Develop Bugs

[Q] Phone bricked, no ODIN access! E: Unable to mount '/data'

Hello all,
Quick background - my wife's T-Mobile S4 went kaput on our honeymoon last night, but I was at least able to save some of her data. The problem now goes to installing a new ROM on her device.
I have wiped EVERYTHING and formatted the data, but when I install ANY ROM (I've tried multiple), I always get the E: Unable to mount '/data" error. Normally, I would just ODIN the stock tar, then install a custom recovery again and then the ROM, but I only have my work computer for the rest of my honeymoon and I don't have administrative access to run ODIN (you might not think it requires it, but if you're only a standard user then you cannot bypass UAC to run it).
Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this to mount? The phone will not boot past the "Samsung Galaxy S4" screen. I've tried going into TWRP and mounting Data but it will not work.
Any help is greatly appreciated! Please keep in mind that I don't have access to ODIN!
- Taxmaster

Taxmaster said:
Hello all,
Quick background - my wife's T-Mobile S4 went kaput on our honeymoon last night, but I was at least able to save some of her data. The problem now goes to installing a new ROM on her device.
I have wiped EVERYTHING and formatted the data, but when I install ANY ROM (I've tried multiple), I always get the E: Unable to mount '/data" error. Normally, I would just ODIN the stock tar, then install a custom recovery again and then the ROM, but I only have my work computer for the rest of my honeymoon and I don't have administrative access to run ODIN (you might not think it requires it, but if you're only a standard user then you cannot bypass UAC to run it).
Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this to mount? The phone will not boot past the "Samsung Galaxy S4" screen. I've tried going into TWRP and mounting Data but it will not work.
Any help is greatly appreciated! Please keep in mind that I don't have access to ODIN!
- Taxmaster
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a twrp issue. Try grabbing the cwm flash able zip and adb push to the sd card and then use twrp to install it. I've read so many issues about twrp. I recommend staying away from it. Philz touch recovery is really awesome too.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

elesbb said:
Sounds like a twrp issue. Try grabbing the cwm flash able zip and adb push to the sd card and then use twrp to install it. I've read so many issues about twrp. I recommend staying away from it. Philz touch recovery is really awesome too.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello! I actually downloaded Philz touch recovery in both .zip and in .md5, so that is what I intend to go with. The issue is how I push it using adb, as I believe I need to install something in order to do so, but I don't have any administrative privileges! This is what's preventing me from running ODIN in the first place!
Can you confirm that I can push using adb without installing anything?
Thank you! - Taxmaster

I had this issue. Odin flashing and then booting into "STOCK RECOVERY" after flashing and then a factory reset in the stock recovery followed by a fresh re-flash from Odin worked to get my phone back up and running again.
I don't know how you are going to be able to fix it by just flashing a recovery. I tried for hours and could not get it to boot from just recovery alone.

Monkz said:
I had this issue. Odin flashing and then booting into "STOCK RECOVERY" after flashing and then a factory reset in the stock recovery followed by a fresh re-flash from Odin worked to get my phone back up and running again.
I don't know how you are going to be able to fix it by just flashing a recovery. I tried for hours and could not get it to boot from just recovery alone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you noted would be my plan if I had admin rights to my computer, but since I cannot get ODIN, I'm screwed at the moment. I'm hoping someone can assist with the "adb" proposal, however I'm not sure one can download/run adb without installation or prompt from UAC

Taxmaster said:
What you noted would be my plan if I had admin rights to my computer, but since I cannot get ODIN, I'm screwed at the moment. I'm hoping someone can assist with the "adb" proposal, however I'm not sure one can download/run adb without installation or prompt from UAC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe admin is required for adb... You could always try it... worst thing that could happen would be nothing.

lordcheeto03 said:
I don't believe admin is required for adb... You could always try it... worst thing that could happen would be nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using ADB does not require admin privelages, however, if your computer does not have the necessary drivers to detect the device in recovery, then you will have to install the drivers, which then yes UAC is required. HOWEVER, if you have another phone or device that supports MicroSD cards, you can just pop in the MicroSD into a working device and transfer the zip that way, then transfer back the sd card and flash

elesbb said:
Using ADB does not require admin privelages, however, if your computer does not have the necessary drivers to detect the device in recovery, then you will have to install the drivers, which then yes UAC is required. HOWEVER, if you have another phone or device that supports MicroSD cards, you can just pop in the MicroSD into a working device and transfer the zip that way, then transfer back the sd card and flash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did exactly what's noted above --> took out the SDcard, put it in another phone, transferred over the .zip, put it back in her phone, went to TWRP, wiped everything on the device, installed the .zip, and rebooted into recovery from TWRP, and then the new recovery booted! I did another wipe/factory reset and then installed a ROM, but when I hit reboot, it didn't reboot past the Samsung Galaxy S4 splash screen , and to make matters worse, when I go to enter recovery pressing home+up+power, it says "Recovery Booting ...." in the top left corner but it won't boot into recovery!!!
Thoughts?
If someone could strip administrative privileges off of a version of ODIN v3 for me, that would be great! I don't see how else to get around this now!
-Taxmaster

Taxmaster said:
I did exactly what's noted above --> took out the SDcard, put it in another phone, transferred over the .zip, put it back in her phone, went to TWRP, wiped everything on the device, installed the .zip, and rebooted into recovery from TWRP, and then the new recovery booted! I did another wipe/factory reset and then installed a ROM, but when I hit reboot, it didn't reboot past the Samsung Galaxy S4 splash screen , and to make matters worse, when I go to enter recovery pressing home+up+power, it says "Recovery Booting ...." in the top left corner but it won't boot into recovery!!!
Thoughts?
If someone could strip administrative privileges off of a version of ODIN v3 for me, that would be great! I don't see how else to get around this now!
-Taxmaster
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity, are you flashing a ROM for the T-Mobile S4? If no, are you using a T-Mobile kernel? I only ask because a kernel for a different device will normally cause you to not be able to pass the initial Galaxy S4 screen... Also, as far as TWRP goes, sometimes it doesn't go right into recovery. If it fails to enter recovery after a reasonable amount of time, just hold power to turn it off and try again. I've had to do it 2-3 times at least just to successfully enter TWRP.

lordcheeto03 said:
Out of curiosity, are you flashing a ROM for the T-Mobile S4? If no, are you using a T-Mobile kernel? I only ask because a kernel for a different device will normally cause you to not be able to pass the initial Galaxy S4 screen... Also, as far as TWRP goes, sometimes it doesn't go right into recovery. If it fails to enter recovery after a reasonable amount of time, just hold power to turn it off and try again. I've had to do it 2-3 times at least just to successfully enter TWRP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am installing a T-Mobile S4 ROM that uses a custom kernel. The ROM before was the same ROM just a lower revision, same kernel.
With respect to TWRP, I thought it was all gone now that I installed the CWM touch version. I've tried doing it a million times and cannot get back into either TWRP or CWM. At this point, the only thing I can do is turn on the device to see the "Samsung Galaxy S4" screen, attempt booting into recovery but never make it past the screen saying "Recovery Booting", or enter Download Mode but I cannot use it since I can't run ODIN on my work laptop .... stupid admin privileges!

Taxmaster said:
I am installing a T-Mobile S4 ROM that uses a custom kernel. The ROM before was the same ROM just a lower revision, same kernel.
With respect to TWRP, I thought it was all gone now that I installed the CWM touch version. I've tried doing it a million times and cannot get back into either TWRP or CWM. At this point, the only thing I can do is turn on the device to see the "Samsung Galaxy S4" screen, attempt booting into recovery but never make it past the screen saying "Recovery Booting", or enter Download Mode but I cannot use it since I can't run ODIN on my work laptop .... stupid admin privileges!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure what happened there.. very strange. But seems as if you have no recovery xD lol Maybe heimdall will work. Never used it not sure if it needs UAC to work. But dont use TWRP anymore
As far as your situation goes, maybe if you have the time and fast enough internet, see if you can download a linux distro (i recommend fedora as it is small and light) then make a bootable USB from that distro (if you have a flash drive) then use Heimdall in linux to flash the tar image.
Or just wait to get home. not sure how long your honeymoon is xD

elesbb said:
Not sure what happened there.. very strange. But seems as if you have no recovery xD lol Maybe heimdall will work. Never used it not sure if it needs UAC to work. But dont use TWRP anymore
As far as your situation goes, maybe if you have the time and fast enough internet, see if you can download a linux distro (i recommend fedora as it is small and light) then make a bootable USB from that distro (if you have a flash drive) then use Heimdall in linux to flash the tar image.
Or just wait to get home. not sure how long your honeymoon is xD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I just need to accept that fact that I have been had and that the only thing I can do is wait until I'm home to use ODIN. Absolutely asinine in my opinion, however it seems the only logical conclusion at this point.
If anyone else cares to chime in with suggestions, please let me know!
-Taxmaster

I have had the same problem several times. The only way I have been able to boot up is to completely format data and either restore from backup or reflash a new ROM. If I wipe the dalvik cache after doing so however, it will not boot (hangs at the galaxy s4 screen like you said) and I will have to reflash or restore a 2nd time. (I'm using twrp too, but will switch to cwm if this happens again)
I m curious. Have you run into this problem again? Seems like every time my phone shuts off and tries to boot I have to restore from a backup that is days or weeks old. Super annoying. The first time this happened I restored to stock from Odin and did not use any backups in the hope that it would solve my problem and prevent it from happening again. No such luck.

coolastar said:
I have had the same problem several times. The only way I have been able to boot up is to completely format data and either restore from backup or reflash a new ROM. If I wipe the dalvik cache after doing so however, it will not boot (hangs at the galaxy s4 screen like you said) and I will have to reflash or restore a 2nd time. (I'm using twrp too, but will switch to cwm if this happens again)
I m curious. Have you run into this problem again? Seems like every time my phone shuts off and tries to boot I have to restore from a backup that is days or weeks old. Super annoying. The first time this happened I restored to stock from Odin and did not use any backups in the hope that it would solve my problem and prevent it from happening again. No such luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ended up having to wait until I got home to use ODIN. I ODIN'd up the stock .tar and then installed Philz touch recovery (CWM-based), then I did a full wipe of everything and installed a ROM. Problem solved.
With that noted, I abandoned TWRP and am now only using CWM on my wife's phone.

Taxmaster said:
I ended up having to wait until I got home to use ODIN. I ODIN'd up the stock .tar and then installed Philz touch recovery (CWM-based), then I did a full wipe of everything and installed a ROM. Problem solved.
With that noted, I abandoned TWRP and am now only using CWM on my wife's phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same, TWRP just has too many problems.
CWM is much more reliable.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium

Taxmaster said:
I ended up having to wait until I got home to use ODIN. I ODIN'd up the stock .tar and then installed Philz touch recovery (CWM-based), then I did a full wipe of everything and installed a ROM. Problem solved.
With that noted, I abandoned TWRP and am now only using CWM on my wife's phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were using TWRP 2.6.0, that could have been the problem. I reverted back to 2.5.0.2 and like many others, have had no issues. If you had a TWRP backup, that might have fixed it early on.

[Q] Soft Bricked....can't unbrick or revert to stock rom...any thoughts?

I got a replacement GS3 through insurance and rooted it yesterday. Instead of flashing CWM I tried going with TWRP this time but didn't realize that TWRP doesn't read external SD cards and my roms were all saved on the external SD. And of course, this was after I wiped everything. So I tried unrooting and flashing back the stock firmware but it keeps failing in ODIN. So I tried re-rooting and flashing CWM which works but none of the roms will flash. I keep getting a system 7 error or something to that effect when I try flashing any rom. So now I can either get to recovery mode, or download mode. If I power the phone on it gets stuck on the Galaxy S3 screen. Any thoughts as to processes to try? Links? Threads? I've tried just about everything I could find.

kinjo1023 said:
I got a replacement GS3 through insurance and rooted it yesterday. Instead of flashing CWM I tried going with TWRP this time but didn't realize that TWRP doesn't read external SD cards and my roms were all saved on the external SD. And of course, this was after I wiped everything. So I tried unrooting and flashing back the stock firmware but it keeps failing in ODIN. So I tried re-rooting and flashing CWM which works but none of the roms will flash. I keep getting a system 7 error or something to that effect when I try flashing any rom. So now I can either get to recovery mode, or download mode. If I power the phone on it gets stuck on the Galaxy S3 screen. Any thoughts as to processes to try? Links? Threads? I've tried just about everything I could find.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since when does TWRP not read external SD cards? It see's mine just fine, for well over a year. Where is your nandroid backup, you know the one you made before you did anything just incase it didn't go as planned? In any case you didn't give much information to help troubleshoot. 'I tried unrooting' - if you were going to flash a stock ROM there is no need to unroot anything as the stock firmware is just that, stock. How did it fail in ODIN? Did it say why it failed, what file were you trying to flash? More often than not the system 7 error is caused from an out of date recovery, normally i would tell you to start there but given the fact you admitted to just randomly attempting to flash things to the device you are going to want to start from stock. The second sticky thread in this sub-forum is where you should start reading, because based on your post you either need a refresher or never have read it to begin with.

dntesinfrno said:
Since when does TWRP not read external SD cards? It see's mine just fine, for well over a year. In any case you didn't give much information to help troubleshoot. 'I tried unrooting' - if you were going to flash a stock ROM there is no need to unroot anything as the stock firmware is just that, stock. How did if fail in ODIN? Did it say why it failed, what file were you trying to flash? More often than not the system 7 error is caused from an out of date recovery, normally i would tell you to start there but given the fact you admitted to just randomly attempting to flash things to device you are going to want to start from stock. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1725839
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For whatever reason, TWRP wouldn't read my sd card. And when I said I tried unrooting - I just meant flashing back to the stock ROM. Odin fails when it gets to system write. It goes down a bunch of lines of code successfully but when it gets to system write, it fails every time. I've downloaded a few different stock ROM versions for AT&T and tried switching USB ports around my laptop. I've also tried a few different versions of ODIN but I'm not coming up with anything but a soft bricked phone still.

kinjo1023 said:
For whatever reason, TWRP wouldn't read my sd card. And when I said I tried unrooting - I just meant flashing back to the stock ROM. Odin fails when it gets to system write. It goes down a bunch of lines of code successfully but when it gets to system write, it fails every time. I've downloaded a few different stock ROM versions for AT&T and tried switching USB ports around my laptop. I've also tried a few different versions of ODIN but I'm not coming up with anything but a soft bricked phone still.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you have usb debugging enabled before you attempted to flash via ODIN? It sounds like it doesn't have permission to write to the /system partition. You can try doing a factory reset from recovery to get past the bootloader and make sure, or use Kies to flash to stock via this thread.

dntesinfrno said:
Did you have usb debugging enabled before you attempted to flash via ODIN? It sounds like it doesn't have permission to write to the /system partition. You can try doing a factory reset from recovery to get past the bootloader and make sure, or use Kies to flash to stock via this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could have swore I made sure to check before I started the process but I cant' check now because the phone won't boot. Can't flash back to stock. Can't flash any roms. I can get into download mode and recovery though. It's weird. I've reverted other phones back to stock plenty of times. It just keeps failing no matter what I do with this.

dntesinfrno said:
Did you have usb debugging enabled before you attempted to flash via ODIN? It sounds like it doesn't have permission to write to the /system partition. You can try doing a factory reset from recovery to get past the bootloader and make sure, or use Kies to flash to stock via this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's another question for you, I've looked all over for the newest CWM in .tar format but everything comes in .img format. I can't use the .img in ODIN to flash to the phone and can't boot my phone to use the CWM app to flash. I suppose I could try TWRP again but when I flashed the first time - TWRP wouldn't read my EXT SD card.....

kinjo1023 said:
Here's another question for you, I've looked all over for the newest CWM in .tar format but everything comes in .img format. I can't use the .img in ODIN to flash to the phone and can't boot my phone to use the CWM app to flash. I suppose I could try TWRP again but when I flashed the first time - TWRP wouldn't read my EXT SD card.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you could wipe everything get on odin with 4.1.2 update reboot use cf root to root it (if you dont have root) after reboot download ROM Manager from Play Store install CWM recovery (easiest way to root) hope this works

[Q] TWRP 2.6.3.1 Asks for password

I woke up this morning to my phone perpetually rebooting.
I was running a nightly of CM 11.
Now when I try to go into Recovery I get a screen that asks for a password. I have no idea what that password is as I did not set one. I tried wiping data to no avail. I tried flashing a new recovery via Odin this did not work (Odin said successful but the screen on the phone never showed the transfer of the file). No matter what wipe method I use in recovery it just says fail, doesn't work at all and hangs or will say it can't mount. I have searched and searched and tried and tried and I'm stuck. I even tried ADB that didn't work either. Please help!

Try flashing Philz Touch (based on CWM) over TWRP via Odin. I have always had good luck with CWM and Philz.
Download the tar version: http://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/d2att

audit13 said:
Try flashing Philz Touch (based on CWM) over TWRP via Odin. I have always had good luck with CWM and Philz.
Download the tar version: http://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/d2att
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this already. I cannot flash ANYTHING via ODIN. Odin states that the process completed but the bar on the phone on the download screen never shows up to show that it has accepted a file.

therecker said:
I tried this already. I cannot flash ANYTHING via ODIN. Odin states that the process completed but the bar on the phone on the download screen never shows up to show that it has accepted a file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you unchecked F . reset and unchecked auto reboot when you flashed recovery in Odin? After you flash the file you have to pull the battery then replace it and boot to recovery do not allow the phone to boot to OS or you have to flash again as your recovery will only stick if you pull the battery and boot to recovery after flashing it. After you get into it the first time all will be well with the world again you can flash your heart out.
I had twrp ask me for a password once I hit the back arrow key and told it to mount my external SD card then flashed my rom, bootloader, kernel and modem then rebooted no problem.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

theramsey3 said:
Did you unchecked F . reset and unchecked auto reboot when you flashed recovery in Odin? After you flash the file you have to pull the battery then replace it and boot to recovery do not allow the phone to boot to OS or you have to flash again as your recovery will only stick if you pull the battery and boot to recovery after flashing it. After you get into it the first time all will be well with the world again you can flash your heart out.
I had twrp ask me for a password once I hit the back arrow key and told it to mount my external SD card then flashed my rom, bootloader, kernel and modem then rebooted no problem.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This did not work. When I use ODIN all that is happening is that ODIN says it has succeeded but the little progress bar that usually shows up on the phone when you are in download mode never comes up. I did try this method though and it didn't work.
I restarted the phone in ODIN mode then opened ODIN then connected the USB cable then unchecked the two boxes you mentioned then flashed a new non TWRP recovery then waited for ODIN to say successful then the phone never showed the progress bar so I waited 2 mins until I pulled the battery then I restarted phone directly to recovery and still have the password prompt. Even after hitting cancel I cannot interact with recovery because every option I choose just says fail. I cannot even mount external sd card.

What phone do you have? What was the most recent stock ROM on your phone? Maybe you can flash a stock ROM.

There is a copy of the stock Samsung 3e recovery (which we can't use to flash zips with) I'm curious if maybe it can overwrite what you have going on? On the password screen I wasn't hitting cancel I was simply hitting the back arrow key. I will see if I have a copy of the stock recovery, just maybe you can flash it then flash another recovery after that so you can fix your phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

I have Samsung Galaxy S 3 At&T (d2att) SGH-I747 whichever one of those you want. The most recent stock rom on the phone was when I bought it brand new a few months after it came out. I tried installing a stock rom. I tried this using ODIN and it failed. The issue here is that TWRP somehow encrypted the entire file system so NOTHING at all in recovery works. When I use ODIN mode it never shows on my phone that it is accepting a transfer from the computer. When I tried the stock rom via ODIN method it actually failed in ODIN instead of telling me it succeeded and then just not work. It failed at the point when it says Firmware Update Start...aboot.mbn...NAND Write Start!...Complete(Write) operation failed. I am up for any suggestions but I need them to be detailed instructions because I have tried so many things I need to know what exact steps to follow.

I believe the aboot file is a bootloader. Did you ever have a stock 4.3 ROM on the phone? If you did, it probably has the stock 4.3 AT&T bootloader which cannot be downgraded without bricking the phone which means you cannot flash a ROM with an older bootloader via Odin.

audit13 said:
I believe the aboot file is a bootloader. Did you ever have a stock 4.3 ROM on the phone? If you did, it probably has the stock 4.3 AT&T bootloader which cannot be downgraded without bricking the phone which means you cannot flash a ROM with an older bootloader via Odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To my knowledge I never had a stock 4.3 ROM on the phone. The only stock ROM to touch this phone was the one that came on it. So be specific what are you actually suggesting in this post that I do?

therecker said:
To my knowledge I never had a stock 4.3 ROM on the phone. The only stock ROM to touch this phone was the one that came on it. So be specific what are you actually suggesting in this post that I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am surprised that the aboot file was giving you a problem because the bootloader can be downgraded as long as it is not a 4.3 bootloader.
Do you recall exactly which ROM was on the phone when you got it? Where did you get the stock ROM?

audit13 said:
I am surprised that the aboot file was giving you a problem because the bootloader can be downgraded as long as it is not a 4.3 bootloader.
Do you recall exactly which ROM was on the phone when you got it? Where did you get the stock ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was a CM11 Nightly ROM from the very beginning of February. And before that it was a CM10.2 Stable ROM.

Which stock ROM was on your phone before you loaded a custom ROM?

audit13 said:
Which stock ROM was on your phone before you loaded a custom ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no idea. It was when I first got the phone in November of 2012.

Sounds like your phone may be running a 4.3 bootloader which means your bootloader is locked and cannot be downgraded. This may explain why you are getting errors when trying to flash Odin. There is no stock AT&T 4.3 ROM that can be flashed via Odin.

[Q] Soft Bricked my i747- HELP!

So I was able to root phone on w/o issue. I installed CWM via play store then proceeded to attempted to load Cyanogen mod via zip..and oh yeah I didn't wipe phone prior so....Now I have infinite loop issue at boot. I've searched the interwebs looking for any way to get back to stock or anything so I'll be able to use the phone again but have come up short every time. I've tried using ODIN to flash stock image but that fails. I've tried various .tar, .tz and anything else that odin will load w/o success. Will anyone take pity on my stupid ass and lens a hand?

exarkun631 said:
So I was able to root phone on w/o issue. I installed CWM via play store then proceeded to attempted to load Cyanogen mod via zip..and oh yeah I didn't wipe phone prior so....Now I have infinite loop issue at boot. I've searched the interwebs looking for any way to get back to stock or anything so I'll be able to use the phone again but have come up short every time. I've tried using ODIN to flash stock image but that fails. I've tried various .tar, .tz and anything else that odin will load w/o success. Will anyone take pity on my stupid ass and lens a hand?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you able to boot in recovery? (volume up + home + power). You could wipe and try flashing again (the first boot does take a while).
As for Odin, make sure you're using the right image (.tar) if recovery doesn't work.
Here's a little Odin guide: [ODIN] Desktop ODIN ver 3.07 for use with Samsung Galaxy S III

yeah I tried that
BWolf56 said:
Are you able to boot in recovery? (volume up + home + power). You could wipe and try flashing again (the first boot does take a while).
As for Odin, make sure you're using the right image (.tar) if recovery doesn't work.
Here's a little Odin guide: [ODIN] Desktop ODIN ver 3.07 for use with Samsung Galaxy S III
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I am able to boot into recovery but it's the stock recovery, not the one I intalled after root.
I've tried flashing stock images, custom images, CWM, TWRP, .TARs all w/o success. In ODIN I've flashed CWM and TWRP and it reports success but upon reboot it goes back to stock recovery and shows now 13 attempts to load custom firmware. I even tried to use Cyanogen,s windows app but even that gets stuck saying it can't communicate w/device. I've tried several driver, hiemdal, (which I can't figure out). What I'd like to do wipe EVERYTHING, like format the phone but I can't seem to remove the Samsung boot loader. Is my phone beyond repair? I'm super bummed, esp since I'm not a total noob when it comes to custom ROMs. I dropped greenpoison on my fist iPhone and had several ROMs on my old Moto Atrix. I think whatever evil Samsiung put on this device is totally screwing me.

exarkun631 said:
So I've tried flashing stock images, custom images, CWM, TWRP, .TARs all w/o success. In ODIN I've flashed CWM and TWRP and it reports success but upon reboot it goes back to stock recovery and shows now 13 attempts to load custom firmware. I even tried to use Cyanogen,s windows app but even that gets stuck saying it can't communicate w/device. I've tried several driver, hiemdal, (which I can't figure out). What I'd like to do wipe EVERYTHING, like format the phone but I can't seem to remove the Samsung boot loader. Is my phone beyond repair? I'm super bummed, esp since I'm not a total noob when it comes to custom ROMs. I dropped greenpoison on my fist iPhone and had several ROMs on my old Moto Atrix. I think whatever evil Samsiung put on this device is totally screwing me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try with a different stock image (debloated if you want a smaller download).
Also, Heimdall installs its own drivers, therefor Odin won't work on the same usb port you've installed Heimdall on.
Even in stock recovery, you should be able to do a factory reset (I think). Chances are that your ROM is corrupted atm though, you can try doing a factory reset and attempt boot. If that doesn't work, go the Odin way.
Bootloaders are not something to play with, it's the only way to hard-brick your phone (and you definitively don't wanna remove those nor stop Odin while it's flashing them, if the .tar contains them).

what about...
BWolf56 said:
Try with a different stock image (debloated if you want a smaller download).
Also, Heimdall installs its own drivers, therefor Odin won't work on the same usb port you've installed Heimdall on.
Even in stock recovery, you should be able to do a factory reset (I think). Chances are that your ROM is corrupted atm though, you can try doing a factory reset and attempt boot. If that doesn't work, go the Odin way.
Bootloaders are not something to play with, it's the only way to hard-brick your phone (and you definitively don't wanna remove those nor stop Odin while it's flashing them, if the .tar contains them).
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Click to collapse
I updated the phone via ota to latest android (4.3 ?). And I think the stock image I tried using was 4.1.x. Could it be I need to find a stock 4.3.x image from at&t? Any idea where to get this? I don't think AT&T provides ythis as that is where I got the previous stock image.

exarkun631 said:
I updated the phone via ota to latest android (4.3 ?). And I think the stock image I tried using was 4.1.x. Could it be I need to find a stock 4.3.x image from at&t? Any idea where to get this? I don't think AT&T provides ythis as that is where I got the previous stock image.
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Click to collapse
Can you check if the image you used had bootloaders? Cause if so, you might have bricked your phone. You can't downgrade bootloaders from 4.3.
The image can be found here or on sammobile.com

Strange
So after flashing my i747 30x via ODIN w/various .tar for boot and recoveries I was briefly able to boot into CWM. Stupidly, I selected the format option and foolishly restarted, intending to boot back into CWM and flash a .zip image. Once I restarted I was locked out of CWM again and can only boot into stock recovery once again. What am I doing wrong? I just can't wrap my head around why every time I flash a custom recovery like CWM or TWRP or Philz's_Touch in OdIn and it reports success, when I restart it just loads Samsung's ****ty stock recovery. I still can't flash a ROM via ODIN but I'm hoping if I can get back into CWM I'll be able to load a new ROM and use my phone again. Anyhelp would be great.
BWolf56 said:
Can you check if the image you used had bootloaders? Cause if so, you might have bricked your phone. You can't downgrade bootloaders from 4.3.
The image can be found here or on sammobile.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

lol
exarkun631 said:
So after flashing my i747 30x via ODIN w/various .tar for boot and recoveries I was briefly able to boot into CWM. Stupidly, I selected the format option and foolishly restarted, intending to boot back into CWM and flash a .zip image. Once I restarted I was locked out of CWM again and can only boot into stock recovery once again. What am I doing wrong? I just can't wrap my head around why every time I flash a custom recovery like CWM or TWRP or Philz's_Touch in OdIn and it reports success, when I restart it just loads Samsung's ****ty stock recovery. I still can't flash a ROM via ODIN but I'm hoping if I can get back into CWM I'll be able to load a new ROM and use my phone again. Anyhelp would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I think I figured out what I did wrong. Recovery mode = pwr+home+VolUp...Download mode = Pwr+home+VolDown. What an a$$hole I am, I thought Download mode and Recovery were one in the same and flashing TWRP or CWM would replace download mode. Once I figured out that one it was a simple matter to boot into recovery and wipe the drive then flash my rom (Omni 4.4.2 D2att) IDK if it's the rom or all the screwing around I did but it now takes no less than 10 min to boot into android from rom splash. Tried updating Kernel to latest but found it didn't fix problem.

exarkun631 said:
So I think I figured out what I did wrong. Recovery mode = pwr+home+VolUp...Download mode = Pwr+home+VolDown. What an a$$hole I am, I thought Download mode and Recovery were one in the same and flashing TWRP or CWM would replace download mode. Once I figured out that one it was a simple matter to boot into recovery and wipe the drive then flash my rom (Omni 4.4.2 D2att) IDK if it's the rom or all the screwing around I did but it now takes no less than 10 min to boot into android from rom splash. Tried updating Kernel to latest but found it didn't fix problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you do a clean flash? Sounds like you didn't factory reset.
Make sure you backup your apps before doing so if you wanna keep your app data.

Softbricked T999

I have a friend's old phone that can get into download mode and recovery. It will try to boot, but gets stuck at the Samsung screen that sorta flashes. If we go into recovery (factory recovery) it will show an error saying it can't mount the /data partition.
I've tried using Odin to flash "T999UVALEM_T999TMBALEM_T999UVALEM_HOME.tar" and found a one click "(UNROOT)T999UVDLJA_T999TMBDLJA_T999UVDLJA_1"
I'm not sure what version the software the phone was on and even if that's the problem. I have read that you can't flash older versions past certain points.
I haven't tried to force feed a custom recovery yet. I'm thinking that might be a good idea.
Let me know if you have any input for us, we'd appreciate it.
Now time to play with the family.

dsmryder said:
I have a friend's old phone that can get into download mode and recovery. It will try to boot, but gets stuck at the Samsung screen that sorta flashes. If we go into recovery (factory recovery) it will show an error saying it can't mount the /data partition.
I've tried using Odin to flash "T999UVALEM_T999TMBALEM_T999UVALEM_HOME.tar" and found a one click "(UNROOT)T999UVDLJA_T999TMBDLJA_T999UVDLJA_1"
I'm not sure what version the software the phone was on and even if that's the problem. I have read that you can't flash older versions past certain points.
I haven't tried to force feed a custom recovery yet. I'm thinking that might be a good idea.
Let me know if you have any input for us, we'd appreciate it.
Now time to play with the family.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that's a T999 model you should flash NC2 firmware and not LJA which is too old. There's a firmware thread in the Android Development section that has the NC2 ODIN firmware. Here is the .tar ODIN file for the latest TWRP custom recovery.

nirogu325 said:
If that's a T999 model you should flash NC2 firmware and not LJA which is too old. There's a firmware thread in the Android Development section that has the NC2 ODIN firmware. Here is the .tar ODIN file for the latest TWRP custom recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response. I tried loading twrp and lost the ability to get into recovery. From reading it seems that the phone probably has a bad memory chip from being dropped. I did try partitioning it abd that failed also. I'm calling this one a goner.
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