Hello, everybody. I have a T-Mo SGS2 SGH-T989 that's frustrating me, and I'm hoping one of you might understand what's happening and how to fix it. Its software seems to be frozen in time. Every time I reboot it, no matter what I've done to it, it opens on the homescreen I had in place as of last Thursday (6 September). As soon as it boots it downloads updates for every app that's had an update come out since then. Any apps I have tried to install since then give me a "could not be downloaded due to an error. (492)" message, and any already-installed apps I delete magically reappear unchanged as soon as I reboot. Not only that, but all the app cache data is frozen in time, too; Poweramp opens with the player cued to the middle of a track I had last listened to over Bluetooth in my car last Thursday, the Kindle app opens to a page within a book I had read last Thursday, etc. I can't make any permanent changes to my phone for no obviously apparent reason, though it's for the most part functional. To top it all off, though, after being powered on for a few hours, apps start randomly force closing until I reboot it again! I've been running essentially the same software environment on it for a couple of months, and up until last Thursday it was rock-solid reliable. I'm not a complete n00b, but I don't have nearly as much time as I'd like to devote to progressing beyond rank amateur status, and having my phone not completely functional is bugging the spit out of me. I've been trawling this and other forums as much as I can since then, and I can't make head or tail of this problem. Anybody have any ideas?
I've already tried wiping the cache and dalvik cache, I've tried restoring a backup from cwm, I've tried doing a factory reset and data wipe, I've tried darkside super wiping it, I've tried flashing new recoveries, I've tried to update the firmware through Kies, I've tried to flash it back to stock with ODIN, and I even downloaded the Android SDK so I could open an adb shell over USB and chmod all the file permissions to read/write! I keep encountering error messages in cwm and adb saying error mounting /sdcard, error mounting /sd_ext, error mounting sdcard/android.secure, etc. What really blows my mind is that everything seems to be working just fine in ODIN while I'm flashing it - until the phone reboots and shows me exactly the same environment it had before I flashed it. I had avast! Anti-Theft installed, and I disabled its device administrator privileges and uninstalled it before I made any of these attempts to fix it, but it keeps reappearing too. I'm at a loss.
Device details:
Phone: T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989 (rooted)
Android: 4.0.3
ROM: DARKSIDE.EVOLUTION.3 v5 (out-of-date, I know, but it had been working flawlessly for months, and if it ain't broke....)
Kernel: 3.0.8-perf-T989UVLE1-CL508451 (it says "[email protected] #1" on the line after that in the kernel version block of the "About phone" settings page)
Recovery: ClockWorkMod Recovery v5.0.2.7 (again, I know it's out-of-date, but if it ain't broke.... and now it won't let me re-flash it!)
Baseband: T989UVLE1
Selected Installed Apps: AdFree, Amazon Market, Amazon Kindle, ADWLauncherEX, avast! Mobile Security, Beautiful Widgets, BusyBox Pro, Dolphin Browser, Dropbox, DSPManager, KeePassDroid, Kies air, MX Player Pro, Poweramp, PriceCheck, QR Droid Private, ROM Toolbox Pro, Shazam, Superuser, TeslaUnreadPlugin, Titanium Backup, Widget Locker
Nizrael said:
Hello, everybody. I have a T-Mo SGS2 SGH-T989 that's frustrating me, and I'm hoping one of you might understand what's happening and how to fix it. Its software seems to be frozen in time. Every time I reboot it, no matter what I've done to it, it opens on the homescreen I had in place as of last Thursday (6 September). As soon as it boots it downloads updates for every app that's had an update come out since then. Any apps I have tried to install since then give me a "could not be downloaded due to an error. (492)" message, and any already-installed apps I delete magically reappear unchanged as soon as I reboot. Not only that, but all the app cache data is frozen in time, too; Poweramp opens with the player cued to the middle of a track I had last listened to over Bluetooth in my car last Thursday, the Kindle app opens to a page within a book I had read last Thursday, etc. I can't make any permanent changes to my phone for no obviously apparent reason, though it's for the most part functional. To top it all off, though, after being powered on for a few hours, apps start randomly force closing until I reboot it again! I've been running essentially the same software environment on it for a couple of months, and up until last Thursday it was rock-solid reliable. I'm not a complete n00b, but I don't have nearly as much time as I'd like to devote to progressing beyond rank amateur status, and having my phone not completely functional is bugging the spit out of me. I've been trawling this and other forums as much as I can since then, and I can't make head or tail of this problem. Anybody have any ideas?
I've already tried wiping the cache and dalvik cache, I've tried restoring a backup from cwm, I've tried doing a factory reset and data wipe, I've tried darkside super wiping it, I've tried flashing new recoveries, I've tried to update the firmware through Kies, I've tried to flash it back to stock with ODIN, and I even downloaded the Android SDK so I could open an adb shell over USB and chmod all the file permissions to read/write! I keep encountering error messages in cwm and adb saying error mounting /sdcard, error mounting /sd_ext, error mounting sdcard/android.secure, etc. What really blows my mind is that everything seems to be working just fine in ODIN while I'm flashing it - until the phone reboots and shows me exactly the same environment it had before I flashed it. I had avast! Anti-Theft installed, and I disabled its device administrator privileges and uninstalled it before I made any of these attempts to fix it, but it keeps reappearing too. I'm at a loss.
Device details:
Phone: T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989 (rooted)
Android: 4.0.3
ROM: DARKSIDE.EVOLUTION.3 v5 (out-of-date, I know, but it had been working flawlessly for months, and if it ain't broke....)
Kernel: 3.0.8-perf-T989UVLE1-CL508451 (it says "[email protected] #1" on the line after that in the kernel version block of the "About phone" settings page)
Recovery: ClockWorkMod Recovery v5.0.2.7 (again, I know it's out-of-date, but if it ain't broke.... and now it won't let me re-flash it!)
Baseband: T989UVLE1
Selected Installed Apps: AdFree, Amazon Market, Amazon Kindle, ADWLauncherEX, avast! Mobile Security, Beautiful Widgets, BusyBox Pro, Dolphin Browser, Dropbox, DSPManager, KeePassDroid, Kies air, MX Player Pro, Poweramp, PriceCheck, QR Droid Private, ROM Toolbox Pro, Shazam, Superuser, TeslaUnreadPlugin, Titanium Backup, Widget Locker
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Click to collapse
This sounds like an Android virus... Did you download anything "suspicious" recently?
whatiznt said:
This sounds like an Android virus... Did you download anything "suspicious" recently?
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Click to collapse
Yeah what he said.. You could always try a virus scan, however I have heard they aren't that reliable.. Easiest fix would be get a warranty replacement and be done with it.
VoiD_Dweller said:
Yeah what he said.. You could always try a virus scan, however I have heard they aren't that reliable.. Easiest fix would be get a warranty replacement and be done with it.
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Click to collapse
+1
Oh, dear.
I wouldn't have thought I had downloaded anything especially sketchy. I won't install an app unless it's got a lot of positive reviews, but I suppose that's no guarantee of absence of malware. The trouble with sending it in for warranty service is, I've voided my warranty by rooting it and installing a custom ROM, and I can't flash it back to stock.
Nizrael said:
I wouldn't have thought I had downloaded anything especially sketchy. I won't install an app unless it's got a lot of positive reviews, but I suppose that's no guarantee of absence of malware. The trouble with sending it in for warranty service is, I've voided my warranty by rooting it and installing a custom ROM, and I can't flash it back to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you talking about, you can ALWAYS flash back to stock
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
Nizrael said:
I wouldn't have thought I had downloaded anything especially sketchy. I won't install an app unless it's got a lot of positive reviews, but I suppose that's no guarantee of absence of malware. The trouble with sending it in for warranty service is, I've voided my warranty by rooting it and installing a custom ROM, and I can't flash it back to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you already have a back up try this out. Format system, Format data, Format cache. Wipe cache partition, Wipe dalvik, Wipe data/Factory Reset. Do all these twice not once but twice then reinstall backup rom and reboot. See if this fixes the problem.
No Joy
richardlibeau said:
If you already have a back up try this out. Format system, Format data, Format cache. Wipe cache partition, Wipe dalvik, Wipe data/Factory Reset. Do all these twice not once but twice then reinstall backup rom and reboot. See if this fixes the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Creating a backup was the first thing I did after I rooted it, so I did what you suggested. The first four steps went well enough:
Reboot to recovery ---> mounts and storage ---> format /system ---> Yes - Format ---> Done. (x2)
mounts and storage ---> format /data ---> Yes - Format ---> Done. (x2)
mounts and storage ---> format /cache ---> Yes - Format ---> Done. (x2)
wipe cache partition ---> Yes - Wipe Cache ---> --Wiping cache... Formatting /cache... Cache wipe complete. (x2)
When I went to wipe dalvik, I got this error the first time:
advanced ---> Wipe Dalvik Cache ---> E:unknown volume for path [/sd-ext]
So I tried it again, and it seemed to work:
Wipe Dalvik Cache ---> Dalvik Cache wiped.
Just to be sure, I tried it a third time and got the error again:
advanced ---> Wipe Dalvik Cache ---> E:unknown volume for path [/sd-ext]
After several more tries, it seems to be alternating back and forth between telling me it works and giving me an error message, so I moved on:
wipe data/factory reset ---> Yes -- delete all user data --->
It seemed to partially work, but also gave me an error:
-- Wiping data...
Formatting /data...
Formatting /cache...
Formatting /sd-ext...
Formatting /sdcard/.android.secure...
Error mounting /sdcard/.android.secure!
Skipping format...
Data wipe complete.
I tried it again three more times and got the same results, error mounting /sdcard/.android.secure. Moving on, I tried to restore a backup:
- backup and restore ---> restore ---> E:Can't mount /sdcard (x4)
The thought occurred that it might be trying to access an external SD card rather than internal storage, so I re-installed the one I had removed prior to mucking about trying to wipe things and tried again:
- backup and restore ---> restore ---> Couldn't open directory. No files found.
This was new, so I went back to the wipe data/factory reset step:
wipe data/factory reset ---> Yes -- delete all user data --->
This time it seemed to work without any errors:
-- Wiping data...
Formatting /data...
Formatting /cache...
Formatting /sd-ext...
Formatting /sdcard/.android.secure...
Data wipe complete. (x2)
Since that seemed to work, I repeated all steps from the beginning and moved on to the restore step:
- backup and restore ---> restore ---> Couldn't open directory. No files found. (x2)
I tried the restore from internal sdcard option:
- backup and restore ---> restore from internal sdcard ---> Couldn't open directory. No files found. (x2)
I then tried the "- advanced restore" and "- advanced restore from internal sdcard" but with the same results ---> Couldn't open directory. No files found. (x2)
Then I rebooted it:
- reboot system now --->
And yet again, it behaves as though it's been powered down since Thursday before last.
Luckily this isn't my main phone as it's close to junk now, but I wanted to test out 4.2 since my current device doesn't have a ROM yet. That being said, I'm in a real sticky situation that I don't think is possible to get out of.
So here's the problem
-micro USB port is fried, only charges when 0% battery and off. Can't mount storage at all.
-when it boots start up apps force close and it's impossible to get to the homescreen because of infinite popups. Factory reset does not fix this. Why this is is a mystery since it's the gapps that are force closing.
-sdcard is now mysteriously empty. I'm almost positive that I didn't wipe it on accident.
I need to get a new ROM onto it since a full wipe doesn't fix the problem. I can't mount the sdcard/adb push/fastboot due to fried port, I can't download through wifi/bluetooth due to infinite force closes.
Is there any possible solution that I'm not thinking of that can save my beloved gnex?
EDIT: Never mind I fixed it. I ended up wiping data, system, cache, and dalvik individually instead of trusting the factory reset option to do it for me. This of course caused the ROM to be removed completely so there wasn't anything to boot into. I was messing around in the recovery since that's all I could do and I figured out that for some reason whenever I did a factory reset it created another /0 directory on my sdcard. I had something like /sdcard/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/ before I could get to my real /sdcard. I flashed a ROM I had saved and am now up and running again. If I didn't have that ROM saved, I would have been screwed for sure.
I started having this problem ever since I upgraded my phone to 4.1.2 T989UVMC6. Sometimes when the power button gets accidentally pressed for 10 seconds in my pocket, the phone vibrates 3 or 4 times, then gets to the Galaxy SII screen and gets stuck there. A couple of times it got to the glowing Samsung logo, but then it got stuck there. I tried everything to get it to boot (rebooting, wiping cache, dalvik, fixing permissions) but nothing worked. I searched everywhere for a solution but got nothing. Some people said it's caused by the Preload partition, but that got me nowhere. The only thing I could do at that point was to restore my latest backup. I would lose all my changes since the backup but at least it would boot and even reboot normally.
After many experiments, I realized the problem is with the Data partition... So my current solution when it gets stuck at boot:
1. Reboot into recovery.
2. Create a backup of just the Data partition (you can do a full backup if you want but this way is just faster).
3. Restore the backup you just created.
4. Run the Infamous Cache Wipe (probably not necessary, but doesn't hurt).
5. Reboot and enjoy!
The only problem I noticed so far, when doing the backup to external SD, I would lose all my messages (SMS and MMS). Doing the backup to internal SD, everything gets restored normally.
If anyone has more insight into this issue, or has a better and more permanent solution, please share.
If this helps you as much as it helps me, please hit Thanks
I never heard that before!!! Thanks! :s
Sent from my cell phone telephone
I know it may sound weird, but apparently the two topics listed in the subject are related. Starting maybe a couple of months ago, after about a week of watching YouTube and/or other internet videos, as well as local videos on my external SD card, the video display starts glitching full screen, and eventually starts glitching when windowed (or not full screen) as well. When I wipe cache via Recovery (Philz) this problem goes away, but it takes a LONG time to wipe the cache -- like over 10 mins. I've owned numerous phones and tablets (mostly Samsung) and none of them have ever taken that long to wipe the cache partition. Even right after I wipe it, if I wipe it again it still takes >3-5 minutes to wipe (an apparently empty) cache partition.
I've tried formatting it instead of wiping it, but I'm guessing they're one and the same thing because it takes the same amount of time no matter which menu option I choose. Also, I was using TWRP when I first discovered this problem, and that's why I switched to Philz Recovery because I thought the problem might be TWRP. I'm not running anything fancy -- just the latest rooted stock ROM. I only rooted it after receiving the latest OTA and finding out about the stupid external SD card access limitation that came with Kitkat. Otherwise I probably would not have ever rooted it as I didn't really feel the need to even though almost all my other devices are rooted.
Anyone know (1) Why this video issue is happening in the first place and (2) what could be wrong with my cache partition?