Database Users

Bricked?

I've been trying to upgrade to ICS (root or not is unimportant to me) for two weeks. I've followed every instruction, every guide out there and then some. I think I finally backed myself into a corner and don't think I'll be able to get out of it this time.
I have a TPT 64GB WiFi US model. Despite running the thing stock, it simply refuses under all circumstances to find OTA updates. That is, since I have owned it (since 2011), not once has the regular System Update OTA app indicated that there was any sort of update. I even followed all the Lenovo KB articles that tell you how to clear the Dalvik cache, delete stale update files, etc. to try and get it to patch. Nope. It's like my device is some kind of counterfeit that isn't even a real ThinkPad. I am totally at a loss.
So I ended up rooting it to try and force the updates down its uncooperative throat.
I was able to upgrade as far as 0039_0089, but every single time I try to boot up ICS, no matter what guide I followed, no matter whether my bootloader is CWM or stock, no matter whether I factory reset or wipe Dalvik, no matter whether USB charger or devices are plugged in or not, no matter whether I'm rooted or not... regardless of ANY variables WHATSOEVER, the thing just boot loops as soon as it tries to boot ICS.
I spent 24 hours trying to stop it from boot looping when it boots ICS. Things I've tried:
Tried some guy's "no-bloat" nandroid backup of 0039_0089, then to ICS after restoring stock files, using CWM with the removed asserts
Tried GodfatherIP's nandroid of 0039_0086, upgrading to 0039_0089, then to ICS using CWM with the removed asserts
Tried returning to stock recovery, which at first resulted in having no recovery kernel at all, but eventually I somehow managed to get stock recovery back, and had a non-rooted stock 0039_0089 based on GodfatherIP's nandroid plus the stock upgrade to 0039_0089
Tried installing the unmodified A310_0069_0130 on top of the above, using stock recovery, and it seemed to upgrade without a hitch
Rebooting, power cycling, wiping cache, and/or factory resetting had no impact on the ability of the above image to actually boot
Tried installing the unmodified A400_0069_0130 on top of the above, using stock recovery, and it seemed to upgrade without a hitch
Rebooting, power cycling, wiping cache, and/or factory resetting had no impact on the ability of the above image to actually boot
Basically, every single last thing I've tried has resulted in an utter failure to boot ICS -- not even once -- under any circumstances. I don't think I'm missing anything; I've literally followed instructions step by step. And just in case 99% of the developers/guide-posters got it wrong, I've followed at least a dozen guides, so statistically at least one of them is bound to be right, right....? Well, apparently not?
Right now I have a boot-looping system that's been factory reset and cache wiped, with stock recovery. All I can do is attempt to apply signed updates. I obviously can't go back to a nandroid backup.
Do I have any recourse at all, or do I have to throw my $600 unit in the trash? Right now it's basically only useful as a cutting board. I can't believe this has been so excruciating -- never in 3 years of rooting 10+ Android devices have I ever experienced anything this awful. And the problems are compounded by the fact that most of the guides out there are only for ROW or UK, leaving US devices in the dark / untested, so that may be one reason why I'm having issues.... probably nobody has even tested their methods on US builds except GodfatherIP, but even his methods proved futile for me.
I just want ICS... a unit that works... root is completely irrelevant to me, it always has been. But between the out of the box updater being completely and fundamentally broken, and the utter failure of all rooted attempts to upgrade to ICS, I am at wit's end.
Am I the only one experiencing this or has anyone overcome a similar situation?

[Q] Factory Reset or Reflash?

My phone is getting old, and because of that some problems are emerging with age.
It turns out that whenever my phone starts to behave in an unsatisfactory way, I do a factory reset.
My question is, what is best, do a factory reset or reflash the rom? Or there isn't any difference? I'm on stock 4.4.4, without root or custom recovery (I like Android this way ) and never unlocked the device.
Would a fresh install solve occasional problems caused by the OTAs?
Sorry for the bad english.

If you haven't gotten your answer already, the best method to reset your phone to fix various issues is to factory reset your phone. This returns it to the complete default state of software, where all apps should be working. Flash a rom simply replaces the system partition with the system partition of the rom, and thus is not as complete as a factory reset.
Basically, if you're having issues with a stock rom, just factory reset it and it will get rid of most, if not all, issues.

My wifi won't enable after update

Last night, my wifi just stopped working, it won't enable. When I go to advanced I am sometimes able to turn on the wifi, but it just continuously says turning on but won't enable, and sometimes it's just totally greyed out. I also had some problems today connecting to mobile data services as well, and I don't know if that's related.
I've tried a hard reboot (but it just comes up saying no command...), I've tried restarting it a million times... The only thing I haven't tried is a factory reset, because I am abroad using google fi and I am worried that I will have to set up my project fi again and I can't connect to a tower in the USA. (I am not sure if that will even happen, but I won't be back in the USA for a good few months so I don't want to risk it)
My phone says it updated yesterday, which I assume has caused this wifi problem (or a really big coincidence), but I can't find any information online about it.
I run the stock rom, it's not rooted, I have had no problems with any other things besides this.
Is anyone else experiencing this, or has experienced this before? Do you have any suggestions on how to resolve it?

It sounds like you are experiencing the same problem as everyone who forgot to update their vendor image after flashing the OTA. Had you been rooted, the simple fix would have been to flash the the MTC19X vendor image. With unrooted phone, I got nothing. The only possible solution would be a factory reset and to download and install the OTA again.

kyzn said:
It sounds like you are experiencing the same problem as everyone who forgot to update their vendor image after flashing the OTA. Had you been rooted, the simple fix would have been to flash the the MTC19X vendor image. With unrooted phone, I got nothing. The only possible solution would be a factory reset and to download and install the OTA again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't touch anything or mod anything on my phones. The phone updates itself and as long as I am not running any custom roms I don't see why they wouldn't have a complete update that basically just spoon feeds my phone. Do you know if factory reset would reset my project fi?

RoseBunny87 said:
I don't touch anything or mod anything on my phones. The phone updates itself and as long as I am not running any custom roms I don't see why they wouldn't have a complete update that basically just spoon feeds my phone. Do you know if factory reset would reset my project fi?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe factory resets wipe the /data and /cache partitions of the device. All apps installed in /data are deleted, while apps in /system like project fi will have all its setting reset.
It's easy to resolve the iasue if your rooted, but since you aren't the next to last step you may try would be doing a network settings reset. Go to Settings>Backup and Reset>Network Settings reset. Just make sure that you are aware of your cellular data settings so you can set thing back up after the reset.

Increasing system storage with every update?

I tried searching for awhile and couldn't find anything too related to the exact question. Seems like with every update coming out storage shows the system taking up 1gb more than previous. Its as if it doesn't delete previous android versions. Its gone from 2.5gb few updates ago to now 5.6gb but the android updates are no more than 1gb. Its about when I started to notice this, 3 big updates ago all being around 1gb each.
My phone is completely stock, would a full stock flash delete everything and start the phone over? Also reading the general topic a few different methods mostly for unlocked bootloader., which one is the best for a locked bootloader? I was wanting to do this anyway because I have other unrelated issues with the phone such as gboard constantly crashing and photos not storing properly/overlapping eachother in memory that seems to happen with every update no matter what.

MadBullBunny said:
I tried searching for awhile and couldn't find anything too related to the exact question. Seems like with every update coming out storage shows the system taking up 1gb more than previous. Its as if it doesn't delete previous android versions. Its gone from 2.5gb few updates ago to now 5.6gb but the android updates are no more than 1gb. Its about when I started to notice this, 3 big updates ago all being around 1gb each.
My phone is completely stock, would a full stock flash delete everything and start the phone over? Also reading the general topic a few different methods mostly for unlocked bootloader., which one is the best for a locked bootloader? I was wanting to do this anyway because I have other unrelated issues with the phone such as gboard constantly crashing and photos not storing properly/overlapping eachother in memory that seems to happen with every update no matter what.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before doing anything rash, you should probably start by clearing cached data @ Settings.>>Storage>>Cached Data. Also booting the phone to stock recovery and wiping the cache partition may help with any apps that are wigging out. Lastly, you really cannot "flash" anything with a locked bootloader. You can, and may later decide to wipe/factory reset from stock recovery. That would wipe your data and return your phone to the blank Android version you had installed last (7.1.2?) and yes, it would wipe/reclaim space, but you can do that manually without a factory reset. Before you go down that road make sure you enable the Google backup of your account so all your app/app data is saved. If you have photos, let Photos sync fully before the reset so your photos will be backed up to the Cloud. Also note that if you decide to unlock the bootloader (good choice) it will automatically perform a full wipe/factory reset. There is a sticky in General on how to do this.

v12xke said:
Before doing anything rash, you should probably start by clearing cached data @ Settings.>>Storage>>Cached Data. Also booting the phone to stock recovery and wiping the cache partition may help with any apps that are wigging out. Lastly, you really cannot "flash" anything with a locked bootloader. You can, and may later decide to wipe/factory reset from stock recovery. That would wipe your data and return your phone to the blank Android version you had installed last (7.1.2?) and yes, it would wipe/reclaim space, but you can do that manually without a factory reset. Before you go down that road make sure you enable the Google backup of your account so all your app/app data is saved. If you have photos, let Photos sync fully before the reset so your photos will be backed up to the Cloud. Also note that if you decide to unlock the bootloader (good choice) it will automatically perform a full wipe/factory reset. There is a sticky in General on how to do this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the input, but thats something I've been trying after every update already.
I found another site with clearer setup and instructions to do a stock flash with a factory rom and not OTA. Only reason why I had an issue with not wanting to unlock the bootloader was because im on windows 10 creators and it uses powershell now. So I had to figure out how to use fastboot/adb with powershell since cmdprompt wasn't the same. Doing a flash of a factory rom indeed fixed my gboard/photo storing overlapping issue that every ota update and factory reset through bootloader wouldn't solve.
Although my original question still remains, the system data in my storage is still 4.5gb with 7.1.2, better than the 5.5gb it was but I'm pretty sure its not supposed to be that big, any ideas why every update keeps taking up more space on the phone? The rom was even 1gb being flashed on the phone and I swear I remember the amount of space it took up when I first got the phone was around 2gb.

MadBullBunny said:
Thanks for the input, but thats something I've been trying after every update already.
I found another site with clearer setup and instructions to do a stock flash with a factory rom and not OTA. Only reason why I had an issue with not wanting to unlock the bootloader was because im on windows 10 creators and it uses powershell now. So I had to figure out how to use fastboot/adb with powershell since cmdprompt wasn't the same. Doing a flash of a factory rom indeed fixed my gboard/photo storing overlapping issue that every ota update and factory reset through bootloader wouldn't solve.
Although my original question still remains, the system data in my storage is still 4.5gb with 7.1.2, better than the 5.5gb it was but I'm pretty sure its not supposed to be that big, any ideas why every update keeps taking up more space on the phone? The rom was even 1gb being flashed on the phone and I swear I remember the amount of space it took up when I first got the phone was around 2gb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always flash a full images- not OTA... but I've always been unlocked on all my Nexus devices going back to the Galaxy. You cannot flash a full image without unlocking the bootloader but yet you say your bootloader is locked? For comparison, my untouched System is using 4.57 GB. I am running stock 7.1.2 ROM, rooted and EX Kernel.
PS...there is a toggle switch in Windows 10 settings to select command shell or powershell. It's as easy as a toggle to restore the command shell (or switch back).

LGSmartcard Service Error

Hi,
I have an LG V20 H910-10c (Nougat 7.0) and I am having an issue that I am praying someone can help me out with. I have already tried a Factory Wipe/Reset and Wipe Dalvik/ART & Cache and have Formatted Data to remove Encryption, etc..
Timeline: The phone worked fine in all aspects before Rooting it.
After Rooting it, I had this issue.
I then tried a Factory Reset and got stuck in a TWRP Bootloop.
I fixed the Bootloop issue with a Reset (Yes then Yes).
The issue is still there.
ISSUE: When I boot into Android, I get the following message;
"LGSmartcardService has stopped"
.....and I cannot use my External SD Card (TWRP sees it fine, I Flashed SuperSU from it).
I have Googled my brains out and simply cannot find any suggestions, except to perform a Factory Reset, which I did and that's what put me into the Bootloop and I reset the way you said and now it boots up okay, except that error message is still there.
I have not put any apps on the phone or anything. It's factory fresh (except for Rooting it).
I hope I'm not violating any rules by posting this, but the page I used to Root it has a REAL SMALL downloadable file called "V20-Root.zip" that contains everything, including the Batch files with the steps that they perform in them. I did NOT use the ROM, as that's ONLY for Sprint users and my phone is an AT&T model (Unlocked and my Carrier is MetroPCS). But I put it here, just in case someone wishes to bless me by taking a look and seeing if there's something to note. I am not a coder by any means. I do understand some basics, but I couldn't see anything that would cause this sort of problem. I did NOT install the ROM listed, because it's for Sprint users ONLY and I have an AT&T (Unlocked, using MetroPCS) H910. Here's the link to the page:
https://tinyurl.com/yacdendm
I really need my Ext SD Card to be seen! I use it extensively and it would be a real hindrance not to have it! Plus this is my ONLY phone (no landline) and I am disabled and must run everything, including my home network and laptop, etc. from it and I need its space for things I have to have available on my phone to do things that I need to do, so any help would be appreciated GREATLY!
Please Help Me and Thank You!
Dave

duplicate thread, original here
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/help/lgsmartcard-service-error-t3860491
thread closed