Locked bootloader tips and tricks - Xperia Play General

Hi my xperia play was locked to carier netowork (o2 UK).
I use the phone as a gaming device, so phone capability is no matter to me. However my device's bootloader can't be unlocked. I also can't obtain root access.
So I gathered some solutions that can make my device more manageable. My device's internal memory is very limited - around 320MB after factory reset - so first thing i did was to setup it to install all apps to SD card. To do that I needed to have access to adb command either on Windows or any Linux distribution - even live cd will do.
My software version is 4.0.2.A.0.69
There are plenty tutorials how to do it - here is one:
http://www.howtogeek.com/125769/how-to-install-and-use-abd-the-android-debug-bridge-utility/
After this I go to my device Settings>Applications and mark "Unknown sources" and pres "OK"
Then choose Development and mark "USB debugging" and press "OK" again.
Now I go to Settings>Sony Ericsson>Connectivity and unmark "Install PC Companion"
In "USB connection mode" I select Media transfer mode (MTP) - this is important because I will install app from my pc that I backup previously. If I don't mark this option my apps will still install in internal memory as sdcard will be mounted in my system.
Now I can connect my phone to pc with usb cable.
From here i go to command line to do all the magic:
adb devices - to see if my device is properly connected
then
adb shell
from here I write:
pm getInstallLocation - which will give me option 0(auto) - this command is just inform me what is setup as main storage for apps
pm setInstallLocation 2 - this option changes my main storage to sdcardI
pm getInstallLocation - should come with 2(sdcard) this time i just check if changes has been applied
exit - to close adb shell
then I navigate to my apk files and in command line write:
adb install [name of the app].apk - for each of the apps
it takes a while but after all my apps are shown as installed in sdcard in Settings>Applications>Manage applications>On SD card
From here I login to Google Market app.
I let it update. After short while I have updated Play Store and Google Play Services - second one is installed on SD card as well.
Some of my apps require Play Store verification so I start each one of them to not run into troubles later.
A word of advice:
Google Play Services operate in background and take some of internal storage it's a good Idea to clear data of it once in a while as it will make my device slow and render internal storage to run out.
To get more storage i uninstall Play Store updates after installing and running all of my apps as well as Google Play Services. It gives me about 100MB of internal storage back.
I set my device to airplane mode to save some battery life.
All of my games are running very well on this setup. I use 32GB Sandisk micro SDcard class 10.
Hope this helps some who has same problem with Your device.

Related

Preparing to do apps to sd

So I'm getting worked up to do the apps to sd, got SDK installed on my PC. I have ROM manager installed and was on the edge of partitioning the SD card. Not knowing what I would lose if I did the partition (it wipes and formats the SD), I took a spare 2GB and cleaned it out. Empty. I powered off the Aria and installed the clean 2GB chip, powered up, and played with a few apps for a few minutes. I see no negative effects, in fact I see better performance. Assumed, anyway, in that my task killer shows more RAM available after a kill. The ignore list didn't change, so that is obviously in the Aria.
After tooling around, I checked the SD card using estrongs file explorer. Really nothing got added to the SD card.
I have followed this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVU8vQVKo6I) tutorial on the SDK ADB driver install...no luck. Windows could not find the driver. When I type "adb devices" I get no devices listed. Also, when I connected the Aria, and manually pointed the search to the "usb_driver" folder, it came up empty. I am in charge only and debugging is selected. (And rooted using Liberated R003)
Since I will need to use ADB in step 5 of http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=723483 I am stuck. At least I can pass the time by pulling out my hair wondering if the apps to sd is really worth it.
So I have messed with this a few times in the past two weeks and still no progress. I connect the Aria and no drivers found. I launch cmd and when I type ADB, I get android debug bridge 1.0.26. When I type ADB devices I get 'list of devices attached' but none are shown. I am in charge only and debugging is on. I type ADB shell and I get 'device not found.'
Apps to SD is a popular topic here, so can anyone help me figure out what I'm doing wrong or what I am missing? My internal storage is near max and need to do this.
Running liberated R010.
Sent from my (liberated) HTC Liberty using XDA App
Install HTC Sync. It includes USB drivers in the install. After it's installed just make sure it's not running. Then go through all the steps of connecting the phone and doing the "adb devices" command.
Will this HTC sync force any updates that would make changes to my ROM or root status?
No, it won't. Just make sure it's not running anyway (you could even uninstall it if afterwards if you want.) You're simply installing it for the USB drivers that are piggy-backed on the install.
I tried at least 3 installs of this HTC Sync and I am getting failures. HTC BMP USB Drivers install failure. I continued installation anyway. Hope that isn't what I needed.
Edit: launched Sync, selected Sync on the device. Aria says umable to find HTC sync on the PC. (But I got the desktop shortcut and Sync launched, which says "No device connected.") I deselected debugging and reconnected, prompted me to find drivers, which weren't found.
Progress! At least in that I had a successful HTC sync install on my 32 bit Vista notebook....more update later.
Sent from my (liberated) HTC Liberty using XDA App

ADB for dummies: Tutorial to move your games from internal to SD without Root

Before starting i would like to thanks Stublake13 for the tutorial made on this forum http://androidforums.com/desire-tips-tricks/160560-force-apps-install-sd-without-root.html
That helped a lot
I don't trust apps that mess with those kind of thing
I don't want to pay for those kind of apps too
STEP 0: DON'T MESS WITH SYSTEM APPS
Step one: Check your OS/Windows version (OS version x86 or x64)
Step 2: Get Android SDK from there http://developer.android.com/sdk/
Step 3: Launch the install of the SDK
Step 4: Get JRE java if asked during the install and install it
Step 5: Select Usb Driver package on the "installed packages" menu on the left
Step 6: Begin the installation
Step 7: Wait until it complete and go to the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools
Step 8: Open a command windows : press keyboard shift key and click right you should see 'run command here' in the menu or go to search (win7) or execute (winxp) and type cmd
another way is to use keyboard pressing Win key + R
A command window should appear
Step 9: on your Xperia play enable USB debugging
Easy on your Android device from Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging and check it
Step 10: make sure your phone is in media transfer mode (not mass storage mode)
Step 11: Install PC companion and make sure it works and launch update
Step 12: Connect your phone (if pc companion ask to update your phone do as you please you can shut down the program)
Step 13: check that the Xperia play is available on my computer menu and you can browse his content
Step 14: select your Dos windows / command windows that should be open now
and type cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools if you are not already in this folder
Step 15: Type adb devices and check the result it should say list of device attached and a number will follow with device at the end of the line
That means your phone is correctly attached and recognized by ADB
Step 16: Type adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2 you should see a new line and nothing else if you have an error message then you need to check again one of the step above "adb: permission denied" is the common error
Step 17: Reboot your phone (might take a little while)
Step 18: Now go to your application setting menu and move all your games to the SD or install the game that you wanna install then move them to the SD card
Step 19: Restart your phone again and go to your application browser. You should see some of the game you just installed and moved disapeared... don't mind it's because you moved them and android didn't notice their new location.
Reboot 3 to 5 times depending on the number of your games you should see them all back after some reboot
You can still go to the app manager to look for them there
Step 20: Now that you are done you can choose to go back to the normal mode or stay like that but be carefull if you install an app that is no compatible.
Being on SD you will have to remember that you need to test each app when you move. You will still be able to put it back to internal! But when you test that app this may lead to a crash on your phone during the process so remember to be carefull with some apps (specially those who have widget)
Step 21: To go back to your inital setting plug your phone again type adb devices to ensure that the phone is plugged correctly and recognized by ADB
then type adb shell pm setInstallLocation 0
Step 22: put your phone back to usb standard mode (disable debugging mode)
Step 23: Reboot
Step 24: Shut all the windows on your computer / uninstall if you want android SDK
Step 25: Enjoy your Xplay
Thank you so much this is very helpful.
Thanks.
I did this the other day from complete noobness, but this would have been very helpful.
Bookmarked.
i did this but i cant move the pre installed play games like starbattalion or crash where you able to move them to the sd card ?
Those one need root to be moved...
Because they are part of the system. Also i'am not sure that those one could be moved without crash... i would not try it myself
kenshindono said:
Those one need root to be moved...
Because they are part of the system. Also i'am not sure that those one could be moved without crash... i would not try it myself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before updating when i had root. I moved all the pre-installed games to sd they went from 30mb to less then 1mb and none of them crashed / force closed and i played them all for days so it seemed fine to me
I think the original poster by crash means the pre-installed PS1 title "Crash Bandicoot" accessible via PlayStation pocket app. If that's what he mean I think it requires to be rooted to move it but I saw somewhere that people had problems seeing the preinstalled content in PS Pocket and Play launcher after moving it around. So unless you want to remove it completely I would not touch it. Also maybe worth asking someone with root how much space Crash Bandicoot takes anyway.
That game is around six or seven megs. I removed it soon after getting root.
Sent from my R800a
captain67 said:
That game is around six or seven megs. I removed it soon after getting root.
Sent from my R800a
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may want to remove its data-pack as well as it weighs more than 500 MB, it's this whole folder:
/sdcard/Android/com.sony.playstation.NCEA00344_1
Note the capital letter in "Android", since file names in Linux are case sensitive.
Thanks man, this helped me free up a lot more internal space on my XPlay!
EDIT: Quick question, if I re-flash my phone will I need to repeat this to be able to move over the games that re-install over to my SD card?
That game is around six or seven megs. I removed it soon after getting root.
Sent from my R800a
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may want to remove its data-pack as well as it weighs more than 500 MB, it's this whole folder:
/sdcard/Android/com.sony.playstation.NCEA00344_1
Note the capital letter in "Android", since file names in Linux are case sensitive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, I had no idea that data pack was there. Thanks for telling me, that 500 megs gives me an extra 2 anime episodes lol
I used the Astro file manager to delete it.
Sent from my R800a
I had a hard time with this with the verizon xperia play. I got it to work by turning on debug mode (settings / applications / development / usb debugging ) turn that on and dont select usb storage mode.
This was incredibly helpful, worked perfectly. Thanks!
Does this make apps slower?
I used Titanium Backup with Aspalt 6 and it was sluggish as hell.
kenshindono said:
Before starting i would like to thanks Stublake13 for the tutorial made on this forum http://androidforums.com/desire-tips-tricks/160560-force-apps-install-sd-without-root.html
That helped a lot
I don't trust apps that mess with those kind of thing
I don't want to pay for those kind of apps too
STEP 0: DON'T MESS WITH SYSTEM APPS
Step one: Check your OS/Windows version (OS version x86 or x64)
Step 2: Get Android SDK from there http://developer.android.com/sdk/
Step 3: Launch the install of the SDK
Step 4: Get JRE java if asked during the install and install it
Step 5: Select Usb Driver package on the "installed packages" menu on the left
Step 6: Begin the installation
Step 7: Wait until it complete and go to the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools
Step 8: Open a command windows : press keyboard shift key and click right you should see 'run command here' in the menu or go to search (win7) or execute (winxp) and type cmd
another way is to use keyboard pressing Win key + R
A command window should appear
Step 9: on your Xperia play enable USB debugging
Easy on your Android device from Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging and check it
Step 10: make sure your phone is in media transfer mode (not mass storage mode)
Step 11: Install PC companion and make sure it works and launch update
Step 12: Connect your phone (if pc companion ask to update your phone do as you please you can shut down the program)
Step 13: check that the Xperia play is available on my computer menu and you can browse his content
Step 14: select your Dos windows / command windows that should be open now
and type cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools if you are not already in this folder
Step 15: Type adb devices and check the result it should say list of device attached and a number will follow with device at the end of the line
That means your phone is correctly attached and recognized by ADB
Step 16: Type adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2 you should see a new line and nothing else if you have an error message then you need to check again one of the step above "adb: permission denied" is the common error
Step 17: Reboot your phone (might take a little while)
Step 18: Now go to your application setting menu and move all your games to the SD or install the game that you wanna install then move them to the SD card
Step 19: Restart your phone again and go to your application browser. You should see some of the game you just installed and moved disapeared... don't mind it's because you moved them and android didn't notice their new location.
Reboot 3 to 5 times depending on the number of your games you should see them all back after some reboot
You can still go to the app manager to look for them there
Step 20: Now that you are done you can choose to go back to the normal mode or stay like that but be carefull if you install an app that is no compatible.
Being on SD you will have to remember that you need to test each app when you move. You will still be able to put it back to internal! But when you test that app this may lead to a crash on your phone during the process so remember to be carefull with some apps (specially those who have widget)
Step 21: To go back to your inital setting plug your phone again type adb devices to ensure that the phone is plugged correctly and recognized by ADB
then type adb shell pm setInstallLocation 0
Step 22: put your phone back to usb standard mode (disable debugging mode)
Step 23: Reboot
Step 24: Shut all the windows on your computer / uninstall if you want android SDK
Step 25: Enjoy your Xplay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello!
You mentioned that DON'T MESS WITH SYSTEM APPS.
I get the idea that you think rooting the phone, isn't probably safe enough.
If I am right about that, then my question is, is it safe to try the method you mentioned because being a newbie to android I don't understand a lot of steps in that method and they seem messing with OS as well, like downloading this file called SDK.
I have another question as well, does this method work for other applications as well or just the games?
Thanks.
Jack Shepard said:
Hello!
You mentioned that DON'T MESS WITH SYSTEM APPS.
I get the idea that you think rooting the phone, isn't probably safe enough.
If I am right about that, then my question is, is it safe to try the method you mentioned because being a newbie to android I don't understand a lot of steps in that method and they seem messing with OS as well, like downloading this file called SDK.
I have another question as well, does this method work for other applications as well or just the games?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This works for all applications you can install from the market. There actually aren't any system apps you can screw up using this method except if the app has a widget (the widget won't work on many apps with them on the SD card). You are changing an OS setting but its not a big deal, the SDK is installed on your home PC. If you don't feel comfortable however I do not recommend doing this. The wrong set of commands can mess up your phone using this.
The pre-installed apps and games CAN NOT be moved with this method. For example Asphalt 6 which comes on most versions of this phone. The only way to move those is to root the phone.
Thanks.
I think I shouldn't do it, I don't want to change OS settings.
But Android team should understand this serious problem with their phones. Have been using XPlay for over a month now and funny that so far all I have done is managing my internal memory. But truly speaking Android really outperforms Iphone in every aspect, except this memory problem.
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
This thread was created a longgg time before i came over to XDA. Very helpful for me since im a TOTAL noob at ADB !! xD

[Q] SD Card not mountable during ROM Flash, update not possible

Hi guys,
I got me a Defy and wanted to flash CM7/CM9. I got a few problems:
1. What did I do until now?
I rooted with Super one click, es it didn't work with the pushing and exploting the rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin (after exploiting, if the Defy did it properly, it used to exit from shell and the phone remained offline, so no more action could be performed with adb).
Also, ClockworkMod Recovery is installed.
I used this and another push/chmod approach: Cyanogenmod Wiki /Motorola_Defy:_Full_Update_Guide
2. Problem A)
When putting the CM Update zips on the SD card and booting, it will say it can't mount the SD Card.
I mixed some things up and tried to make the SD card mountable again with this approach (last paragraph): Cyanogenmod.com /index.php?title=Motorola_Defy:_Full_Update_Guide&oldid=13776#Problems_with_Android_2.1
By typing too fast i added two incorret entries (shouldn't be a problem).
Somewhere than I read, installing CM7 is only possible with Android 2.2. My Phone says the following:
- System version: Blur_Version.2.51.1.MB525.Retail.en.DE
- Firmware version: 2.1-update1
- Kernel version 2.6.29
3. Problem B)
So I thougth, next approach should be updating to Froyo. Sadly, Motorola Software Update doesn't recognize my phone, wheter with drivers from first link above nor with the drivers that come with the Update center (frankly, I haven't tried first link driver only but Software Update only and both togheter).
Several wipes and factory resets didn't help.
Any thoughts how I could fix this and get me a CM7? Best would be without loosing garantee (I mean sticking with an official software version as downgrade possibility). Should I have updated without ClockworkMod installed? Could return the phone and get me a new one if necessary.
Thanks for your help.
Edit: Is it possible that Motorola Update doesn't work with Win7 64Bit at all?
1st of all you MUST have froyo kernel (but certainly not eclair) before you can install Cm7 properly!
2nd it seems that your SD Card could be corrupted. It's important to eject your device from Windows PC properly before unplugging it. Otherwise you can corrupt your sdcard and/or internal memory.
Here is how you fix both your SD Card and internal FAT32 memory.
1) Plug in the device to the PC.
2) In Android turn on USB
3) The removable drives will show up in Windows.
4) Do one drive at a time. Right click on the removable drive and select Properties.
5) In this screen click the tools tab. Under error checking click the check now button
6) On this screen click the box "Automatically fix errors" and click start.
7) When it finishes it will either tell you if fixed problem or not.
8) If it did fix problems then you will find on the removable drive a folder called FOUND.000, FOUND.001, etc. You can delete those as they are broken files that got corrupt and you probably can’t do anything with them anyway!
9) Now eject the drives properly and you done.
Hope that helps.
Aw, men! I used not to eject any devices from my computer
I will try repairing and the the Software Update Center again.
If not, anybody knows which SBF file from sbf.droid-developers.org/umts_jordan/list.php is the one I would get after updating? I really don't get this list at all.
Thanks.
Ok I checked the sd card and there were no problems. So I switched to "Portal and tools" to check the Defy itself. The the first time Motohelper popped up and said something like:
"Starting the software not possible. In order to start Motorola Phone Portal you have to shut down all Motorola PC software and your phone has to be in one of the following modes: PC Mode, PC Tools or Portal Tools [not readable].
Open USB connection on your device and select either PC Model, PC Tools or Portal Tools"
This message keeps poping up if USB Debugging keeps enabled. Once I disable it and select Portal and tools again no pop up happens but no software (at least visible) starts. Should there pop up something? Start Motorola Phone Portal at device plug in is enabled. Or is this a normal behaviour at all?
Thanks.
Check out device manager in your windows if you have any question marks after connecting your defy to it properly (usb debugging and phone portal on). Maybe you do need some extra drivers on this one.
Well, now i got tired of this and I flashed a SBF with Froyo. Now I`ll trie flashing CM again.
Thanks anyway!

Cant access internal memory (from andorid and PC)

Hi guys.
Today i unlocked bootloader + flashed TWRP.
The system bootek ok but i had problem with accesing to internal memory (in phone and also via cable and filesharing/MTP)
So i made again full wipe in TWRP, it cound not boot so i reinstalled from TWRP whole system image, then full wipe.
Still i have the same problem: Cant access internal memory:
Meaning i cant create on internal memory any directory from Adnroid and also whn i am connecting it to PC, i cant do that either.
Any idea ?
The windows shows me that 100GB is free but still i cant write anything.
I only see "Android" Driectory with apps data in it.
Look in the device manager for the Android device, it's most likely going to have an exclamation next to it, right click on it, go to update driver, browse my computer, let me pick from a list, choose "Android USB", then it should be recognised properly.
If not make sure you've enabled "USB Debugging" in the developer settings (Tap build number 7 times to enable developer settings).
In your notification for your device you have to choose "Transfer files" instead of "USB Charging", just tap on the "USB charging this device" in the notification tray.
Are you sure you haven't messed up the encryption on the phone too? If so then you'll probably have to reset the phone back to factory defaults and start again.
See attached image for where it should appear in your device manager
It wasnt that, After few tries of full wipe i managed to get this workig.
Finally i set phone without fingerprint and it works now. All directories are accesible.
Still i will try again with flashing TWRP back becasue it reverted to default recovery :9

Nokia 6 USB Driver

Hi. I am a Windows Phone transplant. I got my Nokia 6 from Amazon and I am connecting it up via USB to put my music collection on the SD card. When I connect, it mounts as a CD and there is a setup for what looks to be the drivers there. When I run setup, nothing happens. The computer is Win 10. When I took the phone out of the box (from Amazon US), I noticed that the Amazon preloaded app took me to the Chinese Amazon site. so I think that this version is based heavily on the Chinese ROM. Does anyone have a direct link to the USB drivers for the PC? The ones I have seen on searching all look very dubious.
It was pretty cool turning this phone into an Android powered/Microsoft Services phone.
thanks
The Amazon app is just configured for Chinese. You can select another language, just go to the link next to the flag, drop down box, find the USA flag.
For the USB connection, after you connect the phone to the PC, on the phone, swipe down from the top and you should see a notification "USB *****". The "****" could be PTP, charging, MTP, etc. You want to use MTP to transfer files to the phone.
I am using MTP to connect, but has I mentioned, The phone is opening as a CD-ROM on the computer where there is a setup program with Drivers on it and it is write protected. If I try to run the setup program that it presents, Nothing happens. It starts, and gives me the Admin make changes screen, but after that nothing. This is the drivers that I think need to be on my computer to mount the phone properly to transfer files.
Mine did the same but as the previous poster said change it to mpt on the phone then in file explorer Nokia 6 appeared and when I clicked on it both the internal and sd cards showed up and I copied my music folder directly to sd card
Sent from my SM-T800 using XDA Free mobile app
I have the same issue. I tried choosing the MTP, even PTP as well, from the USB options, but still no luck in seeing the internal storage of my phone. Maybe this is a Windows 10 issue? I tried connecting my phone on my windows 8.1 PC and it worked fine. Anybody has a workaround on this?
my phone always have a pop-up ask me if I want to enable file transfer when I connect to a pc, maybe check if yours have the same pop-up.
Sent from my TA-1003 using XDA Labs
Phone does not show as drive
When I connect my Nokia 6 via USB, I get a popup asking what i want to do (charge, charge and transfer and two I can't remember at the moment). It does not show up as a (USB) drive (i.e. it is not assigned a drive letter), but among the Libraries (like Downloads, Pictures, etc.). I see the CD-ROM drive with the USB driver setup as well, but I guess you only need that when the phone does not show up right away. (Maybe on older versions of Windows?)
I can write to the phone and the SD card. I have a 64 GB Samsung class 10 card, it writes at only 12 MB/s; is that normal?
When I clicked 'Properties' on the SD Card, I saw that it was formatted as FAT32, so that explains why I can't write large (>4 GB) video files to it. Shame. Does anyone have an idea if this is ever gonna change?. I tried formatting the card to ExFat, but then the phone just says 'incompatible file system' or something like that.
Can't get access to my phone data mother internal nor external
I am using MTP to connect, but has I mentioned, The phone is opening as a CD-ROM on the computer where there is a setup program with Drivers on it and it is write protected. If I try to run the setup program that it presents, Nothing happens. It starts, and gives me the Admin make changes screen, but after that nothing happens. Pls help me guy's......
I have the same problem on Windows 8.1 x64
Nevermind, I found the solution for my device, I can't guarantee it's the same for you.
Open your settings on your phone
Go to About Phone
Repeatedly tap on Build number untill a message pops
up saying that you're a developer now.
Go back into settings and open Developer options now
Scroll down and find USB Debugging and turn it on.
That's it, you should be able to manage your files now
Finally Nokia is making Andorid based phones now. Because Android is the kind of OS people need today. With tons of application choice.
You can download the ADB driver for your Nokia in this link:
https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/latest_usb_driver_windows.zip
change your cable. That's what the problem is

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