Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage or liability arising out of these steps. I did not invent anything, I just tried something. Only move forward at your risk
If you don't agree ... stop reading and move on...
Background: Our phone has access to so much personal information that its scary if it fell into wrong hands. The only way to fix this is to encrypt phone. I did lot of research and here is a working solution that works for me - try at your risk.
Download Links:
a) Tested with ROM Stock 4.4.4 NH7 Galaxy S4 M919/Jfltetmo by @ShinySide
b) Tested with ROM |ROM|★KANGAKAT★|►KTU84P◄|4.4.4|Xposed|►8◄|6.26.14 by @iB4STiD
c) stock recovery AT&T S4 works with M919
d) Philz/CWM custom recovery
Encrypting with custom rom
1) Assume you are on custom recovery. - Backup everything first. Create a nandroid backup
2) Do a full wipe and install one of the two roms linked above (I have tested with few other roms ... none worked). Start the phone and set it up the way you want. Install all apps etc.
3) ODIN Stock recovery. See #c under download above. Its AT&T stock recovery but works for me. You need to know how to ODIN - find out. Doing this wrong will permanently damage your phone
4) Start your phone and turn on encryption. You will need to set lock type = password and will need to connect to charger and have 80% charge.
- Phone will do blank and stay blank for 20-30 minutes. Do not do anything. Encryption is happening behind the scenes.
- You might have to do this twice or thrice if it did not encrypt first time. For me the phone went blank first time and after 25 minutes it restarted but device was not encrypted. I redid the same steps and worked second time.
- If you interrupt the encryption process (battery pull or power up) you will see error message (encryption failed, reset device)
5) If all goes well you now have a password protected encrypted phone with custom rom!!! Check in Settings -> Security
6) You may install custom recovery ... but I don't see the point because you will need stock recovery to decrypt
To install another ROM
1) Reboot into stock recovery, then wipe data and cache (this removes encryption).
2) install your recovery of choice and install ROM using recovery. Philz/CWM
Credit goes to @Tronicus and his reply Flash a Rom on an Encrypted Android
Tronicus said:
How to Flash a rom on an encrypted Android phone (specifically this one, the I9505 SGH-I337).
The Problem: Once encrypted, you can't decrypt it easily. When encrypting the phone android will tell you you can only decrypt it using a factory reset. Naturally you assume it's talking about the "Factory Data Reset" option found in Settings --> Backup and Reset. But noooo, Android is lying through its ****ing teeth. Then you'll assume you have to wipe everything from your custom recovery mod (CWM, TWRP, or one of those). Wrong again! You'll get beautiful "can't mount /data" messages and more bull****. I read about a workaround that required installing the new rom using ADB, but I had ingeniously disabled USB debugging prior to wiping everything, so I only got so far with that option (plus it's tediously long if you haven't installed all the necessary software already and don't feel like bricking your phone because you made a typo in the command line). So, apparently the only other way to really format that partition free of its encryption is to use a stock recovery. So:
Short Version for Godlike users who know automatically how to do all this **** without any help (mimicking how most help posts are finely detailed on this site): Flash stock recovery, wipe everything, flash your custom recovery and install your new rom.
Long version for us mortals who don't know everything and haven't already downloaded already every single bit of software on earth:
Backup all the stuff you want to save. This process will truly wipe EVERYTHING. You can do it manually, or you can use an app like Titanium Backup Pro to help you (find it on Google Play Store). Here's a nice guide which recommends what to restore and what not to restore: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1480343
Flash the stock recovery using Odin. You can download a stock recovery from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=49687791&postcount=3 It's the link called "I337MK2stockrecovery.tar.md5" In case you don't know how to flash it with Odin, this short guide will help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1506697
In step 6 replace "recovery.tar.md5" with the stock recovery you downloaded.
Wipe everything from the Stock recovery console. This little ****er will **** up the encryption all those sissies couldn't touch. You're welcome. You boot into recovery mode from a turned off phone by pressing simultaneously the volume up key + the home key + the power key until you see blue text appearing in the top left corner of your screen.
Reinstall your custom recovery. In my case I had installed the rom BEFORE flashing in the stock recovery (apparently it works, you just can't boot because of the encryption), so I was able to boot into the new rom before I returned to my custom recovery. Weird. Anyways, I recommend CWM. You can pick it up from this link: http://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/jflte
For some weird reason they call the I337 version the "jflte" version. It's bonkers. Click there, and download the latest version that ends with .tar.md5. This version is upgradable via Odin, which we already used. Use the same instructions used as when you upgraded the stock recovery rom.
Boot into your recovery mod and flash your rom like you usually do.
A word about TWRP: it cost me many hours of work and I don't recommend it. Its website is outdated, and recommends using GooManager (which is no longer mantained) and doesn't work anymore for this. GooManager suggests using a new, different app, which doesn't have the option of installing TWRP. Then I tried using their TWRP Manager app from play store and the image file wouldn't download. Then I tried manually selecting the image file in TWRP manager that I downloaded from their site for use via the ADB method, and it bricked my phone... twice (using two different methods the app sugested). I tried so much because in theory TWRP has the ability to decrypt android's 4.4 encryption, but after looking at their github site I noticed it was filled with people's reports (including people with the S4) on how it wouldn't work decrypting squat. So I gave up, and installed CWM in 30 seconds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage or liability arising out of these steps. I did not invent anything, I just tried something. Only move forward at your risk
cnewsgrp said:
One of the things I needed was the ability to encrypt my phone (device only not external SD) for security purpose. Our phones today gives access to lot of information that I would rather not fall in wrong hands. I did lot of research and here is a working solution.
Credit goes to @Tronicus and his reply Flash a Rom on an Encrypted Android
The quote looks long however it is really very simple. To install another ROM
- Install and reboot into stock recovery, then wipe data and cache (this removes encryption).
- Then install your recovery of choice and install ROM using recovery. Philz/CWM
This has been tested working on |ROM|★KANGAKAT★|►KTU84P◄|4.4.4|Xposed|►8◄|6.26.14 by @iB4STiD
This did NOT work on a Touchwiz ROM by same developer
I have not tested any other ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if it matters too much or not, but the stock recovery you linked to is for the AT&T S4. A good rule of thumb is to never use Odin to flash anything not specifically for your particular device... In this case the M919.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
lordcheeto03 said:
I don't know if it matters too much or not, but the stock recovery you linked to is for the AT&T S4. A good rule of thumb is to never use Odin to flash anything not specifically for your particular device... In this case the M919.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tested stock recovery on M919 .. it works
Honestly im surprised its not talked about more since there is a big push for personal privacy when it comes to data. Encryption really is a pain in the ass to work with on android. Figuring out how to switch or update custom roms while encrypted will drive you insane. The easiest way is to just odin back to stock and start over, but that requires a computer anytime you need to flash anything.
I recently was trying out one of the 4.4.4 GPE roms and turned on encryption. It worked great until i started missing touchwiz and wanted to go back to HyperDrive TW. So the journey began...
First of all, i backed up everything to external storage since i knew everything on the internal storage would have to be wiped. I loaded the phone into recovery mode (using TWRP) and tried wiping, but all i got was a bunch of "Failed to mount" errors. Fine. Got the same error when trying to factory reset or wiping /system, /data, /cache, and anything else. Tried formatting to different file systems and then formatting back to the original but no luck. Fixing permissions didnt help. I just kept trying everything available multiple times.
Eventually it started wiping everything except the /data mount. Well... At least i could install new custom roms. Im not sure exactly what did it because i was just throwing everything at it. Anyways I got it to install, and booted into it. Nope.
Now it was saying I needed the password to decrypt the internal storage. It would detect wrong passwords fine, but as soon as i put the correct password in, it would allow me in, show the green android encryption picture, then blank screen. I thought it was just decrypting and setting up my rom but after a few hours my screen was still black and nothing was happening. Pulled battery and went back to TWRP.
I started wiping everything again and again and tried doing everything i could to wipe everything on the internal storage. Again, not sure what did it, but eventually got it all cleaned up and got a new rom installed and could boot into it.
The whole process probably took about 6-7 hours...
I dont even want to enable encryption on the new rom...
p-hil said:
Honestly im surprised its not talked about more since there is a big push for personal privacy when it comes to data. Encryption really is a pain in the ass to work with on android. Figuring out how to switch or update custom roms while encrypted will drive you insane. The easiest way is to just odin back to stock and start over, but that requires a computer anytime you need to flash anything.
I recently was trying out one of the 4.4.4 GPE roms and turned on encryption. It worked great until i started missing touchwiz and wanted to go back to HyperDrive TW. So the journey began...
First of all, i backed up everything to external storage since i knew everything on the internal storage would have to be wiped. I loaded the phone into recovery mode (using TWRP) and tried wiping, but all i got was a bunch of "Failed to mount" errors. Fine. Got the same error when trying to factory reset or wiping /system, /data, /cache, and anything else. Tried formatting to different file systems and then formatting back to the original but no luck. Fixing permissions didnt help. I just kept trying everything available multiple times.
Eventually it started wiping everything except the /data mount. Well... At least i could install new custom roms. Im not sure exactly what did it because i was just throwing everything at it. Anyways I got it to install, and booted into it. Nope.
Now it was saying I needed the password to decrypt the internal storage. It would detect wrong passwords fine, but as soon as i put the correct password in, it would allow me in, show the green android encryption picture, then blank screen. I thought it was just decrypting and setting up my rom but after a few hours my screen was still black and nothing was happening. Pulled battery and went back to TWRP.
I started wiping everything again and again and tried doing everything i could to wipe everything on the internal storage. Again, not sure what did it, but eventually got it all cleaned up and got a new rom installed and could boot into it.
The whole process probably took about 6-7 hours...
I dont even want to enable encryption on the new rom...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah Encryption does not seem to work on TWZ roms. I tried on G Eye without luck.
I have updated op. Please check
Encryption will slow down your phone quite a bit. More battery usage + more CPU usage + slower phone = not worth it unless you've got some very private stuff you don't want being shared. Otherwise, 3rd party apps that lock a lot of files, can encrypt certain files, and hide others will do the trick perfectly well.'
Not trying to bash fully encrypting your phone, but I've tried it before and although I am very pro privacy, I had to eventually take it off due to all the extra hassle it created.
Don't know about slowing down. I am not seeing it. I feel differently about security.
Hello all!
This is my first foray into the world of custom Android systems, and I'm having a hell of a time with it... if somebody would be able to help me out, I would greatly appreciate it.
First off, the situation:
I am on Sprint, and I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 (SPH-L710) from Sprint to use as a backup phone, I used it for a while on Stock, then deactivated it so I could give it to my wife. First though, I wanted to put a custom ROM on it, and experiment/play around a bit and see what this world of options could do for me. Long story short, I ended up flashing an AICP ROM, and everything seemed to go smoothly, but when I went to activate the phone on my account again and it would not work no matter what I tried (details below). I figured maybe I could activate on the stock setup then just restore my custom setup, so I tried to revert to my stock ROM backup and I couldn't do anything because I was constantly getting messages that various programs had closed... Then I tried to wipe and restore my custom ROM backup and I get stuck in a boot loop... so I tried to flash a stock recovery and I get stuck in a boot loop... I'm out of ideas here, and now I'm stuck with a phone I can't use or do anything with, and I can't activate.
Details:
The initial rooting/install process seemed to work ok, and was fairly straightforward. I followed various guides on http://galaxys3root.com/ to get my phone rooted and backed up (Don't recall which ones now, but I've read through so much by now I don't know if it matters...).
My phone:
Samsung Galaxy S3 (Sprint) SPH-L710
Modem: L710SPRDNJ2
My Desktop:
Debian Linux
Here's the steps I performed:
Rebooted phone in Odin mode
Downloaded CWM S3 Sprint Recovery from the http://galaxys3root.com/ website (can't find the link any more)
Flashed the CWM recovery using Heimdall then rebooted phone into CWM
Installed SuperSU through CWM, then rebooted
Checked that the phone was rooted successfully (it was), then ran Titanium Backup on the whole device to my SD card, then copied the backup files to my desktop computer
Rebooted into CWM, and performed a backup through CWM, then rebooted and copied the CWM backup to my desktop.
Downloaded AICP Rom for my phone from here: http://downloadandroidrom.com/file/GalaxyS3Sprint/roms/AICP/aicp_d2spr_lp-10.0-RELEASE-20150707.zip, put it on my SD card, then installed it through CWM and rebooted
At this point, I was happy with how everything was working, so I did some minor theme customizations then made another backup through CWM, and copied it to my computer, but I did NOT run Titanium this time...
After all of this, I tried to go ahead and activate it through the Sprint web service. This process failed continuously with an unhelpful error message of "Sorry, this device can't be activated right now". I then got on Chat to see if they could activate it manually, and then the problems began. They did their thing activating the phone, but when I booted up I got no data connectivity, and couldn't make calls, and the SIM was not changing over to the new number. I was on the chat with them for over an hour trying to get the situation resolved, but that finally ended when they started asking me to punch in ## codes, because I discovered that none of them worked on my custom ROM. Some quick research told me that this was non-trivial to get around so I had them switch everything back and I started researching the issue.
I found this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1626638&highlight=sph-l710 that looked like it would let me do what I needed from the custom ROM, but I couldn't tell if it would fix my problem for sure, so I figured "I'll just restore my stock setup from that backup I took, activate it and update, then start over". This is when things got really frustrating...
First I rebooted into CWM, went to 'backup/restore', and restored my stock backup
Rebooted, and as soon as I got past the lock screen, I get inundated with messages of various apps being closed unexpectedly.
I researched a bit, discovered the issue may be caused by stale dalvik cache, so I rebooted into CWM, cleared the dalvik cache, formatted the /cache partition, then tried to restore the stock backup again, but this time I get stuck in a boot loop.
I then rebooted into CWM, tried to restore the backup of my AICP ROM, only to be stuck in a boot loop as well.
Trying to get into any usable system, I rebooted to CWM, cleared dalvik cache, then formatted /cache, /data, and /system just to be sure, and re-flashed the base AICP ROM I started with. This worked fine, and before long I had stock AICP back
Since I still couldn't get the phone to activate in the custom ROM, and my backups are apparently completely useless, I rebooted into CWM, wiped dalvik, /cache, /data, and /system again and tried to install a different stock ROM I found in the XDA forums (here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3-sprint/development/stock-rom-4-4-2-t3010642) only to be greeted by another bootloop
At this point I've spent well over 24 man-hours trying to get this to work, reading, researching, flashing, etc all to no avail. Nothing I do seems to work, and it seems like every article, tutorial, or forum thread I read either has nothing to do with my device, is too old, or doesn't describe my problem.
I'm at wits end, and am so frustrated I'm ready to just give up and smash this device and buy a new one... My questions to the community are as follows:
I know I screwed up on a couple of things, but in my initial research of doing this there was no indication that these were even things I needed to watch out for... Is there any more organized sources of information for doing this sort of thing?
Does anybody else out there use Sprint on a custom ROM, and if so how you you pull this off
Where else have I screwed up, and how can I fix this situation? (My end goal is still to get the S3 onto Sprint with a custom ROM)
What can I do differently next time? I would like to figure this out and do it to other phones and devices I have, but if it's this much trouble every time, I just don't have the time to mess with it.
Thank you in advance, and I appreciate any information that the community can provide.
This sounds like a CWM problem to me. If I were you, I'd boot the phone into Odin Mode and flash TWRP ( www.twrp.me ) then try flashing the latest aicp nightly downloaded from the official site ( www.aicp-rom.com ). Check the md5sums on everything! Then maybe try flashing a touchwiz ROM and activating your phone. Remember that you need to wipe the internal storage when you go between KitKat and lollipop.
I'm fairly certain you have to do activation with the stock Touchwiz roms -- once the phone is activated you can flash a custom.
You should go into recovery and wipe everything (System/data/etc) EXCEPT for the External SD Card
Power off - pull the battery for a few - power on directly into download mode
Odin NJ2 back onto the phone and reboot and activate it (skip through most of the setup since you'll flash a custom after)
Once you know it's activated and working under the stock Touchwiz, then again power off and Odin TWRP recovery
Then you can go back into recovery, wipe everything except External SD, and flash the custom rom back on.
Looks like swapping CWM for TWRP did the trick.
Flashed TWRP no problems, and put CleanBean on there to get the phone activated. Still wouldn't work automatically over the Sprint website, but I got on chat with them and they fixed me right up. Downloading a fresh copy of AICP now...
Is it worth it to keep the CWM backups I made earlier, or should I just go ahead and flush them? I figured just get rid of them since restoring them wasn't working anyway, but I figured I would ask.
Now to move all the data over to the new phone. Thanks so much for your help guys!
afarris01 said:
Looks like swapping CWM for TWRP did the trick.
Flashed TWRP no problems, and put CleanBean on there to get the phone activated. Still wouldn't work automatically over the Sprint website, but I got on chat with them and they fixed me right up. Downloading a fresh copy of AICP now...
Is it worth it to keep the CWM backups I made earlier, or should I just go ahead and flush them? I figured just get rid of them since restoring them wasn't working anyway, but I figured I would ask.
Now to move all the data over to the new phone. Thanks so much for your help guys!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get rid of them. TWRP can't restore CWM even if the backup is good
So...
Last week, my wife's Tab S went into a bootloop. She runs complete stock, we haven't rooted, or anything. There had been a notification about an update, but she hadn't touched it. She'd updated to Lollipop at some point last year, but hadn't applied the absolute latest update. One day last week, she just turned it on, and it started bootlooping.
Because it was so stock, there were no backups, no nandroids, or anything like that. No Custom Recovery. I told her "well, we can just do a factory reset. You'll lose everything, but once we get you back up and running, it'll just re-download everything from the Goog." So we factory reset it. Looked good for a minute, booted into the first screen, enter in your Wi-Fi password, all that. As soon as we got the Wi-Fi password entered, however, it re-booted. And keep rebooting. Bootloop city. No problem. I walked her through (over the phone) using Odin to flash the latest Lollipop firmware. No dice. It appeared to flash successfully, but still bootlooped.
Over the weekend, I tried using Kies to flash the most official firmware I could find. Everything was successful -computer recognized the device, was able to download "direct from the source," as it were, but it got stuck at 69% twice before failing. I read somewhere that one had to run Kies in administrator mode to get it to successfully complete. So I did, and it got past 69%, successfully completing the flash. STILL NO LUCK. STILL WITH THE BOOTLOOPS.
Last night, I realized that I hadn't flashed in Odin using Administrator Mode. Tried it, using latest 5.0.2 (XAR-Cellular South). Flashed successfully, all appeared well. Still bootlooped.
So, I'm stuck. I can get into recovery, I can get into Download Mode, I can successfully flash. I just can't get the darn thing booted.
Thoughts, anyone? Should I try flashing a Custom ROM? How hard is that using Odin? Thanks in advance.
Ok this will take a few tries but here is my method of dealing with this situation
1) Flash stock using Odin
2) AS SOON AS the screen goes blank, start holding Power+Volume Up+Home
3) When recovery boots, release the buttons
4) Use the volume buttons to select "Wipe data/factory reset"
5) Press power to confirm
6) Reboot
If that doesn't work, you may either:
1) (more likely) Installing a ROM will fix the problem
2) (unlikely but possible) You might have worn NAND pages, which I doubt but could cause this behavior.
Nandr0idC0nsumer said:
Ok this will take a few tries but here is my method of dealing with this situation
1) Flash stock using Odin
2) AS SOON AS the screen goes blank, start holding Power+Volume Up+Home
3) When recovery boots, release the buttons
4) Use the volume buttons to select "Wipe data/factory reset"
5) Press power to confirm
6) Reboot
If that doesn't work, you may either:
1) (more likely) Installing a ROM will fix the problem
2) (unlikely but possible) You might have worn NAND pages, which I doubt but could cause this behavior.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll try these steps tonight when I get home, and report back!
All right, here's something interesting. Before I tried your first step, I remembered that the other night, I left it stuck at the Samsung logo -it was just kind of stuck there, and since the behavior was a little different than I'd seen before (not continuous bootlooping), I thought I'd boot into recovery and wipe. I did, I wiped (factory reset), and rebooted. The tablet booted into the first screen, Accessibility/Wi-Fi, blahblah. This was where it usually rebooted. On a hunch, I bypassed entering in my WiFi key. I then bypassed almost everything else (Samsung account, Google account, etc.), expecting that the tablet would reboot at any moment. But I made it to the front apps page, where it shows you the side-launcher, the Magazine-Flipboard thingie, and whatnot. Wi-Fi still not connected, though. I opened up the app drawer, and scrolled around. Looked really good for a moment. I even took a picture with the camera, and viewed it in Gallery! Feeling brave, I thought, "well, maybe it just needed a couple of minutes before firing up the radio." So I went into settings, and inputted my WiFi key. It connected. And rebooted into its bootloop. (getting so tired of that boot-sound).
Went ahead and flashed the most original stock firmware I could find. As always, flashed successfully. As soon as it booted, I made my way to recovery, and wiped, per your instructions. No luck. Bootloop again.
It's something in the WiFi is what I've come to think as a result of the above. Which I don't entirely understand, as I thought the radio got re-flashed with the firmware.
I'm ready to try flashing a Custom Rom. Can I do that through Odin, or should I try and flash TWRP, and do it through there? Will TWRP flash without a working (bootable) OS?
All right. Thanks for your response!
Try this as a test.
First make a full backup of every partition with twrp including the EFS <<IMPORTANT!
Get it booting again without wifi then root the device and delete the EFS folder or delete it in recovery.
Reboot the device and try and enable wifi.
ashyx said:
Try this as a test.
First make a full backup of every partition with twrp including the EFS <<IMPORTANT!
Get it booting again without wifi then root the device and delete the EFS folder or delete it in recovery.
Reboot the device and try and enable wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got TWRP installed. Won't backup. Fails at 16% (system partition, I think). Just powers down to battery indicator in the middle of the backup. Looks like it backs up the EFS, though, since it's the first one. And when I go into TWRP's Restore option, there's a backup there (though I don't dare try and restore it).
Now I have to figure out a way to get the Custom ROM and GAPPS I downloaded onto the tablet without a reliable boot... It's gotten to the front screen a time or two tonight, but starts looping even when I bypass the WiFi setup.
Entered adb/TWRP interface. Tried to push two files, a Custom ROM file, and a GAPPS file. The ROM failed, with some sort of "Error 7," incompatible data, blahblah... Just out of curiosity, I tried to push the GAPPS file, and that failed after about 6%, and the tablet powered off.
I'm running out of ideas.
copied a custom rom to a USB/OTG stick (thumbdrive), and plugged it in. Fired up TWRP, tried to install. Wouldn't. Wouldn't install GAPPS, either. Looks like the only way it wants to flash anything is through ODIN or KIES.
The Latest...
All right...
I remembered that sometimes the TWRP version mattered. When I installed TRWP last night, I installed the latest and greatest, 3.0.2. Last night after I gave up, I remembered that sometimes, the latest and greatest TWRP doesn't install things perfectly. So, this morning, I downloaded TWRP 2.8.6-ish onto the USB/OTG device, and re-flashed the recovery partition. To be honest, I was surprised that TWRP was even able to flash that (but the TWRP image is only like 9.8 MB, so...)...
Got TWRP 2.8.6.0 flashed, and rebooted into TWRP. Immediately decided to try and re-flash the custom ROM that I'd tried unsuccessfully to flash last night, since the thumbdrive was still plugged in. Resurrection Remix Lollipop. Lined up GAPPS in the queue, as well. The ROM *appeared* to flash better than it had in TWRP 3.0.2, but it was sort of hard to see... GAPPS failed, and I was prepared to watch another round of bootloops. It did bootloop, sort of. The RR splash screen appeared, said that it was installing (or preparing) xx out of XX apps. Then, it rebooted. I figured it was doing its bootloop thing. However, it got to the same screen, "installing xx out of XX apps. Except that XX number had gone down, and the xx number had gone up. It repeated this action about 4 times --the last time I saw it reboot, it was "installing 1 out of 2 apps." And then...?
It booted into the RR lockscreen.
Of course, there were no GAPPS. In fact, there are something like only 20 apps total on the tablet. But it appears somewhat stable at the moment. (See picture).
Afraid to try and connect WiFi, afraid that it'll just bootloop.
Speaking of bootloop. At one point, once we got it booted, my wife hit an option in the Settings. LCD Density, I believe. As soon as she hit it (she literally just placed her finger over the 320 default option), the tablet rebooted. No loop, though. Rebooted straight back to the RR lockscreen.
So I appear to have a somewhat stable OS flashed onto the tablet at the moment. No GAPPS, though. No WiFi.
Anybody have a suggestion on where to go from here? I have my doubts as to whether or not I can even back up this configuration.
Sorry about all the updates. I kind of figured that if *anyone* else ever goes through what I'm going through, they'll have some sense of all the different things that can be tried in resurrecting a bricked/bootlooping device. I appreciate everyone's efforts to date -thank you so much, @Lightn1ng and @ashyx.
All right, because I can't leave well enough alone....
I got WiFi up and working. Tablet still stable and working. Wheeeee.... No GAPPS, though.
Downloaded GAPPS, second-smallest package from opengapps- only 128M (5.1 ARM package). Downloaded it in Android, from the tablet! Tried to flash it in TWRP. Failed, tablet rebooted halfway (not even) through. Now it's bootlooping again...
I should've left well enough alone, and waited for someone. Have tried re-installing Resurrection Remix, but tablet keeps failing to flash. Might have to try and flash a different TWRP. I don't know...
Have you tried another Gapps? Also, is this the WiFi only model or the LTE model we're talking about?
Lightn1ng said:
Have you tried another Gapps? Also, is this the WiFi only model or the LTE model we're talking about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the WiFi-only model - SM-T800.
It's kind of weird. I thought it might be some sort of internal memory problem (like the worn Nand pages you mentioned), since almost anything I try to do in TWRP fails (although I was able to flash an entire Custom ROM the one time AND get it booted) -but backing up isn't working, whether it's to internal/external SD. And the fact that I can flash perfectly (subjective term there) well using Odin or Kies tells me that whatever problems the tablet is having, something's getting through.
I'll try a different GAPPS package. Right now, though, TWRP isn't letting me flash hardly anything, and moving files back and forth on this thing is just awful.
AGH - I was so close!
daina said:
It's the WiFi-only model - SM-T800.
It's kind of weird. I thought it might be some sort of internal memory problem (like the worn Nand pages you mentioned), since almost anything I try to do in TWRP fails (although I was able to flash an entire Custom ROM the one time AND get it booted) -but backing up isn't working, whether it's to internal/external SD. And the fact that I can flash perfectly (subjective term there) well using Odin or Kies tells me that whatever problems the tablet is having, something's getting through.
I'll try a different GAPPS package. Right now, though, TWRP isn't letting me flash hardly anything, and moving files back and forth on this thing is just awful.
AGH - I was so close!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running out of ideas!
Maybe somebody else with a T800 could backup their entire EMMC using
Code:
dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/full_nand_dump.bin
And you take the file on your tablet and do
Code:
dd if=/sdcard/full_nand_dump.bin of=/dev/mmcblk0
And restore YOUR efs folder using TWRP.
THIS IS A DANGEROUS OPERATION AND I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT GOES WRONG!
---------- Post added at 08:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 PM ----------
@ashyx Any more ideas before I go ahead with my evil world domination plan to recover this device?
I wouldnt carry out any risky operations until a full backup can be made with twrp or you may end up with an unrecoverable device.
If twrp cannot backup the system partition then there is an issue with the partition.
Try backup again and post the recovery log, it may contain some relative information.
I have the same issues and have tried eveything. I was rooted and running the latest Pheonix rom on my sm-t800. Last Wednesday (8-10) I starting getting boot loops out of nowhere, no new apps nothing just a daily driver. I've been through everything on here and have gone back to bone stock but to no avail, the boot loops just keep coming. I can connect to wifi and get things set up but if I try to use anything more than 'light usage' the tab starts its boot loops again and rows fits for about 10 minutes and always different timing on the boot. Sometimes it will make it to the Samsung logo, sometime only to Tab S and sometimes about 10 seconds of usage.. I know this isn't helping much but wanted to let you know there are more of us with the same problem. Will be blab to try anything to help said issue.
Exactly the same issue on my LTE version.
Samsung support just asked me 230€ for a new motherboard.
I refused to repair. I think it is related to nand memory..
Hello I have both the 8.4" and 10.5" I updated the 8.4" to Android 5.02 nothing but boot loops my other is still on 442 and I wont be updating it as its working fine. I have been reading a few posts and the problem was right in front of me all the time I have 2 internet connections 2.4 GHZ and 5.0 GHZ if I connect to the 5.0 GHZ I get boot loops but if I stay on 2.4 GHZ no problems what so ever so I may just install a custom rom and my 10.5 tab and stay clear of the faster internet.
srfairhurst said:
Hello I have both the 8.4" and 10.5" I updated the 8.4" to Android 5.02 nothing but boot loops my other is still on 442 and I wont be updating it as its working fine. I have been reading a few posts and the problem was right in front of me all the time I have 2 internet connections 2.4 GHZ and 5.0 GHZ if I connect to the 5.0 GHZ I get boot loops but if I stay on 2.4 GHZ no problems what so ever so I may just install a custom rom and my 10.5 tab and stay clear of the faster internet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not just update to Marshmallow? Absolutely no issues for me.
ashyx said:
Why not just update to Marshmallow? Absolutely no issues for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now i figured out its the wifi thats causing the problem i will update to android 6.01 or if i can find a good custom rom il risk that.
daina said:
It's the WiFi-only model - SM-T800.
It's kind of weird. I thought it might be some sort of internal memory problem (like the worn Nand pages you mentioned), since almost anything I try to do in TWRP fails (although I was able to flash an entire Custom ROM the one time AND get it booted) -but backing up isn't working, whether it's to internal/external SD. And the fact that I can flash perfectly (subjective term there) well using Odin or Kies tells me that whatever problems the tablet is having, something's getting through.
I'll try a different GAPPS package. Right now, though, TWRP isn't letting me flash hardly anything, and moving files back and forth on this thing is just awful.
AGH - I was so close!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DrinkSlinger said:
I have the same issues and have tried eveything. I was rooted and running the latest Pheonix rom on my sm-t800. Last Wednesday (8-10) I starting getting boot loops out of nowhere, no new apps nothing just a daily driver. I've been through everything on here and have gone back to bone stock but to no avail, the boot loops just keep coming. I can connect to wifi and get things set up but if I try to use anything more than 'light usage' the tab starts its boot loops again and rows fits for about 10 minutes and always different timing on the boot. Sometimes it will make it to the Samsung logo, sometime only to Tab S and sometimes about 10 seconds of usage.. I know this isn't helping much but wanted to let you know there are more of us with the same problem. Will be blab to try anything to help said issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
and the rest of story??
i can flash TWRP in download mode, and i can intall zip by TWRP , the lineage rom,
but, cant odin flash official md5 file, it stucks on logo.