Okay so here's what happened, from the beginning:
A long time ago, about a month after the release of the SGS3, I rooted my device. All I wanted was to uninstall bloatware, which I did.
I took some advice from a friend and installed some root-related apps (Titanium Backup, Rom Manager, BusyBox Free, Root Checker Basic, AnTuTu Benchmark, GooManager and TWRP) that I barely used.
Fast forward to today, about an hour or so ago. I had completely forgotten my phone is rooted because all I really did was remove bloatware. Suddenly the thought occurs to me, "I haven't checked for an update in a while!" Again, don't remember my phone is rooted. So I do the software update process, takes about 20 minutes to download the OTA update, then I click continue to install. The phone does its thing, shuts down down to install, starts coming back on, white text at the bottom scrolls with some jargon I am not familiar with, then I see something I recognize: ERROR! (something about md5 files or something rather) "****! I forgot my phone was rooted!" That's when the TWRP UI comes up....
All I can think to do is run the TWRP backup restore, which I backed up as part of the root process months ago. Well, that's complete now and my phone is back to 27 Oct 2012. Not TOO big a deal considering most, but not all, of my data is stored to some cloud (how does that work? I thought water and electronics didn't get along)<---JOKE!. So now I don't really know what to do. I am in the process of using SMS Backup+ to restore all my texts, and am trying to get my apps back up to date. After I get this all done, I still want to run the JellyBean update. As a safe bet, I would like to (if possible) un-root my phone, which requires me to re-install bloatware (?), yada yada yada, and basically return my GS3 back to factory settings so I can install JellyBean the legit way. I would then like to re-root my phone to remove (again) all the bloatware. So, I guess my question to whomever is far more qualified than me (probably 99% of xda forum users) is how can I safely go about doing this without losing (again) all my data? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you VERY much!
Ok. There are several problems here that need to be worked on.
First, I suggest that you get all your apps and data back up to date to "current" as opposed to Oct 27. Once you do that, then boot into TWRP and make a backup and save a copy to your PC as well. That way you will have a current restore point.
Next, the reason you are not able to take the OTA is two-fold. First you have Root and second you have a custom recovery.
**Former is easy to fix. All you need to do is get OTA Rootkeeper from the market and run it. Make a backup of SU and when you are ready to take the OTA, temp delete root through the app, take OTA and the restore Root through the app. Pretty easy.
**The latter issue is with regards to the custom recovery. You will need to find a flashable zip of the stock recovery and flash that (this is after you make your backups of course).
So now you will have an unrooted phone [technically if you use OTA Rootkeeper] with stock recovery. You should be able to take the OTA no problem, restore Root with OTA Rootkeeper and install Goomanager from the market to get TWRP recovery back.
Seem like a lot? Well it is. But then you could always look in the Dev section for a flashable version or mrRobinson's Root66 Odin package which is far esaier that above. Just read the OP.
Well, I am stuck at step one. Now my phone isn't reading my SD card, which is where I would be backing up to as my phone does not have enough free space on internal memory. So I guess I have a new problem that needs a solution, as well as all the other problems.
Still need help guys...
I still need help here. How am I supposed to back up my phone if it's not reading my MicroSD card? Better question, how can I get my phone to read the SD card?
klewis1x said:
I still need help here. How am I supposed to back up my phone if it's not reading my MicroSD card? Better question, how can I get my phone to read the SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to format your micro sdcard on your pc
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
My phone is reading the SD card in certain applications, but not in the ones that matter. Most of my music is on the SD card and there is no problem listening to any of it, but when I go to the storage settings on the phone it tells me to insert an SD card. Same thing when trying to use TWRP to try and back up my phone to the SD card. This is really frustrating...
xedualMCx said:
Try to format your micro sdcard on your pc
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That did the trick. Thanks sent your way.
Hi guys!
I had rooted u9200 on ICS firmware version B100, but I didn't manage to unlock bootloader to install CWM. So I decided to flash update 4.1.1 B508 offical beta firmware. I had to change build.prop to match the B508 version and I succesfully flashed 4.1.1 update. The problem now is that I can't root it. No way, I tried everything, not a chance. Also I can't downgrade because I have to change build.prop again to match the version I'm trying to downgrade to, but since I don't have root access I can't change build.prop. So now I'm stuck on unrooted beta version of 4.1.1.
Plese if anyone has any ideas and suggestions do not hesitate to write.
Out with the old, in with the new
So, I finally menaged to root 4.1.1 and to flash cwm. So now I flashed CM10 4.2.1 and it's working fine, but... When I go to settings/storage I can see my internal memory as "Internal storage" 2.14GB and I can see my sd card as "sd card" 29.78GB, but from any file menager I tried to use the situation is different, I see my internal storage as "sd card" and my real sd card is nowhere to be found, I can't access it from anywhere. The card is working fine, I tried it on my pc, and I used it to install this CM10 I'm on now.
Anyone with similar issues?
Please help me.
Tux2609 said:
So, I finally menaged to root 4.1.1 and to flash cwm. So now I flashed CM10 4.2.1 and it's working fine, but... When I go to settings/storage I can see my internal memory as "Internal storage" 2.14GB and I can see my sd card as "sd card" 29.78GB, but from any file menager I tried to use the situation is different, I see my internal storage as "sd card" and my real sd card is nowhere to be found, I can't access it from anywhere. The card is working fine, I tried it on my pc, and I used it to install this CM10 I'm on now.
Anyone with similar issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I have the exact same problem and have been scouring the internet for answer.
I bought my P1 in Hongkong, so had a Hongkong stock B104 firmware, i used unlockroots software to unlock it successfully, but like you did not put any recovery on it, so have no way to flash a new rom or any recovery. i also like you edited the build.prop file using root explorer and flashed B508 (Jellybean).
1) Can you please tell me in a step by step guide how u managed to get CM10 & recovery on your phone & where u got the software etc.
2) I have backed-up my phone using Hisuite and Hicloud using cload software to the Internet & SD cards, will this be ok or will your procedure erase my SD card and will i be able to restore.
3) How would you rate CM10 compared to B508 firmware, is everything working as it should.
Your help would be much appreciated, and i would be extremely grateful.
Regards
Nil
nilbymouth said:
Hi,
I have the exact same problem and have been scouring the internet for answer.
I bought my P1 in Hongkong, so had a Hongkong stock B104 firmware, i used unlockroots software to unlock it successfully, but like you did not put any recovery on it, so have no way to flash a new rom or any recovery. i also like you edited the build.prop file using root explorer and flashed B508 (Jellybean).
1) Can you please tell me in a step by step guide how u managed to get CM10 & recovery on your phone & where u got the software etc.
2) I have backed-up my phone using Hisuite and Hicloud using cload software to the Internet & SD cards, will this be ok or will your procedure erase my SD card and will i be able to restore.
3) How would you rate CM10 compared to B508 firmware, is everything working as it should.
Your help would be much appreciated, and i would be extremely grateful.
Regards
Nil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
I used this guide to root, unlock bootloader and install cwm (I know the b508 is 4.1.1 but it worked for me): http://betanews.com/2012/11/13/how-to-root-android-4-2/
Download recovery image from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?pdaj3bohegu0vox
ROM is here (if you haven't found it already): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1930207
I don't know if you will be able to restore, but I don't see why not. I used titanium backup, you must be careful not to restore any system apps or settings. Also make a full backup from recovery before restoring because it's possible that it gets stuck on boot. Also it will not erase your SD card but it might be wise to use a clear one just in case.
I've been using this ROM for some time now and it works great. The only thing that bothers me is that video recording doesn't work, but I guess this will be solved in new versions.
Tux2609 said:
Hi!
I used this guide to root, unlock bootloader and install cwm (I know the b508 is 4.1.1 but it worked for me): http://betanews.com/2012/11/13/how-to-root-android-4-2/
Download recovery image from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?pdaj3bohegu0vox
ROM is here (if you haven't found it already): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1930207
I don't know if you will be able to restore, but I don't see why not. I used titanium backup, you must be careful not to restore any system apps or settings. Also make a full backup from recovery before restoring because it's possible that it gets stuck on boot. Also it will not erase your SD card but it might be wise to use a clear one just in case.
I've been using this ROM for some time now and it works great. The only thing that bothers me is that video recording doesn't work, but I guess this will be solved in new versions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thank you ever so much, i will give this a go and let you know how it goes, by the way the link for the recovery image is not working, do you have any other links or know where or what i should be looking for.
Rgds
nilbymouth said:
Hi,
Thank you ever so much, i will give this a go and let you know how it goes, by the way the link for the recovery image is not working, do you have any other links or know where or what i should be looking for.
Rgds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, most links work for a short period of time.
Here, this is the one I use
Tux2609 said:
Yeah, most links work for a short period of time.
Here, this is the one I use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that, the tutorial mentions putting the phone in to fastboot, i have tried holding vol up & down buttons with power, phone just reboots.
I saw others saying to first take the battery out, how the heck do you take the battery out of the Ascend P1 (U9200)?
Could you please tell me how you proceeded at this step, also do you have google play working on it?
Would i not be able to flash a recovery image on the phone using AndroidControl app, it has a tab for flashing recovery but did not want to try it without asking if you tried this method?
Thanks in advance.
nilbymouth said:
Thanks for that, the tutorial mentions putting the phone in to fastboot, i have tried holding vol up & down buttons with power, phone just reboots.
I saw others saying to first take the battery out, how the heck do you take the battery out of the Ascend P1 (U9200)?
Could you please tell me how you proceeded at this step, also do you have google play working on it?
Would i not be able to flash a recovery image on the phone using AndroidControl app, it has a tab for flashing recovery but did not want to try it without asking if you tried this method?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turn off the phone, hold the volume down button and then plug in the usb cable. This should turn the phone on and put it into fastboot.
After that just follow the instructions provided in the link above. I got a few error messages in the process but I proceeded with all commands and it worked.
Tux2609 said:
Turn off the phone, hold the volume down button and then plug in the usb cable. This should turn the phone on and put it into fastboot.
After that just follow the instructions provided in the link above. I got a few error messages in the process but I proceeded with all commands and it worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried AndroidControl as it seems to have all the files thats mentioned in the tutorial and makes flashing recovery supposedly easy, i wonder if it will work on an unrooted phone.
nilbymouth said:
Have you tried AndroidControl as it seems to have all the files thats mentioned in the tutorial and makes flashing recovery supposedly easy, i wonder if it will work on an unrooted phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have and it didn't work for me. You can try it for yourself if you want to. But this tutorial is easy enough for everyone I think, you just type in the commands it says and that's it.
Tux2609 said:
I have and it didn't work for me. You can try it for yourself if you want to. But this tutorial is easy enough for everyone I think, you just type in the commands it says and that's it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UPDATE: I was able to flash the recovery using AndroidControl, i installed the driver first in fastboot mode and then restarted the phone, while still connected to the pc i ran AndroidControl then chose the flashing tab and flashed the recovery using cwm touch recovery, and then flashed with supersu file you gave me, to give me root acess, all went fine and my phone is now rooted with cwm touch recovery.
I still have not upgraded to CM10 as i wanted to see how B508 will be with Google play now working. As i did not have a recovery mode which could flash zip from sdcard, i was unable to flash gapps zip, i have now flashed gapps and all is working fine.
What was the reason you changed to CM10 rom, was the beta version of B508 not very good for you, i would really like to know what the difference is before flashing another rom?
Thank you very much for your help & assistance and your prompt replies.
XDA develepors forum rocks.
nilbymouth said:
UPDATE: I was able to flash the recovery using AndroidControl, i installed the driver first in fastboot mode and then restarted the phone, while still connected to the pc i ran AndroidControl then chose the flashing tab and flashed the recovery using cwm touch recovery, and then flashed with supersu file you gave me, to give me root acess, all went fine and my phone is now rooted with cwm touch recovery.
I still have not upgraded to CM10 as i wanted to see how B508 will be with Google play now working. As i did not have a recovery mode which could flash zip from sdcard, i was unable to flash gapps zip, i have now flashed gapps and all is working fine.
What was the reason you changed to CM10 rom, was the beta version of B508 not very good for you, i would really like to know what the difference is before flashing another rom?
Thank you very much for your help & assistance and your prompt replies.
XDA develepors forum rocks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
I'm glad to hear you made it. Why I use CM? Well, there really is no good answer to that. I was using CM on all my other phones too, I'm used to it, I like its speed and stability, I like look and feel and also I like it's additional options. That being said, there is one problem not with CM but with Jelly bean in general. Android 4.2 has a different directory structure, due to its new multiuser features. The problem with that is that you can't install apps on sd card and you can't use directory bind to bind data from sd card. So if you wish to play some games on your phone you will be limited by your phone's memory capacity. I hate this, I used to have a lot of big games on my phone and now I can't have more than two at the same time. At the moment I'm reverting back to 4.0.3 ROM just because of that, at least until theres some kind of solution or workaround for this.
Also theres nothing stopping you from playing with other ROM's. Just make a full backup in recovery and you can always go back to the ROM you find most suitable. In fact I would encourage you to download a few ROM's and try them out, see which one you like the most and which one suits your needs the best.
Tux2609 said:
Hi!
I'm glad to hear you made it. Why I use CM? Well, there really is no good answer to that. I was using CM on all my other phones too, I'm used to it, I like its speed and stability, I like look and feel and also I like it's additional options. That being said, there is one problem not with CM but with Jelly bean in general. Android 4.2 has a different directory structure, due to its new multiuser features. The problem with that is that you can't install apps on sd card and you can't use directory bind to bind data from sd card. So if you wish to play some games on your phone you will be limited by your phone's memory capacity. I hate this, I used to have a lot of big games on my phone and now I can't have more than two at the same time. At the moment I'm reverting back to 4.0.3 ROM just because of that, at least until theres some kind of solution or workaround for this.
Also theres nothing stopping you from playing with other ROM's. Just make a full backup in recovery and you can always go back to the ROM you find most suitable. In fact I would encourage you to download a few ROM's and try them out, see which one you like the most and which one suits your needs the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your advice, you & this forum have been nothing short of brilliant, i myself is contemplating going back to ICS 4.0.3 as it also had the option to install apps on to the SD card, as it is my phone memory is almost full which makes even updating apps difficult as there's no more room to even do this.
I've tried certain apps like gemini app manager & driodsail to move apps to the SD card but none of these seem to work. I'm thinking of trying the official B226 firmware from Huawei just to see if it is ok, i know by doing this it will erase the root permissions, as i can't find a rooted version of this firmware and so will need to root again, but now that i have touch recovery on the phone it will be i presume easier to do this.
I hope they have made improvements on B226, because one of the reasons i actually upgraded to JB 4.1.1 was the sound from the stock google music player seemed low in comparison to JB where the sound was a lot better.
Do you think Huawei will release an official Jellybean firmware for this phone?
Any way thanks again, and keep in touch by letting me know how you got on, would be interested to know on what Rom and why and i shall also let you know on anything that i try or use.
Install apps on sd card, jelly bean 4.2
nilbymouth said:
Thanks for your advice, you & this forum have been nothing short of brilliant, i myself is contemplating going back to ICS 4.0.3 as it also had the option to install apps on to the SD card, as it is my phone memory is almost full which makes even updating apps difficult as there's no more room to even do this.
I've tried certain apps like gemini app manager & driodsail to move apps to the SD card but none of these seem to work. I'm thinking of trying the official B226 firmware from Huawei just to see if it is ok, i know by doing this it will erase the root permissions, as i can't find a rooted version of this firmware and so will need to root again, but now that i have touch recovery on the phone it will be i presume easier to do this.
I hope they have made improvements on B226, because one of the reasons i actually upgraded to JB 4.1.1 was the sound from the stock google music player seemed low in comparison to JB where the sound was a lot better.
Do you think Huawei will release an official Jellybean firmware for this phone?
Any way thanks again, and keep in touch by letting me know how you got on, would be interested to know on what Rom and why and i shall also let you know on anything that i try or use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey!
I managed to solve the problem with low internal memory on 4.2. I partitioned my sd card with Mini tool partition wizard, made [fat32 ~16Gb] [ext4 ~ 14Gb], and then I used Mounts2SD app from google play to mount my ext partition as internal storage (Reversed Mount option in app). So far everything seems to be working just fine. (I tried the normal mount, just to move data folder to sd-ext but it didn't work).
Tux2609 said:
Hey!
I managed to solve the problem with low internal memory on 4.2. I partitioned my sd card with Mini tool partition wizard, made [fat32 ~16Gb] [ext4 ~ 14Gb], and then I used Mounts2SD app from google play to mount my ext partition as internal storage (Reversed Mount option in app). So far everything seems to be working just fine. (I tried the normal mount, just to move data folder to sd-ext but it didn't work).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
That's great news, i can't even download Mount2SD from google play as it keeps on saying i have insufficient space on internal storage. I have 255mb left surely this app is not bigger than that, so what could be the problem? as i cant even update existing apps. maybe something got messed up and it's either giving the wrong internal storage amount or something, as i was able to update apps from the google play as soon as i rooted and flashed gapps.zip. Now after that first lot i can't seem to download anymore apps or even update them as it's reporting as insufficient storage space and this is with even un-installing some apps. I may have to flash the firmware again to get rid of any crap that was in there and flash recovery/root & gapps as well.
mount sd-ext as internal storage
nilbymouth said:
Hey,
That's great news, i can't even download Mount2SD from google play as it keeps on saying i have insufficient space on internal storage. I have 255mb left surely this app is not bigger than that, so what could be the problem? as i cant even update existing apps. maybe something got messed up and it's either giving the wrong internal storage amount or something, as i was able to update apps from the google play as soon as i rooted and flashed gapps.zip. Now after that first lot i can't seem to download anymore apps or even update them as it's reporting as insufficient storage space and this is with even un-installing some apps. I may have to flash the firmware again to get rid of any crap that was in there and flash recovery/root & gapps as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just try to do a full wipe and reflash the rom. I'm still using CM10.1 and it works great. (except the video recording still doesn't work). Be sure to flash the right version of gapps. You can partition your sd card before doing all this, you can even partition it with cwm but it supports the maximum size of 4Gb, so I used mini tool partition wizard (as I mentioned before). When you're done, install mounts2sd from google play, install scripts from there and choose reverse mount option, restart your phone and that should be it, your sd-ext partition is now mounted as internal storage. I strongly recommend class 10 sd cards for this, I'm using one myself and so far haven't experience any lag, even games work perfectly.
Tux2609 said:
Just try to do a full wipe and reflash the rom. I'm still using CM10.1 and it works great. (except the video recording still doesn't work). Be sure to flash the right version of gapps. You can partition your sd card before doing all this, you can even partition it with cwm but it supports the maximum size of 4Gb, so I used mini tool partition wizard (as I mentioned before). When you're done, install mounts2sd from google play, install scripts from there and choose reverse mount option, restart your phone and that should be it, your sd-ext partition is now mounted as internal storage. I strongly recommend class 10 sd cards for this, I'm using one myself and so far haven't experience any lag, even games work perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate, i'll give that a go.
Just out of interest now that you have changed the format of your microsd card to ext4, is it still visible as a drive when you connect to the pc,or did you have another program in Windows to make them visible?
nilbymouth said:
Thanks mate, i'll give that a go.
Just out of interest now that you have changed the format of your microsd card to ext4, is it still visible as a drive when you connect to the pc,or did you have another program in Windows to make them visible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, if you connect it as MTP device it shows as u9200 device with two partitions: internal storage (which is sd-ext partition) and sd card.
Tux2609 said:
Yes, if you connect it as MTP device it shows as u9200 device with two partitions: internal storage (which is sd-ext partition) and sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will i loose my cwm touch recovery if i flash the rom again?
nilbymouth said:
Will i loose my cwm touch recovery if i flash the rom again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.
Hi, total noob to Android hacking and rooting here...
I'm in the US and have the HTC Desire 816 (710c) on Virgin Mobile. Really wishing I'd done better research about the Desire 816 and VM before buying this phone. It's a great phone except for the small HD. I didn't realize just how many headaches that small HD--and Virgin's tight-fisted grip regarding their unlock policy--would cause me!
Forgive the length of this, but I'm hoping more detail as to what I've done/tried will help find the right solution...
I was doing fine on KitKat and for some reason decided I wanted to upgrade to Lollipop--mistake number 1! I first installed the update over KitKat but had some issues. Nothing major, but I figured something was definitely wonky when I noticed the basic stock web browser was gone--not that I really use it, just wanted to test something with it. (I was having an issue in Habit Browser, didn't realize 'til later that it was because I had my download folder setting on external SD card. While that worked in KK, it didn't in LP.) So, I did a backup...or THOUGHT I did. HTC Backup app was supposed to have been backing up my phone every day to Drive...turns out, it wasn't, despite notifications that it was working. So, anyway... I went ahead and factory reset the phone and reinstalled Lollipop. UGH! An even bigger mistake. Over 6 GB of the HD gone, just from stock LP!
Then I thought maybe if I unlocked the phone, I could delete most of the junk, even still using the stock OS. I followed the directions on HTCDev and although the proper screen appeared on the phone and asked me if I wanted to unlock, and I replied yes, it didn't work at first. The phone rebooted and everything was the same. Reboot checker confirmed failure.
So, as I was ready to try to narrow down my list of previously installed apps to absolute essentials due to the reduced disk space, I thought to see if there was a a way to revert to KitKat. I followed the instructions here http://forum.xda-developers.com/desire-816/general/ruu-t2952058. I tried the RUU .exe first. It failed, telling me I needed to get the correct RUU and try again. However, HTC's website does NOT show any KK downloads for Virgin Mobile USA for this device. More on that in a moment...
I also tried the flashing via SD card method. It also failed. I thought, what the heck, I'll try steps 3 and 4 of the SD card method, flashing the stock recovery and lock the bootloader, even though I thought my device was locked. Well, I guess I didn't notice when I went into fastboot that the device indeed HAD at some point unlocked, after all.
After those steps, I now had the following show up:
*** Software Status: Modified ***
*** RELOCKED ***
SECURITY ALERT!
I tried flashing the ROM.zip from SD card method again. It failed spectacularly, saying something about about a large file (some of the text was beyond the edges of the screen, so I couldn't read all of it. There was also an instruction to press power to reboot. The phone went back into fast boot screen with red highlighted "!! Image Update FAIL !!" Mind you, this was with the SD card now removed. I did manage to get the phone to boot normally again, back to stock Lollipop.
Now I thought I would try flashing the WWE KK download from HTCDev. Well, I didn't get the large image fail message, but it did fail saying that it was not the right image.
I tried unlocking the phone again, via the instructions at HTCDev. Didn't work. Thought I would try the ROM.zip file from the thread here at XDA one more time. Same fail message as before, same behavior of phone getting stuck on flashboot screen with red error message on initial attempt to reboot the device. I do notice now that although phone status is still modified and relocked, the security alert message is gone.
Can anyone help? I just want KitKat back so I can reload all my previous apps! (or possibly a good KK equivalent non-stock ROM, once I get the phone unlocked again? I have no idea which one though, being a noob :/ )
Thanks!
witchywoman said:
So, as I was ready to try to narrow down my list of previously installed apps to absolute essentials due to the reduced disk space, I thought to see if there was a a way to revert to KitKat. I followed the instructions here http://forum.xda-developers.com/desire-816/general/ruu-t2952058. I tried the RUU .exe first. It failed, telling me I needed to get the correct RUU and try again. However, HTC's website does NOT show any KK downloads for Virgin Mobile USA for this device. More on that in a moment...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That ruu file should work it's the vm usa last kitkat version. You need to follow the directions unroot and relock phone. But depending on what you did to the phone that was non standard you might also need to wipe or format internal data before running the ruu.
I think you can:
1) unroot then boot into recovery(twrp)
2) wipe phone/format data.
3) Boot directly from twrp to bootloader so you can get to fastboot usb.
4) Flash stock recovery from your PC.
5) Relock bootloader then run the ruu.exe.
All the other stuff you did afterwards should not be necessary.
pcjunky: The phone is currently relocked. I'm not 100% sure about unrooted, but I think it is. Like I said, when it was unlocked before I didn't even realize it, and I didn't really do anything unusual with it. The phone still had stock Lollipop on it and I just changed some stock settings and preferences.
Also, as I said, I am a total noob. I don't know what you mean about twrp and booting into that to wipe the drive and then from that. I'm sure there is info about that on this site somewhere, but it might be quicker if you (or someone) could explain it briefly, or point me in the right direction.
Updating to answer my own question in this reply. You're telling me to use a custom recovery but I never installed one. So.... currently searching to see how to do that.
I don't know if it's worth you time to learn how to go back to Kitkat. There should be howto's in the general forum for most everything you need. But I think the free memory difference between Kitkat and Lollipop is almost 1GB. 4.04GB free versus 3.14GB free. If you make sure all your apps that support being moved to SD card are moved and your storage settings for supported items uses the SD card you might be able to save enough space to get by until you decide to switch phones.
Twrp is a custom recovery and backup/restore tool you can do a search to learn about it, but you might not need it. The HTC backup is OS specific and it only saves apps and data not system files. So your HTC backup under Kitkat won't restore over Lollipop. If you had installed Twrp and and made a backup of Kitkat before you installed Lollipop you could restore your kitkat backup over Lollipop.
If you still want to try to get back to kitkat you can try to reset your phone(In theory relocking your phone should do that but it wont hurt) before you run the ruu file.
pcjunky said:
I don't know if it's worth you time to learn how to go back to Kitkat. There should be howto's in the general forum for most everything you need. But I think the free memory difference between Kitkat and Lollipop is almost 1GB. 4.04GB free versus 3.14GB free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it's interesting to note that my phone used ~ 4.8 GB when it was new with KK installed. After the Lollipop upgrade, it was using well over 6 GB with just the stock OS, HTC apps and Virgin apps on it. Obviously, that was unacceptable, and it's what got me started on this whole quest. :silly: However, after flashing a custom recover image, rather than the stock recovery I used previously, the stock installation is using 4.97 GB, so I think I should be good to go with that.
If you make sure all your apps that support being moved to SD card are moved and your storage settings for supported items uses the SD card you might be able to save enough space to get by until you decide to switch phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always have used the SD card as much as was supported. Switching phones is not an option for me as I have a rather limited income and the Desire was an investment. Thus another reason I embarked on trying to make these changes.
Twrp is a custom recovery and backup/restore tool you can do a search to learn about it, but you might not need it. The HTC backup is OS specific and it only saves apps and data not system files. So your HTC backup under Kitkat won't restore over Lollipop. If you had installed Twrp and and made a backup of Kitkat before you installed Lollipop you could restore your kitkat backup over Lollipop.
If you still want to try to get back to kitkat you can try to reset your phone(In theory relocking your phone should do that but it wont hurt) before you run the ruu file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, as I said above, the stock/OME installation now, before uninstalling whatever junk it will let me, is using only 4.97 GB, so I should be fine with that.
Thanks for your efforts to help me out with this. :good:
I'm glad you got it to a workable point. It's possible to go back to Kitkat, but I personally wouldn't do it because it gives you better battery life.
From time to time you should check apps under settings and swipe left to see the apps on sd card. Sometimes new app updates will support being moved to sd card or an updated version of an app will need to be moved over to the sd card.