[Q][SOFT BRICK] Weird... - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note 3

So this is the weirdest "brick" I have ever experienced. My phone was working flawlessly with a TWRP recovery and a slightly modded mostly stock ROM. I was playing around modding the stock MMS app, SecMms.apk, and flashing it through recovery. One of these flashes did not complete successfully. I got to the lockscreen, but it would not respond. And there was no network connection. So I figured something got screwed up. I rebooted into recovery and flashed a stock ROM. Boot loop. I got back into recovery and performed a factory data reset, erased everything, flashed a stock ROM. Boot loop. I downloaded a completely stock ROM with stock recovery, stock everything. Got into download mode and flashed it through ODIN. Boot loop. Well, actually, the initial boot got a screen where I could see the taskbar with time and no-service indicator; the rest of the screen was black for a minute; then I got a popup window stating that "Process system is unable to continue" and asking if I wanted to wait of close it. Then it boot looped. I tried booting without a SIM card and an external SD card - same result.
So, to recap - I can get to Download Mode, and ODIN, but anything I flash, including completely stock ROM boot loops.
I am at a loss as to what to try next. If anyone has ideas, I'm willing to try just about anything. I'm gonna take it to T-Mo store tomorrow to see if they can do anything with it...

re: phone issues
6uPMAH said:
So this is the weirdest "brick" I have ever experienced. My phone was working flawlessly with a TWRP recovery and a slightly modded mostly stock ROM. I was playing around modding the stock MMS app, SecMms.apk, and flashing it through recovery. One of these flashes did not complete successfully. I got to the lockscreen, but it would not respond. And there was no network connection. So I figured something got screwed up. I rebooted into recovery and flashed a stock ROM. Boot loop. I got back into recovery and performed a factory data reset, erased everything, flashed a stock ROM. Boot loop. I downloaded a completely stock ROM with stock recovery, stock everything. Got into download mode and flashed it through ODIN. Boot loop. Well, actually, the initial boot got a screen where I could see the taskbar with time and no-service indicator; the rest of the screen was black for a minute; then I got a popup window stating that "Process system is unable to continue" and asking if I wanted to wait of close it. Then it boot looped. I tried booting without a SIM card and an external SD card - same result.
So, to recap - I can get to Download Mode, and ODIN, but anything I flash, including completely stock ROM boot loops.
I am at a loss as to what to try next. If anyone has ideas, I'm willing to try just about anything. I'm gonna take it to T-Mo store tomorrow to see if they can do anything with it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go into recovery mode and do a complete wipe including "Factory Reset", wipe data, wipe system,
wipe cache, wipe dalvik cache and then if you have a working nandroiod backup restore it.
If you don't have a nandroid backup then go into download mode and flash the official stock
firmware for the N900T phone from http://SamMobile.com
Either one of these two options will get your phone back up and running.
Good luck!

I have already done all of the above, and...no go. Even stock firmware from SamMobile boot loops. Unfortunately, I do not have a nandroid backup, so that's the one thing I cannot do.

6uPMAH said:
I have already done all of the above, and...no go. Even stock firmware from SamMobile boot loops. Unfortunately, I do not have a nandroid backup, so that's the one thing I cannot do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google zedomax you will find his website for unrooting note 3. Will walk you thru with ever step.

It is no longer rooted after I have flashed stock firmware/ROM from SamMobile. Believe me , I have tried all the known methods of returning this phone to stock/unroot. I have flashed through recovery when I had custom recovery. I have flashed through ODIN. So far I have been unable to fix the issue. I am thinking my internal storage is corrupt, or the partition is corrupt. Anyone knows of a way to rebuild/repartition internal storage?

6uPMAH said:
It is no longer rooted after I have flashed stock firmware/ROM from SamMobile. Believe me , I have tried all the known methods of returning this phone to stock/unroot. I have flashed through recovery when I had custom recovery. I have flashed through ODIN. So far I have been unable to fix the issue. I am thinking my internal storage is corrupt, or the partition is corrupt. Anyone knows of a way to rebuild/repartition internal storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try the "boot loop fix" flashable? It's essentially a script that sort of recreates the efs partition in recovery. It's been linked a few times in the twrp thread, and there may be a thread dedicated to the topic (search for "brick loop") - I don't have the links handy though, apologies.

The mans right^ that helped me out through my "soft brick". Totally out of the blue. Wasnt even messing around with anything I didnt knew I was doing
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Anybody has a link? I've searched, but there's nothing specific to Note 3 TMO...

6uPMAH said:
Anybody has a link? I've searched, but there's nothing specific to Note 3 TMO...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The method is outlined in the OP of this thread but the flashable version of what is outlined there can be found in this thread - hope that helps!

Thanks. I'll give it a go after work.
UPDATE: All is well in the world again. Thanks everyone for all your help. Thanks dwitherell ! The thread you pointed me to was the solution!

Related

[Q] Help, won't boot any custom roms.

After trying to flash a new rom after being on AOKP M1 for a little while (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1875923) the phone got stuck at the Black and white Samsung Galaxy SIII screen and didn't boot upon hitting reboot system now on cwm. Tried again, tried reflashing and the whole 9 yards wouldn't boot at all. So I turned to odin and went to the prerooted latest JB build (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1949687) and then reflashed touch cwm and tried to reflash the rom. Same problem. So, I odin'd back to the non rooted UVDLJA. Rerooted and reflashed cwm and blahblahblah. I said hmm maybe it's the rom, I then tried to flash this rom (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1993934) and when I tried to reboot system now after the process; again the phone got stuck at the black and white Samsung Galaxy SIII screen and did not boot. The phone works fine when I odin it to stock builds but refuses to boot custom roms. Can someone help me here? I haven't been able to find a solution for days. :crying:
PS I'm a noob, don't kill me lol
edit: forgot to include I have the Tmobile variant
Did you wipe data and cache when you flashed the new rom?
nyyankees1237 said:
After trying to flash a new rom after being on AOKP M1 for a little while (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1875923) the phone got stuck at the Black and white Samsung Galaxy SIII screen and didn't boot upon hitting reboot system now on cwm. Tried again, tried reflashing and the whole 9 yards wouldn't boot at all. So I turned to odin and went to the prerooted latest JB build (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1949687) and then reflashed touch cwm and tried to reflash the rom. Same problem. So, I odin'd back to the non rooted UVDLJA. Rerooted and reflashed cwm and blahblahblah. I said hmm maybe it's the rom, I then tried to flash this rom (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1993934) and when I tried to reboot system now after the process; again the phone got stuck at the black and white Samsung Galaxy SIII screen and did not boot. The phone works fine when I odin it to stock builds but refuses to boot custom roms. Can someone help me here? I haven't been able to find a solution for days. :crying:
PS I'm a noob, don't kill me lol
edit: forgot to include I have the Tmobile variant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a few questions:
and i can verify the issue is something on your end, because the ROM you tried was mine, and nobody has had that issue (not booting it)
do this...
1. make sure you have the latest version of clockwordmod, don't use twrp
2. re-download my ROM (just for sake of not adding any other variables to your issue, because mine should boot)
3. put ROM on external SD card
before continuing... take a quick look at my thread here in QA titled "flashing ROMs correctly every time" .... so you can get some instruction on verifying MD5 of the download... don't worry, the thread will explain that you...
now proceed
4. boot to recovery
5. do a factory reset - 3 times do this, just to be thorough. people will say you don't need to, but like i said, just for the sake of removing variables
6. go to mounts and storage, format system 3 times - (yes, through recovery as well)
7. flash ROM, and reboot
EDIT*** i will say this, ALWAYS format system when flashing a new ROM
cobraboy85 said:
a few questions:
and i can verify the issue is something on your end, because the ROM you tried was mine, and nobody has had that issue (not booting it)
do this...
1. make sure you have the latest version of clockwordmod, don't use twrp
2. re-download my ROM (just for sake of not adding any other variables to your issue, because mine should boot)
3. put ROM on external SD card
before continuing... take a quick look at my thread here in QA titled "flashing ROMs correctly every time" .... so you can get some instruction on verifying MD5 of the download... don't worry, the thread will explain that you...
now proceed
4. boot to recovery
5. do a factory reset - 3 times do this, just to be thorough. people will say you don't need to, but like i said, just for the sake of removing variables
6. go to mounts and storage, format system 3 times - (yes, through recovery as well)
7. flash ROM, and reboot
EDIT*** i will say this, ALWAYS format system when flashing a new ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the info, will try this all out soon. I've been flashing roms for years now and have never run into anything like this, and as previously stated, this didn't occur solely with your rom which has me thinking something has happened to the phone itself. will get back to you soon and once again thank you
chucktdriscoll said:
Did you wipe data and cache when you flashed the new rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
of course, wiped data, cache, & delvik
nyyankees1237 said:
of course, wiped data, cache, & delvik
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my point is...
coming from a cm based ROM, or aokp, whatever you said... you would want to format system as well.
nyyankees1237 said:
After trying to flash a new rom after being on AOKP M1 for a little while (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1875923) the phone got stuck at the Black and white Samsung Galaxy SIII screen and didn't boot upon hitting reboot system now on cwm. Tried again, tried reflashing and the whole 9 yards wouldn't boot at all. So I turned to odin and went to the prerooted latest JB build (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1949687) and then reflashed touch cwm and tried to reflash the rom. Same problem. So, I odin'd back to the non rooted UVDLJA. Rerooted and reflashed cwm and blahblahblah. I said hmm maybe it's the rom, I then tried to flash this rom (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1993934) and when I tried to reboot system now after the process; again the phone got stuck at the black and white Samsung Galaxy SIII screen and did not boot. The phone works fine when I odin it to stock builds but refuses to boot custom roms. Can someone help me here? I haven't been able to find a solution for days. :crying:
PS I'm a noob, don't kill me lol
edit: forgot to include I have the Tmobile variant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was having some of the same issues. I downloaded XquiziT's Superwipe and ran it by installing from external sd card. I ran it three times to clear everything out, then I wiped data, cache and the rest three times.
No probs for me after that.
Will definitely give that a try as well! Thank you! Will post my results when the holiday is over.
Happy thanksgiving
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

Soft brick? Recovery not working properly

Hey guys all my restores are failing half way through. It also fails if I try to factory reset or wipe dalvik but wipe cache works fine It fails if i try flash any ROM.. And if I try to boot to system it shows SG logo then black screen I'm really kind of lost here. I've already tried flashing 4 different versions of Twrp/clockworkmod and I get the same result every time. The roms I'm trying to flash were running fine on my device before this happened. Never seen this before please help thank you.
Sent from RootBox infected sensation or my PacMan e739
djwuh said:
Hey guys all my restores are failing half way through. It also fails if I try to factory reset or wipe dalvik but wipe cache works fine It fails if i try flash any ROM.. And if I try to boot to system it shows SG logo then black screen I'm really kind of lost here. I've already tried flashing 4 different versions of Twrp/clockworkmod and I get the same result every time. The roms I'm trying to flash were running fine on my device before this happened. Never seen this before please help thank you.
Sent from RootBox infected sensation or my PacMan e739
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is this an i747 or i747m (carrier?)? what was the last thing you did to the device/had you just modified or flashed something? were you using recovery or odin to flash the 4 different recoveries?
xBeerdroiDx said:
is this an i747 or i747m (carrier?)? what was the last thing you did to the device/had you just modified or flashed something? were you using recovery or odin to flash the 4 different recoveries?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have sgh i747 at&t us model. Unlocked Sim for Tmobile use. Before having problems. I flashed vanilla rootbox att nightly. it was running fine then I flashed acid audio mod. And it worked but not well with my player of choice. So i flashed a restore from fright before the sound mod. And all I got was 2 different Samsung logos then black screen. At this point Twrp started asking for a password. I tried an older backup. (rootbox stable) and it booted fine. Everything seemed to be working. But when I rebooted again I got the 1St SG logo then black screen. Now recovery doesn't read anything on the internal card as well as the other problems I stated. I used mskips toolkit to flash Twrp originally and now I've been flashing back and forth between recoveries using recovery flashable zips. Also every time I flash roms or restore I did factory wipe/cache/dalvik and after I started having these issues I tried wiping system and that didn't help either. Thanks for trying to help
Sent from RootBox infected sensation or my PacMan e739
what recovery are you currently sitting on?
Twrp 2.4.4.0 is what I started with and now I'm back on it but from a flashable zip this time instead of whatever mskips toolkit used
Sent from RootBox infected sensation or my PacMan e739
here is the link to an odin flashable twrp 2.5.0.0 tar: http://techerrata.com/file/twrp2/d2att/openrecovery-twrp-2.5.0.0-d2att.tar
and here's a recovery flashable twrp 2.5.0.0 zip link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1917517&d=1367104589
if you flash in recovery, be sure to reboot recovery in order to boot into the new version. i'm sure you know most of this but i'm just trying to cover all the bases.
is twrp still asking for the password or were you able to get passed that?
if you have a micro sd card, you could place a ROM/gapps on it, flash this latest twrp recovery from odin or recovery, perform a full wipe (cache, dalvik, data, system) and flash the ROM/gapps. see if that remedies your situation.
if you dont have a micro sd card, and it appears you've wiped the system so there's no OS, you may have to odin back to rooted stock and start over. keep me posted
Still no luck. i flashed twrp2.5 through recovery and after rebooting back to recovery it still asked for a password so I hit cancel at which point it lets me continue and after full wipe as you described above and a fresh flash of stable rootbox 3.9.1 (md5 matched) im still in the same situation. also factory wipe says failed still
I think at this point if it were me, I would Odin flash back to stock then start from scratch. Pain in the butt I know, and no guarantee, but usually flash back to stock is a safe bet.
Another option is to grab the Odin flashable cwm tar in the "root from recovery" method in the general section. Flash the tar, boot into recovery and flash the 6.0.3.1 zip in post #2 of my signature link. Reboot recovery and try wiping/flashing again.
Since you're not entering the password in TWRP, I think that's why you're not getting successful wipes and flashes.
now I used the power+home+vol down button combo to see if bootloader would start. it gave me a choice to download a custom rom or cancel so I canceled and the phone rebooted and i was blessed with the beautifull rootbox animation. my rootbox 3.9.1 nandroid booted and seems to be running fine. Now Im afraid to reboot in fear it will start the whole process over again. any suggestions? or should I just leave it powered on for the rest of its life lol
edit: well I got up the guff to reboot and everything came back fine again WTH. this is so weird, I wish I had a clue what happened. anyways I just wanted to thank you guys one more time for you help. hopefully we wont have to come back to this thread. Peace ;-]
Man that is strange. If that ever happens again it would be interesting to see the log if you can get it. I wonder if there were issues mounting a partition and/or your SD card. If TWRP and CWM were both having an error and the files were on your SD card that would probably be the only thing in common that could cause something like this. Some Transformers seemed to have the password issue, but doesn't seem related to your experience. Glad you got it sorted.

Did i softbrick my device? Please help!

So i reset my GS3 yesterday. I am running a stock rooted phone.. My phone has always been fine but after a reset through the phone the phone never loaded back up. It was stuck on the samsung screen. I tried pulling the battery out a few times. I went into my CWM recovery and tried wiping both caches with no luck. I tried restoring the phone and that didn't work. I finally tried wiping all data and now the phone won't boot at all. It says phone can not boot and will go into odin mode. Odin will recognize my phone though. What should i do? Should I try to restore my phone to factory through odin? I can't find the stock sprint version tar file. I could only find the verizon one. Can someone help me and tell me what is the best step for me? I can get into CWM but the phone won't boot.
wings9130 said:
So i reset my GS3 yesterday. I am running a stock rooted phone.. My phone has always been fine but after a reset through the phone the phone never loaded back up. It was stuck on the samsung screen. I tried pulling the battery out a few times. I went into my CWM recovery and tried wiping both caches with no luck. I tried restoring the phone and that didn't work. I finally tried wiping all data and now the phone won't boot at all. It says phone can not boot and will go into odin mode. Odin will recognize my phone though. What should i do? Should I try to restore my phone to factory through odin? I can't find the stock sprint version tar file. I could only find the verizon one. Can someone help me and tell me what is the best step for me? I can get into CWM but the phone won't boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get into recovery mode, you can just restore a nandroid backup (if you have one made). If you don't have one, you can wipe /system, /data, and the caches and reflash your Rom (provided you have it saved on your SD card).
If none of the above work, download mode is your best friend.
You can get into Download (Odin) Mode. That's a good thing. Sextape has the md4 TAR file for your over in their thread (warning, outside link). They have the stock unrooted as well as stock rooted file. Since you have already wiped your data, you might as well flash the "Restore" version:
"Restore" Versions - Wipes your user data
SPH-L710_MD4_1130792_Stock_Restore [EXE|TAR.MD5.GZ]
SPH-L710_MD4_1130792_Rooted_Restore [EXE|TAR.MD5.GZ]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you know how to use Odin, you can just downlaod the TAR file, but I recommend using their auto-extractor (the exe file), since it's well tested and there's less chance of user error.
All that being said, I'm curious to how your phone became "softbricked." Did you install any apps or mods recently that could've caused it? Custom Kernel?
It sounds like you eventually ended up wiping /system, which would be why you can't boot up now. I haven't heard of it automatically going into download mode because of that, but I haven't tested it on my phone, either.
try rwilco 12's android file repository. he has everything you will need
http://www.rwilco12.com/
You can also take the sd card out plug into a computer download a rom zip put it on the sd card pop it back into the phone and flash through the custom recovery which should be there.
Sent from the future via Xparent Green Tapatalk 2
Thanks for the help everyone. I guess I didn't soft brick the phone I just wiped it and there was no rom on it.

T999L stuck in bootloop, TWRP fails to fully load.

Hi, all. Just like the title says. I'm stuck in a bootloop and not sure what to do.
TWRP 2.5
Went from Docs deodexed T999L ROM to SlimBean 2.2
then...
I was making a backup of SlimBean 2.2 on TWRP 2.5 I believe and that went fine. I then went to do a factory reset but it gave me some kind of error that data wasn't found or was found. It was all confusing to me. So I decided to upgrade to the latest TWRP 2.6.3.1 from Doc's signature (I think that was it). I rebooted into the new TWRP and when I went to do a factory reset, it rebooted constantly. So I went into recovery again, and I was able to clear, dalvik, cache, and system, but freezes and reboots when trying to clear data.
Stupid me, I then flashed TWRP 2.5 again, and now I can't get into the recovery settings. It was show the blue TeamWin logo, but then reboots, shows the Galaxy S3 T999L logo, then the SlimBean boot screen, then reboots, repeating this over and over again.
So basically I have no working custom recovery, no operating system, but I can get into download mode.
Not exactly sure where to go from here. I rooted using the recovery method about a month or so ago. Do you think I can just go through the root process and flash TWRP 2.6.3.1 from Odin?
Thanks in advance!
Edit:
A little bit more, I was running Stock 4.1.2 before the rooting process and never did the official 4.3 update.
Also, in Doc's T999L info thread, could I essentially just revert back to stock using Odin? Or will my non-wiped data be a problem?
Aha! Never mind, everyone. I looked more into it and reverted back to stock using Root66 in Doc's thread.
Anyway, hope this helps anyone in the future if you come across this.
Have a good holiday, yall!
Edit:
So good news bad news, I could finally boot into TWRP 6.2.3.1, but doing a factory reset I still got this: "error: opening data/lost+found"
So I ended up formatting the data. All is well now and that error doesn't show up anymore.
Hope this helps!

[q] please help!!!!!!!

I have a SPH-L710 with a stock ROM and CWM root, I just tried to flash a boot animation and am now stuck in a boot loop. I did not make a backup before I tried this. I have wiped cache,div and did fact reset and can not get out of boot loop...................PLEASE HELP
Runing KK 4.4.2 on VIRGIN MOBILE/SPRINT NETWORK
aanddink said:
I have a SPH-L710 with a stock ROM and CWM root, I just tried to flash a boot animation and am now stuck in a boot loop. I did not make a backup before I tried this. I have wiped cache,div and did fact reset and can not get out of boot loop...................PLEASE HELP
Runing KK 4.4.2 on VIRGIN MOBILE/SPRINT NETWORK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You most likely will have to flash a stock rom using Odin on the computer.
The only problem with that is if you had to get your phone flashed to Virgin Mobile like I did with PagePlus, it may or may not erase those critical settings. I could never get a clear answer on that, but it is best to play it safe and assume it will. However, your phone should be functioning once again.You will however have to re-root the phone, and might as well install TWRP. All of this can be done through Odin.
Alternatively, if you have a custom recovery installed and a rom or two on your sdcard, you could try to flash the rom instead of going all the way back to stock. That would help ensure your carrier settings arent wiped related to Virgin, as it could if you were to flash back to stock.
Then for the love of god, devil, or whoever you believe in... make a backup once you are fixed and back up and running!! They are perfect and extremely helpful for situations like this.
Rawb0Ss said:
You most likely will have to flash a stock rom using Odin on the computer.
The only problem with that is if you had to get your phone flashed to Virgin Mobile like I did with PagePlus, it may or may not erase those critical settings. I could never get a clear answer on that, but it is best to play it safe and assume it will. However, your phone should be functioning once
again.You will however have to re-root the phone, and might as well install TWRP. All of this can be done through Odin.
Alternatively, if you have a custom recovery installed and a rom or two on your sdcard, you could try to flash the rom instead of going all the way back to stock. That would help ensure your carrier settings arent wiped related to Virgin, as it could if you were to flash back to stock.
Then for the love of god, devil, or whoever you believe in... make a backup once you are fixed and back up and running!! They are perfect and extremely helpful for situations like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply and thank you for the help. i did get it to un-bootloop, i unfortunately did not have a rom backup, now i have a full backup zip using CMW on my sd card which i hope would fix this in the future. nothin worked until i found a good boot animation, i should have look for more firat but.once i re-flashed the 3rd one it booted.
aanddink said:
Thank you for the reply and thank you for the help. i did get it to un-bootloop, i unfortunately did not have a rom backup, now i have a full backup zip using CMW on my sd card which i hope would fix this in the future. nothin worked until i found a good boot animation, i should have look for more firat but.once i re-flashed the 3rd one it booted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to have the proper boot animation binaries before you go flashing boot animation. Those zips are for flashing in custom roms that already have the proper binaries.

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