I previously own a cheap Chinese phone and surprisingly with no bootloader. I use to flash any ROM, back flash ROM and even try to port my own and flash it but even after so much flashing I can always get back to my original ROM using the Flash app and .pac file of my mobile, never got bricked. I always wonder why this is not possible with expensive phones?
If anyone here is having a deep knowledge of how android works and had tried flashing Chinese phones, is it possible to delete the bootloader or make a way to flash android without getting bricked everytime? Is it that companies made flashing ROMs difficult so they can sell new phones with new android regardless their older phones are more than capable to run new android? This is my first time owing a Snapdragon phone and also first phone with bootloader, I was going to flash ROM but it got bricked (I'm a noob), then I found out this whole bootloader stuff which is completely new to me. I think cheap Chinese phones have some advantages, if only we can make those advantages available for complex phones it would be revolutionary.
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I am a proud owner of the AT&T Xperia Ion and am getting sick being unable to download the apps i want and i have read around here i can flash the international firmware so i could have ICS on my phone. Well as a noob to androids i am obviously nervous as to the effects of flashing. so i would like to know the risks of flashing it are. Once the official AT&T firmware is released can i switch to it? Will all the data stored in my phone be erased? Will i be able to use LTE? Will the warranty be voided? i would also like to know if there are other things i should know about, as well as the process in which i can carry out the flashing. thank you everybody
1. Just flash back to stock att ftf, and you should get the update. Or, flash the att ICS ftf when it becomes available.
2. It's a good idea to wipe between flashes, so if you did, all your data will be gone. I backup contacts and calendar through Google, so getting data back for me is easy. App data on the other hand will be gone. Or, risk it and don't wipe, but you will likely get some stability issues.
3. You can get lte.
4. If you flash back to stock before taking your phone for service, there should be no warranty issues. Is you take it in with Chinese firmware, that'll likely be a problem.
Sent from Rooted LT28at with ICS.
misterwhales said:
I am a proud owner of the AT&T Xperia Ion and am getting sick being unable to download the apps i want and i have read around here i can flash the international firmware so i could have ICS on my phone. Well as a noob to androids i am obviously nervous as to the effects of flashing. so i would like to know the risks of flashing it are. Once the official AT&T firmware is released can i switch to it? Will all the data stored in my phone be erased? Will i be able to use LTE? Will the warranty be voided? i would also like to know if there are other things i should know about, as well as the process in which i can carry out the flashing. thank you everybody
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Click to collapse
I'm also a noob in Android. Last weekend flashed ICS on my Xperia, following the procedure for rooting. It took me maybe two hours to get all the instructions and download everything I needed. You´ll basically need the firmwares, Android SDK (the link is in the post with instructions, second one in the thread), Flashtool (the latest Windows version, which comes with the drivers for Ion, is in http://androxyde.github.com/Flashtool/). I followed everything from the instructions, but wasn't getting the same response from the ADB commands, it still worked.
Two things are missing from those instructions:
1. To have hotspot activated, you'll need to first flash the international GB firmware, wiping everything in your device (be sure to make backups of everything you´ll want, don´t trust Google backup).
2. Right after flashing ICS, Flashtool won't recognize your phone, even if you have the USB debugging option on. You'll have to update your PC drivers by going to Control Panel, Device Manager, and choose to have Windows search for updated drivers (while the phone is connected, of course). You´ll know you got it right when Device Manager displays a different name for your phone, and Flashtool is able to tell you the software version. At that point you can run the second part of the rooting procedure.
Mmh...
Hello!
When will be released the official ice cream sandwich for my xperia ion lt28i? (international version, bought from Hong Kong)
No time given really. I am guessing at the same time the US releases their's so will the European (International) Version. So maybe September / October time frame, could be earlier.
I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I just wanted to make absolutely sure I'm ready before I flash, so I don't brick my phone. I have been reading the forums for a few days now. I have an S3 (i747M) with Fido. I'm not totally sure which ROM to go with. From what I understand so far, I'm thinking StockMOD or Dandroid. I want a fairly minimalistic OS, latest version (4.3 vs 4.4?), so I can play the occasion game on it and get good idle battery life. I believe I have rooted my stock rom and I have disabled some of the bloat through the "Application Management" option under settings. Any advice on flashing? I have spent many years building, modding and generally tinkering with windows pcs but I haven't done anything with phones, android or linux. Any advice? Obviously do the backup of my current phone with the app mentioned on the related ROM installation page. I assume I can restore my phone back to this stock ROM is the new one fails? After the backup, do a full phone wipe and default restore. Then hook the phone to my PC via USB and use the related program to flash the phone? Thank you for any and all replies in advance. :good:
Kwijybow said:
I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I just wanted to make absolutely sure I'm ready before I flash, so I don't brick my phone. I have been reading the forums for a few days now. I have an S3 (i747M) with Fido. I'm not totally sure which ROM to go with. From what I understand so far, I'm thinking StockMOD or Dandroid. I want a fairly minimalistic OS, latest version (4.3 vs 4.4?), so I can play the occasion game on it and get good idle battery life. I believe I have rooted my stock rom and I have disabled some of the bloat through the "Application Management" option under settings. Any advice on flashing? I have spent many years building, modding and generally tinkering with windows pcs but I haven't done anything with phones, android or linux. Any advice? Obviously do the backup of my current phone with the app mentioned on the related ROM installation page. I assume I can restore my phone back to this stock ROM is the new one fails? After the backup, do a full phone wipe and default restore. Then hook the phone to my PC via USB and use the related program to flash the phone? Thank you for any and all replies in advance. :good:
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Click to collapse
in my opinion or anyone will say that 4.3 is the most stable right now, and 4.4 is only available for CM based roms.....Samsung Touchwiz will always be the last to update their devices to 4.4 while custom roms AOKP, SLIM BEAM, PAC ROM, BEAN STALK, CM, PARANOID, ETC they will always have nightlies on latest the Android version but will take sometime for stable roms to be released
1st before you think of flashing please research and know what you're getting into
2nd read all the info. ROOT your i747m with cf-auto root (i recommend it cuz its the simplest, easiest, safest way to root)
3rd install custom recovery there are two that i know of but am confident and comfortable with clockworkmod recovery....u can try TWRP
4th yu can either wish to stay stock touchwiz, 2types of stock
-one that comes from samsung all bloated and no tweaks and
-the one that is taken by devs debloated, modded, customized, xposed mod, minimalistic, faster and better.
--OR you can go completely Android vanilla stock, which has nothing but the normal google staff (ITS LIKE A NEXUS DEVICE from Google) you dont have any bloatware, or features/addons just plain stock
5th Once yu know the basic, the universe is yours, with Android comes endless customization and possibilities just like Microsoft Windows, Linux, ubuntu or even OSX
6th wish to become a DEV its your choice, wish to modify, play with the filesystem its your choice but without knowledge of what you're doing bricking is easy as just deleting a file yu think its not important
7th help the rest with android as you do with PC
PS am learning to code now but one thing at a time so am starting with Web design, plan to learn some computer languages, hacking, etc computer science :laugh: maybe yu can help me out
everything you need to know about what i said or root http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1725839
Thanks for the reply. It's been a while since I originally posted this. I decided to hold off on a custom ROM at that time but I find myself back again, still wanting to customize my phone (especially now that my contract is about to expire). I figure that if I do brick my phone beyond repair, I'll just get another phone anyways so not so worried about it now.
Anyways, one concern I have about flashing a custom ROM on my S3 is can I go backwards in Android versions? I can confirm that I am running the stock (Rogers / Fido) Android 4.4.2 which I believe is Kitkat? I am very interested in going either StockMOD or Dandroid, which as far as I can tell are 4.3 Jellybean? Can I do that?
Yes, you can run a 4.3 rom on your phone as long as you do not try to downgrade the bootloader.
You can go back to completely stock Rogers by using Odin to flash as stock kk rom from sammobile.com.
audit13 said:
Yes, you can run a 4.3 rom on your phone as long as you do not try to downgrade the bootloader.
You can go back to completely stock Rogers by using Odin to flash as stock kk rom from sammobile.com.
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Thanks for the reply. Regarding the bootloader, the versions of Android I'm looking to install say they need the 4.3 bootloader. How can I check which bootloader I am running on my phone?
If you're phone is running stock Rogers kit kit, you have a kit kat bootloader which you can't downgrade.
If the rom needs a 4.3 bootloader and since you have a newer bootloader, you can probably load the rom.
Kwijybow said:
I'm not totally sure which ROM to go with.
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Using the most recent build of the most popular ROM has it's advantages.
cm-12.1-20150807-NIGHTLY-d2att.zip
fast, light, stable, secure, supported
Got myself a Redmi Note 5 Global version and want to update MIUI and possibly try a custom ROM. Just came here to make sure i'm not falling for any common mistakes before i do anything especially after reading a lot of folks that have bricked these devices due to Anti Roll-back so thats the last thing i want to do. The device came boxed with MIUI 9.5.6.0(OEIMIFA) and i've just ignored the update notification up to now so i presume i've avoided ARB and i would like to keep it that way.
So just to confirm are these the correct steps.
1. Unlock the bootloader
2. Flash a custom recovery (TWRP or the equivalent)
3. Update MIUI / Flash custom rom package without ARB and flash through TWRP
Is there anything i'm missing or anything i need to specifically avoid other than ARB?
drkdeath5000 said:
Got myself a Redmi Note 5 Global version and want to update MIUI and possibly try a custom ROM. Just came here to make sure i'm not falling for any common mistakes before i do anything especially after reading a lot of folks that have bricked these devices due to Anti Roll-back so thats the last thing i want to do. The device came boxed with MIUI 9.5.6.0(OEIMIFA) and i've just ignored the update notification up to now so i presume i've avoided ARB and i would like to keep it that way.
So just to confirm are these the correct steps.
1. Unlock the bootloader
2. Flash a custom recovery (TWRP or the equivalent)
3. Update MIUI / Flash custom rom package without ARB and flash through TWRP
Is there anything i'm missing or anything i need to specifically avoid other than ARB?
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Click to collapse
Just don't update your firmware (or update it with a ARB-less firmware), that's what will trigger ARB. Most of the customs rom don't contain firmware, only LOS advises you to flash a specific version, but MIUI roms do.
So you either steer away from those and flash fw-less roms, or you just delete the firmware-files folder from the rom and flash it without them.
This is my advice, before flashing anything, open the zip and check for the firmware folder. If it has it, delete it (unless is specified by the dev to flash that along the rom, in that case, just avoid it, there's a plethora of custom roms to choose from).
Ok thanks so i'll just stay clear of any roms containing the firmware folder for now. I do like LOS but if theres any risk associated i'll just give it a miss for now.
I also assume its easy to recover from a bad flash following the no firmware folder rule since theres no real risk associated with flashing just a ROM(no firmware)?
Finally, what about kernels and bootloader updates is there anything specific i need to watch out for there? I only ask because my previous device included a sneaky OTA update which locked the bootloader and i'd obviously like to avoid anything like that here.
Sorry for all the questions i'm just a bit behind on the flashing front, my previous device was a Motorola Razr HD and flashing seems to have changed quite a bit since then.
drkdeath5000 said:
Ok thanks so i'll just stay clear of any roms containing the firmware folder for now. I do like LOS but if theres any risk associated i'll just give it a miss for now.
I also assume its easy to recover from a bad flash following the no firmware folder rule since theres no real risk associated with flashing just a ROM(no firmware)?
Finally, what about kernels and bootloader updates is there anything specific i need to watch out for there? I only ask because my previous device included a sneaky OTA update which locked the bootloader and i'd obviously like to avoid anything like that here.
Sorry for all the questions i'm just a bit behind on the flashing front, my previous device was a Motorola Razr HD and flashing seems to have changed quite a bit since then.
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Click to collapse
No problems, happy to help if I can.
And yes, no risk if you don't flash firmware. Worst case scenario, you'll have to reflash a miui rom with MiFlash, which means losing your data, but imo it's better than bricking the device.
As for kernels and bootloader, you're good to go. Nothing will relock your bootloader (except flashing with MiFlash and selecting that specific option) and a kernel in the worst case will just give you a bootloop. Use backups. ?
And as far as LOS goes, you can flash it without the specified firmware (even tho I'm pretty sure it's an ARB3 firmware) but I guess there might be some small issues.
Good luck with unlocking the bootloader, that thing takes from 720 to 1440 hours, just got my rn5p in a week now i have to wait a month before rooting...
hi, I'd like to know if there were any way I could revert back to marshmallow without bricking the device. I was thinking about rooting my phone, download the stock a520 6.0 rom zip file and flash it with the recovery menu. First I don't wanna brick it, second I'm not sure I can find some flashable zip file.
I did this with my old Motorola moto g 3 and never had any problems.
do you guys think it'll work and so where I could find those files? also if there's any other safe way to do it share it please!
Thanks in advance!
nubry said:
hi, I'd like to know if there were any way I could revert back to marshmallow without bricking the device. I was thinking about rooting my phone, download the stock a520 6.0 rom zip file and flash it with the recovery menu. First I don't wanna brick it, second I'm not sure I can find some flashable zip file.
I did this with my old Motorola moto g 3 and never had any problems.
do you guys think it'll work and so where I could find those files? also if there's any other safe way to do it share it please!
Thanks in advance!
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Click to collapse
I don't think it will work because Samsung has anti rollback in its phones which prevents the bootloader from being downgraded. However, a system and boot flash might work. I don't know about the modem though.
Samsung is one of the few brands that implement it.
I don't really see the use though as it is quite possible to bootloop and if done incorrectly, could result in a hard brick.
nubry said:
hi, I'd like to know if there were any way I could revert back to marshmallow without bricking the device. I was thinking about rooting my phone, download the stock a520 6.0 rom zip file and flash it with the recovery menu. First I don't wanna brick it, second I'm not sure I can find some flashable zip file.
I did this with my old Motorola moto g 3 and never had any problems.
do you guys think it'll work and so where I could find those files? also if there's any other safe way to do it share it please!
Thanks in advance!
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Click to collapse
Quick question...
Why would you want to?
I did this with my old Moto X Play and bricked it
iloveoreos said:
I don't think it will work because Samsung has anti rollback in its phones which prevents the bootloader from being downgraded. However, a system and boot flash might work. I don't know about the modem though.
Samsung is one of the few brands that implement it.
I don't really see the use though as it is quite possible to bootloop and if done incorrectly, could result in a hard brick.
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Click to collapse
that is what I thought... I think the only real solution would be to find a custom Rom of the Stock 6.0 but untouched. It would not need the bootloader to be downgraded would it?
I really like samsung phones but I hate the way the treat costumers, it feels like being fooled.
Thank you for your reply though !
moozer said:
Quick question...
Why would you want to?
I did this with my old Moto X Play and bricked it
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When I bought my Moto g 2015 it was very fast and that was surprising. All the updates started to drain the battery and make the device work slower . I tried almost all the custom Rom possible and after flashing back the stock 5.1 out of the box version I have to admit they wanted the device to become slow with all the updates.
Now when I received my A5 it was already running nougat. I think the best you can get from your phone is with the outbox version because everything is planned to be running perfectly so people buy it. For me even though it brings new features and stuff, update wont get you device any better.
So ya that's the reason I'd like to downgrade.
nubry said:
that is what I thought... I think the only real solution would be to find a custom Rom of the Stock 6.0 but untouched. It would not need the bootloader to be downgraded would it?
I really like samsung phones but I hate the way the treat costumers, it feels like being fooled.
Thank you for your reply though !
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Click to collapse
You could extract the system and boot out of the stock firmware, but I don't know if it's worth the risk.
nubry said:
When I bought my Moto g 2015 it was very fast and that was surprising. All the updates started to drain the battery and make the device work slower . I tried almost all the custom Rom possible and after flashing back the stock 5.1 out of the box version I have to admit they wanted the device to become slow with all the updates.
Now when I received my A5 it was already running nougat. I think the best you can get from your phone is with the outbox version because everything is planned to be running perfectly so people buy it. For me even though it brings new features and stuff, update wont get you device any better.
So ya that's the reason I'd like to downgrade.
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Motorola got in trouble for that. Others too. It's illegal now, so you should leave out that theory.
I've had only positive experiences with my last 5 smartphones. Upgrading does precisely that...makes it better. An OEM would not produce an upgrade without testing it. That's why we had a better experience with Nougat and even better with Oreo.
What do you do differently with Oreo than you did with Nougat?
The title basically says it all. I have a very short budget, so I am thinking of buying this phone used for cheap.
Is there anything I should know about the process of going from whatever stock rom it comes with to a GSI image?
avoid tmobile set, there is no way to unlock the bootloader and you will be stuck with the stock rom