Develop Bugs

***need help please***

two days ago, i rooted my phone using simple root, nand unclocked and flashed clockwordmod and everything. i was using fresh rom, and i wanted to use the vanilla lockscreen. but in order to do that, i needed to flash amons ra. i tried doing that, and somehow i got rid of my clockword recovery mod (and amons ra didnt work) so whenever i went into recovery mode, it just stayed at the screen with the phone and triange and red exclamation mark. i tried running the recovery windows .bat file, but it didnt work. and i tried running the ruu .exe file to unroot my phone, but everytime it said it couldnt find my device, even though it was connected via a usb chord. i tried it in charge only mode, disk drive mode, and htc sync mode and none of them worked. i tried using rom manager, but everytime i tried doing something it said error attempting to run privilidged scrips or something. i tried downloading the superuser .apk file and installing it onto my phone, but that didnt work either. the terminal emulator didnt work when i tried to flash something, it just said it couldnt find the file on my sd card, even though i put it on there. help?

Okay, number one: Did you try holding volume UP + power at the red exclamation screen? I think that's how you enter AR recovery.
Number two: You can flash Fresh tweaks without using AR. You just have to reboot into ClockworkMod and flash the .zip files manually.
Are you able to boot ANY ROM right now? If so, is it rooted? If it is, try to reinstall ROM Manager.
Sounds like you went a little off the deep end when you couldn't get into AR.

any suggestions?

Yeah, answer my questions or provide more info so you can get better direction.

you can reflash either recovery with the simple root program or you can follow the first part of toasts root method part 2 to restore recovery.

SilverZero said:
Okay, number one: Did you try holding volume UP + power at the red exclamation screen? I think that's how you enter AR recovery.
Number two: You can flash Fresh tweaks without using AR. You just have to reboot into ClockworkMod and flash the .zip files manually.
Are you able to boot ANY ROM right now? If so, is it rooted? If it is, try to reinstall ROM Manager.
Sounds like you went a little off the deep end when you couldn't get into AR.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ill try your first suggestion. and i cant boot any rom right now, because rom manager isnt working. and im pretty sure my phone is rooted, because i still have dev tools and CIQ settings and all those rooted apps.
update: your first suggestion worked, except once i entered AR recovery, the only options i had were: reboot system now, apply sdcard:update.zip, wipe data/factory reset, and wipe cache partition. at the bottom, it said "E: can't open /cache/recovery/command,

t3project said:
you can reflash either recovery with the simple root program or you can follow the first part of toasts root method part 2 to restore recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried reflashing with simple root but it didnt work. can you give me a link for toasts method?

i had a similar problem, i used the OTA simple root, get that and plug ur phone back in with debugging on , one of the drop down menus will let you flash a recovery so flash clockworkmod

okay so somehow i managed to unroot it by wiping my data/cache..but now whenever i try using simpleroot or OTA simpleroot it doesnt work, because it says device is not found. i have it plugged in via usb, usb debugging is on, and ive tried it in charge mode and disk drive mode. anyone know what the problem is?

I'm sure there is a way to fix this, but I would suggest using the full root method by toastcfh.

okay i'll just reroot using that method, thanks. also, whenever im on my computer and im using command prompt, none of the adb commands ever work. do i need to download something for it to work?

Yes, you need the ADB framework. Read the guide (or the one by TheBiles, which is basically a rewrite). The ADB framework is a part of the Android SDK. You have to run ADB commands from the ADB directory (which is actually the "tools" folder inside of the SDK directory, wherever you extract that). Just cd to the tools folder, then run your commands from there.

[Q] No recovery anymore, Phone OK

In the process of trying to flash a new firmware to a GIO I somehow managed not to be able to acess the recovery menu anymore. Right now the Phone is rooted, booting fine into stock ROM, download mode is working but no recovery menu. While trying to boot with power and home button it just shows the Samsong logo for ages.
I tried to flash a new recovery several times due to the fact that the stock recovery is only able to apply update.zip and not able to select any custom filename. So I installed su and a new recovery this way. After realizing that there is no recovery anymore I did it using ODIN and download mode. I tried several recovery images from cwm to stock, but everytime the same.
What did I miss?
How to do a dalvik/cache reset outide revovery menu and not doing a full hard reset?
Would a hard reset help?
TiA,
longInt

Guess their are commands to do it with ADB, phone can still go on so thats fine
Download adb
Connect phone to pc
Open command prompt , cmd.bat
Type
Adb
Su
Reboot recovery
Try if it works...
You can also flash recovery with ODIN, cwm v5 can be flashed with odin
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium

I did already
Flashed cwm-5.0.2.7-ext4+rfs-odin.tar.md5 using ODIN without problems, but as I said, no recovery menu available/accessible. BTW: Do I've todo anything after ODIN triggered the reboot? I just remove the phone and try to access recovery menu...
I do not have adb available at the moment, Sorry. Will try tommorow, but I guess this will not show something different!?
Thx!

Terminal emulator?
Code:
su
Reboot recovery
Sent from my HTC Sensation

OK; will try the Terminal emulation soon. But also when trying "Reboot to recovery" from inside ROM Manager it just hangs showing the SAMSUNG Logo. Did I flash the right recovery in terms of the ext4 thing?
TiA

voetbalremco said:
Adb
Su
Reboot recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This results in a black screen and the phone not booting anymore (just showing the Samsung logo). I'm pretty sure the stock rom is booting again after flashing cwm again (had this before). Doing this now...
Any other ideas, tipps?
TiA

OK, guys, time for new proposals. Whichever way I try to get into recovery it fails. Reflashing recovery brings the phone back, but how to go into recovery!? I even tried to boot recovery using my GS3 Toolkit with the same negative result just to prove there is no way to reach recovery.
Isn't there a need to flash cache and dalvik or something else after flashing recovery!? How?
TiA

Try flashing a full stock rom with odin, so everything is gone, kernel, su etc...
If still not, live with it or bring it to a service center
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium

OK, thx. If someone is having additional hints/ideas please let me know . Phone is still working but still no recovery...

exact same problem
longint2 said:
OK, thx. If someone is having additional hints/ideas please let me know . Phone is still working but still no recovery...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact same problem as you. Same phone as you, phone rooted fine, tried installing CWM now can't get to recovery with the same symptoms as you. Holding Power+Home results in a hanging Samsung logo and no longer being able to boot at all. Removing the battery doesn't help. Reflashing allows me to boot normally but still not recovery mode (download mode accessible all the time). Rebooting from ROM manager usually results in "RAMDUMP mode arm9" instead of recovery (wtf).
Tried different CWM versions recommended for Gio, some older some newer, some with different filesystems.
Tried different methods for installing recoveries (from SD card in the original recovery mode the first time, and from ODIN)
Tried different methods of reaching recovery mode (key combination on boot, reboot from terminal, reboot from ROM manager).
Tried doing "firmware update" with (lol) Kies
Seriously no idea how to solve it, it's exactly the same as the problems in this thread. Advice from friends and these forums has so far not helped, but hopefully someone will discover an answer soon?
Things I don't think are related:
I have hardly any space left on the phone
My battery life has now been reduced to 2 hours average (woohoo!)

Have you tried installing stock rom via Odin? It installs stock recovery itself, and then you would be able to see what happens when you are trying to acces recovery

Very simple, it happened to me sometime ago. The problem was that my pc was blocking Odin to flash correctly, so I figured out the solution. The solution is to try flashing it from someone else's computer. Give it a try and tell me.
---------- Post added at 08:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:17 AM ----------
Follow step by step:
Make sure you do it from a PC on which you haven't already installed Samsung USB drivers or KIES.
1. Install Samsung usb drivers.
2. Open Odin and boot phone into downloading mode.
3. Browse Gio.ops and xxxxxxxx.tar file and start flashing.
Sent from my GT-S5660 using Tapatalk 2

nope…
pakistanish said:
Very simple, it happened to me sometime ago. The problem was that my pc was blocking Odin to flash correctly, so I figured out the solution. The solution is to try flashing it from someone else's computer. Give it a try and tell me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt this is the problem because the first time I tried flashing CWM was not with Odin (I'm not a Windows user) but from the stock recovery as shown in the video tutorial on this forum. I think I'll try wojtek267's suggestions and reflash the stock rom when I get my USB cable back.

Tried a lot more things, none of them worked
Sorry for double-posting, but this is long.
Update:
I got a USB cable. I tried a lot of stuff that also doesn't work. That's what's covered in this post:
This doesn't work. Naturally the first part doesn't work because it says boot into recovery and I can't do that. Ignoring that and continuing from step 5 does just as little. At the bottom of this post I've written what Odin does.
This also doesn't work, it's basically the same thing.
Tried reinstalling stock ROM as suggested. No difference in results. List of ROMs I've tried at bottom of post.
Tried using Odin from a different PC, as suggested. More on this at bottom of post.
Tried flashing using flash_image in adb. More about that at bottom of the thread.
Tried to get fastboot to work. I get an infinite < waiting for device >. More on that at bottom of the post.
Tried to factory reset the phone using both the menu option in settings, and the dial code, both result in the phone turning off and then starting up with a blank black screen that stays there forever.
Tried taking the battery out a thousand times, seriously why is this suggested so often?
List of Recovery ROMs I've tried:
signed_cwm-5.0.2.7-flashablezip-ext4only.zip
cwm-5.0.2.7-ext4only-odin.tar.md5
cwm-5.0.2.7-ext4+rfs-odin.tar.md5
stockrecovery-DXKT4-odin.tar.md5
All coming from this thread.
Also one or two others from blog about clockworkmod etc.
The point is it has no effect because as far as I can tell it isn't even flashed anyway.
Flashing from fresh PC failed
What I mean by this is:
I took a different PC
did a fresh install of windows on it
installed the Samsung drivers using the Kies CD
put the phone in download mode (VolDown+Home+Power)
start Odin, select OPS and tar.md5 file
connect phone
run Odin
nothing special happens…
What Odin does:
copy image to phone → success
disconnect from COM port and wait for reboot
start countdown timer
at this point phone reboots normally (not recovery or anything) and nothing special happens, the Odin timer eventually time's out and the operation is finished
Update: added actual output from odin as an attachment.
I'm not sure but I don't think the above is what Odin is typically supposed to do.
The odin I'm using is 4.42 for Gio and comes from the threads linked to in the first 2 bullet points linked above.
How flash_image fails
I have tried using both adb and terminal emulator on phone. Root access is given to the emulator via superuser app. This is what I do:
Code:
su
cd system
flash_image recovery recovery.img
This is what I get:
Code:
error scanning partitions: No such file or directory
recovery.img is located in /system/recovery.img
flash_image is located in /system/bin/flash_image with proper chmod setting of 755.
It makes no difference if I mount the system as read/writeable or not.
The flash_image I'm using comes from CyanogenMod wiki, here.
My best guess here is that the reason flash_image finds no recovery partition is that there isn't one. I certainly don't see one. And this would also explain why the phone does nothing (black screen or samsung logo) when you try to boot to recovery.
Please dear God somebody tell me that one of you has seen this before and knows a solution for this?
According to this thread the partition where recovery.img resides is /dev/block/bml9, but how do I get my CWM recovery.img on that partition? Do I cat? dd? What? Is there any partition (e.g. that one, or /system or anything) that I should format to something strange before this will work?
Issues with fastboot
2 problems with this. First one is, how exactly do you get into "fastboot" mode on the phone? I don't even know if it can. I have uncovered the following startup key-combos:
recovery mode (Home+Power) does not work, so now just a blank screen
download mode (VolDown+Home+Power)
ramdump arm9 mode (VolUp+Home+Power)
emergency download mode (VolDown+VolUp+Home+Power)
LK Little Kernel Mode (VolUp+VolDown+Power)
blank screen (VolUp+Power)
blank screen (VolDown+Power)
regular boot (Power) doesn't work after attempting hard reset, only results in samsung logo and inability to boot
None of these seem to be fastboot mode, so I guess it's more complicated than that.
Other problem is I'm using Linux and I've read I'll need to configure Udev to detect the phone ID used when in fastboot mode.
I've read that some people who couldn't flash with flash_image in adb were able to flash using fastboot so I'm hoping for that.
Summary
As you guys can see I've really tried a lot of things. Everything I can think of, and everything I could find on XDA and the rest of the web. I have had no success. Like OP's topic title says, I still have a working phone. When Hard Reset fails and the phone becomes unbootable I can make it bootable again by using Odin to fail at flashing a recovery.
So the phone actually works fine. The problem is I can't get to recovery mode and therefore can not flash CyanogenMod (all CyanogenMod threads say to flash ClockworkMod Recovery before CyanogenMod).
Please can somebody help me with this, I don't know what else to try.
Edit: hey pakistanish, thanks for the suggestions, if I don't install the USB drivers from the Kies CD then where am I supposed to get them from?

Bump?
Nobody able to help with this?
Am I in the wrong sub-forum or something?

One more option you could try: the dd command. Provided you're rooted, copy the recovery.img file you want to flash over to your SD card.
then from a shell: dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/bml9 bs=4096
Also, did you try using ddms or logcat while your phone was stuck at the Samsung logo? There might have been clues as to what the issue was.
Good luck,
Darkshado

very nice try, still no cigarre
Darkshado said:
One more option you could try: the dd command. Provided you're rooted, copy the recovery.img file you want to flash over to your SD card.
then from a shell: dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/bml9 bs=4096
Also, did you try using ddms or logcat while your phone was stuck at the Samsung logo? There might have been clues as to what the issue was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi thanks for the helpful advice! I tried that now. Backed up the current bml9 to sdcard with dd and then dd'd my recovery.img over it; it seemed successful. I restarted the phone to recovery mode and it just hangs at the Samsung logo like normal. This thread confirms that /dev/block/bml9 is indeed the recovery partition, however replacing it seems to have no effect.
I have never heard of ddms or logcat, what do they do and do you have download links?

I still have the same issue, thx for any advices.

[Q] MIUI Rom gone wrong

okay so heres what happened.
I have an international htc one x that is indeed rooted with no roms installed.
I did create a back up and then tried to install the MIUI rom (but I dont really know where that is on my phone. I know I made one with rom manager. I dont have any backups on my computer though)
It worked, however, it didnt have wifi or data signals so i went back to try again.
I opened my bootloader screen. For the record, it is unlocked and hboot is version 1.73 if that helps.
I wiped cashe/data/delvic everything and even factory reset and installed the MIUI RD rom now hoping it would have a difference.
The darn thing got stuck on the MIUI bootloader for hours.
I did the same thing again a few times, sometimes in different orders and then it passed on and another screen came saying 'starting apps'. That got stuck for hours too.
Now I don't have any other roms on my phone, just the MIUI RD. The original miui just vanished too, i dont see it anymore. Also, when I put my USB wire to the phone and connect it to the pc, I cant transfer newer files into it. So this is all I have access to on my phone apparently.
I tried flashing a boot.img and a couple kernels but no luck. I've been trying to do this for all day and this is my first time so I don't know much about it.
I've been googling and somethings say to open cmd and type but i keep getting 'fastboot is not recognized as an internal or external command'
Currently, its not stuck at either the MIUI screen or the Starting Apps. but just the HTC logo screen and not going past.
I don't really want to install any new roms considering i've worked really hard to get this to work and I really want it now more so.
How do i fix this? I want to use this rom.

flash philz recovery (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2240646), usb mounting should work on that, then:
steps to install ROM
1. bootloader version should be 1.3x
2. copy ROM to SD Card
3. copy boot.img INCLUDED in the ROM zip to fastboot folder
4. flash the boot.img in fastboot
5. in recovery, wipe system/data/cache/everything
6. flash rom
7. restart

but how exactly do i put it on my phone? my computer isnt detecting my phone when i connect it? im sorry im not exactly an expert on this.

Go to recovery - mounts and storage - hook up the usb cable - tap the last option in the mounts and storage list and wait a few minutes. It won't be mounted instantly

ok i flashed the philtz recovery but when i flash the boot.img it says:
Finding update package
Opening update package
Installing update
installation aborted
for reference: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1957490
thats the rom i used and i flashed the boot.img flasher thats right above the download link
edit: also i tried just flashing the rom again and im still stuck on the HTC screen.
its not even going to the miui screen or starting apps anymore. :[

Boot.img must be flashed via fastboot. Not via recovery !

ok, i looked up how to fastboot, downloaded sdk files and i moved the boot.img into the fastboot folder and i opened command prompt there and wrote fastboot flash boot boot.img but i keep getting:
'fastboot is not recognized as an internal or external command'
what did i miss?
EDIT: ok, so the fastboot folder i got from the page didnt work so i used a different fastboot folder, dragged the .boot there and now it worked! finally passed the screen and wifi is connecting!
thank you!

Good, thanks to @tomascus. He summed it up real nice
Cheers

[Q] phone crashed last night, now says it needs to be activated, wont activate

Hoping someone here can give me some help. Sometime last night my phone crashed - had an error message on the screen asking me if i wanted to restart - basically the android version of a blue screen.
I rebooted and when it started up it tried to activate but failed. Tried it a few times, never activated. I called sprint and they had me type in 2 different codes:
##72786# which didn't get an error but didn't help anything
They had me try a 2nd 6 digit number, which I'm not sure if it's unique to my phone or not so I wont post it here but that did nothing at all - typed in the ##______# and nothing happened. They claimed it was because the phone is rooted, but the phone is ONLY rooted. I haven't installed a new OS it's the stock rom as far as i can tell.
Anyone have any ideas whats going wrong here or how to fix it?
thanks
edit: and apparently now I wiped the OS from the phone since it wont go past the LG logo. Is there some way for me to either copy a rom onto the phone from TWRP or copy a backup onto the phone? I've got a couple of TWRP backups saved on my pc, but since the phone wont start up I don't have any way of copying them onto the phone - damn non-user removable sd cards.

merkk said:
Hoping someone here can give me some help. Sometime last night my phone crashed - had an error message on the screen asking me if i wanted to restart - basically the android version of a blue screen.
I rebooted and when it started up it tried to activate but failed. Tried it a few times, never activated. I called sprint and they had me type in 2 different codes:
##72786# which didn't get an error but didn't help anything
They had me try a 2nd 6 digit number, which I'm not sure if it's unique to my phone or not so I wont post it here but that did nothing at all - typed in the ##______# and nothing happened. They claimed it was because the phone is rooted, but the phone is ONLY rooted. I haven't installed a new OS it's the stock rom as far as i can tell.
Anyone have any ideas whats going wrong here or how to fix it?
thanks
edit: and apparently now I wiped the OS from the phone since it wont go past the LG logo. Is there some way for me to either copy a rom onto the phone from TWRP or copy a backup onto the phone? I've got a couple of TWRP backups saved on my pc, but since the phone wont start up I don't have any way of copying them onto the phone - damn non-user removable sd cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you boot to recovery?
If you can, then flash a newer TWRP build, they have MTP support, you can mount it while connected to your PC, copy a ROM zip over (there is a stock on in these threads somewhere), flash it from recovery, wipe everything first. Then you should be able to boot into a working device.

Yes I can boot into twrp, but I'm not sure how to copy files that way. I tried using adb but it couldnt find the phone. Can you give me some tips on how to copy a new ROM or twrp backup to the phone?
Thanks

merkk said:
Yes I can boot into twrp, but I'm not sure how to copy files that way. I tried using adb but it couldnt find the phone. Can you give me some tips on how to copy a new ROM or twrp backup to the phone?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, first thing is to flash this.
http://cubegamemc.de/kevinjoa/lollipop/recovery-geehrc/twrp/
You can flash it through fastboot.
follow these steps:
1. Download and place the file on your PC.
2. Reboot your device into Fastboot Mode. To do that, simply hold down the Volume DOWN+Power buttons together.
3. Once inside the Fastboot mode, connect your device to your PC via USB cable.
4. Launch a Command Prompt Window in the folder you saved the recovery image to. You can do that by holding down the Shift button on your keyboard and right-click on any blank area on the screen, then select Open command window here.
4. Enter the following command into the Command Prompt Window. You need to replace recoveryfilename.img with the actual name of the Recovery Image you downloaded.
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recoveryfilename.img
5. Once it is done, reboot your device
Code:
adb reboot recovery
should do it. If not, just hold down the power button, and get back to recovery.
at that point you should have the newest recovery. This recovery has MTP enabled so you can transfer files just like you can if you had a running device.
Once it shows up on you PC you can transfer a ROM zip or a backup to the internal SD. From there you I am sure you know how to flash a zip or restore a backup. It is the same as an older version. MTP should be under the "MOUNT" section of TWRP. I don't remember because I have a different device now.
Good luck!
If this doesn't work, follow the thread here: You would need the super big full bin file if you do though because you do not have a working ROM or zip currently on your internal SD card and this contains a very old recovery, but it does work.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2230106
edit: I altered the directions from the source here for the att version. Don't worry, I changed them to suit your current need.
http://theunlockr.com/2013/03/26/how-to-install-twrp-recovery-on-the-lg-optimus-g-att/

My phone seems to behave a little differently than what you describe. Holding down the volume down and power button just turns it on. Holding vol up and power puts me into a screen with the android bot on it with the option to restart bootloader, go into recovery, or power off. and at the bottom there's some text indicating fastboot mode is on.
I was able to use the fastboot command to load the newer recovery. But for some reason, none of the adb commands work on my phone.
I'm copying a twrp backup to the phone now and i'll restore that. Hopefully that'll fix the issue of the phone not booting and if i am really lucky, fix the issue of the phone not being activated, but I'm not too hopeful about that.
Thanks again for all your help

hey - just wanted to say thank. Got my phone to boot back up again. Unfortunately the backup restore doesnt seem to have fixed my initial problem. Phone is back to saying it needs to be activated. Any ideas about that? It's also showing zero bars - not sure if that's what it's supposed to show when it's not activated.
Thanks again for your help

merkk said:
hey - just wanted to say thank. Got my phone to boot back up again. Unfortunately the backup restore doesnt seem to have fixed my initial problem. Phone is back to saying it needs to be activated. Any ideas about that? It's also showing zero bars - not sure if that's what it's supposed to show when it's not activated.
Thanks again for your help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT:: TRY THIS FIRST<
Do a full wipe of the system and data, not internal. GO to recovery, select wipe, then factory reset. Then boot your phone. You will have to setup everything again but it might help. If it does not, you can always restore your backup again.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Interesting that your phone was the opposite for the buttons. Maybe I had it backwards, or maybe my source did. Either way I am glad you have a device that boots now.
Check this...
Go to the about section and see if your imei and other information are blank or have 0's. I am almost certain that there are 0000's.
If that's the case then you lost your EFS some how. and there is a way to recover that as long as you have a backup somewhere. You should have one somewhere if you used freegee to unlock your phone in the beginning. If not, perhaps an earlier backup you had of your device. A lot of the recoveries for this device make a backup of the EFS.

well i just dropped the phone off at a sprint repair store to see if they could do anything with it now that it actually boots. If they can't fix it, I'll try what you suggested. Although i already tried a factory reset and that didn't help.

well you are right about the esn/meid/IMEI - they are all zeros
I did a restore and then used freegee to restore the efs. Will free tell you if there is no backup of the EFS? Because i restored it, it finished pretty much instantly, and then i restarted the phone just be safe. Unfortunately it didn't fix it.
Phone still says searching for service, and now there's a little red x over the bars. Before the bars were blank but there was no red x. Not sure if that makes any difference.
Also, something else weird is going on now. I just tried copying a newer backup to the phone to try and restore the newer one. I don't seem to be able to copy files now. When i drag the folder windows , it says the device has stopped responding. If i try and copy each individual file in the backup folder, it starts to copy, and then just sits there like it froze, or like it's copying so slowly it might as well be frozen. I had to reflash twrp to the newer version and then I'm able to copy files.
Reloaded the efs backup again but still can't activate/have all zeros.

Nexus stuck in boot loop - unrooted - Backing up photos from bootloader or recovery

Hi.
Apologies if this is a very naive question, I am not particularly familiar with mods, roms and so forth.
I have rooted another phone in the past, but that is all.
The situation:
- Samsung Galaxy Nexus
- Not rooted/unlocked. Stock android automatically updated to the latest Android version supported
- Android developer option NOT set in settings
- Stuck in a boot loop: boots to android and then after a few seconds reboots, so no time to do anything
- Not sure how it happened, I had it for years, it was in my pocket and suddenly started doing that.
- Android fastboot and recovery loads up no problem
- I have tried anything I could find online to fix it: deleted cache, rebooted in safe mode, removed battery for 10 hours
- Nothing seems to fix it, it keeps rebooting
- I want to try a factory reset, but my family photos are in the phone
- Google synch seems to have stopped functioning for this device a year ago, all my 2016-17 photos and videos are locked in the phone.
Admitting there is nothing to do about the loop problem:
Is there any way I can copy photos and videos via usb while in recovery mode?
After I will reset the phone via recovery menu, hoping it will fix it. IF that does not fix it, I will flash another rom in. But I really do not want to wipe my data before backing them up.
I am assuming the answer is no, you cannot access the internal memory in fastboot/recovery unless your phone is rooted.
But I would like an expert opinion before I resolve to wipe one year of photos and videos which I will regret losing.

@mcaldo DON'T DO FACTORY RESET, EVERYTHING WILL BE LOST
which recovery are you using..?
if it's TWRP, then it's easy..
- boot into TWRP recovery
- go to "Mount" tab
- find "enable/disable MTP" button at lower options.. (enable it )
then connect your phone to that PC, where you always connected in past, ( to eliminate driver installation stage, all drivers will be preinstalled )
Regards

____Mdd said:
@mcaldo DON'T DO FACTORY RESET, EVERYTHING WILL BE LOST
which recovery are you using..?
if it's TWRP, then it's easy..
- boot into TWRP recovery
- go to "Mount" tab
- find "enable/disable MTP" button at lower options.. (enable it )
then connect your phone to that PC, where you always connected in past, ( to eliminate driver installation stage, all drivers will be preinstalled )
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply!
By recovery, I meant 'android system recovery'
It gives me the following options:
reboot system now
apply update from ADB
apply update from USB drive
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition
Is any of the above useful?
Unfortunately, I do not have any alternative recovery software available
Edit: Googling I found this: "Apply update from ADB: The Android Debug Bridge allows you to plug your device into your PC and issue commands from there. "
If I can issue commands through ADB, perhaps there is a command to copy data from my phone to my computer?

mcaldo said:
Thanks for your reply!
By recovery, I meant 'android system recovery'
It gives me the following options:
reboot system now
apply update from ADB
apply update from USB drive
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition
Is any of the above useful?
Unfortunately, I do not have any alternative recovery software available
Edit: Googling I found this: "Apply update from ADB: The Android Debug Bridge allows you to plug your device into your PC and issue commands from there. "
If I can issue commands through ADB, perhaps there is a command to copy data from my phone to my computer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can copy through adb commands..
Get and extract Minimal ADB and Fastboot from here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790
From PC, run CMD to extracted folder directory.
Connect phone to PC, go to update from ADB(in recovery),
Type "adb device" , it will show serial number and connected..
Then "adb pull /sdcard " (if you know particular directory of data then write it like /sdcard/photos,, otherwise writing /sdcard will copy all folders from your phone. )
it will start copying to same adb folder ..

____Mdd said:
Yes, you can copy through adb commands..
Get and extract Minimal ADB and Fastboot from here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790
From PC, run CMD to extracted folder directory.
Connect phone to PC, go to update from ADB(in recovery),
Type "adb device" , it will show serial number and connected..
Then "adb pull /sdcard " (if you know particular directory of data then write it like /sdcard/photos,, otherwise writing /sdcard will copy all folders from your phone. )
it will start copying to same adb folder ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice.
I followed the instructions closely, and nearly got there.
adb devices returns
#serialnumber sideload
so all good
but adb pull /sdcard returns
adb: error connect failed: closed
I tried several other commands with no success
kill-server and start-server work fine but do not solve the problem
adb usb returns
error closed
So, I am starting thinking that the problem is in the bootloader being locked.
However, if I unlock it, it will be wipe all my data, I understand?
Googling about it, I found this:
The behavior is status-by-design. Your stock recovery is not designed to grant shell access. Your only choice here is to somehow manage to flash a custom recovery. – Firelord Dec 30 '15 at 14:19
3
To achieve something similar to what @FireLord suggested: TWRP can be booted on many devices without being installed. For that, find a matching image, then boot to the bootloader and run fastboot boot twrp.img. Btw: you can check with fastboot devices resp. adb devices whether a device is visible to the corresponding tool. – Izzy♦ Jul 8 '16 at 19:40
So I understand one could boot TWRP without installing it, but I am not sure if that means I could do that with the bootloader locked?
I found WugFresh nexus root toolkit which seems to do that, among many other things, but again it warns that the phone must be unlocked (using the android build "Android *.* Any", I did not know what else to choose, not sure if that makes any difference as for locked/unlocked requirements)
EDIT: my fastboot screen reads "FASTBOOT STATUS - Failbootloader locked" as the last line, when trying to run TWRP without installing.

Yes, unlocking bootloader will wipe everything..
What actually you did ? Why it went into bootloop ???
I have also read that about boot into TWRP without installing.. and it worked for many one without unlocking bootloader... Don't know why not on GNex.

____Mdd said:
Yes, unlocking bootloader will wipe everything..
What actually you did ? Why it went into bootloop ???
I have also read that about boot into TWRP without installing.. and it worked for many one without unlocking bootloader... Don't know why not on GNex.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What actually you did ? Why it went into bootloop ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A very good question, to which I have no answer, unfortunately.
The phone was used by my wife for 2 years and then by me for other 2. I recently changed the battery.
Never rooted or unlocked. No unusual apps installed. I am a very basic user, as you might have guessed, and being my only phone at the moment, I really would not risk experimenting with it.
It went very slow over the last 4 months, so I was planning to reset it.
I put in my coat pocket for a few hours, when I took it out it had a train ticked stuck to the screen and was quite warm and on the lock screen. It froze, so I took the battery out and restarted it. From then on it is stuck in a loop, not sure why really.
I have also read that about boot into TWRP without installing.. and it worked for many one without unlocking bootloader... Don't know why not on GNex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's good to know. I'll research more than.
It seems there might be a problem with the fastboot drivers on my computer, even selecting them from device manager did not work. Win7 refuses to install. The ADB drivers in theory work fine though.

If you have done nothing modification to system, then wiping data should work, but i have doubt if it also wipes personal data too, on TWRP it wipes data excepting /data/media/ which contains all personal data.. but don't know about wiping on stock recovery...
I hope you will find solution as soon as possible..
Regards.
PS. I can install stock recovery and try wiping /data.. and check what things get wiped.. but i need little time for that experiment...

____Mdd said:
If you have done nothing modification to system, then wiping data should work, but i have doubt if it also wipes personal data too, on TWRP it wipes data excepting /data/media/ which contains all personal data.. but don't know about wiping on stock recovery...
I hope you will find solution as soon as possible..
Regards.
PS. I can install stock recovery and try wiping /data.. and check what things get wiped.. but i need little time for that experiment...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much.
Looking at google's documentation on the nexus:
You can remove data from your Pixel phone or Nexus device by resetting it to factory settings. Resetting to factory settings is also known as formatting the device or doing a "hard reset".
If you're factory resetting your device to fix an issue, make sure that you've tried all other troubleshooting options first. Find out how to troubleshoot your issue.
Important: Performing a factory reset will erase all data from the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would seem that indeed all data will be removed.
This point, I will research a bit more into drivers, in case that is what it's preventing adb pull from working.
I really need a working phone, so if that fails I will hard reset, then unlock, root, flash in an alternative bootloader and perhaps a rom, and put ubuntu touch in dual boot. That will hopefully prevent me from loosing data in the future.
Sorry, this is out of topic to my question, but, , could you suggest any stable, solid rom for the nexus?
I read good things of CM12, and I ran into one which seemed to do to quite well with split windows, but I do not remember the name right now.
EDIT: I remember the name of the rom now, it's https://omnirom.org/about/

A last question if you can..
I tried to solve my boot loop problem by sideloading an update from google (maguro yakju yakju-jwr66y-factory-4cadea65.zip)
It loaded it fine but then failed because the installation it says it is not signed.
Basically, being a stock bootloader recovery from Samsung, it will only sideload OTAs from samsung, not the stock ones from google..
I cannot find the samsung ones anywhere, not for the nexus anyway, just the newer devices..
By any chance do you know where I could download proper Samsung OTA zip updates for the nexus?

Well, I talked with an android developer who confirmed that, unless you have a friend working in criminal forensic technology or similar, there is no way to get around a lock on this phone to pull data out.
So, sadly, I have wiped my phone by unlocking it, flashed TWRP and then omnirom with gapps.
My photos are gone, including a bunch of stuff my kid had made and asked me to photograph for safeeping. Very safe indeed
He kept asking me why they make the lock like that, instead of allowing some kind of password, perhaps he has a point.
So, it is quite unlikely that somebody who knows as little as I did will ever read this *before* finding themselves in the same situation.
But if you do, back up your data, unlock and flash TWRP, clockworks or some alternative, and thank yourself if and when disaster strikes..

@mcaldo wiping data/factory reset in STOCK RECOvERY will wipe everything... There is very few chances to get backup...
And yeah i found something interesting..
You can flash system.img.. only system files will be corrected not anything else..
Get appropriate zip from here : https://developers.google.com/android/images
Now take system.img to ADB/Fastboot folder ( i assume you know how it works )
Just go "Fastboot flash system system.img"
It will rewrite system partition..
Another one:
See downloads on this thread..
One says NON-WIPE, if you want me to try that zip, i will again require time for that. See here : https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-restore-to-stock-unbrick-galaxy-t2065470
---------- Post added at 11:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 AM ----------
I don't saw your reply, it was on next page.. its sad... Sorry i am late..