Rooting Note 8 without wiping - Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers

I've read a couple of threads about this matter and it seems that I have to wipe the phone anyways because of installing TWRP?
I want to root only for one reason, to recover very important camera videos I accidentally deleted. And I only know one way to recover them and it requires rooting.
So If rooting requires full data wipe, will I still be able to recover my videos?
maybe If I backed up everything on the phone this will increase the chance, or once I do the full data wipe there will be no way to get the videos back.
Thanks.

I think you have misunderstood a few things.
TWRP is a custom recovery. When you flash TWRP, you change the layout of a small dedicated "room" in your device, which has nothing to do with your data, which sits in a different room.
You wont be able to flash TWRP without having OEM Unlock available.
The moment you have it available, and you flash TWRP, you need to boot directly to TWRP after the flash, meaning, the system cannot start as it will sense the change, and flash a package here that deletes a few files that will take the phones ability to sense the changes.
After that, you flash the Magisk package, which gives you root, and preferably, wipe "cache rooms", which none of this affect your data and pictures you want to save.

PlutoDelic said:
I think you have misunderstood a few things.
TWRP is a custom recovery. When you flash TWRP, you change the layout of a small dedicated "room" in your device, which has nothing to do with your data, which sits in a different room.
You wont be able to flash TWRP without having OEM Unlock available.
The moment you have it available, and you flash TWRP, you need to boot directly to TWRP after the flash, meaning, the system cannot start as it will sense the change, and flash a package here that deletes a few files that will take the phones ability to sense the changes.
After that, you flash the Magisk package, which gives you root, and preferably, wipe "cache rooms", which none of this affect your data and pictures you want to save.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you sure about that ?
i have note 8 and i'm thinking to root it using magsik and twrp , but i'm afraid it wipes my internal data?

Any guide I have seen indicates that the mere unlocking of the bootloader requires a wipe.

Related

[Q] 5.1 ZIP decrypt, no wipe

Is it possible that there will be no wipe update 5.1 ZIP with no encryption? Works like OTA.
I'd like to update from 5.0.1 (no force encryption) to 5.1 without loosing my data. The best for me is zip for TWRP
Well if backup everything in twrp to an external flash drive then it shouldn't be an issue. I know people have side loaded the OTA via ADB but it hasn't been working for everyone. You obviously can't take a normal OTA if you are rooted so you could try that. Alternatively I would download Parcel if you have root and backup all of your apps and data for each one that you don't want to lose then transfer it to an external drive so you don't lose it when flashing the updated images. From here you can install 5.1 and then simply restore all of your missing apps and data using Parcel. It works really well and much better than TiBu for restoring data in apps. I use both TiBu and Parcel for different things. The above is only if you can't find any alternative ways to get it loaded in TWRP
There's a stock based ROM in dev forum. Flash that followed immediately (without booting) a kernel with no force encryption such as elementalx and you'll be good.
Or just fastboot flash a system image followed by immediately boot into recovery, flash kernel and SuperSU
rootSU said:
Or just fastboot flash a system image followed by immediately boot into recovery, flash kernel and SuperSU
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So what if we wanted to, coming from encrypted, decrypt without a wipe?
drinfernoo said:
So what if we wanted to, coming from encrypted, decrypt without a wipe?
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Click to collapse
nope. your internal storage meeds to be reformatted. save on a computer anything you would need.

N Dev Preview, TWRP Persistence

Has anyone noticed how TWRP doesn't persist with the latest N dev preview?
I'm not talking about systemless install, either.
I verified that TWRP renames "recovery-from-boot.p" to "recovery-from-boot.bak" before first boot, but on next boot into recovery, it's back to stock.
I even manually renamed "/system/bin/install-recovery.sh" to "system/bin/install-recovery.bak", and "/system/etc/recovery-resource.dat" to "/system/etc/recovery-resource.bak".
Then I deleted all three files; TWRP still gets overwritten with stock recovery.
AFAIK these are all the files associated with creating stock recovery from the boot image, so not sure what else to try.
As it stands, the only way to use TWRP is to fastboot it from pc every time you want to use it.
Btw, I know I can just use a custom rom instead, so please don't provide that as a "solution" lol.
*Edit*
It seems that after deleting these three files and then reflashing TWRP solves the problem.
SuperSU still disappears after a data wipe, but with persistent TWRP, at least it can be reflashed without pc...
Q9Nap said:
Has anyone noticed how TWRP doesn't persist with the latest N dev preview?
I'm not talking about systemless install, either.
I verified that TWRP renames "recovery-from-boot.p" to "recovery-from-boot.bak" before first boot, but on next boot into recovery, it's back to stock.
I even manually renamed "/system/bin/install-recovery.sh" to "system/bin/install-recovery.bak", and "/system/etc/recovery-resource.dat" to "/system/etc/recovery-resource.bak".
Then I deleted all three files; TWRP still gets overwritten with stock recovery.
AFAIK these are all the files associated with creating stock recovery from the boot image, so not sure what else to try.
As it stands, the only way to use TWRP is to fastboot it from pc every time you want to use it.
Btw, I know I can just use a custom rom instead, so please don't provide that as a "solution" lol.
*Edit*
It seems that after deleting these three files and then reflashing TWRP solves the problem.
SuperSU still disappears after a data wipe, but with persistent TWRP, at least it can be reflashed without pc...
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Click to collapse
supersu will always disappear after a data wipe, unless you set it as a system app. and flashing twrp, then deleting that one file upon boot will fix twrp being deleted. and its been that way for years.
simms22 said:
supersu will always disappear after a data wipe, unless you set it as a system app. and flashing twrp, then deleting that one file upon boot will fix twrp being deleted. and its been that way for years.
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Click to collapse
I flash the supersu zip package with twrp rather than downloading from the play store, so supersu is a system app automatically and hasn't historically been erased during a data wipe.
I understand what you're saying though.
The approach you described would be necessary coming from an unrooted device with a stock recovery and no access to a pc, assuming the bootloader was already unlocked.

Stuck on TWRP after attempted restore

Hi guys.
So after developing an audio bug on Lineage OS 15.1 (a story for another day) I decided to restore one of my old backups via TWRP (unofficial decrypt-friendly version).
I press restore, get some sort of error about mounting /system and then on reboot I get a message asking me to factory reset which takes me to TWRP. Not too surprised by this point because the Huawei bootloader is quirky.
However, when I go into TWRP, it simply gets stuck on the loading screen endlessly. I left it for several hours and it didn't budge. Rebooted several times.
I tried reflashing TWRP via fastboot, no dice, same result. I flashed the official recovery too. That loads fine, but obviously I can't restore with that because it doesn't support encryption.
So I'm a bit stuck here. I've read somewhere that it takes ages to load when you have plenty in the data and cache folders, which I do, but I really don't want to wipe because I have a full week of precious holiday photos and videos I wasn't able to back up (No access to a PC at the time).
Any advice?
Not sure how to fix the TWRP restore problem, but have you tried connecting to your PC while in TWRP? If I remember correctly, it'll allow you to connect to a computer so you could access your storage and backup the files you need.
frost_icewind said:
Not sure how to fix the TWRP restore problem, but have you tried connecting to your PC while in TWRP? If I remember correctly, it'll allow you to connect to a computer so you could access your storage and backup the files you need.
Click to expand...
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Problem is that everything is encrypted, so even if it does show up it will be gobbledygook (nonsense).
Lesson to learn from this: always backup before trying to update ROM or flash something new.
I guess what you can do is to try to flash Lineage again and see if you can make that boot.
mrabcx said:
Lesson to learn from this: always backup before trying to update ROM or flash something new.
I guess what you can do is to try to flash Lineage again and see if you can make that boot.
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Yeah, there's a few reasons that happened. Usually I autobackup everything but I had been away from wifi for a week. I backed stuff up via Titanium but obviously that got encrypted too. Restores also have never given me problems in the past so I didn't expect anything to go wrong (still not sure what did).
Anyway, I'm not sure how to flash lineage without TWRP, especially with everything encrypted. To have any chance of getting it to work I'm guessing I'd need to flash it the same way I did originally, which was with everything decrypted which makes the issue moot. Maybe I'm wrong though.
Try flashing a treble rom via fastboot. Then wipe data and cache.
fastboot flash system "GSI. img"
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase cache
fastboot reboot
side_flip15 said:
Try flashing a treble rom via fastboot. Then wipe data and cache.
fastboot flash system "GSI. img"
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase cache
fastboot reboot
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Thanks, but I'm trying to prevent loss of data. I'd probably just use e-recovery if I don't mind losing data and want to reset to start again from scratch.
Erasing userdata and cache is just factory reset. It won't wipe your internal storage which where your photos are kept.
Ok, turns out once I chose the "download latest firmware and stock recovery" from erecovery it didn't wipe the internal sd data!
Everything is still there and I can access it now from the huawei stock ROM even though I came from lineage OS. It thankfully does not reset the encryption keys or the pattern lock, so you'll be just fine once you do a system boot and go through the regular setup process.
I recommend this approach because it's pretty hassle free.
Armand Bernard said:
Ok, turns out once I chose the "download latest firmware and stock recovery" from erecovery it didn't wipe the internal sd data!
Everything is still there and I can access it now from the huawei stock ROM even though I came from lineage OS. It thankfully does not reset the encryption keys or the pattern lock, so you'll be just fine once you do a system boot and go through the regular setup process.
I recommend this approach because it's pretty hassle free.
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Glad you found a way to keep your files, mate

Microphone only work on Camera, not in apps or calls

Hi! I have a problem with my phone that the mic only work when I record videos but not oin audios in whatsapp or calls. Someone know a solution? I have tried factory reset and changing the room but nothing work.
Thanks
This has been a theme on some devices for years, with no reported solution. I still have my N6 and have never had any problems so I can't speak from experience. If you are willing to try something, I would try using a Full OTA and see if it helps.
If you have TWRP, you can just treat the OTA zip as a ROM and use the install feature. In this case, TWRP will be replaced with the stock recovery. If you first do a backup in TWRP of only the recovery partition, then go straight to wipe data, cache and davlik (clean install), then install the OTA, don't reboot yet, install the recovery backup you just made and finally, go back to the main menu -> reboot and reboot recovery. Once back in recovery (it should be TWRP), you can reboot to system and see if things have improved.
There is some risk that you will loose TWRP in this process so be prepared to use [TOOL]Minimal ADB and Fastboot [2-9-18] to restore TWRP if needed. If you use v1.3 - v1.4 that is the same era as this device.
IMHO, it would be best to ensure you can communicate between your phone and PC before starting any of this. It would make me sad if you loss TWRP and couldn't restore it.
ktmom said:
This has been a theme on some devices for years, with no reported solution. I still have my N6 and have never had any problems so I can't speak from experience. If you are willing to try something, I would try using a Full OTA and see if it helps.
If you have TWRP, you can just treat the OTA zip as a ROM and use the install feature. In this case, TWRP will be replaced with the stock recovery. If you first do a backup in TWRP of only the recovery partition, then go straight to wipe data, cache and davlik (clean install), then install the OTA, don't reboot yet, install the recovery backup you just made and finally, go back to the main menu -> reboot and reboot recovery. Once back in recovery (it should be TWRP), you can reboot to system and see if things have improved.
There is some risk that you will loose TWRP in this process so be prepared to use [TOOL]Minimal ADB and Fastboot [2-9-18] to restore TWRP if needed. If you use v1.3 - v1.4 that is the same era as this device.
IMHO, it would be best to ensure you can communicate between your phone and PC before starting any of this. It would make me sad if you loss TWRP and couldn't restore it.
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Click to collapse
Thank you, but that does not work. I have found that the Mic works on Havoc rom on the camera, but no in stock, in stock it sounds like noise background. I think that if I could understand wich is the "name" of the mics in the mixer_patch, I could change them in each setting and put them as default. But I do not how to read mixer patch.xml
I attached the mixer patch file of Havoc, can someone figure out wich is the name uses in the camera app to record? And how can i put it as default for apps like whatsapp or call phone?
Thank u

I got stuck in a 'recovery bootloop' and I'm desperately trying to rescue my data

Since I never had a problem with an update in years, and I'm also a very stupid person, I didn't backup my data before my latest custom rom (Pixel Experience Plus) update.
I got the notification for the November security patch updates, and I downloaded the zip as usual. For the actual installation I usually reboot my Mi 9T Pro into TWRP, flash both the OS update and Magisk, etc. and reboot. Everything seemed to go smoothly as usual: TWRP asked me to input my unlock sequence, then the usual stuff. Problem is, when I tapped 'Reboot system', it didn't reboot normally: it went into Recovery mode again, and from that moment on there's been no way to do otherwise. But now TWRP doesn't ask me the unlock sequence anymore and looks like there's no way to access the data. I tried injecting the recovery from fastboot, I wiped everything except internal storage (I don't give a damn about the OS anymore at this point); I also tried to reinstall the same old rom from OTG after wiping System, but nothing. Whatever I do, it always boots up in Recovery, and it doesn't ask me the unlock sequence. I know my stuff is still there, it's just that the contents of sdcard aren't accessible and look like random alphanumeric sequences from the TWRP file manager. And yes, that's the whole point of encryption, but I was used to TWRP asking me to unlock/decrypt so in the worst case scenario I would be able to access my data and copy via OTG. But now, with the system unable to boot and the recovery not decrypting my stuff, I'm starting to losing hope. I'm sure here on XDA there are much smarter / knowledgeable people than me, and I hope somebody can help me find a way to break the cycle and return in possession of the data that I stupidly didn't backup.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Try reflashing the boot image. Failing that, you should be able to ADB sideload the update via TWRP.
V0latyle said:
Try reflashing the boot image. Failing that, you should be able to ADB sideload the update via TWRP.
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I think I tried both. I say 'I think' since my knowledge could fail here.
I tried re-flashing the TWRP img from OTG, nothing changed.
I successfully sideloaded the OS through ADB, but I'm still stuck.
Should I try both? (In which order)?
Thanks a lot.

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