I changed "vold.fstab" and lost access to my SD card. - Hardware Hacking General

Hello everone,
i'm facing a really heavy problem with my Samsung Galaxy Ace 2. Since i wanted to change the internal with the external storage, i found out that there is the option to replace the original "vold.fstab". At this time i had root access of course. Everything worked fine at this moment, until i decided to do a factory reset, including delete USB storage (which was the fake internal storage now, because it switched). To make things even more difficult, i deinstalled the root access. The phone still works fine, but i completely lost access to my 32GB sd card and can't download anything anymore. My phone keeps saying "Couldn't download...".
I'm not the biggest smartphone genius, but i already tried a few things.
1. I've tried to use Odin, to flash the original firmware. But i was unable to get a connection in download mode.
2. I tried to replace the modded "vold.fstab" with the original one. But it's not possible withouth root access.
3. I tried Kango Root. Not working.
I appreciate any help i can get. Thanks in advance!

Related

[Q] Need Help. Phone Bricked

I was following this guide to root, install a custom recovery, and then flash a ROM onto my phone. I rooted successfully and created a back up. I then copied the backup onto my external sd card. I then put the custom rom onto my sd card and entered recovery mode on CWM. I wiped my device and then realized that the custom rom was the incorrect file. I then went to restore and it gave me an error md5 mismatch. I then went to restore of external sd card and it said it could not find the directory. I then went to restart phone and CWM said I was not rooted anymore and asked if I wanted root access and I hit yes.
My phone will not start and just remains in the Samsung loading screen with an unlocked graphic with the words "custom" under it. I am able to get back into CWM recovery but nothing else seems to work. I appreciate any help I can get. Thanks
domisterwoozy said:
I was following this guide to root, install a custom recovery, and then flash a ROM onto my phone. I rooted successfully and created a back up. I then copied the backup onto my external sd card. I then put the custom rom onto my sd card and entered recovery mode on CWM. I wiped my device and then realized that the custom rom was the incorrect file. I then went to restore and it gave me an error md5 mismatch. I then went to restore of external sd card and it said it could not find the directory. I then went to restart phone and CWM said I was not rooted anymore and asked if I wanted root access and I hit yes.
My phone will not start and just remains in the Samsung loading screen with an unlocked graphic with the words "custom" under it. I am able to get back into CWM recovery but nothing else seems to work. I appreciate any help I can get. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can either use a MicroSD to SD adpater and the computer's card reader to copy a ROM over and flash it, or ODIN back to stock, and start over.
Ol' Dirty Bastard said:
You can either use a MicroSD to SD adpater and the computer's card reader to copy a ROM over and flash it, or ODIN back to stock, and start over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Much better. Was that so hard? Thank you for details.
(jab)
Any ideas why it cannot find directory when I try to restore from my external sd card.
write protected
domisterwoozy said:
Any ideas why it cannot find directory when I try to restore from my external sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clueless here. Made a post about it.
I just discovered today more than just myself are unable to plug the handset into a computer to exchange files. I can get things off the phone onto the computer, but not vice versa.
Also the handset itself is fussy when it comes to viewing it's own external SD card. It would seem it doesn't take much for it to disappear, once in recovery.
fukenbiker said:
Clueless here. Made a post about it.
I just discovered today more than just myself are unable to plug the handset into a computer to exchange files. I can get things off the phone onto the computer, but not vice versa.
Also the handset itself is fussy when it comes to viewing it's own external SD card. It would seem it doesn't take much for it to disappear, once in recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This phone does not support mass USB storage. It uses MTP and PTP protocols. This information is available in several threads in the forum. Now, of course, even with MTP and PTP you should be able to still transfer files from a PC to the Ext. SD card considering you have the correct drivers. Perhaps your SD card isn't playing nice with your phone? Have you tried removing the card from your phone and transferring files to it dierectly from you PC via SD slot or card reader? Have you tried other brands? I find Samsung cards work best, but that is just me, This will help to see if it is the phone (possibly cable) or the card that is having issues.
Also, you can check this out. It supposedly enables Mass USB storage for this phone...though it still says it doesn't work for the Ext. SD card. I have never tried it, so if you do it is at your own risk but maybe it will help? Good luck.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mohammadag.samsungusbmassstorageenabler
The app says it is for the SIII, but people have reported it as working with the S4 as well.
thank you
scott14719 said:
This phone does not support mass USB storage. It uses MTP and PTP protocols. This information is available in several threads in the forum. Now, of course, even with MTP and PTP you should be able to still transfer files from a PC to the Ext. SD card considering you have the correct drivers. Perhaps your SD card isn't playing nice with your phone? Have you tried removing the card from your phone and transferring files to it dierectly from you PC via SD slot or card reader? Have you tried other brands? I find Samsung cards work best, but that is just me, This will help to see if it is the phone (possibly cable) or the card that is having issues.
Also, you can check this out. It supposedly enables Mass USB storage for this phone...though it still says it doesn't work for the Ext. SD card. I have never tried it, so if you do it is at your own risk but maybe it will help? Good luck.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mohammadag.samsungusbmassstorageenabler
The app says it is for the SIII, but people have reported it as working with the S4 as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am too happy to experiment like that. The AT&T S4 running GoldenEye with no add ons is the best darn handset I've ever enjoyed. I love being rid of the bloatware. I don't miss it a bit. I will fuss around with the SD interface as I do have resources like you mentioned, I can try a different chip. I didn't consider that a bad chip would cause the computer to consider the entire handset as "read only", yet you suggest it's possible?
fukenbiker said:
I am too happy to experiment like that. The AT&T S4 running GoldenEye with no add ons is the best darn handset I've ever enjoyed. I love being rid of the bloatware. I don't miss it a bit. I will fuss around with the SD interface as I do have resources like you mentioned, I can try a different chip. I didn't consider that a bad chip would cause the computer to consider the entire handset as "read only", yet you suggest it's possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anything is possible and it would be a simple way to maybe help identify where the problem lies. Better yet, take your sd card out of your phone and try a transfer. That will let you know if it has anything to do with it. If it still doesn't work, it more than likely has nothing to do with the SD card.
Can you transfer files from your External SD card to your phones internal SD memory and the other way around (via a file manager on your phone)?
If you can, I can't see how it would be a "read' only problem.
scott14719 said:
Anything is possible and it would be a simple way to maybe help identify where the problem lies. Better yet, take your sd card out of your phone and try a transfer. That will let you know if it has anything to do with it. If it still doesn't work, it more than likely has nothing to do with the SD card.
Can you transfer files from your External SD card to your phones internal SD memory and the other way around (via a file manager on your phone)?
If you can, I can't see how it would be a "read' only problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should unhook my phone from the 3.5mm jack and look into this. As I type, my S4 is piping in my playlist to provide the wife and I musical background for our activities. I remember using "Root Explorer" recently to delete a nandroid backup, and to move said playlist off the SD card into Phone memory. The "write protected" error showed up directly after building this playlist, using the computer to organize it. It's brand new, and as a good troubleshooter, we always look at the last thing you did different. I used the "windows explorer" to edit my playlist on the phone while it was plugged up together.
It's turning out to be a bigger deal than just myself, and I should pursue your recommendation for testing and reports, but it's not broken enough to fix and it's Sunday night, and the music is more important at this juncture.
Edit:
I powered down and then removed the Micro SD, and when I powered back up, it showed that cool padlock icon with the label "Custom" screen during boot up. I hadn't seen that screen on boot up since I used Casual to get a TWRP recovery.
I tethered the handset to the Desktop and opened the windows explorer. Obviously it just showed phone this time, instead of phone and card. I tested copying files and it worked fine, the "write protected" error was gone.
I unhooked, powered down, put the micro SD card back in, powered up and noted the boot up screen was back to normal. Tethered up again and voila! Files can be written to the phone and or the card and no more "write protected" error.
Funny little fluke. Problem solved. Curiosity remains.

Cannot access my Internal Sd card anymore

Hi,
I have a rooted device and have reflashed a new stock Rom.
To access again my Ext Sd card, I had to modify the file «Platform.xml». I have done it and have restarted my device. Since then, I don't have access anymore to my Internal Storage, External Storage and many programs don't work anymore . I have still access to the file Platform.xml but I can't modify it because my keyboard doesn't work.
I have reflashed it again but it still doesn't work.
Any help please.
Thank you,
Daniel
Reflashed 3 times and factory reset and it works again

[Q] Internal SD wiped clean, any way to restore?

I recently received my new S5, I rooted the phone, and also bought a 32gb external sd card. I realized that with KitKat 4.4.2, google has prevented apps from writing to the external SD card. I looked up workarounds to this problem and came to this:
trendblog.net/fix-kitkat-sd-card-write-restriction
I applied the fix to my phone, editing the platform.xml file, rebooted, and realized that my INTERNAL SD folder has now been wiped clean and is now empty. A lot of apps stopped working, including youtube, google, samsung keyboard etc, with the message "unfortunately <insert app name> has stopped". In particular, the MyScript Resource Manager constantly stops, and gives me that message. I am unable to go online either even though am able to connect to wireless and data networks.
I have tried different ways to solve the issue, including factory reset, and flashing stock rom, but my internal SD folder remains empty.
Does anyone have any idea how to solve this issue?
I've just had the exact thing happen. We're you able to fix?
zfdmlink said:
I recently received my new S5, I rooted the phone, and also bought a 32gb external sd card. I realized that with KitKat 4.4.2, google has prevented apps from writing to the external SD card. I looked up workarounds to this problem and came to this:
trendblog.net/fix-kitkat-sd-card-write-restriction
I applied the fix to my phone, editing the platform.xml file, rebooted, and realized that my INTERNAL SD folder has now been wiped clean and is now empty. A lot of apps stopped working, including youtube, google, samsung keyboard etc, with the message "unfortunately <insert app name> has stopped". In particular, the MyScript Resource Manager constantly stops, and gives me that message. I am unable to go online either even though am able to connect to wireless and data networks.
I have tried different ways to solve the issue, including factory reset, and flashing stock rom, but my internal SD folder remains empty.
Does anyone have any idea how to solve this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just had the exact thing happen. We're you able to fix it. If so, how? I really could use the help.

Umi Zero has ROOT access but cannot access file explorer and missing SD card

Hello guys,
I have had so many problems with this flipping phone, 1 problem after another. I've installed the latest ROM 6.0.1 Resurrection remix marshmallow and I have root access as I have checked through RootChecker, but every time I try clicking on gallery { no external storage available) and camera the same.. also cannot access sd card even though I have internal storage..apparantly I need to give everything root access but I don't know how, I already have supersu and superuser.. Now I don't physically have an SD card but i had no issue like this before with previous ROM. File manager also says " this operation requires elevated permissions,Try changing to root access mode" I have already done this by clicking APPS and ADB... I don't know what else do I do.. I have installed this ROM using ROOTJOY if that helps, and every time I plug in usb, it shows Umi zero and then "this folder is empty" .. does this make sense? someone please help, thanks

After 7.0 Update Nothing Can Write to SDCARD

T-Mo S2, took the nougat update, and even using "MyFiles" all attempts to write to the external sdcard fail. I can't even enable permissions for root explorer or es-filemanager pro. I'm frustrated enough to use this tablet as a weapon in a road rage incident. Anyone else seeing this or is there something I've missed along the way?
scottricketts said:
T-Mo S2, took the nougat update, and even using "MyFiles" all attempts to write to the external sdcard fail. I can't even enable permissions for root explorer or es-filemanager pro. I'm frustrated enough to use this tablet as a weapon in a road rage incident. Anyone else seeing this or is there something I've missed along the way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't use supersu 2.82 SR1
I'm not rooted. It's totally stock
Something's not right because I have no problems on my T713. Bone stock. I just finished copying some pix from a USB-OTG to the micro SD. Went without a hitch.
scottricketts said:
I'm not rooted. It's totally stock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have difficulty to write on SD card for some of the apps (such as GPS) after update. But, the file explorer and some other apps are ok. I believe the problem is caused by app permissions and needs to be solve as per app level.
scottricketts said:
T-Mo S2, took the nougat update, and even using "MyFiles" all attempts to write to the external sdcard fail. I can't even enable permissions for root explorer or es-filemanager pro. I'm frustrated enough to use this tablet as a weapon in a road rage incident. Anyone else seeing this or is there something I've missed along the way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It just a permission. It will pop up with permission request then you choose internal or external at root of storage. My can read/write from internal, microsd card, and even 1tb WD hard drive (without power) all no problem.
I'm having the same problem. I was running stock to this happened and have since rooted and tried two, (at the end of the day not very) different ROMs. Resurrection remix and Lineage OS both running nougat and neither have worked. I've tried using adb partition without success and root essentials asks me to flash ASPlugin.zip which I have tried with the flasher and through twrp. Neither works as it asks me to flash it again when I retry root essentials. No errors get thrown while flashing ASPlugin.zip.
I'm also at the point of wanting to throw my tab against the wall.
The permissions window pops up but it does not seem to effect the external SD card.
this link shows how to fix it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJRKuQf0puE
ES File Explorer Pro permits root permission, but it's not very obvious as to how it works. Execute a copy or move, you'll be prompted to go to the root of the card, click on the card link, then bottom right hand corner, click the select button and it's done.
Hi everyone.
I found this thread while searching for an answer to the same problem, which drove me almost crazy, too.
I decided to post my solution here, so that it might help others in the future.
As I said: I had the said problem, too.
No writing to ext. SD card, also no writing to my USB-stick via USB-OTG (On The Go), after updating my Tab S2 (SM-T815) to Nougat (Android 7.0) with a stock ROM and then rooting it with magisk (which btw went surprisingly well!).
I am using FX File Explorer, bought it even to be able to use it as root explorer, imho it's one of the best ones out there.
Connected to my PC I could pull or write files to my internal storage as well as to my external SD card via MTP, though.
Strange, but to those of us with just enough know-how to not brick the phone when flashing "stuff" the higher functions seem to be magical anyway, so I didn't take too much time to wonder.
I tried unmounting and mounting both SD card and USB stick, but that would not help.
Also disabeling writing acces in FX explorer and enabeling it again showe no effect. All I got was an error message "Internal Error".
The post above gave me the hint about permissions. (I couldn't watch the linked Youtube video, because my PC has no speakers atm, and I also had no headphones. Also, it looks like the video solves an intirely different problem anyways, not sure why tensux posted this here!?)
So I checked the permissions by using FX.
I went to /root then checked the permissions for /root/sdcard which were set to rwx,rwx,rwx.
Then I checked the SD card (and the USB, while I was at it anyways) via root/storage/[technical name of my SD card like 5555-2843] and /root/storage/[technical name of my USB-stick like 2234-1289] and found that both had their permissions set to rwx,rx,rx.
I marked the respective folders, went to security through the context menu, and changed the permissions to rwx,rwx,rwx in each of them. It would not stick in the grafics, meaning afterwards the permissions still showed no change, even when I restarted the Tablet, but...
I went back to the regular FX explorer and unmounted and mounted both SD card and USB-stick again. I still got the error message, only this time I tried to copy, move or delete a file there was no problem anymore, neither from or to the SD card nor the USB-stick.
After several restarts I still can write to my SD card as well as to my USB-stick, so I must have done something right.
.
Thank you XDA for being a place of knowledge, maybe I could give back a little and maybe this report helps someone else out there.
McFex said:
Hi everyone.
I found this thread while searching for an answer to the same problem, which drove me almost crazy, too.
I decided to post my solution here, so that it might help others in the future.
As I said: I had the said problem, too.
No writing to ext. SD card, also no writing to my USB-stick via USB-OTG (On The Go), after updating my Tab S2 (SM-T815) to Nougat (Android 7.0) with a stock ROM and then rooting it with magisk (which btw went surprisingly well!).
I am using FX File Explorer, bought it even to be able to use it as root explorer, imho it's one of the best ones out there.
Connected to my PC I could pull or write files to my internal storage as well as to my external SD card via MTP, though.
Strange, but to those of us with just enough know-how to not brick the phone when flashing "stuff" the higher functions seem to be magical anyway, so I didn't take too much time to wonder.
I tried unmounting and mounting both SD card and USB stick, but that would not help.
Also disabeling writing acces in FX explorer and enabeling it again showe no effect. All I got was an error message "Internal Error".
The post above gave me the hint about permissions. (I couldn't watch the linked Youtube video, because my PC has no speakers atm, and I also had no headphones. Also, it looks like the video solves an intirely different problem anyways, not sure why tensux posted this here!?)
So I checked the permissions by using FX.
I went to /root then checked the permissions for /root/sdcard which were set to rwx,rwx,rwx.
Then I checked the SD card (and the USB, while I was at it anyways) via root/storage/[technical name of my SD card like 5555-2843] and /root/storage/[technical name of my USB-stick like 2234-1289] and found that both had their permissions set to rwx,rx,rx.
I marked the respective folders, went to security through the context menu, and changed the permissions to rwx,rwx,rwx in each of them. It would not stick in the grafics, meaning afterwards the permissions still showed no change, even when I restarted the Tablet, but...
I went back to the regular FX explorer and unmounted and mounted both SD card and USB-stick again. I still got the error message, only this time I tried to copy, move or delete a file there was no problem anymore, neither from or to the SD card nor the USB-stick.
After several restarts I still can write to my SD card as well as to my USB-stick, so I must have done something right.
.
Thank you XDA for being a place of knowledge, maybe I could give back a little and maybe this report helps someone else out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All external storage write permissions are granted on a per app basis as per Google's security specs.
If an app has issues with writing to external storage then it is the app at fault.
The developer needs to update the app with the new permissions.
I have many Android devices and for all of these devices I use Root Explorer.
This is and has always been the best Root file explorer since day one. It does what it needs to do without any silly unnecessary bells and whistles.
Any serious developer will use this app as it's proved to be the most reliable and the dev is on the ball with this app.
Never have I had an issue with it.

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