Database Users

soft brick phone flashing rom

I downloaded twrp and CM 10.1 CR2 for my MK2 4.3JB galaxy S4.
I made nandroids on the extra then went in used the wipe feature in twrp then loaded cm and gapps. Worked great and I love the ROM.
Went to put back nandroids. Used the wipe feature again then restored nandroid. Bootleg and stuck on the yellow sprint screen. Tried to flash Odin .tar and it started with a ton of FC then said something about data partition.
I had no choice but to factory wipe and I wanted to keep all my internal stuff. The stock to CM worked fine but just doing general wipe did not work to restore my nandroid.
The CM I noticed is 4.2.2. Is this an issue going back to stock 4.3 nandroid ?
I'm restoring the phone completely so it's fresh out of the box then rooting then using twrp to try to get back my old nandroid.
What did I do wrong in the process that caused it to stall on the yellow sprint screen ?

Now that I think about it I did probably a "dirty" flash since. I did not completely factory wipe the phone just the dalvik cache, cache and the last item on TWRP.

Once you go to 4.3...aka MJA or MK2 you cannot go backwards. So that may have been your issue. Try stayin with 4.3 or up
If you say "Please"... be sure and "Hit Thanks!!!"

OK I tried again after wiping, flashing 4.3, rooting, setting up TWRP.
I wiped everything and when I made my nandroids I checked ALL the boxes. I'm currently on CyanogenMod which works fine but I cant restore my nandroid. I wiped all then used restore from my SD card. I have twrp 2.6.3.0 I think.
I'm still getting stuck on the sprint screen. Help !

Don know about checking everything?? I make sure that SE Linux is checked (i use philz) and then save to SD. Have had zero issues so far and I bounce from 4.3 TW to 4.4 AOSP daily. Sorry I've never used TWRP so I cannot begin to help troubleshoot.
If you say "Please"... be sure and "Hit Thanks!!!"

I just want to make sure you are not wiping before you create the nandroid backup. I reread your post and it was unclear. When creating the backup you should not wipe first. Next, when switching between AOSP and Touchwiz things can get tricky. Usually a failure to boot is after doing a nandroid is caused by the kernel not being correct for the rom installed. It would probably be best to keep an AOSP kernel and a Touchwiz Kernel on your sdcard so you can flash it after you restore the nandroid backup to ensure the proper kernel is in place.
Secondly, it was mentioned above that you can't go back to 4.2.2 after going 4.3. This is actually incorrect. You cannot flash a stock tar of an older 4.2.2 rom through odin if you have the MJA (AKA Knox bootloader). You can however flash a 4.2.2 rom using recovery since it does not attempt to change the bootloader.

cruise350 said:
I just want to make sure you are not wiping before you create the nandroid backup. I reread your post and it was unclear. When creating the backup you should not wipe first. Next, when switching between AOSP and Touchwiz things can get tricky. Usually a failure to boot is after doing a nandroid is caused by the kernel not being correct for the rom installed. It would probably be best to keep an AOSP kernel and a Touchwiz Kernel on your sdcard so you can flash it after you restore the nandroid backup to ensure the proper kernel is in place.
Secondly, it was mentioned above that you can't go back to 4.2.2 after going 4.3. This is actually incorrect. You cannot flash a stock tar of an older 4.2.2 rom through odin if you have the MJA (AKA Knox bootloader). You can however flash a 4.2.2 rom using recovery since it does not attempt to change the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I wiped before making the nandroid, but I'm not sure. I have the Sprint GS4, and the nandroid was a 4.3 (Dec 2013) firmware.
Can you help me out here, I'm really lost. Do I need to flash a Touchwiz kernel on top of the nandroid through TWRP (flashing multiple zips) ? Where do I get the kernel ?

Made a nandroid of my Cyanogen Mod. Wiped phone and restored Cyanogen Mod nandroid. No problem. Worked fine. Just the original that I made is not working.

mikeprius said:
Made a nandroid of my Cyanogen Mod. Wiped phone and restored Cyanogen Mod nandroid. No problem. Worked fine. Just the original that I made is not working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a lot of people that have had problems switching between Cyanogen Mod and Touchwiz using nandroid restores. It usually is the Touchwiz kernel not being restored when restoring the backup. When you boot up, you won't get past the initial boot screen. If this happens, you should just have to reboot back in to recovery and flash a TW kernel then reboot or after your restore your nandroid backup, just flash the TW kernel before rebooting. Look in the Android Development section for a custom TW kernel or you can try this kernel that unkownforce posted from his Triforce rom: http://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23321874045862620

cruise350- You are my hero. The nandroid DID come back and is working This has racked my brain all night and I am so so glad that I got my nandroid back.
I do have a few more questions:
1. The Wifi is not working ?
2. It appears that my Sprint is on 3G, and not going to 4G LTE ? Do I need to do something with this ? I also am getting errors trying to update my profile and PRL.
3. Is a custom TW kernel always required to be used, is there a stock Samsung TW kernel ?
Thanks a TON ! I couldn't figure out it for the life of me. Other than that I have been enjoying Cyanogen Mod. Using goomanager it looks like some CM versions are not flashable with TWRP and only by Clockworkmod.

on some roms i know that if you don't use the kernel that comes with it the wifi doesn't work. maybe try stock? in your mobile network settings, is your preferred network type "lte/cdma/evdo'? i'm sure there's a stock kernel on the forum somewhere.

It was set on global, so I switched it thanks for the heads up. Wifi still out of commission though. Once I get this set up, I'm eager to try new ROMs. I'm still on the fence about TWRP though. It's a nice interface vs. Clockwork, but it seems like most files out there cater more to CWM

mikeprius said:
It was set on global, so I switched it thanks for the heads up. Wifi still out of commission though. Once I get this set up, I'm eager to try new ROMs. I'm still on the fence about TWRP though. It's a nice interface vs. Clockwork, but it seems like most files out there cater more to CWM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i can't really give advice on that since all i've used is cwm. idk what kernel that one is, but i think it now comes with kt-sgs4. maybe the one from before? i looked around and i couldn't find a stock kernel by itself for mja or later. if you extract the boot.img from a stock rom the kernel and ram disk are in there. how easily you could screw up your phone doing that is beyond my experience, so maybe try a different custom kernel and wait for somebody else's advice for the boot.img thing?

Wifi AND booting (as @cruise350 mentioned) are almost always a kernel issue.
What ROM are you actaully on?
How did you get there, your nandroid?
What kernel are you now using and how did you flash it?
Have you tried gonig into settings, turning off wifi, wait a moment and then trying to turn back on?
Sounds like you should flash a stock(based) TW ROM and go from there. That often clears up connection issues.
Also might want to set your 'network type' back to automatic.
As for CWM and TWRP both are superb just make sure you follow the ROM developers recommendation as to which to use. (Philz is a CWM based recovery). There are .tars and zips of the latest of each here in these forums.
Please spend some time here reading, searching and then reading some more. You will find all the answers to your questions and it will give you a huge grasp of what is what and how to do things properly.
Good luck.

I am currently on the L720VPUEMK2 ROM 4.3 for Sprint. Android version 4.3 (Dec 2013 update).
I used TWRP 6.2.3.0 to flash Cyanogen Mod 10.2 nightly version (not sure if matters specifically which one).
My kernel was from TriForceKernel on the link above. It says 3.4.0-gb72521e-dirty. I flashed it after I flashed my recovery after wiping the device including internal data, cache, dalvik cache via install .zip in TWRP then rebooted.
The phone has loaded up but does not seem to be toggling between 4G LTE and the wifi is busted. I checked my nandroid and it says there is a boot file in it.
When I created my nandroid, I checked all the boxes, then slide the toggle which was supposed to create a back up for all 6 segments. I'm not sure why the boot.img isn't loading, it's part of the recovery that saved it. The settings seem to be as I left them....there are just some little things that are problematic.
I have a boot.emmc and boot.emmc.win both that are part of the nandroid recovery that has been flashed yet it gets stuck on the splash screen.

Well I'd just wipe and try any one of the FIVE TW ROMs that have been dropped in the last 7 days.
Trying to fix whatever is your issue could take hours or days.
Wiping completely (as per whichever dev's ROM you choose), installing said ROM, and starting from scratch will assure you phone works AND give you the best chance to get stuff working.
I dirty flash, restore and install ROMs all the time.
However When I absolutely want to know I'll have a good working ROM I clean flash. Wipes, setup, let Google restore apps, debloat restored (and stock apps!) then setup each setting and app to my liking. Titanium comes in real handy - after all my apps are re-downloaded I can selectively restore data to those that need it (Kindle, newsreader, SMS, Call Logs etc.)
Try that - installing clean new ROM and see what happens. Then go from there. Or don't and spend another couple days without a completely working phone.

Cant figure out how to install custom rom, without loosing root acces

Dear XDA
I have been an android user for many years and rooting has been one of the things I always did to my devices. I am an owner of a Note 3, which I have rooted succesfully and used X-NOTE 13 rom for long time. Last week I wanted to try something new and after that everything seems to be impossible. Before I install any roms I always perfom full wipe of, system, data, cache, dalvik cache etc. (I do it inside the recovery). Afterwards I tried to install CRASH ROM V9 and the progress went fine. When the phone rebooted the strange things started to happened I couldn't find the rom's extra menu and couldnt find any of the functions that the rom contained. I just thought that it was problem with the rom itself therefore I tried to went back to X-NOTE, but without any luck. The X-NOTE installed probably but I couldnt boot into it, it was stucked at the "Samsung Note 3" logo. I tried to wipe cache and dalvik but without any luck and every time I rebooted from the recovery the recovery says "it seems your device doesnt have root access" and the recovery tries to gain root access.
Then I couldnt understand anything of what was happening so I went to stock using ODIN. After installing stock rom I used CF-ROOT and everythings went smooth and I could use SuperSU inside the stock rom. Then I installed a recovery and it didn't mentioned anything about root access, so I was ready to install my custom rom...at least I thought so....I installed X-NOTE again (because I knew that this rom worked before without any problems) and after the progress was done I couldnt boot into the rom again, it was stucked. I wiped the cache and dalvik and as soon I clicked reboot in recovery it tells me that I am not rooted.
Then I did the same thing again, went back to stock, installed CF-ROOT and recovery. This time I installed CRASH ROM instead and I could boot into the system, but the rom still misses the "rooted features" etc.
In other words, what have I done wrong? I cant seem to find the problem and I think that I have tried every possible solution?
Informations:
Model: ​SM-N9005
STOCK ROM: Tried both N9005XXUENB4 (German) and N9005XXUENC2 (Nordic firmware)
Custom Rom: Tried both X-NOTE and CRASH ROM
Recoveries used: TWRP, CWM and Philz CWM
Kernels: Tried with stock one and X-NOTE kernel 1.5
I hope you can help me I cant live with stock roms
Thanks in advance
Regards,
Nepoznati

Nepoznati said:
Dear XDA
I have been an android user for many years and rooting has been one of the things I always did to my devices. I am an owner of a Note 3, which I have rooted succesfully and used X-NOTE 13 rom for long time. Last week I wanted to try something new and after that everything seems to be impossible. Before I install any roms I always perfom full wipe of, system, data, cache, dalvik cache etc. (I do it inside the recovery). Afterwards I tried to install CRASH ROM V9 and the progress went fine. When the phone rebooted the strange things started to happened I couldn't find the rom's extra menu and couldnt find any of the functions that the rom contained. I just thought that it was problem with the rom itself therefore I tried to went back to X-NOTE, but without any luck. The X-NOTE installed probably but I couldnt boot into it, it was stucked at the "Samsung Note 3" logo. I tried to wipe cache and dalvik but without any luck and every time I rebooted from the recovery the recovery says "it seems your device doesnt have root access" and the recovery tries to gain root access.
Then I couldnt understand anything of what was happening so I went to stock using ODIN. After installing stock rom I used CF-ROOT and everythings went smooth and I could use SuperSU inside the stock rom. Then I installed a recovery and it didn't mentioned anything about root access, so I was ready to install my custom rom...at least I thought so....I installed X-NOTE again (because I knew that this rom worked before without any problems) and after the progress was done I couldnt boot into the rom again, it was stucked. I wiped the cache and dalvik and as soon I clicked reboot in recovery it tells me that I am not rooted.
Then I did the same thing again, went back to stock, installed CF-ROOT and recovery. This time I installed CRASH ROM instead and I could boot into the system, but the rom still misses the "rooted features" etc.
In other words, what have I done wrong? I cant seem to find the problem and I think that I have tried every possible solution?
Informations:
Model: ​SM-N9005
STOCK ROM: Tried both N9005XXUENB4 (German) and N9005XXUENC2 (Nordic firmware)
Custom Rom: Tried both X-NOTE and CRASH ROM
Recoveries used: TWRP, CWM and Philz CWM
Kernels: Tried with stock one and X-NOTE kernel 1.5
I hope you can help me I cant live with stock roms
Thanks in advance
Regards,
Nepoznati
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
weird.
all the rom you mentioned xnote & crash come with root access inside.
When you said you used all those 3 recoveries, did you try each rom with each recovery ?
and when you flash those rom, did you follow to do a clean full wipe as mentioned on each OP thread ?
clean full wipe is not only wipe cache and dalvik, but also the data (factory reset).

antique_sonic said:
weird.
all the rom you mentioned xnote & crash come with root access inside.
When you said you used all those 3 recoveries, did you try each rom with each recovery ?
and when you flash those rom, did you follow to do a clean full wipe as mentioned on each OP thread ?
clean full wipe is not only wipe cache and dalvik, but also the data (factory reset).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I have and tried several other combinations too. First time I installed X-NOTE I wiped everything and installed X-NOTE without problems.
I cant seem to break the code, I am getting frustrated hour by hour. I have double checked everything, I am on the NC2 bootloader with the NC2 kernel, when trying to install X-NOTE I get stuck at "Samsung Glaxy Note 3" - I cant understand what the problem may be and it is beginning to be personal :/ heheh
But seriously what could I have done wrong?

Nepoznati said:
Yes I have and tried several other combinations too. First time I installed X-NOTE I wiped everything and installed X-NOTE without problems.
I cant seem to break the code, I am getting frustrated hour by hour. I have double checked everything, I am on the NC2 bootloader with the NC2 kernel, when trying to install X-NOTE I get stuck at "Samsung Glaxy Note 3" - I cant understand what the problem may be and it is beginning to be personal :/ heheh
But seriously what could I have done wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be frank... I have no idea. U flash before earlier, means u know how to flash it.
What I could think of, is just the recovery.
I ve been using cwm chenglu all this time (the one reported with less bugs, and most recommended at any rom thread). And jump from rom to rom every 1 week at least with no issue.
I will try tonite use twrp to flash rom. I will let u know if I face any problem.

SOLVED
antique_sonic said:
To be frank... I have no idea. U flash before earlier, means u know how to flash it.
What I could think of, is just the recovery.
I ve been using cwm chenglu all this time (the one reported with less bugs, and most recommended at any rom thread). And jump from rom to rom every 1 week at least with no issue.
I will try tonite use twrp to flash rom. I will let u know if I face any problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally, finally and finally solved!
Well it seems strange but the problem was the official kernel inside the stock roms that made it almost impossible to run any custom rom.
What I did to solve the problem:
1. Went back to stock rom using a rom with the newest baseband NC2, ex. N9005XXUENC2
1a. I did have som problems getting the bootloader updated, which means I was force to install it over ODIN 3.09 - use this bootloader NC2 BOOTLOADER (Thanks soloilmeglio for the bootloader)
2. I used CF-ROOT to gain root access
3. Then I installed CWM 6.0.4.8 recovery as recommended from antique_sonic (Updated few hours ago!)
4. Install the CivZ-SnapKat-Rev3.1-sm_n9005-4.4.2.zip kernel
5. Lets the phone reboot and check that everything works!
7: Boot into recovery and wipe system, data, cache, dalvik cache
8. Install the custom rom
Dont ask me why the kernel wasn't working from beginning and why it was "corrupted" after installing another custom rom - but now everything works as it should!
Thank you very much antique_sonic for helping me!

Nepoznati said:
Finally, finally and finally solved!
Well it seems strange but the problem was the official kernel inside the stock roms that made it almost impossible to run any custom rom.
What I did to solve the problem:
1. Went back to stock rom using a rom with the newest baseband NC2, ex. N9005XXUENC2
1a. I did have som problems getting the bootloader updated, which means I was force to install it over ODIN 3.09 - use this bootloader NC2 BOOTLOADER (Thanks soloilmeglio for the bootloader)
2. I used CF-ROOT to gain root access
3. Then I installed CWM 6.0.4.8 recovery as recommended from antique_sonic (Updated few hours ago!)
4. Install the CivZ-SnapKat-Rev3.1-sm_n9005-4.4.2.zip kernel
5. Lets the phone reboot and check that everything works!
7: Boot into recovery and wipe system, data, cache, dalvik cache
8. Install the custom rom
Dont ask me why the kernel wasn't working from beginning and why it was "corrupted" after installing another custom rom - but now everything works as it should!
Thank you very much antique_sonic for helping me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good then to know ur phone is okay.
I fully wipe with twrp last nite. And flash xnote. Hang at boot after done.
Fully wipe again, and flash assassins. A lot fc here and there.
I flash back cwm chenglu, full wipe, and flash back xnote. Now it runs nicely.
My phone not suit with twrp.

antique_sonic said:
Good then to know ur phone is okay.
I fully wipe with twrp last nite. And flash xnote. Hang at boot after done.
Fully wipe again, and flash assassins. A lot fc here and there.
I flash back cwm chenglu, full wipe, and flash back xnote. Now it runs nicely.
My phone not suit with twrp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could probably be a problem with TWRP as you mentioned earlier. After using CWM everything went smooth after updating my kernel. Last night I couldnt hold me back to try one more time, and I flashed X-NOTE with TWRP and I got the same problem as described in #1 post. Then I installed CWM and flashed X-NOTE again and everything got messed up. Then I restored everything, force installed the kernel and bootlaoder. After that installed CWM and then I was able to run X-NOTE without any problem.
I am not a professional developer but I may think that the problem is TWRP when it tries to flash the kernel under the process with may results in some problems. When using CWM from the beginning I do not get any problems but when using TWRP I need to restore everything back.

[Q] lost IMEI after flashing Temasek's CM12.1 v. 14.9

Hi,
I very much hope you can help me with this issue.
I wanted to flashTemasek's CM 12.1 v. 14.9 on a N9005 running stock Lollipop (N905XXUGBOE9_N9005DBTGBOF1). After much reading, I believed it would be best to first downgrade to stock 4.4.2 (N9005XXUENB4_N9005DBTENB1_DBT). I then flashed TWRP 2.8.7.0 hlte 4.4. Could this be the reason? I later read that for Kitkat 4.4.2 without updates I should have rather used the 4.3 version of TWRP. I did a backup of the system including efs. After that I flashed Temasek's CM 12.1 v.14.9 doing a clean install by following the steps outlined in the thread:
Clean Installation
1. Download the appropriate ROM using links provide in the second post.
2. Download the appropriate GApps following the links in the second post.
3. Back up any and all important data.
5. WIPE DALVIK/CACHE/DATA/FACTORY RESET.
6. WIPE SYSTEM.
7. Flash the ROM in recovery.
7.1. DO NOT FIX PERMISSIONS AFTER FLASHING, doing so will cause a bootloop.
8. Flash the GApps.
9. WIPE DALVIK/CACHE (for good measure).
10. Reboot Device.
Flashing went fine, but the phone did not recognize the SIM card. Initially believing that this might be an issue with the ROM, I downgraded to Temasek's CM 12.1 v. 14 only to find that I was having similar issues. I then tried to restore the backup I created earlier but basically only got a black screen and a ton of notifications that apps had stopped working. I then tried to flash back stock kitkat (N9005XXUENB7_N9005DBTENB2) hoping that this would work with my version of TWRP but have had no success. Before causing any further trouble, I was hoping that some kind soul would be capable of and willing to help me with this. How can I recover my efs from the backup created with TWRP? And how can I finally restore my phone and hopefully end up with the ROM I was trying to flash? Any help is very much appreciated!
Thank you!

django e said:
Hi,
I very much hope you can help me with this issue.
I wanted to flashTemasek's CM 12.1 v. 14.9 on a N9005 running stock Lollipop (N905XXUGBOE9_N9005DBTGBOF1). After much reading, I believed it would be best to first downgrade to stock 4.4.2 (N9005XXUENB4_N9005DBTENB1_DBT). I then flashed TWRP 2.8.7.0 hlte 4.4. Could this be the reason? I later read that for Kitkat 4.4.2 without updates I should have rather used the 4.3 version of TWRP. I did a backup of the system including efs. After that I flashed Temasek's CM 12.1 v.14.9 doing a clean install by following the steps outlined in the thread:
Clean Installation
1. Download the appropriate ROM using links provide in the second post.
2. Download the appropriate GApps following the links in the second post.
3. Back up any and all important data.
5. WIPE DALVIK/CACHE/DATA/FACTORY RESET.
6. WIPE SYSTEM.
7. Flash the ROM in recovery.
7.1. DO NOT FIX PERMISSIONS AFTER FLASHING, doing so will cause a bootloop.
8. Flash the GApps.
9. WIPE DALVIK/CACHE (for good measure).
10. Reboot Device.
Flashing went fine, but the phone did not recognize the SIM card. Initially believing that this might be an issue with the ROM, I downgraded to Temasek's CM 12.1 v. 14 only to find that I was having similar issues. I then tried to restore the backup I created earlier but basically only got a black screen and a ton of notifications that apps had stopped working. I then tried to flash back stock kitkat (N9005XXUENB7_N9005DBTENB2) hoping that this would work with my version of TWRP but have had no success. Before causing any further trouble, I was hoping that some kind soul would be capable of and willing to help me with this. How can I recover my efs from the backup created with TWRP? And how can I finally restore my phone and hopefully end up with the ROM I was trying to flash? Any help is very much appreciated!
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who said you need 4.4 to update to cm12.1? You need 5.0 bootloader. That's what you had.
Maybe use another version of twrp. I use 2.8.5? And it's fine.
In twrp go to back up and restore. Restore by navigating to location of your back up.

kenny1991 said:
Who said you need 4.4 to update to cm12.1? You need 5.0 bootloader. That's what you had.
Maybe use another version of twrp. I use 2.8.5? And it's fine.
In twrp go to back up and restore. Restore by navigating to location of your back up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I managed to restore the imei flashing stock lollipop. I initially downgraded because it seemed to me that all instructions were based on kitkat and not much information was available on lollipop. Just wanted to make sure I followed the instructions to the letter. Stupid me...
I tried to restore efs the way you describe it, but it didn't work out for me. Thankfully, things are back to normal now and I will flash cm12.1 directly from stock lollipop now.
Thanks for taking the time to help!

[Q] N910G won't boot after TWRP restore?

Hi All,
Just wondering what's going on with my phone - it's a Galaxy Note 4 SM-N910G with Optus Australia.
Here's the situation:
I rooted my phone using Chainfire method from 5.1.1 Optus firmware.
Then, I installed TWRP, backed up all partitions (INCLUDING EFS).
After that, installed Cyanogenmod. Holy damn, I need to go back to stock...
so...
I booted back into TWRP
I reset phone as usually would to restore/install ROM.
I restored firmware backup in TWRP.
Reboot to system
-- BOOTLOOP --
happens every time i try to restore, and the only way I can use my phone right now is to reflash Cyanogenmod 12.1 nightlies onto it - which have problems (such as I cannot reboot with CM12.1 because if I do after installing it, the phone app breaks and I cannot get past anything because of toast message "com.android.phone" has stopped..., so then only way to get it to work again is to reflash CM12.1 again - this happens about twice daily...)
-- -- PLEASE HELP!
What happens to TWRP backups that mean i cannot restore my stock backup without it bootlooping? and why can devs not post a clean stock flashable ZIP copy of stock firmwares? Its great having all these mods, but how about something that doesn't require umpteen thousand bloody applications to reflash your phone with? Whatever happened to a simple ZIP? when I see ZIPs, devs see thanks buttons being pushed!
-- THANKS

MrDhark32 said:
Hi All,
Just wondering what's going on with my phone - it's a Galaxy Note 4 SM-N910G with Optus Australia.
Here's the situation:
I rooted my phone using Chainfire method from 5.1.1 Optus firmware.
Then, I installed TWRP, backed up all partitions (INCLUDING EFS).
After that, installed Cyanogenmod. Holy damn, I need to go back to stock...
so...
I booted back into TWRP
I reset phone as usually would to restore/install ROM.
I restored firmware backup in TWRP.
Reboot to system
-- BOOTLOOP --
happens every time i try to restore, and the only way I can use my phone right now is to reflash Cyanogenmod 12.1 nightlies onto it - which have problems (such as I cannot reboot with CM12.1 because if I do after installing it, the phone app breaks and I cannot get past anything because of toast message "com.android.phone" has stopped..., so then only way to get it to work again is to reflash CM12.1 again - this happens about twice daily...)
-- -- PLEASE HELP!
What happens to TWRP backups that mean i cannot restore my stock backup without it bootlooping? and why can devs not post a clean stock flashable ZIP copy of stock firmwares? Its great having all these mods, but how about something that doesn't require umpteen thousand bloody applications to reflash your phone with? Whatever happened to a simple ZIP? when I see ZIPs, devs see thanks buttons being pushed!
-- THANKS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/help/n910c-to-stock-rom-cm13-t3321132 :good:

One possible solution is to flash the appropriate stock rom via odin. After booting, install twrp and root your phone. After this you can restore your previously saved stock rom via twrp.

MrDhark32 said:
Hi All,
Just wondering what's going on with my phone - it's a Galaxy Note 4 SM-N910G with Optus Australia.
Here's the situation:
I rooted my phone using Chainfire method from 5.1.1 Optus firmware.
Then, I installed TWRP, backed up all partitions (INCLUDING EFS).
After that, installed Cyanogenmod. Holy damn, I need to go back to stock...
so...
I booted back into TWRP
I reset phone as usually would to restore/install ROM.
I restored firmware backup in TWRP.
Reboot to system
-- BOOTLOOP --
happens every time i try to restore, and the only way I can use my phone right now is to reflash Cyanogenmod 12.1 nightlies onto it - which have problems (such as I cannot reboot with CM12.1 because if I do after installing it, the phone app breaks and I cannot get past anything because of toast message "com.android.phone" has stopped..., so then only way to get it to work again is to reflash CM12.1 again - this happens about twice daily...)
-- -- PLEASE HELP!
What happens to TWRP backups that mean i cannot restore my stock backup without it bootlooping? and why can devs not post a clean stock flashable ZIP copy of stock firmwares? Its great having all these mods, but how about something that doesn't require umpteen thousand bloody applications to reflash your phone with? Whatever happened to a simple ZIP? when I see ZIPs, devs see thanks buttons being pushed!
-- THANKS
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Click to collapse
Sorry no help from me but I have a similar problem. At some point mine quit booting to TWRP and I got a huge OTA update a few days ago and every time I try to boot into recovery it ends up in Stock Recovery only after going to little android saying installing updates(it fails & eventually goes to stock recovery.) I did a reset and still have 5.1.1 installed and still have the same behavior.
I have the professional version of the unified toolkit and it says if it is still booting into stock recovery select options 7, 3 which I did but it didn't fix the problem. I think what's getting me is it thinks there are still system updates to install.

Questions about bootloader and downgrading on s4, help

Okay, please bear with me as i am new to this flashing custom ROM's game.
I got a intl Galaxy s4 (gti9505) a month back. After reading a lot, i flashed TWRP, and installed a custom ROM (Lineage Optimized 14.1) It runs absurdly great, and i dont think i'll need to replace this OS. BUT if i need to downgrade for whatever reason (im sure i will soft-brick the phone soon, because im testing a lot.) I have some questions:
- Some posts says i can flash back to 5.0 and upper, because the bootloader is the same (???)
- Some posts says i cant flash back to anything below my actual OS (android 7.1) (?????)
- Some posts says i cant flash STOCK ROMS because the bootloader is different. (???????)
- Could i HARD BRICK the phone, wrongly installing stuff via TWRP? or is TWRP functional "forever?''
- I did a big ass backup of android 5.0 before, when i installed TWRP. Can i reflash back to this, at any time?
I'd like to avoid any kind of brick, so help is very much appreciated. Thank you very much for helping a fellow android fan :good:

You can always flash the latest stock ROM to the phone using Odin. There is no stock ROM beyond 5.01 as far as I know.
Yes, you can hard brick the phone by flashing files through TWRP.
How did you create the 5.0 backup?

Thank you. +1 :good:
I did the backup via twrp, i think it was nandroid or something.
One last little question. What happens if i flash, say a custom ROM that is android 6.0 on TWRP right now (Doing the correct stuff and wiping what is needed). Will it Softbrick?
if yes, could you tell me why?

neru21 said:
Thank you. +1 :good:
I did the backup via twrp, i think it was nandroid or something.
One last little question. What happens if i flash, say a custom ROM that is android 6.0 on TWRP right now (Doing the correct stuff and wiping what is needed). Will it Softbrick?
if yes, could you tell me why?
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Click to collapse
It should not softbrick if you are flashing a custom ROM that is designed for your phone's model #.
If it does softbrick, there are two major causes: a full wipe of the data and cache partitions is required before installing the ROM or a full wipe of the phone (system, data, cache) using recovery is required before installing the custom ROM.