Develop Bugs

PSA: Buy a Fire Phone during the recent fire sale? Do NOT downgrade the OS!

Did you pick up an unlocked Fire Phone from the recent sale at Amazon? You probably got a device running Fire OS 3.6.8.
It may be tempting to flash back to an earlier software version to attempt root, but you should hold off for now. I, and a few others it seems, are now stuck with phones that can't really do much. Registering with Amazon doesn't work, phones get hot, and we have no access to apps. The worst part is that we don't have the 3.6.8 image yet, so there's no way to go back.
Until we get a way to go back to 3.6.8, you should refrain from downgrading.
Has anyone downgraded from 3.6.8 successfully?
If we can't downgrade from 3.6.8, what does that mean for root access? Are we stuck with stock Fire Phone OS?

Downgrading the unlocked 3.6.8 to the ATT 3.5.0 without first clearing data and cache causes bootloops. If the cache and data is cleared the phone boots up but you will have no icons and no internet connection. You will basically be in a unfunctional state and phone keeps getting warmer and warmer.

Flashing back to 3.5.2 will get the phone functioning as a phone
but the Amazon server will not register the device

Cannot locate 3.6.8 file on their server (see download list topic)

Wow this explains a lot. In my efforts to mess with the boot loader and work on the phone, I downgraded to 3.5 and now have this problem. Got it to 3.5.2 which gives me a few apps, but I can't register and its unusable. I hope they release something soon. Might hit up Amazon Support to see if I can get them to help.
---------- Post added at 03:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:38 PM ----------
An update: I just got off the phone with a knowledgeable rep (took 2 tries). She said that they can't pull any information, manuals, or reference to a version higher than 3.5.2.
She did take the time to escalate my issue with a trouble ticket that will go to the advanced IT and devs, which should at least bring the problem to their attention.
She said I will get a response or update in the next 5 business days. Until then, I will just keep trying to reverse engineer the bootloader and see if I can make any edits to it to allow unlocking, or maybe an exploit.

Man....thank goodness I let reason prevail! I thought that after this massive dump, there would be all kinds of devs going wild. 3.6.8 on mine. Mainly got it because my Prime is up this month, and I wanted a backup phone in case I burn up my Note 4 from flashing. Gotta say, it's a solid piece of hardware, and Amazon put some pretty cool fun stuff to play with. Thanks a ton for the heads up!

Thanks for the heads up, pretty sure you saved a few flashaholics from a headache

Have a question:
Is German 3.6.2 (you can choose english as language in it) working without getting hot? (Modem Version is same as in 3.6.8: ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_06_05)
Version 3.6.8:
ro.build.lab126.project= ???? not available
ro.build.product=juniper
ro.product.name=juniper
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_06_05
Version 3.6.2 (German)
ro.build.lab126.project= ???? not available
ro.product.name=caraway
ro.build.product=caraway
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_06_05
Version 3.5.2 (AT&T)
ro.build.lab126.project=duke-1.1_release_lewis
ro.product.name=full_duke_kodiak
ro.build.product=duke
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_05_17
Version 3.5.1 AT&T
ro.build.lab126.project=duke-1.1_release_lewis
ro.product.name=full_duke_kodiak
ro.build.product=duke
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_05_17
Version 3.5 AT&T
ro.build.lab126.project=duke-1.0_release_lewis
ro.product.name=full_duke_kodiak
ro.build.product=duke
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_05_17

B1ackByte said:
Have a question:
Is German 3.6.2 (you can choose english as language in it) working without getting hot? (Modem Version is same as in 3.6.8: ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_06_05)
Version 3.6.8:
ro.build.lab126.project= ???? not available
ro.build.product=juniper
ro.product.name=juniper
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_06_05
Version 3.6.2 (German)
ro.build.lab126.project= ???? not available
ro.product.name=caraway
ro.build.product=caraway
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_06_05
Version 3.5.2 (AT&T)
ro.build.lab126.project=duke-1.1_release_lewis
ro.product.name=full_duke_kodiak
ro.build.product=duke
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_05_17
Version 3.5.1 AT&T
ro.build.lab126.project=duke-1.1_release_lewis
ro.product.name=full_duke_kodiak
ro.build.product=duke
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_05_17
Version 3.5 AT&T
ro.build.lab126.project=duke-1.0_release_lewis
ro.product.name=full_duke_kodiak
ro.build.product=duke
ro.build.version.lab126.modem=PB_02_05_17
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 3.6.2 software worked fine for me ... only thing was no activation with the amazon servers (which basically makes the phone useless. No Market / No video's / No Mayday / No Music nothing related to Amazon works without the activation.
The Phone made calls and sent / received txt no problem.

Thanks for the heads up. Will hold off and side load a few .apks that are a must for my life style. New phone will be here in a few hours.

Pleasantly, I hounded Amazon for 2 days via every support channel (chat, phone, email), hoping i would run into the one overqualified, underpaid 1st tier support guy who can work off script. No luck. Basically at the end of all of this mess, i have to wait 2-5 business days for an engineer to "get back to me". Fookin awesome. 3.5.2 is completely useless without device registration, everything but email is pretty much tied to that. *Sigh*. I really hope someone manages to get the firmware. At this point, im simply waiting out the next few days only to surely be told to RMA the device. I just find it horrendous that a huge company like Amazon does NOT have procedures in place for a potential interrupted OTA, at least one that doesn't require shipping the device back. Shame on me for jumping the gun without verifying that the download to the latest firmware was ACTUALLY for my device (who knew the had another sku?). Shame on Amazon for sucking so bad at every stage of their "shoppers phone" rollout.

Sess said:
Pleasantly, I hounded Amazon for 2 days via every support channel (chat, phone, email), hoping i would run into the one overqualified, underpaid 1st tier support guy who can work off script. No luck. Basically at the end of all of this mess, i have to wait 2-5 business days for an engineer to "get back to me". Fookin awesome. 3.5.2 is completely useless without device registration, everything but email is pretty much tied to that. *Sigh*. I really hope someone manages to get the firmware. At this point, im simply waiting out the next few days only to surely be told to RMA the device. I just find it horrendous that a huge company like Amazon does NOT have procedures in place for a potential interrupted OTA, at least one that doesn't require shipping the device back. Shame on me for jumping the gun without verifying that the download to the latest firmware was ACTUALLY for my device (who knew the had another sku?). Shame on Amazon for sucking so bad at every stage of their "shoppers phone" rollout.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in the exact same situation as you, waiting for Amazon to fix my phone, so I sympathize. Having said that, let's be fair and not blame amazon for this; they sold us a premium phone for 200 dollars, which I can attest worked very well out of the box. It didn't prompt me to update it or anything and with a few tweaks it was actually giving me a great battery life and performance, until I decided on my own to get adventurous and flash stuff on it. That is certainly not Amazon's fault. If we had used the phone as it was delivered none of this would have ever happened. So let's wait and see what they do to fix it. I am confident they will release the firmware or worst case they replace the phone with a new one.

najoor said:
I am in the exact same situation as you, waiting for Amazon to fix my phone, so I sympathize. Having said that, let's be fair and not blame amazon for this; they sold us a premium phone for 200 dollars, which I can attest worked very well out of the box. It didn't prompt me to update it or anything and with a few tweaks it was actually giving me a great battery life and performance, until I decided on my own to get adventurous and flash stuff on it. That is certainly not Amazon's fault. If we had used the phone as it was delivered none of this would have ever happened. So let's wait and see what they do to fix it. I am confident they will release the firmware or worst case they replace the phone with a new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then lets also be fair and take note of the fact that the phone is being sold for 200$ because it was grossly overpriced for what was offered. That still has not changed. Regardless, as a good corporate citizen its quite standard to provide tools to enable their users to restore the phone to standard working order. Had i not downgraded the phone i would not be in this mess. I acknowledge that. But i would also like to point out that had they provided something as simple as a release firmware bin file, i would not be in this mess either. Just gonna have to wait this out, but I will not be an amazon apologizer if they can't be bothered to give power users the basic tools to resolve their own issues.

If Amazon didn't lock down the Fire Phone so much, maybe people wouldn't be bothered to attempt to root it and change things Amazon clearly failed to do. Why can't I even change my launcher to Nova without issue? Amazon block wallpapers and widgets, so it's just a black screen with icons. If I wanted that, I would have stuck with iOS 3. The Fire Phone is locked down harder than iOS devices, which I never thought would happen. If they would loosen up to the grip, the phone would probably sell better. People want a phone they can make theirs, and that doesn't mean just what their Amazon portfolio looks like.
Worse yet, they still haven't forked over the latest update. I'm glad I bought two Fire Phones, because I can at least use one.
Now I see why no one wants this thing.

Just a side note re: registration:
I got my device several weeks ago and I think it was an earlier version than 3.6.8 - I downgraded to 3.5.0 per the instructions, rooted, all that works.
Now I just tried to register for the first time to get Prime, and found that I can't. So that doesn't seem specific to having come from the newest version, they must have disabled activation of all old ones?
Given that I'm in a working rooted state, I'm just going to leave it like this for now and hope that I can eventually flash forward without losing features that are unlocked like this, and finally claim that Prime service.

got tired of waiting on amazon, returned the phone, bought an iphone 6 plus. Will be using my shield tablet for all my android specific needs. @#$% amazon.

Side loading apks still works correct?

Yes

B1ackByte said:
Yes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One more question if you don't mind, are you still able to create a wifi hotspot and tether with the phone?

Yes

P8000 unusual problem.

Hello.
11.11.2015 i recived a notification on phone that Elephone had released a new update to improve system functioning ect.
Keep in mind this is a stock p8000. nothing done with it.
I downloaded update, installed and it said phone will reboot.
After that phone is stuck in bootloader and simply wont boot.
Ive tried wiping cache and factory reset but PHONE WONT turn on.
So question is. What the hell do i do now?

There's like five threads about the same problem, so nothing really unusual about this excerpt for the lack of quality control from Elephone which apparently releases broken OTA:s and phones with old or modified base roms. ?
This thread should be merged with other ones.

Have anyone found a solution?
pitrus- said:
There's like five threads about the same problem, so nothing really unusual about this excerpt for the lack of quality control from Elephone which apparently releases broken OTA:s and phones with old or modified base roms.
This thread should be merged with other ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have anyone found a solution to the problem then?
Or is my only choice to open a dispute with PayPal?

The Boards are full of Threads and solutions about this problem !
Why aren't you looking around a bit ?
How about the first post in Q&A section ???
http://forum.xda-developers.com/elephone-p8000/help/boot-loop-ota-upgrade-t3246203

StormiZMo said:
Have anyone found a solution to the problem then?
Or is my only choice to open a dispute with PayPal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
manually flash the stock rom .. i faced the same ****.. i followed the below steps and my elephone working fine
http://bbs.elephone.hk/thread-9229-1-1.html
hope this will work...

Fixed
As it turns out i managed to fix the problem.
Manually flashed a new rom and now the phone works fine. Tho im not installing the new update again.
Have to be said that the people behind the update and responsible for keeping the phone updated and fresh should have been fired.
People without the necessary skills on this subject would have to return or get the money refunded because THE only way to fix this is flashing a new rom..
Thanks for the help people!!

StormiZMo said:
Have to be said that the people behind the update and responsible for keeping the phone updated and fresh should have been fired.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, fired for what? it worked on most devices.
you get what you pay for! how are elephone selling a phone with decent specification for that price? they cut corners everywhere.
quality being 1 and skilled staff is the other.
with the given resources, their staff did they best they could with the test hardware they had.

StormiZMo said:
As it turns out i managed to fix the problem.
Manually flashed a new rom and now the phone works fine. Tho im not installing the new update again.
Have to be said that the people behind the update and responsible for keeping the phone updated and fresh should have been fired.
People without the necessary skills on this subject would have to return or get the money refunded because THE only way to fix this is flashing a new rom..
Thanks for the help people!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, most China phones don't even get updates, or even more exclusive, source code releases like this one. My guess is that there's likely only a one man show in charge of software development for this model, so give them some slack will you. [emoji1]

mine went off to after the OTA so i had to flash manually and like my friend said there trying, unlike most china phone company's so even though mine failed my father's and my friend's p8000 got there OTA np

It seems like the first 5000 batch delivered had no notification led,they seem to put in different hardware thats available.So end up with a hotch podge of slightly different devices.
So fingers crossed that a update works.Thankfully Elephone allows ,enables development.

It also looks like OTA update fails on rooted phones, which is not so different than what happens to most Android phones. When I used a Samsung phone long ago, OTA update notifications wouldn't even show up if you had rooted your phone, and on other phones I remember having a similar issue after I applied an OTA update with the phone rooted

Bootloader Unlock for AT&T SM-G930A S7

As you all might know this by now, snapdragon models of galaxy phones (s7 in my case) come with locked bootloader which makes it almost immposible to get TWRP recovery installed. I contacted the samsung and they send me to att advanced technical team over live chat. After long period of chatting they called me and we spoke on the phone for at least half an hour. The customer agent was nice and we went through many things such as installing ADT and SDK on my pc with all s7 drivers, but then she told me chances of me messing up some setting and bricking the device were high. Technical team told me to visit my local best buy AT&T and that there is high probability they will be able to unlock my bootloader. This upcoming week I will be heading there and asking them to unlock it for me. I told them this phone is my project dummy phone and I take full responsibility for any crashes done to the firmware. Hopefully they will be able to unlock the damn thing. So my question is this. 'Will I be able to use regular methods meant for unlocked s7's to install TWRP and various roms for my boot-unlocked s7 running snapdragon? Or will it make no difference since there isn't any research out there about flashing custom recovery's and roms for 930a. Sorry, I am new to this forum and might have made mistakes along the lines of explaining. Any response would be thankful!

So how'd it go????!!!!!!!!?????!!!

naziz5884 said:
As you all might know this by now, snapdragon models of galaxy phones (s7 in my case) come with locked bootloader which makes it almost immposible to get TWRP recovery installed. I contacted the samsung and they send me to att advanced technical team over live chat. After long period of chatting they called me and we spoke on the phone for at least half an hour. The customer agent was nice and we went through many things such as installing ADT and SDK on my pc with all s7 drivers, but then she told me chances of me messing up some setting and bricking the device were high. Technical team told me to visit my local best buy AT&T and that there is high probability they will be able to unlock my bootloader. This upcoming week I will be heading there and asking them to unlock it for me. I told them this phone is my project dummy phone and I take full responsibility for any crashes done to the firmware. Hopefully they will be able to unlock the damn thing. So my question is this. 'Will I be able to use regular methods meant for unlocked s7's to install TWRP and various roms for my boot-unlocked s7 running snapdragon? Or will it make no difference since there isn't any research out there about flashing custom recovery's and roms for 930a. Sorry, I am new to this forum and might have made mistakes along the lines of explaining. Any response would be thankful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any update?

vandelsand said:
Any update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, after I visited the specified best buy store they thought something was broken with the phone. After explaining what I needed them to do, they were clueless on how to do it before a technician with enough knowledge told they were unable to do so. They referred me back to the carrier (AT&T) which referred me to manufacturer (SAMSUNG) which referred back to carrier yatti yatti yatta. After finding no luck I just sold the phone for dirt cheap and settled with my new note 8 which doesnt even need root for almost majority of customizations thanks substrantum and various launchers. In conclusion what I learned is AT&T doesn't want its customers to have full control over devices. They like forcing their logos on their phone and fill them with their crap bloatware that nobody uses. For which they get super mad and try to get rid of net neutrality... I'm sorry I could not help anyone; wish yall the best of luck!:good::good:

I had a samsung s8, sm-g930a.
When I rooted that device in 2017 I never saw OEM unlock option.
But when I saw it yesterday oem unlock is visible.
Does any one know what it is ???
And can I unlock my device now???

No wifi calling because my phone is from Verizon?

I am having an issue where my phone cannot do Wifi calling, or Samsung Visual Voicemail. So I did some digging and found out that my gf's phone (which I flashed unlocked U1 firmware on) now has the service provider software information (SPS) of AIO/AIO/XAA, even though when I got her phone, it was designated to T-Mobile. However, for MY phone, even though I used the same exact firmware flash, my SPS is VZW/VZW/VZW.
Could this be the cause of my issue? Is there anyway to fix this? I flashed the phone using this firmware: https://samfw.com/firmware/SM-G986U1/XAA/G986U1UES2DUD4
I will provide more info if anyone asks for it, I just don't know what other info to provide as of now.

Here is one thing I know for certain, Verizon's Wifi calling uses an IPSEC tunnel that connects to them when turned on from your phone.
From this we can possibly assume that wifi calling is carrier specific. I am sure voicemail is the same.
So if your phone is technically on one carrier but the firmware thinks it's another, it would be mismatched so to speak.
I know this does not solve your issue but it might explain why those things do not work.

DarkQuark said:
Here is one thing I know for certain, Verizon's Wifi calling uses an IPSEC tunnel that connects to them when turned on from your phone.
From this we can possibly assume that wifi calling is carrier specific. I am sure voicemail is the same.
So if your phone is technically on one carrier but the firmware thinks it's another, it would be mismatched so to speak.
I know this does not solve your issue but it might explain why those things do not work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, I figured it would be something like that. The problem, at least I think, is that the phone still thinks it's a Verizon phone, even though it has U1 firmware. I tried flashing the firmware again, and putting in the SIM after I factory reset it, and nothing changed. I truly do need to change the SPS. I'm not sure if that's possible, but hopefully someone can shed more light on this problem.

guyguyguy1 said:
Right, I figured it would be something like that. The problem, at least I think, is that the phone still thinks it's a Verizon phone, even though it has U1 firmware. I tried flashing the firmware again, and putting in the SIM after I factory reset it, and nothing changed. I truly do need to change the SPS. I'm not sure if that's possible, but hopefully someone can shed more light on this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is just my 2 cents on it. For years I used to buy unlocked phones specifically so I could put custom firmwares on them. I had 3 reasons for doing so at the time. Get rid of the trash, custom firmwares were often updated more frequently and longer than manufacturer "official", and for root.
As it sits today, root is handy but not required like it used to be. Manufacturers now update their firmware FAR better and there are ways to debloat an official phone.
What I am getting at is this. Dinking with the firmware (IE changing away from official) is not worth it in my opinion today for most folks. Especially if you really depend on your device,, as I do for work.
However with all that said, if I did not depend on mine for work I would customize it anyway because while the processes for doing so are tedious, I find them fun.
Just my take on it. I wish you luck with your issue.

DarkQuark said:
Here is just my 2 cents on it. For years I used to buy unlocked phones specifically so I could put custom firmwares on them. I had 3 reasons for doing so at the time. Get rid of the trash, custom firmwares were often updated more frequently and longer than manufacturer "official", and for root.
As it sits today, root is handy but not required like it used to be. Manufacturers now update their firmware FAR better and there are ways to debloat an official phone.
What I am getting at is this. Dinking with the firmware (IE changing away from official) is not worth it in my opinion today for most folks. Especially if you really depend on your device,, as I do for work.
However with all that said, if I did not depend on mine for work I would customize it anyway because while the processes for doing so are tedious, I find them fun.
Just my take on it. I wish you luck with your issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! My understanding is that if your phone is protected by Knox, if you root the phone, it would break the chip on the logic board, and it would either brick the phone, or totally disable all protections on the phone, so you would HAVE to do custom firmware and security. Which simply isn't worth it to me. I just think it's annoying that a phone that SHOULD have the built in compatibility, just simply doesn't because the company that commissioned the phone felt like being a ****. Worst case scenario, I just suck it up and deal with it, it's not a huge deal. But, if someone eventually comes along and offers a fix for it, I'll jump on it!

Question 13 DP2 rollback on OEM locked tmo

Hello all, I've done weeks of researching online how to fix this issue but have not found a solution.
I'm on a TMobile pixel 6 pro, which is sim locked and OEM locked (trying to see if tmo will sim unlock for me).
I decided to try the android 12L beta as one of the "bug fixes" were Bluetooth fixes, long story short it didn't fix the problems I was having, i opted out of beta, downloaded the "update" installed, rebooted to a prompt of no operating system found and reinstalled the beta, I tried Google's flash tool, it stated in OEM locked (can't unlock even through fastboot). I then decided to try the 13dp2 and see if I can roll back afterwards, unfortunately I get a timestamp error..
Anyone have any ideas on what I can try or if they have had a similar issue that was resolved?

Start clearing caches.
Go to settings/apps/see all.

Without your bootloader unlocked, it is impossible to roll back.

This is weird. I opted out and got an update about 5 minutes later. Twas about 15mb iirc. It wiped the phone but it's been fine for me otherwise.
Also, this problem is not uncommon. Sadly. I guess some opt out updates were almost 500mb. From what I've read, these are the ones that are causing problems.

Larzzzz82 said:
This is weird. I opted out and got an update about 5 minutes later. Twas about 15mb iirc. It wiped the phone but it's been fine for me otherwise.
Also, this problem is not uncommon. Sadly. I guess some opt out updates were almost 500mb. From what I've read, these are the ones that are causing problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is nothing weird. People fail to read, and then reap their mistakes. It clearly states on google flash tool website NOT TO use it if you bootloader is NOT unlocked. The only thing causing issues are users not reading, and expecting others to clean their mistakes. Rules of modifying software: 1. Read. 2. Read again. 3. Read it once more. If fails, go to step 1 again. 9 out of 10 times you are not the first user experiencing an issue, and it has already been replicated and a solution provided, but people once again.... FAIL TO READ.

teegraves58 said:
There is nothing weird. People fail to read, and then reap their mistakes...it has already been replicated and a solution provided, but people once again.... FAIL TO READ.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just had to respond to this as I have noticed this becoming more of an issue in society that began to swell and expand in occurrence over the last ten years. Ironically enough, I just saw an article in my Google news feed that mentioned reading a lot on the cellphone lowers comprehension by causing overactivity in the prefrontal cortex.
Now, of course, I don't mean this as an insult to the OP. But everyone needs to make a few mistakes here and there so that they can learn from them and prevent the same thing from occuring again (and in this case the primary mistake would be a lack of reading).
Oh... And yeah... I tend to do a lot of reading on my phone and so my prefrontal cortex has probably been reduced to water lol.

My stance is clear: If your bootloader is locked, you don't belong in the beta program, you shouldn't be flashing developer previews, and your rescue options are limited or not timely. You are owed zero support for something you've been explicitly warned against.

Go to T-Mobile support on Twitter. You can chat with them and they will answer you pretty fast. Then ask them if you can have your device unlocked, that you are going to Europe for 3 weeks. And they will do it right away. No questions ask. They permanently unlocked my device. And I have not even paid for it.