Develop Bugs

[Q] What keeps happening to my phone??

So here's the situation and this is literally the 3RD time this phone has done this. I'll be on a ROM on my rooted unlocked galaxy nexus, and randomly I'll be opening my texts or contacts or something and my phone will reboot. No big deal right? But then it just boot loops. Endlessly. If I try to restore a nandroid from a different ROM, it'll get almost done then won't be able to restore /data. I know it's not a bad nandroid backup cuz I switch back and forth between them all the time. I can't flash any rom, it'll be a boot loop, can't restore a nandroid,so I always have to end up flashing a stock image and start from scratch again.
I've seen this problem before after it happened the first time and found that flashing stock img fix. I have two questions: Why does it do this randomly every month? It's like my bootloader goes MIA or something for no reason. What would cause it to do this and literally, almost once every 30 days?
Second question: Is this a stable phone? I'm coming from the nearly unbrickable Captivate and I've done some crazy stuff to that phone and always managed to recover it, a couple times when it shouldn't have even worked at all. But yet this thing breaks down almost every month. Didn't flash anything new, didn't flash anything incompatible, nothing. Everything was running smooth. Then all of a sudden reboot, boot loop, backups dead, roms on SD card are useless.
Can someone please fill me in on what's going on with this? lol this is my 5th rooted android phone, not a developer or a themer or anything, but I know quite a bit about what would cause a phone to do whatever. Any insight would be great. Thanks guys!

Wich roms are you trying? Wich rooting methods? Wich flashing method? Are you using adb and fastboot?
Edit: does the issue happens on stock?
So far my phone its rock solid stable and buttery smooth fast after 3/4 months
Galaxy Nexus AOKP m5 Franco kernel m3

It first happened on liquid rom. I rooted via Samsung gnex toolkit. It happened again on gummy 1.2.0 honestly I wasn't on stock long enough to see how stock ran lol I don't use adb or fastboot often. Just to root and recently, to flash a stock image every time this happens
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

I'd try rooting properly by using fast boot and flashing a superuser.zip. It may be that the toolkit is not working properly and you have a bad recovery. Something is wrong if this is happening. Its not too hard...
Sent From My Sprint Galaxy Nexus via XDA Premium

I read, I watched, I searched, I bricked(Hard)

So just got this phone a couple of weeks ago. I feel like Im no stranger to rooting/flashing, but obviously Im no expert. Ive flashed custom roms on ppc6600, ppc6700, Treo 600w, HTC Diamond, Palm Pre(rooted it, no roms), Samsung Moment, Hero, Evo 4g, Evo 3d, Hp touchpad, and for a few weeks my Epic Touch4g. Ive never had a single problem until today. I must admit when I got this phone, for the first time I was actually scared to root it/flash roms. I read and re-read everything I could find, and finally took the plunge. I had great luck until I tried to flash the jellybean port.
I was originally on Agats rom tFF18_v0.1.0 which I flashed through ODIN. I tried a few other TW roms but ultimately kept Agats rom as my nandroid back up. Since it was a safe kernel/recovery I would always restore my nandroid to do any wipes or flashes. I thought this was being safe.
This morning I updated the kernel with AGAT_v0.3.0 with tREC_v0.2.1 7/19/12, which I flashed through agats recovery. Worked fine. I then wanted to try out CM9. So heres what I did:
I downloaded/flashed the newest nightly and Gapps and flashed them in Agats recovery which worked fine. I loved CM9 so I made a nandroid back up along with my other agat rom backup. I did notice that it was a different recovery but just assumed it was safe since it was a newer nightly. (Mistake?)
I kept CM9 for a few hours and saw that a JB port was available on androidcentral. Had flashed enough without issue, so I thought I try it out.
Heres where I screwed up.
I downloaded the JB port, JB gapps and it said to get chris41g's [Kernel][AOSP] Safe CWM6/TWRP which I did.
First I wiped data(full wipe), cache, and dalvik, then tried to flash the rom in CMW recovery that came with CM9. It gave me an error and aborted the flash.
Then I rebooted the phone back into CM9 because I thought maybe I had a bad download. I went back to the site reread the OP and noticed I was supposed to flash chris41g's recovery first, so I went back into recovery, flashed the Kernel, rebooted back into recovery and tried to flash JB. I didnt wipe anything, I just flashed it. It seemed to do its normal thing, but the progress bar never grew, it just sat there. I let it sit for like 10mins and the next thing I noticed, the screen was off. I picked up the phone, hit the power button.....nothing except the blue light I had read so much about.
I accept full responsibility for what I did. But to be honest, Im really confused what I did wrong. I was under the impression that most bricks happened when doing wipes? This happened when flashing the rom, which Im sure wipes before flashing, so maybe that where I had the problem? Im gonna go to sprint tomorrow and see if they can help, so hopefully Ill get a replacement, but I DONT want it to happen again. Sorry for the MAJORLY long post, but I wanted to be thorough with my explanation so I dont make the same mistake, and maybe someone else could learn from my screw up.
If possible, please be gentle, I already feel like a total idiot.......
EDIT: BTW, if I didnt make it clear, Im COMPLETELY aware this was my fault. I knew what I was getting into, and messed up somewhere by not FOLLOWING directions to a tee.

Your mistake was not wiping anything at the jb flash part.
Plus i think people was flashing jb using the el26 recovery (cwm5) but dont quote me on that i havent read the jb flash procedure throughly
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

Sometimes stuff like that just happens... Let us know how the replacement goes
Sent from my SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

I read somewhere they wont release the jb post on here because of all the bricks that was going on. Tell sprint u prolonged the ics update and ignored it. Then u finally decided to install and it would not boot at all
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

rovar said:
Your mistake was not wiping anything at the jb flash part.
Plus i think people was flashing jb using the el26 recovery (cwm5) but dont quote me on that i havent read the jb flash procedure throughly
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I thought people were using Chris41g's EL26 CWM as well. Sbrissen himself said when in doubt use EL.

Thanks for the responses guys. My phone now has no solid blue light. Just a VERY VERY dim flashing blue light. Its been plugged in for the charger for like 2 hours. Is it possible maybe something just went wrong with battery? It was plugged in when I flashed, and the battery was pretty full, but not topped off...

vinscuzzy said:
So just got this phone a couple of weeks ago. I feel like Im no stranger to rooting/flashing, but obviously Im no expert. Ive flashed custom roms on ppc6600, ppc6700, Treo 600w, HTC Diamond, Palm Pre(rooted it, no roms), Samsung Moment, Hero, Evo 4g, Evo 3d, Hp touchpad, and for a few weeks my Epic Touch4g. Ive never had a single problem until today. I must admit when I got this phone, for the first time I was actually scared to root it/flash roms. I read and re-read everything I could find, and finally took the plunge. I had great luck until I tried to flash the jellybean port.
I was originally on Agats rom tFF18_v0.1.0 which I flashed through ODIN. I tried a few other TW roms but ultimately kept Agats rom as my nandroid back up. Since it was a safe kernel/recovery I would always restore my nandroid to do any wipes or flashes. I thought this was being safe.
This morning I updated the kernel with AGAT_v0.3.0 with tREC_v0.2.1 7/19/12, which I flashed through agats recovery. Worked fine. I then wanted to try out CM9. So heres what I did:
I downloaded/flashed the newest nightly and Gapps and flashed them in Agats recovery which worked fine. I loved CM9 so I made a nandroid back up along with my other agat rom backup. I did notice that it was a different recovery but just assumed it was safe since it was a newer nightly. (Mistake?)
I kept CM9 for a few hours and saw that a JB port was available on androidcentral. Had flashed enough without issue, so I thought I try it out.
Heres where I screwed up.
I downloaded the JB port, JB gapps and it said to get chris41g's [Kernel][AOSP] Safe CWM6/TWRP which I did.
First I wiped data(full wipe), cache, and dalvik, then tried to flash the rom in CMW recovery that came with CM9. It gave me an error and aborted the flash.
Then I rebooted the phone back into CM9 because I thought maybe I had a bad download. I went back to the site reread the OP and noticed I was supposed to flash chris41g's recovery first, so I went back into recovery, flashed the Kernel, rebooted back into recovery and tried to flash JB. I didnt wipe anything, I just flashed it. It seemed to do its normal thing, but the progress bar never grew, it just sat there. I let it sit for like 10mins and the next thing I noticed, the screen was off. I picked up the phone, hit the power button.....nothing except the blue light I had read so much about.
I accept full responsibility for what I did. But to be honest, Im really confused what I did wrong. I was under the impression that most bricks happened when doing wipes? This happened when flashing the rom, which Im sure wipes before flashing, so maybe that where I had the problem? Im gonna go to sprint tomorrow and see if they can help, so hopefully Ill get a replacement, but I DONT want it to happen again. Sorry for the MAJORLY long post, but I wanted to be thorough with my explanation so I dont make the same mistake, and maybe someone else could learn from my screw up.
If possible, please be gentle, I already feel like a total idiot.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like story's like this that are long very interesting when bored I'm sorry for your lost...try simple small stuff like the stable good looking fully working roms
sent from my DeRpY SuPeRsOnIc

vinscuzzy said:
Thanks for the responses guys. My phone now has no solid blue light. Just a VERY VERY dim flashing blue light. Its been plugged in for the charger for like 2 hours. Is it possible maybe something just went wrong with battery? It was plugged in when I flashed, and the battery was pretty full, but not topped off...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems unlikely to be the battery, sorry bud :/ seems like your issue was not wiping anything before flashing the jb rom. Not to mention the jelly bean port is unstable as is. And the ics recoveries. I don't care if people say they're safe, i still odin to el26 to flash. I would've stayed away from jb regardless. But thanks for being mature about what happened, you more than most bricks actually seem like you're careful and read.
Swyped from a Galaxy S2

vinscuzzy said:
So just got this phone a couple of weeks ago. I feel like Im no stranger to rooting/flashing, but obviously Im no expert. Ive flashed custom roms on ppc6600, ppc6700, Treo 600w, HTC Diamond, Palm Pre(rooted it, no roms), Samsung Moment, Hero, Evo 4g, Evo 3d, Hp touchpad, and for a few weeks my Epic Touch4g. Ive never had a single problem until today. I must admit when I got this phone, for the first time I was actually scared to root it/flash roms. I read and re-read everything I could find, and finally took the plunge. I had great luck until I tried to flash the jellybean port.
I was originally on Agats rom tFF18_v0.1.0 which I flashed through ODIN. I tried a few other TW roms but ultimately kept Agats rom as my nandroid back up. Since it was a safe kernel/recovery I would always restore my nandroid to do any wipes or flashes. I thought this was being safe.
This morning I updated the kernel with AGAT_v0.3.0 with tREC_v0.2.1 7/19/12, which I flashed through agats recovery. Worked fine. I then wanted to try out CM9. So heres what I did:
I downloaded/flashed the newest nightly and Gapps and flashed them in Agats recovery which worked fine. I loved CM9 so I made a nandroid back up along with my other agat rom backup. I did notice that it was a different recovery but just assumed it was safe since it was a newer nightly. (Mistake?)
I kept CM9 for a few hours and saw that a JB port was available on androidcentral. Had flashed enough without issue, so I thought I try it out.
Heres where I screwed up.
I downloaded the JB port, JB gapps and it said to get chris41g's [Kernel][AOSP] Safe CWM6/TWRP which I did.
First I wiped data(full wipe), cache, and dalvik, then tried to flash the rom in CMW recovery that came with CM9. It gave me an error and aborted the flash.
Then I rebooted the phone back into CM9 because I thought maybe I had a bad download. I went back to the site reread the OP and noticed I was supposed to flash chris41g's recovery first, so I went back into recovery, flashed the Kernel, rebooted back into recovery and tried to flash JB. I didnt wipe anything, I just flashed it. It seemed to do its normal thing, but the progress bar never grew, it just sat there. I let it sit for like 10mins and the next thing I noticed, the screen was off. I picked up the phone, hit the power button.....nothing except the blue light I had read so much about.
I accept full responsibility for what I did. But to be honest, Im really confused what I did wrong. I was under the impression that most bricks happened when doing wipes? This happened when flashing the rom, which Im sure wipes before flashing, so maybe that where I had the problem? Im gonna go to sprint tomorrow and see if they can help, so hopefully Ill get a replacement, but I DONT want it to happen again. Sorry for the MAJORLY long post, but I wanted to be thorough with my explanation so I dont make the same mistake, and maybe someone else could learn from my screw up.
If possible, please be gentle, I already feel like a total idiot.......
EDIT: BTW, if I didnt make it clear, Im COMPLETELY aware this was my fault. I knew what I was getting into, and messed up somewhere by not FOLLOWING directions to a tee.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you have the JB ROM located, on your internal memory or your SDcard?
And wait, Flashing blue light? When mine bricked using the same methods you were using, save for the lack of wiping and I used calk's wipeall before flashing, I had a solid blue light.
Eh, Least now I have a paperweight with a nice light on it for now.

Ophois said:
Where did you have the JB ROM located, on your internal memory or your SDcard?
And wait, Flashing blue light? When mine bricked using the same methods you were using, save for the lack of wiping and I used calk's wipeall before flashing, I had a solid blue light.
Eh, Least now I have a paperweight with a nice light on it for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it was on the internal memory. And yeah, its weird. It started as a solid blue light for like an hour. I plugged in the charger and a few hours later I thought the light was completely off, but if you look real close, its a super dim flashing blue light.

vinscuzzy said:
it was on the internal memory. And yeah, its weird. It started as a solid blue light for like an hour. I plugged in the charger and a few hours later I thought the light was completely off, but if you look real close, its a super dim flashing blue light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, That's two people who got a brick and had flashed it from their internal.
I'll try and get ahold of the other user who bricked their device and find where they had it and from there, We'll know a probable cause and how to prevent it.

I flashed sb's jb from internal. no problem here.
on el26.

please not I am not trying to be a wise ass; however have you read through this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1525495 ? I have "bricked" a few times and have been able to revive my phone using Odin (the pc version). seems as long as you can get the phone into "download" mode (volume rocker down and power button) be sure to check out QBKing77's posts on YouTube. you have nothing to lose and everything to gain
good luck

al_b said:
please not I am not trying to be a wise ass; however have you read through this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1525495 ? I have "bricked" a few times and have been able to revive my phone using Odin (the pc version). seems as long as you can get the phone into "download" mode (volume rocker down and power button) be sure to check out QBKing77's posts on YouTube. you have nothing to lose and everything to gain
good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that was the post that scared me to even root the phone. I can't get into download mode, and have been trying every combination of turning it on, vol up/dwn, plugging it in without the battery, tried different cables, chargers, scoured all the different Samsung forums to see if there was a way to force into download mode, nothing. Its completely dead. I got this phone right around the time the kernel source got released and that post hasn't been updated since may, so I kinda came to the conclusion(stupidly) that maybe the problem had been fixed. I wasn't around for all the leaks that were causing the bricks.

not being able to get into download mode = not good. there are also dongles out there that cost $5 +/-. might work. I believe you mentioned you have insurance, if that is true take the device to your local corporate Sprint store and play "Micky the dunce" i.e. I have no idea what happened to it; I was updating my PRL and this is what happened ... of course if you accidently backed over it with your car on the way to the store that may dissuade them from trying to resurrect it

vinscuzzy said:
Yeah, that was the post that scared me to even root the phone. I can't get into download mode, and have been trying every combination of turning it on, vol up/dwn, plugging it in without the battery, tried different cables, chargers, scoured all the different Samsung forums to see if there was a way to force into download mode, nothing. Its completely dead. I got this phone right around the time the kernel source got released and that post hasn't been updated since may, so I kinda came to the conclusion(stupidly) that maybe the problem had been fixed. I wasn't around for all the leaks that were causing the bricks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the MMC_CAP_ERASE code that causes the emmc controller to bug out and brick is still present in the FF18 kernel, entropy512 has been in contact with samsung about this, but last time i read the emmc thread a a few days ago he was still having difficulty convincing samsung that it was actually their code directly causing all these bricks... sorry about the brick, I just spent some time with cm10 and the vanilla jb rom and thanks to you and the other gentleman that bricked flashing from internal sd I double checked that the zips were on the external... so at least you've helped some of us out! good luck with sprint

does DirectoryBind_0.2.0k.apk help with the EMMC freakiness? a month or so ago this was useful work around. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410262&highlight=directorybind

gershee said:
I flashed sb's jb from internal. no problem here.
on el26.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is the difference, The other two and I appear to have flashed it from internal but we were using CWM6.
I guess CWM6+Internal=brick whereas EL26+Internal=good to go
Though this is all conjecture, I cannot be completely sure with such a small sample size.

When I was little I once had a jelly bean stuck in my nose.
Good luck.
Pp.
Delivered to you via Mayan technology .

No worries happened to me too( sadly :/). On the lighter/much, much darker side[you choose] sprint reps. won't be able to look at your phones files probably. When it happened to me the tech just came out with the 'WTF?' face and said what did you do, to which I replied "I applied the EL29 update and my phone bricked" cheers.
Sent from my Galaxy S2 E4GT

[Q] Is the dead Android normal when booting stock recovery?

I bought two new SG3's yesterday for my sons, and immediately commenced to root one of them via the "Easy Root" method in a how-to here (ODIN recovery, flash root.zip, rooted). I encountered all kinds of issues where no recovery (CWM, TWRP, or even a stock recovery image) would mount anything. I finally read here on XDA where the stock root that comes with the Toolkit works, so I tried that and now I'm back to stock recovery but, of course, an non-rooted phone. I didn't try to do any of this on the second phone after encountering so many issues. I assumed that something may have changed with this latest update and that this root method may not work anymore.
Anyway....
When I boot the phone that I attempted to root to stock recovery, the little Android is dead on his back with an exclamation point in a triangle. Everything seems to work though -- I can wipe cache, browse around the SD card and cache, etc. I assumed it was because of my dinking around with root and that the phone was now cranky because the flash count was at like 5 or 6 by now. However, I then booted the phone that I didn't dink around with to stock recovery and noticed that the Android was dead for it, too! I've done nothing to this second phone that a 75-year-old first-time smartphone user wouldn't do.
So my question: Is this normal? Is this something that happens when you force it into stock recovery or is there something wrong with these two phones, above and beyond the apparent inability to be rooted (at least at the moment)?

internetpilot said:
I bought two new SG3's yesterday for my sons, and immediately commenced to root one of them via the "Easy Root" method in a how-to here (ODIN recovery, flash root.zip, rooted). I encountered all kinds of issues where no recovery (CWM, TWRP, or even a stock recovery image) would mount anything. I finally read here on XDA where the stock root that comes with the Toolkit works, so I tried that and now I'm back to stock recovery but, of course, an non-rooted phone. I didn't try to do any of this on the second phone after encountering so many issues. I assumed that something may have changed with this latest update and that this root method may not work anymore.
Anyway....
When I boot the phone that I attempted to root to stock recovery, the little Android is dead on his back with an exclamation point in a triangle. Everything seems to work though -- I can wipe cache, browse around the SD card and cache, etc. I assumed it was because of my dinking around with root and that the phone was now cranky because the flash count was at like 5 or 6 by now. However, I then booted the phone that I didn't dink around with to stock recovery and noticed that the Android was dead for it, too! I've done nothing to this second phone that a 75-year-old first-time smartphone user wouldn't do.
So my question: Is this normal? Is this something that happens when you force it into stock recovery or is there something wrong with these two phones, above and beyond the apparent inability to be rooted (at least at the moment)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been a long time since I've dealt with custom recoveries, but I believe that's just the normal background for it. It's like you're tinkering with the inner working of an Android (wiping cache, etc), so you've opened up the green robot.
That's what I recall from when I still had stock about 9 months ago...

If it shows up like that, that means you have the stock recovery...use GooManager or Rom Manager to install a custom recovery while booted up.
Sent from my buttered S3

Hmmm...any other time I've been in a stock recovery, I remember the Android being standing with that spinning wireframe in front of him. that's what displays when I successfully wipe the cache. Maybe I'm just remembering wrong and I'm being paranoid since I'm still deep in issues with being able to install a working custom recovery.
Hey, I'd love to install a custom recovery via GooManager or ROM Manager, but none of the custom recoveries are working on my SG3's. Nothing will mount so I'm stuck with stock recovery until someone more knowledgeable than me figures outwhat Sprint and/or Samsung did with the latest SG3's.

internetpilot said:
Hmmm...any other time I've been in a stock recovery, I remember the Android being standing with that spinning wireframe in front of him. that's what displays when I successfully wipe the cache. Maybe I'm just remembering wrong and I'm being paranoid since I'm still deep in issues with being able to install a working custom recovery.
Hey, I'd love to install a custom recovery via GooManager or ROM Manager, but none of the custom recoveries are working on my SG3's. Nothing will mount so I'm stuck with stock recovery until someone more knowledgeable than me figures outwhat Sprint and/or Samsung did with the latest SG3's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know why you're having these problems but the newest update (md4) roots exactly like any other software on the s3... I and many have done it plenty of times, it roots exactly the same way... Not sure why your recovery won't mount anything but somebody else also had this problem just today... You could always try to Odin in an earlier build (lj7 maybe) and try to root from there
“It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power."” ― David Brin

flastnoles11 said:
I don't know why you're having these problems but the newest update (md4) roots exactly like any other software on the s3... I and many have done it plenty of times, it roots exactly the same way... Not sure why your recovery won't mount anything but somebody else also had this problem just today... You could always try to Odin in an earlier build (lj7 maybe) and try to root from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think something changed on the newest batch of S3's. I'm sure the OTA S3's are still rootable with this method but for some reason the brand new ones aren't. I've found at least a dozen other people complaining about the same thing only with brand new S3's.
Unfortunately I had a limited window of time to root these two phones and get them set up before going on vacation, so the phones are in use now and there's no way to backup and restore the existing configuration, data, etc.without like a day of downtime and basically starting over. And even then it's not a sure thing that reverting to an older stock ROM will work. I'll just wait for someone to figure it out and then root the phones later.
But there's definitely something new going on here. Its happening to too many people now. At least my sanity is confirmed!

internetpilot said:
I think something changed on the newest batch of S3's. I'm sure the OTA S3's are still rootable with this method but for some reason the brand new ones aren't. I've found at least a dozen other people complaining about the same thing only with brand new S3's.
Unfortunately I had a limited window of time to root these two phones and get them set up before going on vacation, so the phones are in use now and there's no way to backup and restore the existing configuration, data, etc.without like a day of downtime and basically starting over. And even then it's not a sure thing that reverting to an older stock ROM will work. I'll just wait for someone to figure it out and then root the phones later.
But there's definitely something new going on here. Its happening to too many people now. At least my sanity is confirmed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you decide to root again here is a prerooted Odin build for mc3, after successfully flashing via Odin you will be rooted and can flash up to md4 from there... There is a prerooted that wipes everything and one that wipes and restores, make sure you read carefully and flash the one you need http://www.sxtpdevelopers.com/showthread.php?t=207
“It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power."” ― David Brin

flastnoles11 said:
When you decide to root again here is a prerooted Odin build for mc3, after successfully flashing via Odin you will be rooted and can flash up to md4 from there... There is a prerooted that wipes everything and one that wipes and restores, make sure you read carefully and flash the one you need http://www.sxtpdevelopers.com/showthread.php?t=207
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this. I'm not going to attempt root again until I can get a working custom recovery going.

internetpilot said:
Thanks for this. I'm not going to attempt root again until I can get a working custom recovery going.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That build will do it all.. It is prerooted, includes the custom recovery... Just like flashing a custom rom with recovery except you do it with Odin

flastnoles11 said:
That build will do it all.. It is prerooted, includes the custom recovery... Just like flashing a custom rom with recovery except you do it with Odin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm...but I wonder if that will end up with a working recovery or if I'll be in the same boat I am now, but with an older stock ROM?
I'm just really hesitant to try anything until someone figures out what Sprint/Samsung did with this latest batch of S3's. It's probably something relatively simple to overcome, but I'm not mobile tech enough to even guess what that is. I can't really end up with sons' new phones bricked (even soft bricked).

internetpilot said:
Hmmm...but I wonder if that will end up with a working recovery or if I'll be in the same boat I am now, but with an older stock ROM?
I'm just really hesitant to try anything until someone figures out what Sprint/Samsung did with this latest batch of S3's. It's probably something relatively simple to overcome, but I'm not mobile tech enough to even guess what that is. I can't really end up with sons' new phones bricked (even soft bricked).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may be waiting a long time then since most devs either already have the phone or have already moved to other phones... Unless a Dev happens to pick one up with the same problems you're probably S.o.l... And I'm 95%sure they didn't change anything, some phones just have issues on certain builds, there have been plenty of people the last month and even the last week reporting successfully rooting with the same method you used...
You really have nothing to lose, if it doesnt work you can just Odin full stock and be in the exact same place you are now

flastnoles11 said:
You may be waiting a long time then since most devs either already have the phone or have already moved to other phones... Unless a Dev happens to pick one up with the same problems you're probably S.o.l... And I'm 95%sure they didn't change anything, some phones just have issues on certain builds, there have been plenty of people the last month and even the last week reporting successfully rooting with the same method you used...
You really have nothing to lose, if it doesnt work you can just Odin full stock and be in the exact same place you are now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. I always forget the Odin option for when recovery fails. But I'd be without the data and current configuration (basically starting from scratch).
In the last two days I've seen posts from over a dozen people now who are encountering this issue with brand new Sprint S3's. I'm kinda hoping more and more people encounter this problem increasing the chances of it being resolved... Haha

It doesn't matter once your rooted and booted all you do us download either rom Manager or goo manager and install the custom recovery of your choice from the running phone. Doesn't get any easier.
Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

Until the custom recovery can't mount anything, which is the problem I'm having now. I've tried numerous versions of CWM and TWRP and none of them can mount anything on these phones so they're useless. I'm not sure how reverting back to an older stock ROM will change that...?

internetpilot said:
Until the custom recovery can't mount anything, which is the problem I'm having now. I've tried numerous versions of CWM and TWRP and none of them can mount anything on these phones so they're useless. I'm not sure how reverting back to an older stock ROM will change that...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because you yourself feel the bootloader is the issue. If you Odin the stock tar of a previous version then that loads a previous bootloader. Pretty simple huh? I rooted 2 S3 last week brand new and did not have a single issue both where on the latest md4 right out of the box. I don't understand how you and that other person both ran into the same issue on the same day. It's really weird and like everyone else said and I just experienced just a week ago thousands of people have rooted on the latest version on brand new devices. Unless you guys are getting refurbs which by accident the bootloader has been locked.
Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4

edfunkycold said:
Because you yourself feel the bootloader is the issue. If you Odin the stock tar of a previous version then that loads a previous bootloader. Pretty simple huh? I rooted 2 S3 last week brand new and did not have a single issue both where on the latest md4 right out of the box. I don't understand how you and that other person both ran into the same issue on the same day. It's really weird and like everyone else said and I just experienced just a week ago thousands of people have rooted on the latest version on brand new devices. Unless you guys are getting refurbs which by accident the bootloader has been locked.
Sent from the future via Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashing back to an older stock rom doesn't work either. I flashed to a 4.1.1 stock rom and followed the method for CF-Root and The Easiest Way to Root and neither of them allowed a custom recovery to mount anything.

deutscher3891 said:
Flashing back to an older stock rom doesn't work either. I flashed to a 4.1.1 stock rom and followed the method for CF-Root and The Easiest Way to Root and neither of them allowed a custom recovery to mount anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for trying that as I couldn't because I'm on vacation with the two phones in use. Well that sucks that it didn't work. I'm a retired career network engineer, so I'm not a non-tech, but I'm also not the most tech person with regard to mobile phones. Even so, I can't figure this one out so it's probably not something obvious. Also, on XDA and other forums I'm up to about 18 different people who have now encountered this on very new Sprint S3's.

internetpilot said:
Thank you for trying that as I couldn't because I'm on vacation with the two phones in use. Well that sucks that it didn't work. I'm a retired career network engineer, so I'm not a non-tech, but I'm also not the most tech person with regard to mobile phones. Even so, I can't figure this one out so it's probably not something obvious. Also, on XDA and other forums I'm up to about 18 different people who have now encountered this on very new Sprint S3's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you purchase your phones from Sprint directly? I purchased mine through Wirefly. Thinking I may send it back for exchange and pray like heck I get one that works. I am definitely a Vanilla Android person. Touchwiz is not my cup o tea.
Enjoy your vacation, as much as you can. Us tech nerds can never get it off the mind when something isn't working. Lol
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

I purchased two s3 phones from Amazon about a month ago and haven't had any issues. Both are rooted too. The root process is pretty simple. Have you tried the unified toolkit also? Another easy method.

deutscher3891 said:
Did you purchase your phones from Sprint directly? I purchased mine through Wirefly. Thinking I may send it back for exchange and pray like heck I get one that works. I am definitely a Vanilla Android person. Touchwiz is not my cup o tea.
Enjoy your vacation, as much as you can. Us tech nerds can never get it off the mind when something isn't working. Lol
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both directly from Sprint.
lvpre said:
I purchased two s3 phones from Amazon about a month ago and haven't had any issues. Both are rooted too. The root process is pretty simple. Have you tried the unified toolkit also? Another easy method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem isn't really root. Depending on the method, we can get root. It's the custom recovery that's the problem -- it can't mount anything so you can't flash anything, backup, wipe, etc via recovery.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Problem

Hello everyone,
I really need your help with my wife's Metro PCS Samsung GS4 M919N.
The thing is, we are now living outside the US so I had to unlock her phone. After ordering the unlock codes, I decided to root the phone and use a custom ROM while waiting for the codes.
That is why I found this guide here: androidforums.com/metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root/790899-metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root-guide.html
So while reading the guide, I aimed to have the following accomplished at the end:
Recovery: TWRP
Custom ROM: CyanogenMod 10.2.1
I then started doing the guide for the TWRP recovery by using Odin. I got the message saying that the flashing passed and went ahead to restart to recovery to install CM 10.2.1 as a custom ROM. The thing is that I keep on restarting to the stock recovery not TWRP. So I went to YouTube and found a video showing how to flash TWRP using GooManager. After following that guide, I went to restart to recovery and I successfully got into TWRP.
Now, to achieve my goal, all that's left to do is to flash CyanogenMod 10.2.1 (jfltetmo).
Before doing that, I decided to make a backup. After using TWRP to do a backup, I proceeded to installing the custom ROM + gapps (wiped with the default settings). Everything was working I think (I handed the phone to my wife so she was he one testing it). After some time, she decided she wants the stock ROM instead so I decided to download the androidforums.com/metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root/783769-rom-recovery-flash-able-stock-m919nuvuamf2-rooted-deodexed-rom.html ROM.
I flashed the newly downloaded ROM + gapps (same file). This time, I couldn't get the gapps to work probably because it was meant for another version. So I decided to just restore from the backup I created earlier.
So, the usual stuff. Wipe. Restore. Restart.
Seems to be going smoothly because my wife was happy to see the old ROM she was used to.
Until the phone started to restart on it's own. (It's pretty much downhill from here on out).
At first I thought it was just a random thing that probably would never happen again. I was wrong as it became more frequent as days went by.
Recently I can't just restart the phone, I would have to remove the battery and then restart it. Now, it's getting really hard to restart the phone. Please help me fix this. I prefer to leave the phone rooted, but if the fix unroots the phone then so be it, anyway my wife prefers the stock ROM so only the unlocking was necessary.
Metro PCS Samsung Galaxy S4 M919N
Recovery:
TWRP 2.6.3.1
ROMs:
Stock Metro PCS
CyanogenMod 10.2.1
Let me know if you need more information from me. Hopefully I can restart the phone so I can give you some version numbers.
Thanks everyone!

I didn't read everything but just wanted to say
VERY GOOD THREAD!
this is how threads should be done. Very descriptive, organized, told us everything you did and asked for help! Good job man! Only negative is it prolly should have gone in Q&A section but irregardless very good thread!
About your issue, I recommend flashing stock Odin tar file to everything back to stock and reroot and start over. Flashing stock will not lock it again it will remain unlocked. But should get you back up and fresh. Just be aware it will erase all your data and all of the internal SD card.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

dokgu said:
Hello everyone,
I really need your help with my wife's Metro PCS Samsung GS4 M919N.
The thing is, we are now living outside the US so I had to unlock her phone. After ordering the unlock codes, I decided to root the phone and use a custom ROM while waiting for the codes.
That is why I found this guide here: androidforums.com/metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root/790899-metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root-guide.html
So while reading the guide, I aimed to have the following accomplished at the end:
Recovery: TWRP
Custom ROM: CyanogenMod 10.2.1
I then started doing the guide for the TWRP recovery by using Odin. I got the message saying that the flashing passed and went ahead to restart to recovery to install CM 10.2.1 as a custom ROM. The thing is that I keep on restarting to the stock recovery not TWRP. So I went to YouTube and found a video showing how to flash TWRP using GooManager. After following that guide, I went to restart to recovery and I successfully got into TWRP.
Now, to achieve my goal, all that's left to do is to flash CyanogenMod 10.2.1 (jfltetmo).
Before doing that, I decided to make a backup. After using TWRP to do a backup, I proceeded to installing the custom ROM + gapps (wiped with the default settings). Everything was working I think (I handed the phone to my wife so she was he one testing it). After some time, she decided she wants the stock ROM instead so I decided to download the androidforums.com/metropcs-galaxy-s4-all-things-root/783769-rom-recovery-flash-able-stock-m919nuvuamf2-rooted-deodexed-rom.html ROM.
I flashed the newly downloaded ROM + gapps (same file). This time, I couldn't get the gapps to work probably because it was meant for another version. So I decided to just restore from the backup I created earlier.
So, the usual stuff. Wipe. Restore. Restart.
Seems to be going smoothly because my wife was happy to see the old ROM she was used to.
Until the phone started to restart on it's own. (It's pretty much downhill from here on out).
At first I thought it was just a random thing that probably would never happen again. I was wrong as it became more frequent as days went by.
Recently I can't just restart the phone, I would have to remove the battery and then restart it. Now, it's getting really hard to restart the phone. Please help me fix this. I prefer to leave the phone rooted, but if the fix unroots the phone then so be it, anyway my wife prefers the stock ROM so only the unlocking was necessary.
Metro PCS Samsung Galaxy S4 M919N
Recovery:
TWRP 2.6.3.1
ROMs:
Stock Metro PCS
CyanogenMod 10.2.1
Let me know if you need more information from me. Hopefully I can restart the phone so I can give you some version numbers.
Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with Elesbb. If the goal is jus tto get back to stock, just do an odin flash of the stock ROM. Be advised if you flash the latest Kit Kay update you will nto be able to go back to Jelly Bean. From your post it seems like you are partial to Jelly Bean. So if that's what you want, but sure you use the stock 4.3 ROM. You can find it around here on XDA somewhere with a quick search to make sure you have the right one.
As Elesbb said, you won't loose the 'sim unlock'. But you will lose root. However you can root the stock ROM just fine.
You might also consider one of the myriad of TouchWiz based custom ROMs. They are look just like TouchWiz that your wife wants, but have a lot of optimizations and options in them. Those should flash just like any ROM. If you still get the reboot issue then do the Odin back to stock, reroot, then flash the custom TW roms.
---------- Post added at 12:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 PM ----------

Thread cleaned.
Rather than bashing a ROM or user let's keep on topic and help the OP resolved the problems he's having. Arguing over the virtues of a ROM doesn't help anyone.
Thank you,
Rwilco12

Before posting this thread I sent the aforementioned guide's poster (arocker). He sent me a reply saying not to use gapps as the stock ROM for Metro PCS already comes with Google apps. I'll try his suggestion first and see if the phone still reboots a lot.
If the problem persists, I will try the solutions mentioned here. Thanks a lot!

elesbb said:
I didn't read everything but just wanted to say
VERY GOOD THREAD!
this is how threads should be done. Very descriptive, organized, told us everything you did and asked for help! Good job man! Only negative is it prolly should have gone in Q&A section but irregardless very good thread!
About your issue, I recommend flashing stock Odin tar file to everything back to stock and reroot and start over. Flashing stock will not lock it again it will remain unlocked. But should get you back up and fresh. Just be aware it will erase all your data and all of the internal SD card.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After trying arocker's suggestion to not flash gapps, the phone still reboots. So now, I am going to try your solution guys.
But before I do, I want to make sure that I am on the correct paths/links.
Here's what I found for the following:
ODIN
forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/themes-apps/27-08-2013-odin-3-09-odin-1-85-versions-t2189539
I've had a couple of chances to use ODIN but only using specific functions like flashing a recovery file while the phone is in download mode. I don't however have any experience using ODIN to put the phone back to stock where the phone gets unrooted. Having the phone unrooted is fine by me as I only needed to have the phone unlocked.
Any step-by-step guides for using ODIN for this specific purpose guys? I don't want to mess this up again.
Thanks and sorry for the trouble.

dokgu said:
After trying arocker's suggestion to not flash gapps, the phone still reboots. So now, I am going to try your solution guys.
But before I do, I want to make sure that I am on the correct paths/links.
Here's what I found for the following:
ODIN
forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/themes-apps/27-08-2013-odin-3-09-odin-1-85-versions-t2189539
I've had a couple of chances to use ODIN but only using specific functions like flashing a recovery file while the phone is in download mode. I don't however have any experience using ODIN to put the phone back to stock where the phone gets unrooted. Having the phone unrooted is fine by me as I only needed to have the phone unlocked.
Any step-by-step guides for using ODIN for this specific purpose guys? I don't want to mess this up again.
Thanks and sorry for the trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No trouble at all, check out the stickies in the beginning of threads.
Look for guides similar to this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2335109
Pp. Good luck.
sent from my bluetooth controlled toaster.

PanchoPlanet said:
No trouble at all, check out the stickies in the beginning of threads.
Look for guides similar to this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2335109
Pp. Good luck.
sent from my bluetooth controlled toaster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello PanchoPlanet,
Thanks for the link. I went ahead and tried to unroot without Windows (Mobile Odin) as per the instructions on the link. I downloaded everything and went ahead to install the Mobile Odin APK. When I ran it to install the Flash Kernel, the app told me that the device is not supported.
To my understanding the guide is for M919 devices but should work for my wife's device as well (M919N - Metro PCS). I would like to try the guide for using Windows but I'm not really expecting for it to work or I might mess it up more. I'll try to search some more and provide the links where this forum will lead me to. But if you have any ideas, please let me know asap. Thanks!

PanchoPlanet said:
No trouble at all, check out the stickies in the beginning of threads.
Look for guides similar to this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2335109
Pp. Good luck.
sent from my bluetooth controlled toaster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, here's what I found:
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2446497
It seems like the perfect thread for what I am trying to achieve. Will let you guys know if it is successful. But it will have to wait for tomorrow. Gonna catch some sleep.

Okay, I'm running out of options. I was able to flash the stock ROM using Odin 3.07. The recovery looks like it came back to the stock recovery as I no longer have TWRP installed. When I install Root Checker, I see that I am no longer rooted. That's good.
But my original problem is still here. The phone reboots a lot. The phone is so unstable that it is barely usable.
I am now going to try one more thing.
I have a Galaxy S4 (I337M) from Rogers Canada (my wife has Metro PCS M919N). Mine got rooted and has CyanogenMod 10.2.1 as a custom ROM. My phone is working perfectly while hers reboots a lot. I was thinking it was because of a faulty battery. So I am doing an experiment by swapping the batteries. So far no reboots have occurred, but I will continue to monitor this.
Any ideas why the battery is kinda messed up?

This thread talks about battery stuff and reboots:
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/530338/20131216/samsung-galaxy-s4-problems.htm
Batteries can go bad a lot of ways. Extreme temperature, factory defect, phone drops, moisture, etc.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Android_Monsters said:
This thread talks about battery stuff and reboots:
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/530338/20131216/samsung-galaxy-s4-problems.htm
Batteries can go bad a lot of ways. Extreme temperature, factory defect, phone drops, moisture, etc.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And 100% of the time, they eventually just get old.

dokgu said:
Okay, I'm running out of options. I was able to flash the stock ROM using Odin 3.07. The recovery looks like it came back to the stock recovery as I no longer have TWRP installed. When I install Root Checker, I see that I am no longer rooted. That's good.
But my original problem is still here. The phone reboots a lot. The phone is so unstable that it is barely usable.
I am now going to try one more thing.
I have a Galaxy S4 (I337M) from Rogers Canada (my wife has Metro PCS M919N). Mine got rooted and has CyanogenMod 10.2.1 as a custom ROM. My phone is working perfectly while hers reboots a lot. I was thinking it was because of a faulty battery. So I am doing an experiment by swapping the batteries. So far no reboots have occurred, but I will continue to monitor this.
Any ideas why the battery is kinda messed up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a wierd situation, by swapping batteries you basically performed a battery pull, which acts as a reset, that in it self may have cleared your issue.
Now if battery is bad that could be an unusual problem. Maybe just replacing the battery will be the end of your mystery.
Pp.
sent from my P5113 using TouchPal mind control keyboard. (Beta)

The battery should be brand new as the phone was just recently purchased this April.
Anyways, so far no reboots have happened and any instability has not been shown at all. Everything looks ok, yet.
Anyone know if it is safe to swap batteries? Our phones have different S4 models. I'm not sure what the implications would be. Also what is this battery pull which acts as a reset? We've been pulling the battery a lot of times but the reboot still happens but not when we swapped batteries.

The batteries are all the same. Don't worry about that.
Even if its a new battery if could have just been bad. A manufacturing defect perhaps.
Sent from your phone. You should be more careful where you leave that thing.

dokgu said:
The battery should be brand new as the phone was just recently purchased this April.
Anyways, so far no reboots have happened and any instability has not been shown at all. Everything looks ok, yet.
Anyone know if it is safe to swap batteries? Our phones have different S4 models. I'm not sure what the implications would be. Also what is this battery pull which acts as a reset? We've been pulling the battery a lot of times but the reboot still happens but not when we swapped batteries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This battery thing is wacky, anyway swapping batteries should not be a problem, it's just an energy storage container. Pulling the battery isn't like powering down the phone or resetting/rebooting ,sometimes devs request a battery pull to get the proper wipe effect that reboots can't provide.
You inadvertently solved your problem by accident. That's a good thing.
Pp.
sent from my P5113 using TouchPal mind control keyboard. (Beta)

PanchoPlanet said:
You inadvertently solved your problem by accident. That's a good thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have quite literally solved the vast majority of my problems this way.
Its a preferred method.
Sent from your phone. You should be more careful where you leave that thing.

Sometimes it's that "total disconnect "of power that kind of gets all the ducks lined up in a row and everything flows in the dynaflow.
Good.
Pp.
sent from my P5113 using TouchPal mind control keyboard. (Beta)

its very important topics and it might seen for every galaxy s4 users.just wonderful topics.

This exact same thing happened on my mother's 6-month old S3. If you're still wondering, you could try putting the old battery and running a CPU stress test app. It should increase the current draw and trigger a shutdown.
EDIT: whoops, sorry to kind of zombie. Didn't check the date.
Sent from my Galaxy S4

AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note II Won't Boot Into Recovery

Ok so over the last couple of days I tried getting a little too flash happy and thought I completely ruined my device. I could get into download mode, but not into recovery. I've tried flashing the files in Odin listed here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2584533 and usually that works. This time it didn't and at first I didn't get too bothered/noided because I thought I may have done something wrong. Fast forward to now and I was able to get recovery back on my phone and reinstall CleanROM Ace 5.0 which is a personal fave of mine. I got it to work using the instructions and files found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2573576 and I used a very old version of Odin to do this. The one I used was Odin3 v1.85 but I also have v3.07 and 3.09.
Now I will walk you through what I did that caused this dilemma, aka doing the absolute most :silly:
It started out as me wanting to test out 2 different ROMS (eZKAT Beta found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2747733 and Ditto Note 3 found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2541860). My smart @$$ (sarcasm of course) didn't do a full wipe internally when flashing between the two. Reason being, I honestly just started doing that and never ran into an issue until now because of not doing it. I recently got an S5 and my 32gb sd card is in that phone and I found an 8gb sd card in an old G1 I had. So because I had ROM files and TitaniumBackup files on the sd card, I was using internal storage to house the two test ROM's. Bad idea I now know. I'm so thankful my Note II is now just a backup along with my iPhone 4S but still, it's nice to be able to experiment with a test android phone and know your primary is fully functional. Plus, all the apps I bought and things I got used to using that are strictly for rooted devices...anyway back on topic.
I flashed eZKAT and got that fully booted, even installed xposed framework and wanam both worked. That ROM is not on hold but development is currently. I'm fine with that, what was put out for us to use does work. eZdubzitmk4 does great work, and has responded to PM's from me seeking assistance in the past. So since I'm somewhat familiar with his work, I didn't think twice about trying it out. My curiosity kicked in and I thought ok, let's try a different Note 3 ROM because I've successfully flashed and used Sky Note Air (both editions) in the past and seanzscreams is another developer who does great work. I'm not saying nor implying no one else does, I'm just shouting out two developers.
Something went wrong between me switching from eZKAT to Ditto Note 3 and the only thing I can recall not doing that likely enhanced my issue was not wiping internally. I tried to flash CWM and Philz Recovery as suggested here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2541860&page=429 and I thought that would fix the issue. What actually happened was after flashing in Odin, the phone would attempt to boot into recovery and all I'd see was a navigation bar at the bottom with 4 arrows but no text and the screen would immediately fade to black and reboot. I could not get into recovery at all. I saw the Samsung Galaxy Note II splash screen repeatedly. I left it off the charger all day, and it repeated that same process the entire time. I tried using KIES and KIES3 but neither worked. I almost got something to work in KIES3 but right before the end, it failed and my phone said unsupported version in red text. I did a few Google searches at work which did help point me in the right direction.
I tried flashing stuff in the PDA slot as well as the Bootloader slot, but it didn't matter everything was the same result. My thought process was try it and see, all that can go wrong is it not boot into download mode . I prayed on it last night then did another Google search tonight when I got home from work, after attempting all that stuff again. This time I did a search for note 2 will not boot into recovery and I found this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2573576. TWRP was successfully flashed and I was able to flash CleanROM Ace 5.0 again now I'm happy ...but also EXTREMELY hesitant to flash anything else at this point. I'm just glad I no longer have a $371 paper weight ($321 for the phone and $50 for the AT&T flap cover case with attached back). I did state that if and when I fixed my phone I would create a thread about what I did and what worked for me. Hopefully this can be of use to someone else, because I know I'm not the only who has faced this issue. I also was all over Google with generic searches because all I knew was what was happening, not the technical/official name for what it was if that makes sense .
Here's a video showing what I'm describing.

I always use cwm. Just been more stable for me.
Not exactly sure what happened here tho.. Never seen that before.
I'm glad you're up and running again. I honestly would just wait for the dn3 update to flash a kit kat rom
Sent from my NoteII

I prefer CWM myself as well. I've been using it since my HTC Inspire 4G. After I got my Note II to boot and flashed CleanROM, I transferred a backup I had made in the past onto my sd card. I read before that there's an issue with TWRP and/or Philz Touch when trying to restore a CWM backup. To avoid further issues, I installed CWM from the play store, reflashed CWM Touch. Then I deleted the text from the md5 file in root explorer text editor, rebooted into recovery cleared everything then restored the backup. No issues since.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

eZdubzitmk4 said:
I always use cwm. Just been more stable for me.
Not exactly sure what happened here tho.. Never seen that before.
I'm glad you're up and running again. I honestly would just wait for the dn3 update to flash a kit kat rom
Sent from my NoteII
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I added a video to the thread so people can see what I'm describing.

Assassyn said:
I added a video to the thread so people can see what I'm describing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happened to me before. Since I didn't have a rom installed I couldn't boot to android so I had to use Odin..Flash twrp. Let it boot into recovery. Then pull battery and go back into download mode and use odin again to flash cwm then cwm worked fine and didn't just restart.
Since you can boot into android you can actually just download Recovery Tools from playstore to install twrp then cwm. I recommend the odin way tho
Sent from my NoteII

Will definitely look into it!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I had the same issue but my phone won't even boot up...can't get into recovery or download mode...changed batteries and still no go.

allaidback said:
I had the same issue but my phone won't even boot up...can't get into recovery or download mode...changed batteries and still no go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are these new batteries?

one was new...I tried 2 others. Took to sprint and they are replacing the phone. This will be my 3rd note 4.

allaidback said:
one was new...I tried 2 others. Took to sprint and they are replacing the phone. This will be my 3rd note 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, sorry you've had such trouble. Have you had any issues since your replacement? I recently shattered the screen on my S5 trying an at home wifi/bluetooth fix that actually did work but I pressed too hard on the device so my Note II is now my primary again. Holding off for a Note 5 unless I can get a 128 gb micro sd card, then I'll get a Note 4.