Database Users

[HELP] Bricked my phone

Helo!
I recently purchased a Redmi 3s which came with a fake rom so I decided to flash a new rom. I tried it via the updater app but it didnot work. Then after reading a few trick I tried the fastboot method but the process got stuck and now my phone cant boot. I was able to boot in fastboot and I see it in list of the devices but the mi flash tool keeps crashing.
Note: my bootloader is locked and I dont have any custom recover it was a stock phone.

Hi,
what means crashing? You get an error message?
You habe to try another MiFlash Version. The latest also didnt work for me.
You have to flash the latest developer rom to unlock the bootloader.

You can't flash ROMs through fastboot if your bootloader isn't unlocked... Never mind now you try to enter fastboot and flash a TWRP into it.

Yappuccino said:
You can't flash ROMs through fastboot if your bootloader isn't unlocked... Never mind now you try to enter fastboot and flash a TWRP into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cant flash a reccovery because it says it is locked.

Apparently there's a method that involves using EDL mode and a deep flash cable, not sure if it'll work in your case or not

psychopac said:
Apparently there's a method that involves using EDL mode and a deep flash cable, not sure if it'll work in your case or not
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I heard about that but it seems a bit dangerous.

r.omega888 said:
Yes I heard about that but it seems a bit dangerous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering that the said method restores your phone and you have a spare USB cable lying around, I'd say it's worth a try

r.omega888 said:
Helo!
I recently purchased a Redmi 3s which came with a fake rom so I decided to flash a new rom. I tried it via the updater app but it didnot work. Then after reading a few trick I tried the fastboot method but the process got stuck and now my phone cant boot. I was able to boot in fastboot and I see it in list of the devices but the mi flash tool keeps crashing.
Note: my bootloader is locked and I dont have any custom recover it was a stock phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same issue here, I was talking about my problem here
Trying to find a way to fix it, thanks!

If you have locked bootloaders, the only way to recover your phone is flashing ROM using MiFlash. To do it, you need to enter EDL. Now the only way for locked bootloader users is deep flash cable. You can google for guide how to make it. The trick is to connect green cable to the black one.
If you want to unlock bootloader and don't stuck at 50%, you need to flash a DEVELOPER ROM (International/Chinese, doesn't matter).

Forget all the complicated deep flash cable making guides. There's an ultra easy way to make one. Just strip off the outer jacket of a usb cable, about an inch or so, exposing the 4 wires inside. Then just push a pin or needle through the green and black wires like this guy has done. Easy peasy!
I made mine this way and was able to enter edl mode and flash a fastboot rom.

Three UK and bootloader status

Is anyone on the Three network in the UK and have tried rooting or ROMming their phone??
I have been trying for a week now to access the bootloader (using 'adb reboot-bootloader') so i can use fastboot but the phone just restarts and boots up like normal. This to me suggests a locked bootloader.
After several calls to Three and an official complaint made, they insist the bootloader is unlocked yet when i went to the Three store the other day they say it is locked. Someone is lying!
Can anyone else on Three confirm if its locked or not??
All i want is to boot temporarily into TWRP and create a nandroid backup. Ive done this at work plenty of times yet I cannot do it on my own phone!! :/

You need to set the OEM lock to off in developer mode.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

alchopop said:
You need to set the OEM lock to off in developer mode.
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Click to collapse
I have set OEM Unlock and USB debugging and still no joy.
Someone at Samsung told me my phone is locked but Three still claim its not locked.
I have been able to get ODIN to see the phone but i cant risk flashing anything as Samsung have told me they wont repair my phone if i do.
All i want to do is boot the phone with a temporary recovery. For that i need fastboot but i cant get fastboot no matter what i do. Its should be so simple!

EDL mode

EDL (Emergency Download) Mode has been removed/ disable from MIUI 8.1 onwards and Redmi 4A later Xiaomi devices. So you can flash MIUI Fastboot ROMs on your device by using Fastboot mode only, if your bootloader is unlocked. And, we can't use Qualcomm Jig Cable(s) also now.
So, we have only one way to know Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 port from PC. It's Test Point Method. This method will work with every MIUI ROMs (Upgrade/ Downgrade) , Locked Bootloader/ Unlocked Bootloader and also work to recover from a Dead boot device (Bricked).
While touching these two points with a metal tweezers plugin the usb cable to the phone and PC will make the phone enter edl mode. You can then release the tweezers.

Bro edl mode is not removed. It's just moved to fastboot. You can enter edl easily by "fastboot oem edl" command. Hope this helped :laugh:

rkmadotra said:
Bro edl mode is not removed. It's just moved to fastboot. You can enter edl easily by "fastboot oem edl" command. Hope this helped :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the explanation, in any case tere can be situations that fastboot it's not available, hard but possible, in that case that info is helpful...

TioCareca said:
Thanks for the explanation, in any case tere can be situations that fastboot it's not available, hard but possible, in that case that info is helpful...
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Click to collapse
In any case, the bootloader muz be unlocked to initiate EDL using ADB fastboot..

rkmadotra said:
Bro edl mode is not removed. It's just moved to fastboot. You can enter edl easily by "fastboot oem edl" command.
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Click to collapse
:laugh::laugh::laugh:
what make you think they are so lame ? the result is :
failed ! remote device is locked. eom edl is not allowed

adrenochrome25 said:
:laugh::laugh::laugh:
what make you think they are so lame ? the result is :
failed ! remote device is locked. eom edl is not allowed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What makes you think I'm so lame as well. I have used this command and flashed my mi max 2 with fastboot rom. Tho I don't remember if bootloader was locked or unlocked. Probably it was unlocked. But still no issues as anyone can unlock thier bootloader officially.

i wasnt intended at you. it seems they forgot some ways when they first deployed the edl blocking access but with the most recent "roms" they have blocked every access way to edl when bootloader is locked : adb, fastboot & cable
the only way left is from internal pins, but we can expect they will hide them even better on new phones.
Today it's much worth to wait 72h (+30days if you just already unlocked another one today) than opening the models that have "non removable" batteries and risking to leave traces/damages
it's really a shame that xiaomi lock their phone this way, it's a very bad message at the users (fastboot is so much restricted that you cant even switch between stable&dev anymore with locked bootloader) but we still have the chance that they allow unlocking and that this unlocking is a real one allowing full control

Fastboot rom isn't needed untill we brick our device and we can't brick the device untill we have unlocked bootloader. So basically edl mode will work when it's really needed.

It doesn't work for my MM2. Got it since 4/12/17. Didn't know i need to login to mi acc to register my device, set usb debugging, developer's mode, unlock status...I had the phone for less than 2 hrs after updating to MIUI 9 from ver 8 (using the updater app) before it suddenly froze up, crashed and went into bootloop. I tried contacting xiaomi svc ctr but those clowns refused to help saying my device is china export.
I cldn't even get them to help me register my device on my mi acc using the imei & s/n info. So if anyone could offer some suggestions as to how I could ressurrect my phone, I wld be most grateful. Failing which the only avenue is to bring it to a svc ctr in China to get them fix it.
Rgds

My test points don't seem to work
I opened up my mi max2 and followed the steps to short the testpoints but my pc doesn't seem to pick up the Qualcomm device.
Anyway to trigger the thing so that the Qualcomm device can be detected?

Nike Lee said:
I opened up my mi max2 and followed the steps to short the testpoints but my pc doesn't seem to pick up the Qualcomm device.
Anyway to trigger the thing so that the Qualcomm device can be detected?
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Click to collapse
I managed to short the test points and got the Qualcomm HSB device on the device mgr, flashed the mi max2 with the latest global stable (V9.2.1) rom. But the phone is still stuck at the Android logo with 3 dots...
I wld have thought EDL flashing wld have wiped out everything on the phone and start afresh?
I am now thinking of formatting the entire phone and reflashing it again. How wld I do that?
Thanks for any inputs.

Hi, Does EDL with test point flashing refresh the boot partitions?
I have shorted the test points and successfully reflash the phone with the latest stable global ROMs (even back to MIUI 8.5.6) but just couldn't get the phone past the MI/Android logo after restarting it
If the boot partition files have been messed up and EDL flashing is not refreshing these files, no matter how many times I try to EDL flash the device, it's not going to help. Pls correct me if I am wrong.
Any other options I can try?

rkmadotra said:
Bro edl mode is not removed. It's just moved to fastboot. You can enter edl easily by "fastboot oem edl" command. Hope this helped :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bro thank u so muchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. it worked im so happy now...........was trying since hours....but u helped me mannn

Essential soft brick, any way to unlock flash from fastboot to sideload OTA?

Hello I am posting in Q&A because I'm a new XDA user, I was not allowed to post in the dev channel.
I have an Essential phone that has been working great for the past few years, no issues, and it was running standard build receiving OTA updates, until the very last update, which soft bricked the phone.
The phone was never enabled in developer mode while in Android, and now, I can't boot the phone into android at all. The only thing I can do is get into fastboot.
Fastboot state shows DEVICE STATE - locked
Any commands I try to unlock flashing, or change slots, anything at all, I get the error that the device is locked so all commands to unlock fail.
Is there any way to unlock device state from fastboot? I saw a youtube video showing a way to use a chopped USB cable to enter emergency / EDL mode for Qualcomm-based Android devices, but have not seen anyone post that this was successful with the Essential
Does anyone know of any method to be able to unlock flashing from fastboot? Or any other method to un-brick an essential? I've attempted everything, on both Mac and PC, nothing works.
On mac or PC, I can query the device in fastboot and get a response, I just can't do anything to unlock anything!!
Many thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Same problem
Same thing happened to me. Same day as you. I can get fastboot but not adb but since the device is locked I can't flash. I've only had the phone about 6 months so I contacted customer support and they offered to replace the phone.
It might be a known issue because they didn't even try to address the fact that I could get fastboot connected but not adb. They just offered to replace.

Thanks for the info! I am -at least in this case- unfortunately an early adopter. I bought two essentials at the beginning of the pre-release.
Essential support checked my serial number and said the phone was out of warranty.
Has anyone been able to force the Essential into EDL mode to recover that way? It looks like you have to latch one of the USB pins to ground, or 5V, but I haven't found any detailed instructions on how to make this work on the essential...
Thanks again
Justin

I'm sure things have changed and I'm wrong, but if you can get into the fastboot menu can't you just cycle through the options until you get to recovery and then flash an official release from Essential?
I may be thinking of LG or something but this should be possible as long as it's newer than the current software installed because it will see it as an official update and allow the flash.

Thanks but unfortunately, when I try and do that, the phone just does the same thing, it hangs forever on the initial boot screen white Android text with the circle/square logo...
That's why I've been looking into the more direct hardware version of forcing the phone into EDL mode, which is supposed to be possible with all Qualcomm based phones.
I've just not found the time yet to find a USB-C cable I'd be happy to cut in half and short the pins on! Which is why I was hoping someone might have tried this with an essential before to know if it was successful before I start trashing good cables
Thanks again for your reply!
JB

justinbaird said:
Hello I am posting in Q&A because I'm a new XDA user, I was not allowed to post in the dev channel.
I have an Essential phone that has been working great for the past few years, no issues, and it was running standard build receiving OTA updates, until the very last update, which soft bricked the phone.
The phone was never enabled in developer mode while in Android, and now, I can't boot the phone into android at all. The only thing I can do is get into fastboot.
Fastboot state shows DEVICE STATE - locked
Any commands I try to unlock flashing, or change slots, anything at all, I get the error that the device is locked so all commands to unlock fail.
Is there any way to unlock device state from fastboot? I saw a youtube video showing a way to use a chopped USB cable to enter emergency / EDL mode for Qualcomm-based Android devices, but have not seen anyone post that this was successful with the Essential
Does anyone know of any method to be able to unlock flashing from fastboot? Or any other method to un-brick an essential? I've attempted everything, on both Mac and PC, nothing works.
On mac or PC, I can query the device in fastboot and get a response, I just can't do anything to unlock anything!!
Many thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact same problem,
My phone is stuck on Essential log when I turned it on,
I can access Bootloader normally but the device is locked so I cannot flash it,
Recovery is corrupted, when I try to star it, it shows only the the Essential log and freeze so I can not format or wipe or sideload.
OEM Locked and unchecked
USB Debugging is unchecked
and I can't flash anything,
Did you managed to unlock it through Fastboot command or any other way ?
I wish I can just login to the recovery or unlock it so I can flash it clean,
Kindly help me if you found a way out
Thank you

Nexus 6P stuck in bootloop. Bootloader unlocked and USB debugging enabled!

I'm trying to recover files from it but do not know where to start. Every thread I see either has their bootloader locked or can't access recovery mode.
My bootloader is unlocked, USB debugging is enabled and I do have access to recovery mode. I'm just wondering what to do next in order to access my photos using my PC.
If someone could help, it would be greatly appreciated. It got stuck in bootloop not long after I changed the battery.
P.S. my phone is not rooted nor have I rooted it before. Hopefully it isn't needed in order to recover files from it (even though I heard it could help).
Update: Alright so I literally heated my Nexus with a hair dryer and it got off bootloop. Hilarious. Hopefully it keeps working and doesn't go back into bootloop...