Database Develop

[Q] phone storage decryption

i have encrypted my phone storage and i was happy with it but i want to install busybox and i think the phone storage encryption is not letting to install it. so i went to settings>storage>power and the option to decrypt the phone is greyed out. i thought its because the battery is not fully charged so i charged it to 100% and kept the power cable connected but still the option is greyed out. i also cannot install new 4.2.2 roms.
any help on this matter please?
i am currently on v4.1.2 bootloader unlocked, cwm installed and rooted with stock rom .

still no progress
i have tried clearing the credentials and then tried to reset the phone through recovery too but that also fails, it says cannot mount data...and other things
so am i stuck with this v4.1.2 without anything more to do? no reset, no upgrade ??
i should have never enabled encryption in first place,

X2 Black screen

Hello,
I did a reboot and now I can't use my phone anymore. I see the Boot animation but after the Boot up, the screen just turns black. I receive notifications and active display is working, also I can start my camera with the twist but I can't take picture because the touchscreen does not respond. On active display or the power off pop up, the touchscreen is working. So I did a cache partition wipe but this hasn't fixed my problem. The strange thing is that after a couple of frustrated reboots, the Boot animation changed to the old animation with the spinning world. I want to reset the phone via recovery but first I need to backup my data. I have very important Data on my phone like whatsapp log or Photos and videos.. I can't connect my phone to the computer because I have a pin... How I can Backup my data and what caused the black screen?

If your bootloader is unlocked you can flash TWRP. TWRP has the ability to decrypt userdata if you have the password. I don't know if it can decrypt the moto x or not, because TWRP only officially support ASOP type encryption, if motorola uses a different technique for encryption it will say the password is wrong. If it works you can browse and backup files from TWRP recovery.
If it says the password is wrong or you don't have the bootloader unlocked, then you are SOL and have lost everything.
In either case doing a factory reset will hopefully fix your issue.
Sent from my XT1095

So I did a factory reset now. But I stuck in Bootloop, i just see the M logo. How I can fix it? And no, my Moto X is stock like out of the Box.

rupro327 said:
So I did a factory reset now. But I stuck in Bootloop, i just see the M logo. How I can fix it? And no, my Moto X is stock like out of the Box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After the factory reset bootup takes longer than normal, how long did you wait?
If that is not the case, what model moto x do you have? For example mine is xt1095. Also what version of android do you have? 5.0, 4.4.4, 5.0.2, 5.1, etc?
Sent from my XT1095

same issue today
also have the same issue, black screen after reboot. moto voice, active display/notifications are responsive, camera too when twisting the phone. moto voice says "unlock your phone to continue" but i currently don't have any screen locks or anything, just swipe. i have a pure edition running on 5.1. Skeptical about a reset since the phone is still responsive.. tried looking for other fixes, but looks like this issue is just coming up today...

This exact same thing happened to me. Updated to 5.1 about a week ago via the OTA. Wiping cache did nothing. Diagnosing it as a software issue, I attempted to sideload the official 5.1 OTA that's posted elsewhere in the forums. It came back as installation aborted, so I gave up on any hope of keeping my data and did a factory reset. Now all it does is bootloop, sometimes settling on the prone android no command screen for a little while. I can boot into recovery and the bootloader, but thats it. Really hoping someone can come up with a solution. XT1096.

AGISCI said:
After the factory reset bootup takes longer than normal, how long did you wait?
If that is not the case, what model moto x do you have? For example mine is xt1095. Also what version of android do you have? 5.0, 4.4.4, 5.0.2, 5.1, etc?
Sent from my XT1095
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've waited about 30 minutes, in this time my phone just bootet into the recovery by his self. I've contacted Motorola and I'll send my device to repair.
It's a xt1092 with 5.1 RETDE.
I personally think that this issue is caused by the Boot animation update.

swankylaxplayer said:
This exact same thing happened to me. Updated to 5.1 about a week ago via the OTA. Wiping cache did nothing. Diagnosing it as a software issue, I attempted to sideload the official 5.1 OTA that's posted elsewhere in the forums. It came back as installation aborted, so I gave up on any hope of keeping my data and did a factory reset. Now all it does is bootloop, sometimes settling on the prone android no command screen for a little while. I can boot into recovery and the bootloader, but thats it. Really hoping someone can come up with a solution. XT1096.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash the stock 5.1 logo, kernel, system, modem, baseband and recovery for the XT1096 - the full image files are available.

JulesJam said:
Flash the stock 5.1 logo, kernel, system, modem, baseband and recovery for the XT1096 - the full image files are available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! I don't know how I missed that! Back in business now.

nrsmsn said:
also have the same issue, black screen after reboot. moto voice, active display/notifications are responsive, camera too when twisting the phone. moto voice says "unlock your phone to continue" but i currently don't have any screen locks or anything, just swipe. i have a pure edition running on 5.1. Skeptical about a reset since the phone is still responsive.. tried looking for other fixes, but looks like this issue is just coming up today...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the exact same problem. Any fix?
Edit: Can't get adb to recognize phone. Phone is rooted.

kunal_07 said:
I have the exact same problem. Any fix?
Edit: Can't get adb to recognize phone. Phone is rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried reflashing the system image from the bootloader?

is that possible without adb? If so, can you tell me how?

kunal_07 said:
is that possible without adb? If so, can you tell me how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You still do everything through terminal. You have to cd to your folder that has adb and fastboot enclosed, usually platform-tools. Instead of starting each command with "adb", you'll start with "fastboot" and you'll be flashing these while your phone is at the fastboot screen.
The full image files are in the forums, and all the commands you'll need, in order, are posted in this thread earlier

I have found that some time the fastboot from Moto wouldn't recognize the phone. I, then, use the mfastboot-v2 found somewhere around this forum works great.

Me too faced this problem few days back. Only option left to do was factory reset.
Read below just to go through of what i faced:
( I had gone through bunch of articles for restoring my data but i had a pin lock because of which while connecting to pc it couldnt detect phone.
Other things i tried includes flashing lockscreen bypass zip via stock recovery. There i faced signature verification failed error because i had done it through stock recovery where it doent let u toggle signature verification on/off as in CWM. )
And for those who wants their data back , i found many articles of data recovery after factory reset. But it needed your device to be rooted. All you have to do is after factory reset dont make use of phone and after rooting you can recover your phone by software as EASEUS android recovey, Dr fone android recovery. Thats all .

I am too facing this issue as of last night,, I have the verizon version (complete stock, no root, locked bootloader) and I am not sure how to go about fixing this without losing all my data.. I tried wiping cache but it did nothing.. Can anyone provide some kind of troubleshoot guide please? It would be much appreciated.

A friend of mine is also having the same issue.
I tried the 5.0 image and it won't flash.
I'm locked and without root. Is it even possible to flash even the factory images? (And yes, I've tried to go to the Customer Portal for the Moto X and that isn't giving me anything)
Edit: Finally got it to flash the stock image. Didn't help. Factory reset fixed things.

Note: I had this problem and was able to fix it through a factory reset, but I had to do it through minimal adb and fastboot. The bootloader factory reset option didn't work.

I am having the exact same issue. Has anybody had a luck resolving it short of a factory reset?
My phone battery died last night. I plugged my phone in, let it get about 15% charge, then tried to turn it back on. The phone boots like normal, but after the boot animation goes away, the screen is black. Active notifications still seem to work, and I can hold the power button to get the Power Down option. I can boot into the bootloader & access recovery just fine. However, my phone is fully stock (no root, no bootloader unlock, no anything). I can't seem to access ADB when the phone is powered normally (ie, when I'm at this mysterious black screen), but it's possible that USB debugging isn't even enabled.
So far, I've found a bunch people who've said a full factory reset will fix the problem, but I'm looking for another solution, or at least a way to grab my data before I reset. Since my bootloader's still locked, I can't seem to use fastboot boot to boot into TWRP, and I can't find any other way to access my data to copy it off the phone. I've tried wiping the cache using the stock recovery to no avail. Any suggestions?

NEED HELP - Android gone black

Moto X 2014: unrooted with bootloader unlocked. It's running Stock 5.1 and I haven't messed with anything on it. I gave it to my Dad after a few months of using it, so I factory reset it and gave it to him, 2 weeks later he tells me it has stopped working. It boots up normally, but from then on it is black, I can access minor parts of the OS such as the power off menu, the camera (by shaking) and Moto Display, but everything else doesn't work. I have never seen anything like this before, and I am well accustomed to flashing custom ROMs and rooting Android. If it comes down to it I will factory reset it or flash stock, but I can't even plug it into my PC and retrieve any files. Anyone have any idea whats gone wrong?
I have attached a video demonstrating what's happened to help diagnose the problem.

thomaswilloughby said:
Moto X 2014: unrooted with bootloader unlocked. It's running Stock 5.1 and I haven't messed with anything on it. I gave it to my Dad after a few months of using it, so I factory reset it and gave it to him, 2 weeks later he tells me it has stopped working. It boots up normally, but from then on it is black, I can access minor parts of the OS such as the power off menu, the camera (by shaking) and Moto Display, but everything else doesn't work. I have never seen anything like this before, and I am well accustomed to flashing custom ROMs and rooting Android. If it comes down to it I will factory reset it or flash stock, but I can't even plug it into my PC and retrieve any files. Anyone have any idea whats gone wrong?
I have attached a video demonstrating what's happened to help diagnose the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you search the forum here for "black screen" it has happened to other people as well on stock 5.1. Supposedly the fix is a factory reset.
Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk

AGISCI said:
If you search the forum here for "black screen" it has happened to other people as well on stock 5.1. Supposedly the fix is a factory reset.
Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, It was just really surprising thats all. I will factory reset then. Thanks

I am having the exact same issue. Have you had a luck resolving it short of a factory reset?
My phone battery died last night. I plugged my phone in, let it get about 15% charge, then tried to turn it back on. The phone boots like normal, but after the boot animation goes away, the screen is black. Active notifications still seem to work, and I can hold the power button to get the Power Down option. I can boot into the bootloader & access recovery just fine. However, my phone is fully stock (no root, no bootloader unlock, no anything). I can't seem to access ADB when the phone is powered normally (ie, when I'm at this mysterious black screen), but it's possible that USB debugging isn't even enabled.
So far, I've found a few people who've said a full factory reset will fix the problem, but I'm looking for another solution, or at least a way to grab my data before I reset. Since my bootloader's still locked, I can't seem to use fastboot boot to boot into TWRP, and I can't find any other way to access my data to copy it off the phone. I've tried wiping the cache using the stock recovery to no avail. Any suggestions?

bjg222 said:
I am having the exact same issue. Have you had a luck resolving it short of a factory reset?
My phone battery died last night. I plugged my phone in, let it get about 15% charge, then tried to turn it back on. The phone boots like normal, but after the boot animation goes away, the screen is black. Active notifications still seem to work, and I can hold the power button to get the Power Down option. I can boot into the bootloader & access recovery just fine. However, my phone is fully stock (no root, no bootloader unlock, no anything). I can't seem to access ADB when the phone is powered normally (ie, when I'm at this mysterious black screen), but it's possible that USB debugging isn't even enabled.
So far, I've found a few people who've said a full factory reset will fix the problem, but I'm looking for another solution, or at least a way to grab my data before I reset. Since my bootloader's still locked, I can't seem to use fastboot boot to boot into TWRP, and I can't find any other way to access my data to copy it off the phone. I've tried wiping the cache using the stock recovery to no avail. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I couldn't retreive any data from the phone, I can confirm however that a factory reset does fix the issue. The Android automatic backup does work in the broken state so I did manage to restore my settings and apps. But the internal sd card was wiped upon factory reseting. Just an idea of the top of my head: Try running adb backup and see if that works, and then unlocking the bootloader, flashing twrp, restoring the backup, and finally transfering the internal sd card data to a mounted drive using twrp. Thats just a stab in the dark and i dont have the phone on me to test it. Give it a try and lets hope Motorola will fix this bug soon.

Ok, thanks. I did try adb backup, but adb won't recognize the device when it's "booted" & sitting at the blank screen, and the stock recovery doesn't give full adb access. I'm currently looking into the various data recovery options to maybe pull some stuff off after reseting. It's really only a few files that I need, so maybe that will work?

bjg222 said:
Ok, thanks. I did try adb backup, but adb won't recognize the device when it's "booted" & sitting at the blank screen, and the stock recovery doesn't give full adb access. I'm currently looking into the various data recovery options to maybe pull some stuff off after reseting. It's really only a few files that I need, so maybe that will work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately the internal SD card mounts using MTP and not like a flash drive, so using the usual methods through Windows to recover wont work. However you could try and restore your internal sd card using this solution: http://goo.gl/OKdV14
As for accessing adb through recovery, you could try this method: http://goo.gl/5T7bhq
Hopefully one of these methods should work, so you can at least recover some of your files.

I had the same problem today. I tried to backup a twrp backup I have made few weeks ago but I still had the black screen. The only solution is to factory reset...
Happily I could have saved my data when I was on TWRP. Anyone knows how to restore sms from the data I have saved ?

[Asus Zenfone Go ZC500TG] Hard bricked or?..

Hello XDA,
I'm not sure if this is the right spot to ask about this, lemme know if it is.
Right, time to get to the problem I'm facing.
I've got an Asus ZC500TG in this year's August, rooted it the same month, and everything was working fine until last night.
After doing a basic procedure of using TWRP 2.8.7.0 to flash Infinix Hot 2 AOSP port(was working for me many times), the device decided to just boot into recovery even though i pick 'boot to system'.
The bad news don't stop there either. When I plug my phone with USB while it's powered off, instead of going into the ROM part that shows the battery symbol and charges... it goes back into recovery instead?
Also, doing the keystroke(holding power+volume up), instead of going into bootloader mode(the thing that lets you pick between recovery, fastboot and normal boot), it also boots to recovery instead.
If i boot to fastboot through TWRP, it boots into fastboot fine, but that's pretty much it. Fastboot and recovery modes is the only thing I can access.
Even though I was with the rooting community ever since I've had my first smartphone in 2012, I've never experienced such an issue where the only thing bootable is either Recovery or Fastboot using the said recovery.
Here's what I've tried so far:
-Wiping cache/dalvik cache/system/data;
-flashing a known working stock ROM;
-Trying to sideload it using TWRP's ADB sideload, seemed to check out and came back to same issue;
-Trying to flash/sideload custom ROMs I know should function properly, same issue occured;
-Flashing stock recovery back and attempt to flash stock ROM, also failed;
-tried to wipe /system, /data, /cache and /dalvik-cache using fastboot, then flashing ROM using recovery, also failed;
-looking up anything that's related to it, mostly fraud websites and/or Russian websites suggesting to do what I did already.
Has anyone ever encountered this, and is there a possible fix to this?
Thanks in advance to all your answers.
-MrRubikon

Help me zenfone go zc500tg zoovd my phone is wrong root then total dead can not live

antho111 said:
Help me zenfone go zc500tg zoovd my phone is wrong root then total dead can not live
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have some problem,,
,,somebody can give solution pleace,,!?

What New Hell Is This? Boot loop, will not even completely power off.

I thought I had finally reached nirvana with this device thanks to the help of so many here. I had TWRP, root, defeated encryption, and a nicely running Android. I was even able to make TWRP backups of /data and /boot (to be precise, at one point - not sure when it was but I think after initial Android setup - I was able to make a much more complete TWRP backup with many partitions never shown again but that disappeared at some point).
So I went on with my transition from my old Note3 phone to this device. I spent all day yesterday moving TiBackups of user apps, copying across data, making more limited TWRP backups (of data and boot the only options - except if I mounted system_root, which allowed me to include /system but that did not actually work either), polishing settings, and thinking I had it made! Throughout all of this I had no problems or signs of problems other than some apps not working on the new device and having to be replaced with alternatives which I completely expected.
At cocktail hour I decided to do a reboot to see the "finished product" of all this effort. When I did, the device tried to boot into Android: I saw the thinq logo but no boot animation, just the thinq logo for a very long time - followed by a screen blank and bootloop. I was able to enter TWRP and things looked "normal" from there. I kept trying to boot into system with no progress. I tried wiping /data, I tried restoring the backups I had made. Nothing changed - still bootlooping.
From within TWRP I can use adb shell to look around. I can see familiar stuff from my installed apps in /data/data and /data/app - including from one of the very last apps I installed (from Play not via TiBackup). I know this was not in any TWRP backup I had taken or restored. So this makes me think that my attempts to restore /data from backups or even wiping /data from TWRP have had no effect despite no errors showing. I wanted to see what was in /system so I mounted system and now in adb shell I can see familiar stuff in there too - including busybox installed into xbin. I can also mount vendor and in /vendor/etc I can see the fstab.judypn with encryptable for /data.
One thing I do NOT see is the result of one of the last things I did/tested. I installed Termux, installed the dropbear package, and copied the resulting dbclient binary to /data/local. After doing this I actually invoked /data/local/dbclient with success. Now, I do not see anything in /data/data/com.termux/files/usr related to dropbear nor do I see the dbclient in /data/local.
When I tried to power off from TWRP, the device never fully turned off. The animation showing the power level remained showing all the time but it was just a circle with lightening bolt but no actual power level showing. Removing power cable made no difference. Finally, I left the device in TWRP and powered on. At least I could blank the screen and prevent the battery from running dry.
All of this is with slot A current as reported by TWRP. I cannot seem to enter fastboot mode (I was previously able to do this from a power off condition by holding volume up and inserting USB). Of course, I am not able to achieve a real powered-off condition. Thankfully, I am still able to enter engineering mode and see the device in QFIL. But I have not tried anything here as of now. I can switch to slot b and get into download mode by holding power up and inserting USB. All attempts to use other TWRP boot options (save recovery and "power off") just put me into bootloop again.
I am stumped as to what is happening, how to "fix" this, or what to do.
Thanks for any suggestions.

Same thing happened to me. Yesterday.
I was going through my system programs, and nuked several of the extra Google Play items (Movies, Music, etc.). Same thing. Boot to V40 ThinkQ screen. Sat there for a while. Then reboot.
Nothing I did brought the old girl back to life. So I started over with kdz and redid everything again. Pain in the ass, but it's working again. Interestingly enough, loading the full kdz didn't relock the bootloader. I used both Refurbish and Partition DL on two separate attempts. Bootloader stayed unlocked throughout, and is still unlocked.
Had a devil of a time getting system to mount. Tried over and over again to get Magisk installed.
What finally worked was rebooting into recovery after pushing the .magisk file, and only then installing Magisk.
[NG]Owner

NGOwner said:
Same thing happened to me. Yesterday.
I was going through my system programs, and nuked several of the extra Google Play items (Movies, Music, etc.). Same thing. Boot to V40 ThinkQ screen. Sat there for a while. Then reboot.
Nothing I did brought the old girl back to life. So I started over with kdz and redid everything again. Pain in the ass, but it's working again. Interestingly enough, loading the full kdz didn't relock the bootloader. I used both Refurbish and Partition DL on two separate attempts. Bootloader stayed unlocked throughout, and is still unlocked.
Had a devil of a time getting system to mount. Tried over and over again to get Magisk installed.
What finally worked was rebooting into recovery after pushing the .magisk file, and only then installing Magisk.
[NG]Owner
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, they say misery loves company and I do feel a bit better just knowing I am not alone here.
Since I could enter download mode, I too decided to try re-flashing the .kdz using LGUP's partition dl and specifically NOT checking boot_a, laf_a or boot_b as described here <https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=82206107&postcount=115>. I was not fast enough to get into TWRP on the automatic reboot and saw that I was brought to a bootable system and an Android start page with the boot loader still locked and TWRP still there.
So did the partition dl again and managed to catch TWRP. I mounted vendor but when I tried to push the fstab I got something I have not seen before "remote could not create file: Read-only file system" and 0 files pushed. To be sure, I used adb shell and cat'ed /vendor/etc/fstab.judypn and it contains force encrypt. So I know things are not quite right.
Trying again from the partition dl. And this time I managed the push. I think I missed re-doing the ramdisk and rebooting into recovery. I made sure to do that this time and now I can proceed. I seem to have managed to get back to a bootable Android with TWRP, Magisk, and defeated encryption once again.
So I wonder if I should try to restore anything from a backup or just redo all of yesterday's efforts (like the movie Groundhog Day)?
Can I ask which device and firmware you are using? Thanks

I would not use any backups aside from the backups in your google account. Redo all of yesterday's efforts (except the one thing that caused the reboot loop ... whatever that was!).
You said your bootloader was relocked after LGUP? Or did you mistype there?
Odd. Mine wasn't, not once. Despite multiple LGUP loads.
I've got a crossflashed Sprint LM-V405UA to US specs 20E.
And yes, misery does love company!
[NG]Owner

NGOwner said:
I would not use any backups aside from the backups in your google account. Redo all of yesterday's efforts (except the one thing that caused the reboot loop ... whatever that was!).
You said your bootloader was relocked after LGUP? Or did you mistype there?
Odd. Mine wasn't, not once. Despite multiple LGUP loads.
I've got a crossflashed Sprint LM-V405UA to US specs 20E.
And yes, misery does love company!
[NG]Owner
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you are correct - I mistyped. My bootloader has remained unlocked (this time I got it right)
Nor sure it matters any, but mine if a 405QA with 20E.
I have read some recently (while searching for this bootloop problem) that LG seems to have long had a problem with bootloops on their devices. Not sure I saw anything specifically about the V40 though. Seems that in the past they were "fixed" with software updates. I do not expect any updates beyond 20E and wonder if 20a (which I think I had earlier) would be any different/better.
I have had great luck with Nandroid and TWRP backups in the past. They have really saved me (most often from myself but also from apps/mods gone wild). Indeed, I used TWRP restore yesterday with the previous night's auto-made backup on my Note 3. It seems that in doing something - maybe the TiBackup of all user apps/data - the phone got messed up and even reboots would not fix it. The TWRP restore certainly did!
I am new to the whole Magisk "systemless" root as I have always used SuperSu before. As I understand it (which is limited for sure) the idea here is to NOT modify system in any way. But I also note that this does not seem to preclude me from modifying things in system using my file manager, for example. And I did some of this sort of thing. If you are nuking pre-installed apps, that would be changing system as well, no? I wonder if that is the activity that caused this?
I am a bit hesitant to re-live yesterday. At least not until I have some idea of what I did that caused this. Not sure what I will do.
Thanks for all the help.
PS - given that I had TWRP backup (of at least /data) and how often I rely upon these in everyday life, I decided to at least try restoring and see what happened. Hard to imagine ending up worse that I was earlier this morning. I did the restore and rebooted to system. I was shocked, quite frankly, to see the system come right up and have many of my previously installed apps visible and working. I did find that I had to re-enable the modules in EdXposed (even though they showed as enabled already) since they were not working) and that brought them back to life.
So I guess I can move forward from here being careful, taking TWRP backups even more often, and rebooting more often to see what, if anything, kills this again.

NGOwner said:
Same thing happened to me. Yesterday.
I was going through my system programs, and nuked several of the extra Google Play items (Movies, Music, etc.). Same thing. Boot to V40 ThinkQ screen. Sat there for a while. Then reboot.
Nothing I did brought the old girl back to life. So I started over with kdz and redid everything again. Pain in the ass, but it's working again. Interestingly enough, loading the full kdz didn't relock the bootloader. I used both Refurbish and Partition DL on two separate attempts. Bootloader stayed unlocked throughout, and is still unlocked.
Had a devil of a time getting system to mount. Tried over and over again to get Magisk installed.
What finally worked was rebooting into recovery after pushing the .magisk file, and only then installing Magisk.
[NG]Owner
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, this happened to me once again. I saw no reason why it should not do so. So I have been re-introducing apps from my TiBackup slowly and in under a strict protocol in an effort to (a) limit the damage done to my work and (b) try to isolate the culprit(s). I decided, since I found that I could restore TWRP backups of /data after re-doing the most of the TWRP install and defeat encryption process, that I would install apps slowly and execute them and in small groups. After each group I would do a reboot to see if that worked. If that worked, I would go into TWRP, run a backup, and name the backup of /data with something to id the app group that was added and seemed fine.
I started working backwards by the first letter of the app name. I first did U-Z and found that worked fine. Took a backup and went on to S-T. After this group it was bootloop time! So I put humpty-dumpty back together, restored the /data backup from U-Z, and this time installed only those apps starting with T. After this a no-problem reboot and a backup of /data and I will continue to plod on with those apps starting with S (and so on).
Horribly tedious. I can see no other way to proceed unless someone has a better idea.
PS - So I re-installed apps starting with S and basically had no problems. Hmmm. But I do recall that when testing execution of some of these apps the first time around, I decided to install busybox (Stericson), AdAway, and Afwall+ out of sequence. Before I did this I decided to check a bit more. I found that there is a Magisk busybox module and even though I have always used Stericson without troubles, I thought it best to use the Magisk module for this. I also found that Magisk has a setting for systemless hosts which could be affected by AdAway. So I enabled that before doing anything with AdAway. I also checked to see if AfWall+ might have any issues and found none. So I guess it is possible that using Stericson busybox or failing to use systemless hosts could have been an issue. I may never know for sure but at least so far I am fine after installing apps that I previously installed and had a bootloop. So FYI.

Alright, I'm a total idiot. I went and did this again, following the mantra: If it aint broke, you're not trying hard enough.
Setting all that aside, I went and tried to do some more debloating of my v40 (used this guide, that I was linked to from here), and wound up in "this fresh hell" again. Dammit! Crap.
So apparently there is a system application that is crucial to the boot of the phone that I uninstalled.
There is a fix to this, but it comes at a cost. Get into TWRP. Navigate to advanced, select Fix Recovery Reboot. Your phone will boot normally now. But you will lose root. And (so far) any attempt to reinstall Magisk to re-obtain root will result in the same bootloop again.
So here's where I need some help:
1) So if I wanted to reinstall my system partition to get back to stock from a KDZ, but still keep my installed apps, etc., how do I do that?
2) How do I get my Slot B to work correctly? It has only bootlooped there. Since I got my phone. Once I get my phone back to operational state with root, how do I make sure that Slot B works (so I have a backup I can fall back on if (when) I bork something else?
[NG]Owner