf it up. With the way your luck went....well...don't buy a lottery ticket this week...hahaha.