Develop Bugs

[Q] forgot to flash boot.img of Custom ROM - chaos!

Hi Guys,
I have a big problem! I forgot to flash the boot.img of "Jelly Bam 7.2.1" - it all ended in total chaos. I will try to describe everything I did, feel free to ask any further on points that seem to be more relevant than I thought.
To let you know: I have knowledge of flashing / custom roms and all that good jazz in general (with other phones before), but I am a total noob concerning all the One X specific stuff...
1.) rooted my One X. No problems so far, stock rom working fine after doing so, HBoot says "UNLOCKED" at the top, so no problems here.
2.) downloaded the custom ROM (JellyBam, endeavoru, 7.2.1), checked MD5, so no problems with the download - copied it to my phone
3.) went into recovery without fastboot, just the way via hboot and did the following in that order: "wipe data/factory reset", "wipe cache partition", formatted "/cache", formatted "/system", formatted "/data", "wipe dalvik cache", flashed the zip "jelly-bam-blabla.zip"
4.) tried to boot, which obviously did not work, because I forgot flashing the boot.img.... but in concrete: the phone first showed the normal "HTC"-Screen, then the JellyBam loading screen came on the screen, then the "Android Welcome Screen" showed up. after 0,5 seconds a pop-up came up saying "Unfortunately, System UI has stopped." and some 0,5 seconds after another pop-up places itself right over the other one. it says "Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped."... I tried to hit "OK" but it always came up again within 0,5 seconds or shorter.
5.) I went into hboot from there, because my first idea was, that the problem could have been me having forgotten the "fix permissions" after flashing the rom... so i did all the cache / formatting stuff again, flashed the zip again and then fixed permissions.
6.) tried to boot, exactly the same situation as described in "4"
7.) the boot.img-stuff came in my mind. slapped myself in the face several times. the "you should always fastboot flash your recovery if you want to flash anything on your phone"-advise also came in my mind. hurt my face for some more seconds.
8.) went into hboot again, then "fastboot", connected to my MBP and firstly tried to fastboot flash cwm-recovery. but the terminal said that my HOX is too low on battery life...
9.) the part I actually can't remember correctly. tried different advises on how to load the battery without having a rom up and running (from xda devs mainly) - which all did not work but somehow resulted in my HOX not even letting me boot up normally anymore. a (re)boot just kicks me directly into cwm recovery.
10) my battery went totally empty. and now the scary part i really do not understand begins: I connected my HOX via the usb cable to a power adapter. the orange light first started blinking, then it stood on for about 3 hours - I did not touch it. after these about 3 hours the device automatically booted into cwm recovery. i went into hboot which resulted in the normal error messages while connected via usb to a power adapter or a computer, so i unplugged the cable and rebooted recovery. again went in hboot, which now tells me I am too low on battery to flash anything. Because the orange light is only on in cwm recovery I thought that the phone charges there (I also read that, but the people said it would be veeery slow), so I tried to keep it in recovery. the problem is: it automatically shuts down after 20-30 minutes... I tried to avoid that as long as possible, always just hitting volume down once every 20 minutes - but even after doing that for about 6 hours, hboot still told me my battery is too low...
I really do not know what to do. I am never able to stay at home for longer than these 6 hours, so I do not know how I might get the battery high enough in order to flash the boot img or the zip in cwm again...
Please help me you genius people out there!
P.S.: The nerd video at registration is nicely done. I really like it. And I hope I did not overlook a thread that could solve my problem...

I'm not sure this is correct but I'd let it charge then in fastboot erase cache flash the boot then erase fastboot cache again.
A
Htc One X Viper 3.4.2

frontinsomething said:
Please help me you genius people out there!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At your service!!
Use this lil script to charge your device. It reboots the handset over and over again causing it to build up voltage. Once it prints out ~3750mV or higher, you should be good to flash.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1658084

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1658084
Make this little script and execute it as a batch
Flash this recovery - http://download.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.4.0-endeavoru.img
Download the stock rom from here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1546970
Fastboot flash the boot.img and `fastboot erase cache`
Wipe data and flash the rom.
You`ll at at least be in a working rom.
P.s you dont have to flash recovery all the time. Flash it once and leave it.

Iceax123 said:
I'm not sure this is correct but I'd let it charge then in fastboot erase cache flash the boot then erase fastboot cache again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, my plan looked similar. The problem is you forgot the first stept. What I need is to
1.) somehow charge my phone to an adequate degree
2.) fastboot erase cache / flash boot.img / erase cache
3.) flash the zip again (just to make sure)
Can you help me for step one of that?
As described before the charging does not really work. In cwm it charges freakin slow, in hboot it does not seem to at all (I am not quite sure 'bout that)...

come on guys, you are way too fast in answering I knew why I like this place
I guessed people would come up with the script. the point is, that I tried that and failed at it... can somebody exactly tell me how to to that on Mac? I failed at it... (see step 9)

frontinsomething said:
come on guys, you are way too fast in answering I knew why I like this place
I guessed people would come up with the script. the point is, that I tried that and failed at it... can somebody exactly tell me how to to that on Mac? I failed at it... (see step 9)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't own a mac but it's really similar to Linux, so.....
Name it .sh instead of bat. And mark it executable by going to terminal as root and typing
Code:
chmod a+x [path_for_the_file]
Or use some gui to set it executable.
Then it should work by simply double clicking.
Good luck:good:
EDIT If fastboot commands different on mac, for example "fastboot-mac flash blablah", you need to modify the script accordingly.

TToivanen said:
I don't own a mac but it's really similar to Linux, so.....
Name it .sh instead of bat. And mark it executable by going to terminal as root and typing
Code:
chmod a+x [path_for_the_file]
Or use some gui to set it executable.
Then it should work by simply double clicking.
Good luck:good:
EDIT If fastboot commands different on mac, for example "fastboot-mac flash blablah", you need to modify the script accordingly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice! At least the script works! Although it runs since 20:30 now and still only brought me up about 1mV... but let's see where I get. I will try to do all the good jazz if I get over 3680 - I will tell you as soon as it worked or if it did not.
See you later and thanks for the help so far!

frontinsomething said:
Nice! At least the script works! Although it runs since 20:30 now and still only brought me up about 1mV... but let's see where I get. I will try to do all the good jazz if I get over 3680 - I will tell you as soon as it worked or if it did not.
See you later and thanks for the help so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice ! Fingers crossed
Sent from my IceCold One X

TToivanen said:
Nice ! Fingers crossed
Sent from my IceCold One X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just noticed, that I also need/want to flash the zip again - how much mV would I need for that?

Once you have flashed the boot image (fastboot batt warning vanished), you'll be good to flash the zip also.
Sent from my IceCold One X

You Are Epic, Guys!
Thank you for your help, not only, but mainly TToivanen!
Everything worked out fine! ROM is now up and running! yippieh!

Nice !
Enjoy the new ROM
Sent from my IceCold One X

[Q] Wildfire S [Marvelc] Stuck on opening update package

Hello all, for the past few days I have been trying to install android 4.0 ICS on my HTC Wildfire S CDMA phone, currently connected to youtube. on one instance I accidently formatted my backup so at this point im prettty scared.
I have already tried full resets, clearing memory, batttery, cache etc. I am stuck using CWM because TWRP touch screen doesnt seem to work at all. All help will be greatly appreciated. thank you.
I have also tried most of what is on other forums such as kernel update, redownloading.
I also find that if while installing, the phone restarts on its own. at first I thought the installation was done but to my dismay, it wasnt....

I'm not sure I can help but I would suggest you try to clarify what you are asking and trying to do. You state that you're doing an install of ICS 4.0 on your WFSc. I don't think any WFS, gsm or cdma got the ICS update unless you mean as Cyanogen Mod 9 or some other ROM? You also said something about being connected to You Tube now...that doesn't make sense.
That being said, if you meant you were trying to install the ICS theme then you might get a quicker more focused response if you posted in this forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1504935

Clarification
I got a second wildfire s from my cousin. exact same model and was bought the exact time as my current one and it successfully installed the cynanogen 9 with the only failure being that the touchscreen is inoperable but I will work on that another time. also when I said connected to youtube, I meant I tried to look on youtube for fixes but never found one. anyway the main problem is that my phone stops midway through the "installin updates" to either freeze or restart to a blank operating system "meaning its stuck on the htc logo". I hope this clarifies what I was trying to convey in the previous post and I promise to keep a closer eye for any other messages. I also thank you for answering.

Instead of potentially aggravating you with 20 questions, I'll just briefly run thru the steps, FWIW. I see you mention CWM.
-So, you probably unlocked the booloader at HTC dev and are S-on.
-Installed CWM, so you have the adb files and htc sync on your computer.
-Rooted, although flashing CM will root.
-Battery charged.
-Downloaded the correct CM9 for your WFS, i.e., gsm or cdma, and moved it to your sd card after extracting the boot.img file and putting it into the folder on your computer with the adb, fastboot, etc. files for later.
-Booted into CWM and wiped the cache, dalvik-cache, and data/factory reset.
-Selected the CM9 file on your zip, and started the install.
I'm a little unsure what you are saying happens next, but normally you would:
-after CM9 is flashed go to fastboot in the bootloader or reboot into recovery>fastboot.
-Attach the USB cable from the computer to the phone and with the command prompt at that folder where you have those adb files type:
fastboot flash boot boot.img and press enter
-Then reboot and CM9 should load...unless now both of us have missed something ::yikes!::
For some reason most guides seem to skip that part about extracting the boot.img file and flashing it after the ROM install, which is needed if the phone is still S-on. Typically seen when stuck on the HTC logo after flashing the ROM and rebooting, and you mentioned being stuck on the HTC logo. If the phone is S-off, the boot.img gets flashed from within the ROM during the install.
Hope I found the missing step and that it installs successfully.

romemo two
MiCeltic said:
Instead of potentially aggravating you with 20 questions, I'll just briefly run thru the steps, FWIW. I see you mention CWM.
-So, you probably unlocked the booloader at HTC dev and are S-on.
-Installed CWM, so you have the adb files and htc sync on your computer.
-Rooted, although flashing CM will root.
-Battery charged.
-Downloaded the correct CM9 for your WFS, i.e., gsm or cdma, and moved it to your sd card after extracting the boot.img file and putting it into the folder on your computer with the adb, fastboot, etc. files for later.
-Booted into CWM and wiped the cache, dalvik-cache, and data/factory reset.
-Selected the CM9 file on your zip, and started the install.
I'm a little unsure what you are saying happens next, but normally you would:
-after CM9 is flashed go to fastboot in the bootloader or reboot into recovery>fastboot.
-Attach the USB cable from the computer to the phone and with the command prompt at that folder where you have those adb files type:
fastboot flash boot boot.img and press enter
-Then reboot and CM9 should load...unless now both of us have missed something ::yikes!::
For some reason most guides seem to skip that part about extracting the boot.img file and flashing it after the ROM install, which is needed if the phone is still S-on. Typically seen when stuck on the HTC logo after flashing the ROM and rebooting, and you mentioned being stuck on the HTC logo. If the phone is S-off, the boot.img gets flashed from within the ROM during the install.
Hope I found the missing step and that it installs successfully.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for the reply. you have given me quite a lot of information and 90% of it was correct and dead on, but where you misunderstand is that while using CWM and flashing ANY Rom onto the phone, it either freezes at "installing updates" or restats if it ever gets to the next step. The confusing part of this is that the other phone which is the exact same model was able to be flashed with all the roms that I tried on my own phone with no problem.
To make things easier. after this I will adress the phones differently:
My phone (Not working Flash) is Marvelc 1
My cousins phone (working flash) is Marvelc 2

This is particularly challenging because you keep emphasizing that you are doing exactly what (you did?) on the other WFS, and I presume they have identical hboots (which they'd have to if you unlocked using htcdev). You also say that you re-downloaded the different files (recovery, CM9) and double checked that their for the MarvelC, and re-did then, re-tried, re-tried, re-tried...and I'm presuming that when you were re-trying that you didn't skip any steps, like the wipes. Oh, and most of all that everything worked on this phone before you started unlocking - flashing the recovery - and rooting. I thought about htc sync and adb, but the fail point is not when the computer is hooked up.
So all that being re-hashed, I'm looking for something concrete, a clue from what you've said or hinted at and right now I'm curious about your SD card. That is most likely not common to both phones and you did say, "on one instance I accidently formatted my backup..." Did you get everything formatted OK with no errors...that SD especially, as Fat32, shouldn't need an ext partition at this time. It could be corrupted and failing at some point when it's unpacking CM9, or whatever. You might re-do formatting that, including doing it on a computer if you have an adapter or a card reader, if not in CWM. It wouldn't hurt to put it in another phone and see if you can read it there and/or on a computer when that other phone is hooked up as a disk drive. Then put a fresh copy of whichever CM9 your flashing on it and try EVERYTHING one more time (back in your phone of course) ::haha:: be sure to leave the battery out for at least 30 sec. after all this and before trying the flash just to be sure any residual static in the phone has dissipated.
If it fails again, leave on and hook up to the computer and run: "adb logcat" from the prompt where you have your adb files and see if it will show you anything. You can exit logcat with the Ctrl + C keys. What do you think?
Oh, and while you're doing all that, who's CM9 are you trying to install. Do you have a link so I can look at it out of curiosity?

It took me awhile to absorb all that but after trying all.those steps,.there was no progress. Furthermore the microsd card I use is for both of my HTC's. And lastly the adb logcat or any adb script for that matter won't work unless the phone is in debug mode with a working o.s.
Thanks for hanging with me and I look forward to your next suggestion.
Sent from my HTC-PG762 using xda app-developers app

I wasn't sure whether there would be some kind of script running in a buffer of the install that might be captured with something like: logcat -b event > /sdcard/logcat.txt
so it was a shot in the dark and I don't know what's left, but perhaps someone else that is reading the post might have some ideas, or experience with this specific issue and jump in with a solution.
I was writing a macro once and couldn't get it to work and spent too much time over 3 days trying to figure it out. When I finally asked someone else to look at it, I was just missing a semi-colon or some one simple thing. You sound pretty knowledgeable, sorry I couldn't be the second set of eyes to come up with the missing thing. If I can think of anything more, I'm subscribed to this thread and I'll surely suggest it.

Thank you for trying, I hope to find an answer soon enough.
Sent from my HTC-PG762 using xda app-developers app

HTC One M9 Stuck on splash screen after attempting update

My phone's bootloader is locked, never messed with it at all.
So about a week ago I get a prompt on my One M9 for an update. I download it without problem, however while installing it gets stuck at 25%, and gives me a red ! in a triangle, then it reboots. I try to redownload a couple times with no luck. For a couple days I just click don't install after it downloads (why isn't there an option to just not download from the start?) and finally I try it again on Friday morning. This time the HTC One splash screen comes up, and it freezes. I research for a couple hours with no luck. I have a wedding out of town I need to go to, so I decide to wait until I'm back home today to work on it some more.
Today I get back home about 6 hours ago and all I'm trying to do is recover my data, specifically pictures from my wedding. I thought I had it set to auto backup, but I guess that was my One M8 I did that to. I look into TWRP, which won't work because of the locked bootloader, various programs to recover data that won't even work on old phones that I have, as well as "adb -d pull sdcard/ C:\RecoveredData". When I attempt to do that it gives me the error: closed, even though when I type in ADB devices, my phone shows up, although it says sideload next to the SN. I looked up how to fix the error: closed (update adb.exe), but I get the same result, or it freezes (I've left it up for awhile just to make sure it wasn't copying the files)
The only way I can get the ADB commands to work is if I go into the Android Recovery and select "Apply update from ADB". I'm wondering if that is why it says sideload next to my phones SN and why I can't pull the files off of the phone.
I'm wondering if I apply the update that the phone was trying to get via ADB, if that would allow my to keep my current data. Looking at the page
ok, so I can't post URL, but if you google "Flashing a stock Android image without wiping user data", its the first post.
It appears that I should be able to. My problem is that I'm terrified of wiping my pictures out if I do it incorrectly.
I'm on Sprint, and the newest version is 3.41.651.13. I'm pretty sure my phone had 3.41.651.4
I just want to make sure that if I follow that post, with the correct files from sprint, that it would work.
Any help at all would be wonderful.
Edit: I did have USB debugging active before all this happened as well

If I was to install the current version of the OTA on my phone via ADB would that work to get it up and running again? That way I the image would match what the phone is looking for since I can't update it because the bootloader is locked.

NGalaxyTimmyo said:
If I was to install the current version of the OTA on my phone via ADB would that work to get it up and running again? That way I the image would match what the phone is looking for since I can't update it because the bootloader is locked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
flashing stockrom should not wipe internal sd-card
can you connect via adb? (if the phone is in recovery mode)

The only way I seem to be able to flash anything is through the adb menu. I found the current update, but because I can't flash the system img files due to it being locked, it fails at around 47%.
I've been looking for the current version for a few days now with little luck.
When I type adb devices, the serial number comes up, with sideload next to it. I'm assuming if I find the right files it'll work

5x Hard Bricked??

I think I've done goofed my nexus.
Yesterday, I made a backup of my phone, and then booted it up. Everything was working fine prior to the backup, but as soon as I booted it after making the backup, it got stuck on the google logo. I tried restarting it several times, but it's just been stuck in a bootloop ever since. I've tried numerous things, like formatting it, flashing factory images, and so on, but it turns out fastboot won't detect my device. ADB detects my device fine, but only in recovery. As far as I know, I don't have usb debugging enabled (since I formatted it). It currently has no OS since I formatted it. I've tried installing stock android since formatting it but it still gets stuck in a bootloop.
All my drivers are correct (I've re-installed them probably 10 times by now), and the images aren't corrupted (as far as I know).
I've run out of ideas, as I've been trying to figure this out for the past 2 days with no success. Any help would be appreciated.

I've had a similar issue a couple times after doing something stupid (ADB or FASTBOOT could not detect the phone). The fix was to look in Windows Device Manager and make sure the phone really was detected and a driver installed. Windows would say that it could not find a driver but telling it to install manually did the trick..... as I recall there were a couple driver choices, so it might be trieal and error. Might not be the issue in your case since it does sound like the hardware has a problem, but worth looking into?
Paul

pgoelz said:
I've had a similar issue a couple times after doing something stupid (ADB or FASTBOOT could not detect the phone). The fix was to look in Windows Device Manager and make sure the phone really was detected and a driver installed. Windows would say that it could not find a driver but telling it to install manually did the trick..... as I recall there were a couple driver choices, so it might be trieal and error. Might not be the issue in your case since it does sound like the hardware has a problem, but worth looking into?
Paul
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've re-installed the drivers a couple of times now, and it doesn't seem to be fixing the problem.
I don't think it's a hardware problem, because I don't see what making a backup would do to the hardware of the phone (of course, I don't really know much about the hardware, so I might be wrong.) Thanks for the help, though!

ItsMason said:
I've re-installed the drivers a couple of times now, and it doesn't seem to be fixing the problem.
I don't think it's a hardware problem, because I don't see what making a backup would do to the hardware of the phone (of course, I don't really know much about the hardware, so I might be wrong.) Thanks for the help, though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, since you're communicating with the device via ADB and can boot to recovery, I'm pretty sure you can still do something about it. I've had this issue and I can recommend starting to read up on Ubuntu or some type of Linux with a decent user interface. It's easier for starters.
You see, if you don't detect the device via the 'fastboot devices' command, then you have one of two big problems:
a) drivers are messed up - it implies you uninstall everything from Device Manager related to ADB / Bootloader interface. After that, shut off the phone, connect your type-c usb cable, boot up the phone into bootloader and let it install the drivers again (I didn't have much success with this but I read others have. Worth a try)
b) something messed up deeper, as in device permissions. When I had the issue, I used Mint (a Debian distribution) and installed all the drivers via the command line there. After that, when I ran fastboot devices, I got something. It was my lost N5x showing with 'no permissions' and no serial ID. I ran 'sudo fastboot devices' and lo' and behold, I saw the device. After that, I just used sudo fastboot flash recovery/system/etc with it and that was it.

exige34 said:
Hi, since you're communicating with the device via ADB and can boot to recovery, I'm pretty sure you can still do something about it. I've had this issue and I can recommend starting to read up on Ubuntu or some type of Linux with a decent user interface. It's easier for starters.
You see, if you don't detect the device via the 'fastboot devices' command, then you have one of two big problems:
a) drivers are messed up - it implies you uninstall everything from Device Manager related to ADB / Bootloader interface. After that, shut off the phone, connect your type-c usb cable, boot up the phone into bootloader and let it install the drivers again (I didn't have much success with this but I read others have. Worth a try)
b) something messed up deeper, as in device permissions. When I had the issue, I used Mint (a Debian distribution) and installed all the drivers via the command line there. After that, when I ran fastboot devices, I got something. It was my lost N5x showing with 'no permissions' and no serial ID. I ran 'sudo fastboot devices' and lo' and behold, I saw the device. After that, I just used sudo fastboot flash recovery/system/etc with it and that was it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made some progress: my device is now detected in fastboot. I have literally absolutely no clue what happened. I guess it was a bit of randomness or luck or something (maybe wacky and goofy). I've done some flashing - I've flashed system, boot, recovery, cache, data, and radio, but it's still stuck in a bootloop. I don't know what's going on it with it now, but it seems like I haven't made any progress with fastboot.

ItsMason said:
I think I've done goofed my nexus.
Yesterday, I made a backup of my phone, and then booted it up. Everything was working fine prior to the backup, but as soon as I booted it after making the backup, it got stuck on the google logo. I tried restarting it several times, but it's just been stuck in a bootloop ever since. I've tried numerous things, like formatting it, flashing factory images, and so on, but it turns out fastboot won't detect my device. ADB detects my device fine, but only in recovery. As far as I know, I don't have usb debugging enabled (since I formatted it). It currently has no OS since I formatted it. I've tried installing stock android since formatting it but it still gets stuck in a bootloop.
All my drivers are correct (I've re-installed them probably 10 times by now), and the images aren't corrupted (as far as I know).
I've run out of ideas, as I've been trying to figure this out for the past 2 days with no success. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you use 3.02.1. Twrp

Since you mention ADB works fine from recovery, have you tried to adb push a rom zip, and then flash it from your recovery?
Code:
adb push "/path/to/rom.zip" /data/media

ItsMason said:
I made some progress: my device is now detected in fastboot. I have literally absolutely no clue what happened. I guess it was a bit of randomness or luck or something (maybe wacky and goofy). I've done some flashing - I've flashed system, boot, recovery, cache, data, and radio, but it's still stuck in a bootloop. I don't know what's going on it with it now, but it seems like I haven't made any progress with fastboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good. I see you mention flashing system, boot, recovery, cache(?), data(?) and radio. What do you mean by flash cache&data? You mean you've cleaned it? Formatting data is not usually a thing you have to do to recover from a bootloop.
What ROM have you flashed? Are you flashing stock? It's important you give more details so I can help you.
Have you flashed vendor.img? If you have been on a ROM that had it's own vendor.img and you went back to stock, then the vendor.imgs are different enough to cause a bootloop.
If all and all fails, we just want to see your system running so I'd recommend drop everything you are doing and follow these steps:
1. Access recovery (make sure you're using v 3.0.2.2)
2. Tap Wipe - > Advanced Wipe - > And check:
Dalvik / ART Cache
System
Internal Storage
Cache
3. Go to -> Pixel ROM (7.1.1) Get V 3.0 which was just uploaded recently. Please note it comes preconfigured with Gapps so no need to get that
4. You have to unzip the archive and you will see all the necessary img files (includes boot/vendor which are critical for boot). I strongly recommend manually flashing them. You can open the flash-all.bat file with a .txt editor and just follow the steps there.
After you have finished these steps, you should be free of a bootloop. From there, it is your decision where you. Either stay on a stock ROM or flash safely and always remember that you can make a backup and flash that backup in case you bootloop.
Good luck.
EDIT
Decay3 said:
Since you mention ADB works fine from recovery, have you tried to adb push a rom zip, and then flash it from your recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think his problem is deeper than a /system error. I'm guessing the wrong boot/vendor is flashed for the ROM he is trying to install and trying to guess which ROM would work on his current config would take more time than just starting from a clean flash.

Thanks for the help guys, but I gave up. I contacted Google and they sent me a replacement. Sorry for kind of wasting time.

Nexus stuck in boot loop - unrooted - Backing up photos from bootloader or recovery

Hi.
Apologies if this is a very naive question, I am not particularly familiar with mods, roms and so forth.
I have rooted another phone in the past, but that is all.
The situation:
- Samsung Galaxy Nexus
- Not rooted/unlocked. Stock android automatically updated to the latest Android version supported
- Android developer option NOT set in settings
- Stuck in a boot loop: boots to android and then after a few seconds reboots, so no time to do anything
- Not sure how it happened, I had it for years, it was in my pocket and suddenly started doing that.
- Android fastboot and recovery loads up no problem
- I have tried anything I could find online to fix it: deleted cache, rebooted in safe mode, removed battery for 10 hours
- Nothing seems to fix it, it keeps rebooting
- I want to try a factory reset, but my family photos are in the phone
- Google synch seems to have stopped functioning for this device a year ago, all my 2016-17 photos and videos are locked in the phone.
Admitting there is nothing to do about the loop problem:
Is there any way I can copy photos and videos via usb while in recovery mode?
After I will reset the phone via recovery menu, hoping it will fix it. IF that does not fix it, I will flash another rom in. But I really do not want to wipe my data before backing them up.
I am assuming the answer is no, you cannot access the internal memory in fastboot/recovery unless your phone is rooted.
But I would like an expert opinion before I resolve to wipe one year of photos and videos which I will regret losing.

@mcaldo DON'T DO FACTORY RESET, EVERYTHING WILL BE LOST
which recovery are you using..?
if it's TWRP, then it's easy..
- boot into TWRP recovery
- go to "Mount" tab
- find "enable/disable MTP" button at lower options.. (enable it )
then connect your phone to that PC, where you always connected in past, ( to eliminate driver installation stage, all drivers will be preinstalled )
Regards

____Mdd said:
@mcaldo DON'T DO FACTORY RESET, EVERYTHING WILL BE LOST
which recovery are you using..?
if it's TWRP, then it's easy..
- boot into TWRP recovery
- go to "Mount" tab
- find "enable/disable MTP" button at lower options.. (enable it )
then connect your phone to that PC, where you always connected in past, ( to eliminate driver installation stage, all drivers will be preinstalled )
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply!
By recovery, I meant 'android system recovery'
It gives me the following options:
reboot system now
apply update from ADB
apply update from USB drive
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition
Is any of the above useful?
Unfortunately, I do not have any alternative recovery software available
Edit: Googling I found this: "Apply update from ADB: The Android Debug Bridge allows you to plug your device into your PC and issue commands from there. "
If I can issue commands through ADB, perhaps there is a command to copy data from my phone to my computer?

mcaldo said:
Thanks for your reply!
By recovery, I meant 'android system recovery'
It gives me the following options:
reboot system now
apply update from ADB
apply update from USB drive
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition
Is any of the above useful?
Unfortunately, I do not have any alternative recovery software available
Edit: Googling I found this: "Apply update from ADB: The Android Debug Bridge allows you to plug your device into your PC and issue commands from there. "
If I can issue commands through ADB, perhaps there is a command to copy data from my phone to my computer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can copy through adb commands..
Get and extract Minimal ADB and Fastboot from here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790
From PC, run CMD to extracted folder directory.
Connect phone to PC, go to update from ADB(in recovery),
Type "adb device" , it will show serial number and connected..
Then "adb pull /sdcard " (if you know particular directory of data then write it like /sdcard/photos,, otherwise writing /sdcard will copy all folders from your phone. )
it will start copying to same adb folder ..

____Mdd said:
Yes, you can copy through adb commands..
Get and extract Minimal ADB and Fastboot from here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790
From PC, run CMD to extracted folder directory.
Connect phone to PC, go to update from ADB(in recovery),
Type "adb device" , it will show serial number and connected..
Then "adb pull /sdcard " (if you know particular directory of data then write it like /sdcard/photos,, otherwise writing /sdcard will copy all folders from your phone. )
it will start copying to same adb folder ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice.
I followed the instructions closely, and nearly got there.
adb devices returns
#serialnumber sideload
so all good
but adb pull /sdcard returns
adb: error connect failed: closed
I tried several other commands with no success
kill-server and start-server work fine but do not solve the problem
adb usb returns
error closed
So, I am starting thinking that the problem is in the bootloader being locked.
However, if I unlock it, it will be wipe all my data, I understand?
Googling about it, I found this:
The behavior is status-by-design. Your stock recovery is not designed to grant shell access. Your only choice here is to somehow manage to flash a custom recovery. – Firelord Dec 30 '15 at 14:19
3
To achieve something similar to what @FireLord suggested: TWRP can be booted on many devices without being installed. For that, find a matching image, then boot to the bootloader and run fastboot boot twrp.img. Btw: you can check with fastboot devices resp. adb devices whether a device is visible to the corresponding tool. – Izzy♦ Jul 8 '16 at 19:40
So I understand one could boot TWRP without installing it, but I am not sure if that means I could do that with the bootloader locked?
I found WugFresh nexus root toolkit which seems to do that, among many other things, but again it warns that the phone must be unlocked (using the android build "Android *.* Any", I did not know what else to choose, not sure if that makes any difference as for locked/unlocked requirements)
EDIT: my fastboot screen reads "FASTBOOT STATUS - Failbootloader locked" as the last line, when trying to run TWRP without installing.

Yes, unlocking bootloader will wipe everything..
What actually you did ? Why it went into bootloop ???
I have also read that about boot into TWRP without installing.. and it worked for many one without unlocking bootloader... Don't know why not on GNex.

____Mdd said:
Yes, unlocking bootloader will wipe everything..
What actually you did ? Why it went into bootloop ???
I have also read that about boot into TWRP without installing.. and it worked for many one without unlocking bootloader... Don't know why not on GNex.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What actually you did ? Why it went into bootloop ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A very good question, to which I have no answer, unfortunately.
The phone was used by my wife for 2 years and then by me for other 2. I recently changed the battery.
Never rooted or unlocked. No unusual apps installed. I am a very basic user, as you might have guessed, and being my only phone at the moment, I really would not risk experimenting with it.
It went very slow over the last 4 months, so I was planning to reset it.
I put in my coat pocket for a few hours, when I took it out it had a train ticked stuck to the screen and was quite warm and on the lock screen. It froze, so I took the battery out and restarted it. From then on it is stuck in a loop, not sure why really.
I have also read that about boot into TWRP without installing.. and it worked for many one without unlocking bootloader... Don't know why not on GNex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's good to know. I'll research more than.
It seems there might be a problem with the fastboot drivers on my computer, even selecting them from device manager did not work. Win7 refuses to install. The ADB drivers in theory work fine though.

If you have done nothing modification to system, then wiping data should work, but i have doubt if it also wipes personal data too, on TWRP it wipes data excepting /data/media/ which contains all personal data.. but don't know about wiping on stock recovery...
I hope you will find solution as soon as possible..
Regards.
PS. I can install stock recovery and try wiping /data.. and check what things get wiped.. but i need little time for that experiment...

____Mdd said:
If you have done nothing modification to system, then wiping data should work, but i have doubt if it also wipes personal data too, on TWRP it wipes data excepting /data/media/ which contains all personal data.. but don't know about wiping on stock recovery...
I hope you will find solution as soon as possible..
Regards.
PS. I can install stock recovery and try wiping /data.. and check what things get wiped.. but i need little time for that experiment...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much.
Looking at google's documentation on the nexus:
You can remove data from your Pixel phone or Nexus device by resetting it to factory settings. Resetting to factory settings is also known as formatting the device or doing a "hard reset".
If you're factory resetting your device to fix an issue, make sure that you've tried all other troubleshooting options first. Find out how to troubleshoot your issue.
Important: Performing a factory reset will erase all data from the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would seem that indeed all data will be removed.
This point, I will research a bit more into drivers, in case that is what it's preventing adb pull from working.
I really need a working phone, so if that fails I will hard reset, then unlock, root, flash in an alternative bootloader and perhaps a rom, and put ubuntu touch in dual boot. That will hopefully prevent me from loosing data in the future.
Sorry, this is out of topic to my question, but, , could you suggest any stable, solid rom for the nexus?
I read good things of CM12, and I ran into one which seemed to do to quite well with split windows, but I do not remember the name right now.
EDIT: I remember the name of the rom now, it's https://omnirom.org/about/

A last question if you can..
I tried to solve my boot loop problem by sideloading an update from google (maguro yakju yakju-jwr66y-factory-4cadea65.zip)
It loaded it fine but then failed because the installation it says it is not signed.
Basically, being a stock bootloader recovery from Samsung, it will only sideload OTAs from samsung, not the stock ones from google..
I cannot find the samsung ones anywhere, not for the nexus anyway, just the newer devices..
By any chance do you know where I could download proper Samsung OTA zip updates for the nexus?

Well, I talked with an android developer who confirmed that, unless you have a friend working in criminal forensic technology or similar, there is no way to get around a lock on this phone to pull data out.
So, sadly, I have wiped my phone by unlocking it, flashed TWRP and then omnirom with gapps.
My photos are gone, including a bunch of stuff my kid had made and asked me to photograph for safeeping. Very safe indeed
He kept asking me why they make the lock like that, instead of allowing some kind of password, perhaps he has a point.
So, it is quite unlikely that somebody who knows as little as I did will ever read this *before* finding themselves in the same situation.
But if you do, back up your data, unlock and flash TWRP, clockworks or some alternative, and thank yourself if and when disaster strikes..

@mcaldo wiping data/factory reset in STOCK RECOvERY will wipe everything... There is very few chances to get backup...
And yeah i found something interesting..
You can flash system.img.. only system files will be corrected not anything else..
Get appropriate zip from here : https://developers.google.com/android/images
Now take system.img to ADB/Fastboot folder ( i assume you know how it works )
Just go "Fastboot flash system system.img"
It will rewrite system partition..
Another one:
See downloads on this thread..
One says NON-WIPE, if you want me to try that zip, i will again require time for that. See here : https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-restore-to-stock-unbrick-galaxy-t2065470
---------- Post added at 11:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 AM ----------
I don't saw your reply, it was on next page.. its sad... Sorry i am late..