My rooted samsung galaxy s4 is soft bricked, Can I save the data? - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshoot

Yes this post is correctly dated. I've had this device a LOOOONNNGGG time.
The device has been rooted since shortly after I bought it new years ago. I've had very few problems since... which is why it's never been replaced.
I believe I have the stock ROM, sorry it's been a while.
When I start the device it gets stuck at the splash screen with the sprint logo.
I can get the device to "download mode" but I don't know what to do once there and I'm not sure I can do anything from here.
I can get the device to "android system recovery."
I know I installed TWRP when I rooted and installed the rooted ROM but when I boot to recovery it doesn't go there.
I've wiped the "cache partition" but the problem remained. I'm not sure what else to do from here and still be able to salvage data.
I'm trying to salvage the data on the internal storage. I'm pretty sure I could successfully "wipe data/ factory reset" and get it to "function" again but that's not the priority. I'm going to replace it regardless of success or failure. Data recovery is the priority here. (pictures and videos of my young children as well as less important stuff like contacts.)
I have an old laptop with an old version of ubuntu I can use or a newer one with windows 7 to work with. I mention this in case it makes this easier to help?
Thank you very much if you try to take a stab at this or refer someone that might!

Update:
So I managed to install TWRP via Odin.
I booted to this recovery and my data partition appears to be empty?
When I try to back up I get the error message "unable to mount '/data'"
I tried doing a wipe, not one of the fancy extra options ones just the regular wipe and it failed.
Any guidance will be extremely appreciated.
Edit:
So I've come to the conclusion that the data isn't accessible because of encryption and my pass code. Is there any way to enter it via recovery and access this info?
Is anybody out there?
Edit 2:
I hope this helps someone someday. I haven't solved the problem but I think I'm making progress.
First I had an old version of TWRP. I installed the latest for my device and tried backing up again. I'm not sure but I think it's working. TWRP dosen't seem to need my password for the backup. I imagine I'll just need it to access the data later.
Edit 3:
No sooner did I save the last edit and my backup failed.
Process ended with error : 255

Related

Boot problems

My scenario:
I updated my N1 to 2.1-update1 by applying an update.zip from the SD card. Everything worked fine for a while until a few days later I turned off my phone. On rebooting, it got stuck at the splash screen. I managed to reboot through the bootloader and got back in but have since had problems with a couple of apps force closing on startup and have been unable to send SMS. I decided that maybe I should start from scratch so rebooted into recovery mode again and wiped data and cache and reapplied the update. My phone will now not boot at all. It consistently gets stuck at the splash screen.
It's not bricked, as I can get to the bootloader and recovery menus but:
a) adb and fastboot won't recognize the phone as being connected
b) on the recovery menu I see "E: Can't open /cache/recovery/command"
c) when going in to the bootloader it complains about not finding PASSDIAG.ZIP
Anyone have any ideas what I can do? I can't connect via adb/fastboot so am not really sure what I can try...
Did you do a nandroid if so I would try to restore and start the update from that point.
I get an error when I go to my bootloader screen asking about passdiag.zip and passdiag.nbh but it hasn't ever caused any problems, it just complains about them. I don't get the issues with the recovery menu or USB though. Fairly sure that doesn't help you, just adding my experience in the off chance it helps someone diagnose.
I don't suppose anyone has any idea what passdiag is?
No one with any idea what passdiag is or what one might do to fix this issue?
Don't worry about passdiag.zip and passdiag.nbh. These files are the ROM dumps if i remember right from Google. Just let that pass. Is your phone unlocked running a RA recovery, or are you still at stock. If unlocked you will have to reflash whatever ROM it was you were using.
So here's how I got to having that error.
Originally I was using the stock ROM. No error.
Then I unlocked/rooted using the guide here. Error started appearing.
After that I flashed Amon-Ra's Recovery: Error still present.
Following that I flashed Cyanogen's Mod. Error still present.
I really would like to get rid of the error, even if it isn't hurting anything. I don't suppose there's a place I could get the files to push to my phone or somewhere in the phone I could tell it to stop looking for them?

[Q] Can't wipe or factory reset encrypted phone

I made the mistake of encrypting my phone and am now paying the price. It is rooted and I had installed the Google Edition 4.4.2 ROM by Danvdh, Kryten2k35 & Ktoonsez. I'm using TWRP 2.7.0.1.
I first tried going into recovery and doing a factory reset and got the an "Unable to mount '/data'" error, followed by a big red FAIL. So I rebooted into the system and tried to do a factory reset from there. Went through all the steps, phone rebooted into recovery and I got the same error - unable to mount.
So I did a bit of searching on the forums here and someone had suggested using the format option in TWRP. So I did that and it seemed to work - did not get the dreaded unable to mount error. So I tried flashing the new rom (the updated version from a couple of weeks ago). Got a message indicating it was successful. Rebooted, and to my dismay, got the prompt for the encryption password. Saw the little line drawing Android, then... nothing - I found myself in brick land.
Managed to get back into TWRP and, based on another post I found, tried Advanced Wipe, selecting everything except Micro SDcard and USB-OTG. Tried installing the new ROM again, says successful, but nothing has changed - I still boot into blackness after inputting my encryption password.
Not sure what else to try. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
not_su said:
I made the mistake of encrypting my phone and am now paying the price. It is rooted and I had installed the Google Edition 4.4.2 ROM by Danvdh, Kryten2k35 & Ktoonsez. I'm using TWRP 2.7.0.1.
I first tried going into recovery and doing a factory reset and got the an "Unable to mount '/data'" error, followed by a big red FAIL. So I rebooted into the system and tried to do a factory reset from there. Went through all the steps, phone rebooted into recovery and I got the same error - unable to mount.
So I did a bit of searching on the forums here and someone had suggested using the format option in TWRP. So I did that and it seemed to work - did not get the dreaded unable to mount error. So I tried flashing the new rom (the updated version from a couple of weeks ago). Got a message indicating it was successful. Rebooted, and to my dismay, got the prompt for the encryption password. Saw the little line drawing Android, then... nothing - I found myself in brick land.
Managed to get back into TWRP and, based on another post I found, tried Advanced Wipe, selecting everything except Micro SDcard and USB-OTG. Tried installing the new ROM again, says successful, but nothing has changed - I still boot into blackness after inputting my encryption password.
Not sure what else to try. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you go into download mode, revert back to a stock rom (or flash a stock one or something) and turn encryption off? edit: on further research it looks like the only way to completely unencrypt is to reset your device. dunno if that's something you'd want to try, but considering you already wiped multiple times.. i'd say try it?
Also what carrier do you have? That's pretty important. AT&Ts i337 and Verizon's variant cannot flash AOSP roms (more specifically, kernels) due to the bootloader being locked. That might be the issue you're experiencing? I looked up the ROM and it's using ktoonsez kernel, so I imagine that'd be why. Someone just made a version that does not include the kernel and has multiple issues the ROM you're trying to use fixed here.
Rhymey said:
Can you go into download mode, revert back to a stock rom (or flash a stock one or something) and turn encryption off? edit: on further research it looks like the only way to completely unencrypt is to reset your device. dunno if that's something you'd want to try, but considering you already wiped multiple times.. i'd say try it?
Thanks - that's exactly what I've been trying to do. I haven't tried reflashing back to stock with Odin though. Hmmm...
Also what carrier do you have? That's pretty important. AT&Ts i337 and Verizon's variant cannot flash AOSP roms (more specifically, kernels) due to the bootloader being locked. That might be the issue you're experiencing? I looked up the ROM and it's using ktoonsez kernel, so I imagine that'd be why. Someone just made a version that does not include the kernel and has multiple issues the ROM you're trying to use fixed here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bell, up here in the Great White North. I don't think locked bootloader is an issue - I was on the previous version of Danvdh's ROM, and everything was hunkydory. I just made the unfortunate decision to encrypt. Big mistake.
May try flashing back to stock. Nothing to lose, at this stage...
Thanks!
Hey just wanted to mention for the benefit of anyone else who got into this bind, flashing back to stock using Odin did the trick. Still wouldn't boot, but then I rebooted into stock recovery and did a factory reset, and finally was able to reboot back into stock. What a nightmare. Ugh. Thanks for the tip though - never occurred to me to try to go back to stock. Lesson learned though - no more encryption for me!
not_su said:
Hey just wanted to mention for the benefit of anyone else who got into this bind, flashing back to stock using Odin did the trick. Still wouldn't boot, but then I rebooted into stock recovery and did a factory reset, and finally was able to reboot back into stock. What a nightmare. Ugh. Thanks for the tip though - never occurred to me to try to go back to stock. Lesson learned though - no more encryption for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to hear. Should be able to flash to the rom once again no problem now that it's unencrypted!

[Q] [SOLVED] Adventures in CM11, still can't connect to T-Mobile USA.

Hello,
I have a MB525 that I purchased retail in the United States so it was never locked to any carrier. Currently I'm a T-Mobile customer and have no interest in changing that. I have to say I love this phone, mainly because it seems indestructible. Even years later the battery life is still good, but the stock 2.2.2 Froyo has become something of a problem because many of the Apps I would like to use have started requiring newer versions of Android.
I can't stay in the past forever, but I'm not quite ready to give up on this device so I started looking around at my options, and would you believe I found lots of other people who have this device and have worked very hard to produce updated Android OSes for it, and who have reported reasonably good success updating the device. I figured, Its already out of warranty, so I can't void a warranty I don't have. I also figured I'm a reasonably intelligent individual and have enough experience with Unix like operating systems that even if I get in trouble, I'll be able to ask the right questions to get out of trouble. Guess what point I have gotten to?
I started following the guide wikiDOTcyanogenmodDOTorg/w/Install_CM_for_jordan The Framaroot Gimli exploit worked great. I installed bootmenu 6.1 and Clockwork Mod Recovery. Fantastic. At this point, I was able to enter CMR and backup my mostly still factory ROM. If I understand correctly this is a nandroid backup. I copied that backup off of my SD Card to my PC. From this point I felt reasonably confident I could try things and in a worst case scenario restore to this backup.
Now I happen to have a stock ROM that seems to be a bit rare online, Blur_Version.34.4.806.MB525.Latam.en.01, so I figured at this point I'd do a service and create a backup using CWM after having done a factory reset. So I booted into the stock recovery, did a factory reset, restarted, and the OS was in a like new state. Perfect. Rebooted into CWM, and made a second backup of the factory reset state. I copied this off the SD Card to the PC. Now I figured I was ready for real fun.
I figured, I might as well put the most recent Android version I could find that people were reporting success with. This appeared to be @quarkx Kitkat build. The thread is almost a year old and has 500+ replies and so I guessed that most of the major kinks would have been worked out by now. I followed the directions on quarx2kDOTru and installed cm-11-20141015-NIGHTLY-mb52x.zip from Quarx2k.ru, and low and behold it worked. CM11 booted and everything looked great. WiFi worked. Gapps worked. Play store started installing my apps.
There was one small problem. The phone refused to connect to T-Mobile at all. So I did the reasonable thing. I searched and learned about base band switching, and consulted T-Mobile on what would be the correct APN settings. Occasionally it would connect to AT&T for emergency calling, but it never connected to T-Mobile no matter what I did. From my home I was normally getting excellent signal on the stock ROM, so I am reasonably certain that the actual signal in the area was not the problem, and that this had to be some kind of configuration or software issue. A wiser person probably would have gotten on the forum and asked for help, but wisdom be damned, I wanted to do it for myself.
So more research and at some point I thought, Well, I'll go back to the Stock ROM so the phone will be usable again, and I'll take another crack at CM11 again later. It was at this point that I realized that CMR had been replaced with Team Win Recovery Project. This recovery looked to be more feature rich and easier to use, so I accepted that. I backed up my CM11 install. then went to restore my original backup. Well you might have guessed by now that TWRP and CMR don't use exactly the same backup formats. I saw no obvious way to get back to my backup and couldn't find information that would allow reinstalling CMR. This was the first warning signal I foolishly ignored.
At this point I started looking around for slightly earlier builds of CM11 that might not have had the the problem connecting to T-Mobile. Here is where things get fuzzy about how things got into this state, since the work was spread over two days at this point. Somehow between all the flashing backing up and restoring, the device got to a state where the OS never actually finished could do here is yank the battery and reboot into TFRP.
At this point, attempting to restore would just result in the messages 'E: Unable to mount '/cache' and 'E: Unable to mount '/data' in the terminal. So After searching around I learned that I probably needed to format /cache and /data because somehow they were broken. Terminal commands, I can handle this. I start reading up and find the correct command and parameters for the format, and I type into the terminal inside TWRP and low any behold format can't be found. I start looking around the directories in my file system from inside TWRP and I've got a complete directoty structure, but no files in any directories other than on /sdcard. Well fuuuu.
Not sure what made me even try, but copying any file from my sdcard into /data somehow put /data into a state where a TWRP restore would work. So at this point I was able to restore the CM11 backup, and my phone now boots into CM11, 11-20141007-NIGHTLY-mb526. But.... the cellular network still doesn't work.
But now I am wiser and I am back to the point where a wiser person would have asked for help. So... Help?
Is 11-20141007-Nightly-mb526 the best rom an appropriate rom for my device? I'm guessing I missed something because other discussions on this forum mention newer builds, and also, my device is definitely a 525 not a 526.
Is my baseband version EPU93_U_00.60.03 right? The baseband selector allows me to pick from three T-Mobile settings: 3.4.2.-107-4, 3.4.2.-107-9, and 6.xx.0, none of which seems to allow me to connect to the cell network.
Thanks in advance for any assistance offered.
Sorry for the long potato.
Here is what I did to fix my problem.
I started with the original backup of my stock rom, and I used the unyaffs.exe from this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1199416 to convert my CMR backup into individual files. I then went into those files, and found \system\etc\motorola\bp_nvm_default\ and pulled out the original radio firmware from my device. From there I used advice from several pages to create my own update.zip, copied it to my SD card and I booted into TWRP and installed the zip there. Reboot and Voila, It connected right at startup to T-Mobile with the normal speeds I get from my home.
Bonus, I attached my zip in case anyone else comes across this and needs it.
My Device has an FCC ID of IHDP56LC1 if that helps anyone match their hardware.

I think my partitions are all messed up. Please Help

Hey everyone. I recently gave my Rogers note 3 to my wife. two days later she said it was acting up, and it kept saying com.android.systemui has stopped. when I booted into CWM I couldnt do a factory reset, and it was also saying it could open a bunch of directories. I was able to use CWM to restore to an earlier restore, but even then I couldnt do a factory reset, and CWM is still saying it cant open the directories.
After talking with another modder, he has suggested that my partitions are messed up. So, if this is the case, what is my best bet? should I use odin to reflash CWM, and then flash the stock rogers rom? She's not a power user and doesnt care for root. she just wants a working phone that has a stylus pen.
I have downloaded the latest CWM .tar, but can someone please help me find the stock rogers rom? rooted or not, i dont care. I just need help as Im helping her recover from major surgery and working 18 hour days right now so im burnt out.
Thanks in advance.
[SOLVED]
I was able to format the cache from CWM finally. Errors are all gone.

Phone restarts at startup.

Well this is my 1st post so first of all hey everyone
I just spent a week in Amsterdam and my phone restarted twice, different times different days and I dont remember what I was doing with it back then.
But as I landed back home I put the phone back from "Airplane Mode" and went on to toggle "Cellular Data" on.
The second I pressed the cellular data shortcut on my the phone restarted itself but this time whenever it would finish the screen would be on but fully black and sometimes it'll show battery precentage at the top but then will restart again in an infinite loop.
Sometimes it'll pop up the "Optimizing Apps" window and will go through all 24, upon finishing it will restart once more and do the same.
I tried using the bootloader and it worked (the bootloader that is) but the phone would do the same thing even after Rebooting from there or shutting down from there and then turning back on.
I contacted tech support on chat but they couldnt help past telling me to go to bootloader and reboot, said I should factory wipe when it failed.
Also tried wiping cache but to no avail.
I have no backup of my phone (wanted to do one before the flight but got lazy and I suck for not doing one sooner) since probably October and google doesnt backup my contacts properly for some unknown reason.
I already downloaded Android Studio with everything included for me to try using adb to sideload stock without wiping but its my first time and I couldnt get it to do anything at all...
I already got the official stock .gz file from the motorola website.
Anyway here are the specs to my phone:
XT1575
Everything is stock. didn't root or change recovery once in my life.
Was fully updated and had plenty of drive space (I have almost 128GB with the 64GB version + 64GB SD)
I'm really lost here so help will be very appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
-Noam
Start with a full wipe and if that doesn't work flash the stock image. Not sure what your question is though as you never really say. Once fixed I would unlock and make a backup so you don't have to deal with this again.
lafester said:
Start with a full wipe and if that doesn't work flash the stock image. Not sure what your question is though as you never really say. Once fixed I would unlock and make a backup so you don't have to deal with this again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing I pretty much want to know is if theres a way to either backup the phone now with it connected to the computer while in bootloader or recovery. or a way to flash the stock rom without wiping which I read someone did with his tablet. I cant post source normally because I'm a new user so here it is but change spaces to dots: schnouki net/posts/2014/08/13/flashing-a-stock-android-image-without-wiping-user-data/
Also while in recovery I noticed 2 options under wipe: 1. userdata only. 2. userdata+(insert something I dont remember here) and I was wondering what gets deleted in both? if I delete only userdata what data will remain? something helpful?
Sure you can try flashing without wiping data but being locked I personally wouldn't risk it. No idea about backing up in your state... somewhere I remember a thread on backing up without root try searching in q&a.
lafester said:
Sure you can try flashing without wiping data but being locked I personally wouldn't risk it. No idea about backing up in your state... somewhere I remember a thread on backing up without root try searching in q&a.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity why shouldnt I try flashing with no wipe if ill lose the data anyway? worst case wont I just have to wipe after it fails and flash again?
And I will try thank you
Do you have any knowledge about the 2 wipe options?
Thanks in advance
Well I tried turning the phone on and it took a couple of minutes before loading to a fresh start. It apparently wiped itself on its own. Managed to restore almost everything.
Anyhow the phone takes too long to boot now. Was even stuck at boot and I had to restart it.
Anyway to fix my software? Or at least check for corruption?
Sent from my XT1575 using XDA-Developers mobile app

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