Database Develop

[Q] Will OTA from Sense 4.3 to 4.4 unroot and wipe my custom recovery?

Hello,
I have a Developer Edition (unlocked) with Stock 4.3 at the moment, is rooted and with TWRP 2.6.3.0 custom recovery, my phone is asking me to upgrade to 4.4. My questions are:
- What would be the results of the upgrade?
- It will flash over my custom recovery without problems?
I guess I will loose root and custom recovery but I can flash them again, my main concern is that the OTA will not flash correctly for being rooted and with custom recovery. Thanks a lot for those that know the answer and want to help me.

gustavorod said:
Hello,
I have a Developer Edition (unlocked) with Stock 4.3 at the moment, is rooted and with TWRP 2.6.3.0 custom recovery, my phone is asking me to upgrade to 4.4. My questions are:
- What would be the results of the upgrade?
- It will flash over my custom recovery without problems?
I guess I will loose root and custom recovery but I can flash them again, my main concern is that the OTA will not flash correctly for being rooted and with custom recovery. Thanks a lot for those that know the answer and want to help me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess you cant flash official OTA through custom recovery..u need stock recovery to do this

gustavorod said:
Hello,
I have a Developer Edition (unlocked) with Stock 4.3 at the moment, is rooted and with TWRP 2.6.3.0 custom recovery, my phone is asking me to upgrade to 4.4. My questions are:
- What would be the results of the upgrade?
- It will flash over my custom recovery without problems?
I guess I will loose root and custom recovery but I can flash them again, my main concern is that the OTA will not flash correctly for being rooted and with custom recovery. Thanks a lot for those that know the answer and want to help me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, you won't be able to do an OTA update when you've a custom recovery (you shouldn't even get it in the first place, sometimes it comes through), if you try to apply the OTA, you'll boot back to the TWRP recovery.
So, you should either go full stock (recovery & ROM), then do an OTA. Or flash some 4.4 Custom ROM.

By itself the phone alerted me that the OTA download is available and wants to download and flash itself as it did when it upgraded from 4.2.2 to 4.3 so I am not planning to flash through TWRP...

gustavorod said:
By itself the phone alerted me that the OTA download is available and wants to download and flash itself as it did when it upgraded from 4.2.2 to 4.3 so I am not planning to flash through TWRP...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it will download OK, but when it reboots to start installing, you'll just see the TWRP screen and nothing is gonna happen; because the OTA expects stock recovery.

Thanks!!!!
I guess I better flash another 4.3 or 4.4 by myself, I just thought the OTA would be better first to upgrade to the latest firmware...

gustavorod said:
I guess I better flash another 4.3 or 4.4 by myself, I just thought the OTA would be better first to upgrade to the latest firmware...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can do two things:
1- get s-off and flash any firmware you want
2- "download & install later" the OTA, once downloaded pull it to your PC, the OTA file will contain a "firmware.zip" which is signed and can be flashed in fastboot ruu mode (you have to issue the flash command twice!!!), which would upgrade your firmware (including hboot, kernal and recovery), but will leave your rom intact
----- because it flashes recovery, you need to reflash custom recovery
----- and, kernel (boot.img) you'll need to reflash the custom one (or dirty install the ROM), otherwise the ROM won't boot up

nkk71 said:
you can do two things:
1- get s-off and flash any firmware you want
2- "download & install later" the OTA, once downloaded pull it to your PC, the OTA file will contain a "firmware.zip" which is signed and can be flashed in fastboot ruu mode (you have to issue the flash command twice!!!), which would upgrade your firmware (including hboot, kernal and recovery), but will leave your rom intact
----- because it flashes recovery, you need to reflash custom recovery
----- and, kernel (boot.img) you'll need to reflash the custom one (or dirty install the ROM), otherwise the ROM won't boot up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've looked around for a CWM compatible version of the Dev Edition + Root, but I'm not finding one. Is anyone aware of a CWM-packaged version that I can flash using CWM on a rooted device? Reverting to stock to pick up the OTA seems like a long way to go

[Q] Republic Wireless stuck without firmware, unlocked bl

I have a moto x 2013 with an unlocked bootloader. I was on 4.4.2 and I decided to take the OTA. After flashing stock 4.4.2 and updating I flashed TWRP and my custom boot animation. It would no longer turn wifi on which I had solved in the past by reflashing stock. I stupidly tried to do this, and realize now that I have the 4.4.4 bootloader with 4.4.2 images. Is there anything I can do? Is there any way to flash 4.4.4?
Edit: I flashed TWRP and copied the ota to the sd card from a otg drive. I then flashed back the stock 4.4.2 recovery and used it to install the ota zip. I do not recommend others try this as I have no idea how safe it is. Avoid getting in this situation to begin with.
Now I need to know if I can try flashing TWRP again and what I did wrong with that last time? Or was it the boot logo/animation?

numanair said:
I have a moto x 2013 with an unlocked bootloader. I was on 4.4.2 and I decided to take the OTA. After flashing stock 4.4.2 and updating I flashed TWRP and my custom boot animation. It would no longer turn wifi on which I had solved in the past by reflashing stock. I stupidly tried to do this, and realize now that I have the 4.4.4 bootloader with 4.4.2 images. Is there anything I can do? Is there any way to flash 4.4.4?
Edit: I flashed TWRP and copied the ota to the sd card from a otg drive. I then flashed back the stock 4.4.2 recovery and used it to install the ota zip. I do not recommend others try this as I have no idea how safe it is. Avoid getting in this situation to begin with.
Now I need to know if I can try flashing TWRP again and what I did wrong with that last time? Or was it the boot logo/animation?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're fine to flash TWRP. The issues was you re-flashed it before taking the update last time. To update to 4.4.4 you have to do a stock restore to 4.4.2 first then install the update.

coles427 said:
You're fine to flash TWRP. The issues was you re-flashed it before taking the update last time. To update to 4.4.4 you have to do a stock restore to 4.4.2 first then install the update.
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Click to collapse
I am almost certain that I flashed it after taking the update. The update won't flash with anything other than the stock recovery. It was probably user error of some sort when flashing.

[Q] New Nexus 6 on 5.0

I have read so much and information seems contradictory. One thing says if you root and take custom recovery you will never be able to update your phone via OTA. But I have been updating with fastboot so is updating like that still possible? And I understand you can get back to stock to take an OTA anyway. Is that correct?
It has been said that you cannot decrypt your N6 after taking 5.xx? (can't remember which) OTA. Is it not possible to decrypt with fastboot or adb after that particular update? If I just take all the OTA's before flashing twrp and rooting will I still be able to decrypt at the 5.1.1 version if I want to? And, there are custom kernels that allow things that the stock one won't allow. Currently using a 2013 Moto X rooted and twrp on 5.1. I've been updating by flashing stock recovery and system.img from sbf files and then taking the OTA successfully. Will the N6 still work that way?

Groid said:
I have read so much and information seems contradictory. One thing says if you root and take custom recovery you will never be able to update your phone via OTA. But I have been updating with fastboot so is updating like that still possible? And I understand you can get back to stock to take an OTA anyway. Is that correct?
It has been said that you cannot decrypt your N6 after taking 5.xx? (can't remember which) OTA. Is it not possible to decrypt with fastboot or adb after that particular update? If I just take all the OTA's before flashing twrp and rooting will I still be able to decrypt at the 5.1.1 version if I want to? And, there are custom kernels that allow things that the stock one won't allow. Currently using a 2013 Moto X rooted and twrp on 5.1. I've been updating by flashing stock recovery and system.img from sbf files and then taking the OTA successfully. Will the N6 still work that way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OTA checks system and kernel and if anything is changed, OTA will fail. That includes root.
Fastboot flashing a system.img, boot.img and recovery.img would be enough to unroot and get back to stock however, you would only want to OTA if the rom you wanted didn't have a factory image.
Decryption is possible on all ROMs. It's just a custom kernel (boot.img) that doesn't force encryption on boot, then format userdata to get rid of existing encryption. Of course you're modified now so no OTA.
People care so pointlessly about OTA. Advice: forget about it and fastboot flash to update, or easier yet, wait for someone to package it up into a recovery flashable zip

did anyone get a security update on their m7 this morning?

I got an OTA update named OTA_M7_UL_L50_SENSE60_MR_TMOUS_7.18.531.35-7.18.531.2_release_450302.zip with size about 180MB.
Did anybody else get it?
I can't apply the update though because I have twrp and the phone is rooted. I was wondering if someone else got the update and applied it successfully on a rooted phone.

devsk said:
I got an OTA update named OTA_M7_UL_L50_SENSE60_MR_TMOUS_7.18.531.35-7.18.531.2_release_450302.zip with size about 180MB.
Did anybody else get it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should post this question here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2305490
and the answer is probably yes since I don't see why T-mobile USA would push an ota update only to you
7.18.531.35 is the t-mobile US equivalent of 7.17.1540.35 which is the latest version with the stagefright 1.0 vulnerability fixed.
I can't apply the update though because I have twrp and the phone is rooted. I was wondering if someone else got the update and applied it successfully on a rooted phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to be on 100% stock rom including stock recovery to install ota updates. Better to return to stock using a ruu before applying the update imo since many users soft bricked their phones when attempting to install lollipop ota updates on stock rooted phones. If you need the RUU, look in the RUU collection thread, there is a 7.18.531.2 RUU posted there (link in my signature). Don't forget that questions should be posted in the q&a section, not in general. :good:

Thanks for your help. I found the RUU for my version. So, since I need to go back to RUU flash, I will need to re-setup my phone from scratch again just for getting this OTA....sucks!!
I wish they would make it easier to update modified phones. Just overwrite my root changes to /system and destroy my recovery but keep my /data and /sdcard. I can recover from that much faster than doing RUU and set up from scratch!!
So, on m7, isn't there way to flash stock on /system and stock recovery through fastboot and then take the OTA? I have done that on at least Samsung and Moto phones in the past and it worked fine.

So, if I restore system and boot partitions from my backup to stock, can I sideload the OTA ZIP using TWRP?
I should have made a recovery.img from the original stock recovery partition. Do you know if I can find the stock recovery here somewhere?

devsk said:
I wish they would make it easier to update modified phones. Just overwrite my root changes to /system
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It is, you'll loose root every time you do an ota update.
and destroy my recovery
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Click to collapse
The ota is flashed using the stock recovery, and the stock recovery is also updated in that process.
So, on m7, isn't there way to flash stock on /system and stock recovery through fastboot and then take the OTA? I have done that on at least Samsung and Moto phones in the past and it worked fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, either using a RUU, or a combination of a stock rom/backup (/system partition) flashed using twrp and then flashing the stock recovery back.
So, if I restore system and boot partitions from my backup to stock, can I sideload the OTA ZIP using TWRP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, the updater-script will only work with stock recovery
I should have made a recovery.img from the original stock recovery partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't backup the stock recovery directly from the phone (actually yes you can but it requires s-off and its somewhat complicated.
Do you know if I can find the stock recovery here somewhere?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
already uploaded here:
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23991606952604831
or you can extract it from the ota update.
It was possible to update a stock rom + rooted phone simply by flashing the stock recovery back in the past (on kitkat roms and eariler) but it looks like its not possible anymore on lollipop updates. So much ppl posted here with the same problem: "Phone is stuck at HTC splash screen after installing update on stock rooted phone". Example here and here
The biggest problem if the ota install fine but the phone is stuck at the booting screen (like in the link above) is that your firmware will be updated to 7.18.531.35 so you won't be able to use the 7.18.531.2 RUU anymore unless you achieve S-OFF or edit your MISC partition.

alray said:
It is, you'll loose root every time you do an ota update.
The ota is flashed using the stock recovery, and the stock recovery is also updated in that process.
Yes, either using a RUU, or a combination of a stock rom/backup (/system partition) flashed using twrp and then flashing the stock recovery back.
No, the updater-script will only work with stock recovery
You can't backup the stock recovery directly from the phone (actually yes you can but it requires s-off and its somewhat complicated.
already uploaded here:
https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=23991606952604831
or you can extract it from the ota update.
It was possible to update a stock rom + rooted phone simply by flashing the stock recovery back in the past (on kitkat roms and eariler) but it looks like its not possible anymore on lollipop updates. So much ppl posted here with the same problem: "Phone is stuck at HTC splash screen after installing update on stock rooted phone". Example here and here
The biggest problem if the ota install fine but the phone is stuck at the booting screen (like in the link above) is that your firmware will be updated to 7.18.531.35 so you won't be able to use the 7.18.531.2 RUU anymore unless you achieve S-OFF or edit your MISC partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the great help! I can't thank you enough.
One question: if I do fail to apply the OTA zip after restoring boot, system and recovery to stock, I will still be able to get TWRP back on the recovery through fastboot and restore my full TWRP backup to get a working system back, right? Is there a gotcha in that route?

devsk said:
Thanks for the great help! I can't thank you enough.
One question: if I do fail to apply the OTA zip after restoring boot, system and recovery to stock, I will still be able to get TWRP back on the recovery through fastboot and restore my full TWRP backup to get a working system back, right? Is there a gotcha in that route?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, even if the ota installation fails, you''ll be able to access fastboot, flash back twrp and restore your twrp nandroid backup. :good:

alray said:
yes, even if the ota installation fails, you''ll be able to access fastboot, flash back twrp and restore your twrp nandroid backup. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome!! :good::good:

Downgrading from Marshmallow if I have custom recovery

Hi everyone, this question was asked already but I just want to make sure that it's safe to flash a 5.1 based ROM over a currently active Marshmallow ROM using TWRP using only the usual wipes? I remember that I had to flash a custom boot image with a PC or something like that in order for the custom recovery to work on my K3 Note, which I received with Marshmallow installed, so I'm not sure if I can hop back to 5.1 if phone never even had it installed. Any advice?

livgrave said:
Hi everyone, this question was asked already but I just want to make sure that it's safe to flash a 5.1 based ROM over a currently active Marshmallow ROM using TWRP using only the usual wipes? I remember that I had to flash a custom boot image with a PC or something like that in order for the custom recovery to work on my K3 Note, which I received with Marshmallow installed, so I'm not sure if I can hop back to 5.1 if phone never even had it installed. Any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, IT IS SAFE but there are some points to note:
Every Rom Zip contains a boot.img file which is also flashed when the zip is flashed.
You do not need to replace boot.img in order to install TWRP, but you need it to flash SuperSU.zip to your device or install xposed
Remember You need to wipe data partition (No need to wipe Internal) in order to continue.

Thanks for the reply. I don't know why, but I remember when I was installing TWRP I couldn't boot into it until I flashed a new boot image or something like that. All I could boot into was the stock recovery or something like that. I needed to use SP flash tools and flash something in order to get it to work. So it's safe for me to try 5.1 ROMs? They seem to be more stable than custom Marshmallow ROMs....

livgrave said:
Thanks for the reply. I don't know why, but I remember when I was installing TWRP I couldn't boot into it until I flashed a new boot image or something like that. All I could boot into was the stock recovery or something like that. I needed to use SP flash tools and flash something in order to get it to work. So it's safe for me to try 5.1 ROMs? They seem to be more stable than custom Marshmallow ROMs....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must have flashed the recovery.img ( and also the boot.img) because my root methods mention them.