Develop Bugs

[Q] Cyanogen 10.1 mod gone wrong.

AT&T Galaxy S3
Mac OSX 10.8
I know I can get my device back, I'm just not sure how. I successfully rooted using CASUAL, no problems there. Got the normal root applications installed, did the Clockwork backup, everything was great.
I then decided to try a custom ROM - the Cyanogen 10.1. It downloaded fine, and I selected to also install Google Apps, then it rebooted and the Cyanogen boot screen with the spinning circle came up. However, this lasted way longer than I thought it should, so I looked it up, and what I got from the research is that I had the wrong gapps on there.
So, I followed the instructions in this thread (same problem as me), and wiped the system. However, I believe I used the wrong list item, and now everything I had is gone. I can't boot from recovery because it doesn't exist, and when booting into CM I just get the same error message that setup has stopped working. I thought maybe I could put a new ROM on the sd card or phone harddrive and boot from that, but both are inaccessible through USB on my Mac.
I can get it into ODIN mode (where it says "Downloading... Do not turn off target!"), which I'm thinking is what I want, and I have Heimdall installed and it runs and recognizes my device, but I cannot for the life of me find a tar.gz file to use.
If anyone can offer any sort of help, I would super appreciate it.

chazbot7 said:
AT&T Galaxy S3
Mac OSX 10.8
I know I can get my device back, I'm just not sure how. I successfully rooted using CASUAL, no problems there. Got the normal root applications installed, did the Clockwork backup, everything was great.
I then decided to try a custom ROM - the Cyanogen 10.1. It downloaded fine, and I selected to also install Google Apps, then it rebooted and the Cyanogen boot screen with the spinning circle came up. However, this lasted way longer than I thought it should, so I looked it up, and what I got from the research is that I had the wrong gapps on there.
So, I followed the instructions in this thread (same problem as me), and wiped the system. However, I believe I used the wrong list item, and now everything I had is gone. I can't boot from recovery because it doesn't exist, and when booting into CM I just get the same error message that setup has stopped working. I thought maybe I could put a new ROM on the sd card or phone harddrive and boot from that, but both are inaccessible through USB on my Mac.
I can get it into ODIN mode (where it says "Downloading... Do not turn off target!"), which I'm thinking is what I want, and I have Heimdall installed and it runs and recognizes my device, but I cannot for the life of me find a tar.gz file to use.
If anyone can offer any sort of help, I would super appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your recovery shouldn't be affected by a wipe (unless you flashed something over it) as ROMs don't flash recovery, therefor vol up + home + power should get you in it. If you success to, You should be able to mount through recovery.
As for Heimdall, it just got S3 support (last week I believe), therefor it might not be easy to find a stock file for it. That being said, if you have access to any Windows pc, that'd be the easiest solution here (using Odin).

Yes, I can still get into the recovery menu, but when I use "backup and restore>restore" it says No files found. Is there anything I can do to just get a working OS running? Or am I just doing it totally wrong, I'm new to the rooting stuff. The Windows computer will be my last resort haha.

BWolf56 said:
Your recovery shouldn't be affected by a wipe (unless you flashed something over it) as ROMs don't flash recovery, therefor vol up + home + power should get you in it. If you success to, You should be able to mount through recovery.
As for Heimdall, it just got S3 support (last week I believe), therefor it might not be easy to find a stock file for it. That being said, if you have access to any Windows pc, that'd be the easiest solution here (using Odin).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I can still get into the recovery menu, but when I use "backup and restore>restore" it says No files found. Is there anything I can do to just get a working OS running? Or am I just doing it totally wrong, I'm new to the rooting stuff. The Windows computer will be my last resort haha.

chazbot7 said:
Yes, I can still get into the recovery menu, but when I use "backup and restore>restore" it says No files found. Is there anything I can do to just get a working OS running? Or am I just doing it totally wrong, I'm new to the rooting stuff. The Windows computer will be my last resort haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows pc is definitely the easiest option here but you try mounting your SD from recovery, redownload the ROM and Gapps you wanna use, put them on your device and flash them after a factory reset.
If you wiped your SD card, it's normal that you don't have a backup anymore.

BWolf56 said:
Windows pc is definitely the easiest option here but you try mounting your SD from recovery, redownload the ROM and Gapps you wanna use, put them on your device and flash them after a factory reset.
If you wiped your SD card, it's normal that you don't have a backup anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's aaaliiiiiiive! Grabbed an extra micro SD I had, threw Cyanogen 10.1.0 RC4 on it, and installed it just fine. Now updating to RC5. My only question now is how to get Google Apps on there. Does this need to be done beforehand, or can it be done after?

chazbot7 said:
It's aaaliiiiiiive! Grabbed an extra micro SD I had, threw Cyanogen 10.1.0 RC4 on it, and installed it just fine. Now updating to RC5. My only question now is how to get Google Apps on there. Does this need to be done beforehand, or can it be done after?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You usually flash the Gapps right after flashing the ROM, before rebooting.
P.S.: fully reading the instructions helps before flashing
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

BWolf56 said:
You usually flash the Gapps right after flashing the ROM, before rebooting.
P.S.: fully reading the instructions helps before flashing
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha, sorry about that. Thanks for all the help good sir. This is actually way faster than my stock ROM, I'm pretty stoked on it, Google Apps or not.

chazbot7 said:
Gotcha, sorry about that. Thanks for all the help good sir. This is actually way faster than my stock ROM, I'm pretty stoked on it, Google Apps or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to apologize. Glad you got it back up! And it was mostly to keep you from making similar mistakes in the future
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

also one thing you need to know
First boot after you flash will always take longer than normal. After that, it's fine

Strange Boot Loop With NO CWM Recovery

I've got a T-Mobile Note 3 that I picked it up on launch day last Thursday at a T-mobile store. I proceeded to root the phone with Odin, then restore via Titanium Backup and then fix the backup with "restorecon -R -v /data". Life has been great until last night. Initially I got a circle with a line through it instead of the mobile signal and my cellular link would not connect, but my wifi was fine. When the problem was sill occurring this morning I figured it was an odd cellular problem and rebooted the phone this morning when it persisted. Now the phone is rebooting a few minutes after it completes booting.
It will boot normally, then I'll unlock the phone and get my window manager (Holo)...then I'll get the error "Process system isn't responding. Do you want to close it?". Then I get the error "Unfortunately, Favorite Apps has stopped." Regardless whether I interact with those error messages the phone then reboots a minute later. I have *not* done a restore from CWM ever and the phone doesn't seem to have suffered any physical damage.
The things I've tried include:
*) power down, remove sdcard, then reboot
*) power down, remove sim card, then reboot
*) power down, remove sim card, remove sdcard, then reboot
*) clear cache, then reboot
*) clear dalvik-cache, then reboot
*) clear dalvik-cache and cache, then reboot
*) clear dalvik-cache, clean cache, then wipe to factory, then reboot
In all the above scenarios nothing has changed. The phone reboots after it completes booting.
In the past, I've rooted and flashed on a G1, a G2, and an S3. I've bricked my S3 that had to be repaired via JTAG. This reboot problem with my Note 3 is completely unlike any of the things I've seen with previous phones.
I've read through some of the other threads about reboot loops, but all the threads I've read were caused by a CWM restore and have no solution yet.
Does anyone know the cause of this and what could fix it?

digitalfiend said:
I've got a T-Mobile Note 3 that I picked it up on launch day last Thursday at a T-mobile store. I proceeded to root the phone with Odin, then restore via Titanium Backup and then fix the backup with "restorecon -R -v /data". Life has been great until last night. Initially I got a circle with a line through it instead of the mobile signal and my cellular link would not connect, but my wifi was fine. When the problem was sill occurring this morning I figured it was an odd cellular problem and rebooted the phone this morning when it persisted. Now the phone is rebooting a few minutes after it completes booting.
It will boot normally, then I'll unlock the phone and get my window manager (Holo)...then I'll get the error "Process system isn't responding. Do you want to close it?". Then I get the error "Unfortunately, Favorite Apps has stopped." Regardless whether I interact with those error messages the phone then reboots a minute later. I have *not* done a restore from CWM ever and the phone doesn't seem to have suffered any physical damage.
The things I've tried include:
*) power down, remove sdcard, then reboot
*) power down, remove sim card, then reboot
*) power down, remove sim card, remove sdcard, then reboot
*) clear cache, then reboot
*) clear dalvik-cache, then reboot
*) clear dalvik-cache and cache, then reboot
*) clear dalvik-cache, clean cache, then wipe to factory, then reboot
In all the above scenarios nothing has changed. The phone reboots after it completes booting.
In the past, I've rooted and flashed on a G1, a G2, and an S3. I've bricked my S3 that had to be repaired via JTAG. This reboot problem with my Note 3 is completely unlike any of the things I've seen with previous phones.
I've read through some of the other threads about reboot loops, but all the threads I've read were caused by a CWM restore and have no solution yet.
Does anyone know the cause of this and what could fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would just Odin to stock and restart. I'm guessing some app your restored form another phone did it.

YellowGTO said:
I would just Odin to stock and restart. I'm guessing some app your restored form another phone did it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe it was an app that was restored because the restore had run perfectly for 5 full days. I completed the restore last Thursday...that's what makes this so unusual.
Do you know where to get the stock zips to use with Odin?

digitalfiend said:
I don't believe it was an app that was restored because the restore had run perfectly for 5 full days. I completed the restore last Thursday...that's what makes this so unusual.
Do you know where to get the stock zips to use with Odin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's some stock Odin tar files in the Android development forum. Download and flash using Odin. Once it reboots, remove battery and manually boot into stock recovery and do a factory reset/wipe. Reboot and it should work.
Sent from my SGH-T889

jmerlos said:
There's some stock Odin tar files in the Android development forum. Download and flash using Odin. Once it reboots, remove battery and manually boot into stock recovery and do a factory reset/wipe. Reboot and it should work.
Sent from my SGH-T889
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks as if the stock tar in zip format (N900TUVUBMI7_N900TTMBBMI7_TMB.zip) can be downloaded from either of these links:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2465764 (faster download link)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2468275 (slow download link)
I just finished downloading from the first link and after extracting the zip file I have these files:
N900TUVUBMI7_N900TTMBBMI7_N900TUVUBMI7_HOME.tar.md5
SS_DL.dll
This seems like an obvious thing, but want to ask because of how odd this problem is: Do I simply flash the "N900TUVUBMI7_N900TTMBBMI7_N900TUVUBMI7_HOME.tar.md5" file the same way that I flashed the CWM through Odin?

Yes, but IIRC, just uncheck reboot, reboot manually into recovery, then wipe, factory reset, etc. Pull your battery, reboot. Check the TWRP thread, it has exact directions.
sgh-TWEAKED-889©

Warrior1975 said:
Yes, but IIRC, just uncheck reboot, reboot manually into recovery, then wipe, factory reset, etc. Pull your battery, reboot. Check the TWRP thread, it has exact directions.
sgh-TWEAKED-889©
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it, thank you! Here's what I'm referencing for the Odin options:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=46110842&postcount=2
I'll flash this and update the thread.

Good luck bro!!
sgh-TWEAKED-889©

Ok, I flashed with Odin then once it completed I got the "PASS!" status in Odin. I shut down Odin, pulled the battery from the Note 3, then allowed the phone to boot. There was a "booting recovery" message in blue at the top of the screen before the phone booted, then it booted to the "samsung logo", then the animated circular logo, then the white screen with the "T-Mobile 4G LTE" logo, then rebooted. The second boot, it did the same thing but stayed on the "T-Mobile 4G LTE" screen for many minutes...then it seemed as if it was completing it's reboot because I got the notification bar with the time and the circle with the line through it for the cell signal strength. I got the same error when the phone seemed to have completed booting, then a reboot. Now it's back to the same place it started in it's rebooting cycle.
This makes absolutely no sense at all. If I'd have done a CWM restore then I could understand that...but there's no reason for this that I can see. The phone acts as if it was knocked off of the T-Mobile network and now it finishes it's booting cycle long enough to be rebooted.
So now I have a useless Note 3. I'm game for taking the phone back to the T-Mobile store and requesting that they replace the phone, which they probably would, but I have no guarantee that this wouldn't happen again. I'm open to suggestions as long as they don't cause me to brick my phone completely.

I finished installing TWRP and darthrom successfully. However, after the darthrom finishes booting I have the exact same problem with the phone rebooting that the stock ROM had.
I'm back to square one.
I'm open to suggestions.

There are a lot of people having boot loop problems even without root though they are spread out among various sub forums. Try this thread for example:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2467005[Q] Reboot cycle after restart help
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317

Dumbo53 said:
There are a lot of people having boot loop problems even without root though they are spread out among various sub forums. Try this thread for example:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2467005[Q] Reboot cycle after restart help
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw a couple threads last night when I was searching around on the web about other models of phones with SIM socket and SIM card issues. I'm beginning to think that my issue is hardware-related, and not software. I did another wipe last night based on this thread's post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=46157872&postcount=6&nocache=1&z=7848000959493220
Instead of simply wiping, I formatted /data/, then wiped, then I flashed on the stock ROM, then flashed on the darth rom. I got slightly different results once the phone was done with it's firstboot - it kept giving me the error that a new SIM card had been installed and the phone needed to be rebooted. This causes me to suspect the physical hardware of my Note 3 or the SIM card. I have ruled out the SIM card because I've been using it in my old G2 since this started, via an adapter for the G2's SIM socket, and it's been fine. I'm planning on taking the phone to T-Mobile today and seeing what they can sort out with either a SIM exchange or phone exchange.

The note 3 misbehaved the same way while in the T-Mobile store. They swapped the phone out under warranty after asking only the basic questions and trying a factory reset. The same SIM card in the new note 3 works fine.

I'm on the same boat. Got my Note 3 this morning, rooted an hour ago with CMW, made backup and flashed Stock ROM from Jovy. Result: bootloop. Restore backup and still on bootloop. DLing the Odin stock .tar to see if it helps. Any more suggestions?
Edit: After flashing with Odin the stock tar from Sammy all it's good...at least for now.

Wally72 said:
I'm on the same boat. Got my Note 3 this morning, rooted an hour ago with CMW, made backup and flashed Stock ROM from Jovy. Result: bootloop. Restore backup and still on bootloop. DLing the Odin stock .tar to see if it helps. Any more suggestions?
Edit: After flashing with Odin the stock tar from Sammy all it's good...at least for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How far into the booting process would you get before the phone rebooted?

digitalfiend said:
How far into the booting process would you get before the phone rebooted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never passed Samsung! In my case, flashing the .tar with Odin from Samfirmware fixed my issue. I think imma wait for a more stable recovery.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk now Free

Wally72 said:
Never passed Samsung! In my case, flashing the .tar with Odin from Samfirmware fixed my issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting...it sounds like you had the boot loop that many others have had...it's cool to hear that you got it fixed. I think my problem was hardware-based since the phone completed it's boot process and *then* had issues. Luckily T-Mobile was there for me and helped out.
Wally72 said:
I think imma wait for a more stable recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what you mean as far as waiting for a stable recovery. If it's any help, I've decided to stay far away from the recovery restore and simply use Titanium backup to do restores. It's more work than a nandroid recovery, but it reliably does it's job well for me.

digitalfiend said:
Interesting...it sounds like you had the boot loop that many others have had...it's cool to hear that you got it fixed. I think my problem was hardware-based since the phone completed it's boot process and *then* had issues. Luckily T-Mobile was there for me and helped out.
I know what you mean as far as waiting for a stable recovery. If it's any help, I've decided to stay far away from the recovery restore and simply use Titanium backup to do restores. It's more work than a nandroid recovery, but it reliably does it's job well for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well...I'm doing a lot of reading. I can't stand this "stock look" and me, every time I root a phone, I always do my own modifications within the ROM I choose to flash. SystemUI and apk's. I only change the .png's, therefore, getting the visual look I want/like. Always done it with certain ROMs/Themes. I downloaded Jovy's stock ROM and made the visual changes I wanted. I flashed and got into that bootloop scenario. Restore backup with CWM provided by Zedomax and made it worse. I think the problem is recovery (at least from what I've read). In this case, CWM been less unstable than TWRP. I f you read a bit around, must ppl if not all, had the "dead bootloop" issue with TWRP. I haven't read from anybody yet having the "dead bootloop" with CWM. Ppl with CWM that flashed their backup and got that bootloop, fixed it flashing back to stock, where ppl that had TWRP have tried to flash back to stock and their phones never boot completely
Again...imma wait a little more for good reports as far as recovery goes!

Bigbiff has a file he uploaded, it may be a fix for the bootlooping issue. You'd be the first to try at this point. It's linked below, but the entire thread is in the OG development of tmobile.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=46379854
sgh-TWEAKED-889©

I've never seen so many issues with a brand new flagship phone before. Makes me think it wasn't tested fully before release. I mean all these problems!
Even though I returned my N3 after I tried restoring and getting bootloop of death, I feel this model is really flawed. Hearing new things everyday.

[Q] Recovery bootloop after Odin/Kies/Heimdall STOCK flash, only boots to DL mode

Hi folks, long time reader, first time noob answer seeker.
I'm no stranger to rooting, flashing, hacking about and such - I even spend most of my day as a software engineer, and I've finally given up on this one - so here I am (rock me like a hurricane), please be kind.
SM-900T - It was rocking pretty darn well on Jedi Elite which I had flashed over rooted stock 4.3 MI7 - then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly. Thinking it was no biggie, I thought I could just reflash to stock and call it a day. Thirteen or so flashes later, I gave up on 4.3 and figured I'd just take the thing up to 4.4.2 NB4 by upgrading everything to 4.4.2 via Kies.
That's when I first ran into the bootloop issue, read a lot about it, and managed to get it up(ish) on stock, rooted, with Philz 6.X... Couldn't flash a ROM to save myself and wound up with another soft brick.
Flash forward to Friday - decided to start from scratch again - attempted to flash stock 4.4.2 from Kies, from Odin, From Heimdall... Nothing seems to be able to get me out of the current state it's in:
Only boots to download mode. Flashes seem to work fine, but on that first reboot where it tries to go to stock recovery to finish up on the device itself, it never gets there - boot loops trying to load recovery no matter how it wants to get there. If I pull the battery and start up (either straight to system or by cancelling out of download mode), it boot loops trying to load system. Boots fine to download mode, where I attempt to flash again with the same results.
Yes, I've tried Odin 3.0.9, 3.0.7, 1.8.5, Heimdall on Mac, Heimdall on Windows, Kies on Mac, Kies on Windows - repartition via PIT and not. Installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled all software and drivers multiple times, tried multiple cables on multiple USB ports.... Most of the time it looks like it's going to be fine (sometimes the flash fails, usually through Kies), but never surivives that first reboot after the flash.
Every answer I've seen says to do the things I've already done or cannot do (flash stock via Odin, pull the battery and boot to stock recovery and do a factory reset - which I'd LOVE to do, but can't). No problem recognizing the sucker on the PC/Mac
Next step: try flashing a N9005 ROM...
Any other thoughts? I do have another N900T that's working but has a blacklisted IMEI, and I've been tempted to swap the IMEIs a last resort (although either I'm too dumb to make it stick, EFS pro says it succeeds in writing the IMEI after I do a EFS format, but it doesn't stick.... Either I'm missing something, or I need a UART cable) - is there a way of swapping just the radio hardware or just the internal storage? OR, is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?
Failing any of these options, perhaps I'll wait for an Odin-flashable 4.4.3 if such a thing exists - or, hope to get lucky and swap it out at a store praying they don't see I've tripped Knox.

Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Coming from you...
noobtoob said:
Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.

bondidave said:
Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I do have a few ideas... Got done questions though.
1. Do you have an external SD card?
2. It goes all the way through flash on 4.4 even with heimdall?
3. Is there anything you have left out? Even the smallest detail can help, and by the op you are detail oriented, so I just need to know.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

... is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but I don't have the details handy.
All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring.
If that doesn't work then let 'noobtoob' walk you through booting with the removable sdcard. Your second N900T will be needed to write the data to the sdcard. If this works then you can 'dd' write stock partitions to an sd card with #2 then 'dd' write them in #1.
If either of those works then unroot and take it in for warrenty exchange.
Frank

bondidave said:
... then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This also indicates data corruption, and this is what started it all. Since you have tried various cables and computers that leaves the device, probably the USB port.
Frank

probably the USB port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.
Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.
Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.
Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)
Thanks again guys

bondidave said:
Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.
Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158
I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.
Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.
Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.
Frank

Frank Westlake said:
OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.
This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158
I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.
Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.
Frank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was for hard brick method and no one has verified it works on 4.4 KK yet. There is an image in there though. My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response. Located here you will find the kkunbrick.img. There is still a problem flashing anything through heimdall after updating to the 4.4 bootloader, so there is no way to tell if the phone actually took the recovery. I have had to switch to Odin for everything afterwards, and in personal experience 3.07 works best with my phone.
@bondidave I was thinking skipping the sd-card trick for now, and trying just a few other things first. Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.
Also if you have an external find the efs fix zip and have handy on an sd-card, do the same steps above except the nandroid restore. Basically if we can get into a recovery we should be ok. I had a similar issue when it was just booting over and over into download mode and this was how I fixed it. I have never used the efs fix zip, but many others swear by it. I was able to recover fortunately enough.
Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.
As far as making a complete system backup of your current phone, I highly recommend against it, unless you just want to extract information from it and not re-write it. This could definitely cause some system corruption on a new device.
If none of these methods work, then try and have them swap it under warranty.

Frank Westlake said:
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yessirreeebobbyjimmy, tried several copies from several different places - that and Kies is a moron and redownloads it every time anyways.

noobtoob said:
My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I download these things just to have them handy if something fails.
Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think he got that far into installing 4.4, but I recommend not using anything that was saved after this problem began. If the problem was caused by corruption then the restore will reinstall the corruption.
Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the problem is bad USB or other bad hardware causing corruption during transfer then the SD-card boot will get past that, then transferring the rest of the partitions by SD-card will continue to be corruption-free. He could then trade-in the phone.
But you are right -- he should try everything else before the SD-card boot. Because if something else succeeds then maybe the hardware is fine, and if he went immediately to SD-card boot he wouldn't know that.
Frank

Thanks for the advice guys - I'm going to try the backup from my other phone, then the efs fix, then the sd-card boot... I'll report back, wish me luck.

A nandroid previous failure, or a ROM install from external SD card was all I meant.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.

Lorettaa said:
I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad something good came out of my frustration!
Here's a quick update: I've done everything but the boot from SD card with no luck (and actually thought I had hard(er?) bricked it for a while after trying to copy over a few images from the other phone - turns out it needed to stay with the battery out for at least 20 minutes).
Good news - walked into a TMO brick-and-mortar last night, showed the guy my endless bootloop, and a replacement is on its way to my house for an affordable $20 warranty service fee.
At this point, I'm thinking the internal flash memory is just bad - as a software engineer, I'm ok with chalking this one up to a hardware issue (as much as I was hoping that my first post on XDA would result in some new profound solution to a longstanding issue common to a few folks).
Oh well - new Note 3 on it's way, and a new S5 shortly behind it (didn't hold out much hope on TMO hooking me up, so I ordered an S5)... let the battle of the Samsungs begin!
Thanks again to you guys who helped out - and the whole XDA community in general, I am very grateful.

Finally you made it fix and enjoy the battle between your phones

Well, sucks it couldn't be fixed, but glad you got a replacement on the way. It pretty much sounded like the partitions were well over written before we attempted anything, but always worth a shot.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Yes, but I don't have the details handy.
All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring. :good:

[Q] Phone restoration question

So recently I had a Galaxy S3 whose charger port failed and I could no longer use the phone. So I had a replacement sent to me via my phone insurance company.
I stuck with TouchWiz for a few days since the phone was new, and everything worked just fine, camera, snapchat, chrome, you name it. I attempted to use the CMInstaller to remove Touchwiz and go to CM. However, during the installation process, everything appeared to be going smoothly, then the android with its chest open with the red triangle popped up briefly and the phone asked me to choose to root the phone. I hit yes, and the phone rebooted, at first with the CM logo, then it proceeded to boot into TouchWiz, with no sign of Cyanogen.
I did some research and found that this is because the replacement phone has Knox on it, preventing tampering. While I'm fine with TouchWiz for now until I can get a new phone in November, my phone has been acting a bit strange.
I can't download pictures from anywhere, whether its Chrome or Facebook or Twitter (where profile pictures won't even load). In Snapchat, I can only view pictures sent to me, but I can't view videos, I can't send pics or videos, and I can't load stories. Instagram closes when a video post pops up in my feed, but photos are fine. The Spider-Man game that I downloaded from the Play Store won't download the additional file that's needed to even start the game. My camera tells me to insert an SD card before using the camera, even though there is an SD card in the phone that I store music on for Poweramp (which works fine).
Other than these instances, the phone works fine. I'd just like to be able to use the apps I want. I did a factory reset from the settings menu to wipe stuff off the phone and see if that would get these apps to function correctly with no success.
Device info:
Model: SGH-I747
Android 4.4.2
Baseband: I747UCUFNE4
Kernel: 3.4.0-1514807
Build: KOT49H.I747UCUFNE4
I checked with Kies to see what it would do with the Firmware upgrade and initialization, since that was what the guide on here said to do. It's saying it will initialize my phone to 4.1.1 Baseband I747UCDDLK3, but downgrading will brick my phone, if I'm not mistaken.
So I don't know what to do now.
So my question is this: Can/Should I use Kies to attempt to restore my phone or did I permanently bork the hardware?

Try flashing the stock NE4 rom from enewman17s thread in development section. If im not mistaken it will have tge fix for external sd and the insecure kernel should solve the internal sd issues.
This is due to seLinux primarily, not knox. So its something we will have to deal with on every device running stock from now on. The alternative I believe is to format the card and factory reset. If you start everything fresh it should work ok when full stock.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

The problem I'm having with that idea is that I'm not sure I have root access, so I don't think I can flash a rom. If I can boot into recovery, I'll give it a try, but I'm not positive if it'll work.
Thanks for the tip!

You dont need to be rooted. Just need custom recovery.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

DocHoliday77 said:
Try flashing the stock NE4 rom from enewman17s thread in development section. If im not mistaken it will have tge fix for external sd and the insecure kernel should solve the internal sd issues.
This is due to seLinux primarily, not knox. So its something we will have to deal with on every device running stock from now on. The alternative I believe is to format the card and factory reset. If you start everything fresh it should work ok when full stock.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi again,
I tried formatting and factory resetting. So I'm going to try the NE4 ROM, but I can't seem to find it. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction? Thanks for all your help!

This thread may help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2789917

Okay, so I flashed that ROM from enewman's thread and it said it flashed successfully.
After it flashed, I went to do all three wipe options, and it rebooted in the middle of doing so. My phone rebooted normally into TouchWiz, and nothing was wiped and all my apps were still present.
I'm still having the same persistent problems as before. I think attempting another wipe may help, but I figured I'd check in with progress and see if anyone has any suggestions.
Thanks again.

Boot back into recovery and instead of factory resetting, choose Format /data.
This will wipe your internal sd card, just so you know. If that doesn't help, go back to the thread audit13 linked, reflash the rom, then the stock recovery. Reboot recovery and factory reset again. Then reboot and test. Pretty sure choosing format /data will be enough though.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Q] Bricked my phone... Need Help.

Like I'm sure this topic hasn't come up before, but I've searched for hours and I'm probably just making things worse. I also just accidentally deleted this post halfway through. It's too late and I'm too tired and I have no working phone.
Bought an SGH-I747 on E-Bay. Got a Straight Talk SIM card kit, activated it, so far so good.
Rooted it with CF-Auto-Root. Worked pretty well, took a lot of reboots, upgraded the SU from the Play Store and it got rid of Knox. So far so good. Got everything all set up the way I like it. Happy.
It was running 4.4.2. I'm assuming it was the release prior to the November 12th OTA release, but I can't say for sure.
Phone downloaded and installed an upgrade automatically. Now, it won't boot. I get the SAMSUNG logo, then the Samsung Galaxy S III logo then nothing.
I retried the CF-Auto-Root, no change.
I booted into recovery (volume up, home and power on), did factory reset, no change.
Started looking around for a way to return it to stock. Found an upgrade43.zip file somewhere (I'm sorry I can't find where I got that now). Put it on the sdcard card and tried installing it with the recovery and it fails part way through.
At this point, I think I probably need to completely overwrite everything with something stock. I just don't know how to do that. I see posts on such subjects but they all have warnings that make me think I'm going to totally brick the phone, so I'm hoping someone can point me the right way. I'm not all that Android savvy, as you can tell.
Help.

Since your phone was running 4.4.2, do not attempt to flash any ROMs using that attempt to downgrade your bootloader to anything prior to 4.4.2.
Try this to get your phone up and running:
download the latest CM11 for the d2lte and save it to an external SD card: https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=d2lte
dowload the latest tar.md5 version of Philz Touch for the d2lte from here: https://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/d2lte/
boot phone in download mode, open Odin 3.07, do not check anything except f.reset.time, flash Philz via PDA box, remove USB cable when you see the word Reset appear in the status window, remove battery, replace battery, boot into recovery, format system, Dalvik, data, and cache, flash cm11, and reboot.

Thank you for your reply. There are a few things in there I don't quite understand, but I think I can figure it out.
I was going to attempt this...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2658486
In fact, I did attempt it with TWRP last night after I posted here and new I still wasn't going to sleep. I kept getting an error about a bad ZIP file.
Is that stock restore a bad idea?

Do not attempt to flash an older bootloader. The mjb bootloader is from 4.3 and attempting to flash it could hard brick your phone.
I suggest doing what I suggested so you can confirm the bootloader and modem installed on your phone.

OK. Thanks. Probably a good thing I couldn't get it to work then.

Thank you so much. I have a working phone again. Now I just have to get it all set back up the way I like it.
I have to say, and it's probably words straight from the devils mouth, that I kind of wish I could have restored the Samsung stock software. It's just what I'm used to. But I will take what I can get.
A few questions. I like having root. But root is what got me in trouble in the first place. Is this going to be rooted now, or will I have to do that or am I better off just leaving it alone.
Second, I'm probably going to have questions since this is so different than what I'm used to (like I already can't find the Play store). Where is the best place to ask?

If you want root, one of the easiest ways to get it is to flash supersu from your custom recovery. Most ROMs are pre-rooted.
Many custom ROMs do not include Gapps. Just download and install the Gapps version for your ROM.
If you like the TW look, flash a TW-based ROM. Check out the development threads for different ROMs.

here is a thread for Q's that has some pretty good/friendly helpers on it if you need.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2257421
"all i can really do , is stay out of my own way and let the will of heaven be done"

How to save in to external SD card
How do you save the file into the external SD card? I am having the same brick issue with my GS3.

To save a file to an external SD card, just put the card into a card reader and save the ROM to the SD card.