[Q] Samsung Galaxy SII bootloop problem - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello,
Every once in a while my Samsung Galaxy SII I9100 with Android 4.1.2 hangs up, and after that it goes in the bootloop on power on. And I know that hard reset is a solution to this problem. But it happened to me lately like 4 times and I really HATE losing my data from apps and settings like this. Is there any way to fix it WITHOUT the need to hard reset? I tried the "soft reset" but it didn' t solve the problem. Every time it is like this - the phone hangs up (usually overnight), I turn it off and then on and suddenly it is in a bootloop. I can access the Recovery and Download modes.

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Phitherek_ said:
Hello,
Every once in a while my Samsung Galaxy SII I9100 with Android 4.1.2 hangs up, and after that it goes in the bootloop on power on. And I know that hard reset is a solution to this problem. But it happened to me lately like 4 times and I really HATE losing my data from apps and settings like this. Is there any way to fix it WITHOUT the need to hard reset? I tried the "soft reset" but it didn' t solve the problem. Every time it is like this - the phone hangs up (usually overnight), I turn it off and then on and suddenly it is in a bootloop. I can access the Recovery and Download modes.
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Have you tried to change kernel see if that helps? Philz is stock solid kernel no probs my end.

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Had a similar problem with a Dorimanx build late last yr (forget which build exactly), every couple of weeks the same issue as you're having.
My solution ? Make regular nandroid backups (at the very least weekly, more often if you're updating apps/making changes to your setup a lot or if the problem is happening really often), and restore same whenever you have the bootloop problem.
Worked for me until the problem went away with a different build.
Edit - Or you can do what Andrew suggested & try another kernel/different build of the same kernel (If you're going to stick with the same kernel, tell the dev/pull a logcat or whatever & give that to them).

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andrewwright said:
Have you tried to change kernel see if that helps? Philz is stock solid kernel no probs my end.
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Actually I never tried to change the kernel, I am now using Samsung' s original 4.1.2 firmware. Thank you for suggestion.

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MistahBungle said:
Had a similar problem with a Dorimanx build late last yr (forget which build exactly), every couple of weeks the same issue as you're having.
My solution ? Make regular nandroid backups (at the very least weekly, more often if you're updating apps/making changes to your setup a lot or if the problem is happening really often), and restore same whenever you have the bootloop problem.
Worked for me until the problem went away with a different build.
Edit - Or you can do what Andrew suggested & try another kernel/different build of the same kernel (If you're going to stick with the same kernel, tell the dev/pull a logcat or whatever & give that to them).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for suggestion, however my device is not rooted (yet?), so I cannot use nandroid.

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Flash with philz kernel and it will be I love team work Mb :thumbup:

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Running pure stock, your options are basically zero short of doing a factory reset, which may not solve the issue. You could do a clean install of stock via Odin, but if you're going to go down that path you may as well go the whole hog & root the phone (you don't necessarily have to run a custom kernel/rom if you don't want to; plenty of people run rooted stock) and receive the benefits of same (I.E the ability to make nandroid backups - much better than any other option Samsung has ever come up with).

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Thank you for redirecting me to PhilZ kernel. However, I do not know which version I have to download for the Polish firmware (XXMS1), could you clarify?
Also, I have found a Siyah kernel in my search, flashed beta4 but it does not work for me, should I try with beta5? And is it a good kernel?

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Siyah v6.0b5 will work and philz lsw will work siyah is very good so is philz

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I had exactly the same problem this morning.My phone originally had omega v23 (with philz) installed, but it kept running hot all the time, so I flashed stock 4.1.2 xwlsw with mobile odin and everroot. My question now is should I unroot my f/w before flashing philz kernel?

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No just flash it will do as its told :thumbup:

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andrewwright said:
No just flash it will do as its told :thumbup:
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thanks. In the meantime I've doing some reading and somewhere in the depth of the philz kernel thread was a post buried, where some recommended to flash the tar file via mop. That's what I've done. It seems to have worked.
But it's running hot again. I had that before with the philz kernel, but that belongs in another thread

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Ok but give it 20 mins atleast to settle down. The only kernel other than apollo that keeps my phone cool :thumbup:

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andrewwright said:
Ok but give it 20 mins atleast to settle down. The only kernel other than apollo that keeps my phone cool :thumbup:
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Dumb question, but I find I need to flash apolo, can I just go ahead and flash it in recovery over philz or is there something I need to look out for. Also I've read about scripts for cleaning up busybox and previous kernels? this is all very confusing

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Use gs2 kernel wipe script flash script first then flash dif kernel.

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this

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Ok, I probably accidentaly found a cause of this problem. I had Facebook information on my lock screen and when I tried to refresh it my phone went on bootloop. So probably it is the issue with the information module of the lock screen (or maybe it was just a coincidence, if so, I will let you know). I think everyone with XWLSE firmware should consider disabling this feature. Btw. really thank you guys for PhilZ recovery + root kernel and Online Nandroid Backup suggestions, they are great .