"Can't find valid operating system. The device will not start." - Google Pixel 3 XL Questions & Answers

My wife got this error today:
"Can't find valid operating system. The device will not start."
Then shows the visit g.co/ABH link.
We aren't even able to boot into recovery. When selecting recovery from fastboot mode it just goes right to the same "Can't find valid operating system..." screen.
I've seen a few posts of people having this issue, I haven't seen anyone state they recovered, but I wanted to make sure.
I figure since I can't even boot to recovery there is nothing to be done??
History:
This phone is < 3 months old. It has not been modified (no unlocked bootloader, root, or even USB debugging enabled AFAIK). It rebooted on her once in the middle of her just using it within the past 48 hours. Today she saw a notification saying the phone needed to reboot because of a system update. She did not reboot it yet, but was using it fine. When she went to use it this afternoon (after having been on it 15 minutes prior) it was booted to this error screen.
On a side note, Google refuses to send a new phone even though this one is < 3 months old and the problem appears to have been caused by their software updating and rebooting her phone without permission.
thanks

TraderJack said:
My wife got this error today:
"Can't find valid operating system. The device will not start."
Then shows the visit g.co/ABH link.
We aren't even able to boot into recovery. When selecting recovery from fastboot mode it just goes right to the same "Can't find valid operating system..." screen.
I've seen a few posts of people having this issue, I haven't seen anyone state they recovered, but I wanted to make sure.
I figure since I can't even boot to recovery there is nothing to be done??
History:
This phone is < 3 months old. It has not been modified (no unlocked bootloader, root, or even USB debugging enabled AFAIK). It rebooted on her once in the middle of her just using it within the past 48 hours. Today she saw a notification saying the phone needed to reboot because of a system update. She did not reboot it yet, but was using it fine. When she went to use it this afternoon (after having been on it 15 minutes prior) it was booted to this error screen.
On a side note, Google refuses to send a new phone even though this one is < 3 months old and the problem appears to have been caused by their software updating and rebooting her phone without permission.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is under warranty. Phones brick on updates more than any other time. I don't see where they really have a choice but to replace it.

TraderJack said:
My wife got this error today:
"Can't find valid operating system. The device will not start."
Then shows the visit g.co/ABH link.
We aren't even able to boot into recovery. When selecting recovery from fastboot mode it just goes right to the same "Can't find valid operating system..." screen.
I've seen a few posts of people having this issue, I haven't seen anyone state they recovered, but I wanted to make sure.
I figure since I can't even boot to recovery there is nothing to be done??
History:
This phone is < 3 months old. It has not been modified (no unlocked bootloader, root, or even USB debugging enabled AFAIK). It rebooted on her once in the middle of her just using it within the past 48 hours. Today she saw a notification saying the phone needed to reboot because of a system update. She did not reboot it yet, but was using it fine. When she went to use it this afternoon (after having been on it 15 minutes prior) it was booted to this error screen.
On a side note, Google refuses to send a new phone even though this one is < 3 months old and the problem appears to have been caused by their software updating and rebooting her phone without permission.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two questions. 1) Was it purchased from Google? If not, that may be why the issue with warranty replacement. 2) Is the phone a Google version (AKA unlockable bootloader)? If it is, you could always do a bootloader unlock which will also force a factory reset and if successful allow you to load a factory image. If not, there is nothing you can do without getting into recovery.

Related

S6 Edge+ (G928) t-mobile soft bricked after OTA upgrade to 6.0.1 while overseas HELP!

Hello, I managed to soft brick my phone while overseas and am writing this message at 2:00am in the morning (at least in this time zone) after two days of trying to fix it. Some background info--I'm usually based in the U.S., have a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ with service from T-mobile. Have never rooted or modified the phone in any way. I'm using a macbook pro laptop (running a windows virtual machine/vmware, on the mac) on this trip.
While on this current trip to Asia (currently in the Philippines) (much to my surprise it seems like the phone was getting 4G data here), I accidentally bumped the "yes" button on t-mobile's persistent OTA upgrade request box and the phone started a OTA upgrade, I assume to Android 6.0.1. I kept an eye on the phone as it went through various stages of progress in the upgrade. didn't see any error messages. It eventually restarted, got to the T-mobile screen, and got stuck there. That was two days ago. I've done quite a bit since that time to try to figure out what went wrong, searched all over online to find potential solutions. it goes without saying if there is any way possible i need to recover many important files on the device, so a reset is the option of last resort.
Long story short, seems like the farthest I can get on the phone is to Android Recovery mode, or the download screen. I installed the android tools and have "adb" working from the mac command line. Bad news is, it looks like I didn't have USB debugging mode activated on the phone, now I can't see any possible way to activate usb debug mode because the phone just won't boot past the t-mobile screen. I can get adb to detect the phone for a moment if I select "apply update from adb" on the recovery mode screen but that's about it, haven't been able to issue any other commands to the phone through adb other than detect and sideload.
tried to reload the android image...via command line adb sideload G928TUVU2DPD1 but get error messages about failure to verify (i think), anyways adb sideload wasn't happening. I installed Odin on my windows VM, attached the usb bridge from the mac to the windows vm and Odin was able to see the device. I was able to successfully push G928TUVU2DPD1 to the phone's download mode, both Odin and phone seemed happy about the file transfer, the phone went through a install process, restarted, with the exact same result as when the OTA update finished - phone stuck at the t-mobile screen after reboot.
I tried to load TWRP to the phone with hopes to run backups, and was actually able to transfer TWRP to the phone using Odin, yet TWRP wouldn't install -- the phone complained of the unauthorized binary. i guess the phone has to be rooted first or something else needs to be flashed to defeat the binary check, haven't tried that yet.
So I'm stuck with a soft bricked phone for now, yet instinct tells me with Odin working and talking to the phone, I should be able to install -something- that will get me back in business...that's why I'm posting this message, to ask for help as it seems like this group is the go to place for this type of specific info.
i am not at all familiar with custom android work yet have been active with tech stuff for the greater part of my life, plenty of coding and experience dating back years and have done dev work in most of the popular languages, very comfortable with command lines, log files and so forth...just never had a reason to mess around at a low level with my android phone until the past 48 hours, so i'm not really familiar. does anyone have any ideas? as a next step i'm thinking of trying to push a downgrade to the phone through Odin which I suppose would be Android 5.1.1 , although I haven't yet located binaries that feel exactly right for t-mobile and s6 edge+ ... sigh, this has been quite a time consuming way of learning the bricked phone recovery process..
:good:
thanks in advance for any ideas or help on this...it's quite disturbing to be on a business trip with no phone, and the past 6+ months worth of not backed up (gulp) data still sitting on the device (hopefully)..
here's some data from the Android Recovery screen:
6.0.1/MMB29K.G928TUVU2DPD1
samsung/zenltetmo/zenltetmo
was flipping through the recovery logs and i notice quite a few log entries about "couldn't find any tzdata when looking for localtime!" , I notice entries like "Starting recovery on Fri Jan 2 03:55:29 2015" -- i'm wondering if the phone is having trouble setting internal time and date which might be preventing it from booting...just a theory.
sorry for the long message, wanted to completely describe this fun scenario, just in case anyone has any ideas..thanks again
keep trying to load TWRP from the download screen on my phone...but get the "custom binary blocked by FTP lock" message. There's no way to change any settings on the phone as it still won't boot past the t-mobile screen..
platinum5 said:
keep trying to load TWRP from the download screen on my phone...but get the "custom binary blocked by FTP lock" message. There's no way to change any settings on the phone as it still won't boot past the t-mobile screen..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you download Odin?
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
yes i have installed Odin and it's working fine...I can push files to the phone in download mode and it works fine, but the Android images i have loaded so far all seem to result in the phone getting stuck at the t-mobile screen...it won't go past there
Did you ever get this figured out? My guess is it has something to do with not being connected to t-mobile home network. The fact you can get to download mode & Odin sees your phone should mean all hope is not lost yet on recovering your files and getting it working again.
Twrp isn't going to work unless you had root installed with the USB debugging & oem unlock option turned on in developer mode.
Maybe try asking in some of the other s6 forums. There's a lot of knowledgeable people here & I'm sure someone knows how to fix this.
Goodluck, I hope you get it figured out, I know how frustrating it can be.

[REQ] Help: bootloop after 7.1.1 beta OTA and cannot enter recovery mode

I've been watching several threads for the last few days, and have not seen this exact issue. I would greatly appreciate some help.
Device:
- Nexus 5X LGH790 32GB
- Stock bootloader / fastboot
- Never unlocked / rooted / etc.
The only advanced thing I've done is join the beta program a few months ago to get 7.0 early. Got that without any issue.
Issue:
I received the 7.1.1 OTA on the day it came out. Installed with no problems. The next day, the phone just froze in the middle of regular use. After about 15 seconds, it started boot looping to the Google splash screen. I can hold volume-down to enter fastboot, but when I select recovery mode, it just starts looping again. Pretty much all I could do was power it off. I did find out by accident that if I left it looping for long enough, sometimes it actually loaded normally (I even saw beta program warning/notice). But when I tried using it for more than a minute, it would freeze, reboot, and loop again.
What I've already tried:
- I tried using the WugFresh NRT fix softbrick method. I was able to quickly turn on debugging one of the times that I left it to loop. But when NRT sent a reboot the phone, it threw it back into the loop and NRT stopped recognizing the device.
- I tried to follow the unbrick procedure using a TOT file in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-5x/help/tutorial-how-unbricked-nexus-5x-16gb-t3481766 But even after using LGUP, I still cannot even get into recovery mode.
- I filed a bug in the AOSP here: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=225802.
I'm at a loss here. On another thread, a member suggested this type of loop was a hardware/solder joint issue. I suppose that's possible... but man, what a coincidence that would be! Just now after the OTA the hardware fails? Any other thoughts? I'm pretty new to a lot of the terms/methods here, so maybe I missed something.
Thanks, DCK.
Update: I tried using LGUP again. The phone still gets stuck on the Google screen then boot loops.
Now, however, I am able to get into recovery mode consistently. Other threads have suggested doing an OTA sideload at this point. But I cannot seem to get my device recognized. The NRT shows no ADB devices connected. So I'm still stuck. Is there another way to try sideload?
DC_Knight said:
Update: I tried using LGUP again. The phone still gets stuck on the Google screen then boot loops.
Now, however, I am able to get into recovery mode consistently. Other threads have suggested doing an OTA sideload at this point. But I cannot seem to get my device recognized. The NRT shows no ADB devices connected. So I'm still stuck. Is there another way to try sideload?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try fastboot/bootloader mode and fastboot flash the OTA manually.
Update 2: Seems like all the other things I tried over the last few days have caused various unofficial USB drivers to be installed. I've tried uninstalling most of them. I downloaded the google USB driver from latest SDK. But my 5X is still recognized as a Kedacom device when it is sitting at FastBoot.
However, I must have made some progress because I was able to start the sideload process. Unfortunately, I am now stuck on yet another error. The phone hangs at "verifying update package" and then after about 2 minutes... it reboots itself and starts looping again!
I thought I had it. So close. Now I want to throw the phone. Going to sleep, but would be grateful for any other suggestions in the morning.
- DCK
use nrt to erase all partitions, then download 7.1 factory image, unzip and flash one by one the partitions.
DC_Knight said:
...
I'm at a loss here. On another thread, a member suggested this type of loop was a hardware/solder joint issue. I suppose that's possible... but man, what a coincidence that would be! Just now after the OTA the hardware fails? Any other thoughts? I'm pretty new to a lot of the terms/methods here, so maybe I missed something.
Thanks, DCK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like the boot loop issue many people have been having (the hardware/solder issue). It happened to me a few weeks ago after upgrading to Android 7.0. I got a replacement device from google.
If you're bootloader is locked, NRT or any other method to flash the factory image is not going to work. The only suggestion I have is to un-enroll in the beta program and hope your device will boot long enough to flash the ota Google will send the device to get back to 7.0. Note, this will wipe your device.
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Same problem here. It can't be recognized after I reboot to fastboot. So I can't flash anything.
If the device isn't recognized try this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=69273414&postcount=33. It's worked for a few of us with the same problem
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Enter stock recovery then flash the full ota via adb sideload

Stuck with Fastboot but no recovery, no boot

Hi All,
My Nexus 5x 32 GB phone suddenly died on me last night. The situation as of now:
1. Cannot boot normally. Shows Google logo and everything goes dark.
2. Can boot into Fastboot with holding down power and volume down buttons
3. But not able to go into recovery. When I select Recovery in Fastboot mode, it just tries to reboot and the screen stays dark. Nothing happens.
4. The bootloader is locked. I think OEM protection in Developer tools is on, so not able to unlock bootloader through Fastboot commands.
What an I do?? Factory reset would be great, if option is there.
Please help!! Thanks.
Try to flash Factory image by command adb and fastboot if your pc recognized your nexus 5x
unlock oem if necessary After
Funny enough, I've got a very similar issue
I can boot into recovery though, but there's a catch, and I think it applies to everything past boot, the phone freezes and restarts after like 3-5 seconds.
I can't boot to system, as it takes way too long to boot up, but I can only see the first panel of the recovery before it dies and restarts.
I have flash official images, and even TWRP recovery to see what I can do, but this doesn't work out in the long run, as the issues are ever persistent
Thanks for the quick replies!
Tried everything, including Nexus toolkit... But nothing worked. So I finally took it to service center as its still in warranty. They said the problem is hardware related and it might have happened because of recent update. They also said they have been getting lots of phones with this problem. So they they are replacing the motherboard free of cost. Wish they could have given a new phone
Once again, thanks all!
Dude that's wild, this same exact issue literally happened to me 2 weeks ago while I was on tour. Was on 7.1.1 (Pixel ROM to be specific) and my 5X just died on me out of nowhere. Absolutely the same things happening here, would boot up, go black, and then start bootlooping. Could access fastboot, but I couldn't get into recovery. Called Google and got a replacement because it was definitely hardware failure and I was still under warranty (just a few days past a whole year). I wonder if the new 7.1 betas are breaking peoples' phones
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
LG said if I have rooted my device, then it's not covered by warranty, and a 200-300 dollar (AUD) repair fee
I wonder if I can get this done free of cost though, I'm not the first person to have used this phone
Scratch. said:
LG said if I have rooted my device, then it's not covered by warranty, and a 200-300 dollar (AUD) repair fee
I wonder if I can get this done free of cost though, I'm not the first person to have used this phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried flashing the stock images? If you can get to fastboot, you can flash the stock image and unroot your phone. You should also then be able to lock your bootloader (if it is unlocked) and then do your warranty at that point.
I only have been using stock images
root is not a problem, as itis indeed not rooted.
no matter what image you would boot, fhe system will crash after a few seconds, freezeframing whatever on display, be it the recovery icon, or the beggining of the boot animation
so people saying android 7.1.1 brooking devices, so will that be safe to upgrade the phone from 7.0 to 7.1 .1 when stable release will be available ?
Scratch. said:
I only have been using stock images
root is not a problem, as itis indeed not rooted.
no matter what image you would boot, fhe system will crash after a few seconds, freezeframing whatever on display, be it the recovery icon, or the beggining of the boot animation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like the hardware bootloop issue that has been hitting 5x devices hard lately. Mine started looping last week and I had to send it in.
Are you still within your 1 year manufacturer's warranty? If so, you can call LG and report the issue to them. Your device may get fixed, but it was also reported Thursday that LG has started issuing full refunds because they ran out of the needed part.
The company have started offering refunds
https://www.neowin.net/news/lg-to-issue-full-refunds-to-customers-with-faulty-nexus-5x-handsets

5X just turns off before booting

Hi guys,
this morning i was charging my 5X via USB in my car while listening to spotify via bluetooth (like every morning).
But suddenly my phone turned off.
Now i can't turn it on again.
When i press and hold the power button it shows me the "device can't be checked for corruption" since my bootloader is unlocked.
Then i see the Google logo for some time and then the phone turn off again.
I'm able to get into bootloader mode and already flashed the latest factory image.
The phone still doesn't boot.
I'm not able to get into recovery mode. The same happens:
t shows me the "device can't be checked for corruption" since my bootloader is unlocked.
Then i see the Google logo for some time and then the phone turn off again.
I had my phone rooted and xposed installed on Oreo 8.1 for 1-2 month and didn't had any issues.
Do you have any ideas
Is there a way so get a look at log files right now
Thanks for your help!
edit:
after flashing 8.1.0 (OPM3.171019.016, Mar 2018) i have a new behaviour.
The phone still doesn't boot but as mentioned above.
But when i want to go to recovery it shows me the "broken android".
At some point the phone turns off and then i don't get back to recovery like described above
Also flashing TWRP didn't change anything :crying:
Have you tried the 4-core boot (BLOD fix)?
Flashing the modified boot images doesn't change anything.
With the modified TWRP i was able to get into recovery.
But i had to type in my passcode since my device in encrypted.
Decryption didn't work i guess because it says forced encryption has been disabled?
It said
failed to mount /cache (invalid argument)
Updating partition details
and then "Password failed, please try again"
after confirming the passcode again
failed to mount /cache (invalid argument)
done...
And the phone turn off.
With the TWRP 3.1.1.0 from offical TWRP page i wasn't able to get into recovery.
What does that mean?
It booted successfully yesterday but then again suddenly turned off.
Did some additional research and for me it now looks like i'm having the bad soldered point issue. :crying:
leAndroid91 said:
It booted successfully yesterday but then again suddenly turned off.
Did some additional research and for me it now looks like i'm having the bad soldered point issue. :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine just starting doing this a couple days ago, I contacted LG and they say they will replace the mainboard for free. I bought my 5X at launch so get in touch with LG support and see if they'll repair yours (I'm in the USA FYI, and I haven't actually sent them my phone yet).
Thanks for the info i will get in touch with them but i'm from germany and bought mine here on google store.
Unfortunately we can't do class actions against big corporates yet.
But let's see what happens i'm currently waiting for my 5X to cool down - fingers crossed
You can still get in touch with LG directly. These devices have a 2 year warranty (under EU law).

5T - device corrupt

Hi Everyone,
I have a 5T running android 9 - completely stock. The device is SIM free, I have never customised it at all - if anything it's never been connected to a PC even.
A few days ago I was using my phone as normal (on whatsapp) but it completely froze. It now boots up to the "Your device is corrupt and cannot be trusted and may not work properly" - it freezes on start up and won't work at all.
- I can get to the fastboot screen
- I can get to the recovery screen to install from ADB
The fastboot screen says in red - device state - locked.
The device is a clean, un-customised phone. Only a few days prior I checked for any OTA updates but I haven't received android 10 yet.
I haven't flashed phone firmware or anything for years now. (By years, I literally mean years - back in the Nokia 8210 days). My only other experience of flashing firmware was with Samsung phones and 'debranding' them.
As I was not trying to root the device or anything - how do I fix this issue? I've searched the forums but I cannot fine a scenario similar to mine therefore I'm a bit confused as to what to do to resolve it.
I've tried to sideload this - oneplus.com/uk/support/softwareupgrade/details?code=PM1574156155944 via recovery but it says installation failed.
Any help appreciated thanks!
Sounds like you're straight out of luck to recover any data if your device is completely stock, as to unlock your bootloader to access encrypted data would mean a factory reset. You could try try one of the unbrick tools using the guide here. You will lose your data.
I tried the unbrick tool here - forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-5t/how-to/oneplus-5t-unbricking-tool-confirmation-t3733012
... and it doesn't work. The phone now boots to a blank screen with a constant white LED.
Could this be a hardware issue?
I'm not too concerned about losing my data - already gave up on trying to keep my data when the problem first occurred!
After the 4th use of the unbrick tool (each time it completes successfully) I was finally able to boot into the phone.
I got as far as setting the region but then it wouldn't find any wifi networks. It then completely froze on this screen and is now back to "your device is corrupt and cannot be trusted" and will continually try to boot and freeze on the oneplus logo. Sometimes it will boot to a blank screen with a white LED.
Has anyone else had this issue? I'm definitely suspecting a hardware issue now...
oneplus5t_ said:
After the 4th use of the unbrick tool (each time it completes successfully) I was finally able to boot into the phone.
I got as far as setting the region but then it wouldn't find any wifi networks. It then completely froze on this screen and is now back to "your device is corrupt and cannot be trusted" and will continually try to boot and freeze on the oneplus logo. Sometimes it will boot to a blank screen with a white LED.
Has anyone else had this issue? I'm definitely suspecting a hardware issue now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem fixed?
unfortunately not. Any ideas on next steps?
That's an odd issue for sure. My only idea would be installing TWRP and maybe formatting from there and using fix permissions etc. to see if it has any effect.
I've done some googling to try and understand "TWRP" but I'm not sure I fully understand. Are there any forum posts I can refer to?
- phone has been flashed several times
- before this whole saga dev mode was enabled, but only to reduce animation scale - USB debugging was never enabled
- the phone has always been stock / sim free - never rooted
Thanks
Can you get into recovery? If yes then try connecting to a pc whilst in recovery as it should let you open your phones internal storage on PC but im not too sure if stock recovery allows it, (TWRP) does. Then copy whatever files you need. Let us know if you can get into fastboot mode aswell
It sounds similar to an issue I have just experienced with a friends 5T. In my case it's a hardware issue (seems like Wi-Fi has died). Just for kicks try to flash the Android 7 firmware. For some reason it allowed me to boot the phone fine and use it, albeit without any Wi-Fi. I sideloaded OOS 4.7.6 and that seems to be the last version 7. You could also use the older unbrick software. Academic I fear as I think you have a hardware issue.

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