One of the biggest banes of having root/magisk is unlocking the bootloader. The warning screen that does indeed slow down booting, also advertises itself to thieves as "You can wipe me clean and use me". Obviously, removing that splash screen won't fix that aforementioned scenario, but it would, (if it can be completely skipped.. The power button won't skip it anymore), speed up booting, and at least not advertise to the world my phone is all for taking.
One thing I'm really hoping for, if the bootloader warning can't be skipped or removed, is at least having the ability to modify (or disable) the hardware buttons being able to enter bootloader, recovery, powering down, or emergency mode. That doesn't seem to be entirely possible, SO , is there a way to fake it while the phone is still on? In example, a "fake" power off icon (while on lockscreen) that will mute all sounds, vibrations, and the screen from ever coming on. Or, being able to fake power off from the powerkey, a few seconds before actual power off. If the power key\ can truly be remapped or disabled (and be made to fake recovery, emergency mode, or fastboot and thus deter the thief, assuming such will be necessary if the power key is interceptable anyway.)
Xposed seems to have the power (but I don't know for sure) to do this, as with magisk, or some kind of kernel.. There would be a bounty if any of this is any possible (Of least $100-300..) It would be worth it for me not to lose my phone to horrible situations; (San Diego.. 20 lost phones from pick pocketing at a party.. The theft was most likely to extract parts from the "inunlockable" phones.
Additional: One would argue just to remove the SIM.. But in theory, couldn't I glue/solder a 2nd sim in the second ("hidden") slot? I have a t-mobile oneplus whose sim tray is only one sim; hardly anyone would think about a second sim being embedded in the phone, especially when they see the sim tray, which would enable me to track my phone continously. Especially before the phone is most likely disassembled, (PreReqs: Remove data icons, airplane mode or data enabling from my quick icons)
Also interested in a fix for this
I don't think there will be a fix for this. It's been the same for a while now on Android.
Not going to happen. It's been this way for 3 years or so. Plus who cares? How often do you reboot your phone for it even matter? I reboot my phone once or twice a week but even if you do it once a day, does it bother you that much that 6 or seconds on the warning matters?
Yep, has been that way for a while... Just cover it with a business card when booting ??
I would like to get rid of this annoying screen as well.
I have never had a phone stolen, lost or broken.
I live in Germany!
Cerberus allows you to do a fake reboot / shutdown. It's a security app that allows you to locate your phone and do all kinds of stuff with it remotely. You can set it so that at the lock screen, if the power button is pressed and they choose to reboot or shut down it will lock the phone and keep the screen off to trick whoever has your phone into thinking it's off and can't be located. You can also install it as a system app (and disguise it), so if your phone gets wiped it will survive and you can still locate it. On my phone it just shows up as a generic looking system app called "system framework" you can also hide it from your app drawer and make it so that the only way to open it is to dial a secret code into your phone dialer and hit call. There already has been an Xposed module that does this too. I used it like 4 or 5 years ago but can't for the life of me remember the name and have no clue if it's still around
Edit: oh yeah, it's called APM+ (advanced power menu)
Is available on edxposed but isn't on magisk manager. It hasn't been updated since 2015. Give it a try, maybe it will still work, who knows
Eric214 said:
Not going to happen. It's been this way for 3 years or so. Plus who cares? How often do you reboot your phone for it even matter? I reboot my phone once or twice a week but even if you do it once a day, does it bother you that much that 6 or seconds on the warning matters?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have an unlocked bootloader, flashing magisk modules or playing with xposed modules and plenty of configurations that require a reboot, it's kinda important to not have 6-10 seconds gobbled by a totally unneccessary warning. Plus, the warning pretty much alerts even the most dumb thieves that the phone is 100% USEABLE once physically in their hands.
jld2k6 said:
Cerberus allows you to do a fake reboot / shutdown. It's a security app that allows you to locate your phone and do all kinds of stuff with it remotely. You can set it so that at the lock screen, if the power button is pressed and they choose to reboot or shut down it will lock the phone and keep the screen off to trick whoever has your phone into thinking it's off and can't be located. You can also install it as a system app (and disguise it), so if your phone gets wiped it will survive and you can still locate it. On my phone it just shows up as a generic looking system app called "system framework" you can also hide it from your app drawer and make it so that the only way to open it is to dial a secret code into your phone dialer and hit call. There already has been an Xposed module that does this too. I used it like 4 or 5 years ago but can't for the life of me remember the name and have no clue if it's still around
Edit: oh yeah, it's called APM+ (advanced power menu)
Is available on edxposed but isn't on magisk manager. It hasn't been updated since 2015. Give it a try, maybe it will still work, who knows
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll see how cerebrus works out, never heard of it. As for APM+, yeah it's pretty much dead, but was worth a try..
THREAD CLOSED!
Please advise the moderators' team to re-open the thread if a dedicated developer in regard to this bounty is found and is willing to state in this thread that he/she is aware and agrees with it. The developer must herself/himself post the donation account. However, we preserve the right to re-open pending on the donee's history on XDA.
Related
I was playing around with the pattern lock and eventually got the 'Too many pattern attempts!' message, with it asking for my Google username and password to log in.
No matter what, it doesn't accept my username/password. I am 100% sure I've typed it in correctly.
This bug has been around for over a year with many people reporting 'bricked' phones without even doing anything particularly naughty with their phones.
This is the Google bug that has been posted on it: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3006#makechanges
As you can see this has been around for over a year. The 'null'-in-password trick doesn't work, nor does the spamming-home-button trick.
My phone is rooted and with the Voodoo Lagfix-only custom kernel. Any suggestions?
Do a hard reset / wipe. That's my suggestion.
Try booting into recovery (Home Button, Vol Up + Power), and resetting your cache and wiping it. Then try logging in with your Google account. If all else fails, try changing your Google password on the PC then logging in on the phone. And then if it still fails, looks like you need to flash the phone again. Next time, don't enter the thing wrong! Stop rushing haha .
I wasn't rushing, I was playing with the lock. It takes about 30 times before it's permanently requiring the username/password. But really...you can't blame me for not expecting this. :/
I'm currently trying to flash a new ROM but I've run into another problem - I can't get it to boot into downloader/recovery. It's not the lack of the 3 button combo - I've managed to reach Recovery and Downloader ONCE each in the past, but never again since.
And now with all my efforts to boot into recovery/downloader, it now cannot boot into normal usability mode (or in my case, locked mode). Instead, the Galaxy S logo loops endlessly.
Sigh.
Have you read the thread for the fix for Galaxy S variants that are lacking the 3 Button Combos? It's in Android Development. Maybe try that? Or, can you still connect the phone and connect with Kies?
I can't turn on the phone anymore, meaning no changing to USB debugging etc. And I'm having problem accessing recovery/download, even though I definitely HAVE done each of them once before and therefore do not have the 3 button problem.
Without turning on my phone, Kies can't detect it
So what happens when you power on?
Now, it shows the first Galaxy S splash screen, then shows the boot logo, then nothing. The boot logo continues to glow endlessly.
Be patient, i waited up to five minutes. If you see the s logo glowing/shining youare ok
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
okpc said:
Be patient, i waited up to five minutes. If you see the s logo glowing/shining youare ok
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it's continuously shining. Haven't left it for up to five minutes though... And even then it probably won't help since I'm still locked out of the phone, and unable to access download/recovery mode to reflash it.
After waiting for a long time, the logo disappears, screen goes black. Menu and back buttons light up. Nothing else.
Looks like your going to have to reflash your phone again. Download the desired firmware, open up Odin and put your phone into download mode and start the flashing procedure. Be more careful next time.
PaulForde said:
Looks like your going to have to reflash your phone again. Download the desired firmware, open up Odin and put your phone into download mode and start the flashing procedure. Be more careful next time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good advice considering he said his 3 button combo stopped working =))
All I did when I got that black screen was adb reboot recovery and wiped and phone bootedup fine. But only if you have debuging enable and and sumsung drivers. Hopes this help.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Can't enable USB debugging when phone can't be turned on at all.
danamoult said:
I was playing around with the pattern lock and eventually got the 'Too many pattern attempts!' message, with it asking for my Google username and password to log in.
No matter what, it doesn't accept my username/password. I am 100% sure I've typed it in correctly.
This bug has been around for over a year with many people reporting 'bricked' phones without even doing anything particularly naughty with their phones.
As you can see this has been around for over a year. The 'null'-in-password trick doesn't work, nor does the spamming-home-button trick.
My phone is rooted and with the Voodoo Lagfix-only custom kernel. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok i did the same thing, and spent hours googling.
Tried the key combinations to restore, but never worked.
Heres what worked for me, but, be warned all your contacts will be lost if stored on the phone.
From another phone, call your locked number.
Answer it on the locked phone, then hit the "back" button.
This gives you full access to the phones menus etc.
Hang up on the phone you called from.
Now, go into Applications / Settings / Privacy / Factory Data Reset.
This worked for me whereas all other methods did not.
Once your phone is up and running again, be sure to create your google account on your phone.
That way your protected again. If you didnt previously have the account set up from your phone, like i didnt, then you cannot log in of course.
This works...give it a try. Hope it helps.
danamoult said:
Can't enable USB debugging when phone can't be turned on at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you need to be able to enter recovery mode for you to solve this problem
danamoult said:
I was playing around with the pattern lock and eventually got the 'Too many pattern attempts!' message, with it asking for my Google username and password to log in.
No matter what, it doesn't accept my username/password. I am 100% sure I've typed it in correctly.
This bug has been around for over a year with many people reporting 'bricked' phones without even doing anything particularly naughty with their phones.
This is the Google bug that has been posted on it: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3006#makechanges
As you can see this has been around for over a year. The 'null'-in-password trick doesn't work, nor does the spamming-home-button trick.
My phone is rooted and with the Voodoo Lagfix-only custom kernel. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dear friend dont worry or panic... i'll tell you a trick , go to the samsung customer care and tell them that your phone gets heated up very often and today it just refuses to boot up normally...
since your device cannot get into recovery mode or download mode the company will never know that you had played with the system files in the device or not... (rooted )..
since the samsung people will also try to get your device in recovery mode.. but when it will not go to the recovery mode you will get a mother board replacement under warranty.....
this heating up of the device is a common problem in the galaxy here in india.. so use this excuse and i know it works 100% ... (just dont tell them that you had rooted and lagfixed your device )
What you describe sounds like a very large security hole if I am reading it correctly.
Are you saying that even if your phone has been locked out from too many lock screen failures, that just answering an incoming phone call gives you full access to the phone? Really?
I just checked on my phone and while I can answer an incoming call while the screen is locked, if I hit the back button or menu button, I just get the lock screen.
I'm missing something here...
OzzYGuY said:
Ok i did the same thing, and spent hours googling.
Tried the key combinations to restore, but never worked.
Heres what worked for me, but, be warned all your contacts will be lost if stored on the phone.
From another phone, call your locked number.
Answer it on the locked phone, then hit the "back" button.
This gives you full access to the phones menus etc.
Hang up on the phone you called from.
Now, go into Applications / Settings / Privacy / Factory Data Reset.
This worked for me whereas all other methods did not.
Once your phone is up and running again, be sure to create your google account on your phone.
That way your protected again. If you didnt previously have the account set up from your phone, like i didnt, then you cannot log in of course.
This works...give it a try. Hope it helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
distortedloop said:
What you describe sounds like a very large security hole if I am reading it correctly.
Are you saying that even if your phone has been locked out from too many lock screen failures, that just answering an incoming phone call gives you full access to the phone? Really?
I just checked on my phone and while I can answer an incoming call while the screen is locked, if I hit the back button or menu button, I just get the lock screen.
I'm missing something here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
chill my dear friend.... it cant be true.... its just his 1st post.. and samsung cannot be so dumb to leave a password protected keypad that can be cracked so easily.. even i tried the back key on a call with a password lock.. i cannot get passed the lock screen....
I can't figure out what's causing it. I don't have very many apps installed that didn't come with the phone, and any I did install were from the Play Store. I haven't done any modifications such as root to the device.
In order to bring it back to life, I have to either hold the power button down for 30 seconds to shut it down (or take out the battery) and power it back on.
Interestingly, if I have notifications waiting and the LED is flashing, that continues to flash even if the phone won't wake up.
I did 'disable' several of the bloatware apps in the app management area in Settings. I'm starting to think that must be what's causing it. Is there a particular bloatware app that should never be disabled? One that would cause this issue?
Other apps I've installed are things like Netflix, eBay, the app for my bank, and a TV-listings app. Pretty basic stuff. I don't think any of those would be the problem, would they?
Remaining battery doesn't appear to have an effect. It's happened with full battery and somewhat low battery.
'Services' that I use are Exchange push email and Gmail. I also have it Bluetooth synched to my car's hands-free thing.
Any help would be appreciated. Taking my phone out of my pocket to use it just to find that it's not responsive is very troublesome.
Thanks.
EDIT: For clarification, this is an AT&T version of the S4A.
EvilTelephone said:
I can't figure out what's causing it. I don't have very many apps installed that didn't come with the phone, and any I did install were from the Play Store. I haven't done any modifications such as root to the device.
In order to bring it back to life, I have to either hold the power button down for 30 seconds to shut it down (or take out the battery) and power it back on.
Interestingly, if I have notifications waiting and the LED is flashing, that continues to flash even if the phone won't wake up.
I did 'disable' several of the bloatware apps in the app management area in Settings. I'm starting to think that must be what's causing it. Is there a particular bloatware app that should never be disabled? One that would cause this issue?
Other apps I've installed are things like Netflix, eBay, the app for my bank, and a TV-listings app. Pretty basic stuff. I don't think any of those would be the problem, would they?
Remaining battery doesn't appear to have an effect. It's happened with full battery and somewhat low battery.
'Services' that I use are Exchange push email and Gmail. I also have it Bluetooth synched to my car's hands-free thing.
Any help would be appreciated. Taking my phone out of my pocket to use it just to find that it's not responsive is very troublesome.
Thanks.
EDIT: For clarification, this is an AT&T version of the S4A.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe u can enable back all the apps that u have disabled and see if it happens anymore.
u mentioned "the phone won't wake up" and "not responsive". do u mean that the screen stayed off and u are unable to get the screen to be on?
cfchong said:
u mentioned "the phone won't wake up" and "not responsive". do u mean that the screen stayed off and u are unable to get the screen to be on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's right. None of the buttons wake the phone up or turn on the screen. I can tell the phone is still 'on' though. It's not like it got powered off in my pocket.
The advice you've got is sound - if you think it might be because of disabled apps, re-enable them all and see if it keeps happening. If it doesn't... well then you disable them one at a time until it starts happening again.
Then you come back to the forum again and let everyone know which app never to disable.
If it doesn't stop happening after re-enabling all the apps... well then my guess would be a faulty device. Can't think of any other logical reason for it to behave like that. So try the apps first, if that doesn't help, "return to sender".
EvilTelephone said:
That's right. None of the buttons wake the phone up or turn on the screen. I can tell the phone is still 'on' though. It's not like it got powered off in my pocket.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if enabling back all system apps do not resolve the problem, try disabling all user apps to test. one of your downloaded app may be the cause.
Alright, over the past month I've done a bunch of testing. Here are my results.
1. Re-enabling all the system apps didn't help.
2. I uninstalled all my user apps. Didn't help.
3. I completely reset the phone to stock settings and formatted all storage. That didn't help.
4. I figured maybe it was something with bluetooth since it seemed to happen after I used bluetooth devices. I disabled bluetooth completely. It didn't help.
I'm out of ideas for the moment. Could the phone just be bad? I would wonder why the issue only happens occasionally.
Thanks.
Start a chat with Samsung. They have always been good to me.
GT-i9295(i537) running SafeStrap
I have the same problem, is there any solution, thanks
ogbeate said:
I have the same problem, is there any solution, thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Solved, rom change and ready, do not turn off more
I have the same problem in i9500. I now live in China and have purchased an s2, s3 and now the s4 from China Unicom. I have successfully rooted and flashed new ROMS (latest HK stock firmware) on the S2 and S3. When I bought the s4, it worked fine. I immediately flashed the latest stock HK ROM using Odin 3.07, After flashing, the phone is unresponsive after going into deep sleep meaning that nothing happens when I press the power button. After a long press of the power button, the phone will re-boot. Sometimes I have to pull the battery. Again, this phone is totally stock. I haven't added any applications. I re-flashed the stock China Unicom formware and I took the phone to the Samsung Service facility and they did a new flash. Phone worked great. I take it home, flash the HK ROM with Odin...same results; phone is unresponsive after going into deep sleep. I return to the Samsung service store and they again flash the phone. Phone works fine. What are they doing that I'm not doing? Could the partition table get corrupted during my flash processes. Should I try another version of Odin? Should I try a PIT file and try that? I'm downloading the ROM's from SamMobile. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Edit: I fixed this problem by upgrading to 4.3 which brought it's own set of problems.
So i've been experiencing this issue for months now. I've had the issue since i've gotten the phone but its the past few months that its really gotten bad. So before anyone jumps the gun, i've done quite a bit of research on this and cannot find anything worthwhile, more on that soon.
So as usual, i'll pickup my phone and press the power button or the home button to turn on the screen, but at completely random times the screen will not come on at all. Sometimes the capacitive buttons will light up (maybe 15-20% of the time), but not always.
In my searches I found the following solutions to this problem:
Get a new sim card
Dont use an SD card
Get a new battery
Check the leads on the battery and phone for cleanliness
Factory reset
Remove 1 app at a time and test until it stops happening
Dont freeze any apps
Restore stock firmware
Dont use SetCPU
Turn off animations
Get rid of the lock screen
Remove custom message from lock screen
Clear cache through Recovery
Dont restore data with Titanium Backup when restoring apps
Turn off WiFi and/or Bluetooth and/or GPS
Dont use GreenPower or Greenify
Avoid stock launcher
I have tried all of the above except for removing 1 app at a time (and those that dont apply). I'm deep into that one and only have a few apps left to try. This is something that happens at least once a day, but typically 3-5 times in a day. I used to think i could make it happen by pressing the power button to turn on the screen and immediately hit it again to turn it off. It would sometimes work but that doesnt trigger it anymore.
My phone used to be rooted, but being on AT&T there was no "normal" way to flash a good recovery like CWM or TWRP and install roms, you have to use some other thing which i dont use. So i've always had stock recovery, im fully updated to the newest stock rom that is out, update came OTA which was after i removed root and used odin to flash an older stock rom back. My wife's Note 3 also has the same issue and it has never been rooted, we have gone through all of the above and still it continues to happen.
Also on a side note, my phone was swapped out because of an issue it had 3 months after i purchased the phone. I was able to get a brand new one, not refurbished. The issue had occured once or twice before the swap and an incredibly frustrating amount of times since then.
Reading through most of the other threads, everyone seems to have to remove their battery and re-insert it to get back into their phone. The ones that dont have to do that have found that removing their SD Card, getting a new one, sending the phone in, or one of the other options have worked. However for me, nothing has worked.
Does anyone have any other ideas? Is this common on the Note 3 (I've had it since release)? 70% of the time i can hold the power button for a few seconds to try and bring up the power menu and it works, but not always.. I usually just have to wait up to a minute or two (never actually counted, i use my phone for that stuff...which.. isnt..working...)
I've had wake lock lag on a few android phones. Even iPhones.
I would highly recommend rooting it on att and flash a mod that reduces it on the note 3. I talked about it here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2628716
Rebooting the phone always helps.
wudien said:
I've had wake lock lag on a few android phones. Even iPhones.
I would highly recommend rooting it on att and flash a mod that reduces it on the note 3. I talked about it here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2628716
Rebooting the phone always helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I cannot root my phone. I have to have my company email on my phone, and for Android devices they use Air Watch. I tried for weeks to get it working while rooted, and even used Root Cloak or something like that (with Wanam Xposed) to hide root from specific apps. Air Watch was specifically tested to work with that app but it still for some reason didn't work (new version of Air Watch perhaps with no update to Root Cloak? Just my guess). I had to remove root, factory reset and re-flash stock from Odin (that was a dual purpose flash) to remove all traces of Root so I could use Air Watch for my company email/calendar/contacts/etc again, even after unrooting and using all the cleanup tools, triangle away, and everything, it still detected my phone as rooted...
However, I don't think that's really a viable solution to the problem, that's more of a band aid. Looking at that thread and looking around, it seems to work well but I still haven't found anyone with my same issue where they used it and it worked. I would like to narrow this down to what the issue is exactly, the root cause. I think its a problem with KitKat, or at least all of 4.4.x (not sure about 4.4.4 yet).
DISCLAIMER*** I DO NOT OWN A NEXUS 5, AND DO NOT FOLLOW IT HEAVILY THIS IS PURELY BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE TODAY AND MY YEARS OF USING ANDROID OS. I DO NOT USE IT DAILY AND ONLY USE IT EVERY NOW AND THEN FOR CALLS. MY INFORMATION MAY NOT BE ACCURATE AND PURELY BASED ON PREVIOUS USES OF DIFFERENT DEVICES FROM DIFFERENT BRANDS.
THIS MAY BE DISREGARDED OR/AND DELETED
Today my sister nexus 5 (aosp 5.1 "newest") was "stolen".
We spent the day looking all over the place for it and went back to a few stores we visited that day and asked the staff. But it was of no hope. No one has seen or heard of it, so we regarded it as stolen. So after awhile we went home we went to ADM (https://www.google.co.uk/android/devicemanager) and set up a lock and number to call as you would.
After a few hours my dad found it in his car :/ so yeah...
But that's just the bread of it. HERE is the butter:
1)The lock we set up was 100% not in place even tho ADM said it was "sent". AND the mobile data is ON, but this is just how ADM works and it doesn't check if the device receives it or not. Maybe google should add this feature.
BUT even after we got it back and connect to WIFI, the lock did NOT get put in place. Proving the phone does not check for any lock requests at screen unlock. But maybe because she already has a normal pincode in place and it couldn't over ride that :/
after that I took a interest in the security.
2)So i took a deeper look into the security and it flaw, and first off. EVEN locked I could access the status bar and turn on AIRPLANE MODE. This was without the password and I could turn on torch, wifi, mobile data ext off as well. The only thing I couldn't access was the "settings". But I had a great deal of control of the device's connectivity and from there a thief could make his way out without any calls or ANYTHING affecting him.
3)THIS was truly shocking. I'm not sure if this is by default or by accident. But by using the status bar "exploit" i was able to get into the users page and switch to guest mode. From there i was able to grant adb access and access the market. If this phone was rooted I guess you could install some apps to get rid of the lock screen or even install a custom recovery. But them i guess it's up to you to take the action.
As i said before. I do not use it. My sister does. But she does not root or mod, and only follows the AOSP path.
Some exploits may only work because of a few careless button presses. And may not even affect anyone at all if you don't spam the settings with random presses.
Thanks for listening to me and feel free to point out any mistakes i made and share if you could post if these "exploits" work for you. If someone already made a thread please delete this one. Thanks for listening
Actually the only serious thing is the guest mode option.. About the airplane mode, for a thief it would be much easier to simply turn the phone off.. Anyway I completely agree with you.. Google should take more seriously the security part.. It should even be impossible to turn off the phone without a code..
And make the back impossible to open so a thief can't pop out the battery.
Once a phone is out of your physical control, consider everything on it to be compromised, regardless of whatever security you have.
Please delete this. None of this is news or exploits. People have known and been disappointed by it from day 1 of Lollipop going live.
Well removing the battery of the n5 is not immediate.. If a thief want to resell it probably he won't do that until he's at home or wherever and if he couldn't turn it off you could track the position or at least erase your data..
91franz said:
Well removing the battery of the n5 is not immediate.. If a thief want to resell it probably he won't do that until he's at home or wherever and if he couldn't turn it off you could track the position or at least erase your data..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You say Google should take security more seriously. Take that advice. Never assume a thief would act in a manner that accommodates you.
That's right.. Anyway I should try to make his life as complicated as possible ?
It should even be impossible to turn off the phone without a code..
sseuorosal said:
It should even be impossible to turn off the phone without a code..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with some aluminium fold will easily to block any signal, the phone will eventually turn off.
p.s. If I am the thief which stole a useless phone, I will just break it and throw away. I don't think any thief will say "hey, I can't unlock it, let's return to the owner"
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.