Develop Bugs

Device encryption

Has anyone noticed any issue on their h815 with regards to encrypting the phone? Mine does not work; full or quick option. Has unlocking the bootloader caused this to stop working? I have got root and twrp recovery. Could the custom recovery be causing the phone to get stuck on rebooting to encrypt? The lg website says certain features no longer work after the bootloader is unlocked; maybe this is one of those? All just guess work atm, any help would be appreciated.

v1ne said:
Has anyone noticed any issue on their h815 with regards to encrypting the phone? Mine does not work; full or quick option. Has unlocking the bootloader caused this to stop working? I have got root and twrp recovery. Could the custom recovery be causing the phone to get stuck on rebooting to encrypt? The lg website says certain features no longer work after the bootloader is unlocked; maybe this is one of those? All just guess work atm, any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
i do not know, as I do NOT (yet?) own the device! But I would love to know! Any unlocked + encrypted phones out there? I would be interested how many of the geeks around here encrypt their phones?
For me, these days, I do not own a single device (PC, Notebook, Smartphone whatever) that is NOT encrypted. The more easy you loose the device, the more encryption should be a standard.
What is the reality? And does it work with the unlocked bootloader?

v1ne said:
I have got root and twrp recovery. Could the custom recovery be causing the phone to get stuck on rebooting to encrypt? d.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly the same here! I would be very happy if someone could help me out, maybe by looking at some logcat files? The device is rooted after all. Just tell me what log files you would need?

I would like to try to flash the stock recovery. Delete TWRP as I think this could be the culprit. I read about bringing the device back to stock but I am unsure what files I do need exactly and how to proceed. I downloaded the LG Flash tool. Any help would be very much appreciated!

I just got this phone, rooted, unlocked BL, installed Xposed. I tried to encrypt phone, but when I started the process, it rebooted and now it's at the white T-Mobile splash screen. There's no progress indication anywhere and it has been almost an hour. I think I'll have to pull battery.

v1ne said:
Has anyone noticed any issue on their h815 with regards to encrypting the phone? Mine does not work; full or quick option. Has unlocking the bootloader caused this to stop working? I have got root and twrp recovery. Could the custom recovery be causing the phone to get stuck on rebooting to encrypt? The lg website says certain features no longer work after the bootloader is unlocked; maybe this is one of those? All just guess work atm, any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you (or fpsq) manage to do this in the end (and if yes, how)? I have the same issue I think... rooted the phone with the method here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/general/lg-g4-100-root-success-directives-root-t3180586
and now the phone gets stuck on the initial reboot after launching encryption. It works if I unplug the battery, which shows it doesn't even start the process.
Thanks for any help.

It didn't get anywhere, so I tried it again with quick encryption. Same white screen. I rooted with a huge pre-rooted system image. using dd. Did you unlock boot loader, install custom recovery, or install Xposed?

OGIGA said:
It didn't get anywhere, so I tried it again with quick encryption. Same white screen. I rooted with a huge pre-rooted system image. using dd. Did you unlock boot loader, install custom recovery, or install Xposed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No to all three. I also used dd but first dumped my system partition, injected the root files, and then rewrote it (rather than the main method that you used, writing the ready-made image). See the thread I linked earlier for details.
It really seems the root is the problem here. fpsq seems to have gotten it working in a roundabout way:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=62156629&postcount=1468
but I don't understand exactly what he did, I PMed him to ask.

WARNING: Once you encrypt your phone/sdcard you can NOT cancel the process. After you encrypt your phone/sdcard, if you forget your password, you will have to factory reset (wipes /data) and/or format your sdcard (wipes /external_SD) to get a useable phone. Your data WILL be lost!
Also TWRP can not read encrypted volumes other than some Nexus devices, so make a backup BEFORE you encrypt it or the internal/external sdcard.
Overview: You have to kill the SuperSu daemon (temporarily unrooting it) and THEN start the stock encryption process.
1. Install Busybox (need the pkill utility)
2. Open Terminal Emulator and:
Code:
$ su
# pkill -KILL daemonsu
$ exit
NOTE: You'll notice that the # changed back to $. This means that you are no longer the root user and the SuperSu daemon is not running. Do NOT open any other apps, including the SuperSu app.
3. Now go to Settings ---> Security ---> Encrypt Phone.
IMPORTANT: Make sure your phone charger is plugged in. Go through the prompts to encrypt your phone and/or sdcard and the phone will reboot. It will stay at the bootscreen for about a minute and then you will see the white encryption screen. it will ask you for an encryption password. Once you set that, write it down, email it to yourself, whatever you have to do to remember it because if you forget it, there is no helping you. You will have to factory reset (wipes /data) to get a useable phone. Your data WILL be lost!
It will run until it gets to 100% and the phone will reboot. Once it comes back up with the white screen, enter your password and the boot phone will finish booting. To check that the phone/sdcard is encrypted, go to Settings ---> Security and under Encrypt Phone and Encrypt SD card storage, you should see "Encrypted".
Hope this helps.

barcodelinux said:
You have to kill the SuperSu daemon (temporarily unrooting it) and Then start the stock encryption process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works! And it's so clear why it works, now why didn't I think of this?
Thanks a lot for figuring it out and posting it here, you really helped me! Phones hold so much private data nowadays and are so easy to lose that I was really uncomfortable using it unencrypted.

OGIGA said:
I just got this phone, rooted, unlocked BL, installed Xposed. I tried to encrypt phone, but when I started the process, it rebooted and now it's at the white T-Mobile splash screen. There's no progress indication anywhere and it has been almost an hour. I think I'll have to pull battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there - did you get any luck with this? My G4 updated to MM last week, and now I'm trying encryption - but it's been sitting on the initial boot screen for over an hour (not a loop, just that one screen), with no progress bar or screen.
No idea what it's doing, but hoping that pulling the battery out won't brick it completely!
PS. my phone isn't even rooted, so it can't be THAT causing a problem
Thanks,
J

jasonnm said:
Hey there - did you get any luck with this? My G4 updated to MM last week, and now I'm trying encryption - but it's been sitting on the initial boot screen for over an hour (not a loop, just that one screen), with no progress bar or screen.
No idea what it's doing, but hoping that pulling the battery out won't brick it completely!
PS. my phone isn't even rooted, so it can't be THAT causing a problem
Thanks,
J
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just installed Marshmallow last week and took a stab at encryption again. I installed TWRP 2.7.8.1, by the way. What I also did was flash what I think is the original boot.img. I think this would have un-rooted my device and maybe un-Xposed too, but I forgot because I was really sick last week.
Anyway, the standard device encryption actually worked. I opted for /data encryption instead of full device. Funny thing was that the first time I did it, it was stuck at the boot screen, but was actually encrypting. I didn't know that, so I took out the battery and it screwed up my /data, so the OS made me wipe /data. Fortunately, I backed up right when I did Marshmallow, so I restored my /data. I went to encrypt again and waited this time. Eventually, the screen went from boot screen to the encrypting screen starting at like 60% finished. It finished and my /data was encrypted!
I went to TWRP but TWRP could not decrypt my /data no matter what password I tried. Since my /system and /boot were not encrypted, SuperSU installation was easy. I got the password screen at boot like expected.
However, when I installed Xposed, the password screen would keep popping up with "_____ has stopped" persistently and I had to time it right hit each key of the password. When I uninstalled Xposed, the popups stopped. Installed Xposed again, popups were back. After struggling to enter the password and booting up, everything works fine.
That's how much I have experienced so far.

OGIGA said:
I just installed Marshmallow last week and took a stab at encryption again. I installed TWRP 2.7.8.1, by the way. What I also did was flash what I think is the original boot.img. I think this would have un-rooted my device and maybe un-Xposed too, but I forgot because I was really sick last week.
Anyway, the standard device encryption actually worked. I opted for /data encryption instead of full device. Funny thing was that the first time I did it, it was stuck at the boot screen, but was actually encrypting. I didn't know that, so I took out the battery and it screwed up my /data, so the OS made me wipe /data. Fortunately, I backed up right when I did Marshmallow, so I restored my /data. I went to encrypt again and waited this time. Eventually, the screen went from boot screen to the encrypting screen starting at like 60% finished. It finished and my /data was encrypted!
I went to TWRP but TWRP could not decrypt my /data no matter what password I tried. Since my /system and /boot were not encrypted, SuperSU installation was easy. I got the password screen at boot like expected.
However, when I installed Xposed, the password screen would keep popping up with "_____ has stopped" persistently and I had to time it right hit each key of the password. When I uninstalled Xposed, the popups stopped. Installed Xposed again, popups were back. After struggling to enter the password and booting up, everything works fine.
That's how much I have experienced so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the extra info - need to try again when I get a bit more time, but I eventually pulled the battery (risky, I know!) and put it back in and everything was normal, like nothing had changed. Certainly no encryption anywhere.
Will update when I give it another try.
Thanks again!

So if I had my SD card encrypted, and my phone puked, I get another G4 and want to use my old SD card (I have the password) how can I access the files on the SD card ?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Encrypted M9, Lineage updates

I had issues in the past with encrypting my M8, was using clockworkmod and Cyanogen, and could not process updates without fully wiping.
Ultimately I accepted this because I cannot live with having the phone not encrypted.
I now have a new M9, Running TWRP and Lineage 14.
All is working beautifully, no complaints, however I would like to encrypt the phone so I started doing research if this new setup would have issues.
Seems there is mixed advice on different device models having various issues with encrypted images and TWRP not being able to properly update automatically or manually.
Anyone have an M9, encrypted, TWRP and the latest Lineage.
If so known working versions of TWRP to use or avoid? Any required firmware levels, OS build dates, etc?
Just looking for yes, I am doing it and it works on x+y+x configuration, or No, this is going to end in misery.
Not instructions per se unless there are some specific points that lead to a definitive success / failure.
any advice appreciated.

Hi, I have super inactive on the forum for a very long and I signed in for the first time in a few years to answer this.
I also ran into an issue with encryption and lineage os. I found an answer online that I can confirm worked for me.
I am running the latest nightly (Nov 7) and have no issues with installing updates through the settings menu. I am not sure which time version of twrp I am on at the moment and I can't check right now.
I also have a himaul. As Markus said, the last CM13 was able to encrypt properly. That gives us a time-consuming workaround:
Do a fresh install of cm-13.0-20161218-NIGHTLY-himaul. (I got it from https://archive.org/download/cmarchive_nighlies )
Set a PIN and encrypt the phone normally through settings. (I did not try a password or pattern.)
twrp should be able to decrypt properly. Perform the default (i.e., rm -rf, non-formatting) wipe.
adb sideload lineage-14.1-20170516-nightly-himaul-signed
LOS will boot to the standard decryption prompt and should succeed with the PIN from step 2.
LOS will not have a screen lock enabled. I set the same PIN from step 2 and was able to decrypt with it on the next boot. I changed my PIN to another value and was able to decrypt with the new PIN on the next boot.
If you do not set a PIN in step 2, you will still get a PIN prompt in step 5, but there will be no correct answer and you'll have to start over.
This procedure gave me a himaul running the latest LOS nightly that believes it is properly encrypted. I uploaded a logcat from the CM13 encryption run that succeeded as encryption.cm13.log
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source https://jira.lineageos.org/plugins/servlet/mobile#issue/BUGBASH-457 (click to view older comments)
I was able to change the decryption pin (using "cryptfs" from the play store) to a password required upon boot and and I was able to set a pattern lock to unlock the screen.
Edit: To clarify, I ran into a boot loop issue upon trying to encrypt the phone with lineage installed. I can use the automatic updating without issues(so far)

Thank you very much for the input!
I am on the newest twrp-3.1.1-0-hima, and the latest nightly lineage (11/7) as well.
No play store, no google app anything, just a basic subset of productivity tools, and blazing fast performance.
Trying to decide if I want to chance this, this weekend, I will report back for posterity success/fail or at least if I chicken out.
This M9 is running amazingly smooth as is, I hate to toast it, but that's how we learn and the price we pay for not being charged by ATT to be their product
Thanks again for the input, and still would love to hear other's success/fail stories if theyhave them.

Well, to anyone that wants to go there, I can tell you that if you just tell the phone to encrypt, it will not complain, however when it is complete, you will never see the OS again....
Had to reload from scratch, and restore everything I backed up before hand. I did not have time to go back and try alternative ways or methods, maybe next weekend...

The solution I linked worked for me personally, its unfortunate that you couldn't get it to work. Did you do the correct type of wiping ? There is one that deletes the files but leave encryption in tact while the other type is formatting which removes encryption. Also did you give your phone some time to rebuild the dalvik/art cache after installing lineage os?

After OTA upgrade, lost SIM and IMEI

Hey guys,
I just upgraded htc 10 to the latest official version of lineageos, but the installation got stuck in recovery and then I restarted normally.
Unfortunately, I lost the radio signal: no SIM detected! What do you recommend? Can I flash the previous build without encrypt / decrypt issues on partition phone?
I'm on nougat firmware, S-OFF.
Thanks in advance,
Robe

Some details might help .....
RobeStar said:
Hey guys,
I just upgraded htc 10 to the latest official version of lineageos, but the installation got stuck in recovery and then I restarted normally.
Unfortunately, I lost the radio signal: no SIM detected! What do you recommend? Can I flash the previous build without encrypt / decrypt issues on partition phone?
I'm on nougat firmware, S-OFF.
Thanks in advance,
Robe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might be useful to know more specifics about the device we are talking about ? Did you make a COMPLETE Nandroid backup (e.g. with TWRP) before you tried flashing the new image, etc.... What was on it before? What did you (not) wipe prior to attempting the install.... SPECIFICALLY, one could ASSUME a previous LOS build, but assumptions are often dangerous. Also, shouldn't lose the IMEI absent a serious glitch. You CAN blow it away if you wipe the area in TWRP but that would lead to a hope that you also backed it up first. If you CAN, restore what was there before all of this unhappiness began and try again ? Good Luck.

nezlek said:
It might be useful to know more specifics about the device we are talking about ? Did you make a COMPLETE Nandroid backup (e.g. with TWRP) before you tried flashing the new image, etc.... What was on it before? What did you (not) wipe prior to attempting the install.... SPECIFICALLY, one could ASSUME a previous LOS build, but assumptions are often dangerous. Also, shouldn't lose the IMEI absent a serious glitch. You CAN blow it away if you wipe the area in TWRP but that would lead to a hope that you also backed it up first. If you CAN, restore what was there before all of this unhappiness began and try again ? Good Luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi nezlek! You're right: here some useful answer.
Device we are talking about ? HTC 10
Did you make a COMPLETE Nandroid backup ? No... :silly:
What was on it before? lineage-14.1-20180411-nightly-pme-signed.zip
When OTA update has been notified, I installed using the rom tool (not twrp). During the update procedure it stopped in twrp, so I just restarted to system. Then I noticed that the radio did not work anymore...
PS: it's more safer to flash the new build in twrp or continue to use system rom ota update?

Ouch
RobeStar said:
Hi nezlek! You're right: here some useful answer.
Device we are talking about ? HTC 10
Did you make a COMPLETE Nandroid backup ? No... :silly:
What was on it before? lineage-14.1-20180411-nightly-pme-signed.zip
When OTA update has been notified, I installed using the rom tool (not twrp). During the update procedure it stopped in twrp, so I just restarted to system. Then I noticed that the radio did not work anymore...
PS: it's more safer to flash the new build in twrp or continue to use system rom ota update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FIRST - Always better (in my book) to flash with TWRP. Others my have different experiences and opinions but it has never let me down.
You predicament is, in a word, not good. If I were you, I would first try re-flashing the previous Lineage build via TWRP. Unfortunately you are probably going to lose some data in all of this. If anything works well enough to backup your system and data partitions, do that first and move that to removable storage and remove it so it is SAFE. Maybe you have Titanium Backup and can do some of the pieces you need ?? Boot into TWRP and re-flash the build file that was on it before this all started. If that "dirty" flash doesn't give you anything useful, try wiping cache, davlik, etc... and repeating (a full factory reset). If THAT fails, download the zip file(s) - LOS, su-add-on, gapps, etc... and pretend you are doing it for the first time (maybe even wipe data and system but then, your stuff is GONE without a backup). But at this point, what have you got to lose? ASSUMING you get things back to a proper working condition, only then do a complete backup and ponder starting over again. The radio, who knows? Losing the IMEI info is much more of a problem since carriers will often not like that. I know it is trivially easy to restore IMEI data on an MTK device, but yours I have no personal knowledge of. There ARE places that will apparently do it for you if you do a little judicious web searching and are willing to part with a little cash for it, but SOMEBODY out here on XDA has to know how to do it for what you have.
And I'm NOT going to say somebody told you so, but they did. NEVER do this sort of thing without a backup in hand or a willingness to wave goodbye to whatever you have installed on or done to a device. I spend not more than 10 minutes a week doing a Nandroid of devices I use regularly. It has saved me a hell of a lot more time than that the very few times I've needed it. So, with apologies for rubbing salt in the wound, it is always better to have 'em and not need 'em than to need 'em and not have 'em
One thing is pretty certain. Most of us rarely repeat this sort of thing. Good Luck.

Can someone flash My phone without my pin
Even though I encrypted it???

RobeStar said:
Hey guys,
I just upgraded htc 10 to the latest official version of lineageos, but the installation got stuck in recovery and then I restarted normally....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have this device but, your best bet is to post this question within the following Official LineageOS thread that's specific to your device.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3528508
If all else fails, and you don't receive any responses from the above thread, you can always try to obtain some member guidance within the following Q&A thread that's specific to your device as well.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3527639
Good Luck!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I DO NOT provide support via PM unless asked/requested by myself. PLEASE keep it in the threads where everyone can share.

Yesterday, installing OTA and going from 20191008 to 20191010 destroyed my IMEIs on my Moto X4 payton.
Any idea why this happened?

Mi A2 Lite bricked?

Hi guys,
I'm having trouble with my A2 Lite. Right after unboxing the phone I installed Magisk as described in the guide (https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2-lite/how-to/guide-install-magisk-device-t3825626), which worked like a charm. Today, I wanted to install a OTA security update. After the update was downloaded I got an error and I remembered that I had to "uninstall" Magisk, as described in "step a" of the guide. So I did exactly as described in the guide. After Magisk was "uninstalled" I closed the app and tried again to install the OTA security ("step b") update. Unfortunately I got the same error message again ("Can't install update"). So I thought f*** it - I skipped "step b" and proceeded to "step c" and installed Magisk into an empty slot. After that I hit "reboot" and now my phone's in a bootloop :-/
bootloader is unlocked, oem unlock and debug usb are activated. I'm able to enter fastboot, but no recovery, whatsoever.
Is there any way to fix this?

just letting you guys know that "fastboot set_active b" did the trick. I don't know what the hell went wrong though. I did everything according to the guide, except for trying to update the ota update (and failing) before uninstalling Magisk.
Now, the phone is booting correctly, but I still can't install the ota update. it says "Couldn't update" and "Installation problem". What the heck...

lunatikk said:
just letting you guys know that "fastboot set_active b" did the trick. I don't know what the hell went wrong though. I did everything according to the guide, except for trying to update the ota update (and failing) before uninstalling Magisk.
Now, the phone is booting correctly, but I still can't install the ota update. it says "Couldn't update" and "Installation problem". What the heck...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is probably due to the root as it modified the system partition. Check the thread regarding on how to update without losing root.

fake__knv said:
This is probably due to the root as it modified the system partition. Check the thread regarding on how to update without losing root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you explain further? Will flashing the stock boot.img fix the issue and will I lose all data on the phone after flashing the boot.img?
thanks

lunatikk said:
Could you explain further? Will flashing the stock boot.img fix the issue and will I lose all data on the phone after flashing the boot.img?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please go see my guide, I just added a troubleshooting section that you should check:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2-lite/how-to/guide-install-magisk-proper-support-ota-t3836952
Your feedback could improve it further.
No, flashing boot.img will not erase any data on the phone. But you must remove any PIN, password or screenlock before proceeding, or you could not access your data anymore (because of encryption).

BubuXP said:
Please go see my guide, I just added a troubleshooting section that you should check:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2-lite/how-to/guide-install-magisk-proper-support-ota-t3836952
Your feedback could improve it further.
No, flashing boot.img will not erase any data on the phone. But you must remove any PIN, password or screenlock before proceeding, or you could not access your data anymore (because of encryption).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi BubuXP
I followed your troubleshooting guide and flashed the boot.img as instructed. Flashing the boot.img didn't do the trick so I continued with flashing the system.img. I checked for the correct build no. of course and for both boot.img and system.img the active slot "b" was chosen. After flashing the system.img I got stuck at a bootloop. I tried to set the active slot to "a", but that didn't help either: Now it wasn't in a bootloop anymore, but it was stuck at the boot animation (horizontal beam) loading forever. After 10 minutes I tried to restart - still the same problem.
What's going on here??
edit:
I flashed daisy_global_images_V9.6.4.0.ODLMIFF_20180724.0000.00_8.1_4afd3431a2 using MiFlash and the "Save user data" option. It was flashed successfully. However, when I start the phone it askes for a password and won't boot up into android if not entered. What the hell...? I deactivated my screenlock pin before I started all this. Is there a default password or what's the problem here?
regards

lunatikk said:
Hi BubuXP
I followed your troubleshooting guide and flashed the boot.img as instructed. Flashing the boot.img didn't do the trick so I continued with flashing the system.img. I checked for the correct build no. of course and for both boot.img and system.img the active slot "b" was chosen. After flashing the system.img I got stuck at a bootloop. I tried to set the active slot to "a", but that didn't help either: Now it wasn't in a bootloop anymore, but it was stuck at the boot animation (horizontal beam) loading forever. After 10 minutes I tried to restart - still the same problem.
What's going on here??
edit:
I flashed daisy_global_images_V9.6.4.0.ODLMIFF_20180724.0000.00_8.1_4afd3431a2 using MiFlash and the "Save user data" option. It was flashed successfully. However, when I start the phone it askes for a password and won't boot up into android if not entered. What the hell...? I deactivated my screenlock pin before I started all this. Is there a default password or what's the problem here?
regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but I don't know anything about that. It's an encryption problem, and that's why I hate data encryption on the phone: my data is not so important to be protected when some hackers physically stole my phone, it's only a nuisance when things like this happens.
I can only suggest to change the active slot, maybe with this you can resolve.
I will also update my troubleshooting section of the rooting guide to make the data backup as the first option to be safe.
If you can sacrifice the data, you can simply format the data partition via fastboot or reflash using the flash_all.bat script.

BubuXP said:
Sorry, but I don't know anything about that. It's an encryption problem, and that's why I hate data encryption on the phone: my data is not so important to be protected when some hackers physically stole my phone, it's only a nuisance when things like this happens.
I can only suggest to change the active slot, maybe with this you can resolve.
I will also update my troubleshooting section of the rooting guide to make the data backup as the first option to be safe.
If you can sacrifice the data, you can simply format the data partition via fastboot or reflash using the flash_all.bat script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also thought that it had something to do with encryption. In the security menu, where I turned off the display lock, it said that the phone is encrypted. However neither pin nor fingerprint could unlock the phone.
I had to go for ultima ratio and flash my device with the newest fastboot image and miflash (save user data option didn't work either, btw.).
I lost all data on the device, but now everything works fine and the OTA update also ran through without any issues.
Now, I'm not sure if I will fiddle with magisk again. I really don't have no clue about what went wrong at all...
Thanks

lunatikk said:
I also thought that it had something to do with encryption. In the security menu, where I turned off the display lock, it said that the phone is encrypted. However neither pin nor fingerprint could unlock the phone.
I had to go for ultima ratio and flash my device with the newest fastboot image and miflash (save user data option didn't work either, btw.).
I lost all data on the device, but now everything works fine and the OTA update also ran through without any issues.
Now, I'm not sure if I will fiddle with magisk again. I really don't have no clue about what went wrong at all...
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing.
Maybe something to try for next time to restore data, I don't know.
I haven't tested yet but I did make a backup using the method explained here
https://9to5google.com/2017/11/04/how-to-backup-restore-android-device-data-android-basics/
I have yet to try (or need) the restore function but running that backup created a 6gb file. My understanding is this is the majority of your apps, data, messages, etc
Without twrp I was hesitant to root but with the bit of knowledge and files shared here so far I have moved forward and glad I did. I haven't had to flash the stock image yet but hopefully this backup helps ease the pain. It is nice to be able to modify at will

BubuXP said:
Please go see my guide, I just added a troubleshooting section that you should check:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2-lite/how-to/guide-install-magisk-proper-support-ota-t3836952
Your feedback could improve it further.
No, flashing boot.img will not erase any data on the phone. But you must remove any PIN, password or screenlock before proceeding, or you could not access your data anymore (because of encryption).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had the same problem. I tried to install the OTA of March, followed the guide to install OTA with Magisk, but after unistalling Magisk, i tried to install the OTA but it gave me this message "installazione riprenderà automaticamente quanto il dispositivo non sarà attivo";
I looked for some help online, but didn't find anything, so skipped to the point c, and i got this bootloop now.
I tried the "set_active b" command, but I'm still in bootloop. I tried to flash the stock rom but apparentrly it's impossible to do it without recovery (which I'm unable to open), so... Help?
EDIT: By using miFlash and using the flash_all command I flashed the most updated ROM I found on MIUI.en, which is the january's one. It worked, even if the build version (10.0.3) is different from the one I had previously (10.0.4). The system says that there's an available update, but i'm too afraid to try it. Suggestion are accepted!

[HELP REQUEST] WILL PAY TO WHOEVER HELPS ME GET THROUGH THIS SOFTBRICK

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rodagola said:
Hello everyone on xda, please bare with me. Here's my story
I own a Redmi Note 8 pro, chinese rom model. It was running miui 11.0.3 over android 9 If I recall correctly.
Ok so... I was tired of some of the china apps pushing their notifications over and over and auto installing stuff, so I looked up how to apply adb commands to remove such bloatware, which was a fairly simple process. I copied and pasted a list of safe stuff to delete I found around some forums.
then... there were some other packages I checked out using an app called "app inspector", which directly tells you which app is under which package (totally useful for this purpose).
I tried to be careful not go overboard since I don't have any root access, or custom recovery, and wasn't really planning to have these, just wanted to keep this as my simple daily driver cellphone, but also perform this little maneuver to get rid of some bloatware.
little did I know, I was about to somehow softbrick it. More info: I did not use a screen lock method other than the "swipe up".
Ok, so I uninstalled some packages I cannot remember exactly how they went, but they had the terms "xman" and "yman" on them I think, I wasn't so sure about them because I looked them up on the web yet they didn't appear anywhere. I think they went something among the lines of "com.android.miui.xman". I also uninstalled 2 or 3 more, but after googling, they seemed unsuspecting.
Anyways, I'm aware there's a command to reinstall the packages because they're still on the phone's ROM image. That is in case I had to restore anything back to normal. Turns out I later rebooted the phone and when it launches the lock screen, I keep swiping up but it won't take me over to the actual MIUI launcher. The screen is frozen on the lock screen.
I'm not freaking out at this time because I still tried to connect the device to the pc, and it still shows as connected, I then go to the adb console and type "adb devices", it is still recognized, however, it says next to it that it is unauthorized... damn it. So now I might not be able to run the commands that allow me to reinstall the exact packages that are rendering the phone softbricked (I guess), plus I'm not really sure which package caused this.
After about a minute or two on the lock screen, the phone takes me to the "redmi-recovery 3.0",
which displays 3 options:
Reboot to system: which basically forms a loop
Wipe date: godforbid... really don't want to do it since I likely had many files not backedup
Contact miassistant: not sure what to do with this, says "pcsuite.mi.com" at the bottom
on the miassistant option you can apparently sideload stuff, idk how to go about this, maybe it allows me to install a slightly upgraded ROM, which in turn will work the same as if it was an OTA update (so it will keep my data as it was instead of wipe)? Because the point is not to erase my user data!!
I'm not sure how to feel or what to do without losing my pictures, notes and documents
I have hopes this situation can be turned around back to normal, and like the title implies... I'm WILLING to PAY you through paypal or something to WHOEVER offers to guide me through in the best way possible. Please if you have the knowledge/experience don't hesitate I'll also be grateful timelessly.
I'm not an expert at these scenarios so I might as well ask on xda where most are really skilled! Thanks in advance to those amazing souls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tldr;
If you can boot into fastboot mode you can just flash a official MIUI fastboot ROM:
Xiaomi Firmware Updater (where you can download official MIUI ROMS): https://xiaomifirmwareupdater.com/
This is the current hard unbrick method: https://telegra.ph/Installing-Redmi-Note-8-Pro-firmware-via-SP-Flash-Tool-01-21
It should also work in your case and there's even a video guide.
This is another video guide for fixing a hard brick:
Both methods above will format your phone though (afaik all data will be lost).
Compass.

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rodagola said:
are these the kind of roms that you unzip and have the BL, AP, CP, CSC files? I could try that, but I've heard installing home_csc will not override/wipe my personal data. If this is what you meant, can you confirm? Or do you reckon these linked video tutorials would not wipe the data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, it doesn't.
If you can boot into Fastboot, flash the ROM using Mi Flash, otherwise, use this tutorial:

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Compass Linux and juliusjr have told you the method, so I will just add supplemential infos.
In your case, I think simple upgrade will do the trick, dirty flash is applicable both via fastboot flash (mi flash) and recovery flash (the mi assistant method). If you want to stop the ads, I will recommend you to unlock your bootloader, move to global, root, and use an adblocker (a bare minimum config, in trade of some bangking apps being blocked).
I don't know the corresponding version for miui china rom, but in global rom, prior 12.0.0.7 (the one with the early 2021 security update), you can dirty flash back and forth while keeping your data.

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rodagola said:
Hi, thanks for your info, I would like to try the mi flash tool as I've been told before the stock recovery thing has less chances of working. However, I had dev options turned on before but didn't manage to turn on the "OEM unlock" option, will flashing original ROMs work this way? or did I need that option toogled on? That's my last doubt, and thanks a lot. Btw, the China ROM this Redmi N8P had never ever showed me any ads, but thanks a lot as well for such input
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You still have a locked bootloader? (How do I know? You will see "Unloked" on the bottom of the screen everytime your device reboots and showing mi logo if your device is unlocked)
Hmm, mechanically it work like normal ota update. Full recovery update will ony erase nessesary partitions (system, boot, and some other things) while keeping your data intact. So doing this to your phone technically safe. You can do this with MiFlashPro, do a recovery update using a recovery rom (the 2 gigs one) greater than your current MIUI version. But please bear in mind that I have never done this before to a locked phone. A same distribution version IS A MUST (i.e. global with global).
Oh and it will need you to log in to your xiaomi account. My guess is you need the flash permission open for your account (if you have unlocked your phone you shouldn't have a problem). I have never flashed with an account that never have been used to unlock a bootloader, so I might be wrong.
If your phone is bootloader unlocked, Mi Flash is the least demanding and it can retain your data with "save user data" in the bottom right corner option on, regardless your miui version (but I think there will be some problem with installed apps if you downgrade from A10 to A9).
Hope this help.