Phone has no OS and can't flash roms: SOLVED! - One (M9) Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I picked up a sprint htc one m9 today. unfortunately no stock OS and no SD CARD with backup either. I booted into twrp but i can not do anything. everything fails. i tried to flash a rom and its a no go. I am stuck and have no idea what to try after looking for hours.
I have no OS
I can boot into twrp
twrp does not allow me to do anything FAILS on every operation.

zwp1990 said:
I picked up a sprint htc one m9 today. unfortunately no stock OS and no SD CARD with backup either. I booted into twrp but i can not do anything. everything fails. i tried to flash a rom and its a no go. I am stuck and have no idea what to try after looking for hours.
I have no OS
I can boot into twrp
twrp does not allow me to do anything FAILS on every operation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Foremost: ugh. Sorry man - that sucks.
So it sounds like your best option would be to get an sd card and apply a RUU from there. Flippy498's Google Sheet is a great resource for where to get them and how to use them.
You might be able to use the Windows-executable RUU directly from Sprint. I'm pretty sure you'd need to be in download mode when you ran it though. It's not as straightforward as the sd card method, but they're usually my first fallback.
Keep in mind that both of these options are destructive - your phone will be brought to a factory state (stock firmware, recovery) and anything on the phone's internal memory will be wiped.
It might be worth exploring why TWRP keeps failing. If we could solve that, you could install the ROM of your choice and not worry about RUUs. But that's definitely more work and probably not necessary if you're not trying to save anything. Once the RUU has been successfully applied, you can just unlock the bootloader anew, install TWRP, and do whatever you want from there.

Thanks a ton that fixed it!

zwp1990 said:
Thanks a ton that fixed it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wonderful! Enjoy your new phone!
(If you're satisfied with the resolution, the convention in this forum is to mark a thread 'solved' in the title when an issue is resolved. This'll help folks know where to direct their help.)

Related

[Q] Cyanogen 10.1 mod gone wrong.

AT&T Galaxy S3
Mac OSX 10.8
I know I can get my device back, I'm just not sure how. I successfully rooted using CASUAL, no problems there. Got the normal root applications installed, did the Clockwork backup, everything was great.
I then decided to try a custom ROM - the Cyanogen 10.1. It downloaded fine, and I selected to also install Google Apps, then it rebooted and the Cyanogen boot screen with the spinning circle came up. However, this lasted way longer than I thought it should, so I looked it up, and what I got from the research is that I had the wrong gapps on there.
So, I followed the instructions in this thread (same problem as me), and wiped the system. However, I believe I used the wrong list item, and now everything I had is gone. I can't boot from recovery because it doesn't exist, and when booting into CM I just get the same error message that setup has stopped working. I thought maybe I could put a new ROM on the sd card or phone harddrive and boot from that, but both are inaccessible through USB on my Mac.
I can get it into ODIN mode (where it says "Downloading... Do not turn off target!"), which I'm thinking is what I want, and I have Heimdall installed and it runs and recognizes my device, but I cannot for the life of me find a tar.gz file to use.
If anyone can offer any sort of help, I would super appreciate it.
chazbot7 said:
AT&T Galaxy S3
Mac OSX 10.8
I know I can get my device back, I'm just not sure how. I successfully rooted using CASUAL, no problems there. Got the normal root applications installed, did the Clockwork backup, everything was great.
I then decided to try a custom ROM - the Cyanogen 10.1. It downloaded fine, and I selected to also install Google Apps, then it rebooted and the Cyanogen boot screen with the spinning circle came up. However, this lasted way longer than I thought it should, so I looked it up, and what I got from the research is that I had the wrong gapps on there.
So, I followed the instructions in this thread (same problem as me), and wiped the system. However, I believe I used the wrong list item, and now everything I had is gone. I can't boot from recovery because it doesn't exist, and when booting into CM I just get the same error message that setup has stopped working. I thought maybe I could put a new ROM on the sd card or phone harddrive and boot from that, but both are inaccessible through USB on my Mac.
I can get it into ODIN mode (where it says "Downloading... Do not turn off target!"), which I'm thinking is what I want, and I have Heimdall installed and it runs and recognizes my device, but I cannot for the life of me find a tar.gz file to use.
If anyone can offer any sort of help, I would super appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your recovery shouldn't be affected by a wipe (unless you flashed something over it) as ROMs don't flash recovery, therefor vol up + home + power should get you in it. If you success to, You should be able to mount through recovery.
As for Heimdall, it just got S3 support (last week I believe), therefor it might not be easy to find a stock file for it. That being said, if you have access to any Windows pc, that'd be the easiest solution here (using Odin).
Yes, I can still get into the recovery menu, but when I use "backup and restore>restore" it says No files found. Is there anything I can do to just get a working OS running? Or am I just doing it totally wrong, I'm new to the rooting stuff. The Windows computer will be my last resort haha.
BWolf56 said:
Your recovery shouldn't be affected by a wipe (unless you flashed something over it) as ROMs don't flash recovery, therefor vol up + home + power should get you in it. If you success to, You should be able to mount through recovery.
As for Heimdall, it just got S3 support (last week I believe), therefor it might not be easy to find a stock file for it. That being said, if you have access to any Windows pc, that'd be the easiest solution here (using Odin).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I can still get into the recovery menu, but when I use "backup and restore>restore" it says No files found. Is there anything I can do to just get a working OS running? Or am I just doing it totally wrong, I'm new to the rooting stuff. The Windows computer will be my last resort haha.
chazbot7 said:
Yes, I can still get into the recovery menu, but when I use "backup and restore>restore" it says No files found. Is there anything I can do to just get a working OS running? Or am I just doing it totally wrong, I'm new to the rooting stuff. The Windows computer will be my last resort haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows pc is definitely the easiest option here but you try mounting your SD from recovery, redownload the ROM and Gapps you wanna use, put them on your device and flash them after a factory reset.
If you wiped your SD card, it's normal that you don't have a backup anymore.
BWolf56 said:
Windows pc is definitely the easiest option here but you try mounting your SD from recovery, redownload the ROM and Gapps you wanna use, put them on your device and flash them after a factory reset.
If you wiped your SD card, it's normal that you don't have a backup anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's aaaliiiiiiive! Grabbed an extra micro SD I had, threw Cyanogen 10.1.0 RC4 on it, and installed it just fine. Now updating to RC5. My only question now is how to get Google Apps on there. Does this need to be done beforehand, or can it be done after?
chazbot7 said:
It's aaaliiiiiiive! Grabbed an extra micro SD I had, threw Cyanogen 10.1.0 RC4 on it, and installed it just fine. Now updating to RC5. My only question now is how to get Google Apps on there. Does this need to be done beforehand, or can it be done after?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You usually flash the Gapps right after flashing the ROM, before rebooting.
P.S.: fully reading the instructions helps before flashing
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
BWolf56 said:
You usually flash the Gapps right after flashing the ROM, before rebooting.
P.S.: fully reading the instructions helps before flashing
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha, sorry about that. Thanks for all the help good sir. This is actually way faster than my stock ROM, I'm pretty stoked on it, Google Apps or not.
chazbot7 said:
Gotcha, sorry about that. Thanks for all the help good sir. This is actually way faster than my stock ROM, I'm pretty stoked on it, Google Apps or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No need to apologize. Glad you got it back up! And it was mostly to keep you from making similar mistakes in the future
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
also one thing you need to know
First boot after you flash will always take longer than normal. After that, it's fine

[Q] Recovery bootloop after Odin/Kies/Heimdall STOCK flash, only boots to DL mode

Hi folks, long time reader, first time noob answer seeker.
I'm no stranger to rooting, flashing, hacking about and such - I even spend most of my day as a software engineer, and I've finally given up on this one - so here I am (rock me like a hurricane), please be kind.
SM-900T - It was rocking pretty darn well on Jedi Elite which I had flashed over rooted stock 4.3 MI7 - then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly. Thinking it was no biggie, I thought I could just reflash to stock and call it a day. Thirteen or so flashes later, I gave up on 4.3 and figured I'd just take the thing up to 4.4.2 NB4 by upgrading everything to 4.4.2 via Kies.
That's when I first ran into the bootloop issue, read a lot about it, and managed to get it up(ish) on stock, rooted, with Philz 6.X... Couldn't flash a ROM to save myself and wound up with another soft brick.
Flash forward to Friday - decided to start from scratch again - attempted to flash stock 4.4.2 from Kies, from Odin, From Heimdall... Nothing seems to be able to get me out of the current state it's in:
Only boots to download mode. Flashes seem to work fine, but on that first reboot where it tries to go to stock recovery to finish up on the device itself, it never gets there - boot loops trying to load recovery no matter how it wants to get there. If I pull the battery and start up (either straight to system or by cancelling out of download mode), it boot loops trying to load system. Boots fine to download mode, where I attempt to flash again with the same results.
Yes, I've tried Odin 3.0.9, 3.0.7, 1.8.5, Heimdall on Mac, Heimdall on Windows, Kies on Mac, Kies on Windows - repartition via PIT and not. Installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled all software and drivers multiple times, tried multiple cables on multiple USB ports.... Most of the time it looks like it's going to be fine (sometimes the flash fails, usually through Kies), but never surivives that first reboot after the flash.
Every answer I've seen says to do the things I've already done or cannot do (flash stock via Odin, pull the battery and boot to stock recovery and do a factory reset - which I'd LOVE to do, but can't). No problem recognizing the sucker on the PC/Mac
Next step: try flashing a N9005 ROM...
Any other thoughts? I do have another N900T that's working but has a blacklisted IMEI, and I've been tempted to swap the IMEIs a last resort (although either I'm too dumb to make it stick, EFS pro says it succeeds in writing the IMEI after I do a EFS format, but it doesn't stick.... Either I'm missing something, or I need a UART cable) - is there a way of swapping just the radio hardware or just the internal storage? OR, is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?
Failing any of these options, perhaps I'll wait for an Odin-flashable 4.4.3 if such a thing exists - or, hope to get lucky and swap it out at a store praying they don't see I've tripped Knox.
Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
Coming from you...
noobtoob said:
Looks like you've tried almost everything. Take it in and have them swap it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.
bondidave said:
Coming from you (I have read, and am quite thankful for, many of your posts), sounds like that might be the best option, however disconcerting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I do have a few ideas... Got done questions though.
1. Do you have an external SD card?
2. It goes all the way through flash on 4.4 even with heimdall?
3. Is there anything you have left out? Even the smallest detail can help, and by the op you are detail oriented, so I just need to know.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
... is there a way of taking a full system image of my working phone and making an Odin-flashable tar from that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but I don't have the details handy.
All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring.
If that doesn't work then let 'noobtoob' walk you through booting with the removable sdcard. Your second N900T will be needed to write the data to the sdcard. If this works then you can 'dd' write stock partitions to an sd card with #2 then 'dd' write them in #1.
If either of those works then unroot and take it in for warrenty exchange.
Frank
bondidave said:
... then (probably after one too many XPosed modules) it just kept rebooting randomly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This also indicates data corruption, and this is what started it all. Since you have tried various cables and computers that leaves the device, probably the USB port.
Frank
probably the USB port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.
Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.
Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.
Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)
Thanks again guys
bondidave said:
Swapped the main board with the working phone to rule out the USB port - still no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.
Definitely interested in trying the boot from external SD, I'll do my own search for it, unless you can quickly provide me with a link - but if it's as easy as it sounds (booting off of an SD in order to be able to send ADB commands to dd copy the partitions from the good phone to SD then from the booted SD back to internal) - I'm happy to give it a shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158
I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.
Tempted just to swing by TMO just to see if they'll swap it "under warranty" (despite picking it up from a private sale) - the only way they would notice it's been "tampered" with would be to check the knox counter by attempting to run download mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.
Oh, and yes, it does go all the way through with the flash (at least in Odin - I haven't tried a full flash through heimdall, just boot and recovery, Kies occasionally goes through to the end, but sometimes craps out at the same 57% point at which point the emergency restore screen shows up)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.
Frank
Frank Westlake said:
OK, but I still think the problem was initially caused by corruption. Maybe the files you have been flashing are corrupt.
This is the thread, it would be good to read the whole thing but if you need to save time begin at this message: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=48685247&postcount=158
I have not tried this procedure yet but @noobtoob was actively involved in it.
Please try the SD-boot first so that we can add that experience to this newly developed procedure.
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values.
Frank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was for hard brick method and no one has verified it works on 4.4 KK yet. There is an image in there though. My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response. Located here you will find the kkunbrick.img. There is still a problem flashing anything through heimdall after updating to the 4.4 bootloader, so there is no way to tell if the phone actually took the recovery. I have had to switch to Odin for everything afterwards, and in personal experience 3.07 works best with my phone.
@bondidave I was thinking skipping the sd-card trick for now, and trying just a few other things first. Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.
Also if you have an external find the efs fix zip and have handy on an sd-card, do the same steps above except the nandroid restore. Basically if we can get into a recovery we should be ok. I had a similar issue when it was just booting over and over into download mode and this was how I fixed it. I have never used the efs fix zip, but many others swear by it. I was able to recover fortunately enough.
Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.
As far as making a complete system backup of your current phone, I highly recommend against it, unless you just want to extract information from it and not re-write it. This could definitely cause some system corruption on a new device.
If none of these methods work, then try and have them swap it under warranty.
Frank Westlake said:
You have probably tried it, but if not, download fresh copies of everything and check the MD5 values
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yessirreeebobbyjimmy, tried several copies from several different places - that and Kies is a moron and redownloads it every time anyways.
noobtoob said:
My mediafire shows it was downloaded 11 times, but yet not a single "this works on KitKat" response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I download these things just to have them handy if something fails.
Do you have a nandroid of any 4.4 ROMS saved anywhere? I was going to say try and flash the stock image. After it gets through flash and tries to boot into recovery, go back directly to download mode. Flash philz or twrp, whatever you need to. Try and perform a recovery boot, wipe everything, and nandroid restore of a 4.4 if you have one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think he got that far into installing 4.4, but I recommend not using anything that was saved after this problem began. If the problem was caused by corruption then the restore will reinstall the corruption.
Last resort try the sd-card boot. I don't necessarily think it will work with this particular case as you do not have the dreaded QHUSB_MODE and your phone is still recognized by the computer(s) you have been using.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the problem is bad USB or other bad hardware causing corruption during transfer then the SD-card boot will get past that, then transferring the rest of the partitions by SD-card will continue to be corruption-free. He could then trade-in the phone.
But you are right -- he should try everything else before the SD-card boot. Because if something else succeeds then maybe the hardware is fine, and if he went immediately to SD-card boot he wouldn't know that.
Frank
Thanks for the advice guys - I'm going to try the backup from my other phone, then the efs fix, then the sd-card boot... I'll report back, wish me luck.
A nandroid previous failure, or a ROM install from external SD card was all I meant.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.
Lorettaa said:
I got some answers I was looking for here. Glad I read this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad something good came out of my frustration!
Here's a quick update: I've done everything but the boot from SD card with no luck (and actually thought I had hard(er?) bricked it for a while after trying to copy over a few images from the other phone - turns out it needed to stay with the battery out for at least 20 minutes).
Good news - walked into a TMO brick-and-mortar last night, showed the guy my endless bootloop, and a replacement is on its way to my house for an affordable $20 warranty service fee.
At this point, I'm thinking the internal flash memory is just bad - as a software engineer, I'm ok with chalking this one up to a hardware issue (as much as I was hoping that my first post on XDA would result in some new profound solution to a longstanding issue common to a few folks).
Oh well - new Note 3 on it's way, and a new S5 shortly behind it (didn't hold out much hope on TMO hooking me up, so I ordered an S5)... let the battle of the Samsungs begin!
Thanks again to you guys who helped out - and the whole XDA community in general, I am very grateful.
Finally you made it fix and enjoy the battle between your phones
Well, sucks it couldn't be fixed, but glad you got a replacement on the way. It pretty much sounded like the partitions were well over written before we attempted anything, but always worth a shot.
Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
Yes, but I don't have the details handy.
All your attempts suggest to me that you might have some damaged hardware which is causing data corruption during transfer. Open the back and take a good look at the USB port. Tighten the screws and try a transfer while firmly holding the cable in place -- don't move it while transferring. :good:

[Q] Bricked my phone... Need Help.

Like I'm sure this topic hasn't come up before, but I've searched for hours and I'm probably just making things worse. I also just accidentally deleted this post halfway through. It's too late and I'm too tired and I have no working phone.
Bought an SGH-I747 on E-Bay. Got a Straight Talk SIM card kit, activated it, so far so good.
Rooted it with CF-Auto-Root. Worked pretty well, took a lot of reboots, upgraded the SU from the Play Store and it got rid of Knox. So far so good. Got everything all set up the way I like it. Happy.
It was running 4.4.2. I'm assuming it was the release prior to the November 12th OTA release, but I can't say for sure.
Phone downloaded and installed an upgrade automatically. Now, it won't boot. I get the SAMSUNG logo, then the Samsung Galaxy S III logo then nothing.
I retried the CF-Auto-Root, no change.
I booted into recovery (volume up, home and power on), did factory reset, no change.
Started looking around for a way to return it to stock. Found an upgrade43.zip file somewhere (I'm sorry I can't find where I got that now). Put it on the sdcard card and tried installing it with the recovery and it fails part way through.
At this point, I think I probably need to completely overwrite everything with something stock. I just don't know how to do that. I see posts on such subjects but they all have warnings that make me think I'm going to totally brick the phone, so I'm hoping someone can point me the right way. I'm not all that Android savvy, as you can tell.
Help.
Since your phone was running 4.4.2, do not attempt to flash any ROMs using that attempt to downgrade your bootloader to anything prior to 4.4.2.
Try this to get your phone up and running:
download the latest CM11 for the d2lte and save it to an external SD card: https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=d2lte
dowload the latest tar.md5 version of Philz Touch for the d2lte from here: https://goo.im/devs/philz_touch/CWM_Advanced_Edition/d2lte/
boot phone in download mode, open Odin 3.07, do not check anything except f.reset.time, flash Philz via PDA box, remove USB cable when you see the word Reset appear in the status window, remove battery, replace battery, boot into recovery, format system, Dalvik, data, and cache, flash cm11, and reboot.
Thank you for your reply. There are a few things in there I don't quite understand, but I think I can figure it out.
I was going to attempt this...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2658486
In fact, I did attempt it with TWRP last night after I posted here and new I still wasn't going to sleep. I kept getting an error about a bad ZIP file.
Is that stock restore a bad idea?
Do not attempt to flash an older bootloader. The mjb bootloader is from 4.3 and attempting to flash it could hard brick your phone.
I suggest doing what I suggested so you can confirm the bootloader and modem installed on your phone.
OK. Thanks. Probably a good thing I couldn't get it to work then.
Thank you so much. I have a working phone again. Now I just have to get it all set back up the way I like it.
I have to say, and it's probably words straight from the devils mouth, that I kind of wish I could have restored the Samsung stock software. It's just what I'm used to. But I will take what I can get.
A few questions. I like having root. But root is what got me in trouble in the first place. Is this going to be rooted now, or will I have to do that or am I better off just leaving it alone.
Second, I'm probably going to have questions since this is so different than what I'm used to (like I already can't find the Play store). Where is the best place to ask?
If you want root, one of the easiest ways to get it is to flash supersu from your custom recovery. Most ROMs are pre-rooted.
Many custom ROMs do not include Gapps. Just download and install the Gapps version for your ROM.
If you like the TW look, flash a TW-based ROM. Check out the development threads for different ROMs.
here is a thread for Q's that has some pretty good/friendly helpers on it if you need.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2257421
"all i can really do , is stay out of my own way and let the will of heaven be done"
How to save in to external SD card
How do you save the file into the external SD card? I am having the same brick issue with my GS3.
To save a file to an external SD card, just put the card into a card reader and save the ROM to the SD card.

[Q] Help with downgrade and/or re-unlock, possible flash new OS

Hi, total noob to Android hacking and rooting here...
I'm in the US and have the HTC Desire 816 (710c) on Virgin Mobile. Really wishing I'd done better research about the Desire 816 and VM before buying this phone. It's a great phone except for the small HD. I didn't realize just how many headaches that small HD--and Virgin's tight-fisted grip regarding their unlock policy--would cause me!
Forgive the length of this, but I'm hoping more detail as to what I've done/tried will help find the right solution...
I was doing fine on KitKat and for some reason decided I wanted to upgrade to Lollipop--mistake number 1! I first installed the update over KitKat but had some issues. Nothing major, but I figured something was definitely wonky when I noticed the basic stock web browser was gone--not that I really use it, just wanted to test something with it. (I was having an issue in Habit Browser, didn't realize 'til later that it was because I had my download folder setting on external SD card. While that worked in KK, it didn't in LP.) So, I did a backup...or THOUGHT I did. HTC Backup app was supposed to have been backing up my phone every day to Drive...turns out, it wasn't, despite notifications that it was working. So, anyway... I went ahead and factory reset the phone and reinstalled Lollipop. UGH! An even bigger mistake. Over 6 GB of the HD gone, just from stock LP!
Then I thought maybe if I unlocked the phone, I could delete most of the junk, even still using the stock OS. I followed the directions on HTCDev and although the proper screen appeared on the phone and asked me if I wanted to unlock, and I replied yes, it didn't work at first. The phone rebooted and everything was the same. Reboot checker confirmed failure.
So, as I was ready to try to narrow down my list of previously installed apps to absolute essentials due to the reduced disk space, I thought to see if there was a a way to revert to KitKat. I followed the instructions here http://forum.xda-developers.com/desire-816/general/ruu-t2952058. I tried the RUU .exe first. It failed, telling me I needed to get the correct RUU and try again. However, HTC's website does NOT show any KK downloads for Virgin Mobile USA for this device. More on that in a moment...
I also tried the flashing via SD card method. It also failed. I thought, what the heck, I'll try steps 3 and 4 of the SD card method, flashing the stock recovery and lock the bootloader, even though I thought my device was locked. Well, I guess I didn't notice when I went into fastboot that the device indeed HAD at some point unlocked, after all.
After those steps, I now had the following show up:
*** Software Status: Modified ***
*** RELOCKED ***
SECURITY ALERT!
I tried flashing the ROM.zip from SD card method again. It failed spectacularly, saying something about about a large file (some of the text was beyond the edges of the screen, so I couldn't read all of it. There was also an instruction to press power to reboot. The phone went back into fast boot screen with red highlighted "!! Image Update FAIL !!" Mind you, this was with the SD card now removed. I did manage to get the phone to boot normally again, back to stock Lollipop.
Now I thought I would try flashing the WWE KK download from HTCDev. Well, I didn't get the large image fail message, but it did fail saying that it was not the right image.
I tried unlocking the phone again, via the instructions at HTCDev. Didn't work. Thought I would try the ROM.zip file from the thread here at XDA one more time. Same fail message as before, same behavior of phone getting stuck on flashboot screen with red error message on initial attempt to reboot the device. I do notice now that although phone status is still modified and relocked, the security alert message is gone.
Can anyone help? I just want KitKat back so I can reload all my previous apps! (or possibly a good KK equivalent non-stock ROM, once I get the phone unlocked again? I have no idea which one though, being a noob :/ )
Thanks!
witchywoman said:
So, as I was ready to try to narrow down my list of previously installed apps to absolute essentials due to the reduced disk space, I thought to see if there was a a way to revert to KitKat. I followed the instructions here http://forum.xda-developers.com/desire-816/general/ruu-t2952058. I tried the RUU .exe first. It failed, telling me I needed to get the correct RUU and try again. However, HTC's website does NOT show any KK downloads for Virgin Mobile USA for this device. More on that in a moment...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That ruu file should work it's the vm usa last kitkat version. You need to follow the directions unroot and relock phone. But depending on what you did to the phone that was non standard you might also need to wipe or format internal data before running the ruu.
I think you can:
1) unroot then boot into recovery(twrp)
2) wipe phone/format data.
3) Boot directly from twrp to bootloader so you can get to fastboot usb.
4) Flash stock recovery from your PC.
5) Relock bootloader then run the ruu.exe.
All the other stuff you did afterwards should not be necessary.
pcjunky: The phone is currently relocked. I'm not 100% sure about unrooted, but I think it is. Like I said, when it was unlocked before I didn't even realize it, and I didn't really do anything unusual with it. The phone still had stock Lollipop on it and I just changed some stock settings and preferences.
Also, as I said, I am a total noob. I don't know what you mean about twrp and booting into that to wipe the drive and then from that. I'm sure there is info about that on this site somewhere, but it might be quicker if you (or someone) could explain it briefly, or point me in the right direction.
Updating to answer my own question in this reply. You're telling me to use a custom recovery but I never installed one. So.... currently searching to see how to do that.
I don't know if it's worth you time to learn how to go back to Kitkat. There should be howto's in the general forum for most everything you need. But I think the free memory difference between Kitkat and Lollipop is almost 1GB. 4.04GB free versus 3.14GB free. If you make sure all your apps that support being moved to SD card are moved and your storage settings for supported items uses the SD card you might be able to save enough space to get by until you decide to switch phones.
Twrp is a custom recovery and backup/restore tool you can do a search to learn about it, but you might not need it. The HTC backup is OS specific and it only saves apps and data not system files. So your HTC backup under Kitkat won't restore over Lollipop. If you had installed Twrp and and made a backup of Kitkat before you installed Lollipop you could restore your kitkat backup over Lollipop.
If you still want to try to get back to kitkat you can try to reset your phone(In theory relocking your phone should do that but it wont hurt) before you run the ruu file.
pcjunky said:
I don't know if it's worth you time to learn how to go back to Kitkat. There should be howto's in the general forum for most everything you need. But I think the free memory difference between Kitkat and Lollipop is almost 1GB. 4.04GB free versus 3.14GB free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it's interesting to note that my phone used ~ 4.8 GB when it was new with KK installed. After the Lollipop upgrade, it was using well over 6 GB with just the stock OS, HTC apps and Virgin apps on it. Obviously, that was unacceptable, and it's what got me started on this whole quest. :silly: However, after flashing a custom recover image, rather than the stock recovery I used previously, the stock installation is using 4.97 GB, so I think I should be good to go with that.
If you make sure all your apps that support being moved to SD card are moved and your storage settings for supported items uses the SD card you might be able to save enough space to get by until you decide to switch phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always have used the SD card as much as was supported. Switching phones is not an option for me as I have a rather limited income and the Desire was an investment. Thus another reason I embarked on trying to make these changes.
Twrp is a custom recovery and backup/restore tool you can do a search to learn about it, but you might not need it. The HTC backup is OS specific and it only saves apps and data not system files. So your HTC backup under Kitkat won't restore over Lollipop. If you had installed Twrp and and made a backup of Kitkat before you installed Lollipop you could restore your kitkat backup over Lollipop.
If you still want to try to get back to kitkat you can try to reset your phone(In theory relocking your phone should do that but it wont hurt) before you run the ruu file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, as I said above, the stock/OME installation now, before uninstalling whatever junk it will let me, is using only 4.97 GB, so I should be fine with that.
Thanks for your efforts to help me out with this. :good:
I'm glad you got it to a workable point. It's possible to go back to Kitkat, but I personally wouldn't do it because it gives you better battery life.
From time to time you should check apps under settings and swipe left to see the apps on sd card. Sometimes new app updates will support being moved to sd card or an updated version of an app will need to be moved over to the sd card.

n00b here, Google isn't helping [SOLVED]

So I think I just bricked my phone... I tried to update my phone by reinstalling the stock recovery as per this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPPT5J8xG6w
After updating, the phone got stuck on the error screen. I was able to go back into recovery and go back to the home screen. After some googling, I found this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/help/ota-lollipop-update-fails-red-triangle-t3015597
So I followed the steps and unrooted my phone and tried again. After the update, my phone won't go past the splash screen. I tried going into recovery and wiping the phone and rebooting, but it never gets past the splash screen. Help please!
CID-ROGER001
HBOOT-3.19.0.0000
RADIO-1.25.21331147A1.06G
OpenSDP-v48.2.2-00564-M8974_FO.1211
OS-4.20.631.3
eMMC-boot 2048MB
If you can flash an ruu then I would suggest flashing a stock latest Rogers ruu and starting from there
danial.aw said:
If you can flash an ruu then I would suggest flashing a stock latest Rogers ruu and starting from there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How would I flash and RUU? And where can I find a Rogers RUU? I can only find US/Europe RUUs. Please bear with me, I'm new to all this, but I'm trying to read as much as I can.
Bump
I'm trying method 2 as per SneakyGhost's FUU guide, but my computer is not detecting my phone despite it showing up in the "Safety Remove Hardware and Eject Media" tab (Android 1.0). In addition, the phone is showing FASTBOOT USB when connected. Stuck at a standstill right now.
Just an update on the situation, maybe this will help someone in the future - Progress so far - I was able to flash TWRP 2.8.7.0 as instructed a guide on the Android forums (I wish I could post links!).
Working on getting a rom to flash onto it now... I think I'm getting close...
ChickenOmelette said:
Just an update on the situation, maybe this will help someone in the future - Progress so far - I was able to flash TWRP 2.8.7.0 as instructed a guide on the Android forums (I wish I could post links!).
Working on getting a rom to flash onto it now... I think I'm getting close...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue as you right now. Attempting to download a nandroid backup and then push it to my phone via fastboot and restore using TWRP and see if that works. Let me know how you make out.
essteekay said:
Same issue as you right now. Attempting to download a nandroid backup and then push it to my phone via fastboot and restore using TWRP and see if that works. Let me know how you make out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I didn't even have a backup - I'm having enough trouble getting the damn thing to boot!
ChickenOmelette said:
Unfortunately, I didn't even have a backup - I'm having enough trouble getting the damn thing to boot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I managed to get a nandroid 4.4 backup onto my device and restored it. Worked and now my phone is back up and running and going through the rigmarole of updating apps and restoring my media/data backups.
essteekay said:
I managed to get a nandroid 4.4 backup onto my device and restored it. Worked and now my phone is back up and running and going through the rigmarole of updating apps and restoring my media/data backups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who is your carrier? And where did you get this Nandroid backup?
ChickenOmelette said:
Who is your carrier? And where did you get this Nandroid backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fido, but my CID is Rogers001 (same network, probably that's why).
I used this thread as reference.
Downloaded the 3.34.631.4 - TWRP Recovery Nandroid from the CID Rogers001 part. Here's a direct link to the Nandroid backup.
From there, I unzipped the file and then transferred it to my M8 using my SD card (you can also push it straight to the device if using fastboot). I used the file manager in TWRP to move it into my backup folder (TWRP > Backup > Serial Number) in TWRP and then restored it.
Let me know if you've got any other questions. Seems to be working for me right now.
essteekay said:
Fido, but my CID is Rogers001 (same network, probably that's why).
I used this thread as reference.
Downloaded the 3.34.631.4 - TWRP Recovery Nandroid from the CID Rogers001 part. Here's a direct link to the Nandroid backup.
From there, I unzipped the file and then transferred it to my M8 using my SD card (you can also push it straight to the device if using fastboot). I used the file manager in TWRP to move it into my backup folder (TWRP > Backup > Serial Number) in TWRP and then restored it.
Let me know if you've got any other questions. Seems to be working for me right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like amazing news. Hopefully this works. Apparently after this is done the OTA has to be applied? Is that your next step? Will you be flashing a rom after your firmware is updated?
ChickenOmelette said:
Seems like amazing news. Hopefully this works. Apparently after this is done the OTA has to be applied? Is that your next step? Will you be flashing a rom after your firmware is updated?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right now, just going to keep things as is. I'm in a location with pretty spotty internet, so downloading 1+ GB ROMs isn't that easy. Probably just keep it so that I can use my device and then tinker on it when I'm back at home. I was notified that the Android 5.0.1 update is available for download, but right now I'm holding off doing anything else.
I'm just glad I got it back to working order now.
Here's what I got told to do:
If you want to properly update your firmware via FUU, you have to get to a stock rooted rom, stock recovery, s-off using Sunshine, apply the SuperCID mod, and then update your firmware. After that, reinstall TWRP and whatever modern rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After doing all this, I tried updating the phone from the Rogers pushed update. Unfortunately, that pushed me back to step 1, where the phone wouldn't boot up, so I had to start from scratch. Now that I have SuperCID, I'm going to try to apply a stock OTA from another carrier. Wish me luck!
So I started from scratch and the Rogers update just doesn't want to work. Every time it updates, it would show the red HTC error icon. I ended up taking the update off the phone's internal memory, as it could still boot, and pushing it via Method 2 seen in this guide as a reference. After pushing flashing (it took two times), the update finally installed, BUT it STILL GOT STUCK AT THE DAMN BOOT SCREEN.
At this point, I got frustrated and went straight to flashing a custom ROM as per the instructions given here. After long moments of waiting, it finally started installing. Very important to note, but I got stuck at the AROMA installer at the "Please Wait" screen. After pressing the power button and vol up, the got out of that screen and continued to install. Now I have a custom ROM, updated firmware and SENSE 7.0! Amazing. I hope that this post helps you in what you'll have to do next!
I blame Rogers for pushing out s***ty updates. But consider this problem SOLVED.

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