I noticed that under settings > SD card & storage that my Phone storage shows being read only.
I was wondering what may be causing this and if there is a fix for it, because several of my apps no longer work (BeyondPod being the main one I miss) because they need an SD card to work with.
I'm running the out of the box firmware, rooted using amon ra recovery.
I do have an exchange activesync account that requires encryption and pin, not sure if that could be causing any issues.
I did try to search the problem but couldn't find any relevant threads.
do you have SD encryption turned on in settings?
Is that the culprit?
Looks like I need to download that modified Mail.apk
After I re-locked my phone to apply the last GB OTA with new radios, I noticed that when I booted my phone the entire /data partition was in read-only mode somehow and it was causing all sorts of weird problems as you could imagine. Simply rebooting to bootloader and hitting "factory reset" option on the bootloader menu fixed the problem. I was then able to write to /data again and everything was fine. Obviously this will clear it everything. I was then able to apply my nandroid backup though and restore my system to how it was before the OTA.
zourn said:
Is that the culprit?
Looks like I need to download that modified Mail.apk
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thats just my guess... turn it off and see if it helps
Started getting weird read errors when trying to read/write to the card while it was mounted in the phone with the password for the encryption already put in.
I think the card was going bad, or just got all FUBAR'd during the encryption process.
Deleted exchange acct, removed SD card encryption, put in new SD card, re-added exchange acct/re-added encryption, everything works!
Related
So when I joined my phone to the corporate network, it insisted on (amongst other things), encrypting the SD card. After some annoyance with that, pins etc, I decided to revert back. I successfully removed the accounts etc and unchecked the encrypted SD card option.
However, when I did so, it said something about only applying going forward and I still keep getting asked for the pin to decrypt the SD card. So it seems that stuff is still decrypted on there? I have done some searching but have had little luck finding any definitive answers, most seem to be related to problems with people losing whatever key to decrypt items which is obviously not the case here since once I enter the pin, I can access items with no problem
So what's the deal? Do I have to save everything off and reformat the SD card to get back to normal? Seems kind-of wonky to me but that's Android, I guess.
Oh, I have tried reencrypting and unencrypting the SD card again and the Android version is 4.1.2 if that's any help.
So when I joined my phone to the corporate network, it insisted on (amongst other things), encrypting the SD card. After some annoyance with that, pins etc, I decided to revert back. I successfully removed the accounts etc and unchecked the encrypted SD card option.
However, when I did so, it said something about only applying going forward and I still keep getting asked for the pin to decrypt the SD card. So it seems that stuff is still decrypted on there? I have done some searching but have had little luck finding any definitive answers, most seem to be related to problems with people losing whatever key to decrypt items which is obviously not the case here since once I enter the pin, I can access items with no problem
So what's the deal? Do I have to save everything off and reformat the SD card to get back to normal? Seems kind-of wonky to me but that's Android, I guess.
Oh, I have tried reencrypting and unencrypting the SD card again and the Android version is 4.1.2 if that's any help.
[Solved]
Not sure how to mark this solved. Maybe a mod can do it.
So I ran into some issues with the phone and managed to back up my data, completely reformatted the card and copied all the files back to the SD card.
*Still* I would get the "encryption password" popup. Nothing was encrypted, I could view all the files if I used a card reader. Yet when I plugged it back in, I either had to enter the string or couldn't see the files at all (even though they were clearly unencrypted).
The culprit?
/.sds.bin
I deleted that and everything is fine again. I guess it hung around when I disabled the encryption and was causing my misery. I hope this can help someone else who might be having the same problem
Funnily enough, now that I know what I am looking for, I found the exact solution to my problem here.
https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/777978?start=0&tstart=0
In fact, there is a hidden and very magic file sitting on the card named ".sds.bin" which is the flag to Android that the data on the card (may) be encrypted. If you remove this file (easiest on Linux or OSX) and then put the card back into your phone, you will be back in business. It seems as if someone at the Google forgot to remove this file when I told it to decrypt my phone earlier this year.
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Oh well, que sera sera.
As the title says implies, I am having trouble writing data to my external SD card - both through the phone and while connected to a PC.
Background: Got the S4 about a week ago. It was on NK1. I rooted, de-bloated, and made back-up in SafeStrap. Discovered I had to run the KK SD Card fix, but was able to write to the SD card afterwards. Yesterday, while trying to copy a file to the SD card while connected to a PC resulted in a failure (Device stopped responding or was disconnected error). After that, the whole phone went wonky - Titanium, Root Explorer, File Manager, etc... wouldn't open and/or run properly after wards. Several reboots and the problem persisted.
Figured I would just restore my back-up. Well I screwed something up and got stuck in a boot-loop - I odined back to NC5 (figured I didn't need to be on NK1), and re-rooted. Setting my phone back up I realize I can't write to the SD card again. I run the SD Fix but to no avail. Opened Root Explorer and looked at platform.xml, which has all the correct permissions (as in this post).
What's going on and how do I fix this? The SD card is a pretty important feature for me. I can write to and copy to the internal storage either through the phone and while connected to a PC, but not the SD card. FWIW, the SD card works flawlessly in my old phone, so I know it;s not the card.
Going nuts here.
Thanks,
Edit - So playing around with another (lower capacity) SD card I find that everything works perfectly. When I get time this weekend I will have to reformat and/or get a new card. Strangely, the problem card still works good in my old phone. Very weird.
Turns out the sd card was/is bad. Found a great deal on a 64gb card and it's working great.
So now for more noob questions: What is the correct procedure for restoring and or flashing roms with safestrap? On my other phones I'm used to entering recovery (TWRP) and wiping data/cache/dalvik, formatting, doing a factory reset, etc, then flashing and or restoring.
When I attempted to restore my backup on my S4 (as described above), I wiped data, dalvik, & cache. After that I either did a factory reset or format (can't remember which), the phone automatically rebooted, and that is when I got stuck in the bootloop and couldn't enter safestrap recovery. I am interested in flashing Eclipse but would like to know the exact procedures to avoid losing the ability to enter safestrap.
Thanks for the advice.
I don't know what happened, but I no longer have a working lock screen on my Verizon (T-Mobile network) LG G3.
All of a sudden, there's just no lockscreen whatsoever. I tried disabling the lock screen and then turning it back on using swipe, patter and PIN, but there's just no lock screen at all. If I hit the power button or let the device time out and go to screen off, when I wake the phone via double tap or hitting the power button, I'm just taken to my home screen. I've disabled trusted places and on body detection. That really shouldn't matter though as I should still get the swipe screen if those are active.
Even when I initially boot, it goes right to my desktop, where before, I had to enter my PIN first.
Completely stumped here.
Any ideas? I really don't want to factory reset.
Probably related. My screen is not timing out. I have screen timeout to 15 seconds, I'm not plugged in and the screen never goes off. Smart screen is off as well.
Any ideas now?
I have no ideas that don't involve first trying wiping Cache and Dalvik/ART, and then wiping those two plus Data if the first doesn't fix it, and then flashing the 10B TOT to start fresh if neither of those fix it. Of course before wiping Data I'd do an LG Backup to backup my user apps and user data, and before flashing the TOT, I'd move everything I want to keep from the internal storage. I'd also have a TWRP backup of the EFS which includes IMEI, and remove the SIM and MicroSD card before flashing the TOT or any kind of flashing when possible, as I believe flashing has occasionally wiped one of those items. Rare for the SIM and for the MicroSD card, but it happened to me with the MicroSD card.
Any time there's ever any kind of problem, the first thing to try should always be the wipes.
roirraW "edor" ehT said:
I have no ideas that don't involve first trying wiping Cache and Dalvik/ART, and then wiping those two plus Data if the first doesn't fix it, and then flashing the 10B TOT to start fresh if neither of those fix it. Of course before wiping Data I'd do an LG Backup to backup my user apps and user data, and before flashing the TOT, I'd move everything I want to keep from the internal storage. I'd also have a TWRP backup of the EFS which includes IMEI, and remove the SIM and MicroSD card before flashing the TOT or any kind of flashing when possible, as I believe flashing has occasionally wiped one of those items. Rare for the SIM and for the MicroSD card, but it happened to me with the MicroSD card.
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The screen on issue wasn't really an issue, that was TiBu keeping the screen on.
I already did a factotry reset that fixed it. What a pain though, I'm still not full recovered.
I did wipe cache and dalvik before wiping data. Wiping data fixed it.
I've never had any luck with LG Backup, so I didn't do that, but used TiBu to recover, which didn't go so well.
I guess it's lucky I didn't have to go the whole TOT process. I've done that before and that's not fun either.
lexluthor said:
The screen on issue wasn't really an issue, that was TiBu keeping the screen on.
I already did a factotry reset that fixed it. What a pain though, I'm still not full recovered.
I did wipe cache and dalvik before wiping data. Wiping data fixed it.
I've never had any luck with LG Backup, so I didn't do that, but used TiBu to recover, which didn't go so well.
I guess it's lucky I didn't have to go the whole TOT process. I've done that before and that's not fun either.
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Glad you solved it. Hopefully nothing you restore re-creates the problem.
I sure wish I knew why LG Backup doesn't work for some people? When you tried it did you try saving to internal storage, or just MicroSD card? I always save to internal since it's much faster than any MicroSD card, and then move it later if need be.
I'm used to TOTing. It's no big deal to me any more.
roirraW "edor" ehT said:
Glad you solved it. Hopefully nothing you restore re-creates the problem.
I sure wish I knew why LG Backup doesn't work for some people? When you tried it did you try saving to internal storage, or just MicroSD card? I always save to internal since it's much faster than any MicroSD card, and then move it later if need be.
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I don't recall, haven't done it in a while. It didn't get me anywhere close to back to a full restore when I've tried it. I probably did it to SD card, but don't remember for sure.
lexluthor said:
I don't recall, haven't done it in a while. It didn't get me anywhere close to back to a full restore when I've tried it. I probably did it to SD card, but don't remember for sure.
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If you have your MicroSD card formatted FAT32 (which is common, and what Android, TWRP and probably Windows would normally format it as), then I *think* that maybe LG Backup complains because it puts everything in one huge compressed file and FAT32 can't handle files over 4 GB in size, as it was made in 1977. ExFAT (you can format as such in Windows with the card connected directly to the PC/via adapter, etc) has no restriction. NTFS doesn't either but I wouldn't use that on a MicroSD card.
Another option is to back up half your apps the first time (A-K?) and then L-Z the next time.
Warning that some Android builds/kernels might not have ExFAT support built in, but I'm very sure stock LG does.
Of course if you don't have a huge amount of apps this probably wouldn't be the trouble.
roirraW "edor" ehT said:
If you have your MicroSD card formatted FAT32 (which is common, and what Android, TWRP and probably Windows would normally format it as), then I *think* that maybe LG Backup complains because it puts everything in one huge compressed file and FAT32 can't handle files over 4 GB in size, as it was made in 1977. ExFAT (you can format as such in Windows with the card connected directly to the PC/via adapter, etc) has no restriction. NTFS doesn't either but I wouldn't use that on a MicroSD card.
Another option is to back up half your apps the first time (A-K?) and then L-Z the next time.
Warning that some Android builds/kernels might not have ExFAT support built in, but I'm very sure stock LG does.
Of course if you don't have a huge amount of apps this probably wouldn't be the trouble.
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I have a ton of apps. I will reformat to ExFAT when I get a chance and try to run LG backup again. I won't be chancing a restore though, but at least I'll see how the backup completes.
I'm actually currently formated as exFat. I can't say if I ever tried an LG backup formatted that way, but it's possible. I'll try to run one once I've fully recovered here.
Had a lot of recovery issues with TiBu. Got parsing error even when restoring via indirect method with many apps. I had to restore from a feb TiBu backup, then update all the apps in the play store, then I'm going to restore data with the new TiBu backup. Big PITA. New apps will still show as not restored from the new TiBu backup, so I can just d/l those from the play store and then restore data on this. Good excuse to not bother restoring apps I never use and shortening my total number of apps.
Aigh! Yeah, I've been having more and more trouble with TB which is why I just use LG Backup where possible, although the specific troubles you're having with TB don't sound the same.
MicroSD card in general just isn't as reliable as internal storage. Just plain copying files that have already been written to internal storage to MicroSD card is less taxing than having software create the files on the card to begin with. I've been in the habit of doing disk intensive stuff to internal storage starting with the Galaxy S2.
Hopefully your current restore journey is ultimately successful.
FWIW, I had to wipe data again today due to another issue I was having. I did an LG backup to my external SD that was about 6GB, wiped and did the restore. It looks like it did a pretty good job of getting me back to where I was. The text database is a bit screwed up. All of the group chats are showing at the top of Yaata for some reason. I have an sms backup & restore backup from last night, so I'll wipe the messaging database and restore that. Lot of settings I'll need to clean up, but apps look to be in good shape. Not sure why LG Backup totally didn't work for me previously.
Hope the data wipe fixed this problem (SIM card keeps getting disconnected), but I bet it doesn't and that'll be the end of my G3.
Blackview BV5000 Android 6.0 phone, software borked by malware removal tool. Phone marginally operable, but a backup wasn't possible. Data was encrypted.
Using the stock android recovery <3e>: "backup user data". Backed up to empty SD card, the SD card previously in the phone was removed because it was too small, and is still available.
Flashed the stock rom on the phone, using the exact same ROM version number, build date and time as was previously on the phone.
Phone boots, data gone. Everything set to defaults -- and there is no password set.
Using the stock android recovery <3e>: "restore user data".
User data restores, sucessfully so it says.
On boot I get this error message:
The password you entered is correct, but unfortunately your data is corrupt
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and I'm offered the option of a factory reset.
I did not enter a password. Resetting, booting, and entering the password previously used gives the same result.
Any ideas?
Accidentally, I ran into the same problem on the Accent Speed-X2 with Android 6.0. But I'm just experimenting with the stock recovery function. Therefore, in my case no confidential data can be lost. But I always get this error. Did this option work for you before you changed the SD card? Do you know how to set a password for backup? Is this the password that is in the developer section?
---------- Post added at 05:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:05 PM ----------
I just successfully completed the backup / restore operation after setting up the PIN code and the backup password. When the phone booted, I was asked for the backup password, and after the loading I entered the pin code. All settings have been saved. So I suppose these steps are important.
voromax said:
But I always get this error. Did this option work for you before you changed the SD card? Do you know how to set a password for backup? Is this the password that is in the developer section?
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I think I understand the mechanism now...
The error message is misleading. The user data isn't corrupt, it's unusable because the phone password doesn't match the password used to encrypt the data. Not entering a password doesn't mean there's no password, just that "default_password" is the password used.
So, if the password used to encrypt the data on the SD card is either "default_password", or the PIN entered by me, why can't I decrypt the SD card? Since a four-digit PIN isn't much of an encryption (there's only 10.000 possibilities, and one could check those, maybe starting with date formats), all password are further jumbled using a 128 bit random number. The resulting jumble is stored in internal memory as a key, and used to decrypt the SD card.
The moment you reset the phone, the key is lost. Knowing the password ("default_password", for instance) doesn't do you any good because the random number part is missing. So, you should be able to backup and restore your user data on the same phone, as long as the key file is intact. The moment you lose that file (that is, do a factory reset, or ROM reinstall, or wipe the data partition where the files lives, or just delete the file), your data is toast. It's that way by design, so if you lose the SD card your data is safe (as long as it isn't in an unlocked phone).
This explains why I could enter the old PIN and the SD card still wasn't readable.
Backup and reinstall should work on the same phone if you don't do anything to reset this key. I didn't test this, because I got the phone borked.
I did find instructions on how to read the SD card: AIUI, it requires a rooted phone, downloading the key file, extracting the key. Then either mounting the SD card as an encrypted volume under Linux using the key, or replacing the key file in the phone.
It's likely that it would be easier to use a better backup function that a rooted phone might offer. Also, reading the SD card while in the phone, with the phone in mass storage mode, will allow acces to the data, as then the phone does the decryption transparently.
I did factory restore between backup and recovery, but I think the encryption salt can use some kind of device UID. Also I doubt that reinstalling the ROM can affect it too. So I will try to restore the backup on another device to confirm your assumptions. And if recovery does not succeed, you are right, and the backup is only suitable for the phone from which it is made. I'll post the details later. My condolences on your phone.