[Q] Phone crisis - Assistance required - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

As an introduction: When it comes to mobile platforms I'm more or less as green as they come - so forgive my ignorance regarding... Everything
I recently misplaced my beloved Nexus 4's flipcase. The day it went missing, I managed to stumble and drop my phone a distance onto tiles . It landed at such an awkward angle that the screen not only cracked but pretty much shattered - killing what I believe is known as the digitizer with it. It won't respond to touch.
Distraught I took up my dad's old Galaxy S3 - which was only cracked and a bit eaten (puppies). I went straight into using it and due to a demanding schedule I didn't have time to recover any of the data of the N4 - which I don't know how to do anyway. I quickly learn that I hate Touchwiz and the lack of personal details wakens me to how reliant I am on my phone.
So I set aside some time to get root - load a custom ROM (pa) - and transfer all my data from the N4 to the S3. The first difficulties appear when the S3 rejects towelroot. I install the towelroot apk from the official website and run it. Towelroot tells me it's currently an unsupported device. I google the model number (i9300) and apparently it works with Towelroot. Weird - I guess I'll do it manually.
So I install odin and download what I need and get the drivers for the S3 working and get root. It works without a hitch (I think until later ). Next I look into how to get a ROM on my phone. This happens: http://forum.xda-developers.com/par...s-7-error-installing-pa-t2844044/post54744770 (that's my post btw so it's the exact scenario). I will say that while I was going through this issue I tried many things to try and get rid of the error - I played with CWM a lot - tried to update it - updating failed with unknown errors. - I tried to flash my recovery - it couldn't flash my recovery. Earlier I had tried to install the CWM recovery on it's own from the play store (again - total noob) I only got related versions of CWM from 2011-2012. All of these problems were pretty confusing - and eventually due to the generic error about not being able to flash my recovery I had no idea how to proceed so I did as advised in the thread above and installed Flashify.
Flashify told me I had root, but that it couldn't get access to SuperSU - and to delete SuperSUs memory of Flashify. I went to SuperSU and SuperSU told me that it needed to update my binaries (I don't even know what my binaries are?!). I tell it it can go ahead and it just says "installation failed" so I install SuperUser to try and replace SuperSU - and delete SuperSU. And Flashify is clinging to the remains of SuperSU. Between my odd model identification (TowelRoot - Status 7 error) and my devices seeming lack of compatibility with.. Anything really (I imagine the two are related). I decide to clean slate it with a factory reset. Which I do from the CWM BIOS (?? Volume up + Home + Power?).
So of course unlike any phone I've ever worked with - a factory reset now means wipe my SIM. (Okay that was laziness and stupidity I should have taken it out first but allow me to grieve). As I should have predicted but didn't it wiped all my backups (foolishly saved onto the internal SD card) and leaves me in the fetal position on the ground making howling noises shedding tears onto the floor.
I can't afford a new phone - or to repair my old one. I need the data off my N4 - who's touchscreen doesn't work - which is problem number 1. And I would really rather not live with touchwiz, or have to do half the process again when I otherwise find the time to get rid of it, so I want to do that now but there are so many errors and I have no idea what I'm dealing with - which is problem number 2.
So please, if anyone can help me out with a)Getting the data off my N4 (it is properly set up as a mass media device) and b)Fixing this seemingly banjaxed S3 and getting pa onto it.
Any help would be really gratefully received. It's been an awful weekend - I also lost a hard drive with all my work and a lot of personal data on it to natural causes.
Thanks - I eagerly await my knight in shining armor.

Related

[Q] Need help to Halt OS update Installation

Hope you can help me - I am desperate to halt the OTA update for my galaxy s4 -
based on everything I’ve read, Samsung did a really bad job on this update, 4.4.2, and they are currently rolling out 4.4.3 and 4.4.4, but of course, the s5 is getting it well before we are.
anyway,
I have been “happily” running 4.3 and just dealing with the bluetooth issues, found enough hacks/fixes for the wifi issue that i have been ok with it since getting 4.3 in November.
There are just too many unworkable issues of battery drain, overheating, losing apps, pics, etc etc etc for me to risk the update to 4.4.2.
HERE’S MY PROBLEM - Somehow, altho i'm fairly technical, the update finally got on my phone (after having kept it off for months) and for the past month or more, I've just been
dealing with the notification, putting it off for 24 hrs at a time.
I guess it finally decided not to allow me to do that any longer, and started the installation without permission. i stopped it by pulling the battery, but when i try to start in recovery mode just so i can clear cache and hopefully reboot without actually installing the new os, I cannot - it goes through (some of) the motions but when i let go of the power button as i should when it's running normally, and would get the options of factory reset, clear cache, et al, it just brings up the android bot and shows that it is continuing to install where it left off. I’ve done this numerous times.
Tried different methods of button-holding and other trouble-shooting based on massive searching, but always get the same result. and I can only pull the battery to stop it.
Am I stuck? Do I have to install now at this point?
I do not want to perform factory reset, guess I'd rather install the 4.4.2 s/w. (altho I can't even get to that option at this point)
Sincerely hope someone out there will respond – I've posted to multiple sites, and no one is responding - gonna have to turn my phone back on at some point soon...
Thanks in advance!!
Roxanne
rkohlin said:
Hope you can help me - I am desperate to halt the OTA update for my galaxy s4 -
based on everything I’ve read, Samsung did a really bad job on this update, 4.4.2, and they are currently rolling out 4.4.3 and 4.4.4, but of course, the s5 is getting it well before we are.
anyway,
I have been “happily” running 4.3 and just dealing with the bluetooth issues, found enough hacks/fixes for the wifi issue that i have been ok with it since getting 4.3 in November.
There are just too many unworkable issues of battery drain, overheating, losing apps, pics, etc etc etc for me to risk the update to 4.4.2.
HERE’S MY PROBLEM - Somehow, altho i'm fairly technical, the update finally got on my phone (after having kept it off for months) and for the past month or more, I've just been
dealing with the notification, putting it off for 24 hrs at a time.
I guess it finally decided not to allow me to do that any longer, and started the installation without permission. i stopped it by pulling the battery, but when i try to start in recovery mode just so i can clear cache and hopefully reboot without actually installing the new os, I cannot - it goes through (some of) the motions but when i let go of the power button as i should when it's running normally, and would get the options of factory reset, clear cache, et al, it just brings up the android bot and shows that it is continuing to install where it left off. I’ve done this numerous times.
Tried different methods of button-holding and other trouble-shooting based on massive searching, but always get the same result. and I can only pull the battery to stop it.
Am I stuck? Do I have to install now at this point?
I do not want to perform factory reset, guess I'd rather install the 4.4.2 s/w. (altho I can't even get to that option at this point)
Sincerely hope someone out there will respond – I've posted to multiple sites, and no one is responding - gonna have to turn my phone back on at some point soon...
Thanks in advance!!
Roxanne
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you rooted?
SiVisPacemParaBellum
OderintDumMetuant
stvn2569 said:
Are you rooted?
SiVisPacemParaBellum
OderintDumMetuant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for responding stvn2569!
Nope, not rooted.
But based on all my searching I sure wish I was and likely will the next phone.
Stock Verizon Galaxy s4 - 32gb - model # SCH-I545
(Sorry, should have put this in orig message)
THis summarizes some of the reason I don't want to update the OS - -
ack - can't post links - will have to type it out if you are interested in all the bugs Samsung saddled us with -
(most egregious is the battery drain, but others are quite serious and hard to live with too)
www(dot)androidpit(dot)com(slash)samsung-galaxy-s4-update-to-android-4-4-2-littered-with-bugs
rkohlin said:
Thanks for responding stvn2569!
Nope, not rooted.
But based on all my searching I sure wish I was and likely will the next phone.
Stock Verizon Galaxy s4 - 32gb - model # SCH-I545
(Sorry, should have put this in orig message)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll need to root the phone to stop the OTA notifications, it's all very easy.
Go to settings > security > allow installations from unknown sources, check the box
Go to www.towelroot.com
Click on the lambda, download and install the towelroot.apk
Click on "make it ra1n", reboot
Download "SuperSU" from the play store
Upon opening the app, it will prompt you to "update binaries". Do this using the "normal" option
Then download "Root Explorer" from the play store
Navigate to the system and system-priv app folders
In one of those folders you'll find "FWupgrade,apk" and "SDM.apk"
Delete those apk's and no more OTA updates:good:
joshm.1219 said:
You'll need to root the phone to stop the OTA notifications, it's all very easy.
.......
:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, Josh, I appreciate your trying to help, but if you read the original post -
I CANNOT TURN ON THE PHONE, hence couldn't get to settings if I wanted to, BUT - -
It is not the notification that is the issue -
the phone has finally downloaded the OTA update and IS INSTALLING IT. (every time I turn it on)
I DO NOT WANT THIS UPDATE INSTALLED. (see prior post for the reason - it's terribly buggy update - worse than what I have)
I have to figure out how to halt it - when I try to start in "recovery mode", it doesn't give me the options
it normally would - I won't start in a normal recovery mode.
It continues the OS update.
I noted all this in the original post - I completely understand how to get rid of the update notifications.
One doesn't even have to root the phone to do this, you can just rename the SDM apk (like add .bak or something)
Do you have ideas how to stop the installation? How I can turn phone on in recovery mode?
(note the steps I've taken to do that are also in the original post)
I know there are many people out there smarter than me about this - hoping you guys can help...,
rkohlin said:
Thanks, Josh, I appreciate your trying to help, but if you read the original post -
I CANNOT TURN ON THE PHONE, hence couldn't get to settings if I wanted to, BUT - -
It is not the notification that is the issue -
the phone has finally downloaded the OTA update and IS INSTALLING IT. (every time I turn it on)
I DO NOT WANT THIS UPDATE INSTALLED. (see prior post for the reason - it's terribly buggy update - worse than what I have)
I have to figure out how to halt it - when I try to start in "recovery mode", it doesn't give me the options
it normally would - I won't start in a normal recovery mode.
It continues the OS update.
I noted all this in the original post - I completely understand how to get rid of the update notifications.
One doesn't even have to root the phone to do this, you can just rename the SDM apk (like add .bak or something)
Do you have ideas how to stop the installation? How I can turn phone on in recovery mode?
(note the steps I've taken to do that are also in the original post)
I know there are many people out there smarter than me about this - hoping you guys can help...,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad, I would suggest booting into download mode and flashing the mk2 tar file with odin (3.09 recommended).
I didn't suggest renaming the file because it doesn't always work. Told my brother to do that on his Note 3 (no root method at the time) and it start downloading an OTA upon reboot one day.
joshm.1219 said:
My bad, I would suggest booting into download mode and flashing the mk2 tar file with odin (3.09 recommended).
I didn't suggest renaming the file because it doesn't always work. Told my brother to do that on his Note 3 (no root method at the time) and it start downloading an OTA upon reboot one day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, Josh!
When you say "boot into download mode" - you mean safe/recovery/download mode right?
(like when one holds (for this model) VolumeUpButton+PowerButton right?)
If that's the case, it doesn't allow me to boot that way. When I do that, it just skips right to
"Installing system update" (with the droid bot)
That's my problem.
Cannot access anything (without allowing the install). :crying:
Have also tried VolumeUpButton+PowerButton+HomeButton. Same.
Drat.
Looks like I may have to accept this OS.
Others I know that have deal with terrible battery drain issues (from 10 hrs heavy use on charge down to 2 hrs)
rkohlin said:
Thanks, Josh!
When you say "boot into download mode" - you mean safe/recovery/download mode right?
(like when one holds (for this model) VolumeUpButton+PowerButton right?)
If that's the case, it doesn't allow me to boot that way. When I do that, it just skips right to
"Installing system update" (with the droid bot)
That's my problem.
Cannot access anything (without allowing the install). :crying:
Have also tried VolumeUpButton+PowerButton+HomeButton. Same.
Drat.
Looks like I may have to accept this OS.
Others I know that have deal with terrible battery drain issues (from 10 hrs heavy use on charge down to 2 hrs)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is Power button click and hold volume down....
rkohlin said:
Thanks, Josh!
When you say "boot into download mode" - you mean safe/recovery/download mode right?
(like when one holds (for this model) VolumeUpButton+PowerButton right?)
If that's the case, it doesn't allow me to boot that way. When I do that, it just skips right to
"Installing system update" (with the droid bot)
That's my problem.
Cannot access anything (without allowing the install). :crying:
Have also tried VolumeUpButton+PowerButton+HomeButton. Same.
Drat.
Looks like I may have to accept this OS.
Others I know that have deal with terrible battery drain issues (from 10 hrs heavy use on charge down to 2 hrs)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like he said, download mode is Power+VolumeDown, press and hold.
UPDATE:
Well, never could get into download mode, so had to accept the OS update to KK 4.4.2
Guess I'm one of the lucky ones, (I do have a fairly new model S4) and I didn't lose apps or contacts.
however,
The Battery Life is TERRIBLE after the 4.4.2 update! Some WiFi issues too.
Seem to have fixed WiFi (for now anyway)
Been searching around and recalibrated my battery, am trying a battery life extender app,
turned off a huge bunch of Samsung and Google apps that evid constantly "ping" and use battery.
It's been a little better, but not a lot.
Hope for 4.4.4 to be available soon (heard 4.4.3 is not a good variant either)

When rooting went south [Murphy's Law] Samsung s2 i9100

Hi everyone... this explanation may be long but I'll try to put my problem in context, please patience!
First, I have years of experience coding stand alone applications and programs but close to none in Android or web development experience... so ... been confident that I could do something as simple ("Yeh right!") as rooting, why should I backup anything from my phone? Big mistake...
My S2 was getting old, space was getting limited and at first I downloaded some cleaning apps (Clean Master) was good for a time but then I had to start uninstalling some of my favorite applications to keep the phone fully operational. After a while I had nothing else to install, as programmed obsolecense was getting my ass, so I decided to find out some ways to get some room in and I found External2Internal app to use my SD as InternalMem, it did the trick except that there still was the "not enough space" message and some apps still refused to install due to the lack of room. So, basically this only modified the reported space in the Storage section of settings.
How I did this? Well, installed KingRoot and then APK Uninstaller with root and External2Internal to finish the trick.
As the problems continued I decided to research more, found out that there was a "better" way, more 1337 way to ROOT and that was installing a Kernel/ROM that was rooted and that would even improve my OS. So I took a tutorial on youtube and Installed "Siyah-s2-v6.0b5" using ODIN and "I9100 XWLSN .NeatROM.Lite.v4.6.1" with Recovery Mode -> Install ZIP from SD. At the end the CMW kept saying that I needed a upgraded version of it and SU needed to be updated but it failed everytime.
After each attempt I wiped to factory settings, cache, battery and even some delvik...
Nothing worked, I downloaded a console simulator to be certain about the rooting and surprise! It wasn't rooted at all...
Then I downloaded CMW update... SU Update... Syrah update... then tried with 4.6 NeatRom Apollo Kernel....:crying:
Now... the phone won't start... it can go into download mode and recovery mode but after ... nothing... I doesn't show anything pass the Samsung Galaxy S ii start screen with the admiration sign < ! > with the triangle.
I Factory reset, wiped everything and still nothing... doesn't start properly.
PLEASE HELP!!!
[bump] please help!

HELP! WIleyFox Swift 2x bootloop

classic! I was nervous about allowing system update to go ahead so wanted to figure out how to system backup first - all signs pointed to needing root access, which pointed to needing custom rom ; I followed a bloody guide which not only didn't work, but despite assurances, on wiping my data (which I'm not bothered about) the boot also seems to be wiped - great so I can't recover or boot now
I get furthest with your ROM than anyone elses (they all say android-info.txt is missing)
yours get's verified but fails with "failed to parse build number" ... souce Wilefox/Swift2/marmite: 7.1.1/NMF26F/decf3a575d:user/release/keys
... some similar messages then:
Verifying current system...
E3001: Package expects build fingerprint of Wileyfox/Swift2/marmite/:7.1.1/N6F26Y/aa4d5d86bc:user/release-keys; this device has Wileyfox/swift2/marmite:7.1.2/N2G47Z/ofcf4099d0:user/release-keys.
...
(Status 7)
Installation aborted
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
all help gratefully received!
whew...sorted...sort of!
finally I have my phone back on track...mostly : hopefully this will help anyone else in the same boat:
- managed to force a build of TWRP into recovery using fastboot / flash - ignored all warnings as I figured it's sodded now anyway - how much worse can it get!
- used TWRP to install Lineage OS marmite : "lineage-14.1-20170929-UNOFFICIAL-marmite" is the only one I could get to work - TWRP was really helpful as it warned why the others wouldn't work - I didn't realise crackling was a completely seperate, previous build, incompatible with the Swift 2x (it's my 1st WileyFox ! )
- then installed the excellent gapps pico (arm64 / 7.1.x) to get basic play store etc. I noticed ALL google stuff is not in the build - that's COOL - you can open, like, your own phone without having to sign in : superbulous
- the only (small) flies left in the ointment are that I use FJSoft MPE to keep all my data synced. However I also backed up apps, but whatsapp unfortunately didn't restore my history. unfortunately the last time I did a backup (to a google drive on my phone google account was August ) However all my sms/call logs/calendar/contacts are back :victory:
unbelievably despite the length of this post I have not even scratched the surface of the palaver this all was - this is not what I have time to be doing right now : I have been forced to learn all this TWRP / flashing in a feverish panic - glad I did now. as usual I'm impressed by the lovely people who do things like provide ROMs for us desperados : thanks to the ROM providers etc
what would be nice is if wileyfox provided a stock ROM we could download - I may contact them and see if they will - I can add it to recovery options
- debating with self now whether to accept the fact that I'm back on track, not to take risk of adding root access - not sure but think I need it for adding usb otg - anyway that's really another topic

Can't fix Bugged custom ROM

I have a Galaxy S III GT-I9300 I bought in 2014. After three years, I downloaded a custom ROM from xda-developers (android 4.3 is all I remember about it) and installed it successfully. It worked alright until one day when I wanted to sell the phone and a customer wanted to buy it on short notice, and I rushed to delete my files from the phone, but I destroyed the Android... I connected it to my laptop and shift-deleted some system files.... since then, the phone is delaying when trying to unlock (if i lock it now and try to unlock it a few times, it opens harder and harder), when I'm using apps it continously shows that some .com processess stopped working, and if I try to turn on the bluetooth, the phone instantly freezes and restarts itself.
I tried reinstalling two original ROMs, (version 4.1.2) successfully, but the data on the phone&the system problems remain the same.
I'd like to know how can I make a hard reset, meaning in deleting all the files&settings as it was brand new, just to clear everything, like clearing CMOS. I also think the recovery mode is damaged and I'd like to fix it somehow (if this is possible). The installation process I did for installing the custom ROM from XDA-devs was long and complicated, I had to do a lot of things... and I just want to get the phone fixed and restore to default (or even to fix bugs on this android version) its android, kernel & everything could be ,,reflashed''.
I'm willing to pay if someone helps me fix the problems and it really works. Thank you!

Can't fix Bugged custom ROM

I have a Galaxy S III GT-I9300 I bought in 2014. After three years, I downloaded a custom ROM from xda-developers (android 4.3 is all I remember about it) and installed it successfully. It worked alright until one day when I wanted to sell the phone and a customer wanted to buy it on short notice, and I rushed to delete my files from the phone, but I destroyed the Android... I connected it to my laptop and shift-deleted some system files.... since then, the phone is delaying when trying to unlock (if i lock it now and try to unlock it a few times, it opens harder and harder), when I'm using apps it continously shows that some .com processess stopped working, and if I try to turn on the bluetooth, the phone instantly freezes and restarts itself.
I tried reinstalling two original ROMs, (version 4.1.2) successfully, but the data on the phone&the system problems remain the same.
I'd like to know how can I make a hard reset, meaning in deleting all the files&settings as it was brand new, just to clear everything, like clearing CMOS. I also think the recovery mode is damaged and I'd like to fix it somehow (if this is possible). The installation process I did for installing the custom ROM from XDA-devs was long and complicated, I had to do a lot of things... and I just want to get the phone fixed and restore to default (or even to fix bugs on this android version) its android, kernel & everything could be ,,reflashed''.
I'm willing to pay if someone helps me fix the problems and it really works. Thank you!

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