Develop Bugs

[Q] Completly erasing data on a Galaxy Nexus

Hello,
So I believe my Galaxy Nexus might be defect. I was using it without problems until last week. The problem is that it seems to not be able to get a good signal from the mobile network. I tried switching 3g/2g on/off, flashing new/old radios, flashing new/old/stock roms and kernel and nothing worked. I used another cellphone and put my sim card in and the signal was perfect. I switched sims in my cellphone and the same signal problem happened. So the only logical explanation I have is hardware failure and decide I will send in my phone for inspection. (I only included this info just in case someone had the same problem and can help me)
Now my problem is, I had "sensitive" information on my cellphone and I dont want anyone getting access to it. I am guessing that the people that work in Samsung are professionals, but I still dont want to take the risk. I have flashed a stock ROM and locked my bootloader (so I am guessing that they wont be able to know that I flashed custom ROMS), because of the flashing all of my data was wiped, but I dont really think this is enough to make the previous data be 100% erased.
So what app or software do you recommend for making sure that the information saved before is no longer accessible for anyone. I am running windows 7 64 bit
Thanks
edit: I am asking for something more than just format and factory reset option

If it's rooted flash the super wipe zip.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

just lock and unlock your bootloader that's the safest way
edit : I see your bootloader its locked just unlock it, read carefully the message that the phone shows when you unlock the bootloader and select t
yes
then relock the bootloader and you are ready to go
Sent from my GT-P7500 using xda premium

use this command in fastboot
fastboot erase userdata
this will clear all items in /data/ including the /data/media

just lock and unlock your bootloader that's the safest way
edit : I see your bootloader its locked just unlock it, read carefully the message that the phone shows when you unlock the bootloader and select t
yes
then relock the bootloader and you are ready to go
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only way I know how to lock/unlock my bootloader is with this Galaxy Nexus S toolkit. Does your method work with this toolkit??
use this command in fastboot
fastboot erase userdata
this will clear all items in /data/ including the /data/media
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you mean erase do you mean that the entries in the table are gonna be cleared? or the data itself going to be replaced by 0.
Just one thing I wanted to point out, erasing data doesnt mean that the data isnt still in memory, it just means that the table entries are wiped. I want something that will wirte in ALL the free space gargabe.

axjacosta said:
The only way I know how to lock/unlock my bootloader is with this Galaxy Nexus S toolkit. Does your method work with this toolkit??
When you mean erase do you mean that the entries in the table are gonna be cleared? or the data itself going to be replaced by 0.
Just one thing I wanted to point out, erasing data doesnt mean that the data isnt still in memory, it just means that the table entries are wiped. I want something that will wirte in ALL the free space gargabe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the /data/ folder will be completely empty.
if you want everything to be re-written with 0s, i dont know of any method that does that.
the best is basically erasing the partition as i said. unlocking and relocking the bootloader does the same thing.

axjacosta said:
When you mean erase do you mean that the entries in the table are gonna be cleared? or the data itself going to be replaced by 0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess the way to tell if "fastboot erase userdata" is actually zeroing out the nand, is to try it and see if it takes more than a second or two. If so, then it is zeroing it.

After you factory reset your data is mostly recoverable until you write over it. Format sd card, and data and cache. Then open camcorder and start filming, place in table or in dark quiet room and record until sd is full. Then reformat. Your sensitive data will remain sensitive
Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus CDMA using xda premium

What a waste of time.
Encrypt your device and then do a factory reset. Easiest way.

Custom ROM infinite first boot

Firstly: I'm a total n00b for this. I have flashed custom ROMs before, but not for Nexus, so this is my first attempt, so far failing spectacularly.
That said, I'd appreciate advice on both what I did wrong and how to un-brick my phone.
I searched and my problem seems strictly linked to bad flashing, but all solutions are phone specific and I haven't found a thread for Galaxy nexus, so here goes:
I chose this firmware for my flash. I also used the toolkit from stickied post above.
I unlocked the bootloader and then ran (not installed) the CWM tools. Using them I flashed the image directly. The phone was not rooted though I later ran the rooting procedure and it finished without reporting any particular errors. Android naturally never booted during this procedure.
Anyway, my phone now stays in boot animation indefinitely. Recovery mode with fastboot works, but no android joy.
Help greatly appreciated.

More info is needed you didn't mention toro, toro plus, maguro. Ask you need to do is bout into bootloader and fastboot your images back to stick look in your models thread on how to do that so you can get the correct ones.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Sorry for panicking too soon. Phone unbricked. Would still appreciate info on what I did wrong to brick it in the first place.

Beamer9408 said:
More info is needed you didn't mention toro, toro plus, maguro. Ask you need to do is bout into bootloader and fastboot your images back to stick look in your models thread on how to do that so you can get the correct ones.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm, I've been reading on toolkit and roms for a couple of days now and I still can't really say what toro or maguro is. In what way would they be important for my troubles?

velis74 said:
Hm, I've been reading on toolkit and roms for a couple of days now and I still can't really say what toro or maguro is. In what way would they be important for my troubles?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's very important to know what type of google nexus you have. Majority of custom ROMs are only compatible to certain type of GNex. Maguro is for GSM GNex while TORO is for CDM/LTE GNex. Check the link below for more info:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/android-building/qzSxFEqWvNg/qanfxMkzXHMJ
One more thing, aside from Maguro and Toro, you still need to know what build or version of GNex you have (yakju or takju). This can also be considered when flashing new custom ROMs. I know majority (or all) of the ROMs works well with either yakju or takju, there is still a slight possibility that you will encounter an issue with the version. Check out the links below for more info regarding yakju and takju:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1778543
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1617685

Oh, in that case, I have a GSM version, Maguro it would seem.
The ROM I downloaded doesn't specifically say, but the same developer posted another ROM for which he confirmed GSM compatibility.
So can I myself find out what ROM this is since I can't ask the question in the development thread (I don't have 10 posts yet)?

did you clear all the caches via custom recovery? Although I haven't hit issues with my nexus while flashing, past devices, a factory reset sorts the bootloop most often (unless it was a bad flash). Just note that factory resetting the nexus gets rid of ALL of your data since there isn't an external SD to house your files and keep them protected from a wipe.
I would recommend you making a nandroid backup now that you're up and running again btw
Just my 2 cents

Kohawk09 said:
did you clear all the caches via custom recovery? Although I haven't hit issues with my nexus while flashing, past devices, a factory reset sorts the bootloop most often (unless it was a bad flash). Just note that factory resetting the nexus gets rid of ALL of your data since there isn't an external SD to house your files and keep them protected from a wipe.
I would recommend you making a nandroid backup now that you're up and running again btw
Just my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I cleared everything I found in main menu and advanced menu of CWM.
Do I *NEED TO* root my phone in order to install a custom ROM? I would think not, but one can't be sure. That's why I only unlocked bootloader before flashing.
Edit: Yes, I found about the factory reset the hard way. Executed full wipe, then tried to flash...

velis74 said:
Yes, I cleared everything I found in main menu and advanced menu of CWM.
Do I *NEED TO* root my phone in order to install a custom ROM? I would think not, but one can't be sure. That's why I only unlocked bootloader before flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think you should have rooted... my logic is that you're flashing a zip, so you're making changes to /system, which requires root. I'm not technical enough to say whether or not installing a zip can work around not having root access, but I would think not. If you were flashing system images, I would think you could get by without rooting, but not for just a zip file.
Have you taken a look at the toolkit? Soon as I got my nexus I did the one click to unlock, root, install CWM. Took less than 10 min. I already knew fastboot commands, so no reason for me to do it manually if I can get it done automatically.

Kohawk09 said:
I would think you should have rooted... my logic is that you're flashing a zip, so you're making changes to /system, which requires root. I'm not technical enough to say whether or not installing a zip can work around not having root access, but I would think not. If you were flashing system images, I would think you could get by without rooting, but not for just a zip file.
Have you taken a look at the toolkit? Soon as I got my nexus I did the one click to unlock, root, install CWM. Took less than 10 min. I already knew fastboot commands, so no reason for me to do it manually if I can get it done automatically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no to toolkits... just no...
you do not need root to flash custom roms, only an unlocked bootloader and CWM or TWRP for your recovery.

Zepius said:
no to toolkits... just no...
you do not need root to flash custom roms, only an unlocked bootloader and CWM or TWRP for your recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why all the hate for the toolkit? Probably the only confusing thing to me since moving to the nexus is why so many seem to be against its use... I think its a great and helpful tool.

Kohawk09 said:
Why all the hate for the toolkit? Probably the only confusing thing to me since moving to the nexus is why so many seem to be against its use... I think its a great and helpful tool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go look at Q&A
everyday there are at least 5-10 threads saying "HELP I BRICKED MY NEXUS... i used this toolkit but i have no idea what happened to my phone"
if someone is too lazy to type in these 2 commands and then flash su.zip to their phone, they dont need to be dinking with custom ROMs
Code:
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot flash recovery nameofclockworkortwrp.img
nexus phones are some of the easiest phones to unlock and root. there is no real need for a toolkit.

I'm currently making another attempt, but this time I'm rooting the phone and trying an image that is confirmed GSM.

Zepius said:
go look at Q&A
everyday there are at least 5-10 threads saying "HELP I BRICKED MY NEXUS... i used this toolkit but i have no idea what happened to my phone"
if someone is too lazy to type in these 2 commands and then flash su.zip to their phone, they dont need to be dinking with custom ROMs
Code:
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot flash recovery nameofclockworkortwrp.img
nexus phones are some of the easiest phones to unlock and root. there is no real need for a toolkit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
makes sense.... agree its probably more of a hinder than a help for those without basic fastboot knowledge. Especially since that knowledge is needed for getting out of a bind many times. Was just curious why I see some much negativity towards it...I still think its a useful tool to save time, at least from my perspective, if you already have that background. The files are all downloaded together and it was more of a convenience thing for me at least. The driver piece is probably the most helpful, since they can be a real PITA if there are leftovers from previous devices...

Just thought I pop my head in and say you were bootlooped. Not bricked. Not even soft bricked as that would constitute you had no recovery, which you did have. Just getting you clear on the lingo we use here.
Sent From My Toro+ via SkyBlue Tapatalk

Seems I chose a bad ROM after all. Flashing to CdTDroid's other ROM worked immediately.
Well, almost: after flash it would continuously report "system UI stopped working" or some such. I had to perform another factory reset before it actually worked as it should.
Now to go test if my issues with this phone are finally over or not.

velis74 said:
Seems I chose a bad ROM after all. Flashing to CdTDroid's other ROM worked immediately.
Well, almost: after flash it would continuously report "system UI stopped working" or some such. I had to perform another factory reset before it actually worked as it should.
Now to go test if my issues with this phone are finally over or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
before you install a rom, always wipe data/cache.

That's the problem: I thought I did. Anyway, it's working now. Will have another go at CM later. Since I'm on custom ROM I might as well go all the way
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

velis74 said:
I'm currently making another attempt, but this time I'm rooting the phone and trying an image that is confirmed GSM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to root, as flashing the ROM will wipe the root. Most ROMs come with root access already, so people don't notice when they flash.

Yeah, figured as much + stopped doing all the unnecessary crap. Turns out flashing takes few steps but I dare not be as careless to say it's easy.
I have now successfully flashed the CM10 ROM by CdTDroiD straight from stock 4.0.4.
Turns out I misinterpreted "wipe data/factory reset" in CWM. It doesn't clear the filesystem (/sdcard) as I thought. Seems I managed to delete my files some other way during the first flashing attempt. Not clearing data was the cause of bootloop as Über reminds me it's called.
I did all that plus kept the original ICS animation which I like better than JB one. I'm really happy thus far having used it for a couple of hours.

Data recovery through a flash dump

I was in the process of rooting my phone (and tried unlocking it) and I am not sure what happened but after the phone came back, I got the root but my data got wiped out. Apparently, I found out that some phones do this for security reasons. I must have been careless and done something wrong. Now, because Galaxy Nexus uses MTP, it is technically not possible to mount it as a disk drive and use conventional PC-based recovery software.
Theoretically speaking, shouldn't it be possible to take a flash dump of the internal disk and use an offline utility such as extundelete to recover my lost data? I saw this idea posted in this thread but no one followed up on it.
Any suggestions on how I can hack around?

EliteLegend said:
I was in the process of rooting my phone (and tried unlocking it) and I am not sure what happened but after the phone came back, I got the root but my data got wiped out. Apparently, I found out that some phones do this for security reasons. I must have been careless and done something wrong. Now, because Galaxy Nexus uses MTP, it is technically not possible to mount it as a disk drive and use conventional PC-based recovery software.
Theoretically speaking, shouldn't it be possible to take a flash dump of the internal disk and use an offline utility such as extundelete to recover my lost data? I saw this idea posted in this thread but no one followed up on it.
Any suggestions on how I can hack around?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically maybe.... if the partition is not zero'ed. But you would need to find some way to dump the userdata partition. You can't dump it to somewhere on the device, so you would need to somehow dump that partition to an external drive. Maybe you could look at trying this out. (I haven't had the chance to try it out myself yet.)

Did this work?
So, did this work?
I ran into the same problem with my nexus.
I have no skills with ADB at all, so before I jump into trying to learn anything to be able to take a flash dump, I was hoping that someone could report back as to whether or not this worked.
Thank you!
JR

whozamazinka said:
So, did this work?
I ran into the same problem with my nexus.
I have no skills with ADB at all, so before I jump into trying to learn anything to be able to take a flash dump, I was hoping that someone could report back as to whether or not this worked.
Thank you!
JR
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30706842
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Photo Recovery
During a recent trip outside the country, I purchased a prepaid sim card for my unlocked, bought directly from Google, Galaxy Nexus. During this time, the OTA update for JB was released and I updated my phone with the new firmware. After completing the update, I was unable to make phone calls or receive any signal whatsoever. I contacted my domestic carrier T-Mobile who instructed me to do a factory reset. Unfortunately, I did not make a back up of the video footage of my family (Holocaust survivors). Currently the phone does not have a baseband or IMEI number and I have been unable to recover my photos. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Here is what I have done so far:
Photo Recovery
1. Attempted to restore a previous backup – No backup was made previously!!!!!!UGH!
2. Unlocked Bootloader with ADB. ADB Pull / Media – Nothing….
3. ADB pull / partition – Only received system files, no media files.
4. Tried to Use data recovery software PhotoRec. – would not recognize internal drive on Galaxy Nexus (USB Debugging on/off, Samsung drivers loaded correctly, Camera mode: nada)
5. Tried to use multiple different online photo recovery software. None could detect the phone’s drive when scanning.
IMEI/Baseband missing Issue
1. Re-flashed original firmware using WugFresh’s Nexus Root Toolkit. No dice.
2. Attempted to flash alternative ROM.
3. Re-flashed radio via NRToolkit and ADB
4. Attempted to use apps: HC-ktool, GetRill Premium- nada
The goal is to firstly restore the wiped data and retrieve the photos. Then to fix the missing baseband issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

buzzbox said:
During a recent trip outside the country, I purchased a prepaid sim card for my unlocked, bought directly from Google, Galaxy Nexus. During this time, the OTA update for JB was released and I updated my phone with the new firmware. After completing the update, I was unable to make phone calls or receive any signal whatsoever. I contacted my domestic carrier T-Mobile who instructed me to do a factory reset. Unfortunately, I did not make a back up of the video footage of my family (Holocaust survivors). Currently the phone does not have a baseband or IMEI number and I have been unable to recover my photos. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Here is what I have done so far:
Photo Recovery
1.Attempted to restore a previous backup – No backup was made previously!!!!!!UGH!
2.Unlocked Bootloader with ADB. ADB Pull / Media – Nothing….
3.ADB pull / partition – Only received system files, no media files.
4.Tried to Use data recovery software PhotoRec. – would not recognize internal drive on Galaxy Nexus (USB Debugging on/off, Samsung drivers loaded correctly, Camera mode: nada)
5.Tried to use multiple different online photo recovery software. None could detect the phone’s drive when scanning.
IMEI/Baseband missing Issue
1.Re-flashed original firmware using WugFresh’s Nexus Root Toolkit. No dice.
2.Attempted to flash alternative ROM.
3.Re-flashed radio via NRToolkit and ADB
4.Attempted to use apps: HC-ktool, GetRill Premium- nada
The goal is to firstly restore the wiped data and retrieve the photos. Then to fix the missing baseband issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In your case I'm thinking you're s.o.l. First, when unlock the bootloader the phone gets wiped. So when you tried to pull....there was nothing to pull. Data recovery won't work because can't mount gnex as mass storage. Then you tried...three different flashes..? I'm gonna have to say it's gone. Just go back to stock.
*Shaolin Shadowboxing*

JediNinjafication said:
In your case I'm thinking you're s.o.l. First, when unlock the bootloader the phone gets wiped. So when you tried to pull....there was nothing to pull. Data recovery won't work because can't mount gnex as mass storage. Then you tried...three different flashes..? I'm gonna have to say it's gone. Just go back to stock.
*Shaolin Shadowboxing*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having the same issue as Buzzbox - i.e. missing baseband and IMEI. In my case JB 4.1.1 was working just fine, when the phone simply restarted, and the baseband and IMEI vanished.
Phone came with ICS, after which i had recieved OTA jellybean - but this was a month ago. Didnt install any custom ROMs.
To try and fix this, i flashed factory image of ICS - but still nothing on IMEI and baseband. Help please...

You can recover data from android phones with data recovery software, see this solution: android data recovery
helped me before. Easy to follow and worked well for me.

jameskasmonr said:
You can recover data from android phones with data recovery software, see this solution: android data recovery
helped me before. Easy to follow and worked well for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I had tried to do this but didn't work in my Note 10+.
I made the mistake of delete my phothos from OneDrive that was sincronized with the Samsung Gallery. Now I would like to recover the photos but until now I did not have sucess. Do you have sugestions how to recover my gallery?
My phone it's not rooted and I'm not an expert!
Thank you.

[Q] How to Root/use Recovery on a fully encrypted International Note 2 LTE?

Hi all,
I recently got a HK N7105 and because it lacked the possibility to use a french keyboard I upgraded to a stock unbranded ROM from Sweden (XXDLL1) and succesfully rooted with the relevant CF_autoroot through Odin. Also installed TWRP 2.3.3.1.
Then, I connected the Note 2 to my corporate exchange server which enforced a full encryption policy (device and external SD card) so I had to type in a password at each boot time (with a "nice" swedish prompt that took ma while to decypher), plus a password to unlock the screen. All was well as the root survived the process.
Next I upgraded to a later stock ROM from France (XXDLL4 from SFR) to try and get rid of the swedish prompt. That worked fine (and root was loast in the process, as expected) but I hated the branded stuff so much I reverted to XXDLL1 until a proper unbranded "english" or "french" ROM is available.
At this point I decided to root again. I was running XXDLL1 like the first time and used the same autoroot tar from Chainfire. Except my Note 2 was still encrypted and after that it would not accept my boot password (a four digit PIN) anymore so I was guted and had to factory reset and root then reinstall everything before reconnecting to the exchange server.
Question 1: Does anyone know of a safe, proven way to root a fully encrypted Samsung device so I can go another upgrade without having to wipe the device first?
Why reinstall everything? Why not backup everything first so you can restore after the wipe? Well, it so happens that no recovery (at least neither CWM or TWRP) can read any encrypted media on the Note 2 at the moment. And no Recovery can actually fully backup the device as well.
Question 2: Does anyone know of a proper way to handle this situation with minimum hassle?
So far, the best I can think of is doing a Titanium backup and FTP the files to my NAS so I can retrieve them later. But (Question 3) will this be enough to restore my phone to the expected state after a stock firmware upgrade?
Thanks in advance,
François

frankieGom said:
Hi all,
I recently got a HK N7105 and because it lacked the possibility to use a french keyboard I upgraded to a stock unbranded ROM from Sweden (XXDLL1) and succesfully rooted with the relevant CF_autoroot through Odin. Also installed TWRP 2.3.3.1.
Then, I connected the Note 2 to my corporate exchange server which enforced a full encryption policy (device and external SD card) so I had to type in a password at each boot time (with a "nice" swedish prompt that took ma while to decypher), plus a password to unlock the screen. All was well as the root survived the process.
Next I upgraded to a later stock ROM from France (XXDLL4 from SFR) to try and get rid of the swedish prompt. That worked fine (and root was loast in the process, as expected) but I hated the branded stuff so much I reverted to XXDLL1 until a proper unbranded "english" or "french" ROM is available.
At this point I decided to root again. I was running XXDLL1 like the first time and used the same autoroot tar from Chainfire. Except my Note 2 was still encrypted and after that it would not accept my boot password (a four digit PIN) anymore so I was guted and had to factory reset and root then reinstall everything before reconnecting to the exchange server.
Question 1: Does anyone know of a safe, proven way to root a fully encrypted Samsung device so I can go another upgrade without having to wipe the device first?
Why reinstall everything? Why not backup everything first so you can restore after the wipe? Well, it so happens that no recovery (at least neither CWM or TWRP) can read any encrypted media on the Note 2 at the moment. And no Recovery can actually fully backup the device as well.
Question 2: Does anyone know of a proper way to handle this situation with minimum hassle?
So far, the best I can think of is doing a Titanium backup and FTP the files to my NAS so I can retrieve them later. But (Question 3) will this be enough to restore my phone to the expected state after a stock firmware upgrade?
Thanks in advance,
François
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think using Exynos Abuse apk will do the work
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2050297

Thanks for the heads up, I'll look into it. But to be clear, that answers question 1, correct?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

frankieGom said:
Thanks for the heads up, I'll look into it. But to be clear, that answers question 1, correct?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that's a way to root the device.
Regarding encryption, very few people on xda seem to use it. So for that reason you'll have trouble finding out what works... I do use it though through choice so I can help you a bit.
When you encrypt the device, just consider /data to be off limits to anything not booted fully. That's why it asks you for your key in swedish - it can't see what language is in use until you unlock /data.
You will have issues using recovery with the device, since they can't read /data. You can use an external sd to perhaps load data to the device though.
I believe that TWRP might soon support the Samsung encryption on the device, meaning you could use it as recovery. Once you have a recovery that supports Samsung encryption, you should be able to consider it a fairly normal device.
Just be more cautious to backup your data as it is hard to recover if something goes wrong...

If your using stock rom 4.1.2, exynos abuse method of root will not work. It's been patched
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

pulser_g2 said:
Yes that's a way to root the device.
Regarding encryption, very few people on xda seem to use it. So for that reason you'll have trouble finding out what works... I do use it though through choice so I can help you a bit.
When you encrypt the device, just consider /data to be off limits to anything not booted fully. That's why it asks you for your key in swedish - it can't see what language is in use until you unlock /data.
You will have issues using recovery with the device, since they can't read /data. You can use an external sd to perhaps load data to the device though.
I believe that TWRP might soon support the Samsung encryption on the device, meaning you could use it as recovery. Once you have a recovery that supports Samsung encryption, you should be able to consider it a fairly normal device.
Just be more cautious to backup your data as it is hard to recover if something goes wrong...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fine, I understand. As long as I have a way to recover my data if I need to wipe I'm okay... I just have to hope Titanium backup gives me that until TWRP can manage encruption on the Note 2.
I'm really waiting for a stock rom that boots in English or French now.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

vash_h said:
If your using stock rom 4.1.2, exynos abuse method of root will not work. It's been patched
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not the case with xxdll1. When was it patched, xxdll4 or xxdll7?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

frankieGom said:
Not the case with xxdll1. When was it patched, xxdll4 or xxdll7?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am on Stock 4.1.2 and Exynos Abuse did work on my device, it's successfully rooted using the Exynos AbuseAPK on 4.1.2 :good:

OK, now I have been experimenting a bit with backups and upgrade and have trouble restoring my device fully. Let me explain...
I got hold of a TWRP build that seems to handle Samsung encryption fine through one of the TWRP devs (thanks!), so I decided to go back and try to update my device.
Current ROM: N7105XXDLL1_N7105TLADLL1_N7105XXDLK7_HOME.tar (obtained from Samsung Updates)
New ROM: N7105XXDLL7_N7105OLBDLL2_N7105DXDLL1_HOME.tar (obtained from Samsung Updates)
First I performed a complete Titanium Backup on the device and pulled the files to my laptop using ADB.
Then I restarted into TWRP 2.4.0.0 (got a prompt for my password), performed a full backup and pulled the files to the laptop using ADB.
(for some reason, I could not install the new ROM from TWRP (unable to open ZIP), but the ZIP looked OK, as well as after a second download which TWRP since did not like, so I had to use Odin instead).
Next, I flashed DLL7 with Odin. It worked, asked for the password at boot, but the device was unrooted at this point (I expected that).
Then, I flashed CF-Auto-Root-t0lte-t0ltexx-gtn7105.tar from Odin, but the boot up password would not be accepted anymore as I already knew.
Tried to flash DLL7 again from Odin, same thing
Flashed TWRP back on recovery partition, but on startup it would not ask for password anymore and the external sdcard looked empty to it.
I then copied my backup to a different, non encrypted sdcard and could restore from TWRP but the password would still not work after reboot.
I did a factory reset, restored backup, same result.
At this point I decided to factory reset, wipe Dalvik and format /data. The format did the trick and after TWRP restore of my original back up the device booted up, did not ask for password and all my data was there. Except the Exchange account I use for Corporate email wants me to restore encryption in order to work (I expected that too).
Back at DLL1, so I flashed DLL7 again with Odin (OK), rooted the phone, triangled away the flash counter and reflashed TWRP to recovery.
I was where I wanted to be except for one thing: I need to restore Corporate access. But when I let it encryp the phone it does nothing. I let it through the night and nothing). And if I reboot the phone no password is needed at boot time, yet the phone seems to behave as if it thought the device was still encrypted...
I reflashed my original, full, backup (i.e DLL1) succesfully but Exchange still wants to encrypt my device. Isn't restore supposed to restore the encrypted /data I backed up?
At this point I'm left with possibly tryinjg to go back to full factory settings, not use the backup at all, encrypt the device then restore my data from the Titanium backup I made.
Is there a better option?

[edited jan 18 - TWRP/TB behaviour]
My comments apply to encrypted devices only! I am not trying to talk down TWRP or TB here, as they provide splendid performance on non encrypted devices. I have come upon hard time trying to upgrade/restore an encrypted device using thoise tools, that's all
For those considering upgrading & re-rooting encrypted devices, don't!
I am finding the hard way that this is a one way street. At this point, my TWRP made full backup does not restore the device to the expected status. Each time I apply it, subsequent bootup takes several minutes and I end up going through the initial setup procedure. It seems the device for some reasoin goes through a complete reset procedure.
[edit]
Clarification: The TWRP build I use, 2.4.0.0 is an alpha build and I was not current when I restored my backup. I so happens that it was overwriting the encryption header on the partition, which messed things up bad, and had issues writing back the data partition, ending up in a factory reset status!
Using the latest drop as of today (jan 27) I was able to restore my original backup and am now back to my original state. All is well.
[/edit]
Titanium Backup is none better. It keeps telling me that my Android ID has changed, a host of system applications start to fail when I try to restore and generally speaking I have now spent between a good 20 hours trying to simply restore my data.
[edit]
this behaviour is probably linked to encryption. I know for a fact that TB works very well on non encrypted phones. The 20h figure is overall, not just with TB.
[/edit]
The end story is: root before you encrypt, and either don't upgrade or don't re-root if you do! If you do, be prepared for some rough times...
Unless someone has a cleat idea of how to do this properly without losing all your data, that is.
François

frankieGom said:
For those considering upgrading & re-rooting encrypted devices, don't!
I am finding the hard way that this is a one way street. At this point, my TWRP made full backup does not restore the device to the expected status. Each time I apply it, subsequent bootup takes several minutes and I end up going through the initial setup procedure. It seems the device for some reasoin goes through a complete reset procedure.
Titanium Backup is none better. It keeps telling me that my Android ID has changed, a host of system applications start to fail when I try to restore and generally speaking I have now spent between a good 20 hours trying to simply restore my data.
The end story is: root before you encrypt, and either don't upgrade or don't re-root if you do!
Unless someone has a cleat idea of how to do this properly without losing all your data, that is.
François
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had no issues despite doing upgrades, with and without wipes.
Titanium is fine, just stop restoring system app data. Seriously, what data do you have in a system app that you want to restore.
Restore your user apps, their data, and the xml based call, sms, Wifi backups. It will work fine.
Device ID isn't a problem - it's just trying to help you.

pulser_g2 said:
I have had no issues despite doing upgrades, with and without wipes.
Titanium is fine, just stop restoring system app data. Seriously, what data do you have in a system app that you want to restore.
Restore your user apps, their data, and the xml based call, sms, Wifi backups. It will work fine.
Device ID isn't a problem - it's just trying to help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry if I came across dissing Titanium Backup and/or TWRP. This was not the intent... I am sure both tools work real nice in general cases (and I have had success restoring data on a Jetstream before).
My main issue here is _full device encryption_ enforced by my company's corporate IT to allow me on the corporate exchange server. Do you have full device encryption on?
On my device, even after a full wipe and flashing a fresh stock rom Titanium Backup just did not work as I hoped. When I had to confirm individual popups of apps closing unexpectedly while it was proceeding and got nothing back in the end, what was I supposed to think? It could be that I don't understand how TB works... I was neither able to restore missing apps after the flash (missing apps: 0) nor installed apps data (they would close unexpectedly when started after restoring the back up). So I say: until full operation of TB on encrypted devices is documented, I will stay away from it, even though I am a registered user (and I do not plan to seek reimbursment)!
Anyway, I got to a belated happy ending (previous post edited).

frankieGom said:
Sorry if I came across dissing Titanium Backup and/or TWRP. This was not the intent... I am sure both tools work real nice in general cases (and I have had success restoring data on a Jetstream before).
My main issue here is _full device encryption_ enforced by my company's corporate IT to allow me on the corporate exchange server. Do you have full device encryption on?
On my device, even after a full wipe and flashing a fresh stock rom Titanium Backup just did not work as I hoped. When I had to confirm individual popups of apps closing unexpectedly while it was proceeding and got nothing back in the end, what was I supposed to think? It could be that I don't understand how TB works... I was neither able to restore missing apps after the flash (missing apps: 0) nor installed apps data (they would close unexpectedly when started after restoring the back up). So I say: until full operation of TB on encrypted devices is documented, I will stay away from it, even though I am a registered user (and I do not plan to seek reimbursment)!
Anyway, I got to a belated happy ending (previous post edited).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup I use device encryption Enabled manually, but it's the same encryption.
You should find that titanium shouldn't even be aware of it - the encryption is transparent!
I wonder... I'm sure lenny had that issue on a recent 4.1.2 "stock" ROM... And he doesn't use encryption...
I personally have had no issues with titanium on an encrypted device anyway
I notice you were using the newest rom - that's the one lenny had issues on.

pulser_g2 said:
Yup I use device encryption Enabled manually, but it's the same encryption.
You should find that titanium shouldn't even be aware of it - the encryption is transparent!
I wonder... I'm sure lenny had that issue on a recent 4.1.2 "stock" ROM... And he doesn't use encryption...
I personally have had no issues with titanium on an encrypted device anyway
I notice you were using the newest rom - that's the one lenny had issues on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly like I thought, encryption should be transparent to Titanium Backup since it runs within the OS.
I have had problems restoring into 4.1.2 DLL1 (the build I came from) and DLL7 (the one I was trying to go to)
The point is moot anyway since the DLL7 I tried was actually branded (Singtel stuff all around the launcher) and did not include French, which is why restoring my TWRP backup was a tempting proposition.
Good to know TB runs fine with encryption as well. What ROM are you running?
François

frankieGom said:
Hi all,
I recently got a HK N7105 and because it lacked the possibility to use a french keyboard I upgraded to a stock unbranded ROM from Sweden (XXDLL1) and succesfully rooted with the relevant CF_autoroot through Odin. Also installed TWRP 2.3.3.1.
Then, I connected the Note 2 to my corporate exchange server which enforced a full encryption policy (device and external SD card) so I had to type in a password at each boot time (with a "nice" swedish prompt that took ma while to decypher), plus a password to unlock the screen. All was well as the root survived the process.
Next I upgraded to a later stock ROM from France (XXDLL4 from SFR) to try and get rid of the swedish prompt. That worked fine (and root was loast in the process, as expected) but I hated the branded stuff so much I reverted to XXDLL1 until a proper unbranded "english" or "french" ROM is available.
At this point I decided to root again. I was running XXDLL1 like the first time and used the same autoroot tar from Chainfire. Except my Note 2 was still encrypted and after that it would not accept my boot password (a four digit PIN) anymore so I was guted and had to factory reset and root then reinstall everything before reconnecting to the exchange server.
Question 1: Does anyone know of a safe, proven way to root a fully encrypted Samsung device so I can go another upgrade without having to wipe the device first?
Why reinstall everything? Why not backup everything first so you can restore after the wipe? Well, it so happens that no recovery (at least neither CWM or TWRP) can read any encrypted media on the Note 2 at the moment. And no Recovery can actually fully backup the device as well.
Question 2: Does anyone know of a proper way to handle this situation with minimum hassle?
So far, the best I can think of is doing a Titanium backup and FTP the files to my NAS so I can retrieve them later. But (Question 3) will this be enough to restore my phone to the expected state after a stock firmware upgrade?
Thanks in advance,
François
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About a backup : have you tried Online Nandroid (Playstore) (or similar, based on Onandroid) ? This makes a CWM or TWRP compatible backup while the device is running (everything should be unencrypted at this moment).
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620255
About rooting : you can try the same trick as above, by using ADB-shell and pushing the needed files to root to the device while it is running.
For my S3 there is a Toolkit that automates all this (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1703488), maybe there is something similar for your device ?
If not, you should still be able to do it using manual ADB-pushing.
I'm sorry I can't give you detailed instructions about the rooting as I'm not familiar with your device. Search here on XDA and you'll find more details.

pat357 said:
About a backup : have you tried Online Nandroid (Playstore) (or similar, based on Onandroid) ? This makes a CWM or TWRP compatible backup while the device is running (everything should be unencrypted at this moment).
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620255
About rooting : you can try the same trick as above, by using ADB-shell and pushing the needed files to root to the device while it is running.
For my S3 there is a Toolkit that automates all this (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1703488), maybe there is something similar for your device ?
If not, you should still be able to do it using manual ADB-pushing.
I'm sorry I can't give you detailed instructions about the rooting as I'm not familiar with your device. Search here on XDA and you'll find more details.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestions, and no I had not tried Online Nandroid as I was not aware of it. Anyway, my main issue is now resolved since TWRP has include support for Samsung TouchWiz based encryption in 2.4 and that works well.
For those interested, the only remaining issues I have with TWRP regarding encryption are that if you want to format /data from TWRP (say, to remove encryption) it will fail unless you _do not_ enter the password at boot, and the TWRP formated /data cannot be re-encrypted (you must use stock recovery to factory reset/wipe the device or else the encryption step will sit deat in the water doing nothing). I suppose the second one is a bug that will be fixed in a later version.
I will check Online Nandroid out anyway, being able to make a backup from a live system sounds good!
François

frankieGom said:
Thanks for the suggestions, and no I had not tried Online Nandroid as I was not aware of it. Anyway, my main issue is now resolved since TWRP has include support for Samsung TouchWiz based encryption in 2.4 and that works well.
For those interested, the only remaining issues I have with TWRP regarding encryption are that if you want to format /data from TWRP (say, to remove encryption) it will fail unless you _do not_ enter the password at boot, and the TWRP formated /data cannot be re-encrypted (you must use stock recovery to factory reset/wipe the device or else the encryption step will sit deat in the water doing nothing). I suppose the second one is a bug that will be fixed in a later version.
I will check Online Nandroid out anyway, being able to make a backup from a live system sounds good!
François
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a similar issue. I had the device encrypted and decided to ROOT (using CF-AutoRoot). Unfortunately I cannot bypass the password screen now, although I know that I'm entering the right password. You are saying that if I flash TWRP everything will be fine?

ludovicianul said:
I have a similar issue. I had the device encrypted and decided to ROOT (using CF-AutoRoot). Unfortunately I cannot bypass the password screen now, although I know that I'm entering the right password. You are saying that if I flash TWRP everything will be fine?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two separate things:
Root messing up encrypted touchwiz devices and twrp not handling touchwiz encrypted partitions properly.
The 2nd one, as much as I can tell, is fixed since before 2.5 so if youwork with the latest (2.6) you should be fine.
The first one I haven't played with in a while, but my finding is that you don't want to root a device once it's been encrypted. I've tried several different methods including rooting as you flag as is possible with twrp and all end up the same:the password is not recognised anymore!
The only thing that works for me is rooting before encrypting or only flashing pre-rooted ROMs.

frankieGom said:
Two separate things:
Root messing up encrypted touchwiz devices and twrp not handling touchwiz encrypted partitions properly.
The 2nd one, as much as I can tell, is fixed since before 2.5 so if youwork with the latest (2.6) you should be fine.
The first one I haven't played with in a while, but my finding is that you don't want to root a device once it's been encrypted. I've tried several different methods including rooting as you flag as is possible with twrp and all end up the same:the password is not recognised anymore!
The only thing that works for me is rooting before encrypting or only flashing pre-rooted ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes - I had to factory reset the phone and format the SD Card. Never root AFTER encryption :silly:

Some apps don't work after rooting issue

Hi all,
I ran into an issue while trying to root my Samsung Galaxy S III. I used a tutorial from Max Lee on Youtube (can't post link) to help me get through the process . There was a step that used Titanium Backup to check if you rooted your phone correctly. However when I downloaded Titanium Backup and tried to open it, I didn't see the superSU request window like it appeared in the tutorial. It was stuck on "asking for root rights..." I decided to reinstall Titanium Backup to see if it would help. After uninstalling it, I realized my Play Store would not load anything. I looked at some other apps and they wouldn't load either (Gmail, Hangouts, some games, etc). I tried logging out and back into my Google account but that didn't work either. A lot of my apps aren't working after attempting to root my phone and I'm not sure what the issue is.
I'm new to this sort of stuff and I couldn't really find an answer for my problem (at least not that I could find on Google). Sorry if this has been asked already! Could anyone tell me what I could do to get my phone back to it's original state at least? I'm kind of afraid to try and root again if I do get a fix for this. Also, factory reset is going to be my last option ;_;.
Samsung Galaxy S III SGH-T999 running Android version 4.1.2
Thanks!

If you can, back up your internal sdcard data. It's very likely you may have to do a factory reset which can erase it.
(BTW, when you get it going again, consider using the free unlock method in the General section. Once you update you can't do it free anymore)
OK, so first, only use what info you find in the T999 forums. Everything you need is here and it's hard to help fix things caused by info gained elsewhere.
Do you have a custom recovery installed? (Twrp or cwm) if so boot recovery and factory reset. This will wipe all apps and data (except internal sd...at least it shouldnt). With luck, this is all you need to do. Reboot and hopefully it'll be working so you can reinstall your stuff. If you have stock recovery, still do this, but it WILL wipe ALL user data).
If that doesn't work, the easiest and most reliable next step is to flash your current firmware build via Odin, and factory reset from settings or stock recovery. (wipes all data).
Then you can unlock and update if you so choose. You can find your firmware and instructions in my firmware thread stickied in the development section. (You'll probably want to use the root66 versions)
If you have any questions feel free to ask. Better safe than sorry. But keep in mind just about everything you could possibly need or want to know has been covered, so don't forget to search for your answers first.
If you still want root after all that, we have several extremely easy options.
Good luck!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T999 using Tapatalk