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?

After OTA upgrade, lost SIM and IMEI

Hey guys,
I just upgraded htc 10 to the latest official version of lineageos, but the installation got stuck in recovery and then I restarted normally.
Unfortunately, I lost the radio signal: no SIM detected! What do you recommend? Can I flash the previous build without encrypt / decrypt issues on partition phone?
I'm on nougat firmware, S-OFF.
Thanks in advance,
Robe

Some details might help .....
RobeStar said:
Hey guys,
I just upgraded htc 10 to the latest official version of lineageos, but the installation got stuck in recovery and then I restarted normally.
Unfortunately, I lost the radio signal: no SIM detected! What do you recommend? Can I flash the previous build without encrypt / decrypt issues on partition phone?
I'm on nougat firmware, S-OFF.
Thanks in advance,
Robe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might be useful to know more specifics about the device we are talking about ? Did you make a COMPLETE Nandroid backup (e.g. with TWRP) before you tried flashing the new image, etc.... What was on it before? What did you (not) wipe prior to attempting the install.... SPECIFICALLY, one could ASSUME a previous LOS build, but assumptions are often dangerous. Also, shouldn't lose the IMEI absent a serious glitch. You CAN blow it away if you wipe the area in TWRP but that would lead to a hope that you also backed it up first. If you CAN, restore what was there before all of this unhappiness began and try again ? Good Luck.

nezlek said:
It might be useful to know more specifics about the device we are talking about ? Did you make a COMPLETE Nandroid backup (e.g. with TWRP) before you tried flashing the new image, etc.... What was on it before? What did you (not) wipe prior to attempting the install.... SPECIFICALLY, one could ASSUME a previous LOS build, but assumptions are often dangerous. Also, shouldn't lose the IMEI absent a serious glitch. You CAN blow it away if you wipe the area in TWRP but that would lead to a hope that you also backed it up first. If you CAN, restore what was there before all of this unhappiness began and try again ? Good Luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi nezlek! You're right: here some useful answer.
Device we are talking about ? HTC 10
Did you make a COMPLETE Nandroid backup ? No... :silly:
What was on it before? lineage-14.1-20180411-nightly-pme-signed.zip
When OTA update has been notified, I installed using the rom tool (not twrp). During the update procedure it stopped in twrp, so I just restarted to system. Then I noticed that the radio did not work anymore...
PS: it's more safer to flash the new build in twrp or continue to use system rom ota update?

Ouch
RobeStar said:
Hi nezlek! You're right: here some useful answer.
Device we are talking about ? HTC 10
Did you make a COMPLETE Nandroid backup ? No... :silly:
What was on it before? lineage-14.1-20180411-nightly-pme-signed.zip
When OTA update has been notified, I installed using the rom tool (not twrp). During the update procedure it stopped in twrp, so I just restarted to system. Then I noticed that the radio did not work anymore...
PS: it's more safer to flash the new build in twrp or continue to use system rom ota update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FIRST - Always better (in my book) to flash with TWRP. Others my have different experiences and opinions but it has never let me down.
You predicament is, in a word, not good. If I were you, I would first try re-flashing the previous Lineage build via TWRP. Unfortunately you are probably going to lose some data in all of this. If anything works well enough to backup your system and data partitions, do that first and move that to removable storage and remove it so it is SAFE. Maybe you have Titanium Backup and can do some of the pieces you need ?? Boot into TWRP and re-flash the build file that was on it before this all started. If that "dirty" flash doesn't give you anything useful, try wiping cache, davlik, etc... and repeating (a full factory reset). If THAT fails, download the zip file(s) - LOS, su-add-on, gapps, etc... and pretend you are doing it for the first time (maybe even wipe data and system but then, your stuff is GONE without a backup). But at this point, what have you got to lose? ASSUMING you get things back to a proper working condition, only then do a complete backup and ponder starting over again. The radio, who knows? Losing the IMEI info is much more of a problem since carriers will often not like that. I know it is trivially easy to restore IMEI data on an MTK device, but yours I have no personal knowledge of. There ARE places that will apparently do it for you if you do a little judicious web searching and are willing to part with a little cash for it, but SOMEBODY out here on XDA has to know how to do it for what you have.
And I'm NOT going to say somebody told you so, but they did. NEVER do this sort of thing without a backup in hand or a willingness to wave goodbye to whatever you have installed on or done to a device. I spend not more than 10 minutes a week doing a Nandroid of devices I use regularly. It has saved me a hell of a lot more time than that the very few times I've needed it. So, with apologies for rubbing salt in the wound, it is always better to have 'em and not need 'em than to need 'em and not have 'em
One thing is pretty certain. Most of us rarely repeat this sort of thing. Good Luck.

Can someone flash My phone without my pin
Even though I encrypted it???

RobeStar said:
Hey guys,
I just upgraded htc 10 to the latest official version of lineageos, but the installation got stuck in recovery and then I restarted normally....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have this device but, your best bet is to post this question within the following Official LineageOS thread that's specific to your device.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3528508
If all else fails, and you don't receive any responses from the above thread, you can always try to obtain some member guidance within the following Q&A thread that's specific to your device as well.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3527639
Good Luck!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I DO NOT provide support via PM unless asked/requested by myself. PLEASE keep it in the threads where everyone can share.

Yesterday, installing OTA and going from 20191008 to 20191010 destroyed my IMEIs on my Moto X4 payton.
Any idea why this happened?

Verification Failed - no root or mods

Sorry if my search skills failed, but what little I found was for other phones or people trying to root/modify.
My phone was working fine, then the battery ran out of charge and now any time I turn it on I get "Verification failed. Unable to restart your device. The integrity verification has failed. You need to reset your device to factory default settings. This will erase all your data." with a button at the bottom to reset. I have not rooted my phone (yet) or done anything to it aside from normal use. I have tried restarting, I have tried booting into recovery and wiping the cache, I have tried booting into safe mode (things pulled from other model guides). Nothing is working and I really don't want to lose everything on my phone. Halp!
(SM-G960-F/DS in case you need specifics)

you can talk directly to Samsung for that ... there is online chat available on their site!
good luck!

dimitrispas22 said:
you can talk directly to Samsung for that ... there is online chat available on their site!
good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
**snorts** Tech support is 99.99% garbage. Their solution is to restart the phone and when that inevitably fails, send it in for repairs (ie, have them wipe the phone, which I can do myself).

Question Bricked for Days and usable WiFi is $$$ for vanlife, help!

I was ALL good with my Pixel 6 pro, rooted and hours of tweaks in. My idiotic mistake here was I did not make a flashable backup before flashing the magisk-rooted despair kernel. Instead, because of laziness to find a nandroid backup method, I made a half-assed backup by dragging and dropping on my pc, and this has cost me.
Immediately after flashing via the 99 cent kernel flash app (can't remember the name) I was getting caught in the G loading screen bootloop.
Since then, I've tried everything. Every combination of every fastboot command I have found, on Windows and Ubuntu, multiple cables, etc. This has worked for me in every version of Android since 4.0 or earlier, as I've gone this whole time without really gaining understanding of any of the back end.
Now I cannot enter fastbootd. I get errors in fastboot that the "/system" partition does not exist. I have no stock recovery and can only enter Fastboot bootloader mode. GrapheneOS will not install due to an error at the final step indicating that fastboot is too old, despite the updates I keep reinstalling (Graphene web installer failing on download portion). Stock Recovery Flash Tool never works for me, always an error on the download. When manually flashing Stock, I am hit with the missing system partition error, the error that the image is too large for the partition, cannot determine image filename, etc.
Now, fastboot reboot bootloader doesn't even work until i unplug and replug the phone back in. And no flashing commands are attempted until the phone is unplugged/replugged. My bootloader is still unlocked as confirmed by the fastboot oem unlock command response.
Essentially I believe I am in need of a complete wipe, beyond anything I've done yet. I think I need to create new partitions before flashing? Someone please help me I'm dead in the water and on motel wifi to try and fix this stubborn beast.

When I first got my pixel 6 pro, I didn't let the update fully install and ended up using the web flasher to get it working again. Have you tried that? It'll be a full wipe but at least you would have your device.

bigdog1459 said:
When I first got my pixel 6 pro, I didn't let the update fully install and ended up using the web flasher to get it working again. Have you tried that? It'll be a full wipe but at least you would have your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh I've wiped it along the way already, since the "incident" of the kernel flash. Multiple ways. I would love to use the web flasher, but it just doesn't work for me. The download never completes, and I suspect even if it did that at this point it would get stuck right away and throw me an error message, likely deleting the whole download along with it.

nastyneighbor said:
Oh I've wiped it along the way already, since the "incident" of the kernel flash. Multiple ways. I would love to use the web flasher, but it just doesn't work for me. The download never completes, and I suspect even if it did that at this point it would get stuck right away and throw me an error message, likely deleting the whole download along with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn. I'm sure you have tried some of the manual flashing guides out there too?

nastyneighbor said:
I was ALL good with my Pixel 6 pro, rooted and hours of tweaks in. My idiotic mistake here was I did not make a flashable backup before flashing the magisk-rooted despair kernel. Instead, because of laziness to find a nandroid backup method, I made a half-assed backup by dragging and dropping on my pc, and this has cost me.
Immediately after flashing via the 99 cent kernel flash app (can't remember the name) I was getting caught in the G loading screen bootloop.
Since then, I've tried everything. Every combination of every fastboot command I have found, on Windows and Ubuntu, multiple cables, etc. This has worked for me in every version of Android since 4.0 or earlier, as I've gone this whole time without really gaining understanding of any of the back end.
Now I cannot enter fastbootd. I get errors in fastboot that the "/system" partition does not exist. I have no stock recovery and can only enter Fastboot bootloader mode. GrapheneOS will not install due to an error at the final step indicating that fastboot is too old, despite the updates I keep reinstalling (Graphene web installer failing on download portion). Stock Recovery Flash Tool never works for me, always an error on the download. When manually flashing Stock, I am hit with the missing system partition error, the error that the image is too large for the partition, cannot determine image filename, etc.
Now, fastboot reboot bootloader doesn't even work until i unplug and replug the phone back in. And no flashing commands are attempted until the phone is unplugged/replugged. My bootloader is still unlocked as confirmed by the fastboot oem unlock command response.
Essentially I believe I am in need of a complete wipe, beyond anything I've done yet. I think I need to create new partitions before flashing? Someone please help me I'm dead in the water and on motel wifi to try and fix this stubborn beast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure when you said you used "Stock Recovery Flash Tool" if you meant the "Android Flash Tool". But just in case you didn't, that can force flash partitions with it. Probably your best shot.
Android Flash Tool
flash.android.com

Android Flashing Tool online unbricked me the other day. You have to be patient with the tool as it took me several tries. It will totally wipe your phone, but at this point you just need to rescue your device. Keep us posted.

thanks for the tip. i'm trying the android flash tool again now. and will keep trying it until it at least passes the download stage. and yes i tried all the manual flashing guides out there...and hybrid combos of all as well. i mean i'm positive its my fault for missing SOMEthing somewhere but many hours have been spent with overall negative progress.
my track record is still zero hard bricked devices or soft ones I couldn't fix over all these years so i'm not too worried but i could use my phone back haha
will keep posted as requested. ty again.

I know this doesn't help your immediate situation, but when flashing anything like custom kernels, I would advise not to use some random app to flash it with, just follow the directions in the OP of the kernel's thread, and make sure you have up to date Platform Tools and driver. CleanSlate and many or all the custom kernels also require flashing more than just the boot.img.
Good luck, I hope you get it back working for you.

Hey guys, the Android Flashing Tool finally worked for me and I am up and running again. Thanks for your help and tips. Hacking phones is more important every year and thus I truly value your skills and advice. This community must survive the new world order. much love folks

Where do I even start?

I got a used LG G3 D852 yesterday, it's the first unlocked phone I've had. I know my way around a PC pretty well, but I'm nearly a complete luddite when it comes to phones specifically, so I was surprised when the phone wouldn't allow me to update its Android version from 6 to a newer one. I started looking into how to update the OS manually, and then ended up in a rabbit trail of bootloader unlocking, device rooting, custom ROM flashing, etc. I'm fully capable of reading a tutorial and following it, but I can't seem to figure out where I should even start with the process. Also, given that LG's website discontinued the official bootloader unlocking service, I'm not sure it's even possible to do anymore.
All I'd really like is for the phone's OS to be updated. Is that possible anymore, and if it is, what do I do first in that whole process?

KelpTheGreat said:
I got a used LG G3 D852 yesterday, it's the first unlocked phone I've had. I know my way around a PC pretty well, but I'm nearly a complete luddite when it comes to phones specifically, so I was surprised when the phone wouldn't allow me to update its Android version from 6 to a newer one. I started looking into how to update the OS manually, and then ended up in a rabbit trail of bootloader unlocking, device rooting, custom ROM flashing, etc. I'm fully capable of reading a tutorial and following it, but I can't seem to figure out where I should even start with the process. Also, given that LG's website discontinued the official bootloader unlocking service, I'm not sure it's even possible to do anymore.
All I'd really like is for the phone's OS to be updated. Is that possible anymore, and if it is, what do I do first in that whole process?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. search for kingroot, kingoroot, whatever, download and install the apk, follow the app’s instructions to root your phone
KingRoot (Android)
Root your Android device in a matter of seconds
kingroot.en.uptodown.com
2. search and download and install flashify apk on phone
and download this TWRP in .img format
[RECOVERY] Unofficial TWRP for LG G3 (Discontinued)
/* * Your warranty is now void. * * I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards, * thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please * do some research if you have any concerns about features included...
forum.xda-developers.com
in flashify click install recovery from phone storage and select your twrp img and grant root access and after installing it will ask you to click reboot to recovery, press yes, you will now in TWRP mode, swipe to allow modifications
3. download your LineageOS zip on computer depending on model
LineageOS Downloads
download.lineageos.org
then download your opengapps google apps package
The Open GApps Project
OpenGApps.org offers information and pre-built packages of The Open GApps Project. The Open GApps Project is an open-source effort to script the automatic generation of up-to-date Google Apps packages. All Android versions and platforms supported.
opengapps.org
use ARM (not arm64) , android 11, pico
transfer to phone with USB
press wipe in twrp mode then factory reset (backup your data first!) the confirm
then press install then find your lineageos zip
swipe to flash
after complete press back, press install again, find opengapps package, and swipe to flash
then after complete press back, reboot, uncheck install twrp app and install as system app, reboot system

All right, thanks for the list of steps I need. I'll give it my best shot, if you don't hear from me again in this thread then assume everything went well!
Edit: I've run into a snag right away. In the description of the KingRoot link you provided, it says that the "operating system [must be] between Android 4.2.2 and Android 5.1." My phone is Android 6. Is that an error in the description, and it will actually work to root Android 6, or should I search for another root apk like kingoroot that specifically says it works with Android 6?

KelpTheGreat said:
All right, thanks for the list of steps I need. I'll give it my best shot, if you don't hear from me again in this thread then assume everything went well!
Edit: I've run into a snag right away. In the description of the KingRoot link you provided, it says that the "operating system [must be] between Android 4.2.2 and Android 5.1." My phone is Android 6. Is that an error in the description, and it will actually work to root Android 6, or should I search for another root apk like kingoroot that specifically says it works with Android 6?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe yes maybe no just try
you can also try kingoroot and many others until one eventually work

I don't think I'm going to use Kingoroot, as Malwarebytes flagged it as malware and quarantined it, and checking the file through VirusTotal confirms that it's not a safe file.
Reading the official xda guide here says that none of these root programs are recommended, so I'll follow their guide and see how that goes.

Okay... to install and use Magisk, the rooting method recommended by XDA, it says that the phone must have an unlocked bootloader first. On that same page it says to search on the forums for a specific method for your device to unlock its bootloader. This is the only bootloader unlocking guide I can find for the LG G3, and it says that to use this method, the device must be rooted first.
I can't root without an unlocked bootloader, I can't unlock the bootloader without rooting? Now what?

I found another bootloader unlocking guide. Now my problem is that even though I've installed ADB and Fastboot, ADB isn't recognizing that my phone's connected. The phone itself says that USB debugging is connected and available, and my computer detects that the phone is connected, but ADP can't see that it's connected.
EDIT: Solved that problem by switching the phone's USB connection from MTP to PTP. Now ADB is correctly showing the phone.

any problems so far

LR7875 said:
any problems so far
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't been able to work on it for a few days, will probably be able to do so later this week. Thanks for checking in!

Double posted accidentally, ignore this

Hey, I am still planning on working on this. Life's just slammed me hard lately and I haven't been able to spend time on it.
One problem I'm having that's probably unrelated to the whole unlocking thing is that I can't get the phone to connect to mobile data. I can make calls and texts, but it won't connect to mobile data. I tried the SIM card in another phone and it works, so it must be some issue with this particular phone and connecting to data. I'll have to do some troubleshooting for that before I proceed with unlocking; I don't want to waste time on unlocking the phone if it won't work with data at all.

KelpTheGreat said:
Hey, I am still planning on working on this. Life's just slammed me hard lately and I haven't been able to spend time on it.
One problem I'm having that's probably unrelated to the whole unlocking thing is that I can't get the phone to connect to mobile data. I can make calls and texts, but it won't connect to mobile data. I tried the SIM card in another phone and it works, so it must be some issue with this particular phone and connecting to data. I'll have to do some troubleshooting for that before I proceed with unlocking; I don't want to waste time on unlocking the phone if it won't work with data at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried factory reset?
even if that don't work you can still proceed as it may be an issue in stock firmware and can be fixed by a custom firmware lineageos etc, I mean you couldn't conclude that it's mobile data is kaput and throw in trash because of this before you even tried a custom firmware

LR7875 said:
tried factory reset?
even if that don't work you can still proceed as it may be an issue in stock firmware and can be fixed by a custom firmware lineageos etc, I mean you couldn't conclude that it's mobile data is kaput and throw in trash because of this before you even tried a custom firmware
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you're probably right. I'll go ahead with the process and hope that it connects to mobile data after I get it all done. If it doesn't work then at least I'll have learned how to do it, and I'll have a pretty decent custom phone that I can just use on wi-fi.
I'll try getting back to working on this as soon as I can... which probably won't be as soon as I'd like to... =P