[Q] TWRP help - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S III

The other day I was restoring a backup in TWRP 2.6.0 on my Sprint Galaxy S3. The ROM I was on was AOSP based and the one I was restoring was AOSP based. During the restore, the phone rebooted during the data restore and then started a boot loop on the device, where it appeared I was starting TWRP again, only to have the device reboot at the TWRP splash screen.
I eventually finagled the device into getting TWRP to load by starting DL mode and then booting into recovery where I proceeded to do a full wipe and install a ROM from fresh. Anyone know why this would occur? It was very scary to think I was about to brick my device over something as simple as restoring what was a successful backup. I have not tried to restore any backups since out of fear of this issue occurring again. I also read on the TWRP page about a defect of reboot during restores if not enough data is available, but I have plenty of storage room available on my internal (26.26) and external (29.93) SD cards.

Not much help here, and at the risk of sounding like a Negative Nelly, I gave up on image-based backups several devices ago. The only device that I could get reliable nandroids was my HTC EVO 4G running AmonRA recovery. Since then, I've owned/rooted 4 or 5 other Android devices, and every single one of them have been completely unreliable with nandroid restores to the point that I just gave up, use Titanium Backup, and then just flash the ROM again. That's been with CWM and TWRP, all versions (and I've probably tried them all) on all of my devices.
I would love it if someone could enlighten the both of us on how to be successful with nandroid backups/restores. Again, sorry I'm not of much help, but consider me a confirmation of what you're encountering (a "yeah, what he said").

dante32278 said:
The other day I was restoring a backup in TWRP 2.6.0 on my Sprint Galaxy S3. The ROM I was on was AOSP based and the one I was restoring was AOSP based. During the restore, the phone rebooted during the data restore and then started a boot loop on the device, where it appeared I was starting TWRP again, only to have the device reboot at the TWRP splash screen.
I eventually finagled the device into getting TWRP to load by starting DL mode and then booting into recovery where I proceeded to do a full wipe and install a ROM from fresh. Anyone know why this would occur? It was very scary to think I was about to brick my device over something as simple as restoring what was a successful backup. I have not tried to restore any backups since out of fear of this issue occurring again. I also read on the TWRP page about a defect of reboot during restores if not enough data is available, but I have plenty of storage room available on my internal (26.26) and external (29.93) SD cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I have found out the hard way is that every device is different. Some prefer CWM Recovery, some TWRP Recovery. If TWRP is not working for you, try CWM. A stable Custom Recovery is a must have.
TEAM MiK
MikROMs Since 3/13/11

Related

Can I recover?

I rooted using unrevoked3 and did the nand unlock. Did a nandroid backup and installed the latest cyanogenmod to play. I've done this before and gone back to my previous rom using nandroid restore. The only thing different is I looked at ROM manager this time and it asked me if I wanted to install clockwork recovery (which I thought I already had so I didn' think much about installing). Now when I try to do a nandroid restore I get errors, and I can no longer boot into cyanogenmod. I can get to the restore screen and it seems to find my nandroid backups, but when I attempt to apply them I get "Error while flashing boot image". Now when I do a full bootup it goes straight to bootloader. I don't seem to be able to do anything from recovery with my nandroid without errors.
I was able to get back
I honestly don't know how I did it. Perhaps I wiped data and it was able to get back to a clockworkmod backup I had previously done. Regardless, I am back and can flash again. Kinda scary though. I am a computer guy, but new to android dev. My advice is to read, read, and read more. You need to understand the steps, not just do them.
NashTnGuy said:
I honestly don't know how I did it. Perhaps I wiped data and it was able to get back to a clockworkmod backup I had previously done. Regardless, I am back and can flash again. Kinda scary though. I am a computer guy, but new to android dev. My advice is to read, read, and read more. You need to understand the steps, not just do them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
always wipe data & cache before flashing again, that's why its all over the forums...MAKE SURE TO WIPE PRIOR TO INSTALLING ANYTHING...glad it worked out for you tho
I'm also rooted via unrevoked3.1, but I haven't unlocked nand yet. I also tried restoring from a nandroid backup (after clearing data and cache), and, though it said it completed successfully, when I booted, it was just the stock setup that was on the phone the day I bought it.
I assume it's because I don't have nand unlocked-can I ask what method you used to unlock nand?
use toast part 2 ...

For noobs...My first "soft brick" experience...

Wow, I thought I fried my phone tonight. So, since I'm a noob and managed to get my phone back up and running with a little creativity and luck, I thought I'd share so other relatively inexperienced folks could perhaps do the same thing.
I flashed CM10 tonight and followed the instructions (flashed recommended CWM non touch, factory reset, wipe /system, flash rom, flash GApps, flash darkside cache wipe, reboot). When I restarted the phone i saw the CM boot anim for about 2 seconds, and then it froze and the screen went completely black. I thought no problem, i'll just flash the Nandroid I took with the recommended CWM before I got started. (Note: ALWAYS DO THIS.) Anyway, during the restore the recovery locked up on .android_secure. Read about it and tried a rollback - got into download mode and used Odin to flash 5.0.2.6 which I had a TAR for (I didn't have a flashable on my computer for 6.0.1.1 and my internet was tweaking...couldn't download it). All fine, but then realized that Nandroids are not backwards compatible. So I'm thinking, SH*T I have a soft brick that I need to flash stock firmware for now.
Then I remembered...before I changed recovery based on the recommendation, I had TWRP installed and had a Nandroid from earlier today. Additionally I had moved both the install zip and the backup to my external SD card. I was able to re-flash TWRP from CWM and restore my backup - I could have cried when my phone booted properly.
Here were my takeaways, which I'd like to share as I think they may help newer folks:
(1) IT NEVER HURTS TO HAVE TWO BACKUP SOLUTIONS. Flash an alternative and take a Nandroid with it...then switch back if you want to. Then, if one Nandroid or recovery fails for any reason you're good to go with another. Keep flashables both on your external SD card and your computer.
(2) Keep your flashables and backups on your External SD card. Both of the popular recovery solutions allow you to access the external SD, and you're safe should you wipe your internal storage. Flash the alternative recovery, reboot into the new recovery and restore.
(3) For the love of God, DON'T PANIC. You'll probably make things worse, or pollute the forum with posts asking for help before trying to fix your own issue. I did all kinds of dumb crap tonight and got my phone into a wicked loop where the flash was going on and off randomly. It was like a freakin dance party in my living room.
Of course there are other solutions I'm sure, but under my particular circumstances this worked well - and I did it on my own which is a GREAT confidence builder for me as a noob. I hope this helps others.

[Help] Cannot flash, wipe, or nandroid

So, I've been using TWRP since I purchased this device. I did a TWRP backup today as usual since I wanted to flash back to TouchWiz to update my PRL. I did so, then went to restore my backup. Only part of the backup restored. Now, no matter what I do in TWRP, I get the same error:
E error opening 'data/data/com.newegg.app/share (there's more text here but it's truncated by the recovery)
E error: Not a directory
This happens when I try to wipe (any option), flash a ROM, create a backup, restore a backup, etc. I've updated from TWRP 2.5 to 2.6.3, still to no avail. I don't believe it's a recovery issue. Recoveries don't just stop working, especially after using Odin to write a new recovery partition.
My ROM is screwed up. It boots, but no apps open. The hardware keys don't work (except home).
Any ideas or suggestions? I don't really want to switch to CWM but will if absolutely necessary.
Thanks!
I would suggest doing an ODIN back to Stock. Make sure everything is working correctly. Then Root the Device again.
I did something similar. I used a flash to stock and reset counter .zip that worked. It still threw that newegg error, but once I rebooted, reinstalled twrp, rooted, flashed Slim 4.3 Stable 2 and did another nandroid, the weird error is now gone. So glad I didn't ruin my phone! Thanks!
Your welcome. Happy you got the issue resolved .
TEAM MiK
MikROMs Since 3/13/11

twrp consistently crashes while restoring backups

I was playing around with some ROMs yesterday, since i was not happy with CM11 anymore. after installing a couple of different ROMs i decided to stick with slimkat. so i made a nandriod of slimkat and tried to go back to CM11 to get my apps all figured out for the switch. This is where the trouble started. when trying to restore CM11 I would get to "writing data" and at some point (always a different percentage) the phone would crash and reboot and get stuck in a boot loop. it would then do the same thing when trying to restore the slim ROM, always crashing before the restore finished. I always wiped data/sys/cache, i tried to fix permissions, install different version of twrp (2.6.x.x vs 2.8.6.0). I've since restored the phone back to factory and installed twrp again. I'm at my wits end as to what the problem could be. one thing that's odd is I get a splash screen before the twrp splash which still shows the little cyanogenmod guy at the bottom, even though there should be no remnants of CM on my s3 at this point.
I have slimkat installed at the moment and it's running fine. i'd still like to boot back into my old CM11. if i can't it's no tragic loss.
I will be travelling and i wont have access to odin for a little while, so i'm less inclined to go breaking things till i get back home. I thought maybe someone here has run into this or knows how to fix this.
Thanks for the help
Dom
wascalwabbit said:
I was playing around with some ROMs yesterday, since i was not happy with CM11 anymore. after installing a couple of different ROMs i decided to stick with slimkat. so i made a nandriod of slimkat and tried to go back to CM11 to get my apps all figured out for the switch. This is where the trouble started. when trying to restore CM11 I would get to "writing data" and at some point (always a different percentage) the phone would crash and reboot and get stuck in a boot loop. it would then do the same thing when trying to restore the slim ROM, always crashing before the restore finished. I always wiped data/sys/cache, i tried to fix permissions, install different version of twrp (2.6.x.x vs 2.8.6.0). I've since restored the phone back to factory and installed twrp again. I'm at my wits end as to what the problem could be. one thing that's odd is I get a splash screen before the twrp splash which still shows the little cyanogenmod guy at the bottom, even though there should be no remnants of CM on my s3 at this point.
I have slimkat installed at the moment and it's running fine. i'd still like to boot back into my old CM11. if i can't it's no tragic loss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was the original CM11 nandroid made with the same recovery make and version which would not install it? I am pretty sure TWRP will not install a CWM or Philz nandroid. I don't know if there are issues installing a 2.6.x.x TWRP nandroid with the 2.8.x.x version of TWRP.
Thanks for you're reply. The backup was made with twrp, I'm not sure which version it was, so I downgraded to see if it would help, then I installed the latest version again. There was no difference in the results no matter the twpr version. Twrp nandroids are in fact incompatible with CWM, not sure about philz
wascalwabbit said:
Thanks for you're reply. The backup was made with twrp, I'm not sure which version it was, so I downgraded to see if it would help, then I installed the latest version again. There was no difference in the results no matter the twpr version. Twrp nandroids are in fact incompatible with CWM, not sure about philz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since Philz was originally based on CWM I wouldn't expect it to work with TWRP nandroids either.
Have you tried installing only specific partitions of the nandroid, such as the /data/data partition where the user installed apps are stored. As opposed to restoring the entire nandroid. I have heard mention of this, but in your case it may be problematic since your nandroid is of CM11 and the ROM you are running is SlimKat.
Oh that's a great idea, thanks, that may work. I i'll just flash CM and then restore data. I'm literally heading into the jungle right now, so in not sure if I'll be able to try this out for few days, but I will as soon as I get a chance.
Thanks for tour help

Can't restore backup through TWRP (bootloop)

Hello. I wanted to try out some custom ROMs for this phone few weeks ago but before flashing anything I did a backup of stock ROM in TWRP on external SD card. I used this backup once back then and it was working but now, after few weeks on custom ROM, I can't restore it properly anymore. Restoring process in TWRP goes as expected, without any errors, but when I want to boot system it goes into bootloop.
Anything can be done to fix it assuming the backup itself isn't corrupted? I don't know what else details might be relevant here.

Categories

Resources