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Hi. Just a few hours ago while I was on my way home, I was browsing some news feeds with my SGS and I noticed some lag so I thought of restarting it, but to my surprise.. it was not booting anymore and it was stucked displaying the "S" screen then after a while it will go black although the buttons are still lighting up but there is no response or any activity in the screen and the only way to turn it off is to pull out the battery.
Upon getting home, I browsed the internet to find similar cases with most of the suggestions on how to "fix" this was to bring it back to Samsung Service Center and I'm not ready yet to do that so I dug in deeper to research. I just want to share the steps I have done to UNBRICK my almost Semi-bricked SGS.
First of all, my SGS doesn't have access to the 3 button mode recovery (Volume up + Power + Home) thus basically leaving me helpless because I cant reformat my phone from there and worst, in this case, my phone wont even boot up.
Secondly, it was fortunate that i had my phone rooted prior this.
Now, the process:
You should atleast have:
* KIES installed
* Android SDK
* USB Cable
First thing I did was:
* Connect my phone to the USB cable
* Turn phone on
* Wait for KIES to detect it and for windows to install necessary USB drivers (my phone was detected by KIES even if it was hanging in the "S" screen)
* When everything is done, go to COMMAND prompt in windows
* Locate where you initially placed the ANDROID SDK then Tools folder by typing it, example: (C:\Android-sdk\tools)
* when you are already in the right folder type in ADB REBOOT RECOVERY
* Check your SGS and it should be rebooting to the RECOVERY MODE wherein you will now be able to select format options
* move your selection by pressing up and down volume keys
* confirm your selection by pressing home key
* then reboot again and presto.. your phone should be up and running again
Anyway, if you cannot access the recovery mode by using the 3 button process, it could probably because your operator intentionally locked this feature out. There is a fix I found from XDA that works search for : 3 button mode fix
Hope this helps and drop me a message if you have queries.
By the way, i'm trying to restore my apps again so ciao for now.
-Charles
you forgot to mention something
You must have USB Debugging mode set to enabled before hand, before all of that happened, else if you simply plug the USB cable to the PC with the 3 button disabled, there is no way for it to accept the ADB Reboot Recovery command
The next best thing is as many have commented before
It's to use a hair drier to heatup the phone to get access to the 3 button recovery, for those that got stuck before installing the 3 button recovery fix
also forgot to mention that this has been asked, posted, discussed many many times already. i am glad, however, that you got your phone to work
but he has it listed in a very nice an easy to read format, compared to the other ones we have seen previously
my phone did that a lil while back but i have an early ship date phone there fore i have the hard ware recovery option but this is late coming how is it that every one always says to use odin to recover a bricked phone yet i guess im totally noobish but what good is a back up recovery tool if you cant mount storage
reycharlesconrad said:
Hi. Just a few hours ago while I was on my way home, I was browsing some news feeds with my SGS and I noticed some lag so I thought of restarting it, but to my surprise.. it was not booting anymore and it was stucked displaying the "S" screen then after a while it will go black although the buttons are still lighting up but there is no response or any activity in the screen and the only way to turn it off is to pull out the battery.
Upon getting home, I browsed the internet to find similar cases with most of the suggestions on how to "fix" this was to bring it back to Samsung Service Center and I'm not ready yet to do that so I dug in deeper to research. I just want to share the steps I have done to UNBRICK my almost Semi-bricked SGS.
First of all, my SGS doesn't have access to the 3 button mode recovery (Volume up + Power + Home) thus basically leaving me helpless because I cant reformat my phone from there and worst, in this case, my phone wont even boot up.
Secondly, it was fortu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the exact thing that happened to me
but I don't have USB debugging enabled
so how can I use ADB recovery ?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7193770&postcount=8
somebody also help me
hey guys, im seriously in need of help.
my samsung galaxy s is disabled 3 button recovery mode. so i cannot go to recovery or download mode.
now my mobile cannot boot. i can only see samsung galaxy s and after sometime it blink but not booting. and i cannot use adb as i cannot go to desktop of my mobile.
please help me someone
nashaib said:
hey guys, im seriously in need of help.
my samsung galaxy s is disabled 3 button recovery mode. so i cannot go to recovery or download mode.
now my mobile cannot boot. i can only see samsung galaxy s and after sometime it blink but not booting. and i cannot use adb as i cannot go to desktop of my mobile.
please help me someone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont worry and use the searcher, you will find a easy and quick solution.
Build a JIG : Look at the wiki its a reference thread.
oh man, last few night, i could not sleep. i'm tired to search on google for all the nights.
nashaib said:
oh man, last few night, i could not sleep. i'm tired to search on google for all the nights.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look the one that I made working:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoDUB1L9UIo
and the thread to see how to build it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=819551
PD: It's just a phone, sleep is more important.
Help please
Hello guys
I was trying to unlock my vibrant(i was messing with my nv_data.bin) and then all of a sudden it rebooted and i couldnt connect to my service. It keeps going on off on off. My data doesn't work too.
Any thoughts on how to fix this?
THANKS (
Just restore the backup you made of nv_data.bin. You did back it up before you messed with it didn't you?!
Thanks vincler.....
you solved my problem. i made the jig after 2 months but i did it.
i combined the resistors with no solders and just touch the pins with my hands and i got download modes.
thanka again.
i must see how u did this witout soldering
nashaib said:
Thanks vincler.....
you solved my problem. i made the jig after 2 months but i did it.
i combined the resistors with no solders and just touch the pins with my hands and i got download modes.
thanka again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i must see how u did this without soldering
It worked to recover my I9000 that was stuck in the "S" startup screen!
Thanks for sharing the idea; I didn't even thought that adb would work if the phone was stucked there (I thought it wouldn't finish loading it)
oh man mine wont even boot PLEASE HELP!!!!
Hey everyone, First time poster here and it seems my captivate is bricked. I'm fairly new to android but I caught on with ROM/kernel/etc.. flashing and all seemed to be going well. I saw the new 3.5 update for precision and wanted to update from 3.0. I did my usual thing and restored to stock with ODIN instead of flashing over. Rooted all over again, downloaded ROM manager and flashed clockwork recovery. I selected the ROM when I was in CWrecovery and rebooted.. but for some reason the phone never gets past the boot screen. The ATT logo shows up, then the suckerpunch logo (as suckerpunch is included in the precision ROM) and then the precision logo.. but it just keeps starting over from there. I thought I did a clean flash but something went wrong obviously.
Ive tried the three button combo and anything that has been stated before on here about the three button combo timing and whatever. So it seems that I cant get in recovery or download by using the traditional methods.
I'm guessing my phone is soft-bricked, which should be relatively easy to fix, but I can't get into any mode at all. Ive seen plenty of threads with people having boot loop issues but they seem to have been solved my some combination of buttons used or the ODIN usb download mode technique. Ive seen mention of using adb commands to get into download mode, but I think I have to have usb debugging enabled which I can't enable, clearly.
Any help would be appreciated, especially since in the meantime I'll have to use my old 903sh.
CCDillon said:
Hey everyone, First time poster here and it seems my captivate is bricked. I'm fairly new to android but I caught on with ROM/kernel/etc.. flashing and all seemed to be going well. I saw the new 3.5 update for precision and wanted to update from 3.0. I did my usual thing and restored to stock with ODIN instead of flashing over. Rooted all over again, downloaded ROM manager and flashed clockwork recovery. I selected the ROM when I was in CWrecovery and rebooted.. but for some reason the phone never gets past the boot screen. The ATT logo shows up, then the suckerpunch logo (as suckerpunch is included in the precision ROM) and then the precision logo.. but it just keeps starting over from there. I thought I did a clean flash but something went wrong obviously.
Ive tried the three button combo and anything that has been stated before on here about the three button combo timing and whatever. So it seems that I cant get in recovery or download by using the traditional methods.
I'm guessing my phone is soft-bricked, which should be relatively easy to fix, but I can't get into any mode at all. Ive seen plenty of threads with people having boot loop issues but they seem to have been solved my some combination of buttons used or the ODIN usb download mode technique. Ive seen mention of using adb commands to get into download mode, but I think I have to have usb debugging enabled which I can't enable, clearly.
Any help would be appreciated, especially since in the meantime I'll have to use my old 903sh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you describe exactly which three button methods have you performed? The one that always seems to work to get to download mode is hold both volume up and down and plug in USB cable to the computer and you should be able to get into download mode (of course after taking out the battery, shutting off your phone first). You should have ODIN open before this, then after that just press start on ODIN.
I believe people with captivates who have problems with 3 button combos have batch 1008. Please tell if you can't use the method above then we can check your batch.
koreancanuck said:
Can you describe exactly which three button methods have you performed? The one that always seems to work to get to download mode is hold both volume up and down and plug in USB cable to the computer and you should be able to get into download mode (of course after taking out the battery, shutting off your phone first). You should have ODIN open before this, then after that just press start on ODIN.
I believe people with captivates who have problems with 3 button combos have batch 1008. Please tell if you can't use the method above then we can check your batch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate the fast response.
Ive tried the above method and it didn't work. Ive also tried plenty of others like holding the power button with the two volume buttons (to try recovery) Ive also held the buttons down for certain amounts of time to see if my timing is just off, and pretty much a few other generic three button combos that are performed when this sort of thing happens. Instead of getting into download mode, it of course just shows the battery charging.
If the phone is plugged in while it is doing its rebooting cycle then ODIN actually detects it, but I still wouldn't be able to do anything I'm sure.
Ive read through many posts about this but I just cant find anything to work at all, maybe buying a jig would be the final solution. :/
EDIT: If it helps, before flashing my captivate for the very first time a month back, i was told to check to see if I could enter into download mode and recovery safely, which I could and this was on stock rom. Ive been able to get into download/recovery with other ROMs as well, idk what's up now though
CCDillon said:
I appreciate the fast response.
Ive tried the above method and it didn't work. Ive also tried plenty of others like holding the power button with the two volume buttons (to try recovery) Ive also held the buttons down for certain amounts of time to see if my timing is just off, and pretty much a few other generic three button combos that are performed when this sort of thing happens. Instead of getting into download mode, it of course just shows the battery charging.
If the phone is plugged in while it is doing its rebooting cycle then ODIN actually detects it, but I still wouldn't be able to do anything I'm sure.
Ive read through many posts about this but I just cant find anything to work at all, maybe buying a jig would be the final solution. :/
EDIT: If it helps, before flashing my captivate for the very first time a month back, i was told to check to see if I could enter into download mode and recovery safely, which I could and this was on stock rom. Ive been able to get into download/recovery with other ROMs as well, idk what's up now though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you could get into download before, I don't know why you wouldn't be able to do it now. The fact that you can see the battery charging icon indicates that you should easily be able to get into download mode. Can you double check your methods and if neither work, you could always go for JIG.
you may need to buy this to get into download mode:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...69977&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_623wt_1139
just to clearify and add one more thing to try...
you are experiencing a boot-loop not brick..
ive heard of boot loop problems sometimes getting into download mode by:
remove battery
plug in usb
hold volume buttons
put in battery
(slight change on usual method)
EDIT: you may also want to try the AIO captivate toolbox in the Dev section, it can try to put your phone into download mode
I had this happen before. I did what Tresselo said and it worked.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
plug in your usb cable. let the phone reboot and see if the comp recognizes the phone at any point during your boot loop. if it does - your in luck, sort of... I had this problem as well with the same ROM. idk if its the ROM or just me screwing up (probably me screwing up) anyhow, type this command into a command prompt (must have the android sdk and adb installed) get into the tools folder where ever that may be at for me its C:\android\tools
from this dir type this: adb reboot download - do this as soon as the comp recognizes your phone - should work.... IF the comp is seeing the phone. If its not you WILL need a JIG which can be made fairly easy.
Try adb if you haven't already. Instructions are in the stickies in the Dev section.
Sent from my Captivate using XDA App
Thanks for all the replies guys, got a good community here. Sadly no suggestions have worked at all.
jgc121 said:
plug in your usb cable. let the phone reboot and see if the comp recognizes the phone at any point during your boot loop. if it does - your in luck, sort of... I had this problem as well with the same ROM. idk if its the ROM or just me screwing up (probably me screwing up) anyhow, type this command into a command prompt (must have the android sdk and adb installed) get into the tools folder where ever that may be at for me its C:\android\tools
from this dir type this: adb reboot download - do this as soon as the comp recognizes your phone - should work.... IF the comp is seeing the phone. If its not you WILL need a JIG which can be made fairly easy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded the android SDK and installed all the necessary components, as soon as I hit the right directory (for me C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools>adb reboot download) and I get "error: device not found". So adb seems to be running right and I may just have to get my timing right, but as of trying a good ten times I'm not having any luck.
When booting up my cap while plugged into the computer, the noise that signals a usb connection sounds and when going into device manager and looking at usb connections, its says samsung android device. Seems like I could get into download, but I guess I'll just keep trying to time it exactly right even though Ive hit the command near the connection noise every time.
I'm not losing hope, but I went ahead and ordered the jig off of ebay that mengbo posted, I'm really hoping that the jig could solve my problem for good. From your perspective guys, would the jig DEFINITELY work? Or is it just a kinda one shot, hope for the best thing?
The JIG is a pretty sure thing seeing as how you are just in a boot loop.
CCDillon, Im in the same boat as you. Same thing happened to me. I have tried a jig and it did not work for me. Hopefully it works for you. I have tried ADB also and it could not find the device. I really hope there is something out there that can help us.
aw man, that's not good at all.. hope you can find a way. Did you make a jig and were you using the same ROM?
Hopefully its just mine and the jig works for you. I didnt mean to scare you. I made a jig at first, and it kept booting the phone. Thought I didnt make it correctly so I got one off of ebay, thinking it had to work. That one did the same thing. Thought maybe it was a faulty jig and the guy I got it from ('mengbo' on this forum) sent me another one to see if that was it. The new jig he sent (that worked on his phone) did the same thing. So, something else is going on.
I was going from Phoenix 4.5 to Supernova ROM and it gave me the same error you got. Now it Boots the ATT screen then loops the Phoenix ROM logo over and over. 1 vibrate followed by 2 more
I'm hoping the JIG works for mine, otherwise I'm not sure what to do. I admit it does scare me a bit to see that you've tried all these different things with no result. I was scanning the precision thread and it seems one of the avid users/posters got caught in a boot loop and it looks like they have gotten out of it, I sent a PM so maybe I can see what that user did, though part of me is thinking that the three button method worked for him but for some reason not for me. This is very frustrating and I'll keep an update on everything, the JIG should be here in about 3 days or so.
Also, you think it may have something to do with how many times our phones have been flashed? Ive looked up to see if flashing is bad for the phones "health" but it seems flashing won't really hurt anything, nor have I really flashed too much. Btw, my phone acts the same you described as well, with the random vibrating and everything.
My mind just seems to be jumping to any random possibility, it just sucks not having a working phone.
Hope SOMETHING works for you
Seriously - you guys are all worked up over a boot loop. the JIG will put you into dl mode just fine... only time it has high chance of NOT working is if you only see black screen - no power up at all.... you can make a JIG by getting 3 - 100k ohm resistors and a 1k ohm resistor from radio shack for about $1.25... its simple.
I removed my 3 button combo accidentally by flashing att 1 click, theres an att 1 click with 3 button fix, flash that when you can get into download mode.
If you can connect with adb use it to go to download, if not, you need a jig... it works, I have been down your path!
jgc121 said:
Seriously - you guys are all worked up over a boot loop. the JIG will put you into dl mode just fine... only time it has high chance of NOT working is if you only see black screen - no power up at all.... you can make a JIG by getting 3 - 100k ohm resistors and a 1k ohm resistor from radio shack for about $1.25... its simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. Learn how to make the JIG you need HERE...
Or buy one from me HERE... < Shameless plug.
I was in the same situation as you guys after i had a bad flash and the loop on the bootanimation. I bought a jig online and it worked. The trick is to take out your microsd, and simcard and leave out the battery for 15 seconds. Then put back ONLY the battery in, and plug in the jig. It should turn back on and be put into download mode then flash with one click odin.
odin one click WITH 3 button fix....... saftey first.
Hi there!
I'm wondering if you guys can help me brainstorm, or at least get to the root of the problem. Alright, so to preface... I'm using an ATT Galaxy S Captivate [i897]
I was updating my version of MIUI from the miui.us version 2.3 to version 4.0 [ICS.] This worked fine, and I had backed up my data with TitaniumBackup. However, I made a mistake: I chose one of the backup all options, where it backed up all my system data and app data. Little did I know, restoring the system data would completely own my phone. So I did a restore, rebooted, and my Captivate sits at the boot animation indefinitely. It won't get past it.
Somewhere along the line, my download mode and recovery mode 3-button combo got borked. They no longer work [trust me, I've tried every one.] When I try to enter recovery by pressing and holding a number of volume and power button combinations, it goes straight to the boot animation after the AT&T screen. When I try to enter download mode by pressing and holding volume/power, battery in, cable in, and every other possible combination [including switching the cable to different ports on my computer,] I simply get a "stuck" circular loading icon which flickers every few seconds. When I let go, it shows me a grey battery icon with that stuck loading circle overlaid.
So, moving on, I decided to disassemble my phone and try to reset it by shorting the TP contact in the back against the SD card slot. I wish I could find the thread; it's supposed to reset the device. It definitely causes my captivate to reboot [while it was stuck in the boot animation] but it didn't fix the problem. So I decided to make my own jig.
I built it out of three 100k ohm resistors, was super careful not to contact the metal parts of them while I plugged it into my phone. I tried plugging the micro B cable in first, then touching the resistor leads to pins 4 and 5 on the back end of the USB jig, but to no avail. I tried slightly different resistances, but no go. I tried connecting every pin to every other pin just for the hell of it, and no luck there either.
I don't have a soldering gun, so J-tagging is not an option [before I just buy a new phone, anyway,] and I'd rather not buy a USB jig because I'm not convinced it'll work. I know there are a lot of factors, and everyone says to try it 400 times, but I tried it more than I have patience for already. There's got to be something else wrong.
I'm wondering if TitaniumBackup has the capability to mess up the boot loader? If I accidentally overwrote system files with older ones, why would that cause it to get stuck in a bootloop? And where did my download mode go?
If anyone has any ideas, please let me know! I've done a massive amount of research on this. And I found some pretty brilliant ideas along the way, but none of them seemed to work for me. I'm to the point where I literally can't find any more references to problems similar to mine, so I figured I'd ask you guys!
TL;DR: I think by [accidentally] restoring system files with TitaniumBackup from MIUI 2.3 to 4.0, I may have completely owned the boot loader. Can this happen? And is there any fix? I can't get into download or recovery with button combination, jigs, or short-circuiting my phone in fun new ways.
Thanks
The phone by itself is not capable of writing to the bootloader. I am at a loss for why it doesn't work. All I can say is keep trying.
Sent from a jelly bean
korockinout13 said:
The phone by itself is not capable of writing to the bootloader. I am at a loss for why it doesn't work. All I can say is keep trying.
Sent from a jelly bean
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well. It might just be the way you wrote it, but you said "I try to enter download mode by pressing and holding volume/power, battery in, cable in...".
The correct method is exactly this.
1. Pull your battery.
2. Hold down volume button.
3. Insert battery.
4. Plug in USB.
5. You should be in DL mode.
Give it a try even if you think you have done it before....
I've had rooted HTC devices (Hero, EVO 3D) and then rooted Samsung Galaxy S3, Note 8.0 tablet and Note 4 which was my last device before this one. So this is my first unrooted device basically since I rooted my first Android device and I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I looked at my Note8 last night to find it in SAFE MODE. This phone has not been activated because I've been using the free WiFi hotspot on my rooted Note 4 to provide internet to my PS4 because the WiFi in the nursing home I'm temporarily in cuts out a lot and I got the Note8 on 9/15 so I'm assuming I'm going to be in trouble with Sprint when I call about now being in default to see if I can fix that before they charge me every penny I'll have for the next 2 years and cut ties with me forever. I've only ever had Sprint. If anyone can give me any tips on what to say when I call about that it would be appreciated. Anyone know how big of a deal it is to be in default like this for a few months? They never told me I was even in default. I figured it out. They haven't been charging me for the lease, not once.
Anyway, this unactivated Note8 has not been updated at all either. I haven't installed anything in the last couple of days prior to safe mode starting, that I recall. Samsung stock apps are constantly updating though. Can anyone point out the stupid thing that I did or didn't do that probably caused this? And can anyone help me? Please? I'm good with this stuff. Usually. lol
Edit: I forgot to say that in an attempt to fix it, I rebooted the phone more than once. I used the thing that shows up in the notifications to get it out of safe mode and I also just held the power button down and tapped reboot when it popped up. No change. I powered it off then left it off for 2 minutes and powered back on with no change. I have had a major issue with the volume rocker since I got the phone. Like it really never moved. I had to get an app to control the volumes and use Tasker to control the profiles in the app. Once in a while, I could get it to work but then it would act as if I was holding it in which I wasn't. Maybe 2 days before it went into safe mode, I pressed down hard on the volume up button and it snapped. Ever since it would make a sound at random times like the volume button was being pressed even though the phone was just sitting and the screen was usually off at the time. After it went into safe mode, I messed with it enough that the sound stopped and I did get the volume rocker to move in each direction though now that it seems to be in a neutral position I don't want to mess with it at all. I tried to reboot to see if it would come out of safe mode after that but there was no change.
Christina
died4u525 said:
I've had rooted HTC devices (Hero, EVO 3D) and then rooted Samsung Galaxy S3, Note 8.0 tablet and Note 4 which was my last device before this one. So this is my first unrooted device basically since I rooted my first Android device and I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I looked at my Note8 last night to find it in SAFE MODE. This phone has not been activated because I've been using the free WiFi hotspot on my rooted Note 4 to provide internet to my PS4 because the WiFi in the nursing home I'm temporarily in cuts out a lot and I got the Note8 on 9/15 so I'm assuming I'm going to be in trouble with Sprint when I call about now being in default to see if I can fix that before they charge me every penny I'll have for the next 2 years and cut ties with me forever. I've only ever had Sprint. If anyone can give me any tips on what to say when I call about that it would be appreciated. Anyone know how big of a deal it is to be in default like this for a few months? They never told me I was even in default. I figured it out. They haven't been charging me for the lease, not once.
Anyway, this unactivated Note8 has not been updated at all either. I haven't installed anything in the last couple of days prior to safe mode starting, that I recall. Samsung stock apps are constantly updating though. Can anyone point out the stupid thing that I did or didn't do that probably caused this? And can anyone help me? Please? I'm good with this stuff. Usually. lol
Edit: I forgot to say that in an attempt to fix it, I rebooted the phone more than once. I used the thing that shows up in the notifications to get it out of safe mode and I also just held the power button down and tapped reboot when it popped up. No change. I powered it off then left it off for 2 minutes and powered back on with no change. I have had a major issue with the volume rocker since I got the phone. Like it really never moved. I had to get an app to control the volumes and use Tasker to control the profiles in the app. Once in a while, I could get it to work but then it would act as if I was holding it in which I wasn't. Maybe 2 days before it went into safe mode, I pressed down hard on the volume up button and it snapped. Ever since it would make a sound at random times like the volume button was being pressed even though the phone was just sitting and the screen was usually off at the time. After it went into safe mode, I messed with it enough that the sound stopped and I did get the volume rocker to move in each direction though now that it seems to be in a neutral position I don't want to mess with it at all. I tried to reboot to see if it would come out of safe mode after that but there was no change.
Christina
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, so let me get this straight. You got the phone through the Sprint Lease Program, but you never activated the phone? Did you get the insurance for the phone?
Easy fix, if you are within the 14 days of owning it, take it back and get a new one. If you have insurance, file a claim.
Other then that you could see if it boots to download mode and try to flash the firmware for it. Everything will be gone but it should fix the issue.
I have a Moto G6 XT1925-5 (64GB version) which doesn't want to start up. It's all totally stock, been updated to Android Pie.
It gets as far as the boot animation, and does that for about 2 minutes, then it boot loops and starts all over again. When it bootloops it gets stuck at the first Moto logo screen (not the animated one) for about 3 minutes before carrying on to the boot animation...
This happened once or twice before, we left it overnight and eventually it started up normally. But it's now been five days and it still hasn't started.
I'm not very experienced with Android hacking/modding, etc but willing to try anything. I managed to get into recovery mode and at the top it says (I presume this indicates the firmware version):
motorola/ali_retail/ali
9/PPSS29.55-37-7-6/16c5a7
Unfortunately USB debugging is not enabled. Is there anything that we can do to recover the data that was on the phone before we wipe it - or is there another method we can try to get it to start up? I saw there's a command adb logcat which looks like it might be useful to diagnose the problem but that also requires USB debugging.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
There is no chance for you to recover your data in this mode.
WoKoschekk said:
There is no chance for you to recover your data in this mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.
There are several other modes available from the bootloader BP Tools, QCOM, etc but I can't work out how any of them are supposed to work.
One question - on the recovery menu, there is an option 'Mount /system'.
I pressed it and it says at the bottom /system mounted, but then there don't seem to be any obvious ways to access anything.
Is there a way to use this to access OS/kernel logs which might give a clue as to what is going wrong?
Thanks again
Step by step...
The first level of the system, which is accessible for you, is called bootloader menu (fastboot menu). From here you can boot into recovery, system, bootloader itself and some other options you mentioned in your post.
None of these options would help you to solve your problem. These are developer's options.
This level is more or less a one way data connection. The main advantage of this menu is to flash single partitions of your device. But there is no way to get a data output of any partition.
In recovery menu you find the options to wipe your data and to mount /system. Mounting /system won't help you, too. This partition doesn't store anything of personal data. It's read only and not writable for anyone. To be honest, nobody knows exactly the meaning of it in this context. Also you won't access any logs from here.
Generally you can't access the system logs. These informations are only buffered data which is cleared with every reboot. The error message of e.g. the kernel log produced by your system when having a bootloop, is only accessible while your device is looping/freezing. The next reboot erases the logs. They aren't stored somewhere on your device. Even for developers it's very tricky to view the log in such cases.
But what would you do if you get the reason for looping? You are not able to access any system partition. You need root user permissions for that. But rooting your phone will erase all data.
Apart from all that your data is encrypted and remains encrypted until you unlock your screen by fingerprint, PIN or password. No chance to get any useful data as a "third person" outside. It would take several years to decrypt it without the matching key for it.
Thanks so much for this detailed explanation, I really appreciate that you took the trouble to answer the questions in detail and explain what the various options are for.
phone5774 said:
Thanks so much for this detailed explanation, I really appreciate that you took the trouble to answer the questions in detail and explain what the various options are for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem!
Maybe you'll find some of your personal data in your Google Drive account...
How the story ended
Thought I'd come back and post in case it's useful for anyone else:-
Due to a religious festival, we left the phone switched off for three days. After the festival ended, we switched it on, and immediately it did the same thing that it had been doing all along (spend a long time on the initial boot screen then a while on the boot animation before boot looping). Bizarrely even though it had been off it did not prompt for the PIN code.
We then held the power button as though to turn it off (but for some reason, throughout the usual power button never actually turn the phone off, it always attempted to restart immediately) and then next time it came on it asked for the PIN and started up normally!
So all in all that was a grand total of 9 days after the problem first happened. Very inconvenient not to be able to use it for 9 days, but it's now working again. We haven't dared to try to restart it since!
Some closing thoughts:
The storage is very full (99%), we wonder if that had something to do with this problem
We have now enabled USB debugging and bootloader unlocking to make recovery easier in future
phone5774 said:
Thought I'd come back and post in case it's useful for anyone else:-
Due to a religious festival, we left the phone switched off for three days. After the festival ended, we switched it on, and immediately it did the same thing that it had been doing all along (spend a long time on the initial boot screen then a while on the boot animation before boot looping). Bizarrely even though it had been off it did not prompt for the PIN code.
We then held the power button as though to turn it off (but for some reason, throughout the usual power button never actually turn the phone off, it always attempted to restart immediately) and then next time it came on it asked for the PIN and started up normally!
So all in all that was a grand total of 9 days after the problem first happened. Very inconvenient not to be able to use it for 9 days, but it's now working again. We haven't dared to try to restart it since!
Some closing thoughts:
The storage is very full (99%), we wonder if that had something to do with this problem
We have now enabled USB debugging and bootloader unlocking to make recovery easier in future
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I read this last post, I immediately think of a sticky power button, because if you keep holding the power button after the phone has booted it will turn off again, and start up again. And it would also explain the weird behavior you just described of not turning off but rebooting straight away. I'd say: see if you are able to clean de button with a very thin needle or a crafts- or surgical knife around the edges, is might just solve your problem...
mcremco said:
When I read this last post, I immediately think of a sticky power button...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that suggestion. Interesting, not something I'd thought of.
For now the phone is working perfectly, provided that have to restart it (i.e. we make sure not to shut it down or let the battery run out) but I'll definitely bear this in mind if the issue happens again.
The power button is working normally to turn the screen on or off meanwhile.
Thanks again for your input which is really appreciated.
First time trying to restart after the above
Since posting the above messages the phone has been kept on all the time and not restarted.
Today for the first time we accidentally let the battery run out and the phone shut itself down.
We nervously plugged it in and tried to switch it back on... and it started properly first time, so perhaps the underlying problem was simply that the storage somehow got too full (in the meanwhile we have transferred many photos and other media to the computer and deleted them off the phone to free up space).
Posting this in case it helps someone else experiencing a similar problem.