So here's the story. Over a year ago I rooted my wife's phone with fireflash and the stock rooted oc4 rom. Well my wife got tired of the update popup so I decided to put it back to stock. I made a mistake I removed root thinking it would allow me to update to the latest att ota. Not the case after rebooting the phone wouldn't get past the att logo.
After this I tried wiping the cache then factory wiping the phone with the same results.
Then I tried flashing the oc4 partitions and kernel. Still no bueno.
I then tried downgrade to nce. Really no bueno. I got it to try and boot again by flashing the partitions and kernel above.
Now I'm looking for advice on how I can fix this sooner rather than later to prevent suffering the wrath of my wife.
Thanks in advance
Did removing root cause the issue, or trying to (taking the) OTA? It makes a difference which bootloader you have. And what does your bootloader read at the top (vol down+menu+power buttons at the same time, then volume key to continue)?
I believe the bootloader was of1 not oc4. As I rooted and installed oc4 through munizre's tutorial. More importantly I was able to unbrick the wife's phone by loading the full stock 5.1.1 update some gent had posted on this forum.
jdfellows said:
I believe the bootloader was of1 not oc4. As I rooted and installed oc4 through munizre's tutorial. More importantly I was able to unbrick the wife's phone by loading the full stock 5.1.1 update some gent had posted on this forum.
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Click to collapse
See my post here buddy. It may just save your life/phone (and prevent wrath as it did in my case).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=68297868&postcount=42
Related
hi everyone, im a newbie and im having a little trouble understanding and fixing my phone.
so ill start at the beginning, i bought a note 3 from at&t N900A and then moved out of the US (after contract expired and i sim unlocked with the code they gave me.)
I could not connect to at&t servers from outside US to OTA update. (i dont remember if i was mj5 or mi9)
So i learned about rooting while trying to update and decided to use kingo root app and got root access
then i installed safestrap 3.71 for a custom recovery, then i backed up my stock rom and made a new rom slot. Then i resorted my stock rom to rom slot 1.
this is my mistake: i flashed the knoxraid rom from here
http://galaxynote3root.com/att-galaxy-note-3-roms/knoxraid-kitkat-rom-for-att-galaxy-note-3/
however i forgot to do the data/factory wipe. To make matters worse i realized this and pulled the battery out after about 20 seconds (the download bar was about 10% complete)
when i put the battery back in the phone went straight to recovery (recovery and download mode were the only ones working)
i started panicking as this was my first time rooting/installing roms and tried to find a solution
i found one and used this:
http://www.droidviews.com/how-to-unbrick-att-galaxy-note-3-sm-n900a/
i flashed all the files correctly and odin got to about 95% and the said FAIL
i panicked again when i turned my phone on and it went to an error screen saying firmware upgrade incountered an issue etc.
before i harm my device further i would like to know what to do (i can still get to download mode)
odin mode say it is A2 so i belive that is mj5
i want to know: should i reflash stock mj5, and if so please provide link
should i do this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48243768&postcount=1
should i use the N900AUCUBMI9_OneClickBin.exe
or should i flash nc2 files found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-3-att/general/n900aucucnc2-odin-files-t2838117
will the nc2 kitkat brick my device? keep in mind it is running A2 which im sure is mj5
Thank you everyone in advance
NC2 won't brick your device, but it'll upgrade your bootloader to A3 which will prevent you from ever downgrading back to MJ5 (not that you'd want to anyway). I'd just go with NC2 since it's rootable with TowelRoot anyway. Also, in your case I'd recommend using the 4-file method rather than the 1-file method since it's an upgrade from 4.3 rather than just a restore to stock 4.4.2.
Sent from my AT&T Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk®
andygev35 said:
NC2 won't brick your device, but it'll upgrade your bootloader to A3 which will prevent you from ever downgrading back to MJ5 (not that you'd want to anyway). I'd just go with NC2 since it's rootable with TowelRoot anyway. Also, in your case I'd recommend using the 4-file method rather than the 1-file method since it's an upgrade from 4.3 rather than just a restore to stock 4.4.2.
Sent from my AT&T Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk®
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Click to collapse
thank you
infinitephase said:
thank you
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Click to collapse
You might want to consider adding the Pit file too to repartition your phone just in case anything got messed up in the failed odin flash that would definitely clean everything up. It might be overkill but I don't think it would hurt to do since you're doing a factory reset with the 4-file install anyway
Hey guys so recently I had rooted my i537 S4 active and have been researching and modifying here and there until i decided to get a custom ROM. I found WickedROM via this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2491762 and considering it had worked on this person's i537 I decided to flash the ROM. After flashing I had become stuck in a bootloop and I can't get to anything besides DOWNLOAD MODE. Due to this problem I decided to run a stock firmware via Odin with this one_click http://rootzwiki.com/topic/44121-sgh...axy-s4-active/ ... this filled up until the bar was about 90% and then all of a sudden fails at <ID:0/003> system.img.ext4. I've tried other firmwares with no luck and have resorted to posting about this problem. please help and guide me in the right direction, my phone's been bricked for 3 days now. Trying to boot into recovery gives me the "there's been a problem with your firmware update, please run in Kies recovery" and Kies doesn't recognize my phone.
nickeon1 said:
After flashing I had become stuck in a bootloop and I can't get to anything besides DOWNLOAD MODE.
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Click to collapse
You forgot to flash the masterpatch which makes roms designed for the AT&T S4 (not active) work for our phone. If I understand correctly it needs to be flashed immediately after the rom is installed (i.e. still in SafeStrap, before you attempt to boot up).
nickeon1 said:
Due to this problem I decided to run a stock firmware via Odin with this one_click http://rootzwiki.com/topic/44121-sgh...axy-s4-active/ ... this filled up until the bar was about 90% and then all of a sudden fails at <ID:0/003> system.img.ext4 and Kies doesn't recognize my phone.
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Click to collapse
That link is for MF1, an outdated firmware. Here is a collection of stock i537 firmwares. I can personally confirm the NH3 file is usable since I used it to upgrade to the most recent firmware without losing root.
This thread will provide you instructions on how to use Odin to flash any stock firmware. I can only add I recommend using Odin v3.07, as I've used it with the most success and fewest issues. Also use NH3 firmware or at the very least NE3, because anything else is outdated, assuming you were on stock KitKat originally, and you will encounter similar issues if trying to downgrade to jellybean.
Also flashing with Odin deletes all your saved files/user info etc. on your phone. From the sound of it, fixing your phone is going to involve inevitably wiping it one way or the other, so I hope you have a backup saved somewhere other than your phone's internal memory.
nickeon1 said:
Hey guys so recently I had rooted my i537 S4 active and have been researching and modifying here and there until i decided to get a custom ROM. I found WickedROM via this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2491762 and considering it had worked on this person's i537 I decided to flash the ROM. After flashing I had become stuck in a bootloop and I can't get to anything besides DOWNLOAD MODE. Due to this problem I decided to run a stock firmware via Odin with this one_click http://rootzwiki.com/topic/44121-sgh...axy-s4-active/ ... this filled up until the bar was about 90% and then all of a sudden fails at <ID:0/003> system.img.ext4. I've tried other firmwares with no luck and have resorted to posting about this problem. please help and guide me in the right direction, my phone's been bricked for 3 days now. Trying to boot into recovery gives me the "there's been a problem with your firmware update, please run in Kies recovery" and Kies doesn't recognize my phone.
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Click to collapse
When you flash back to stock, you can only flash a version that is equal to or greater than the version you were already on. So if you were originally on 4.4.2 you can only flash a 4.4.2 stock ROM, any other ROM will fail to flash.
thisisapoorusernamechoice said:
You forgot to flash the masterpatch which makes roms designed for the AT&T S4 (not active) work for our phone. If I understand correctly it needs to be flashed immediately after the rom is installed (i.e. still in SafeStrap, before you attempt to boot up).
That link is for MF1, an outdated firmware. Here is a collection of stock i537 firmwares. I can personally confirm the NH3 file is usable since I used it to upgrade to the most recent firmware without losing root.
This thread will provide you instructions on how to use Odin to flash any stock firmware. I can only add I recommend using Odin v3.07, as I've used it with the most success and fewest issues. Also use NH3 firmware or at the very least NE3, because anything else is outdated, assuming you were on stock KitKat originally, and you will encounter similar issues if trying to downgrade to jellybean.
Also flashing with Odin deletes all your saved files/user info etc. on your phone. From the sound of it, fixing your phone is going to involve inevitably wiping it one way or the other, so I hope you have a backup saved somewhere other than your phone's internal memory.
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Click to collapse
Thanks very much for this! I flashed an NE3 firmware and was able to get my phone in working condition. So if I wanted to flash a rom on my phone I would have to masterpatch AFTER the rom flash via Safestrap?
nickeon1 said:
Thanks very much for this! I flashed an NE3 firmware and was able to get my phone in working condition. So if I wanted to flash a rom on my phone I would have to masterpatch AFTER the rom flash via Safestrap?
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Click to collapse
Yes, but make sure the phone doesn't reboot in between flashing the ROM and flashing the Masterpatch.
Recently I tried to update my rooted phone using the safestrap method http://forum.xda-developers.com/att-galaxy-s5/general/how-to-root-g900aucu2aoa1-4-4-4-2-3-2015-t3021120 however I didn't read all the instructions and ended up having to reflash back to stock http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2714455 and got the black screen. I tried reflashing stock multiple times and nothing.
fast forward with some help From OPOfreak I got my phone working again.
Ok now for the new problem.
I originally got the phone to work after flashing G900A_OA1_Stock_Kernel
The phone only seems to work if I flash this file. None others. Not even the NCE firmware.
Also I keep getting a notification stating "Unauthorized actions have been detected. Restart your phone to undo any unauthorized changes." I've restarted a couple times but doesn't seem to do anything.
also I noticed in my about device: the baseband version is NCE, The build number is also NCE, but the SE for Android status shows enforcing 4.4.4.
I've been searching around and it doesn't seem like anyone else has had this problem. Any help would be much appreciated.
Ndvorak said:
Recently I tried to update my rooted phone using the safestrap method http://forum.xda-developers.com/att...to-root-g900aucu2aoa1-4-4-4-2-3-2015-t3021120 however I didn't read all the instructions and ended up having to reflash back to stock http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2714455 and got the black screen. I tried reflashing stock multiple times and nothing.
fast forward with some help From OPOfreak I got my phone working again.
Ok now for the new problem.
I originally got the phone to work after flashing G900A_OA1_Stock_Kernel
The phone only seems to work if I flash this file. None others. Not even the NCE firmware.
Also I keep getting a notification stating "Unauthorized actions have been detected. Restart your phone to undo any unauthorized changes." I've restarted a couple times but doesn't seem to do anything.
also I noticed in my about device: the baseband version is NCE, The build number is also NCE, but the SE for Android status shows enforcing 4.4.4.
I've been searching around and it doesn't seem like anyone else has had this problem. Any help would be much appreciated.
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I'd just Odin back to NCE make sure you don't flash bootloader. Then just start over with the NG3 to OA1 update thread that's how I took the 4.4.4 update
OPOfreak said:
I'd just Odin back to NCE make sure you don't flash bootloader. Then just start over with the NG3 to OA1 update thread that's how I took the 4.4.4 update
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I tried multiple times. But every time I tried I got a black screen at start up. I tried flashing them all at once, I tried flashing them all separately, I even tried flashing with the BL just to see. Every time I got the black screen.
On a whim I tried flashing just the NG3 modem to see what would happen. It seemed to work. Phone acted really weird, I had Baseband verison NG3, Build Number NCE, But I got the Android status back to 4.4.2.
after all that I was finally able to flash back to NCE, then took that OTA for NG3.
Thank you for all your help.
My phone is completely stock again. Haven't rerooted or anything. Should I go ahead and try http://forum.xda-developers.com/att-galaxy-s5/general/how-to-root-g900aucu2aoa1-4-4-4-2-3-2015-t3021120 to get 4.4.4 ? or will it OTA again to it?
Ndvorak said:
I tried multiple times. But every time I tried I got a black screen at start up. I tried flashing them all at once, I tried flashing them all separately, I even tried flashing with the BL just to see. Every time I got the black screen.
On a whim I tried flashing just the NG3 modem to see what would happen. It seemed to work. Phone acted really weird, I had Baseband verison NG3, Build Number NCE, But I got the Android status back to 4.4.2.
after all that I was finally able to flash back to NCE, then took that OTA for NG3.
Thank you for all your help.
My phone is completely stock again. Haven't rerooted or anything. Should I go ahead and try http://forum.xda-developers.com/att...to-root-g900aucu2aoa1-4-4-4-2-3-2015-t3021120 to get 4.4.4 ? or will it OTA again to it?
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Click to collapse
I used the the thread myself then I didn't have enough to worry about update failure
OPOfreak said:
I used the the thread myself then I didn't have enough to worry about update failure
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Click to collapse
awesome. Thank you. I'll make sure to do it correctly this time.
(RESOLVED)
Alright so in order to not bore you all, ill get to the point. I messed up trying to do impossible things with my I537 because I didn't read any forums before trying... stupid I know. That being said I now have a "soft bricked" phone stuck in download mode. I have been looking around (I assume not hard enough) for the right file to flash with ODIN to get me back up and running so I can actually do my research this time before playing with different stock roms.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to get the right files to unbrick this thing?
First things first: this forum is for the SGH-I537 AT&T Galaxy S4 Active, not the I527 Galaxy Mega. I just want to make sure you have the right device. If you have the Mega (I527), you want this forum, and ignore the rest of this post.
If you do in fact have the Galaxy S4 Active (I537), then check out this thread, it has all the official firmware files that have been released for this device. I would recommend using the firmware files for NE3 (KitKat) to flash in Odin. The NE3 build is the easiest to root, and you can always use the keep-root method to upgrade to lollipop if you so desire.
Oh yes sorry that was a mistype. I did indeed mean to type I537. Ok Ill give this a shot and update on how it goes.
Ok so Im currently downloading the Full Odin package, but I have already rooted the phone with towelroot. Is that going to be an issue?
Nah it won't be a problem. Flashing firmware files with Odin will unroot your phone (it resets everything to original factory settings). You can always reroot with towel root again
Ok new problem though, I was able to get everything flashed through ODIN, it restarts; then I get the Samsung boot screen, att boot screen and then it just goes black. I put it back into download mode and tried to re-flash it a couple times but it keeps doing the same thing. Thoughts? This Is the section I got the file from;
I537UCUCNE3 (4.4.2) Released 2014-06-06 - OFFICIAL
Issue has been solved, I just had a battery issue but after changing that and letting the phone charge up it started up great. Thanks for all your help "thisisapoorusernamechoice"
I have gone back and forth between 5.1.1, 5.0.1, and 4.4.4 roms by using odin to flash the COG2, COD6, or ANK4 firmware first, then using odin to flash autoroot and TWRP. Then use TWRP to flash the desired rom. I have no problem going from lollipop to kitkat and back. I have used the COG2 firmware for all the 5.1.1 roms, like Texxodus, Resurrection, Slim, CM12, etc. I have used COD6 for 5.0.1 like Alliance, I have used ANK4 for Firekat. I have never had a problem reverting between any of them.
Why is DOK2 different? Does it trip some kind of hardware switch, like knox? If I was on it and used odin to flash, say, the kitkat firmware, what happens? Does odin no longer work when you're on DOK? Does it crash? Does the flash appear to work but it stays on DOK? Does it flash the firmware but bootloop? Does it brick the phone? I always thought that odin flashed firmware to the lowest level so that as long as you could connect the phone to a PC and had a good firmware load, you could restore it.
I am sorry to belabor this, but nothing I have read has explained this. All you get is that once you are on DOK2, you can't go back, but no one seems to know why and no one appears to have tried using Odin to flash a previous firmware and can answer the questions in the previous paragraph.
phoneturf said:
I have gone back and forth between 5.1.1, 5.0.1, and 4.4.4 roms by using odin to flash the COG2, COD6, or ANK4 firmware first, then using odin to flash autoroot and TWRP. Then use TWRP to flash the desired rom. I have no problem going from lollipop to kitkat and back. I have used the COG2 firmware for all the 5.1.1 roms, like Texxodus, Resurrection, Slim, CM12, etc. I have used COD6 for 5.0.1 like Alliance, I have used ANK4 for Firekat. I have never had a problem reverting between any of them.
Why is DOK2 different? Does it trip some kind of hardware switch, like knox? If I was on it and used odin to flash, say, the kitkat firmware, what happens? Does odin no longer work when you're on DOK? Does it crash? Does the flash appear to work but it stays on DOK? Does it flash the firmware but bootloop? Does it brick the phone? I always thought that odin flashed firmware to the lowest level so that as long as you could connect the phone to a PC and had a good firmware load, you could restore it.
I am sorry to belabor this, but nothing I have read has explained this. All you get is that once you are on DOK2, you can't go back, but no one seems to know why and no one appears to have tried using Odin to flash a previous firmware and can answer the questions in the previous paragraph.
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Click to collapse
Try it and report back. The bootloader can never be downgraded once it has been updated but I have heard of people odining back to kitkat from 5.1.1 and them getting it to work. Not sure how it was done but they did it.
DeeXii said:
Try it and report back. The bootloader can never be downgraded once it has been updated but I have heard of people odining back to kitkat from 5.1.1 and them getting it to work. Not sure how it was done but they did it.
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Click to collapse
You say the bootloader can never be downgraded once it has been updated. Okay, that's what everyone says. But is it true? No one seems to know. And if it is true, why? I find this very odd that no one knows.
My current favorite rom is Alliance since for me it has the best battery life and the least lag of the roms I have tried, so I don't want to take a chance that I can no longer run it if I flash DOK2 and don't like it.
phoneturf said:
You say the bootloader can never be downgraded once it has been updated. Okay, that's what everyone says. But is it true? No one seems to know. And if it is true, why? I find this very odd that no one knows.
My current favorite rom is Alliance since for me it has the best battery life and the least lag of the roms I have tried, so I don't want to take a chance that I can no longer run it if I flash DOK2 and don't like it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go here for your answers
http://forum.xda-developers.com/not...-solution-to-emmcread-write-problems-t3281179
My understanding is that it's part of a new "security policy", I believe implemented by Tmo. My source of this info isn't related directly to my Note 4, but last month I Jumped my tablet to a new Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 that came loaded with 5.1.1. The day after picking it up I got a notification for a firmware update, still 5.1.1 (small size), screenshot of the "release notes" attached below. I didn't take the update and froze updates in TiBu. There's not a whole lot of development for that device yet and I think that I would have lost root if I had taken it.
I'm all for "security", but disabling users' ability to downgrade firmware hardly seems like much of a contribution to that end. IMO this is a disappointing development, and has much greater potential to affect "power users" vs. "regular users" as I doubt that a regular user downgrading the firmware on their device to their determent is something that even happens... ever.
jazzmachine said:
My understanding is that it's part of a new "security policy", I believe implemented by Tmo. My source of this info isn't related directly to my Note 4, but last month I Jumped my tablet to a new Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 that came loaded with 5.1.1. The day after picking it up I got a notification for a firmware update, still 5.1.1 (small size), screenshot of the "release notes" attached below. I didn't take the update and froze updates in TiBu. There's not a whole lot of development for that device yet and I think that I would have lost root if I had taken it.
I'm all for "security", but disabling users' ability to downgrade firmware hardly seems like much of a contribution to that end. IMO this is a disappointing development, and has much greater potential to affect "power users" vs. "regular users" as I doubt that a regular user downgrading the firmware on their device to their determent is something that even happens... ever.
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Click to collapse
Canadian note 4 dont seem to have the security lock on them since i rolled back to 5.0.1 bootloader but yes it wont let u roll back to any other 5.1.1 bootloader
U can try to download canadian BOE2 firmware and flash that since tmobile nd canada r pretty mch the same
This can be very dangerous so be cautious
phoneturf said:
I have gone back and forth between 5.1.1, 5.0.1, and 4.4.4 roms by using odin to flash the COG2, COD6, or ANK4 firmware first, then using odin to flash autoroot and TWRP. Then use TWRP to flash the desired rom. I have no problem going from lollipop to kitkat and back. I have used the COG2 firmware for all the 5.1.1 roms, like Texxodus, Resurrection, Slim, CM12, etc. I have used COD6 for 5.0.1 like Alliance, I have used ANK4 for Firekat. I have never had a problem reverting between any of them.
Why is DOK2 different? Does it trip some kind of hardware switch, like knox? If I was on it and used odin to flash, say, the kitkat firmware, what happens? Does odin no longer work when you're on DOK? Does it crash? Does the flash appear to work but it stays on DOK? Does it flash the firmware but bootloop? Does it brick the phone? I always thought that odin flashed firmware to the lowest level so that as long as you could connect the phone to a PC and had a good firmware load, you could restore it.
I am sorry to belabor this, but nothing I have read has explained this. All you get is that once you are on DOK2, you can't go back, but no one seems to know why and no one appears to have tried using Odin to flash a previous firmware and can answer the questions in the previous paragraph.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been try a lot of time for use odin to flash cog2 or cod6 from dok2. And it allway fail in odin. And you will receive a notice in the download mode screen like that o"Odin fai, binary =2>1". So you can't flash succesfull in odin.
And evething can't change. I have read 5.1.1 plicy and it also said that we can't downgrade from t mobile phone.lol
Perhaps development can recompile bootloader without tmo security and use Canadian firm to patch.
I just upgrade from COG2 to DOK2. Is there any difference? Which is better?
I have the N910T.
Dok2 has been reported to have improved performance and battery life than cog2 but cannot be downgraded.
Bruce lee roy said:
Dok2 has been reported to have improved performance and battery life than cog2 but cannot be downgraded.
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Click to collapse
I see. My cook ROM say use DOK2. I didnt know about the downgrade. I guess its ok and thanks for the info.