S20 Ultra exynos stock OS stuck in boot loop. Data recovery? - Samsung Galaxy S20 / S20+ / S20 Ultra Questions &

Hi Guys,
As the title says my S20 Ultra has managed to get itself stuck in a boot loop as of last night. I can boot into recovery mode, download mode and safe mode. When booted into safe mode it will stay on the home screen fine. However if i try to unlock the phone to use it, it crashes and reboots into a bootloop.
If I just plug in a usb to access the files via usb in safe mode before the phone is unlocked the phone is not detected (device manager detects a samsung device but nothing in file explorer most likely because the usb services haven't started up yet and won't until the phone is unlocked).
Im sure a factory reset will solve the bootloop issue but I don't want to lose the date on the phone until it's backed up (recently renovated our house and I have pictures on there of before and afters I would like to keep).
Is there a method I could use to get the data back other then sending the phone off to a recovery service? Maybe something that doesn't void the warranty of the phone but if there is no other choice I would consider voiding the warranty. I used to install custom roms on all my old android phones but never felt the need to on this one. I'm fairly tech savvy so am Just looking for ideas.
Cheers

Coddeh said:
Hi Guys,
As the title says my S20 Ultra has managed to get itself stuck in a boot loop as of last night. I can boot into recovery mode, download mode and safe mode. When booted into safe mode it will stay on the home screen fine. However if i try to unlock the phone to use it, it crashes and reboots into a bootloop.
If I just plug in a usb to access the files via usb in safe mode before the phone is unlocked the phone is not detected (device manager detects a samsung device but nothing in file explorer most likely because the usb services haven't started up yet and won't until the phone is unlocked).
Im sure a factory reset will solve the bootloop issue but I don't want to lose the date on the phone until it's backed up (recently renovated our house and I have pictures on there of before and afters I would like to keep).
Is there a method I could use to get the data back other then sending the phone off to a recovery service? Maybe something that doesn't void the warranty of the phone but if there is no other choice I would consider voiding the warranty. I used to install custom roms on all my old android phones but never felt the need to on this one. I'm fairly tech savvy so am Just looking for ideas.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try flashing the same firmware you're currently running using Odin and HOME_CSC to keep your data, possible it will replace and fix the corrupted files causing the bootloop

So last night I tried what you have mentioned. It didn't change anything unfortunately.
I then thought it might be worth trying an older firmware. I tried rolling back to the previous firmware and then to android 10. Both of these ended up making things worse and it would boot loop at the android startup screen.
Luckily I managed to get back into Odin mode and put the current firmware back on and I'm now back to square one.

OK so I have had a thought. I've seen that some people have managed to establish a USB connection to thier device through TWRP and managed to backup their data through that. I've also seen that on older phones you can use odin to only flash TWRP and then boot into it. I'm not sure if things have changed drastically and you are unable to do that on the S20 ultra now. After my data (pictures and videos) was backed up I could then reflash the recovery back to stock and do a factory reset to fix the bootloop.
Does this seem plausible?

Related

[Q] T-M Not Booting Past Samsung Screen; I have troubleshooted

All,
I have used my GS3 for awhile now without issue. I'm abroad for the forseeable future, so I've only been using it for Wi-Fi calling and internet/apps. Regardless, Kies NEVER worked for me, and my computer never recognized the USB device. Up until recently, I've just used my iPod for music, so no problem.
Fast forward and my friend, who also has a GS3, tried to update my drivers and root/flash my phone so I can drag and drop files the way he does with his. I let him do this because I'm newb to this, and because he assured me he knew what he was doing as he'd done it to his and his girlfriend's phone.
As it turns out, he has an international version (he used ToolKit instead of QCom ToolKit) and he tried to root the wrong files to my phone. At first, I thought it was hard-bricked (which really puts me in a tough position since I won't be back in the States until January), but I don't think even his root attempt worked properly.
So where I'm at now:
The phone will not boot up. When I turn it on I get the Samsung Galaxy S III logo, but android never loads. The phone will charge via USB and the wall.
I can access recovery bootup
I can access download bootup (the ability to do the two above lead me to believe it isn't hardbricked, I read on these forums, if I can get to download bootup then it's probably fix-able)
I've combed the forums and the internet, in general, for a fix. I downloaded the factory restore settings from samsung-updates (sorry if I cannot plug this site, it's not intentional, simply to provide as much info as possible), but Odin always "FAIL"s when I attempt to apply it.
Additionally, I've attempted to recover via recovery bootup/reset, and then load the factory restore setting via Odin. This did load them, but the phone did not boot up.
QM ToolKit was acknowledging the phone, so I attempted to boot the correct files using ToolKit (the ALLINONE option) and this worked correctly, as expected via QM ToolKit. But still the phone would not boot up.
The phone sits at a black screen after the GSIII logo with the blue LED lit up.
Any tips or advice would be appreciated. I'm in quite a situation.
sadly i have the same problem, this happened randomly and cant get my device to boot
If you Odin tmo stock image tar and odin recognized your device and all went well then boot into stock recovery factory reset then reboot. It should boot up if all is well. When you plug to pc does your computer recognizes it?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Provided your boot loader and download manager partitions are working(as it appears to be the case) you can get your phone back to a "working" state.
What I suspect happened is that at some point during the process of playing with it, your partition table got hosed and now android is borked. I would recommend re-partitioning it but I don't have enough info around me and available to give you instructions to do so. I'll do some digging and try to get back to you.

[Q] Bricked but is it hard or soft bricked?

I turned on my rooted Virgin Mobile Galaxy S 3 when it got stuck on the Samsung logo. The logo is animated but the phone will not progress past it. The phone is unable to boot into recovery or download mode; when I try to do so, the phone behaves as if I tried to simply turn it on normally. Samsung Kies is unable to connect to my phone but it does notice when I connect the phone to my computer. Odin also knows when the phone is connected. This occurred after using Odin for something I downloaded from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1739426.
asodiu said:
I was messing around with my rooted Virgin Mobile Galaxy S 3 when it got stuck on the Samsung logo. The logo is animated but the phone will not progress past it. The phone is unable to boot into recovery or download mode; when I try to do so, the phone behaves as if I tried to simply turn it on normally. Samsung Kies is unable to connect to my phone but it does notice when I connect the phone to my computer. Odin also knows when the phone is connected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are actually at the forum for the i747M/U variants of the SG3. To see if we can help you, however, you would need to provide more info ... You said you were doing stuff with your phone? Were you trying to flash a firmware or something? If so, what were you flashing and at what stage did your phone get stuck in the bootloop?
It's not a hard brick if your phone still makes some attempt at starting.
Larry2999 said:
You are actually at the forum for the i747M/U variants of the SG3. To see if we can help you, however, you would need to provide more info ... You said you were doing stuff with your phone? Were you trying to flash a firmware or something? If so, what were you flashing and at what stage did your phone get stuck in the bootloop?
It's not a hard brick if your phone still makes some attempt at starting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was flashing a download found in the link I have given (the newest Bell one). My phone had progressed past the first sign of the Samsung logo, past the screen saying "Samsung GALAXY S III" and past the animation with the sound before getting stuck on the next Samsung logo.
After flashing, did you boot to recovery and wipe data and cache?
audit13 said:
After flashing, did you boot to recovery and wipe data and cache?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I have said, I am unable to boot to recovery or boot to download mode. I did not wipe data and cache.
Actually, after removing my battery for approximately forty minutes, I was able to boot into download mode. When I attempted to boot into recovery mode after turning on the phone normally (which resulted in the phone being unable to progress past the Samsung logo), I was once again only able to turn on the phone normally and get stuck on the logo.
asodiu said:
Actually, after removing my battery for approximately forty minutes, I was able to boot into download mode. When I attempted to boot into recovery mode after turning on the phone normally (which resulted in the phone being unable to progress past the Samsung logo), I was once again only able to turn on the phone normally and get stuck on the logo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend getting your hands on the Android SDK and using adb to boot into download and recovery modes. I got a water damaged d2att from friend a few months ago and the old volume down key doesn't work and using the command prompt and adb, you can get it to boot to whichever mode you want.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
asodiu said:
I was flashing a download found in the link I have given (the newest Bell one). My phone had progressed past the first sign of the Samsung logo, past the screen saying "Samsung GALAXY S III" and past the animation with the sound before getting stuck on the next Samsung logo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Virgin Mobile is a 'virtual' mobile network operator but ports mainly on the Sprint CDMA network. Unless your phone specifically had Bell firmware or was porting on Bell, flashing the Bell version would be wrong and could, nay would, cause a brick. Thankfully, though it appears to be only a soft brick and may be recoverable by re-flashing compatible firmware. Unlike Sprint and Virgin which are CDMA networks, Bell is GSM so I'd very much doubt that the firmware you were trying to flash was compatible with your phone. The fact that your phone is still trying to boot suggests that the bootloader is still intact but the system itself has been compromised. Can you remember what Android version your phone was on the last time it functioned normally? If so, I would suggest you visit Sammobile.com or androidfilehost.com and find the same version (or higher) for your phone and then flash to return to stock or near stock. You can always re-root afterwards or flash a custom ROM when your phone is back to working normally.
Since you can get into download mode, you can flash custom recovery in case the stock file you find is a zip file to be flashed via recovery. You should be able to get into recovery mode if you try the button combo again after you have flashed custom recovery via Odin. Otherwise, if it's a *.tar file, just flash directly with Odin.
Larry2999 said:
Virgin Mobile is a 'virtual' mobile network operator but ports mainly on the Sprint CDMA network. Unless your phone specifically had Bell firmware or was porting on Bell, flashing the Bell version would be wrong and could, nay would, cause a brick. Thankfully, though it appears to be only a soft brick and may be recoverable by re-flashing compatible firmware. Unlike Sprint and Virgin which are CDMA networks, Bell is GSM so I'd very much doubt that the firmware you were trying to flash was compatible with your phone. The fact that your phone is still trying to boot suggests that the bootloader is still intact but the system itself has been compromised. Can you remember what Android version your phone was on the last time it functioned normally? If so, I would suggest you visit Sammobile.com or androidfilehost.com and find the same version (or higher) for your phone and then flash to return to stock or near stock. You can always re-root afterwards or flash a custom ROM when your phone is back to working normally.
Since you can get into download mode, you can flash custom recovery in case the stock file you find is a zip file to be flashed via recovery. You should be able to get into recovery mode if you try the button combo again after you have flashed custom recovery via Odin. Otherwise, if it's a *.tar file, just flash directly with Odin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have successfully managed to flash stock filmware on my phone and now it is working fine. The post which I got the file that I attempted to flash stated that the Bell version would work with the Virgin Mobile phones. My Galaxy S 3 was running Android 4.3.
asodiu said:
I have successfully managed to flash stock filmware on my phone and now it is working fine. The post which I got the file that I attempted to flash stated that the Bell version would work with the Virgin Mobile phones. My Galaxy S 3 was running Android 4.3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to know it's working fine now. Unless the firmware for the 2 phone models have identical build numbers, I'd be surprised the post suggested that cross-flashing may be OK.

Phone soft bricked after applying software updates

Hello.
The other night I applied 3 software updates to Android and ended up with an unusable phone. The updates (I assume) were like this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/tmobile-htc-one-m8/help/3-software-updates-t3268014
After the phone rebooted a couple times, it got stuck at the white HTC logo screen (I ended up falling asleep and the phone was like the after waking up, so stuck for about 6 hours) and wouldn't respond to just holding the power button. I had to hold power + vol up to get it to restart. After restarting it now boots to a black screen. It is possible to get to HBOOT and TWRP but I can't get adb to recognize it anymore so I'm not sure how to go about getting fixes on the phone.
The phone was running a custom recovery (clockwork recovery) and rooted. I then tried to get it back to stock to apply the Android 5.0 RUU and then used TWRP without flashing the recovery to root the phone again. My guess is that something about that process might have messed with something that one of the software updates was updating.
So, I have two questions:
1. Is it possible to recover files (pictures, for exampl) off the internal sd? Like I said, I cannot get adb (or windows) to recognize the phone, though it does show in the windows device manager.
2. If it's not possible to get recover those files, how can I get the phone usable at all?
Can you get it into the boot loader?
Yes, luckily I can get to the bootloader.
hatbocs said:
Yes, luckily I can get to the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If so once in the bootloader can you use something like:
fastboot boot twrp-2.8.7.0.img
to boot into twrp? (note twrp-2.8.7.0.img is the filename of the twrp image that I saved it as, yours might be different)
If you can boot into twrp then you can install a rom/backup. also you could use, I think, something like "fastboot flash recovery twrp-2.8.7.0.img" as well.
-brad
I'm at work so I can't test this again to make 100% sure but if fastboot works like ADB then my phone doesn't show.
I do currently have TWRP installed however windows does not see the phone.
So if twrp works, you should be able to use that to connect to your pc. If not go and buy an OTG usb drive. Copy a Rom onto it, and then connect it to your phone. One time I messed my phone up and I used this method.
Worth a try. I'm in the middle of moving and that box of stuff isn't in this house. So I'll have to wait to report back. Thanks for the help so far.

[Resolved] Almost bricked: N5120 & USB Issues

Expert advice needed please. This is a puzzle that someone might enjoy solving.
Although I have a fair bit of experience with flashing, I tried to flash my 8.0 for the first time and it has dramatically failed. It was probably my fault - not an uncommon story.
What is less common is that I am struggling to figure out how to undo the damage I've done. What's really making this difficult is that no computer recognises the device as USB any more so I can't use Odin, Kies, etc to repair or return to stock. I have tried everything I can think of to deal with the USB issue, the usual cable, driver, port nonsense. I don't think the USB problem is Windows now.
I suspect one of these things may have happened:
The USB port just went bad coincidentally during this flash process (charge, no data). I have ordered a new port but it will take weeks to arrive.
Has the device come out of Developer/USB debugging mode somehow? I can't tell because I can't boot to an OS.
I wonder if the ROM flash has corrupted the firmware the deals with USB - is that possible? Where is the devices USB drivers located? Is it in the bootloader, something like BIOS?
I'm suspicious of the bootloader, as the screen is weirdly corrupted now when I turn on or reboot the device - fuzzy white lines rather than a logo - but that disappears when OS tries to load, or I go into Recovery/Download.
I actually did do a backup of the original ROM to the SD card; but restoring it doesn't work, just produces an endless Samsung boot, even if I then wipe and reset.
I can get into Download mode, and a Recovery (Philz for N5120) but since I can't connect to the devise with USB in any way, it's very hard to get the Recovery to flash anything new and useful. I did put my SD Card in another phone and copied over the stock ROM zip from Samsung, but it refuses to flash - I think because it doesn't like Philz Recovery? I can't think how to replace Philz Recovery with another by flashing, without USB.
I may have to wait to replace the USB port, but I fear that won't fix it. Until then, I can only think of one other thing to try, and that is to copy a ROM onto the SD Card through another phone, and try to flash it. Lineage doesn't flash, and nor does the stock zip I got from Samsung. Would anything else work?
Can I flash an alternative recovery from within the recovery? Philz only lets me flash zips, not img or tars.
So it's quite a mess, but if anyone has a brilliant idea of how to get out of this, I'd love to hear it.
THANK YOU if you have a genius idea.
So after a few days of working on this, I did manage to resolve it, and I thought I'd just add a note about how I escaped this obscure problem.
The device went bad because I stupidly flashed an incompatible Recovery to the device and somewhere between doing this, backup and restoring and flashing, it corrupted mostly everything including something in the bootloader.
Oddly enough, the solution seemed to be to mess up the Recovery even more by flashing something even more random - it seems this provoked the device into restoring its own basic Recovery. Using this to wipe and reset the device somehow enabled Download mode's USB interface to start working again so I was able to use Kies to return to stock, which repaired everything including the bootloader.
Finally, I flashed the correct Recovery for this device, and then managed to flash the ROM I wanted. A happy ending to a stressful story; the device now works better than it ever has done before.

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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