Database Users

[Q] Help! Nexus 4 stuck in bootloop after 4.4 update.

Hi guys,
I tried to update my Nexus 4 to 4.4 when Google pushed the update out for it yesterday, I forgot I had unlocked the phone (I don't have any custom ROMs on it, just SuperSU.)
Every time I try and power it on, the loading screen is endless, although I can hold power and volume down to enter recovery mode, nothing seems to be working.
I am a bit of a novice so any help or suggestions would be really appreciated!
Thanks.

The first few pages of the forum is littered with posts like this, i was in the same situation.
What i did was download the 4.3 rom from google, and flash /boot and /system onto the phone. I suspect the 4.4 rom would also work.
This got the phone booting without harming (most of) my data, but much of the UI was mangled and didnt work properly. I tried to backup my images over USB but it didnt work, you might have a better result. I also wanted to backup my SMS but they had all vanished.
I rebooted the phone to recovery (TWRP) and used adb to backup the sdcard (adb pull /sdcard sdcard) then did a full flash using the 4.4 rom downloaded from google and that got it working again. Then i reflashed the latest version of TWRP recovery and SuperSU.
Hope that helps.

That's really helpful, thanks! Is there ANY chance of a step-by-step? I'm a complete 'noob' probably a mistake to root in the first place :crying:
If you're busy don't worry, just don't want to **** things up more than I have haha.
Thanks, appreciate it.

GeorgeAmodio said:
That's really helpful, thanks! Is there ANY chance of a step-by-step? I'm a complete 'noob' probably a mistake to root in the first place :crying:
If you're busy don't worry, just don't want to **** things up more than I have haha.
Thanks, appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010312 for flashing a factory image guide.

gee2012 said:
Look here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010312 for flashing a factory image guide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got stuck in google screen, tried to flash factory images but my pc won't detect the phone anymore. Any advice?
Edit: Solved.

arffrhn said:
Got stuck in google screen, tried to flash factory images but my pc won't detect the phone anymore. Any advice?
Edit: Solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers guys, a lot more helpful than the bloke from Google. Will try it in the morning!

This will surely help
If somebody is facing boot loop after kitkat update on nexus 4 and no data backup can try to go to safe mode and backup their data. To goto safe mode on boot screen just keep pressing up and down volume button for some time phone will get into safe mode and can be backed up.

Hi,
It also happened to me, dont know if it is related to having ROOT or not, but i had to manually flash factory image (4.4) and it worked. I flashed everything except userimage.img but on first boot it took like 15 minutes to reboot and then all my personal data (photo, music...) was gone....
So just be cautious before upgrading!

Hi,
It also happened to me, dont know if it is related to having ROOT or not, but i had to manually flash factory image (4.4) and it worked. I flashed everything except userimage.img but on first boot it took like 15 minutes to reboot and then all my personal data (photo, music...) was gone....
So just be cautious before upgrading!

gee2012 said:
Look here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010312 for flashing a factory image guide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that is pretty much what I did to fix mine except that I did not flash the userdata (step 10 in chapter D) so that I would't loose my data.

arffrhn said:
Got stuck in google screen, tried to flash factory images but my pc won't detect the phone anymore. Any advice?
Edit: Solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did you end up doing for your PC to detect your phone?

iamj00 said:
What did you end up doing for your PC to detect your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had sideloaded a rom in recovery so that it will replace the lost system.img on my phone. Then, it booted up and I flashed back factory images the usual way. Everything is running smoothly again.

arffrhn said:
I had sideloaded a rom in recovery so that it will replace the lost system.img on my phone. Then, it booted up and I flashed back factory images the usual way. Everything is running smoothly again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what any of that means or how to do it...

iamj00 said:
I don't know what any of that means or how to do it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is sideload guide. And the is the rom I used to sideload before: Purity. After I had successfully booted into the system. I flashed 4.4 factory images using this awesome noob friendly guide for a clean kitkat update.

arffrhn said:
I had sideloaded a rom in recovery so that it will replace the lost system.img on my phone. Then, it booted up and I flashed back factory images the usual way. Everything is running smoothly again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iamj00 said:
What did you end up doing for your PC to detect your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Installing the driver. Refer to this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1992345
Boot to bootloader and connect to your PC, usually Windows will find the driver automatically

[Solved (partially)]ROM can't boot after turning my phone off... So weird !

Hi, I'm desperate today. I've been without my phone since a few days.
In the first place, I wanted to flash another custom ROM. I hadn't change anything to my N4, I was using AOSPAL. You know that F2FS has come, so I wanted to test it. After some fails, some resets, I succeeded to make my phone clean & fast (F2FS & custom kernel). Now I can tell you about my problem.
I noted that, after many tests/flashs, my phone can't boot after turning it off. I stuck at "Google" logo, the ROM apparently disappeared from my phone, or something else went wront. I don't know what.
Then I did a new factory reset, I flashed a ROM/Kernel without any changes to FS, but I got the same problem. If I reboot (reboot from adb, ROM...) my phone, it works. But if I turn it off, I'll stuck at "Google" logo the next boot.
I've actually no ideas, and Google gave me no results...
I'll try to make a new reset, or try another kernel... I don't know where I'm going.
Thanks for help and I wish you to have a nice day.
PS : I'm not a newbie, I already did more than hundreds flashes, some bricks, but I've never seen a similar problem.

Why don't you try flashing the factory image and start over. That should clean everything up
Sent from my Nexus 5

hi
try use nexus tool kit for restore fone bootloop flash rom stock

jd1639 said:
Why don't you try flashing the factory image and start over. That should clean everything up
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've already done that each time before flashing any custom mod, since I got that problem.
eltonpestana said:
try use nexus tool kit for restore fone bootloop flash rom stock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't the problem... I flashed the factory image many times. It works, but when I turn my N4 off and I want to boot it, I stuck at "Google".. When I reboot from the ROM or adb, there's no problems...

Diaruga said:
I've already done that each time before flashing any custom mod, since I got that problem.
This isn't the problem... I flashed the factory image many times. It works, but when I turn my N4 off and I want to boot it, I stuck at "Google".. When I reboot from the ROM or adb, there's no problems...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume you've done a factory reset in the stock recovery too? If so I think something is wrong with your phone. Is it still under warranty.
Sent from my Nexus 5

jd1639 said:
I assume you've done a factory reset in the stock recovery too? If so I think something is wrong with your phone. Is it still under warranty.
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mhhh when I tried F2F2 and wanted to try something else, I've not done a factory reset in the recovery (did you mean the format partitions in ext4fs or the wipe data/cache/dalvik ?). I used fastboot in order to erase all my partitions, then I flash the factory image archive through fastboot command "-w update".
I don't know whether something is wrong with my phone or not, but I've never seen that problem. It appeared when I did some tests with F2FS. That's all, that's so weird...

Diaruga said:
Mhhh when I tried F2F2 and wanted to try something else, I've not done a factory reset in the recovery (did you mean the format partitions in ext4fs or the wipe data/cache/dalvik ?). I used fastboot in order to erase all my partitions, then I flash the factory image archive through fastboot command "-w update".
I don't know whether something is wrong with my phone or not, but I've never seen that problem. It appeared when I did some tests with F2FS. That's all, that's so weird...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would definitely try to flash the factory image again, then boot into the stock recovery and do a factory reset. F2FS may have borked something. I've never tried it since it does mess with the positions
Sent from my Nexus 5

hi'
I'm not sure if this can work. But it never hurts to try. After flashing stock ROM with CWM. Enter recovery and make full format of all partitions. System and Data partitions and cache and all. After that reinstall the stock rom using nexus tool kit for flashing mode in bootloop. after that flashing custom recovery again and do cleanup, but not the only formates cleanings. I believe you are having trouble reading recognition, partition boot. Uncompensated You must have notice a conflict of partitions on the system format.

eltonpestana said:
Uncompensated You must have notice a conflict of partitions on the system format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was wondering the same thing...
Thanks guys for your help, I'll flash stock again, and then I'll format correctly the partitions. I hope that's the good way...

Next time its stuck on the Google logo just try plugging in you're charger.
I had the same problem but not down to using F2FS but it did hang on the logo during boot.
After plugging in the charger it booted and hasn't stuck since.
Don't ask my why as I haven't a clue but it worked.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

bladebuddy said:
Next time its stuck on the Google logo just try plugging in you're charger.
I had the same problem but not down to using F2FS but it did hang on the logo during boot.
After plugging in the charger it booted and hasn't stuck since.
Don't ask my why as I haven't a clue but it worked.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI this could indicate a problem with your battery

@Diaruga did you ever find a solution?
Sent from my Nexus 5

I plugged my N4, then I tried to flash the factory image again. That was fine. After flashing a custom ROM + custom kernel, still no probems after turning my phone off.
I can't explain why...
Thanks to all, my problem has been solved.

Diaruga said:
I plugged my N4, then I tried to flash the factory image again. That was fine. After flashing a custom ROM + custom kernel, still no probems after turning my phone off.
I can't explain why...
Thanks to all, my problem has been solved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, glad you got it working again
Sent from my Nexus 5

Compass module fault -> phone bricked

I opened up the camera from within the facebook messenger bubble window which presented me the front camera. Having tried to switch to front camera my phone rebooted and is now endlessly in a reboot loop. This is the log:
http://pastebin.com/9Gt8fGxW
I even did a full device wipe but no dice. Any explanation?
(I'm on Cyanogenmod nightly and so far my phone was stable)

Have you tried going into recovery? If you are able to, try to do a wipe from there, and then reflash cyanogenmod.

Marvlesz said:
Have you tried going into recovery? If you are able to, try to do a wipe from there, and then reflash cyanogenmod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I've said, I did a complete wipe. Even flashed cyanogenmod again. Phone is still in reboot loop.

It definitely did not brick your phone. If you still have any issue flash the factory image in fastboot and start over. If you were bricked you're phone wouldn't even turn on
Sent from my Nexus 5

jd1639 said:
It definitely did not brick your phone. If you still have any issue flash the factory image in fastboot and start over. If you were bricked you're phone wouldn't even turn on
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I just did a factory image. Apart from losing all my data it didn't help either. I guess some kind of hardware is dead now which is necessary to boot Android...

[Q] Help! Phone bricked itself trying to update. Factory Reset isn't helping!

Last night my phone wanted to update to 4.4.4 because it's been wanting to for a while, but I know it wouldn't work because my phone is rooted. It had tried this at least 3 times before and everything was fine; download update, tries to install, fails, boots right back up. I wanted to get rid of the Update notification in the top bar, so I just ran it again thinking it'd be okay. Well, this time it bricked my phone, leaving me at a neverending loop at the boot animation. I first tried to wipe the cache and dalvik cache, which did nothing. Then I tried a factory restore, which also did nothing. Then I reinstalled the stock 4.4.3 rom I had been using, which did nothing. Then I wiped the SD card completely and reinstalled a stock 4.4.4 rom through sideload, which has done nothing. My phone just sits at the boot animation and taunts me. Worse yet, I have a 16-hour drive tomorrow and my phone was going to be the majority of my sanity during that time.
What should I do?? Is there anything I can do? Normally I would just contact Google to get a replacement (I've done this before when the 4.2 update was causing a lot of bricks,I think it was 4.2 anyway, I forgot) but I'd like to have a working phone for my 16 hour trip..... if possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Well, I never had heard of any devices that still stuck in the bootanimation after flashing the factory image. There is something really wrong.
Did you already tried flashing a custom rom? Can you boot into recovery?

CCody said:
Well, I never had heard of any devices that still stuck in the bootanimation after flashing the factory image. There is something really wrong.
Did you already tried flashing a custom rom? Can you boot into recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a Vanir 4.4.3 rom on my phone that I tried to flash as well, but for some reason it went right into "Optimizing Apps" after the first boot, something I hadn't seen before. Then it got stuck at "Starting Apps...", then after a restart, it too was stuck at the boot animation.
I can boot into recovery luckily, but that's all I can do. I have CWMR v6.0.3.5. I've tried just about everything I can think of. [edit] I was able to contact Google for some live chat support and am now #2 in the queue. Hopefully they can either help me or get a replacement going. Either way, I'd still love any help you guys can give me, I'd really like to get it fixed rather than waiting for a replacement.

Okay, try this: Wipe everything via recovery and with everything i mean really everything! Cache, dalvik, storage, your whole system. There must be nothing left on your phone. Then flash a rom of your choice. Wipe cache and dalvik afterwards and see if it works

CCody said:
Okay, try this: Wipe everything via recovery and with everything i mean really everything! Cache, dalvik, storage, your whole system. There must be nothing left on your phone. Then flash a rom of your choice. Wipe cache and dalvik afterwards and see if it works
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done that already, Factory Reset + wipe cache + wipe dalvik cache + format system/data/cache/sdcard/data/media. The phone was completely bare and that's when I sideloaded the stock 4.4.4 rom (otherwise it's stuck at the Google boot screen). I'll try it again, though.

Okay right now I'm using the Nexus Toolkit to flash the stock 4.4.4 .tgz image directly from google and unroot my phone (checking the option that the phone is Soft-bricked/Bootloop.
....Okay that finished and I'm still stuck at the boot animation and now I don't have CWMR. ****. [EDIT] But I can still boot into a custom recovery through the toolkit, which is good.

RawrNate said:
Okay right now I'm using the Nexus Toolkit to flash the stock 4.4.4 .tgz image directly from google and unroot my phone (checking the option that the phone is Soft-bricked/Bootloop.
....Okay that finished and I'm still stuck at the boot animation and now I don't have CWMR. ****. [EDIT] But I can still boot into a custom recovery through the toolkit, which is good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn, I really am stumped right now. That's really strange. Normally everything should be fine after a factory reset...
I've search several threads with bootloop problems, but none of them have this persistent bootloop. I believe you have damage your storage somehow, so that the system can't read the files and boot up properly. Maybe because of this 4.4.4 OTA update. Man, that's kinda sucks right now...

CCody said:
Damn, I really am stumped right now. That's really strange. Normally everything should be fine after a factory reset...
I've search several threads with bootloop problems, but none of them have this persistent bootloop. I believe you have damage your storage somehow, so that the system can't read the files and boot up properly. Maybe because of this 4.4.4 OTA update. Man, that's kinda sucks right now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah haha, it's really really strange. I appreciate you trying to help me, though! Lucky for me I'm getting a "One-time exception replacement" since my warranty is expired but they must be super stumped with the issue as well xD

I forgot something! Did you also flashed the 4.4.4 binaries?
https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/drivers#makoktu84p
I also read somewhere, that the LG Fashtool may help.
Try this out!

CCody said:
I forgot something! Did you also flashed the 4.4.4 binaries?
https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/drivers#makoktu84p
I also read somewhere, that the LG Fashtool may help.
Try this out!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, I didn't think I'd need to with the factory image, but I'll try that. I tried the 4.4.3 factory image as well but that didn't work either. I also can't find anything about the LG Flashtool that's Nexus 4 specific, but I'll try to look more into it.

Wait, how do I flash the binaries since they're .tgz files?

RawrNate said:
Hm, I didn't think I'd need to with the factory image, but I'll try that. I tried the 4.4.3 factory image as well but that didn't work either. I also can't find anything about the LG Flashtool that's Nexus 4 specific, but I'll try to look more into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is really strange man. Flashing stock ROM is the last resort but even that seems to be failing for you.
Have you tried downloading the stockRom again (just to make sure it isn't corrupted). Also, maybe you can try using TWRP instead of CWM this time.
Good luck.

RawrNate said:
Wait, how do I flash the binaries since they're .tgz files?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to flash them, since you are on a factory image, sry.

Woah now, I've made progress! Maybe.... Anyway, in TWRP, I "fixed permissions" and mounted "system" but now I'm at the "Android is Upgrading, Optimizing Apps - Starting Apps" screen again (it only had to optimize 23 apps?). I was at this issue before when I was flashing roms last night trying to fix it, but going back to here is better than not getting it to boot at all. What else should I try next?
Note: I'm on the 4.4.4 factory image now and TWRP is just temporary through the Nexus Root Toolkit.

RawrNate said:
Woah now, I've made progress! Maybe.... Anyway, in TWRP, I "fixed permissions" and mounted "system" but now I'm at the "Android is Upgrading, Optimizing Apps - Starting Apps" screen again (it only had to optimize 23 apps?). I was at this issue before when I was flashing roms last night trying to fix it, but going back to here is better than not getting it to boot at all. What else should I try next?
Note: I'm on the 4.4.4 factory image now and TWRP is just temporary through the Nexus Root Toolkit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And? Did it boot up or just stuck in 'optimizing apps'? I would suggest to try another android version, like 4.3 or 4.4.2 at least.

CCody said:
And? Did it boot up or just stuck in 'optimizing apps'? I would suggest to try another android version, like 4.3 or 4.4.2 at least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
30 minutes later and it's still at "Starting apps..."
I tried factory images of 4.4.3 and 4.3, still nothing.

RawrNate said:
30 minutes later and it's still at "Starting apps..."
I tried factory images of 4.4.3 and 4.3, still nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jesus!
What about custom ROM? Cyanogenmod maybe? Make sure to downlaod the M7-Release.

Hm, alright, I'll give that a shot.
On a side note, is there a way to lock the bootloader again while in either recovery or bootloader? I fear that if it's unlocked, I won't get the $250 refund for the replacement.

RawrNate said:
Hm, alright, I'll give that a shot.
On a side note, is there a way to lock the bootloader again while in either recovery or bootloader? I fear that if it's unlocked, I won't get the $250 refund for the replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZbvuikfnks

CCody said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZbvuikfnks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh good that was easier than I thought xD

6P still bootlooping after flashing stock.

So i was going to downgrade from android 7.0 (DigitalHigh6P rom). I flashed the newest 6.0.1 factory images, but no matter what i do, it still bootloops. I have tried sideloading an ota file, wiped everything several times. My bootloader is unlocked (of course).
I never get to the android boot animation.
what do?

I had the same issue upon installing N with complete stock. My bootloader was unlocked. I had to boot into recovery, wipe everything (I did it multiple times to be sure) and then in recovery I powered off the device. With N still installed I setup the phone WITHOUT restoring ANYTHING from Google. Upon the initial setup menu I started like it was a brand new phone and I had no Google account. Set that all up later. That ended my bootloop problem.
Unfortunately Wi-Fi password backup was huge for me and now it's gone. Everything else while a hassle was manageable, I'm hoping when the factory image is released I can start over and sign into my account and have that data restored.

318sugarhill said:
I had the same issue upon installing N with complete stock. My bootloader was unlocked. I had to boot into recovery, wipe everything (I did it multiple times to be sure) and then in recovery I powered off the device. With N still installed I setup the phone WITHOUT restoring ANYTHING from Google. Upon the initial setup menu I started like it was a brand new phone and I had no Google account. Set that all up later. That ended my bootloop problem.
Unfortunately Wi-Fi password backup was huge for me and now it's gone. Everything else while a hassle was manageable, I'm hoping when the factory image is released I can start over and sign into my account and have that data restored.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what did you use to update to N?

I was on the beta. I never flashed anything else. Like a dummy I had my adb commands backwards (was using adb instead of fastboot). Otherwise I would have reflashed MM.

Some other person had the exact same issue when going from 7.0 to 6.0.1
I will have to get a replacement. :/

same here.... guess this is the first brickable nexus device... the only thing that gets me to boot is if I flash N then flash the MM F vendor image, but it does not detect the sim card and camera don't work.

Mgrev said:
Some other person had the exact same issue when going from 7.0 to 6.0.1
I will have to get a replacement. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look in the other post about botched nougat install , some of us got phone working

yeah some but like most people say they got no backup available so it doesnt help @rbouza1

minidude2012 said:
yeah some but like most people say they got no backup available so it doesnt help @rbouza1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a twrp backup, but it doesn't help at all.

Mgrev said:
I have a twrp backup, but it doesn't help at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From that thread, my solution.
FragmentsOfLife said:
Okay, this is the method I used to fix my phone. The issue was the phone constantly alternating between the "Your device cannot be checked for corruption" screen and the white Google screen with the lock.
1. Flash a stock image (I used the August stock image MTC20F)
2. Fastboot flash TWRP 3.0.2-0
3. Boot into TWRP
4. Select Wipe -> Advanced Wipe -> Select and repair each partition individually (some won't be able to, and that's fine, just move on to the next one)
5. Restore a full nandroid backup (make sure everything is selected) and reboot
6. You should now be free of the never ending boots, and if your device is bootlooped at this point (stuck at the boot animation), you can just flash stock again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Mgrev said:
So i was going to downgrade from android 7.0 (DigitalHigh6P rom). I flashed the newest 6.0.1 factory images, but no matter what i do, it still bootloops. I have tried sideloading an ota file, wiped everything several times. My bootloader is unlocked (of course).
I never get to the android boot animation.
what do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please join this thread to help troubleshoot.
Hoping to find the answer for you!

Mgrev said:
So i was going to downgrade from android 7.0 (DigitalHigh6P rom). I flashed the newest 6.0.1 factory images, but no matter what i do, it still bootloops. I have tried sideloading an ota file, wiped everything several times. My bootloader is unlocked (of course).
I never get to the android boot animation.
what do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ur getting bootloops bcuz u didn't had cleared the dalvik and sys cache. try doing a sys format (along cleaning those ) and then do a fresh flash of android 6.0.1 then it'll definitely work. (Y)
-anidaniel

anidaniel said:
Ur getting bootloops bcuz u didn't had cleared the dalvik and sys cache. try doing a sys format (along cleaning those ) and then do a fresh flash of android 6.0.1 then it'll definitely work. (Y)
-anidaniel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have already done that, and it does not work.
I have already contacted my retailer about getting a replacement.