Develop Bugs

[Q] Won't boot rom or cwm recovery - only download mode

Hi! I have encountered a problem, and really hope someone can help me!
Two days ago i flashed Omnirom Nightly on my n7105 to get Android 4.4. I was running cmw recovery but couldnt get the ota updates to work, so i was trying to flash open recovery instead. I used an apk that was supposed to install a script.
When i rebootet my phone, all i could get was the Note 2 boot image. It wont boot into recovery mode, or the rom. I am however able to boot into download mode.
Custom Binary download: Yes (4 counts).
Current binary: Custom
System Status: Custom.
How should i proceed? I've already tried to reflash cwm recovery, which did work, but didnt solve the problem. I am currently downloading stock firmware, but the file is 1.2 GB so it will take i while. Figured i should ask here in the meanwhile.
I'm not an expert at Android at all, im just a guy enjoying having custom roms and playing around a little. I do know that there are a lot of very talented people in this forum, and i really hope someone can help me find a solution. I've been googling for hours, but cant find anything that seems to work for me / or i dont fully understand and wont risk try before someone approves it.
Thank you, Vetle
EDIT: Is it correct that i cant flash any custom rom trough Odin? Or could i just flash omnirom again trough Odin?
If i manage to flash the stock rom and the bootloop goes away, will everything go back to normal, so i can flash cmw again and then a custom rom again?

No custom rom can be flashed through odin, as most of them are zip cwm/twrp base.
When u can only go to download mode, an official firmware only can help u through odin.
Sent from SM-N9005 with xda-app

Thanks for the answer!
Yup, i have flashed a stock rom now and i got the stock recovery. Everything was working fine.
Then i proceeded to do a factory reset in the stock recovery and flashed cwm trough Odin. When it was done, it wouldnt let me into recovery again! I can still boot up the phone tough.
I've also tried Open recovery. CWM via Rom manager. Open Recovery trough Goo Manager... Still cant get recovery to work, the stock rom works tough.
Any ideas?

Okay, i tried to flash the stock rom again and installed Rom Manger.
It still showes TWRP and CWM under installed recovery and i guess these its these two who makes the problem.
My plan now is to figure out how to completely remove them. I've never done anything related to adb before, so i hope it possible to remove them in another way?

This is so weird. Somehow i managed to install CWM Touch via Rom Manager and it booted. When i choose reboot /pull battery it will only boot straight into CWM again. I tried to flash TWRP via Odin, wich sucseeds, but then it reboots into CWM again!
I am soo lost its almost funny!
EDIT: Since i could get into cwm now, i tried to flash omnirom, but it aborts and all i get is status 7...?
EDIT2: Latest now is that i suddenly managed to install TWRP via Odin, but i still cant install the latest omnirom, all it says is "updating partition details".

vetle666 said:
This is so weird. Somehow i managed to install CWM Touch via Rom Manager and it booted. When i choose reboot /pull battery it will only boot straight into CWM again. I tried to flash TWRP via Odin, wich sucseeds, but then it reboots into CWM again!
I am soo lost its almost funny!
EDIT: Since i could get into cwm now, i tried to flash omnirom, but it aborts and all i get is status 7...?
EDIT2: Latest now is that i suddenly managed to install TWRP via Odin, but i still cant install the latest omnirom, all it says is "updating partition details".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had recovery problems in the last few days also.
Installed DN3 rom using philz recovery, because its capable of prepare the phone to a new rom in a easy way.
It all went fine until first reboot.
I had a recovery boot loop. All I could see were some buttons and then reboot again.
Like you I had download access and flashed philz with Odin, but no luck.
Installed twrp via Odin and all was fine, and flashed philz new version.
Then I had to flash a new kernel (to be able to access wifi) and it all started again. Now I'm back on twrp.
Let's see what happens on my next flash.
My suggestion is to flash the recovery, and if that's OK flash the rom and use it
Next time you need recovery get Odin to help, but not all the way from an original rom. Just the custom recovery.
But if you want to get rid of your strange recovery configuration, and you are not already on new 4.3 recovery(which in your case could explain some of the problems you had) , with knox, install an older original rom, 4.1, and make all the steps, root it, install a custom recovery, and from there the room you want.
Reading your path sorting this problem, that was what would do next
Best regards

[Q] Bricked Going from 4.3 to stock

I was on PA 3.99 4.3.1 , and trying to go to stock Jellybean by flashing a zip in Clockwork mod recovery. It resulted in a bricked device that hangs up on the boot animation, but i can still access download mode.
From download mode i tried flashing another stock image through odin, but got an error and the flash failed.
I would really like to recover photos from this phone. What can i do to get it into booting condition to do so?
Its a bell version if it makes any different.
Also, is there a way to unbrick WITHOUT having to use a 16gb microSD card, because i dont have one available.

Your phone isn't bricked of it can get into download mode.
I suggest installing a custom recovery such as Philz Touch and them a custom ROM to at least get the phone to boot.
There is no stock ROM that can be flashed in cwm. You can install a stock ROM using Odin but that will wipe all user data.
The flash in Odin may have failed if you were trying to downgrade the bootloader.

[Q] Softbricked 4.4.2?

No O/S - can only boot into download mode
I've got an interesting one. I was prepping my phone for selling, decided to clear out all the memory. Somehow I must have deleted more than I meant to b/c when I restarted the phone, it just hangs on the Samsung screen. I can get into download mode, but not into recovery and nothing ever loads. I tried at least one version of installing CWM but it doesnt look like I can boot into recovery even after the Odin install appears ok. Before the crash, I was running a modded 4.4.2 rom with the bootloader and other things that come with it. Is there anything I can do to get this thing up and running again?
Thanks!

I suggest you flash a custom recovery and CM10.2 to at least get the phone up and running so you can confirm the bootloader and modem on the phone before flashing anything. Flashing the wrong bootloader, modem, or bootloader/modem combintaion could hard brick the phone.

audit13 said:
I suggest you flash a custom recovery and CM10.2 to at least get the phone up and running so you can confirm the bootloader and modem on the phone before flashing anything. Flashing the wrong bootloader, modem, or bootloader/modem combintaion could hard brick the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'm positive I was running 4.4.2 on the phone before I decided to turn it into a paperweight
Flashing a custom recovery would be the goal, problem is that I can't find a recovery that I can flash. I've tried the latest version of PhilZ Touch recovery and that doesnt seem to work. ODIN shows it as a good install but when I restart the phone, I can't get into recovery. So was hoping for some direction on a different way of going about it. Basically, had 4.4.2, now I can only get into Download mode...

Download the latest tar.md5 file from here: https://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/d2lte/
Open Odin, connect phone, uncheck everything except f.reset time. Flash Philz. When you see reset in the status windows, remove USB cable, pull battery, replace battery, boot into recovery, flash ROM.
There are different versions of the 4..4.2 so it is best to determine the exact bootloader.

[Q] Help! Bricked!?!?

My phone was rooted using Kingo Root, I flashed SlimKat rom, when I tried using Odin to flash back to stock, it bricked, it doesn't boot, it goes directly to "Firmware Upgrade Encountered an issue. Please Select recovery mode in Kies & try again"
I tried using Kies, it won't detect it, I had two techns who tried legally they can't do anything obviously, it won't even boot into recovery bootloader.
Is my phone really dead?
WOOO. Thank you XDA, all I had to do was flash a custom recovery again, and it booted no issues,

Odin probably tried to downgrade your bootloader. If you were on a bootloader at or beyond MJB that is probably what bricked your phone.
You might be able to bring it back with a debrick image. Debrick images are usually specific to your bootloader, so if you know what firmware you were running prior to this it would be helpful.
You'll need an external SD card to stand in for your internal storage until you get things synced back up, and you'll have to do some very specific formatting and image writing to that external SD.
Search the forums for debrick image and you should find some helpful threads. I've never had to do this myself, but I have heard some success stories. Good luck.

If you see the upgrade firmware screen, your phone is not totally bricked.
Can you get into download mode? If you can, just flash a custom recovery, flash the latest cm10.2, verify your boot loader, and post back here.

audit13 said:
If you see the upgrade firmware screen, your phone is not totally bricked.
Can you get into download mode? If you can, just flash a custom recovery, flash the latest cm10.2, verify your boot loader, and post back here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can go into downloading mode, I flashed CWMS3ATTrecovery before thats what was on it.

Copy the most recent cm10.2 to an external SD card.
Use Odin to flash the most recent tar.md5 from Philz for the d2lte from here: https://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/d2lte/
After flashing Odin, boot to recovery and flash cm10.2 so you can get your phone running and determine the bootloader on your phone.

[Q] How should I go about unbricking my friends phone?

Hello, my friend has a Ace 2 (GT-I8160) and he wanted me to try and install CM 11 on his phone. I managed to root it and install temporary CWM on it, however his version of CWM could not flash CM 11 ROM's because it was outdated. I Googled around and found a TWRP .img file that I decided to flash via ODIN (CWM couldn't flash any TWRP .zip files for some reason). Everything went perfectly fine with ODIN, however my friends phone could not go pass the Samsung logo, it would appear for a few seconds and then the screen would go black. He also couldn't go into recovery but he could go into Download mode. Thinking that it was a recovery problem, I managed to get a .img file of TWRP 2.8.6.0 by Chronomonochrome and flash that via ODIN. Still the same problem - phone won't go pass the logo, however it can go into recovery.
So, now the phone boots perfectly to Download mode and recovery - and it can do everything from the recovery, like making backups, wiping, etc, but it cannot boot to the OS itself. I still haven't flashed a custom ROM on his phone because he didn't have the ROM file on his phone at the time nor could be transfer it to his phone via his PC because of some driver issue.
I'm currently downloading I8160XXBN1 firmware from Samsung Updates to flash via ODIN and try to get his phone back into working state. However, I also planned on placing my SD Card (which has the CM rom and Gapps on it) into his phone and flashing a new, custom ROM instead of flashing the firmware.
Does anyone have any advice on what I should do? Should I flash official firmware via ODIN or just flash the ROM using the recovery?
Thanks in advance.