[Q] Can't mount internal storage TWRP - Galaxy Note 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So, things have massively escalated today and my phone appears to be soft bricked. Joy. I'll run through what happened.
1. I encrypted my phone using the built in tool in Cyanogen Mod. After it rebooted, it was glitchy and I lost a load of apps, the phone really wasn't working well. Rebooted again, but no improvement.
2. I went into TWRP (2.8.x) to restore my old backup, which was on the SD card. After the initial wipe of the internal storage, the log showed
E: Can't mount storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and the restore failed.
3. I reboot and phone goes straight into recovery mode as there is no OS installed (the recovery wipes the internal storage first). Internal Storage is now showing as '0 MB'. I cannot find a way of mounting this storage anymore. Have tried factory reset (doesn't work because file system isn't mounted), and rebooting a few times but no avail.
* There seem to be some options about flashing a .pit file using odin, but I do not have this file. My phone is the Note 4 SM-N910F Model. If I can do this through Odin then maybe this will resurrect the file structure and make this storage mountable?
* There may also be another option using ADB but I still don't know what commands to use.
Any help would really be appreciated as it seems there is some possibility of a fix. That being said my hopes are not that high...

I believe I may have fixed this. I would like to keep this up here in case in helps anyone in the future, I would imagine this is only useful for people who have encrypted their device. I'm not an Android expert so can't be responsible for any damage to devices or data loss etc.
It seems that the encryption must have gone wrong somewhat and this is likely to have impacted on the file system.
Although I couldn't wipe on the device, I was able in recovery to FORMAT data (not just wipe). Go to the wipe menu, then format. After this, reboot into recovery again and you should be able to mount again. It rebuilt the filesystem too.
This should be a quick fix that may help a few people with the issues with not being able to mount the file system. I hope this can help at least one person!
I managed to restore from my backup after and phone is now working. Thanks anyway!

Is there any way to set the default storage of play store apps to the sd card?

Related

URGENT: Factory Reset wiped sdcard

I have a rather urgent issue, in which a factory reset wiped my sdcard. First of all, is that normal? This is my first device with no external microsd, and my first time using TWRP. Before, I had been using various versions of Amon-Ra or CWM, and when I factory reset they never wiped the sd card. Next, whether it was normal or not, I need a way to recover my data. I had around 8 gigs in sdcard before it got wiped.
To give you more background info on what was going on, I had a rooted 4.1.2 16GB Nexus, and I decided that I wanted to try PA. I made a nandroid backup of course, and then proceeded to flash the rom. I followed the instructions on the PA thread, first doing a factory reset followed up by the actual flashing, then a wipe of cache/davlik. After I tried the rom out for a few minutes, I noticed that there weren't any redeeming features to make it worth the time-consuming switch from stock to PA, transferring all my data and setting up my settings once more.
I rebooted back into recovery and factory reset again, and then I went to restore and saw that there were no backups. Suspicious, I went to the install menu, and found my entire sdcard folder had been wiped out. What happened?
Edit: I'm currently still on the recovery, afraid to do anything in case I lose my data forever.
Was your boot loader already unlocked or did you unlock it right before you flashed the ROM?
littleemp said:
Was your boot loader already unlocked or did you unlock it right before you flashed the ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, especially on Christmas, but I got around the issue myself. It had been unlocked for 2 months now.
I noticed that every time I booted into recovery, it would make a "0" folder and move the contents of my sdcard into that "0" folder. Then the 0 folder would go inside another 0 folder, and so on and so forth. It was a really strange issue because I was unable to restore my backup; TWRP could not find my /sdcard/TWRP/backup folder, because it did not exist! It was in sdcard/0/0/TWRP/backup. I used the built in file manager in TWRP, and moved the contents back into the proper folder. I could then restore, and now I'm feeling relieved.
However, two issues remain; the 0 folders are still there, and storage transfer speeds seem very slow.
Edit: I got rid of the 0 folders by moving my folders out of them and then deleting the 0 folders, but the size of my files seem to have been inflated. What took up 6 gigs before is now taking up 8.8gb. Lol wut? Also, when I hook it up to a computer it tells me that 12GB has been filled. So many discrepancies.
androidwkim said:
Edit: I got rid of the 0 folders by moving my folders out of them and then deleting the 0 folders, but the size of my files seem to have been inflated. What took up 6 gigs before is now taking up 8.8gb. Lol wut? Also, when I hook it up to a computer it tells me that 12GB has been filled. So many discrepancies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am having the same problem. I think everybody has that problem, because it's caused by jelly bean 4.2 and its new emulated storage.
The only way I have found to get arround it was to copy all files on the computer from the sdcard, then formating the sdcard in recouvery and moving everything back.
Only problem I am having right now is that I can't for the love of it copy my files. Stupid MTP filesystem is really buggy and extremly slow. I constantly crashes or gives me multiple erros. The one I am having at the moment is something about a parameter error.
Very annoying the stupid filesystem under 4.2.
Btw. I can't get the adb pull command to work either. When I tell it to copy system/storage/emulated/legacy (I believe thats where the sdcard is actually loccated, right?!) it doesn't copy a single file.
If anybody could help me I would be very greatfull.
xaboren said:
I am having the same problem. I think everybody has that problem, because it's caused by jelly bean 4.2 and its new emulated storage.
The only way I have found to get arround it was to copy all files on the computer from the sdcard, then formating the sdcard in recouvery and moving everything back.
Only problem I am having right now is that I can't for the love of it copy my files. Stupid MTP filesystem is really buggy and extremly slow. I constantly crashes or gives me multiple erros. The one I am having at the moment is something about a parameter error.
Very annoying the stupid filesystem under 4.2.
Btw. I can't get the adb pull command to work either. When I tell it to copy system/storage/emulated/legacy (I believe thats where the sdcard is actually loccated, right?!) it doesn't copy a single file.
If anybody could help me I would be very greatfull.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same fear, emotion and discovery a week ago when trying a new Rom thanks multi users feature .
You may try to switch from MTP mode to MSC in system setting to increase the speed.
Take care of the different tools because as example JROMFlasher will format the SD card for better cleaning. (I had backup!)
I think I read that the Factory Reset from the settings menu WILL erase everything.
Formatting with ClockworkMod, saves your sdcard files.
I also recommend unlocking asap just for laughs. Even if you don't plan on rooting or Modding... unlocking will ensure your files won't be deleted if you decide to or something happens that requires it
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app

[Solution] Unmountable /data/ partition.

If you are using CWM 6.xx and you attempted to 'format' your sd card entirely, you may have experienced some troubles.
I formatted the /system, /data, /cache manually in CWM and found alot of problems which had arisen afterwards.
After you format these, you may notice that you can no longer mount /data/ ! This is a big problem. You cannot install new roms, or do anything because the /data/ partition cannot mount.
Solution:
1. Using Odin, flash select PDA and your stock TouchWiz based ROM. Also use the partitioning file for the i9505 device. (Make sure you tick repartition in Odin), this process may or may not work with or without the paritioning file, if your filesystem is corrupt its probably a good idea.
2. Once this is complete, reboot, you will see that the Samsung logo appears, and it may appear that things have worked, but it wont work yet.
3. You will need to install CF-AUTO-ROOT. This roots the phone, but it also seems to fix the partitioning issue.
4. Once installed you should be able to boot into TouchWiz.
5. Install Philz Advanced CWM recovery!
6. Use the feature of 'format phone for ROM'. This will format the SDCards /system/, /data/ etc PROPERLY and wont cause you any problems.
7. Install your flavor of ROM
8. Enjoyjoy
I searched the internet everywhere attempting to fix this unmountable /data/ partition, only via a french-english translated forum was I able to learn how to do this.
Further reading:
http://www.phonandroid.com/forum/recuperer-error-mounting-data-t56933.html
If it helped, please thank me
Cheers, ostenn.
ostenning said:
If you are using CWM 6.xx and you attempted to 'format' your sd card entirely, you may have experienced some troubles.
I formatted the /system, /data, /cache manually in CWM and found alot of problems which had arisen afterwards.
After you format these, you may notice that you can no longer mount /data/ ! This is a big problem. You cannot install new roms, or do anything because the /data/ partition cannot mount.
Solution:
1. Using Odin, flash select PDA and your stock TouchWiz based ROM. Also use the partitioning file for the i9505 device. (Make sure you tick repartition in Odin), this process may or may not work with or without the paritioning file, if your filesystem is corrupt its probably a good idea.
2. Once this is complete, reboot, you will see that the Samsung logo appears, and it may appear that things have worked, but it wont work yet.
3. You will need to install CF-AUTO-ROOT. This roots the phone, but it also seems to fix the partitioning issue.
4. Once installed you should be able to boot into TouchWiz.
5. Install Philz Advanced CWM recovery!
6. Use the feature of 'format phone for ROM'. This will format the SDCards /system/, /data/ etc PROPERLY and wont cause you any problems.
7. Install your flavor of ROM
8. Enjoyjoy
I searched the internet everywhere attempting to fix this unmountable /data/ partition, only via a french-english translated forum was I able to learn how to do this.
Further reading:
http://www.phonandroid.com/forum/recuperer-error-mounting-data-t56933.html
If it helped, please thank me
Cheers, ostenn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue. I think its a bug present in most recoveries at the minute. I've just taken to manually deleting the folders on the internal SD card. To stop this happening.
I remember, in one day, I had to flash the pit file and stock rom 4 times. I think this is actually quite intermittent. Sometimes it doesn't corrupt the /data partition and sometimes it does.
It's really quite damn annoying. At least there's an easy enough fix - if not time consuming.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

TWRP write protect issue

I flashed my i9500 with TWRP 2.8.1.0 using Odin and it wrote an undeletable backup onto my internal memory. To get rid of that, I backed up the "BACKUPS" folder and formatted the internal storage only for it now to cause the entire internal storage to be write protected to my android apps. I can copy and delete stuff to it through PC but my apps wont work, those that require to download pics and videos or make backups to the internal storage, web browsers can't download anything to the internal storage yet I now have over 7GB free space.
It's clear TWRP is write protecting the internal storage selectively (first it wrote protected the storage to both the phone and pc, now to the phone only). How should I sort this problem out?
I have also just tried using root explorer to change permissions to the internal storage but it doesn't work. It's failing. Titanium backup shows its own backup folder is unwrittable. It cannot be changed by Root explorer
I just tried fixing permissions in twrp but to no avail. I uninstalled Clean master only to try and re-install it and it won't install now, it gives a failed install error. Kingsoft office continually shows "stopped working" and fails to work completely. All this started with flashing Twrp. I can't view pics in whats app or send them, neither can I edit documents. Any help to rid of this issue will be gladly appreciated.
People please please avoid twrp at all costs!, i have now lost all my data and apps are all failing. I deerly deerly regret why i ever flashed twrp recover in the first place!
I seem to have solved the issue after a very grueling experience.
TWRP has its flaws and it is quite notable here. Here is how I have gotten around the issue:-
Immediately after I installed TWRP I made a system backup of the entire phone as of its state at the time.
I copied it to my pc and tried to delete the backup that TWRP had made. It was completely write protected, nothing could delete it.
I then decided to use TWRP to format my internal storage after backing it up. Then restore the data back which I did successfully.
Little did I know what had happened. TWRP had assigned the internal storage attributes that even Root explorer (paid) could not undo.
The internal storage had become unusable to the system and user apps.
Slowly my apps began to collapse one after the other failing. From frustration I tried to salvage the data the apps held at the time so that I can factory reset and restore but Titanium backup could not access its own folder. That's where all the frustration begun.
I later flashed CWM and accidentally formatted all my data instead of the data partition.. this was now hell.
One last try which was about 5 hours later I returned TWRP recovery, wiped the data partition and got hold of my prior backup with TWRP, restored it and am 9 hrs back from total loss of data. So the internal storage now has its initial attributes prior to the predicament.
Am actually back exactly to where all this mayhem began when I decided to delete the "BACKUPS" folder and there was absolutely nothing else that was wrong, which now I will attempt to delete hoping that I won't experience deja vu.
This is a problem worth reporting to TWRP developers and I don't know how
TWRP recovery Fix Permissions
I couldn't delete back ups from the internal storage at all. I couldn't even copy saved back ups from my pc to my Note 3. I went into TWRP recovery, under Advanced select Fix Permissions
Now I can delete folders in the TWRP main folder with a ES file explorer or on my PC via usb cable.
Never had any problems like this with TWRP on my S4+. For me the backups taken and its folders can be handled just fine, copied, deleted, moved etc. Must be som compatibility issue with your setup.

Data Recovery from S4 GT-I9506 Andriod 4.3

I need help to recover data (photo, contacts, WhatsApp chats) from my Un-Rooted GT-I9506 running Android 4.3. Due to some error the data was not synced for about 6 months.
Any help as the steps that I need to follow is greatly appreciated
The what's app chats should re-appear if you reinstall what's app and sign in on another phone.
So the phone won't boot at all into the rom? If not, you could install twrp using Odin, boot into twrp, mount the data partition, and copy the data to your computer. Before any of this will work, you need to make sure that the phone is seen by your windows computer.
audit13 said:
The what's app chats should re-appear if you reinstall what's app and sign in on another phone.
So the phone won't boot at all into the rom? If not, you could install twrp using Odin, boot into twrp, mount the data partition, and copy the data to your computer. Before any of this will work, you need to make sure that the phone is seen by your windows computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you audit13 for your help.
My GT-I9506 is working perfectly fine so I should be able to install TWRP.
However I made a mistake and loaded the TWRP ment S4-I337M. I got the usual Green OK message in ODIN. However when I pressed Volume Up & Power I was getting the usual Samsung Default Recovery Options.
Then I realized my mistake and loaded TWRP_3.0.2.0_ks01lte_20160508.tar.md5
http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...recovery-twrp-2-8-1-0-touch-recovery-t2942159
I got thw Green Successful Message in ODIN. But when I press Volume Down & Power I get the following message:
Recover Booting
Wet Warranty Bit: Recovery.
And the Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9506 in the Black Screen logo
The phone is stuck in the above screen
Phone is working fine (I am able to use the phone and to go to Download Mode).
What should I do?
Re-flash TWRP. I recommend re-flashing TWRP. I like and still use 2.87.
https://twrp.me/devices/samsunggalaxys4ltea.html
Open Odin, uncheck auto reboot, flash TWRP and, when you see the word "reset" in the status window, remove USB cable, remove battery, replace battery, use button combination to boot into TWRP.
audit13 said:
Re-flash TWRP. I recommend re-flashing TWRP. I like and still use 2.87.
https://twrp.me/devices/samsunggalaxys4ltea.html
Open Odin, uncheck auto reboot, flash TWRP and, when you see the word "reset" in the status window, remove USB cable, remove battery, replace battery, use button combination to boot into TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Re-flashing with 2.87 worked. TWRP is working, Thank you very much.
When you have time can you please point me to link that have step by step instructions to recover the data?
Boot into twrp, connect phone to computer, open file explorer and look for your data. If you don't see anything in the data partition, you may have to try using a data recovery program. Try a program like recuva.
audit13 said:
Boot into twrp, connect phone to computer, open file explorer and look for your data. If you don't see anything in the data partition, you may have to try using a data recovery program. Try a program like recuva.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for your help. The files were deleted so I could not find them. I have downloaded Recuva.
What is the Optimal way to recover All deleted files using Recuva?
I did a search and this what I found and I not sure how to do it:
back up the entire internal memory partition to your computer as a single, massive .RAW file,
convert the .RAW file output to a VHD,
mount the VHD as a disk in Disk Manager,
scan the attached VHD volume for files that have been deleted and recover them,
Sorry, I have never use recuva on a phone or non-volatile memory. only mechanical drives.
audit13 said:
Sorry, I have never use recuva on a phone or non-volatile memory. only mechanical drives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I boot GT-9506 into TWRP and mount the internal storage as USB my PC is not detecting the phone internal storage. Even Recuva or HDD Raw Copy Tool is not detecting the phone internal storage.
Any suggestions?
Does TWRP's file manager see any of your data files?
How was the data lost?
- Did you delete it manually?
- Did your format the device?
If so, then it's IMPOSSIBLE to get your data back. That's because Google enabled TRIM in Android 4.3+, so data you deleted is really gone.
If you are stubborn like most of the users and still want to waste lot's of time trying to recover the data then this is the thread you are searching for.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...de-internal-memory-data-recovery-yes-t1994705
TWRP File Manager seems to show all folders example: boot, cache, data, dev, ect, external_sd, license, preload, proc, recovery, res, root, sbin, sdcard, sideload, spersu, system, tem, twres, usbstorage, charger, default.prop .......
When I go into the data folder I see a lot of sub folders including app folder, app-asec, app-lib, app-private, audio, backup, mcmnfc .......
What I go into app folder I see some app files such as "com.whatsapp-34.apk, com.viber.voip6.apk
I am mainly trying to recover deleted Whatsapp & Viber chat, calls history
Lennyz1988 said:
How was the data lost?
- Did you delete it manually?
- Did your format the device?
If so, then it's IMPOSSIBLE to get your data back. That's because Google enabled TRIM in Android 4.3+, so data you deleted is really gone.
If you are stubborn like most of the users and still want to waste lot's of time trying to recover the data then this is the thread you are searching for.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...de-internal-memory-data-recovery-yes-t1994705
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The data was deleted manually but it was not formatted nor a factory reset done.
Yes I did see that 100 page long thread. But as mentioned in this tread my internal storage is NOT detected by Recuva or raw HDD copy utility.
I need the deleted data very badly. So I am willing to jump through any loops
utsc said:
The data was deleted manually but it was not formatted nor a factory reset done.
Yes I did see that 100 page long thread. But as mentioned in this tread my internal storage is NOT detected by Recuva or raw HDD copy utility.
I need the deleted data very badly. So I am willing to jump through any loops
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you deleted the data manually then you cannot get it back. There are no loops to jump through.
Android 4.3+ has Trim enabled. The TRIM function effectively nulls out the space where deleted files were stored, making the data completely unrecoverable.
Lennyz1988 said:
If you deleted the data manually then you cannot get it back. There are no loops to jump through.
Android 4.3+ has Trim enabled. The TRIM function effectively nulls out the space where deleted files were stored, making the data completely unrecoverable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not too sure about that because I used a software called Dr Fone and was able to recover some of the deleted files.

Flashing ROMs messes up access to my internal storage

When I was using the factory international rom, my internal storage like in TWRP/install is perfectly readable. I am sure my device has everything done needed to flash a custom rom. But like when I flash Havoc's ROM or lineage, then reboot to recovery, under install the directories become a bunch of folders with illegible names, and I cannot write to/from it anymore. The rom works fine, except the same thing happens when trying to access the files in the storage through a file manager or my computer.
Please this is super frustrating. If anyone has a solution to this, it would be of great help. Especially because now I cannot even restore backups in TWRP. Same for the apps like in titanium backup, I cannot restore them because it says there is no such directory anymore. I cannot for the life of me figure out what happens to my internal storage when I flash a ROM. I really don't want to have to use the MSM tool once again to start completely over again from the very beginning like I have so many times.
Thank you if you have any sort of solution to this, it would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: I fixed the encryption by formatting my data in TWRP. I lost everything, but it did work. I wiped all my data, then let the phone fully reboot without any lockscreen functions chosen. Then I got my internal storage directory back again. Good enough for me.

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