Database Develop

Can't Flash Recovery

I'm on the T-Mobile variant and have followed the steps on the motorola website to unlock the bootloader. When I boot into fastboot, it says the device is unlocked with at status code 3. When I run 'fastboot flash recovery recovery.img' everything seems to run fine:
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
(bootloader) Variable not supported!
target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes
sending 'recovery' (10240 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.827s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [ 1.102s]
finished. total time: 1.930s​When I try to reboot into recovery mode it just shows me the warning that my bootloader is unlocked, then boots as normal. I don't know what to do. I've tried both the twrp and cwm recovery images. Any help?

what recovery did you flash?

waiflih said:
what recovery did you flash?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried both the twrp and cwm recoveries that are available in the android development section.

You are replacing recovery.img with the actual file name right?
Sent from my Moto X.

mentose457 said:
You are replacing recovery.img with the actual file name right?
Sent from my Moto X.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. From reading around it seems like there's a script in /system that flashes the stock recovery upon booting up. I tried to get the PwnMyMoto apk onto my device to get root and remove the recovery script file but now I'm getting an unexpected exception when trying to install the apk through adb. I have both USB debugging and Unknown Sources allowed. Any ideas?
Edit:
By the way I am T-Mobile, post OTA. If that changes anything.

elijahah said:
Yup. From reading around it seems like there's a script in /system that flashes the stock recovery upon booting up. I tried to get the PwnMyMoto apk onto my device to get root and remove the recovery script file but now I'm getting an unexpected exception when trying to install the apk through adb. I have both USB debugging and Unknown Sources allowed. Any ideas?
Edit:
By the way I am T-Mobile, post OTA. If that changes anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This might be a long way to do it but can't you downgrade back to 4.2.2 then get root with that then follow the instructions found in the general section for maintaining root through taking the ota? This should fix your problem. Also the instructions there might give you a different idea of how to work around this issue. You might just be able to flash the boot image and install the hidden su yourself.
Sent from my XT1060 using xda app-developers app

jayboyyyy said:
This might be a long way to do it but can't you downgrade back to 4.2.2 then get root with that then follow the instructions found in the general section for maintaining root through taking the ota? This should fix your problem. Also the instructions there might give you a different idea of how to work around this issue. You might just be able to flash the boot image and install the hidden su yourself.
Sent from my XT1060 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm already on 4.2.2. I'm guessing you mean to undo the recent OTA? How would I do that without a custom recovery or root?

Twrp has a built on file explorer, can you boot directly into recovery from the fastboot screen and delete the file that way?
Sent on my Moto X

flashallthetime said:
Twrp has a built on file explorer, can you boot directly into recovery from the fastboot screen and delete the file that way?
Sent on my Moto X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I can't I flash the recovery via fastboot then try to boot into recovery and it just shows me the warning that my bootloader is unlocked and boots normally.

elijahah said:
Unfortunately I can't I flash the recovery via fastboot then try to boot into recovery and it just shows me the warning that my bootloader is unlocked and boots normally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One more clarification: After you flash recovery, you are using the volume down key to highlight recovery and then you are using the up arrow to select it correct? You do not press the power button to make the selection as on nexus devices.

elijahah said:
Unfortunately I can't I flash the recovery via fastboot then try to boot into recovery and it just shows me the warning that my bootloader is unlocked and boots normally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't flash it, boot it. Fastboot boot recovery recovery.IMG. if that works maybe you can delete that file.
Sent from my Nexus 7

mentose457 said:
One more clarification: After you flash recovery, you are using the volume down key to highlight recovery and then you are using the up arrow to select it correct? You do not press the power button to make the selection as on nexus devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oops I didn't know that! Still no avail. I get a screen with the green android that says 'no command'
phositadc said:
Don't flash it, boot it. Fastboot boot recovery recovery.IMG. if that works maybe you can delete that file.
Sent from my Nexus 7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah man I thought this would work but this is the response I got:
fastboot boot twrp263.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.811s]
booting...
(bootloader) Command restricted
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.881s
Thanks for all your help though guys.

elijahah said:
Oops I didn't know that! Still no avail. I get a screen with the green android that says 'no command'
Ah man I thought this would work but this is the response I got:
fastboot boot twrp263.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.811s]
booting...
(bootloader) Command restricted
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.881s
Thanks for all your help though guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you leave a word out? I think it's fastboot boot recovery recovery. IMG.
Sent from my Nexus 7

elijahah said:
Oops I didn't know that! Still no avail. I get a screen with the green android that says 'no command'
Thanks for all your help though guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Erase the recovery partition. Then try flashing twrp.
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery twrp26XX.img
Sent from my Moto X.

mentose457 said:
Erase the recovery partition. Then try flashing twrp.
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery twrp26XX.img
Sent from my Moto X.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get this:
fastboot erase recovery
(bootloader) Variable not supported!
erasing 'recovery'...
(bootloader) Permission denied
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.071s​

Actually it works now. I just tired fastboot flash recovery twrp263.img then pressed vol down to get to recovery and pressed vol up to select it and it worked! Thanks for sticking with me guys.

elijahah said:
Actually it works now. I just tired fastboot flash recovery twrp263.img then pressed vol down to get to recovery and pressed vol up to select it and it worked! Thanks for sticking with me guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent. Glad you got it working.

elijahah said:
Actually it works now. I just tired fastboot flash recovery twrp263.img then pressed vol down to get to recovery and pressed vol up to select it and it worked! Thanks for sticking with me guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PS you had recovery the first time you hit the up volume and it sent you to a screen that said "no command" from that screen if you press the up volume and power button together it sends you to the recovery screen. It may be down volume and power together to get passed that "no command" screen but its one of the two. I saw people having that same problem in the forum about maintaining root through the OTA.

phositadc said:
Did you leave a word out? I think it's fastboot boot recovery recovery. IMG.
Sent from my Nexus 7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
elijahah said:
Oops I didn't know that! Still no avail. I get a screen with the green android that says 'no command'
Ah man I thought this would work but this is the response I got:
fastboot boot twrp263.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.811s]
booting...
(bootloader) Command restricted
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.881s
Thanks for all your help though guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably your battery isnt charged enough to proceed with operation.
Check your battery and make sure it is charged at least 50% and try again.

leonardoafa said:
Probably your battery isnt charged enough to proceed with operation.
Check your battery and make sure it is charged at least 50% and try again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will charge up a bit over 50% and see. I still get permission denied. Plus when I try to get into recovery, I can't. The Motorola log shows up for a while, then restarts and boots normally into Android.

[Q] TWRP fastboot boot problem

I have a VZW dev edition with unlocked bootloader and running 4.4.2. I would like to boot (not flash) into TWRP to install SuperSU so that I can keep the stock recovery installed, but I get this error in both mfastboot and the regular fastboot:
C:\platform-tools>fastboot boot twrp-2.6.3.1-ghost-4.4.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.844s]
booting...
(bootloader) Command restricted
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.953s
I'm running windows 8.1 and the unlocking process went without a problem.
It also doesn't work if I try: fastboot boot recovery twrp-2.6.3.1-ghost-4.4.img
Any ideas?
Thanks

Aeroman787 said:
I have a VZW dev edition with unlocked bootloader and running 4.4.2. I would like to boot (not flash) into TWRP to install SuperSU so that I can keep the stock recovery installed, but I get this error in both mfastboot and the regular fastboot:
C:\platform-tools>fastboot boot twrp-2.6.3.1-ghost-4.4.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.844s]
booting...
(bootloader) Command restricted
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.953s
I'm running windows 8.1 and the unlocking process went without a problem.
It also doesn't work if I try: fastboot boot recovery twrp-2.6.3.1-ghost-4.4.img
Any ideas?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your trying this the hard way. power down phone
hold volume - and power till you get into the bootloader and then hit volume - till you highlight recovery then hit volume + and presto your in recovery.
enjoy

Aeroman787 said:
I have a VZW dev edition with unlocked bootloader and running 4.4.2. I would like to boot (not flash) into TWRP to install SuperSU so that I can keep the stock recovery installed, but I get this error in both mfastboot and the regular fastboot:
C:\platform-tools>fastboot boot twrp-2.6.3.1-ghost-4.4.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.844s]
booting...
(bootloader) Command restricted
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.953s
I'm running windows 8.1 and the unlocking process went without a problem.
It also doesn't work if I try: fastboot boot recovery twrp-2.6.3.1-ghost-4.4.img
Any ideas?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just flash TWRP, and you install root and SU and you're done. then reinstall stock recovery, seems like the simplest way to do it if what you tried is failing. Just don't forget you're rooted in case OTA comes your way.

The Moto X doesn't support booting just the recovery image like a Nexus device, unfortunately. All the posts I've read have indicated as such, yet to see anyone having successfully done so.
I'd do the same if I had a dev edition. I still don't understand why it doesn't support something so simple which should be available to any unlocked bootloader.

opps i did not understand what you was asking there is a simple way to do this.
Install TWRP with the mfastboot command then install SuperSU
then get the stock recovery img from the correct SBF zip and flash it also with the mfastboot command.
and presto root with stock recovery.

Fastboot failed

When I try:
fastboot boot recovery.img
I only get this and it wont boot into the Cyanogen Recovery :/
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.217s]
booting...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.221s
Any idea what I can do?

Check to see what Fire OS version you have. If it is 5.11 then booting a custom recovery will not work til a new custom boot.img can be created for it.

tuckerwagner said:
When I try:
fastboot boot recovery.img
I only get this and it wont boot into the Cyanogen Recovery :/
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.217s]
booting...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.221s
Any idea what I can do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know you can only do temporary recovery boots (either twerp or Cyanogen) using a PC to push the recovery image and then boot it.
Code:
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot TWRP_Fire_2.8.7.0.img
Is what works for me.

same problem. Any way to downgrade?

skola28 said:
same problem. Any way to downgrade?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here... Bought two, got one to work and I think my girlfriend let the other update and now I am getting the "FAILED (remote: unknown command)" on the other.....
Ugh, time to look at Amazon's return policy?

skola28 said:
same problem. Any way to downgrade?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If on 5.1.1, at this time,
cannot root
cannot boot custom recovery
cannot downgrade
once a the update.zip is captured, maybe a new twrp can be built

RW2112 said:
Check to see what Fire OS version you have. If it is 5.11 then booting a custom recovery will not work til a new custom boot.img can be created for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turns out it is 5.1.1. I guess I will wait for a new boot.IMG unless there is a way to downgrade. Thanks for your help!

I think I soft bricked my phone. flashing "no command"

I've got a moto x '14 verizon XT1096. Tried to use fastboot to load twrp to eventually get to install Cm13. However, it threw this message:
C:\adb>fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
sending 'recovery' (0 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.006s]
writing 'recovery'...
(bootloader) Invalid boot image
FAILED (remote failure)
finished. total time: 0.024s
Dumbass me thought it would be a good idea to unplug the device and simply try again. Well, what a bad decision. The phone now flashes the "no command" robot on it's back. yes, flashes. i can get back to fastboot, but after this i'm not sure what to do.
Thanks in advance. I'm fairly new at this, be easy on me.

Try this. This is my mini guide I wrote in another thread.
Well, at first I tried to flash twrp through fastboot but the original recovery override the twrp recovery.
So, what I did, instead of flashing, I just temporary booted into twrp.
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot boot twrp.img (and not fastboot flash recovery twrp.img)
Then phone booted into twrp, I flash supersu 2.46.
Then I easily downloaded twrp manager from google play and installed twrp recovery to my xt1096.
Have fun
Use this https://twrp.me/devices/motorolamotox2014.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Cant install recovery / can't unlock [Xperia Z]

I Unlocked someones Xperia Z and installed Cyanogenmod and TWRP on it some time ago. It was too unstable for their liking so they reset it to its stock settings using Sony Emma (or whatever its called).
Well now that they've got a nexus 6P, they've given the Xperia Z to me, so i tried to install TWRP and i get errors trying to overwrite the recovery.
Upon inspection of the bootloader lock settings i found it to say "bootloader unlockable: Yes", which indicates it is unlockable but not yet unlocked, and it continues to say this no matter how many times i attempt to unlock it.
Below is a demonstration attempt to unlock the phone and install TWRP:
Code:
[email protected] ~/Desktop $ sudo fastboot oem unlock 0xC431F679A4E1ECEB
...
OKAY [ 0.408s]
finished. total time: 0.408s
[email protected] ~/Desktop $ sudo fastboot erase recovery
erasing 'recovery'...
FAILED (remote: Command not allowed)
finished. total time: 0.002s
[email protected] ~/Desktop $ sudo fastboot flash recovery twrp.img
sending 'recovery' (10656 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.337s]
writing 'recovery'...
FAILED (remote: Command not allowed)
finished. total time: 0.339s
[email protected] ~/Desktop $ sudo fastboot flash boot twrp.img
sending 'boot' (10656 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.337s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [ 0.563s]
finished. total time: 0.900s
I've also tried it using flashtool on Windows and similarly it doesn't work.
I can't understand why it would work the first time, but now that its been factory reset the unlock doesn't work.

Have you tried with Xperia z dual recovery? (XZ dual-recovery) . It's very simple to install, for more info please refer to the official thread.

aaronkatrini said:
Have you tried with Xperia z dual recovery? (XZ dual-recovery) . It's very simple to install, for more info please refer to the official thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To do that i'd need a custom recovery, and i can't install one because the bootloader is locked and there is no recovery present on the device.
EDIT: ah i just saw the install exploit for unrooted devices. I'll give it a shot.

Didn't work unfortunately :/
I wasn't able to to use dual recovery to unlock the phone.
I downloaded and then installed a 10.3.x.x version of a stock xperia Z rom using flashtool, then i ran the dual recovery setup. EVERY operation reported that the file or folder didn't exist,and that the install had failed.
I was able to root the phone using Root Genius. I then installed TWRP manager and tried to install TWRP from there (this worked on that phone before), but it corrupted the rom so now it just freezes and restarts on the boot animation.

Recovering with Emma does not relock the bootloader. So bootloader should still be unlocked. Recovering with Emma also removes root so you need to root your device before you can install a custom recovery.
Sent from my E6653 using XDA-Developers mobile app

You are indeed right! although the problem appeared to be a locked bootloader at first, it now appears it was a corrupted recovery partition.
I, again, set the phone to a stock 10.1.x.x ROM (it was still corrupted from last time so i had to reset it again using Sony Emma) using flashtool and rooted using Root Genius. I then tried to use flashify to install XZ-dual-recovery but it told me the recovery partition was missing.... so i searched around and found the cure to my woes may be DooMKernel, so i set it up, and everything fell into place from there! below is how i believe it worked:
1. Used fastboot on my PC to install DooMKernel v22 as per the official page instructions
2. successfully booted into TWRP
3. used TWRP to install XZ-dual-recovery
4. successfully booted into CWM recovery
5. used CWM recovery to format all internal paritions
6. used CWM to install ROM and root
Thank you everyone for your help!

My xperia z has the 5.1.1 rom and is rooted.
The boot loader is locked and I couldn´t unlock it.
I cannot get into recovery with PC, neither with the buttons.
I like to install a custom 6.0 rom.
any suggestion?
thxs in advance for your support.