Flashing a custom ROM - Xiaomi Mi 6 Questions & Answers

Hi all,
I know it might look ridiculous, but I'm still relatively new to this fun of replacing MIUI with software that actually isn't useless. I've done that on my own Mi Max a few times already, and time has come to now do it for Mrs on her new Mi 6. There's one significant difference that is currently troubling me. I unlocked the bootloader using the official Xiaomi way to do so. But How do I put a custom ROM into the phone's memory (opposed to mi max, mi6 doesn't have SD card support)? I mean where do I put it? And if I use the TWRP recovery to create a full backup of the device, how do I get it from the phone down to my PC? Is there a decent guide on how to do this somewhere? Clearly it's doable as a lot of people have done so, I'm just probably too thick between the ears to figure it out on my own. Will appreciate any help.

Krzysieq said:
Hi all,
I know it might look ridiculous, but I'm still relatively new to this fun of replacing MIUI with software that actually isn't useless. I've done that on my own Mi Max a few times already, and time has come to now do it for Mrs on her new Mi 6. There's one significant difference that is currently troubling me. I unlocked the bootloader using the official Xiaomi way to do so. But How do I put a custom ROM into the phone's memory (opposed to mi max, mi6 doesn't have SD card support)? I mean where do I put it? And if I use the TWRP recovery to create a full backup of the device, how do I get it from the phone down to my PC? Is there a decent guide on how to do this somewhere? Clearly it's doable as a lot of people have done so, I'm just probably too thick between the ears to figure it out on my own. Will appreciate any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't you just use the cable that came with the phone to copy files like backups from the phone to PC? And then copy files from PC to the phone.
The internal memory of the phone acts the same way as an SD card.
TWRP should also offer support for this if you get stuck with no system to boot to or a bootloop so you can copy files to be used in TWRP.
When your phone is unlocked you should think of it more like your desktop computer. You have wider access and flexibility of usage.
Copy a ROM you want to flash into a folder like "Downloads" on the Mi 6 that has TWRP and follow the guides.
For ROMs that need the internal storage to be formatted before flashing just format and then while in TWRP copy the ROM .zip from PC to phone and then flash it.
I'm also wondering if it's such a good idea to mess with your wife's phone. If she gets stuck in a boot loop or something will she be able to fix the phone?
Just think of the issues that can be faced with custom ROMs and make sure she can get it working again if she needs to!

Thanks. The whole idea behind getting her this new Mi6 was to put decent software on it, so she hasn't even started using it really yet. She likes what I have on MiMax - Aosp-xtended - I just got stuck trying to figure out how to work around the fact that mi 6 has no sd card. Currently, when it's booted into miui and connected, I can see the contents of the internal memory, but the same is not true when in twrp - then the phone is still visible in Windows, but the folder structure on it is gibberish.
I also wasn't able to record a full backup of the current software using twrp, but perhaps that's because I only rebooted the phone into twrp without actually flashing it onto the device? Or is it because of encryption? Twrp reported it can't create a folder for backup under some path.

Krzysieq said:
Thanks. The whole idea behind getting her this new Mi6 was to put decent software on it, so she hasn't even started using it really yet. She likes what I have on MiMax - Aosp-xtended - I just got stuck trying to figure out how to work around the fact that mi 6 has no sd card. Currently, when it's booted into miui and connected, I can see the contents of the internal memory, but the same is not true when in twrp - then the phone is still visible in Windows, but the folder structure on it is gibberish.
I also wasn't able to record a full backup of the current software using twrp, but perhaps that's because I only rebooted the phone into twrp without actually flashing it onto the device? Or is it because of encryption? Twrp reported it can't create a folder for backup under some path.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to change to a TWRP built with MTP access so it shows on PC when connected.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-6/development/cofface-xiaomi-6-twrp-recovery-t3608523
This one is popular and the Dev has added many features to make it more functional.
You can always fastboot back the old version if it doesn't work.

It worked, thanks. I'm on AEX rom at the moment, but it has some issues for me. Any chance we'd get Pure Nexus rom for this device, You think? What's the best choice in terms of stability and battery life? I don't care too much about tweaks and mods, the closer to stock android the better...

Krzysieq said:
It worked, thanks. I'm on AEX rom at the moment, but it has some issues for me. Any chance we'd get Pure Nexus rom for this device, You think? What's the best choice in terms of stability and battery life? I don't care too much about tweaks and mods, the closer to stock android the better...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm waiting for my bootloader unlock.
Got the text but it still failed.
Then I'm gonna try LineageOS since it seems most stable.
Lineage is usually no fuss and compatible with most mods

On the flipside - I didn't get the text, but the bootloader unlocked without issues. Check that You have the latest version of the xiaomi tool - older one I used early this year with my own mi max didn't work with my Mrs' new Mi6.
Am planning to flash lineage this evening, but on mi max I couldn't get it to recognize lte on my carrier, while pure nexus and aex roms get Lte just fine.
On a related sidenote,is there a decent tutorial on how to start building my own rom builds? I'm a software developer by trade so I'm hoping I should get a hang of it if it's written up decently.

You dont need external sdcard support to copy ROMs to your phone. You can just connect it to USB and transfer the ROM-Zip File with MTP to the internal storage of your phone.

Related

[Q] Problem with jelly bean on Huawei u9200

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.

[Q] Bricked Phone...Peculiar Situation

Hey guys,
First off, I've searched far and wide for any help with my problem but it is such a peculiar situation that I have yet to find someone with a similar situation. I expect if I want to ever use my M8 again, I'll need to send it to HTC and pay a few hundred bucks to fix it. But maybe someone here will have an idea that I've missed.
Shortly after getting my M8, I unlocked my device, rooted it and installed a few roms. Everything was fine save for one major thing: no matter which PC I used (and I used MANY - 3 different windows destops, a windows desktop at the office and my Macbook Pro) the device was never able to mount and make the storage accessible. I knew at that point something at some point had gone wrong. I've long preferred to use a wireless file transfer app to send stuff to and from my phone so I wouldn't have to break out all my cables so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. I'd make it work.
A few days ago, I decided to try a different rom than what I'd been using for months (HD Revolution - great rom!) and downloaded everything required. I booted to TWRP, wiped the usual stuff and flashed my rom. When I rebooted, I was continually met with a crash as soon as the phone started and was never able to get into the OS. No big deal - this has happened before with other devices, so I didn't sweat it. I simply powered down the phone and tried to get back to recovery. Here's where the problem really kicked in : when attempting to boot to recovery, my phone will bring up the Hboot screen but instantly try to select the first option, thus not allowing me to scroll down to "Recovery". No matter what I do, it brings up the white Hboot screen, automatically selects the first option, gives me some error (I'm at work so I don't have the device in front of me) and tries to boot to the OS. That takes us back to the automatic crash.
Now, I know usually the solution would involve USB and ADB, but like I mentioned at the start of my sad tale, connecting my phone to PC's results either in nothing (Mac) or a "the device has failed" message in Windows. I've tried removing all the phone drivers, reinstalling and using a few toolkit methods - the phone is just never ever detected.
So, that's it. I'm pretty much resigned to sending my phone in and the HTC folks quoted me about $200. I do have a functional phone at the moment so it isn't the worst situation in the world, but if I could fix this I'd be able to using it as my main device again or sell it for a good chunk of change - I just bought it in June.
Sorry for the long read!
As far as the storage issue, never seen that happen before so I'm not sure. When you plug it in to the computer does the phone ask if you want to connect it as a storage device etc?
The bootloader is a very peculiar problem. It almost sounds like you have an img file that its trying to read as soon as you boot into boot loader.
Try to install HTC sync. And make sure the computer has an internet connection when you plug it in via usb.
Try to flash stock recovery fw buddy
Maybe thats problem RUU
Cek mike blg to find all stock recovery fw
After that install custom recovery again
This sounds a little familiar.
In my experience I've found some firmware versions and ROMs very choppy.
I once had a problem with storage too, couldn't send anything over to my phone.
Fortunately I could access recovery, so used ADB sideload and installed another ROM. And went to another firmware and never looked back.
The last 401.6 firmware gave me all sorts of issue.
If you can access fastboot I'd also recommend new firmware 401.7 is working flawlessly for me with ARHD 21.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using XDA Free mobile app
I would try putting one of the bootable ruus on your SD card so when it goes to your hboot, it'll read the RUU and install it
Awesome, some interesting suggestions here. Would I be able to somehow update the firmware via an SD card without any input from a computer? I managed to get into Recovery last night somehow (maybe letting the battery totally drain and charging it for a while did something) but plugging in my phone when in recovery still won't mount the storage or be recognized by ADB. Would I somehow be able update my firmware from recovery without the need of ADB'ing from my desktop? I've been looking at ROM threads and stuff and noticed that almost every rom requires new firmware or WiFI/radios other stuff won't work....
I'm at work right now so I'll definitely research this in depth when I get home, but if you guys could guide me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it and maybe buy ya' a beer.
Xavierc123 said:
Awesome, some interesting suggestions here. Would I be able to somehow update the firmware via an SD card without any input from a computer? I managed to get into Recovery last night somehow (maybe letting the battery totally drain and charging it for a while did something) but plugging in my phone when in recovery still won't mount the storage or be recognized by ADB. Would I somehow be able update my firmware from recovery without the need of ADB'ing from my desktop? I've been looking at ROM threads and stuff and noticed that almost every rom requires new firmware or WiFI/radios other stuff won't work....
I'm at work right now so I'll definitely research this in depth when I get home, but if you guys could guide me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it and maybe buy ya' a beer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download a rom that can use the 2.xx firmware. Look around and you should be able to find the roms. There's still plenty out there. Here's a little suggestion, reflash TWRP (or other recovery) through fastboot than grab a SD card and place the rom into the SD card and install the rom using through the use of a SD card. Just remember to do a full wipe before that

[Q] Help with downgrade and/or re-unlock, possible flash new OS

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.

Phone has no OS and can't flash roms: SOLVED!

I picked up a sprint htc one m9 today. unfortunately no stock OS and no SD CARD with backup either. I booted into twrp but i can not do anything. everything fails. i tried to flash a rom and its a no go. I am stuck and have no idea what to try after looking for hours.
I have no OS
I can boot into twrp
twrp does not allow me to do anything FAILS on every operation.
zwp1990 said:
I picked up a sprint htc one m9 today. unfortunately no stock OS and no SD CARD with backup either. I booted into twrp but i can not do anything. everything fails. i tried to flash a rom and its a no go. I am stuck and have no idea what to try after looking for hours.
I have no OS
I can boot into twrp
twrp does not allow me to do anything FAILS on every operation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Foremost: ugh. Sorry man - that sucks.
So it sounds like your best option would be to get an sd card and apply a RUU from there. Flippy498's Google Sheet is a great resource for where to get them and how to use them.
You might be able to use the Windows-executable RUU directly from Sprint. I'm pretty sure you'd need to be in download mode when you ran it though. It's not as straightforward as the sd card method, but they're usually my first fallback.
Keep in mind that both of these options are destructive - your phone will be brought to a factory state (stock firmware, recovery) and anything on the phone's internal memory will be wiped.
It might be worth exploring why TWRP keeps failing. If we could solve that, you could install the ROM of your choice and not worry about RUUs. But that's definitely more work and probably not necessary if you're not trying to save anything. Once the RUU has been successfully applied, you can just unlock the bootloader anew, install TWRP, and do whatever you want from there.
Thanks a ton that fixed it!
zwp1990 said:
Thanks a ton that fixed it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wonderful! Enjoy your new phone!
(If you're satisfied with the resolution, the convention in this forum is to mark a thread 'solved' in the title when an issue is resolved. This'll help folks know where to direct their help.)

Question Grateful for root and bootloader unlockables but ..

I am grateful and I bought this because next tk Samsung s22 yktra this phone is definitely #2 in my opinion, which is saying a lot.
However the root process is tedious because I am not around a computer I am just lazy to get ito do flashing etc.
My question is, why do. We not have a a real recovery and ability to back up and restore various roms we or flash zips senselessly.
So my question is (since I just bought this) do you guys rhibj we will have to dastboir flash everything or at least much harder then with cwmod or twrp recovery. Is it not possible to have a recovery like those on t his phone?
Is there a better phone in the us that is unlockaable but has the quality like this phone and screen or the Samsung s22 yktra phone?
Thanks
Without a PC you can't run fastboot commands to unlock bootloader and root it. Twrp isn't available for stock a12, let alone the upcoming release of a13
Yes I know that is what I am saying. Is twrp or some recovery similar ever going to be compatible? If not I may be returning but I really don't want to. It's a great phone but I love playing with tweaks and mods. This is my not my main phone. My pixel is on a line I only use very seldomly
jgrimberg1979 said:
Yes I know that is what I am saying. Is twrp or some recovery similar ever going to be compatible? If not I may be returning but I really don't want to. It's a great phone but I love playing with tweaks and mods. This is my not my main phone. My pixel is on a line I only use very seldomly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that you will find too many phones from the primary companies (Google, Samsung, etc) nowadays that will have TWRP builds. As time progresses, the technology (and what is available) progresses as well.
jgrimberg1979 said:
Yes I know that is what I am saying. Is twrp or some recovery similar ever going to be compatible? If not I may be returning but I really don't want to. It's a great phone but I love playing with tweaks and mods. This is my not my main phone. My pixel is on a line I only use very seldomly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the most recent news about Android 12 compatibility for TWRP:
TWRP 3.6.2 Released
TWRP 3.6.2 is out now for most currently supported devices.
twrp.me
We are continuing work on Android 12. There is no ETA currently. You can follow our status on Zulip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disclaimer: I am not advocating signing up for "Zulip", and I won't be doing so myself. When/if TWRP for Android 12 becomes available, I'll hear about it whether I sign up on there or not. It's also likely Android 13 will be stable by then.
Supposedly, the Official TWRP App (not itself updated since 2020) will notify when there's a new version - but I don't know if that applies to when there's no current version of TWRP Recovery already installed.
The reality is that for any device that actually has full working FASTBOOT, there is really no need for these types of recovery systems (i.e. twrp).
Screwing around with different OS builds while out and about is ill-advised no matter what. Leads you to the likely situation of getting yourself unbootable, which is bad. Its really not that big of a burden to plug in a wire when doing radical changes like that.
96carboard said:
The reality is that for any device that actually has full working FASTBOOT, there is really no need for these types of recovery systems (i.e. twrp).
Screwing around with different OS builds while out and about is ill-advised no matter what. Leads you to the likely situation of getting yourself unbootable, which is bad. Its really not that big of a burden to plug in a wire when doing radical changes like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not that much of a burden. You got to understand. It's been several years to a decade since I had a android and what I was used to was much different than now. I was used to always having a recovery that backs everything up and could swap roms if I wanted to if I flashed something wrong I could easily get into recovery and reflash the rom or just restore to another one. It's just different but I am grateful for what I have now but was hoping maybe there would be a recovery like twrp or cm recovery etc. Either way still happy for what we have
Pixel devices do not have a recovery partition; recovery lives in /boot with the kernel, as well as whatever patches you've applied. Currently, TWRP and Magisk cannot coincide for whatever reason. You can patch a boot image with TWRP, and it'll work AFAIK....but if you try to patch it with Magisk too, you'll get a boot loop.
Because we have full fastboot access, there's not really any need for TWRP. You can dump and backup partition contents using fastboot, but it's tedious.
jgrimberg1979 said:
It's not that much of a burden. You got to understand. It's been several years to a decade since I had a android and what I was used to was much different than now. I was used to always having a recovery that backs everything up and could swap roms if I wanted to if I flashed something wrong I could easily get into recovery and reflash the rom or just restore to another one. It's just different but I am grateful for what I have now but was hoping maybe there would be a recovery like twrp or cm recovery etc. Either way still happy for what we have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADP, Nexus, and Pixel devices have NEVER needed a recovery to function fully. This goes right back to the first Android phone in 2008. So nothing really has changed in this respect. Its mostly the "other" brands that need a recovery to work around various restrictions.
Backups can be taken from within the main OS, and restored similarly, and this is actually much preferred since the backup can be stored to a remote location such as a self-hosted Nextcloud server. You can look into seedvault (integrated solution) and neobackup (root solution).
Since Android 11 you cannot have TWRP and Magisk installed at the same time or it will lead to a bootloop. However, you can fastboot boot TWRP (without installing it) and have Magisk installed without getting into a bootloop. At least this is the way it was on Android 11 with the Pixel 2 XL.
Haven't used TWRP in a long time and don't miss it at all, to be honest.

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