Database Users

New S7 Design Flaw - Causes bootloop/brick

Hi, after going through the process of getting the S7 fixed - and Samsung denying everything (as usual), I'd share this issue as it's been happening to multiple Samsung devices in the workplace.
Here's how to brick your phone:
-An unwilling user goes on a business network, which happens to issue Android security updates via "Android at work".
-Due to Samsung making changes to Android, it manages to break the OS.
-Enjoy a chance to either go into infinite bootloops or if you're lucky - it'll boot in an unresponsive state with a line near the top and an empty desktop.
Now get this, because we tried to flash official firmwares provided by sammobile, the software state has been changed to custom. While the "warranty void" flag remains 0, they claim the device was rooted and want to charge ~$900 for it to be fixed.
As an owner of a S4 a few years ago, who's battery exploded. (And gave me a document to sign to not tell anyone about this) A note 5 owner who's display died while overseas and Samsung refusing to repair, as it wasn't bought in the US. I do not trust Samsung to make a reliable device.

Maybe your work security updates need updating / fixing
And flashing stock with ODIN does not change status to custom, as it is a stock ROM - in fact if your status is already custom and you use ODIN to flash stock, it will change back to Official

have you tried to reflash with odin?

oplix said:
have you tried to reflash with odin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also got a custom status once flashing samsung firmware, but that was only because the flash was terminated before completion.
Knox flag was still not triggered.
Flashed again with the same stock and now all was fine.
Showed back as Official.

I think you should try to use SmartSwitch if you want to go back to the original firmware, tho it comes with a cost of resetting the whole device including internal storage, you could boot into safe mode, copy your data, then open SmartSwitch > More > Emergency Initialization (or something like that) > 2nd Tab > you put the device model then Search > you put the S/N (check the back of the phone for S7, or under the battery for some phones) > follow the exact instructions > it will be initialized with the latest software and good as new. Hope this helps, also everybody knows Samsung likes not to be responsible on something they did, that's why xda and the devs here exist!

Turbine1991 said:
Hi, after going through the process of getting the S7 fixed - and Samsung denying everything (as usual), I'd share this issue as it's been happening to multiple Samsung devices in the workplace.
Here's how to brick your phone:
-An unwilling user goes on a business network, which happens to issue Android security updates via "Android at work".
-Due to Samsung making changes to Android, it manages to break the OS.
-Enjoy a chance to either go into infinite bootloops or if you're lucky - it'll boot in an unresponsive state with a line near the top and an empty desktop.
Now get this, because we tried to flash official firmwares provided by sammobile, the software state has been changed to custom. While the "warranty void" flag remains 0, they claim the device was rooted and want to charge ~$900 for it to be fixed.
As an owner of a S4 a few years ago, who's battery exploded. (And gave me a document to sign to not tell anyone about this) A note 5 owner who's display died while overseas and Samsung refusing to repair, as it wasn't bought in the US. I do not trust Samsung to make a reliable device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you learned a lesson and you will stop buying Samsung products so we dont have to read your pathetic posts(lies) ever again.

Bootloader Unlock

If the Bootloader is unlocked,will the Samsung guaranty get void?Also with the unlocked Bootloader,will the Bank Apps like Google Pay,Yono,Digilocker etc will work?

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5...ted-or-unlocked-bootloader-phone/td-p/1274610
BUT theoretically in Europe ( according to EU regulations ) you may modify software of your device not loosing warranty. Tricky thing would be forcing Samsung to execute the repair.

Asus Bootloader unlock tool

Hi
I'm trying to unlock the bootloader of my Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL Z00UD (2GB RAM variant) in order to flash custom recovery and ROM. I installed the bootloader unlock tool provided by Asus in their official website for my device and also specifically for Android marshmallow (which I'm running). But after unzipping and launching the app, it says "unknown error has occurred which may be a network issue. Please try again after some time" But after many attempts its still not budging. I tried to manually unlock it by going into fastboot mode via minimal adb and fastboot tool in PC and tried "fastboot flashing unlock" and "fastboot OEM unlock" both failed(FAILED (remote: unknown command)). The device still says its locked. I don't know what else to do. I recently solved its bootlooping issue by flashing the latest firmware from their official website via apply update from adb in the recovery.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Ialso experience this problem, i have 3gb variant of Z00ud. The official bootloader unlock tool is not working also my device is now softbrick because i install wrong xposed package.

HI,
I have been facing the Error as well in TF300TG, keeps giving Network Error, even though i tried via wifi as well as via 3g.
I wrote to Asus to help with the same as unlock tool is officially given by them, and this is what they wrote back to me
"
Please feel free to rate our service according to the solution provided in the questionnaire that will be sent to you shortly after our reply to your inquiry.
I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with your ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TG.
I'm sorry to inform you that we cannot offer assistance for rooting or unlocking mobile devices.
Please note that the warranty for mobile devices in your region is processed directly by your retailer based on the initial purchase receipt.
ASUS, as manufacturer, does not have a local authorized service center for phones, hence we cannot assist with a repair.
Kindly reach out to them directly in order to process your warranty and proceed with a repair/swap on their end."
Kindly assist

KingSorcerer said:
HI,
I have been facing the Error as well in TF300TG, keeps giving Network Error, even though i tried via wifi as well as via 3g.
I wrote to Asus to help with the same as unlock tool is officially given by them, and this is what they wrote back to me
"
Please feel free to rate our service according to the solution provided in the questionnaire that will be sent to you shortly after our reply to your inquiry.
I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with your ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TG.
I'm sorry to inform you that we cannot offer assistance for rooting or unlocking mobile devices.
Please note that the warranty for mobile devices in your region is processed directly by your retailer based on the initial purchase receipt.
ASUS, as manufacturer, does not have a local authorized service center for phones, hence we cannot assist with a repair.
Kindly reach out to them directly in order to process your warranty and proceed with a repair/swap on their end."
Kindly assist
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same reply I too got. I just gave up on unlocking. You should too. Never buy asus again if you're into modding.

Error message: Device corrupted

Device: Asis Zenfone Max1 Pro- ASUS_X00TD
On booting the device, I am getting the following error message " Your device is corrupted. It can't be trusted and may not work properly"( picture attached) " . The device boots if I keep on pressing the power button. From the research I did on this it seems, the software ( image ) was corrupted and I needed to install the software from the brand website. So I downloaded the image file and installed it following the recommended procedure. However the error is still persisting.
Is this error only due to a software problem or it can be a hardware related problem as well? If it is a software related problem only, how do I resolve the problem?
Thanks in advance for any help.
PS: Mods if this is not the correct forum for this question, kindly point me to the relevant forum and will post the question there. Thanks.

Problem becomes more problematic
Am bumping this up as this problem is becoming an unmitigated disaster.
Contacted ASUS customer care with the problem as detailed in OP.
Their support rep gave a solution which involved going back to a previous version of the image. Reason he gave was that the image I had flashed after d/loading from their website was a beta version and not stable.
Followed the process.
End result ? Now the device is asking for a password which feature ( password security ) I did not activate at all.
I will appreciate if someone can help me fix this mess.
TIA
aCs_ND said:
Device: Asis Zenfone Max1 Pro- ASUS_X00TD
On booting the device, I am getting the following error message " Your device is corrupted. It can't be trusted and may not work properly"( picture attached) " . The device boots if I keep on pressing the power button. From the research I did on this it seems, the software ( image ) was corrupted and I needed to install the software from the brand website. So I downloaded the image file and installed it following the recommended procedure. However the error is still persisting.
Is this error only due to a software problem or it can be a hardware related problem as well? If it is a software related problem only, how do I resolve the problem?
Thanks in advance for any help.
PS: Mods if this is not the correct forum for this question, kindly point me to the relevant forum and will post the question there. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

ASUS OTA updates corrupting device software & hardware both
*****Problem Solved*****
The problem not just with the software but also the hardware was caused by ASUS OTA updates.
Problem #1
The device got corrupted. Whether it was corrupted or whether it was just an erroneous error message is a matter of enquiry/research. Neither am I interested nor do I have the time to waste any further on this disaster.
Problem #2
The mic stopped working. This was remedied solely by rolling back to a prior version as advised by the customer care rep of ASUS.
Long story short which is still quite long ( apologies for being long winded )
After applying firmware rollback as advised by ASUS call center rep, the device got stuck at asking for a PIN/Password.
Given my illiteracy of technical issues, I did not have the foresight to do a simple factory data reset and move on.
So, I wrote to ASUS customer care. The incompetent people at ASUS customer care asked me to go to a different version of the firmware. That did not solve the problem. They then responded that I have to get a PAID service done to remedy the problems which would include service charges both for software and hardware issues SEPARATELY.
I gave up in disgust and decided I would purchase a new handset.
As luck would have it, Youtube referred me to a video on the issue.
Following the process shown in the video I was able to remedy the device corrupted error message.
Now I inserted a SIM card in the phone to see if it was working. It was still not working properly.
Then I googled for mic related issues. I came across links which suggested that mic functionality in these devices had been messed up by OTA updates.
So, I decided to go back to the firmware dowgrade.
I installed the downgrade firmware.
I did a factory data reset.
I activated the device.
The device is now functional.
Learnings from this disaster:
ASUS personnel are either grossly incompetent
OR
the company i.e. ASUS is running it's business in an unethical way.
Resources used to solve the problem:
Firmware applied to get the device functional
UL-ASUS_X00T-WW-16.2017.1912.060.999-user
Link: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/...272.532609309.1588748286-143972924.1567247258
Youtube video link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfFt0eKDFfU
For the moderators of the forum:
Can you kindly amend the subject of the thread to " ASUS OTA updates corrupting device software & hardware both". Thanks for your help.

Sony Emma is an odd bird

(Apologies if this isn't the right forum...it's the only one I found that seems to deal in topics that are universally applicable to the entire Xperia line-up.)
For the entire time I've been using Xperia phones, I've always used the third-party "Flashtool" by Androxyde to flash my phones, and "XperiFirm" by Igor Eisberg to source my Sony ROMs from Sony servers. Both tools have proven to be extremely flexible and powerful, so why waste time with the first-party tools which don't give you much say or control over the process?
I also just recently realized that I had an inaccurate understanding of at least one of the first-party Sony tools: what Sony calls "Flash tool" on their developers site, but which calls itself "Emma". Based on posts I had read by others (esp. surrounding the bootloader upgrades for Z1/Z3 series that enable using the FOTAKernel partition to store and boot from a standard recovery image), I came away with the conclusion that the ROMs that Emma downloads are *different* than the ones that Xperia Companion downloads...that Sony tailor-made ROM releases specifically for users who had unlocked their bootloaders, and Emma was the distribution mechanism for those.
Maybe this was already obvious to everyone else and I'm just late to the party, but I recently decided to play with both Emma and the current iteration of Xperia Companion, and discovered this isn't the case.
The firmwares Emma downloads are *identical* to the firmwares Xperia Companion does. Assuming you can get both Emma and Xperia Companion to download the same exact ROM version for the same exact phone model with the same exact regional or carrier customization, the pre-decryption FILE_######## filenames are the exact same, the file sizes are the exact same, and in fact the downloaded files from both tools are bit-for-bit identical with each other.
As far as my previous misconceptions go, it would also appear that the bootloader improvements that Sony made to earlier phone models were in fact released to the general public through standard channels: if you wanted a bootloader version that could treat the FOTAKernel partition as a Recovery partition instead, all you had to do was upgrade to the latest ROM for your phone (and then unlock bootloader & flash a recovery image of your choice using Fastboot afterward, naturally). It didn't *have* to be done through Emma: the upgrade would arrive OTA and/or through Companion just as well (or of course packaged in an FTF and then flashed by Androxyde's tool). And all subsequent phone models seem to just have these bootloader improvements incorporated straight from the factory...no need to get Emma involved whatsoever.
This to me raises the question: why 2 completely separate tools from Sony, anyway? Xperia Companion (and Sony PC Companion before it) *refuses* to work on phones with unlocked bootloaders, while Emma *refuses* to work on locked bootloaders. Since they are both dealing with the exact same ROM code, why do either of them give a crap what the state of the bootloader is? In the instance of Companion, I could see a case being made for refusing to do a firmware upgrade to a phone with an unlocked bootloader, for the same reason that unlocking the bootloader stops OTAs from working: an unlocked bootloader means you don't know & can no longer trust what the state of the /system partition is -- it could have been modified -- and so a differential upgrade could completely fail to apply and even make Android unbootable afterward. But that's no excuse for making Companion refuse to do a "software repair" (which wipes out all code and data) on a phone with an unlocked bootloader! And likewise there is no excuse for Emma refusing to "apply a service" to a phone with a locked bootloader!!
It gets even weirder when you look under the hood of both tools and realize that they both use the exact same core (Java) routines to download and flash ROM images from Sony servers to Xperia phones. There is thus ZERO reason to differentiate them based on bootloader lock status. I'm okay with Sony having a generally consumer-facing repair tool (Companion) and more power-user one (Emma), but they both should absolutely work regardless of the bootloader being locked or unlocked. That's a stupid and artificial restriction.
I get the impression that Emma is used by more than just users of unlocked bootloaders (or as Sony thinks of them, the "developer community"). I think this might also be the same tool that they distribute to their Sony service partners for phone repair. This would explain why early versions downloaded from developer.sony.com would pop up a login screen unless/until you edited some .INI file that pre-populated it with credentials to enable "Sony developer world" mode. This means Emma is also PERFECTLY CAPABLE of "applying service" to phones with locked bootloaders anyway. It just chooses not to if you aren't an authorized Sony service center.
The final observation I'll make here is that Emma, at least while in "developer world mode", does often allow you to download and apply older ROMs for your phone. This logically must mean that all of the past ROM versions still exist on Sony firmware update servers and can still be downloaded from them. So my question in light of this is, why can XperiFirm only ever download the latest versions?
Tangentially related, anybody have a clue what the decision-making process is behind which ROMs Emma will offer to you for the phone that you have plugged in? I have a couple of Z5 Compacts: a U.S. model E5803, and an E5823 of unknown origin, and they both give different -- and equally weird -- results.
When I plug the E5823 in and put it in flash mode, Emma gives me like 5 different ROMs to choose from: a Lollipop 5.1.1 ROM, a Marshmallow 6.0 ROM, a Marshmallow 6.0.1 ROM, a Nougat 7.0 ROM, and a Nougat 7.1.1 ROM...and all of them are of NOBA customization. But the Nougat 7.1.1 ROM that it offers to me is 32.4.A.0.160, and not the very last/latest 32.4.A.1.54 release. Why the heck is that? I can download 32.4.A.1.54 for NOBA region from XperiFirm just fine, and if I try to do "software repair" to the phone from Xperia Companion, it also downloads 32.4.A.1.54.
When I plug the E5803 model from the U.S. in and put it in flash mode, Emma gives me exactly one option and one only: a very old Lollipop release (32.0.A.6.200) for "MY" (Malaysia) customization. THAT'S IT. No Marshmallow, no Nougat, and no other customization options. This is despite the fact that at the time I plugged the phone in, it was already loaded with and running a "US" customization ROM!
One might wonder if, say, my "U.S." phone is in fact NOT a true U.S.-released phone, and was perhaps flashed with Customized US firmware before it got into my hands. Well, from looking at the upgrade logs in the TA partition, that doesn't appear to be the case: it clearly started life as a U.S. model. And just in case there was some point at which I flashed Customized MY to it without remembering, I restored an old backup of the TA partition (which has nothing but Customized US firmware entries in it!), had Emma check it again, and SAME THING. So from this I can only conclude that it's basing the ROM offering off of the serial or IMEI of the phone?? Even so, where is it coming up with this Customized MY firmware, and why is it ONLY offering me Lollipop?

Considering Sony's Flash Tool a.k.a. "Emma" comes from a more "internal" background, it isn't hard to imagine it looking up unique serial numbers (such as the IMEI, as you had guessed) instead of more general information such as device model numbers and customization variants.
The supply chain game is prone to all sorts of mistakes and your particular phone might just have been filed in the wrong place. For instance, I've found one HP laptop whose serial number is not recognized by the manufacturer's customer support website nor the more involved services used for looking up spare parts and replacement accesories (called "PartSurfer"). I've also come across a bunch of Samsung phones which wouldn't upgrade via OTA nor using Kies, but ODIN did the job just fine.
As for the locked/unlocked bootloader restrictions, it might have to do with how the different tools do data preservation (or how they don't). As far as I remember, there were serious pitfalls when flashing unlocked devices with official tools which sometimes led to a hard bricks. "Find my Xperia" on unlocked bootloaders comes to mind. I guess Sony just doesn't want to be liable for data loss and decided to proceed with this ham-fisted approach.
As for XperiFirm, yeah, I was sad when I found out you could no longer download older firmware releases with it.

Pixelado said:
Considering Sony's Flash Tool a.k.a. "Emma" comes from a more "internal" background, it isn't hard to imagine it looking up unique serial numbers (such as the IMEI, as you had guessed) instead of more general information such as device model numbers and customization variants.
The supply chain game is prone to all sorts of mistakes and your particular phone might just have been filed in the wrong place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theory makes sense on the surface, but I keep running across weird oddities with every phone I've tried to have Emma look up. In my experience it is MORE rare for Emma to return what I would expect to be the proper firmware list for a specific Xperia phone than it is for it to return something that doesn't exactly match, which seems VERY common. In addition to the phones I talked about in my original post, I have also tried seeing what Emma thinks about the 2 Z3 Compacts I bought that are clearly U.S. models & NOT AliExpress counterfeits. They both had U.S. customization firmware loads on them, but Emma wants to download Malaysia firmware for both of them.
Pixelado said:
As for the locked/unlocked bootloader restrictions, it might have to do with how the different tools do data preservation (or how they don't). As far as I remember, there were serious pitfalls when flashing unlocked devices with official tools which sometimes led to a hard bricks. "Find my Xperia" on unlocked bootloaders comes to mind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to look this up as I'm not familiar with the pitfalls you're talking about or with the specific Find My Xperia example you cite. But so far I have yet to run across a scenario *when flashing official Sony firmware images* where it makes a difference whether the bootloader is locked or unlocked. I've flashed various Xperias with the third-party Flashtool a zillion times, both locked and unlocked with the exact same FTFs. There's no difference I can see. And also both Emma and Xperia Companion download the *exact same firmware files* from the Sony update servers. So the Sony decision to make Emma ONLY work with unlocked and Xperia Companion to ONLY work with locked strikes me as completely arbitrary and nonsensical.
Pixelado said:
As for XperiFirm, yeah, I was sad when I found out you could no longer download older firmware releases with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point here was more that the XperiFirm author, as I recall, claims it is impossible to download older firmwares from Sony servers because Sony deletes them. Emma, however, seems to disprove this claim. So it would be *nice* if we could figure out what exact query Emma is running in order to find the older firmware files that OBVIOUSLY still exist, and then replicate that outside of Emma.

Sony Emma
https://software.sonymobile.com/emma/doc/emma_user_guide.pdf (manual)
Sony Emma is an internal tool to flash and repair phone softwares for authorized Sony personnels only. It can do anything, from customization change, sim unlock, thief protection unlock,....So Sony make Emma very secure and therefore have many restriction in "public" mode. About the firmware question, it uses the internal server, not the public one for Xperia Companion (and XperiFirm). The firmware on both servers is the same generally, but the public one are subject to end of life policy, the one not available are the ones Sony dont support anymore.