Develop Bugs

On VS98510B, just want to upgrade to latest android, please help.

I have a VS985 LG G3. I was running marshmallow yesterday, but after trying to root and unlock mobile tethering and hotspot (because I am on unlimited data) I managed to brick my phone while typing in adb commands because my phone decided to randomly shut off. So after plugging it into the USB and figuring out a way to put it into download mode, I flashed it to VS98510B. After that, I rooted with Stump Root and installed SuperSU, following some guides. It works fine once again but I'm not where I want to be.
After multiple times trying to open adb shell and get it to just recognize my device, I'm done. I know there are people out there who know this stuff by heart, so please, at this point, just tell me what to do step by step so I can do it and move on with my life. I have spent hours upon hours on this and it never seems to just work. Please.
All I want is to be able to install the latest TWRP or whatever is recommended., and then install either the SkyDragon Rom or the stock marshmallow VS98546A rom, but with the verizon apps disabled since in one guide it warns that those report for modified device, which I am not sure what that means but it doesn't sound good.
I'm on VS98510B. Rooted and SuperSU installed.
I want to be able to use mobile hotspot and tethering.
There's just information overload to the extreme, I'm overwhelmed.
Thanks again if any help is possible.

If you're already rooted with TWRP installed, the hard part should really be over. You shouldn't need to be plugging into a computer and running adb commands at this point. You also said you need step by step instructions, and to really spell it all out would be a lot, but considering how far you already got I don't think you really need every little detail, so I'll give you the general idea then if you have questions I can try to fill those gaps.
Basically you'll need to find and download the new ROM you want. The easiest thing to do is download it directly from your phone so you don't have to mess around with transferring it from your computer to your phone. Many custom ROMs will also require Gapps, but if you're flashing a stock ROM (or a custom ROM based on stock) you don't need to do this because it's included in the ROM.
After you've downloaded the ROM (should just be a zip file), you need to reboot to recovery (TWRP). If you don't know how to do this, there's an app called Quick Reboot that can do it for you (01400) personally haven't used it but I assume it works).
Once you're in recovery, you normally want to make a backup first in case anything goes wrong. This is done by selecting the backup button. After you have a backup, you want to "wipe" data before installing. Select the wipe button, then I click advanced and select everything except internal data and external data. This will wipe all apps, settings, etc. from your phone so make sure you're ok with that before you do it,
After wiping, you're ready to install. Back at the first main screen of TWRP, select Install, then browse to where you downloaded the ROM and select it, then select the Install button and swipe to confirm. Assuming all goes well, when it's finished it'll give you the option to reboot. Do this and it should start booting up to your new ROM.
Also, you mentioned SkyDragon, but I just wanted to point out that this isn't the latest version of Android, I believe that's still Lollipop (not Marshmallow). You also mentioned not wanting your rooted status to be reported to Verizon, but if you're currently on stock, rooted, and don't have any apps disabled, then you already are running this risk.
Let me know if you have any questions. I think this will be easier than me trying to walk you through every detail and confirmation screen.

I don't have TWRP installed. What is the best course of action to take to install it?
As far as disabling verizon apps, is it as simple as just going into the application manager and disabling them or is there a tool I need to download?
Thanks for all the help so far!

I see, it's been a couple years since I installed TWRP and I was thinking it was part of the rooting process. I believe this is the post I followed to install TWRP: http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-...mp-unlock-lg-g3-twrp-d852-d852g-f400-t2900614
Like I said, this was a few years ago and it's kind of a one-time thing. I don't know if there's something better available now or what, and I don't remember the details. I don't remember running into any problems, so if you happened to have any I'm not sure how good I could help.
As for disabling things, the things that need to be disabled are system apps and can't just be disabled from the stock application manager (Verizon doesn't want to make it easy for you to disable their software ). There are different ways this can be done, but I personally use Titanium Backup to disable (or "freeze" as they call it) apps. It will let you freeze anything, which also means it gives you the ability to break things, so don't just go in freezing random things. I don't remember if freezing requires the paid version of the app or not, but you can get it from the play store and find out.
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

As far as Titanium Backup goes, is it along the same lines as TWRP? Like do they do the same things? Do you recommend I do one over the other?
Also as far as verizon apps reporting root, what do they do and what does that matter?
Also, I'm currently dealing with the LG DemiGod Crash Handler problem that seems to have started up on my phone the other day. I'd never rooted or messed with my phone in any way and that started happening, I thought perhaps flashing a new ROM might fix it, but I guess not. If you have any sort of tips on how to fix that, other than replace the battery (which I have not yet done, but supposedly that can solve the problem) I'd be grateful.

Titanium Backup and TWRP are two different things. Titanium Backup is a "normal" app that you can get from the Play store, while TWRP is a custom recovery and isn't ran from within your ROM. TWRP lets you do full image backups of your phone (like your entire phone in a single backup) and can also be used to install ("flash") ROMs. Titanium Backup lets you backup, freeze, and uninstall specific apps.
I use them both because they both serve a specific purpose. You have to use TWRP to install ROMs, then as far as backups, I use TWRP to make a backup of everything in case I flash a ROM that I end up not liking (I can use the backup to easily go back to my previous ROM and still have apps and everything all setup just like they were). If I do like the new ROM I flashed, I'll use Titanium Backup to restore a lot of my apps/data to the new ROM (ex. text messages, my alarm clock app, etc.)
As far as Verizon knowing about your root status, honestly I'm not sure what all that would mean. I'm sure they wouldn't like it, rooting voids your warranty so you probably couldn't get things replaced under warranty, if you have insurance through Verizon they would maybe use your root status as a reason to deny a claim, etc. I don't think you'd have to worry about them calling you up or cancelling your service or anything like that, but getting them to assist you with problems might be more frustrating than usual
Regarding the demigod crash thing, I know what you're talking about but I don't really know much about it. A while ago I would get those every once in a while and it was frustrating. I think at the time I kind off wanted to try a new ROM anyways and I think I did but I still got it occasionally. Now that you mentioned it though I haven't had one in quite a while. I'm not sure if those ROMs both happened to cause it, if it was a Lollipop thing (doesn't seem like I've had it since Marshmallow), or if it's all just a coincidence or I've just been lucky. I haven't gotten a new battery though, so that's definitely not it (for me anyways).
Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

I'm an idiot and I got some crazy malware. Help please.

OK so I smashed my s5, am a UDP verizon guy and hooked on the open bootloader, so i searched far and wide for another one with the 15 chipset...which I didn't find but I found a note 4 with it.
I bought it and unlocked it and loaded on a rom I loved. (5.0.1 og5). Well...no sense lying here...I was trying to do some less than kosher things regarding my ex's Facebook account with it. In the process I wasn't smart enough to cross check MD5s (a precaution I learned all too well) and opened an app that has me baffled.
It basically hijacked admin on my device completely. No Antivirus program can touch it, though many detect it. "Unknown sources" in my security folder is stuck permanently enabled, and I can't take over as admin on my own brand new note4.
I have tried flashing twrp and titanium backups to no avail, and also tried the safe stock og5 firmware through Odin but it never completes. I am stuck. I have logcat records and all the tools I would think might help, but I can't get rid of it...it seems to have used root and embedded itself into every facet of the device.
I am willing and ready to do anything including a full unroot and stock rom, I just don't want a locked update. Can anyone help me please?

As of now, no roms break it, only the stubborn malware CM app tries to get rid of it, but only identifies it as "suspicious file". My user admin and unknown sources are both locked, and a gaggle of bizarre log events happen constantly, forcing my device into crazy lag. As soon as it happened I received a couple random number-link blank text messages, but I never opened them. I don't have the numbers saved as I've flashed the phone like 30 times since trying to rid myself of this. Aside from the lag and locked unknown sources and admin, and an inability to clear trusted credentials, the phone seems to run normally, though I am scared to use it to log on to pretty much anything. The malware didn't come from a text, but from an app that I knowingly permitted thinking it was something else and I feel like a moron for it. It doesn't seem to have a name. It installed as an untitled app and I couldn't delete it with the root system app deleter, because it put a green bar over the check box in the app. I got rid of it with titanium, but to no avail. It still lurks.
Thanks in advance, and let me know of any screens hits or logs or tests I can provide to help.

At that point, I would recommend using Samsung's Smart Switch for PC program to do an emergency firmware upgrade & initialization. This will download a full copy of the stock firmware for the device (including a few bits that you won't find in stock firmwares available for download through sites like SamMobile) and will erase everything on the device and restore your phone to stock firmware.
If you are in the US and have a Best Buy nearby, you can see if one of their Samsung reps can perform a factory recovery using their SMART tool (which will do the same thing that Smart Switch's emergency firmware initialization will). Officially, rooted devices are not supported and they may rightfully refuse to do this, but it's worth asking if you don't have a computer to use for Smart Switch or don't want to wait.
You will need to redo the developer conversion, but that's the only thing I can think of that will definitely completely restore your phone to stock and eliminate all traces of whatever you installed.

thanks. that solved my problem and got it back to stock, rid of the malware completely. unfortunately, when i tried to return to the rom i had used, everything fell apart for me :/.

Note 4 bootloop... hardware failure?

Hi,
I plugged my note 4 into the OEM charger and all of a sudden it just goes into a bootloop continuously.
Occasionally it will reach the home screen and reboot again, but more often than not.. it reboot before the Sprint logo comes up.
Was fine before i plugged it in and was trouble free prior to that.
My phone is stock, not rooted.
The fact that it will reboot even at the Note 4 welcome sign is leading me to believe this could be a hardware issue...
Any ideas?
Anybody had the same situation and had luck troubleshooting or fixing this?
Any and all help i much appreciated...
Regards,
asmd.

Can you boot into recovery?
First thing I'd try is to pull battery, boot into stock recovery and wipe cache and try to boot.
If not booting, try wiping cache and dalvik.
You have the option to just take it in for evaluation but you should determine if you have reactivation lock enabled before doing anything else.
Still not booting? Factory reset. But if you have reactivation lock enabled that is not a good idea. It would be better if one of the two above booted the phone.
If reactivation lock is enabled, you need to install the same update the phone is on to prevent factory reset protection from activating. Don't factory reset yet; Odin or taking in for service may be your only option. If it boots, you should be able to open with same unlock method as before.
If you have reactivation lock disabled, you're free to try factory reset or update to latest through KIES. I've heard Samsung Switch may work too. You could also factory reset and update or emergency recover with one of those.
If still not booting, if it just updated, I'd mention that and not the charger you mentioned. It could be corrupt memory due to battery failing or bad update. The eMMC may be failing too.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

samep said:
Can you boot into recovery?
First thing I'd try is to pull battery, boot into stock recovery and wipe cache and try to boot.
If not booting, try wiping cache and dalvik.
You have the option to just take it in for evaluation but you should determine if you have reactivation lock enabled before doing anything else.
Still not booting? Factory reset. But if you have reactivation lock enabled that is not a good idea. It would be better if one of the two above booted the phone.
If reactivation lock is enabled, you need to install the same update the phone is on to prevent factory reset protection from activating. Don't factory reset yet; Odin or taking in for service may be your only option. If it boots, you should be able to open with same unlock method as before.
If you have reactivation lock disabled, you're free to try factory reset or update to latest through KIES. I've heard Samsung Switch may work too. You could also factory reset and update or emergency recover with one of those.
If still not booting, if it just updated, I'd mention that and not the charger you mentioned. It could be corrupt memory due to battery failing or bad update. The eMMC may be failing too.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply...
Ive been messing with it all morning... and if i leave it a lone and it cools, it will last a little longer than when it becomes warm, rebooting quicker and quicker.
i managed to get into recover and did a factory reset and cleared cache.
it has made no difference.
The longest time its gone before rebooting is the lock screen.... and the it reboots again.
as it warms, it eventually wont even get past the Note 4 welcome screen before rebooting.. and then finally freezing and will require a battery pull.
Makes no difference if its on charge or off.
i have a sinking feeling about this.....

Could be terminal but you haven't tried to flash firmware on partitions with Smart Switch, KIES or Odin yet. Right? You can check the phone status while in download mode to verify reactivation lock is disabled.
Try one of those on PC or take it to Sprint to have it flashed again.
If you purchased at Best Buy and they have a Samsung Experience kiosk, they can do that too. Dunno, maybe it doesn't matter if you purchased there or not but they've flashed my phone a couple of times.
I've tried to guide you down the path of least effort to restore your, if possible. There's still some hope of recovery.
Edit: Your battery could be suspect. Let it cool and plug in to make sure it's at least 60% or higher. If the battery is near a year old, I'd suggest fully charging but get a replacement if you frequently discharge it to 15% or lower. Especially if you use fast charging.
But you've most likely discharged it with all that reboot activity and heating up. Kudos to you if you're managing all that and keep a healthy battery. Otherwise, the battery may be contributing to or causing your issues.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

thank you for the help..
reactivation lock is off.
i can't get it to reliably not reboot anywhere in any screen.. only screen that will stay on for any period of time is recovery... but the phone stays cool.
Its not the battery, i have two, and both do the same thing.. the battery does not get warm, area that gets warm is neft to the battery below the sd card slot. (sd card removed).
Frequency of hang/reboot seems to be related to how warm that area gets.
The most i have managed to do is get into my phone past the lockscreen and it will shortly freeze and reboot as it warms up.. it will reboot at the note 4 welcome screen or sprint logo... and repeat... eventually to hang.
Both batteries are charged fully using the external charger. (samsung oem)
Shame, not a scratch on her....
Oh well, on to Ebay for parts/AS IS and time to move on...

Even if doubtful, I'd still take it back to Sprint or place of purchase.
The Note 4 has a bit of history with eMMC failure. It's even happened with updates and Samsung and Sprint is apparently aware of it. A while back I saw that listed as an ongoing carryover of known issues that needed resolution.
I don't have true stats on exchanges but several users here have repeatedly gotten deals on replacement phones, paying a small percentage when they failed- similar to yours.
OTA updates have also been suspect to cause eMMC failure. But honestly, l don't know what causes this: bad hardware or updates? Maybe it's just bad hardware not taking updates well? Nonetheless, I don't know if I've just been lucky or my hardware is stable. Still going strong here with no hint of failure.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

can i still take it back even though its out of warranty?
nearing 2 years now....

asmd6230 said:
can i still take it back even though its out of warranty?
nearing 2 years now....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No promises. Couldn't hurt. If you don't like the answer you get from first Sprint store, try another.
I would mention that bit of history with the updates.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

asmd6230 said:
Hi,
I plugged my note 4 into the OEM charger and all of a sudden it just goes into a bootloop continuously.
Occasionally it will reach the home screen and reboot again, but more often than not.. it reboot before the Sprint logo comes up.
Was fine before i plugged it in and was trouble free prior to that.
My phone is stock, not rooted.
The fact that it will reboot even at the Note 4 welcome sign is leading me to believe this could be a hardware issue...
Any ideas?
Anybody had the same situation and had luck troubleshooting or fixing this?
Any and all help i much appreciated...
Regards,
asmd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact same issue going on with my wives phone. Just started yesterday out of no where rebooting over and over. Never really getting past the Samsung splash screen. She got an update like a week ago, but other than downloading a new app several hours earlier nothing sticks out to why its happening. I was able to once get into safemode, but the phone rebooted a minute into it and typically doesn't even get to the sprint splash screen when I've tried to do it since. It's totally stock and has not been unlocked or rooted. I thought it could be the battery since so many of these boot issues on the Note4 deal with that when googling, but my battery from my working Note4 in her phone does the same thing and her battery in my phone works just fine. I can get into the recovery options menu (volume up + home + power) and I can get into the download area (volume down + home + power) for loading bootloaders and such for long periods of time with no issues. I've cleared the cache with no luck. Haven't tried factory reset yet because I want to try to recover the photos and stuff first. Searching for the issue on google I came across this software (android-recovery.net/android-recovery-mode.html#two) where I was able to use the download area and connect the phone with this app which used its own bootup and it was able to show me all the files on the phone for recovery so we could retrieve them. It wanted $50 to complete the process though and, knowing the advances that everyone here has made on their phones I decided to decline that and search these forums for a way to just access the file directory of my the phone and retrieve my wives stuff prior to factory resetting it. I believe something is wrong with the bootloader of the phone and that is why it cannot get to the android OS to start up, but I could be wrong. Reading various articles made me to believe that if I just were to unlock the phone for rooting that possibly that could fix this issue with the bootloader or at least be able to recover her photos and stuff. I do have insurance on the phone and could get it fixed or replaced, but that would be a $200 deductible I believe and first thing they're going to try is factory resetting the phone which will lose her data we're trying to save.
It almost seems as if I were to get TWRP installed that I'd be able to access the files without the need of loading any ROMs. But I'm not sure if that will work in my case or erase data when I do it. The threads I'm reading aren't clear on that part. I would really be grateful if anyone could help me out with figuring out the easiest way to recover her stuff or get it working. Its been a long time since I've unlocked any phones and they were all iPhones back in the day when they were only on AT&T and I had T-mobile and wanted to it work.

@dsm_gsx97
I would suggest you try Odin and install the same update, if possible. That may be the most likely to retain your data if it's not corrupted.
Unfortunately, I don't think TWRP recovery works for Note 4 to copy data to PC. But if you go with that, know that it will trip Knox and void factory warranty. But if that's not an issue, you could copy data from internal memory to extSdCard to salvage it if it's not corrupt or private.
I know KIES has an emergency firmware recovery mode that may offer to reprogram it. But you may lose your data. Not sure but I think your phone has to booted into system to backup with KIES or Smart Switch?
This thread has the recent available stock tars, Odin and general instructions to get you started.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=63868221
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

samep said:
@dsm_gsx97
I would suggest you try Odin and install the same update, if possible. That may be the most likely to retain your data if it's not corrupted.
Unfortunately, I don't think TWRP recovery works for Note 4 to copy data to PC. But if you go with that, know that it will trip Knox and void factory warranty. But if that's not an issue, you could copy data from internal memory to extSdCard to salvage it if it's not corrupt or private.
I know KIES has an emergency firmware recovery mode that may offer to reprogram it. But you may lose your data. Not sure but I think your phone has to booted into system to backup with KIES or Smart Switch?
This thread has the recent available stock tars, Odin and general instructions to get you started.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=63868221
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much for the quick response. I would rather not void my factory warranty in case I have to use the insurance to replace it so it sounds like TWRP is out which is why I didn't use it yet because I was worried about that. I did try KIES and it said that firmware upgrade and initialization would erase all data. So I ruled out using that too. I did notice while in the recovery menu of her phone that it says she's on N910PVPU1ANIE ...so I put my phone in recovery menu and I'm on N910PVPU4DPH4. Googling her version it looks like hers is very old and mine is fairly new which makes sense because I did the update a few days ago also. I wonder if hers is so old because that's what the other software program put it on to be able to bootload it to recover the files.
Anyways looking at your link I think I'll try oden with one of the more recent TARs after getting her stuff off with that program. Yes I'll just pay the $50 for peace of mind. I really appreciate your advice. Its not easy gathering all the answers without really being involved on this forum so thank you for that thread. None of the TARs listed is the update I have, but that shouldn't matter should it? As long as its a newer one than what it says she has?

dsm_gsx97 said:
Thank you very much for the quick response. I would rather not void my factory warranty in case I have to use the insurance to replace it so it sounds like TWRP is out which is why I didn't use it yet because I was worried about that. I did try KIES and it said that firmware upgrade and initialization would erase all data. So I ruled out using that too. I did notice while in the recovery menu of her phone that it says she's on N910PVPU1ANIE ...so I put my phone in recovery menu and I'm on N910PVPU4DPH4. Googling her version it looks like hers is very old and mine is fairly new which makes sense because I did the update a few days ago also. I wonder if hers is so old because that's what the other software program put it on to be able to bootload it to recover the files.
Anyways looking at your link I think I'll try oden with one of the more recent TARs after getting her stuff off with that program. Yes I'll just pay the $50 for peace of mind. I really appreciate your advice. Its not easy gathering all the answers without really being involved on this forum so thank you for that thread. None of the TARs listed is the update I have, but that shouldn't matter should it? As long as its a newer one than what it says she has?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was it only the OTA update that updated that phone?
NIE is the original-initial release of the Note 4. If OTA tried to update it, it must have failed?
Nonetheless, you should know the history of that phone. I wouldn't install one of those recent updates until you've backed up your data. You may lose your data jumping to a much newer update.
The phone doesn't boot at all? If it does boot, you could run Phone Info for Samsung from Google Play to see what the partitions are actually at. That would help to recover that data if possible to do so. But also KIES could backup data if it boots.
The NIE stock tar is in post #2 of this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56853325&postcount=1
If it boots after Odin, your data may be OK. If not, may be corrupted data or partition.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

samep said:
Was it only the OTA update that updated that phone?
NIE is the original-initial release of the Note 4. If OTA tried to update it, it must have failed?
Nonetheless, you should know the history of that phone. I wouldn't install one of those recent updates until you've backed up your data. You may lose your data jumping to a much newer update.
The phone doesn't boot at all? If it does boot, you could run Phone Info for Samsung from Google Play to see what the partitions are actually at. That would help to recover that data if possible to do so. But also KIES could backup data if it boots.
The NIE stock tar is in post #2 of this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56853325&postcount=1
If it boots after Odin, your data may be OK. If not, may be corrupted data or partition.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
She's done plenty of updates over the last few years since we got the phoens. In fact she did that last update a few days before I did. That's why I was confused when I noticed what it said at the top of the bootloader screen for her update version. The phone does not boot at all. Only to the the Samsung splash screen and never gets to the sprint splash screen. It initially would get further, but now doesn't at all. I went ahead and paid for that software and have now backed up all her stuff. Was hoping to fix it without factory resetting the phone. At this point at least I have a backup, but ideally it would save her from losing all her texts and other crap.

dsm_gsx97 said:
She's done plenty of updates over the last few years since we got the phoens. In fact she did that last update a few days before I did. That's why I was confused when I noticed what it said at the top of the bootloader screen for her update version. The phone does not boot at all. Only to the the Samsung splash screen and never gets to the sprint splash screen. It initially would get further, but now doesn't at all. I went ahead and paid for that software and have now backed up all her stuff. Was hoping to fix it without factory resetting the phone. At this point at least I have a backup, but ideally it would save her from losing all her texts and other crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In that case, try the most recent stock tar in the first thread you were about to try.
Something seems off but trying to flash the original stock tar would be problematic if it was updated beyond Android 5.0
If it doesn't boot, you'll most likely have to factory reset it.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

Note 4 bootloop
just heat main ic little bit with past and check there is no heatup board on boot.and set is ok.tested

Pixel XL - HUGE data usage NOT rooted

Hey all,
I've done heaps of searching here and the wider web but only found reference to rooted phones failing to take updates.
I can't get a screenshot on here right now as I'm at work so no wifibut:
- Android OS _______________3.04GB :silly:
- Chrome__________________434MB
- Google Services ___________24.13MB
- etc
When I read about the failed update I checked in there and sure enough I have a 2017-5 patches system update sitting there failed, when I retry it it will download successfully then do step 1/2 of the installation then fail.
So it seems this would be the problem but the phone is definitely NOT rooted, any ideas??
thanks

You speak in codes, man. Could you explain your issue simpler? Right now I see an Android OS usage of 3.04GB. That seems abnormally large times 10. No one should have that, really. So it seems like your Android OS process downloaded multiple copies of system updates in error. Is that your problem?
Your post is still largely incomprehensible, so I won't make a final conclusion.
These are just suggestions:
1) If your phone is downloading system updates over and over, just damn update so it stops, or factory reset your phone.
2) If this is some kind of a rogue app, you are literally funked. Good luck trouble shooting it.
In any case, GL!

Yes, android OS used 3.04GB in ~5 days, my best guess is it was due to repeated attempts at '2017-5 patches system update'
Sorry, when I did a search I got heap of references to rooted phones having this issue so I guess I just talked from that reference point? It seemed to be a known issue but for rooted phones.
I just wanted to be clear that my issue matched those symptoms but was not rooted.
1) I've tried a manual update (many times) fails at the same point, I assume this is what is causing the data usage, as mentioned above.
2) Pretty sure it's not a rogue app
I'll try a factory reset, it's only a couple of weeks old (warranty replacement) so I hadn't really thought to reset straight away.

The phone doesn't necessarily need to be rooted to fail the update. A previously rooted phone can also fail to update as described, but typically that would mean an unlocked bootloader. I would have figured that the phone would have been reimaged and the bootloader locked on a refurbished phone, but maybe that doesn't happen. Is the bootloader unlocked? If so you could image the phone yourself to see if that works to fix it. If the bootloader is locked and a reset doesn't work, then I figure you might need to contact support about getting a different phone.
https://developers.google.com/android/images

I think you've gotten good information from everyone so far but just to add some clarity.
I had this exact same issue and was not rooted but did have an unlocked bootloader.
A factory reset did not resolve it. At the time I had issues, there were questions about rooting the stock images so I flashed PureNexus and have never looked back or had the issue again. Also, Verizon did add data to my plan and credit my account for the additional charges to negate the cost. Hope this helps!

It sounds like an issue with your phone that Pixel support might be able to help you with but they will certainly suggest a factory reset so you should do that first. Since you have a refurbished phone you don't know how the previous owner was using it and its possible a modification he made is still on the phone and causing you problems. If the failed system update isn't actually causing the excess data usage it could also be a carrier issue. I know some Project Fi users had that problem and it was related to the service. Google gave people credit for the excess data. You could also have an app that is interfering with the update so a factory reset should definitely be your first step and I'm guessing it's fairly likely to fix your problem.

PSA: Bricking my phone with Fortnite(good educational story and cry for help)

So yesterday, the beta for Fortnite on android came out and I obviously signed up immediately. I selected my device, signed up, and downloaded the installer which would not open. I did not do any research, but assumed that the problem had to do with xposed. I disabled xposed and sure enough, the installer opened, but now it said that my device was not compatible. After some research, i saw that the beta was only going to be for samsung devices for about 30 days so, naturally, i tried to figure out a way to circumvent this restriction. I thought back to my early android days and my spoofing of devices with build.prop and decided to replace some of the entries such as "ro.build.vendor", "ro.build.model", etc. with those from the Galaxy S9. After a quick reboot, it actually worked to my surprise. I was clearly excited at this point and spent about 45 minutes on mobile data downloading Fortnite and then downloading the game files. Finally, the game was downloaded, i was signed into my account, and I was waiting to join a Lobby. After entering a lobby and dropping out of the bus, I was descending towards tomato town to test out my favorite game on my favorite device when suddenly the loading screen came back up(this is where my luck took a turn for the worst). I was returned to the main menu and given a message along the lines of "Fortnite cannot be played on devices that do not pass safetynet, have an unlocked bootloader, or are rooted... Attempting to bypass this check may result in permanent account ban" At this point I began to get annoyed and figure that since I had come all this way I would just keep going. I went and turned on magisk hide from the magisk manager and set it to hide xposed. I then used the option to reinstall magisk under a different package name. I continued to enable exposed again and enable x privacy(I was planning on attempting to do exactly what i had been warned against by Fortnite). I then rebooted and... well, didn't reboot. I got stuck on the green RAZER circle for a bit then the screen just went black. After a few reboots i decided to restore my build.prop through TWRP. This didn't help at all so I decided to clear the cache and dalvik(this didnt work). At this point i decided to back up my photos and the Fortnite apk to my sd card and do a reset through TWRP. The reset did nothing so i figured I would try installing a custom ROM. I downloaded and installed resurrection remix. On the first boot i was greeted with the storage decryption prompt. I entered my password and it said that it was successfully decrypted but was corrupt and i had to factory reset. I pressed the button and the device went to the RAZER logo then turned off. I tried another boot tand the same thing happened so I went to TWRP manually and did yet another reset..... it failed. This is where i panicked. I went through twrp and did a bunch of **** like try to fix contexts and repair data until finally something succeeded and I was able to wipe data. From there I again booted into resurrection remix where it just hung on the boot gif. I plugged the phone into my pc and ran "adb logcat" and it said something about missing files in vendor. I then remembered that I had the RAZER factory images downloaded. I tried the flashall.bat and that just hung on the first command that was only supposed to push 44kb. I knew I had severely fluckled up at this point so seing as there was nothing else to lose I went back into twrp and tried to flash Resurrection again. After that succeeded and i pressed reboot on TWRP I was warned that no system image was installed. Remembering about the vendor thing from before, I pulled the stock vendor image and installed it through TWRP. I was going to flash all the images manually. I was unaware that flashing to vendor would remove TWRP so afte ra unwanted reboot, TWRP was gone for good. Since then, I have tried numerous things in download mode and am always met with messages such as "write failed {no error}", "a/b permissions not supported", "bootloader update required", and many moooore.
At this point I feel that all hope is lost but I feel that I have learned a valuable lesson and can be used as a perfect example of why you should think before you act. I would like to still ask for help from peers who are most likely infinitely more knowledgeable than I am. If you feel that you can help contribute to saving my baby(RAZER phone) in any way or you feel that this helped you in some way, don't hesitate to reply to this thread.
Thank you all for reading to this point and thank you in advance for any insight you have to offer.

Firstly, may I empathize with your pain, and I do need to say..."whooops". Maybe this can only be repaired from a RMA to Razer themselves. I'm not someone who roots his Android devices as I prefer them "as is" but I am a major Linux user and faff with those OSes till I break them. maybe contact Razer with the issue, maybe they can help. And again.....you have my sympathys.

Yeah, I'm going to wait a few days and see if either I can figure anything out or someone else can help me, but after that I will probably contact them. I just hope this doesn't end up being an expensive repair if it comes to sending an RMA. Thanks for your sympathy btw ???

I hate to say this, but today I finally got Fortnite installed and ready for use, totally officially, from epic games, and I'm now awaiting my email with my login access...yes, you may kick me, I will accept a virtual kick.

See, this hurts, it really does. I’m not going to virtually kick you though. I like to be kept in the loop on developments like this. ?

Just to make sure...did you try installing the stock image?

Why don't you just flash a fastboot image from MR1?
https://s3.amazonaws.com/cheryl-factory-images/cheryl-o-global-5038.zip

Yes I tried. That was the first thing I did when things started going south for the winter but it did not do anything. It kept giving the errors that i spoke of such as "unknown command" or "failed(no error)".

So without coming here first. I got my Fortnite invite, went through the install, jumped out of the bus and ...... then received the, you can't be rooted error message. #EPICfail
I haven't done anything else yet except close Fortnite. I'm now afraid to reboot for fear of ending up in the same position as @ShaneRagans. And I really feel like Epic Games should have announced that rooted phones wouldn't be compatible. Kinda pissed about it really.

lostnsound said:
So without coming here first. I got my Fortnite invite, went through the install, jumped out of the bus and ...... then received the, you can't be rooted error message. #EPICfail
I haven't done anything else yet except close Fortnite. I'm now afraid to reboot for fear of ending up in the same position as @ShaneRagans. And I really feel like Epic Games should have announced that rooted phones wouldn't be compatible. Kinda pissed about it really.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you do everything else the OP did, like changing build.prop? Or were you able to just install and attempt to play then it shut you out?

I received that same error message, but I'm not rooted, it seems the beta hasn't been properly coded to see changes in device status and architecture as ok. I also believe that epic games have bypassed the Google play store as they cannot guarantee the stability of the app and it would be seen by Google play store as defective. Maybe its something we need to wait for them to get fixed. Remember this is a "beta" version and is still in development.

lostnsound said:
So without coming here first. I got my Fortnite invite, went through the install, jumped out of the bus and ...... then received the, you can't be rooted error message. #EPICfail
I haven't done anything else yet except close Fortnite. I'm now afraid to reboot for fear of ending up in the same position as @ShaneRagans. And I really feel like Epic Games should have announced that rooted phones wouldn't be compatible. Kinda pissed about it really.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as you did not edit anything within your system, you should be fine. The game itself did not brick my phone, I bricked my phone because I was careless. I do however agree 100% that there should have been some sort of prior notice that rooted phones would not be compatible because it would have given me some time to do proper research on returning to stock before hand.

ShaneRagans said:
So yesterday, the beta for Fortnite on android came out and I obviously signed up immediately. I selected my device, signed up, and downloaded the installer which would not open. I did not do any research, but assumed that the problem had to do with xposed. I disabled xposed and sure enough, the installer opened, but now it said that my device was not compatible. After some research, i saw that the beta was only going to be for samsung devices for about 30 days so, naturally, i tried to figure out a way to circumvent this restriction. I thought back to my early android days and my spoofing of devices with build.prop and decided to replace some of the entries such as "ro.build.vendor", "ro.build.model", etc. with those from the Galaxy S9. After a quick reboot, it actually worked to my surprise. I was clearly excited at this point and spent about 45 minutes on mobile data downloading Fortnite and then downloading the game files. Finally, the game was downloaded, i was signed into my account, and I was waiting to join a Lobby. After entering a lobby and dropping out of the bus, I was descending towards tomato town to test out my favorite game on my favorite device when suddenly the loading screen came back up(this is where my luck took a turn for the worst). I was returned to the main menu and given a message along the lines of "Fortnite cannot be played on devices that do not pass safetynet, have an unlocked bootloader, or are rooted... Attempting to bypass this check may result in permanent account ban" At this point I began to get annoyed and figure that since I had come all this way I would just keep going. I went and turned on magisk hide from the magisk manager and set it to hide xposed. I then used the option to reinstall magisk under a different package name. I continued to enable exposed again and enable x privacy(I was planning on attempting to do exactly what i had been warned against by Fortnite). I then rebooted and... well, didn't reboot. I got stuck on the green RAZER circle for a bit then the screen just went black. After a few reboots i decided to restore my build.prop through TWRP. This didn't help at all so I decided to clear the cache and dalvik(this didnt work). At this point i decided to back up my photos and the Fortnite apk to my sd card and do a reset through TWRP. The reset did nothing so i figured I would try installing a custom ROM. I downloaded and installed resurrection remix. On the first boot i was greeted with the storage decryption prompt. I entered my password and it said that it was successfully decrypted but was corrupt and i had to factory reset. I pressed the button and the device went to the RAZER logo then turned off. I tried another boot tand the same thing happened so I went to TWRP manually and did yet another reset..... it failed. This is where i panicked. I went through twrp and did a bunch of **** like try to fix contexts and repair data until finally something succeeded and I was able to wipe data. From there I again booted into resurrection remix where it just hung on the boot gif. I plugged the phone into my pc and ran "adb logcat" and it said something about missing files in vendor. I then remembered that I had the RAZER factory images downloaded. I tried the flashall.bat and that just hung on the first command that was only supposed to push 44kb. I knew I had severely fluckled up at this point so seing as there was nothing else to lose I went back into twrp and tried to flash Resurrection again. After that succeeded and i pressed reboot on TWRP I was warned that no system image was installed. Remembering about the vendor thing from before, I pulled the stock vendor image and installed it through TWRP. I was going to flash all the images manually. I was unaware that flashing to vendor would remove TWRP so afte ra unwanted reboot, TWRP was gone for good. Since then, I have tried numerous things in download mode and am always met with messages such as "write failed {no error}", "a/b permissions not supported", "bootloader update required", and many moooore.
At this point I feel that all hope is lost but I feel that I have learned a valuable lesson and can be used as a perfect example of why you should think before you act. I would like to still ask for help from peers who are most likely infinitely more knowledgeable than I am. If you feel that you can help contribute to saving my baby(RAZER phone) in any way or you feel that this helped you in some way, don't hesitate to reply to this thread.
Thank you all for reading to this point and thank you in advance for any insight you have to offer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel your pain i locked me bootloader and bricked my phone crying atm
(bootloader) Verity mode: true
(bootloader) Device unlocked: false
(bootloader) Device critical unlocked: true
(bootloader) Charger screen enabled: true
i tried many thing as well but if your bootloader is unlocked try use the 7.1.1 ver and add -i 0x1532 to the command
btw anyone wanna buy a paper for lol

Do any of you guys that bricked your phones happen to have 3 rescue?
It costs £100 but you'll get a new phone next day no questions asked.
I did this when I bricked my Samsung galaxy S6 edge+ last year.
It's expensive, but surely better than having a £500 paper weight.

Just wanted to let everyone know that Razer repaired it for $15.