Database Users

[Q] [PROBLEM SOLVED] Flashing with ODIN, stalling at factoryfs.rfs, what now?

[EDIT 3] Worked fine, finally, thanks for all the help.
[EDIT 2] Yeah, I don't know how it happened or what happened, but I got a lot further. I started to get Odin failing at recovery and then remembered this thread which I found earlier: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=907261&page=2
Basically did it exactly like how the OP fixed it, and the phone is currently being flashed.
But now I have a different problem, seems I can't get a break.
http://img651.imageshack.us/i/stuck.jpg/
It's stuck there, should I just wait? Is it supposed to take a while? Or is there a problem? Been there for about an hour now.
[EDIT] So the phone works now, but Odin won't flash for me. What could the problem be if it's stuck on Initializing (or rather, Initialzing as the program puts it)? I've tried 1.61, 1.7, used the DI18 file and removed the md5 bit so that the file ends in .tar, etc
Hey, so I've been desperately trying to return my Epic to stock DI18, and I tried clockwork mod which didn't work, and then I tried doing it through Odin, and it kept hanging on Initializing.
Anyway, I keep trying with Odin, and ended up taking out my battery and putting it back in, but now the phone won't turn on. It doesn't turn on normally, not through download mode, not recovery, nothing.
Any help? What can I do? I tried searching but every result ends up being about turning on bluetooth or wifi, etc., and the few that are related to bricking talk about going into download mode to flash with Odin.

I hope you didn't take the battery out while flashing odin...
you can't turn it on in any way right?
can you charge it via usb? maybe you just ran out of power while flashing?

Uh, yeah, that's exactly what I did. Every time Odin would hang at Initializing, I'd have to remove the battery and restart the phone to try again.
God, I am so stupid, it is ridiculous.
The battery did have a decent amount of charge last time I checked though.

Hold down 1 and power and insert battery while holding them. That should get you into d/l mode. Taking out the battery while odin is stuck on initializing does not harm the phone.
Sent from my Bonzai'd Epic 4g.

I just did something like what you said leather, and I got it into download mode.
Now I'm afraid to do anything. Any reason why my flashing through Odin wouldn't work?

Odin is picky about the computer its running on. I used a laptop when i first started flashing..no issues ever.
Fixed my desktop and instantly ran into odin problems. Try changing USB ports and make sure youve got no firewalls running.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Yeah, what I don't know how it happened or what happened, but I got a lot further. I started to get Odin failing at recovery and then remembered this thread which I found earlier: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=907261&page=2
Basically did it exactly like how the OP fixed it, and the phone is currently being flashed.
But now I have a different problem, seems I can't get a break.
http://img651.imageshack.us/i/stuck.jpg/
It's stuck there, should I just wait? Is it supposed to take a while? Or is there a problem? Been there for maybe 5-6 minutes now.

The factory always takes the longest; so give it time. And do NOT pull the battery at that point. Youll have to say good bye epic :<
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

How did this end up? Did it move past FACTORY FS?

Nope, still stuck in that same exact place. Is it supposed to take this long or has something gone wrong?

Could I unplug it and try again at this point, or would that brick it? It's just stuck there, what do I do? I'd love to try different usb ports and such, but I can't if I don't stop this process, just don't know how to do it without bricking it.
And thanks for the help so far.

Did you remove the. Md5 at the end of the tar file?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

No, I put the md5 back to start from the beginning with everything as it comes from downloads and such.
What do I do about it right now though? Can I safely unplug it and restart it or...?

Seems like you have no choice but to unplug it. Removing the md5 shouldn't make a difference. Try a different USB port.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Yeah, thankfully it didn't brick. I feel like I'm walking through a minefield with this thing.
Anyway, switched ports, had the file renamed to end in .tar, made sure Odin was opened as administrator in Windows 7, and thankfully it flashed fine.
Now I'm back at vanilla 2.1, can start fresh in terms of upgrading, was having some problems earlier. Is that GPS locking problem present in 2.3? Assuming I put ClockworkMod 3 on it and have the file system reset to EXT4, can I just flash to 2.3 ROMs right away?

Such problems
Hi everyone,
Skip this first paragraph if you just want to read my steps from problems to solution:
I hope this post helps people who were in the same situation I was in.
A few days ago I just happened to read the news about the new gingerbread for the AT&T i997 Samsung Infuse. I read that it wasn't over the air. Because of what has been seeming as a bluetooth leak after trying everything to stop the leak up to hard resetting it, I figured I'd pray that gingerbread fixes it. So on went my quest in the last few days trying to get this gingerbread update as fast as I could.
1) I downloaded keys mini for the Samsung device which was needed for the upgrade. I installed it on my main pc which is windows 7 64 bit. After installation, it's first run, it automatically updated the application.
2) I plugged in my phone via usb and it said device not registered so I got in contact with a Samsung rep in chat who told me to register it and it would take 24 hours.
3) I registered on Samsung and waited about 48 hours and still no change.
4) Got impatient and read about GTG Ultimate unbrick which is supposed to return my stock phone back to it's out of box condition which eliminated what I thought as an error with my phone of it not being registered.
5) Now after plugging it in after the unbrick. I got a message stating "device already up to date". I kept getting this for the last couple days. Sigh
6) Read that I could download the new gingerbread stock ROM without being rooted. Just had to use the ODIN3 I got with the GTG Ultimate unbrick zip file and supply the ROM I997UCKL2-Homebinary.tar.md5 as the input file.
7) Follow basically same instructions as unbricking but not reformatting and just supplying the md5 file as the input for hte PDA button then clicking start.
8) Odin 3 message status window was stuck at setupconnection and I knew this wasnt right. It was stuck for over 15 minutes and it should only do that for a minute or less.
9) Unplugged usb and big error in red on Odin 3 (but didn't have a choice)
10) Tried removing battery and retrying the flash but now a bigger issue the screen was all colored specs or in other words multi colored spots. Rut roh!
11) After scratching my head and googling like crazy some others had the same issue and they mentioned removing the battery and trying again but didn't mention that the spots would remain on the screen while the items could be flashed fine.
12) Tried again this time it got past setupconnection but was stuck at initializing.
13) Thought to myself let me try it on my Windows Vista 32 laptop.
14) Voila. It worked. So don't give up if you see the colored spots on your screen. There still is a chance. I now have gingerbread. THANKS EVERYONE!
Next Morning Update:
I was too quick to be happy. It seems I am one of the small few who is having touch sensitivity issues and lag typing on the lower right side of the screen especially with the back key (backspace). I typed my first reply to an email and the third word in the backspace was completely disabled.

Glad you got it working.

Am i the only one when i saw "what now" immediately thought about that lead paint commercial ?

iSaint said:
Am i the only one when i saw "what now" immediately thought about that lead paint commercial ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GTG Ultimate unbrick zip is missing can u re-up it plz?

Acer 500a Rooted and unable to update

I have an Acer 500a I just bought off carigslist. Initially I thought it would be fine but then I realized I was inheriting someone elses problems. I hope someone may be able to help.
Within the first few hours I was noticing google Play crashed a number of times and struggled to update from Market. Somehow the update went through but now there is a system update that won't go through. I'm able to down load it and when i restart the computer to complete installation the screen goes black and says: booting recovery kernel in the corner. I then see a picture of an android and a load bar which after 2-4 seconds the android is on his back and an exclaimation mark is coming out of his belly.
My android version is 3.2
Kernel version
2.6.36.3+
Build number
Acer_a500_7.006.01_COM_GEN2
I'm pretty sure its rooted and i think that might be why its not playing nice with google market and system updates. I called the old owner and explained the problem and he just said he had it rooted and he thought he unrooted it. There is an ap called superuser in aps. (although if it were rooted would'nt I be able to uninstal some of thecrap software it comes with like GOLF HD? -- it won't let me).
The system update is for Acer_a500_7.014.01_COM_GEN2 8.88mb
My problem is all of the force closes I'm getting and the inability to update the system. Any thoughts? I don't have a usb cord to connect it to a desktop either =(

I am a bit out of practice, but...
Should be pretty simple to fix. From what I am seeing, you are running a stock rom. Just because the superuser.apk is installed on the system does not mean it is rooted, but it probably is.
Hit the market, grab "Root Checker" - simple tiny program to let you know for sure if your tab is rooted or not.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=burrows.apps.rootchecker&hl=en
From what I understand - automatic system updates will fail when trying to apply them to a rooted or modded system. Probably why you cannot auto-update.
My advice at this point would be to:
1) Since you just bought it, just do a factory wipe on it. That will remove all the stuff the prior owner had running on it and will result in a unrooted tab that should be able to get auto updates without a problem.
2) Un-Root it. Once the tablet is unrooted, the system should update without any issue.
As for your Play Store issues - I have never heard of or personally seen any issues caused with installing apps from the store on a rooted device. I have seen a few apps that will refuse to run on a rooted device - but that does not sound like your problem.
I would go with option 1 - just factory wipe the thing. Prior owner may have made tons of changes to the OS that we will never know about, and may have handed you a unstable system. Start fresh. Wipe it out.
Hope this helps you out! Let me know if I can answer any questions.

k thank you so much for the quick reply! I downloaded the root checker and it Is rooted. I did a factory wipe as found in the settings privacy tab when I bought it. That factory reset did not unroot and only cleaned out some of the aps on the device. Is there a better or more surefire way to unroot it? If I reset with the volume down key will it hard reset it?
Thank you for you help!
Draight

Okay.
I am about a year out of practice with my a500 - but from what I am think, if a factory reset still results in a rooted device - the prior user installed a stock ROM that comes pre-rooted.
I highly doubt being rooted is causing the issues you are running into.
At this point if you just want to get back to stock you can probably just install the Acer Recovery Manager from the market and use it to reflash a stock unrooted ROM. Or I see a few guides about how to manually restore back to stock over in the dev section for the a500.
Others will correct me if I am wrong, but I think Acer Recovery Manager should take care of your problem.
Hope this helps!
(Edit: Or you can just download the official stock 4.x rom (ICS) from the dev section and flash that. 3.2 is pretty slow and wonky in my experience, you should be able to just download a 4.x ROM and flash, since you are rooted. Again, I am way out of practice. Don't do anything before reading up!)
(Edit again: I think I was making this harder then needs be. Just flash any stock 3.2 unrooted ROM, done. After you do that the automatic on the air update should kick in for you and update you to ICS)

Thanks for taking the time to work with me on this. I downloaded the program you suggested and tried to use a stock rom. When i went to reboot I had a picture of an android looking up at an exclaimation mark. It was froze like that until I restarted it. Now its back to the way it was, rooted and unupdatable.
I'm probably going to try to just wipe it all over but do i need to plug it into my computer somehow? I dont have a usb connector for the tablet, just the wall charger plugin. can i just download a rom and use the utility to try install it? when I reboot it am I supposed to be pressing the volume button?
I've read a few other forums but usually they sound pretty intense...

draight said:
Thanks for taking the time to work with me on this. I downloaded the program you suggested and tried to use a stock rom. When i went to reboot I had a picture of an android looking up at an exclaimation mark. It was froze like that until I restarted it. Now its back to the way it was, rooted and unupdatable.
I'm probably going to try to just wipe it all over but do i need to plug it into my computer somehow? I dont have a usb connector for the tablet, just the wall charger plugin. can i just download a rom and use the utility to try install it? when I reboot it am I supposed to be pressing the volume button?
I've read a few other forums but usually they sound pretty intense...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm..
Try the thread I linked two in my second edit of my last post. You just need to grab the stock and unrooted 3.2 - put it on a MicroSD card as update.zip - then reboot with vol rocker and power switch to get the system to flash the update.
That *should* work just fine.
(Edit: Forgot the link! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1839313 - there you go)

Thankw, I am going to try it after readingna bit more. Do I need to have clockworkmod installed for all of this?

draight said:
Thankw, I am going to try it after readingna bit more. Do I need to have clockworkmod installed for all of this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Just snag the stock unrooted 3.2 ROM - place it in the root of the MicroSD card as update.zip
Power down.
Power up with VOL + and POWER key held at the same time (you can let the vol rocker go when you see text appear in the upper left corner)
Should be all you need to do. Worst case; it does not work and returns you back to where you are now. Worth a shot.
If that does not work, let me know so I can do a few mins of homework and help you further. Been a long time since I have changed ROMS or had any issues with my a500.
I have bricked it twice by not following directions all the way or just making simple mistakes, but from what I have found there is always a way to recover.

Just tried it. I copied the boot zip to sd card and renamed update.zip and reset..It looked like it was going to download after showing some text in the corner and then an exclamation mark appeared above the androids head... I left it and after a few.min it rebooted back

draight said:
Just tried it. I copied the boot zip to sd card and renamed update.zip and reset..It looked like it was going to download after showing some text in the corner and then an exclamation mark appeared above the androids head... I left it and after a few.min it rebooted back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm. Odd.
Like I said, I am rather out of practice.
Someone more experienced them me: please help me point Draight in the right direction here?

Thanks for trying to help. =(
I wish that my tablet wasn't having such issues. I;m going to try to scramble around the forums and see if I can find some advice...If anyone has a suggestion please let me know.
Thanks again entropy,
Draight

Update:
So I've been tinkering around with it a bit more and I found a usb cord that plugs it into my computer. I keep finding boken links on this site so Im struggling to find an update I can use to flash to. I downloaded a different super user program which allowed me to temporarily unroot my device. I then restarted it and no root checker says its no rooted and I cannot find the superuser program. I think I have somewhat unrooted it -- but I think the real issue now is the recovery tool. I keep reseting it - hard reset, or factory reset and it wipes everything away but when i try to update it gets about 1/3 of the way up the bar then it stops with an '!' Mark above the droid. Im kind of annoyed at this point and hoping for some new links or some ideas on how to repair the recovery piece.
Draight

Go to the Dev section, and grad a couple of the ICS Update roms. You will see them listed for the a500. Make sure they are the FULL update roms. Should be about 3-400mb. These contain a FULL ICS Update Rom, and not a patch file.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1816560
Then, go to the Themes and apps forum. You'll see a sticky that has the Acer Update Decrypter.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1869505
Now, unpack the decrypter, and select one of the ICS Updates. Then hit Start. Take a couple minutes, but you will have a duplicate file with the word "decrypted" added to it.
Wait, you are not done yet.
Using a program like 7zip, or even Winzip, open the decrypted file. DO NOT EXTRACT, just open it and pull the update.zip to your PC's desktop.
Copy that update.zip file to your Ext SD Card of the tablet. Don't be putting it in any folder, just copy it to the root of the card.
Now, you still ain't done.
With the tablet off. Press and hold Vol+ and then PWR. Hold them both untill you start to see text about installing blah blah blah, then release the buttons.
If it completes, and you can reboot into ICS, then you are good to go.
If something fails during installation, then decrypt the other update Rom file you downloaded, and do the same procedure. Usually one of the 2 or three should work for you.
Note these are for the a500, and not the a501.
One more thing. It's advisable you get your UID number before doing these things. You probably won't need it, but it's nice to have written down in case you need it in the future. Inf to get it is at;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1624645
MD

Thanks! I am downloading a few of the FULL ICS roms:
*Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1 : http://d-h.st/uAy
Acer_A500_1.031.00_PA_CUS1: http://d-h.st/idO
Acer_A500_1.041.00_WW_CUS1: http://d-h.st/Yt5
*Acer_AV041_1.054.00_WW_GEN1: http://www.theandroidcollective.org/...00_WW_GEN1.zip
*Acer_A500_7.014.16_041.206.01_COM_GEN1: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_bk...hVc1RVcHc/edit
The I downloaded the ones ending with Gen1. Once they are downloaded I will continue with the instructions. Thank you so much for your help! I will post how it goes later tonight.
Draight

I just decrypted both:
*Acer_AV041_1.054.00_WW_GEN1:
*Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1
Both get get to the third bullet quickly and the bottom says DONE! It takes like 4 seconds. I don't think the Decryption key of $12 is working
[*] Opening file: Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1.zip
[*] Decrypting using key $12
[*] Writing decrypted file: Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1_decrypted.zip
I try to extract something from the decrypted file and it says the file was not downloaded properly and I should try redownload it...it says its not a proper archive

wahoo!
So that worked! I down loaded the file Acer_AV041_A500_1.033.00_PA_CUS1 and extracted the update. I palced the update on the sd card and booted with the power and sound volume pressed down. it went through the installation procedure and restarted twice before saying it was upgrading my aps and BOOM its got ICS and everything looks great. Thank you so much for your help and I hope that this paper trail is able to help someone in the future

My problem is that I'm on ICS and I'm rooted, but I just can't download a custom recovery. I've tried, and I haven't gotten anywhere
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

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

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

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

[Q] My device won't boot anymore (bootloop?)

This is the first time I tried to root my phone. My phone is a Galaxy s4 GT-i9505
I followed this guide to the letter and it was supposed to be easy peasy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlVCjtRUrgs
Well when I was doing all that I got to the last step where I had to update my binaries but that didn't work and superSU kept closing itself down.
Someone recommended I do an factory reset and repeat all the steps, but then when I got back into my system I kept getting errors saying SuperSU has stopped and Youtube has stopped.
Those were really annoying and I tried another factory reset but I couldn't get rid of them, somehow they kept inserting themselves in my app list eventhough the apps did not work.
So I used TWRP to do an advance wipe and that's when things went horribly wrong since I had no clue what I am doing :S
I ticked the boxes Dalvik cache - Internal storage - Data and something else I can't remember.
After that was completed I could not boot up my phone anymore and now I'm freaking out trying to follow guides to fix this.
like this one : http://trendblog.net/fix-soft-bricked-android-device-first-aid-guide/
I installed this toolkit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2226263
But the problem is that my computer is not opening the device anymore through the USB port, and when I try to install these drivers : http://androiddrivers.net/samsung-android-drivers/galaxy-s4-windows-drivers-3264bit/
there's an error when installing it fails on mobile device MTP or something probably since my computer does not reckognize the mobile device anymore.
I don't have a SD card atm I never owned one. I might need to get one in order to fix this?
I'm totally new to this and totally regretting ever trying this and being so stupid and impatient as to try an advanced wipe before informing myself well enough.
I'm freaking out like mad here and now I have to go to sleep which I won't be able to catch ofc I'm so afraid I need to toss my phone and when I think about the $$$ .. well you know what I mean.
I've tried looking through these forums and guides but I just don't understand most of it and I can't get it figured out it's driving me insane.

Just chill, there is nothing wrong with your phone. You cannot kill your phone doing the things you did.
Just flash a stock firmware true Odin and everything will be working again. Pick a 4.4.2 rom though.
The reason why you are messing up is because you tried to use a year old rooting method.
So the steps you want to take:
- Flash a stock firmware
- Flash cf-auto root http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2219803
- Flash TWRP
- Flash this script in TWRP http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s4/general/scriptknoxout-complete-brutal-knox-t2807172
done.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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