Develop Bugs

HTC One M8 - Soft brick on unrooted phone (apart from OS upgrades)

I've had my M8 since about the end of 2014. Originally on Android 4, have since done OTA upgrades to 5 and 6 as they were flagged as available by my carrier (UK, O2).
I've never managed to get HTC Backup on my PC to recognise the phone, even with the original USB cable, so have never done a proper backup (Yes. I know). Fortunately for me, my Gmail contacts list was almost up to date, and apart from my calendar, that was the most important thing to save, so I've just had to grin and bear it.
Because of the lack of proper backup and therefore the facility to restore from one, I'd never done a factory reset after the various OS upgrades, which I've been told might have avoided my present situation, which is that I can't get any further than a bootloop situation. Other than that, I can get into recovery mode, but no further.
I've tried clearing the cache, I've tried a factory reset. Neither of those have got me anywhere.
I've no great desire (at present) to go fiddling with rooting or anything clever with the phone, I'd just like to get it working again. I've downloaded Android Studio to get the SDK for ADB but don't really know what I'm doing, and if I mess around without expert advice I could end up with a hard brick - which is why I'm here.
Can anyone give me some guidance about what I need to do to get my phone working again?
Thanks in advance...

Hi, I have the same problem, started a few days ago when I was trying to download VLC from the play store, the phone rebooted and said optimizing apps.... It has been in an optimizing apps bootloop since - it gets to the end, then says starting android then freezes and reboots, then starts again... I tried clearing the cache and doing the factory reset as well but nothing helps. We could really use some expert help on this :S

If a stock phone isn't booting, and factory reset doesn't help, the OS is possibly damaged or corrupted in some way; and needs to be restored.
If your version has RUU, you can try to run that.
If no RUU for your version, then probably your only choice is to unlock the bootloader, install custom recovery, so you can restore a stock TWRP backup from the following thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/help/tutorial-how-to-stock-stock-twrp-t3086860

I am in a very similar situation, apparently because of a botched automatic system update, almost same symptoms as airick94. I haven't tried a factory reset yet though, because I want to try to recover what I can from the internal storage first. Can I do that through ADB even if my phone is not recognised as a device by the computer?

Nexus 5x Full Restore not working (Nexus Root Toolkit)

Hello,
I'm in a bit of a pickle. Bought my sister a brand new Nexus 5x about 3-4 months ago, first thing I did was install Pure Nexus (6.0.1) on it (prerooted) and unlocked bootloader, don't know why I did it but I thought it'd be nice for her to use foreign country appstores/other things. Anyways long story short, I installed Nexus tool root kit (latest version 2.1.9) to return the device to stock and relock the bootloader.
First thing I did was do a full backup (around 600mb, she didn't install much stuff).
Backed up other things - SMS/Phone/Contacts/Media (70mb.. weird), also copied and pasted all media to computer as I didn't trust the small file size here.
Next, I did a flash and unroot with stock firmware, selecting the latest firmware 7.0 (bullhead MTC20k) and this wiped the phone. After that finished, enabled debugging and etc and reconnected. At this point I used the toolkit to relock the device and it was wiped once again. Now, the phone was running the latest firmware and was locked and back to stock.
After rushing through the initial setup, (wifi, account etc.) I got back to home screen, went to developer options to re-enable USB Debugging and got the phone's fingerprint access thing approved. Then I went to open the toolkit to run the restoration. Following prompts and accepting to restore (no password set/required), I saw pretty much all the app names pop up and being restored. However after it completes, the computer's log says check device. Looking at the device I see no apps added or anything. I've run this step a few times but it appears no applications are being restored.
I would greatly appreciate some advice on what to do next, as I'm at a loss here. Thank you!

Hey guys,
Reporting back, I have downgraded the firmware to the latest Marshmellow version 6.0.1 MTC20K, and tried the whole process again. I'm glad to say that the restoration now worked and all the apps can be seen (including the ones requiring root, which now, no longer work).
It appears upgrading to a completely new version prevented the apps from showing.
Anyways, glad the ordeals over, once photos and contacts restored I can present the phone back to my dear sister.
Thanks!

HTC M9 Help! No fastboot. Have had it rooted for a while

Hi! I have been reading some write ups, but im not sure what to do.
I have a M9 Sprint version that has been unlocked for a while now, like a year, I downloaded an app this morning to delete sprint junk apps and deleted them. Well the app failed and when i reset the phone, the sprint apps just reinstalled. Shortly after, on my drive to work, I felt my phone vibrating, and noticed it was stuck in a reset loop.
I tried loading in fastboot, to re lock boot loaded and attempt to go back to stock image. I used TWRP to root it, and i have formatted my computer since then and dont have any of the associated files, including any backups.
My goal at this point is to return to a working phone, oem image or not, i really dont care. What do I need to do?
I downloaded the adb/fastboot tool to my pc, but no devices are being found, and fastboot is not an option when i go to the boot loader.
THANKS!

thehoss said:
Hi! I have been reading some write ups, but im not sure what to do.
I have a M9 Sprint version that has been unlocked for a while now, like a year, I downloaded an app this morning to delete sprint junk apps and deleted them. Well the app failed and when i reset the phone, the sprint apps just reinstalled. Shortly after, on my drive to work, I felt my phone vibrating, and noticed it was stuck in a reset loop.
I tried loading in fastboot, to re lock boot loaded and attempt to go back to stock image. I used TWRP to root it, and i have formatted my computer since then and dont have any of the associated files, including any backups.
My goal at this point is to return to a working phone, oem image or not, i really dont care. What do I need to do?
I downloaded the adb/fastboot tool to my pc, but no devices are being found, and fastboot is not an option when i go to the boot loader.
THANKS!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a dedicated thread for sprint versions, you would have better luck posting in there, but check out this thread.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/sp...print-htc-one-m9-1-32-651-17-t3073355/page106
You might want to use an ruu via SD card method.

Rogue apps.. A perfect example of why rooted phones aren't for laymen.
As long as you have download mode and the original cable the fastboot issue will be driver related. You might have to force the physical address into the drivers. Google that!. It's about a 6 on the pc illiteracy skill scale (piss, for short, thats what it makes you scream at the screen).
Beamed in by telepathy.

squ89r97 said:
There is a dedicated thread for sprint versions, you would have better luck posting in there, but check out this thread.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/sp...print-htc-one-m9-1-32-651-17-t3073355/page106
You might want to use an ruu via SD card method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you,
I dont use the forums much. I will check it out.

Installing TWRP With a Locked Bootloader on a Used Xiaomi Max

After spending almost half a day trying to get my new Xiaomi Max into a usable state, I thought I'd share my findings for anyone else stuck in the same situation.
I recently bought a used Xiaomi Max from Taobao, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon. Things were going well until MiOS decided to update itself, and the phone rebooted only to say that this phone had been associated with a previous Xiaomi account and prompted me for the password. Of course, I had no idea what the previous password was, and the phone was stuck on setup until the correct password was entered just like when you setup a Google phone in China.
Since most Google servers are blocked by the Great Firewall of China, Google services will just keep saying "No Internet detected" and won't let you use the phone until some nice person decides to send you the address to a foreign proxy server that hasn't been blocked yet since VPNs don't work until *after* you can install them on the phone. Xiaomi phones apparently have the same thing, except that you have to track down whoever previously used this phone to register a Xiaomi account.
I tried a hard reset with the same result. Flashed a new Xiaomi ROM with the same result. Xiaomi locks the bootloader Apple-style to prevent anyone from using stolen phones. It also does a great job of preventing anyone from selling their phone or giving it to a friend. The locked bootloader prevented me from using fastboot to erase anything or install anything. Google provided a plethora of answers, all of which did absolutely nothing. Apparently, Xiaomi has fixed all of the security holes which were previously used to fix this problem. Good for them; bad for us.
Finally, I noticed that the Chinese and International MiOS had different recovery systems. Since this was being changed by the MiFlash program, it could only mean that somehow, MiFlash was capable of flashing system partitions even with a locked bootloader.
I downloaded TWRP, renamed it to recovery.img in the MiOS ROM, changed the MD5 checksum in the XML file, and gave the phone one more flash. The next time that it rebooted into recovery mode, I was staring at the TWRP logo instead of the Xiaomi recovery screen. From here, I could format /data to F2FS to gain the full 32GiB of space that the phone came with, install LineageOS, install Psiphon for a VPN, and then finally use TWRP to install OpenGApps. Voila! I had a fully usable phone without having to contact Xiaomi to unlock the bootloader, installing any strange Chinese software, or selling my firstborn child to Qualcomm.
I'd like to say that this method could probably be used on other Xiaomi phones as well, but considering that I have no other Xiaomi phones to test, I'll have to leave that task to the brave souls here in the forums. In any case, I hope that this will be of help to at least one other person and save them a couple of hours of trial and error as I have endured.

oh,please tell me which xml you modified with md5?

Hey there,
Sorry for the delay. I live in China currently, and it takes a VPN to get XDA to load correctly.
I can't remember the name of the XML file off the top of my head, but it was in the root directory of the ROM and contained all of the filenames as well as their MD5 values. All you have to do is to replace recovery.img's MD5 with TWRP's MD5 and you should be able to flash without any problems. Just make sure that you boot directly to recovery, otherwise the normal OS can detect that recovery has changed and flash the original recovery.

Please help me, I brought a Xiomi Max 2, from a second hand, when i started the phone it askes from its previously mi account, but the guy that sold me it, doent answer my e-mails anymore, what could i do?

The previous owner activated device protection, so you're locked out of the phone until he releases it. You'll have to install a custom ROM instead of MiUI to be able to use the phone.
If you made a credit card to purchase the phone, make sure that you submit a request to get your money back. There are too many scammers who steal and resell phones around here.

Just tried with mi6 glob 7.12,
and twrp 3.2.1 and changed md5sum.xml
but showing "the system has been destroyed"

Tried doing this one on Redmi Note 4/4X (Snapdragon). Flashed MIUI 10.2.3 Global Stable with TWRP 3.3.1-0. Replaced the stock recovery.img with the TWRP one and then replaced md5 in the md5sum. Power Button+Volume Up only shows a blank screen after Mi logo shows up. Tried to go on with the initial setup then boot into recovery via adb but only sent me back to stock recovery

[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.