Develop Bugs

Help...Defy stuck in bootloop

I have a stock 2.1 defy with the 2.51 rom (i think). all the mod i did was root the phone using super one click, the phone ran fine for a few months until i experimented with titanium backup and deleted google talk etc. i found out that (too late)doing this would cause the android market to stop downloading and updating my apps. To remedy my situation i tried installing google talk service.apk back to system apps. first by copying the file to my sd card and pushing it to the system file using terminal emulator. after rebooting my phone is now bootlooping. i tried removing the battery and just after i insert it it would go immediately into the bootloop phase. tried using recovery (volume down+power) and wipe cache and reset, still no go. last resort i tried is after wiping i tried installing cm7 but the installation was immediately aborted. please help, right now im close to tears, i didn't know that it was this hard to mod a defy. my previous phone was a wildfire and modding it was pretty easy.

What happens when you turn the phone on? Does it start in the bootloader? Is it stuck in Motorola Logo?

Try to wipe data/cache again and see what happens.
As well you might want to go ahead and download all tools needed to flash an sbf. Because if worst comes to worst your going to have to flash one
Sent from my Life Proof Defy on CM7

juanplopes said:
What happens when you turn the phone on? Does it start in the bootloader? Is it stuck in Motorola Logo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the phone turns itslef on automatically when i insert the battery, white moto logo first then bootloops in motoblur animation.i can go into bootloader mode by pressing up and power before inserting the battery. i just wished i hadn't played around with titanium backup. i already downloaded the necessary files to flash a new firmware. hope i learn to do it properly.

javi422 said:
Try to wipe data/cache again and see what happens.
As well you might want to go ahead and download all tools needed to flash an sbf. Because if worst comes to worst your going to have to flash one
Sent from my Life Proof Defy on CM7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried wiping the cache/data numerous times under recovery mode to no avail. now im crossing my fingers that my battery isn't that drained for me to flash a new firmware.

Try to wipe data/cache again and see what happens.
As well you might want to go ahead and download all tools needed to flash an sbf. Because if worst comes to worst your going to have to flash one
You can also do the battery hack/trick
Sent from my Life Proof Defy on CM7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i tried wiping the cache/data numerous times under recovery mode to no avail. now im crossing my fingers that my battery isn't that drained for me to flash a new firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Life Proof Defy on CM7

Hi I have the same problem,I just tried to flash the Barebone 1.5 ROM.
My Defy was stock,I just root it and made a backup with clockmod before I did as discribed here:
Installing (Rom wipes data/cache partitions)
1. Copy Barbones to sdcard: Barebones_15-signed.zip.
2. Boot into recovery (make a backup ?) and restore nandroid: 3.4.2_177-Nand.NORDIC_DEBLUR.zip.
3. Still in recovery, select install zip from sdcard -> choose zip from sdcard -> Barebones_15-signed.zip.
4. Reboot system, first boot will take time as it builds the dalvik cache; wait for the background to load, and enjoy Barebones.
- Use Easy Installer to install any apk's you feel are missing.
- Removed.Stock.Apps.zip
-- Removed Apps Must Be Copied To /system/app Manually - Remember To Set Permissions & Reboot
To downgrade back to Eclair; just flash the Eclair sbf you where using beforehand; thats it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after Reboot it just shows Motorola,I can access Recovery Menu stock one and custom,tried wipe restore factory settings and wipe cache but nothing helped!

What version where you coming from ? Eclair or Froyo ?
Btw factory reset and wiping the cache doesnt do anything in these situations.
Did you restore the Nandroid provided ?
Also cant lie only thing I did not test was coming straight from an Eclair build.
I used the Korean Froyo sbf as a starting point; but I'm testing it now.

Got it alive again with this steps.
No wonder why u're stuck on motorola logo.
Let me break it down for you.
Make sure you have motodrivers installed or install them here.
And install the RSD Lite too Here
Turn off your phone, hit the power+volume up together.
Wait till u're in the bootloader.
Open the RSD Lite, u phone should be detected so u click on "..." select the .sbf u downloaded from here
And flash it.
Wait till is over, and your phone should be good again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this .sbf
But I still don't know what went wrong,I did exactly as discribed in the TUT I postetd above!?

Well if you flashed that sbf you wont be able to downgrade back to Eclair anymore.
However; yes doing that will fix it.

Is it not good that I flashed this .sbf? I got the phone just 2 days ago I think it already had the newest firmware etc.!?
EDIT: But something is wrong with my Wlan connection it is very slow and always loses connection

I doubt it came with Froyo seeing as they are all leaked builds.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=966537 <- Read up
Just means you cant go back to Eclair.
Ok so you wifi is slow ? Are you even using my rom now; because you flashed 3.4.2_155-Stock.CEE_DEBLUR.sbf.
I cant see your phone so you have to tell me what your using.

Yes I just flashed the sbf nothing else,and before I just did what I read in the instructions from the Barebone 1.5 Thread.
1. Copy Barbones to sdcard: Barebones_15-signed.zip.
2. Boot into recovery (make a backup ?) and restore nandroid: 3.4.2_177-Nand.NORDIC_DEBLUR.zip.
3. Still in recovery, select install zip from sdcard -> choose zip from sdcard -> Barebones_15-signed.zip.
4. Reboot system, first boot will take time as it builds the dalvik cache; wait for the background to load, and enjoy Barebones.
- Use Easy Installer to install any apk's you feel are missing.
- Removed.Stock.Apps.zip
-- Removed Apps Must Be Copied To /system/app Manually - Remember To Set Permissions & Reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this sbf before 3.4.3_11-Stock.UKTmobile_BLUR but it always failed thats why I tried the other one

So your not using my rom now - the sbf overwrites everything.

Ok sorry Im a noob^^ I just wanted to have all this blur stuff removed etc and your rom seems just perfect for me.
I have problems now with the phone and I really wished I would never had tried this.
I cant boot into recovery mode anymore with clockworkmod, I rooted my phone again installed clockwork but the screen stays black after the Motorola Screen came up when I try to make a recovery boot with clockwork.
cause I wanted to restore the backup I did with clockworkmod before I messed it all up,would that make my phone like it was before or not!?

I doubt you will be able to get back to your backup simply cause I dont think its Froyo.
So do this:
1. Boot into bootloader (power + volume up).
2. Flash 3.4.2_155-Stock.CEE_DEBLUR.sbf again.
3. While its rebooting after flashing hold volume down to goto stock recovery.
4. Do a factory reset.
5. Root your device using superoneclick http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=913709
6. Reboot.
7. Install 2nd Init Recovery http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1032212
8. Reboot twice (to finish installing recovery).
9. Reboot into recovery - wait for blue led then hit volume down.
10. At this point you can try to restore your backup or flash a rom of your choice.
If you try your backup and it does not work you will need to start this process over.

Ok thank you so much fritolays for your help! I will try this tomorrow and post back if I had success or not!
greetz!
EDIT: Couldn't wait to try it and it worked! I took the risk and tried to install your rom again (restoring my backup didn't worked anyways 'cause clockworkmod didn't find the backup but it was still in the same folder it got stored before) works like charm as far as I could test it. But now I really have to go to sleep!
Big thanks again fritolays without your quick help I would still try to get my Defy to work without any success! and THANKS! for this great rom!!!
EDIT2: I don't know why but I have problems with the phone since yesterday when I first flashed another ROM,I always have Network Connection Problems now! I can't download anything from the market if I get to the market! 'cause normally it says no network connection! It worked fine for like 20minutes after I got it to work with ur method u told me above then it suddenly took very very long to download an app. Never had these Problems before,I also have very bad Phone Signal and most of the Time I can just make Emergency Calls and I turned Internet Connection OFF for mobile network (like I did before when it was stock) but sometimes I still can go online with Wlan turned off so this is really ****ed up 'cause I have no internet plan with my mobile phone!
But with your ROM the phone is really flying,I did a Benchmark Test before and got 1100 Score and by just putting your ROM on my Defy without any overclocking or something like that I got 1275 Score!
EDIT3 I found the direction it was clockworkmod/backup/ now
I did a wipe factory reset and a cache wipe and now restoring it I really hope everything is like it was before all this!
Ok this got me to the Bootloop Problem again so I did again all the steps u told me and instead of restoring ur ROM I restored my backup wich was now in the right direction,but it is also ended up in Bootloop!
EDIT4 If I try all this with ur ROM it works,is it because of the Froyo .sbf I flashed that I can't get my backup working!?
I get this Error Message after my phone booted with ur ROM maybe that is one of the Problems I have? "Sorry,the process android.process.media got suddenly closed try it again" I had to translate it so maybe the message is a bit different in english but thats what it says generally.
So everything worked great again,I go into Market to download TitaniumBackup (like I always did) then as always I apply the new Busybox Install TitaniumBackup suggests everytime I start it and the Wifi gets slow already by downloading Busybox. Then I tried to go to the Market again and Network Error, I get the feeling it has something to do with this app or the Busybox installation TitaniumBackup is doing!?
I don't know what it is but it alwys messes something in my phone up and I get Wifi Probs!??
EDIT5 I tried another ROM now "xd1 ** new ** ver 1.2" and everything worked fine! I downloaded Quadrant and a Antivirus App just to test it and everything was alright so I tried TitaniumBackup again (the Free Version as always) and guess what the download got fast till 42% then stuck and now I can't download anything again from Market it is very slow and then the downloads got canceled! wtf is wrong with this app!? I need it for all my Apps 'cause I did a backup with this app but since I flash custom ROMS it always does this bull**** when I download it from market!?

update..got my defy unbricked by following Higgsy's step by step method. installed a 2.51 SEA sbf in the process. love the phone without blur. now im thinking of upgrading to a froyo rom, which do you guys think is the best? based from reading the posts here i'm more confused than ever. sbf's here and 2nd init that??? not to mention a fixed sbf?? i really can't understand these terms and the more i read the more i got confused. Could you guys help me in laymans terms the proper process for upgrading to froyo and which rom is you think is best??

Error mounting /data/

I was trying to install a new rom on my Desire Z, following the directions here, but something went wrong somewhere and now I can't mount /data. I don't want to go any further in the rom installation process, as I'm afraid to brick my phone. The same thing happened to me while upgrading my Windows 6.5 phone (unexpected problem during rom install) and I ended up with a brick (corrupt bootloader).
I have found several threads here discussing the same problem. However, all of them use highly technical language and seem to be advice from experts to other experts. There are a lot of terms I don't understand or only understand partially, like nandroid, parted, hboot, and so on. Everyone assumes too much. Can anyone explain the procedure in terms a novice can understand?

gromky said:
I was trying to install a new rom on my Desire Z, following the directions here, but something went wrong somewhere and now I can't mount /data. I don't want to go any further in the rom installation process, as I'm afraid to brick my phone. The same thing happened to me while upgrading my Windows 6.5 phone (unexpected problem during rom install) and I ended up with a brick (corrupt bootloader).
I have found several threads here discussing the same problem. However, all of them use highly technical language and seem to be advice from experts to other experts. There are a lot of terms I don't understand or only understand partially, like nandroid, parted, hboot, and so on. Everyone assumes too much. Can anyone explain the procedure in terms a novice can understand?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Mount" data to flash a rom? You sure? Looking at the link you provided just says place on sd, wipe, flash. Where exactly are you stuck or am i just missing the obvious.

The /data corruption occurred halfway through the upgrade process. I'm not sure what to do, so I stopped and asked for advice. I kept going the last time I had a problem, and got a bricked phone for my trouble.

The only "data" I see in that guide (Same one I used in fact), is the comment bout doing a "Factory Reset/Wipe Data" which is what it says, says nothing about /data/ partition, just to do a full wipe.
Naturally you do this from recovery, not from within an app or while the phone is still booted into normal usage.

So, wiping the phone will fix everything? And then install cyanogen? Sorry, just want to be totally completely sure.

Aye, indeeed, as KB said, full wipe, then flash new rom.

OK, thanks! I was just reeeealy nervous about the "wipe the phone" part. My phone still sort of works now, most programs not available, but Google Maps and the telephone still work...the most important parts of the phone as I travel a lot.

gromky said:
OK, thanks! I was just reeeealy nervous about the "wipe the phone" part. My phone still sort of works now, most programs not available, but Google Maps and the telephone still work...the most important parts of the phone as I travel a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory Reset/Wipe will only clear the internal partitions ( /system /data /cache ) , and additionally if you choose Dalvik Cache, then that as well is usually good to do with a brand new rom.
It will not wipe your radio, hboot, recovery, etc, just the system-related areas for roms.
Generally speaking:
Factory Reset + Wipe Cache/Dalvik Cache
Flash CyanogenMod
Flash the Google Apps Zip specific to that CM version (as CM doesn't come with Google Apps by default)
Reboot
Just remember that doing a backup before doing anything to your phone like above is available, as a factory reset and such will wipe contacts and settings and so forth unless you got a google account setup to restore them (or using something like Titanium Backup on an already rooted phone).

OK, I was following the rooting guide, as that must be done before installing cyanogen. I performed all the steps to "reboot". Md5 #2 & md5 #3 matched. Upon rebooting, I can't use su from the terminal (permission denied). I also tried "cd /sdcard && ./su" and got the same thing. Does this mean the rooting didn't work? Or can I proceed with wiping the device regardless? After I wipe the device I won't be able to perform the rooting steps again...and will likely have a brick...just totally paranoid here.

gromky said:
OK, I was following the rooting guide, as that must be done before installing cyanogen. I performed all the steps to "reboot". Md5 #2 & md5 #3 matched. Upon rebooting, I can't use su from the terminal (permission denied). I also tried "cd /sdcard && ./su" and got the same thing. Does this mean the rooting didn't work? Or can I proceed with wiping the device regardless?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I followed that one as well. And I assume you rebooted after that point.
Did you continue forth and factory-reset/wipe and then install CM7 over your stock install?
Basically the downgrading/etc makes the phone exploitable, and then the rooting portion puts you back up to a engineering hboot and such that is unlocked with S-OFF, from there you either flash a pre-rooted ROM (i.e.: CM7 etc), or you root an existing stock (which would have gotten wiped from the hboot replacement).
If you already flashed CM and can't do su via adb then it's possible that under "Security" or "Development" in your phones system memory that su is restricted to "app only" and you may need to change that to "app and adb".
You shouldn't be running su from /sdcard (since that's not a linux style partition, and /sdcard is a no exec area). The su binary should already be installed to system in CM.
Clarification If you did not yet reboot (i.e.: Step #7 and onward), and then wipe/flash cyanogenmod (or another pre-rooted custom rom), then proceed with the steps, otherwise you're just working with a half-processed phone and naturally nothing would work in that state.

kbeezie said:
I followed that one as well. And I assume you rebooted after that point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
Did you continue forth and factory-reset/wipe and then install CM7 over your stock install?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean hold "down" and boot into recovery, and immediately do these steps? No, I did not. I let the phone boot as normal, to try to run su to verify if the rooting process worked or not.
I suppose my question should be: how can I verify that the rooting process worked, and I'm ready to wipe? The su on /sdcard was pushed there by adb and used during the procedure. From the guide:
adb push su /sdcard/
adb push Superuser.apk /sdcard/
Basically the downgrading/etc makes the phone exploitable, and then the rooting portion puts you back up to a engineering hboot and such that is unlocked with S-OFF, from there you either flash a pre-rooted ROM (i.e.: CM7 etc), or you root an existing stock (which would have gotten wiped from the hboot replacement).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't downgrade, I still have my stock rom (phone bought from Hong Kong so it's one of the Asia roms) which temprooted just fine with visionary.

gromky said:
Yes.
You mean hold "down" and boot into recovery, and immediately do these steps? No, I did not. I let the phone boot as normal, to try to run su to verify if the rooting process worked or not.
I suppose my question should be: how can I verify that the rooting process worked, and I'm ready to wipe? The su on /sdcard was pushed there by adb and used during the procedure. From the guide:
adb push su /sdcard/
adb push Superuser.apk /sdcard/
I didn't downgrade, I still have my stock rom (phone bought from Hong Kong so it's one of the Asia roms) which temprooted just fine with visionary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't use Visionary unless for some strange reason your phone came with Froyo (2.2) on it (it's an outdated method, and has a high brick rate). Given that you may have an asian rom etc, I would just go ahead and do a factory reset /wipe via recovery, and flash CM7 or a pre-rooted stock rom found here on the XDA forum for the best result.
I think even one of the AOKP or Adromudus comes with Pinyin input support already if you need it.

It did have Froyo. I have uninstalled visionary per instructions before performing all these steps. But since I only get one shot at rooting correctly, I want to make absolutely positively sure the process worked before I do something irrevocable like wiping the entire phone, only to discover I can't install a new rom because the phone isn't rooted.
I use third-party programs (GO keyboard) for all of my Chinese needs, and they've worked fine so far.

gromky said:
It did have Froyo. I have uninstalled visionary per instructions before performing all these steps. But since I only get one shot at rooting correctly, I want to make absolutely positively sure the process worked before I do something irrevocable like wiping the entire phone, only to discover I can't install a new rom because the phone isn't rooted.
I use third-party programs (GO keyboard) for all of my Chinese needs, and they've worked fine so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting is at the rom/kernel level. But in order to flash a new custom kernel would need an unlocked bootloader which you already did with S-OFF.
So you would either flash a pre rooted rom like almost everything available via the developer section here (via recovery not hboot) or a stock rom then root that.
If you do everything via recovery you are less likely to accidentally lock/unroot the phone since recovery normally deals with the rom/kernel /cache and not hboot.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2

It worked - thanks! I was so concerned about bricking the thing. The whole process was easy...now that I've done it. Cyanogen came up in Chinese...couldn't figure out how to change it to English for a while. I suppose there's some setting in my phone that tells it to default to Chinese. It also appears to be locking up frequently on my phone - but at least I got the software on there, and now I can play with other mods. Thanks again!

gromky said:
It worked - thanks! I was so concerned about bricking the thing. The whole process was easy...now that I've done it. Cyanogen came up in Chinese...couldn't figure out how to change it to English for a while. I suppose there's some setting in my phone that tells it to default to Chinese. It also appears to be locking up frequently on my phone - but at least I got the software on there, and now I can play with other mods. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I had to make a guess, I would probably say you flashed Cyanogenmod onto the phone WITHOUT first doing a factory-reset/wipe, in which case you probably broke it (hence the language and freezing) by merging cyanogenmod on top of the pre-existing rom.

No, I definitely wiped the phone first. I got a few lockups in cyanogen so I went to install another rom. Now I'm getting "E:error in /cache/recovery/log" and "E:can't open /cache/recovery/log". When I install a new rom, it won't take and boots into cyanogen. It was in a reboot loop for a while but now it has booted into cyanogen again. Sigh. This is what I was afraid of.

Boot into boot and write down everything on that screen (power+volume down) just to check all is well, what is your recovery?
Search out two things (just use search function in g2 xda threads)
1 superwipe+ext4.zip
2 elitemod cm7
Boot into recovery and flash the super wipe like you did the from
Now flash elitemod
Is all well at this point?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

Actually the phone seems to be working with cyanogen now. I suspect the internal memory is corrupt somehow, and that's a problem that can't be fixed. I'm going to stop messing with it before I brick it. If any more problems I'll revive the thread. Thanks so much to everyone who helped. I really can't afford a new phone right now and cyanogen seems to have fixed the problems I was having with the stock rom.

gromky said:
Actually the phone seems to be working with cyanogen now. I suspect the internal memory is corrupt somehow, and that's a problem that can't be fixed. I'm going to stop messing with it before I brick it. If any more problems I'll revive the thread. Thanks so much to everyone who helped. I really can't afford a new phone right now and cyanogen seems to have fixed the problems I was having with the stock rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the emmc is faulty then it's going to eventually brick itself, and should probably be sent in for warranty if available.

Stuck @ Google Log Screen

Was running a Rotted stock Rom which is flashed with CWM. All was fine until i tried to install Google official 4.2.1 update. That messed up something and now i cant get it to boot. I wiped everything in CWM but nothing. Also been trying to connect it to PC to transfer a new ROM but i dont know why the mount sdcard option is not working.

1) you were not on a 100% stock rom, so dont ever take a OTA
2) the mount sdcard will never work on this phone as there is no sdcard
3) do yourself a favor and follow this (it even has a section on how to root your phone): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1626895

Restore
Try this it has always worked for me and I have bricked my phone many, many times. I find this to be so much easier than all the other ways out there, but that's just me.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1426207

Thanks for the help. I turned it back to stock and all good now.

[Q] Reset to Stock ICS/Unroot/etc. (Boot Issues)

So I've found a lot of threads on here giving me great info on how to handle various situations, but given what I'm looking to do with my phone, I'm not sure what order to do everything in and what tools are best. Currently, my T989 is on ICS 4.0.3 (UVLE1), rooted, with CWM installed. When I originally upgraded to ICS, something got messed up that caused my phone to hang on "Goodbye" anytime I try to turn it off/reboot. I've read that Darkside's Cache Wipe can fix that issue, but basically I'd like to wipe the device, start fresh with a stock build and get everything right from the start. I will likely root it again later, but I'd at least like to get it reset to stock and have everything working correctly first.
What I'm looking to do:
Unroot and uninstall CWM
Wipe the phone clean (all data, cache, partitions, etc.)
Clear the phone entirely back to stock OS/stock recovery/stock everything
Upgrade to the latest stock OS (if necessary)
I'd like to do all this while also fixing whatever caused the hang while shutting down/rebooting. I'd also like to use a stock OS image from Kies instead of downloading one from other places if at all possible (I'm a tad paranoid/OCD when it comes to stuff like that). I've seen two Darkside tools-- cache wipe and super wipe, and I'm not sure if I need one or both of them to help with clearing off the device/fixing my reboot issue.
So with all that in mind, what's my best route to take? I'm just looking for what tools to use and in what order, there are enough great guides on here on how to use the various tools that I can figure out the rest from those. In other words, "Use X to clear blah, uninstall Y while choosing yadda, install Z" etc. I hope that's not too tall of an order Thanks to all for your help!

Edit Oct 17, 2014 - Encrypt your device/phone with custom ROM

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage or liability arising out of these steps. I did not invent anything, I just tried something. Only move forward at your risk
If you don't agree ... stop reading and move on...
Background: Our phone has access to so much personal information that its scary if it fell into wrong hands. The only way to fix this is to encrypt phone. I did lot of research and here is a working solution that works for me - try at your risk.
Download Links:
a) Tested with ROM Stock 4.4.4 NH7 Galaxy S4 M919/Jfltetmo by @ShinySide
b) Tested with ROM |ROM|★KANGAKAT★|►KTU84P◄|4.4.4|Xposed|►8◄|6.26.14 by @iB4STiD
c) stock recovery AT&T S4 works with M919
d) Philz/CWM custom recovery
Encrypting with custom rom
1) Assume you are on custom recovery. - Backup everything first. Create a nandroid backup
2) Do a full wipe and install one of the two roms linked above (I have tested with few other roms ... none worked). Start the phone and set it up the way you want. Install all apps etc.
3) ODIN Stock recovery. See #c under download above. Its AT&T stock recovery but works for me. You need to know how to ODIN - find out. Doing this wrong will permanently damage your phone
4) Start your phone and turn on encryption. You will need to set lock type = password and will need to connect to charger and have 80% charge.
- Phone will do blank and stay blank for 20-30 minutes. Do not do anything. Encryption is happening behind the scenes.
- You might have to do this twice or thrice if it did not encrypt first time. For me the phone went blank first time and after 25 minutes it restarted but device was not encrypted. I redid the same steps and worked second time.
- If you interrupt the encryption process (battery pull or power up) you will see error message (encryption failed, reset device)
5) If all goes well you now have a password protected encrypted phone with custom rom!!! Check in Settings -> Security
6) You may install custom recovery ... but I don't see the point because you will need stock recovery to decrypt
To install another ROM
1) Reboot into stock recovery, then wipe data and cache (this removes encryption).
2) install your recovery of choice and install ROM using recovery. Philz/CWM
Credit goes to @Tronicus and his reply Flash a Rom on an Encrypted Android
Tronicus said:
How to Flash a rom on an encrypted Android phone (specifically this one, the I9505 SGH-I337).
The Problem: Once encrypted, you can't decrypt it easily. When encrypting the phone android will tell you you can only decrypt it using a factory reset. Naturally you assume it's talking about the "Factory Data Reset" option found in Settings --> Backup and Reset. But noooo, Android is lying through its ****ing teeth. Then you'll assume you have to wipe everything from your custom recovery mod (CWM, TWRP, or one of those). Wrong again! You'll get beautiful "can't mount /data" messages and more bull****. I read about a workaround that required installing the new rom using ADB, but I had ingeniously disabled USB debugging prior to wiping everything, so I only got so far with that option (plus it's tediously long if you haven't installed all the necessary software already and don't feel like bricking your phone because you made a typo in the command line). So, apparently the only other way to really format that partition free of its encryption is to use a stock recovery. So:
Short Version for Godlike users who know automatically how to do all this **** without any help (mimicking how most help posts are finely detailed on this site): Flash stock recovery, wipe everything, flash your custom recovery and install your new rom.
Long version for us mortals who don't know everything and haven't already downloaded already every single bit of software on earth:
Backup all the stuff you want to save. This process will truly wipe EVERYTHING. You can do it manually, or you can use an app like Titanium Backup Pro to help you (find it on Google Play Store). Here's a nice guide which recommends what to restore and what not to restore: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1480343
Flash the stock recovery using Odin. You can download a stock recovery from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=49687791&postcount=3 It's the link called "I337MK2stockrecovery.tar.md5" In case you don't know how to flash it with Odin, this short guide will help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1506697
In step 6 replace "recovery.tar.md5" with the stock recovery you downloaded.
Wipe everything from the Stock recovery console. This little ****er will **** up the encryption all those sissies couldn't touch. You're welcome. You boot into recovery mode from a turned off phone by pressing simultaneously the volume up key + the home key + the power key until you see blue text appearing in the top left corner of your screen.
Reinstall your custom recovery. In my case I had installed the rom BEFORE flashing in the stock recovery (apparently it works, you just can't boot because of the encryption), so I was able to boot into the new rom before I returned to my custom recovery. Weird. Anyways, I recommend CWM. You can pick it up from this link: http://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/jflte
For some weird reason they call the I337 version the "jflte" version. It's bonkers. Click there, and download the latest version that ends with .tar.md5. This version is upgradable via Odin, which we already used. Use the same instructions used as when you upgraded the stock recovery rom.
Boot into your recovery mod and flash your rom like you usually do.
A word about TWRP: it cost me many hours of work and I don't recommend it. Its website is outdated, and recommends using GooManager (which is no longer mantained) and doesn't work anymore for this. GooManager suggests using a new, different app, which doesn't have the option of installing TWRP. Then I tried using their TWRP Manager app from play store and the image file wouldn't download. Then I tried manually selecting the image file in TWRP manager that I downloaded from their site for use via the ADB method, and it bricked my phone... twice (using two different methods the app sugested). I tried so much because in theory TWRP has the ability to decrypt android's 4.4 encryption, but after looking at their github site I noticed it was filled with people's reports (including people with the S4) on how it wouldn't work decrypting squat. So I gave up, and installed CWM in 30 seconds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage or liability arising out of these steps. I did not invent anything, I just tried something. Only move forward at your risk

cnewsgrp said:
One of the things I needed was the ability to encrypt my phone (device only not external SD) for security purpose. Our phones today gives access to lot of information that I would rather not fall in wrong hands. I did lot of research and here is a working solution.
Credit goes to @Tronicus and his reply Flash a Rom on an Encrypted Android
The quote looks long however it is really very simple. To install another ROM
- Install and reboot into stock recovery, then wipe data and cache (this removes encryption).
- Then install your recovery of choice and install ROM using recovery. Philz/CWM
This has been tested working on |ROM|★KANGAKAT★|►KTU84P◄|4.4.4|Xposed|►8◄|6.26.14 by @iB4STiD
This did NOT work on a Touchwiz ROM by same developer
I have not tested any other ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if it matters too much or not, but the stock recovery you linked to is for the AT&T S4. A good rule of thumb is to never use Odin to flash anything not specifically for your particular device... In this case the M919.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

lordcheeto03 said:
I don't know if it matters too much or not, but the stock recovery you linked to is for the AT&T S4. A good rule of thumb is to never use Odin to flash anything not specifically for your particular device... In this case the M919.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tested stock recovery on M919 .. it works

Honestly im surprised its not talked about more since there is a big push for personal privacy when it comes to data. Encryption really is a pain in the ass to work with on android. Figuring out how to switch or update custom roms while encrypted will drive you insane. The easiest way is to just odin back to stock and start over, but that requires a computer anytime you need to flash anything.
I recently was trying out one of the 4.4.4 GPE roms and turned on encryption. It worked great until i started missing touchwiz and wanted to go back to HyperDrive TW. So the journey began...
First of all, i backed up everything to external storage since i knew everything on the internal storage would have to be wiped. I loaded the phone into recovery mode (using TWRP) and tried wiping, but all i got was a bunch of "Failed to mount" errors. Fine. Got the same error when trying to factory reset or wiping /system, /data, /cache, and anything else. Tried formatting to different file systems and then formatting back to the original but no luck. Fixing permissions didnt help. I just kept trying everything available multiple times.
Eventually it started wiping everything except the /data mount. Well... At least i could install new custom roms. Im not sure exactly what did it because i was just throwing everything at it. Anyways I got it to install, and booted into it. Nope.
Now it was saying I needed the password to decrypt the internal storage. It would detect wrong passwords fine, but as soon as i put the correct password in, it would allow me in, show the green android encryption picture, then blank screen. I thought it was just decrypting and setting up my rom but after a few hours my screen was still black and nothing was happening. Pulled battery and went back to TWRP.
I started wiping everything again and again and tried doing everything i could to wipe everything on the internal storage. Again, not sure what did it, but eventually got it all cleaned up and got a new rom installed and could boot into it.
The whole process probably took about 6-7 hours...
I dont even want to enable encryption on the new rom...

p-hil said:
Honestly im surprised its not talked about more since there is a big push for personal privacy when it comes to data. Encryption really is a pain in the ass to work with on android. Figuring out how to switch or update custom roms while encrypted will drive you insane. The easiest way is to just odin back to stock and start over, but that requires a computer anytime you need to flash anything.
I recently was trying out one of the 4.4.4 GPE roms and turned on encryption. It worked great until i started missing touchwiz and wanted to go back to HyperDrive TW. So the journey began...
First of all, i backed up everything to external storage since i knew everything on the internal storage would have to be wiped. I loaded the phone into recovery mode (using TWRP) and tried wiping, but all i got was a bunch of "Failed to mount" errors. Fine. Got the same error when trying to factory reset or wiping /system, /data, /cache, and anything else. Tried formatting to different file systems and then formatting back to the original but no luck. Fixing permissions didnt help. I just kept trying everything available multiple times.
Eventually it started wiping everything except the /data mount. Well... At least i could install new custom roms. Im not sure exactly what did it because i was just throwing everything at it. Anyways I got it to install, and booted into it. Nope.
Now it was saying I needed the password to decrypt the internal storage. It would detect wrong passwords fine, but as soon as i put the correct password in, it would allow me in, show the green android encryption picture, then blank screen. I thought it was just decrypting and setting up my rom but after a few hours my screen was still black and nothing was happening. Pulled battery and went back to TWRP.
I started wiping everything again and again and tried doing everything i could to wipe everything on the internal storage. Again, not sure what did it, but eventually got it all cleaned up and got a new rom installed and could boot into it.
The whole process probably took about 6-7 hours...
I dont even want to enable encryption on the new rom...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah Encryption does not seem to work on TWZ roms. I tried on G Eye without luck.

I have updated op. Please check

Encryption will slow down your phone quite a bit. More battery usage + more CPU usage + slower phone = not worth it unless you've got some very private stuff you don't want being shared. Otherwise, 3rd party apps that lock a lot of files, can encrypt certain files, and hide others will do the trick perfectly well.'
Not trying to bash fully encrypting your phone, but I've tried it before and although I am very pro privacy, I had to eventually take it off due to all the extra hassle it created.

Don't know about slowing down. I am not seeing it. I feel differently about security.