[Q] Need advice on what to do - Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II

Hi,
I rooted my phone and flashed a couple roms on it long ago back on 4.1.1. I hadn't done anything knew with it for a long time and I never allowed any OTA updates or anything like that. I recently picked up a smartwatch and I needed to move to a newer version to be able to get the app to use with the smartwatch. I am quite rusty and it seems like a lot of things have changed. I tried downloading one of the new lollipop roms and also picked up an older one from 4.4 just to try them out. I went to flash the lollipop one and I'm guessing there was probably something I was missing for later updates or something cause it failed.
I was running an old version of TWRP and thought maybe that needed to be updated. I downloaded a TWRP downloader program in the playstore and supposedly downloaded the newest version but when it rebooted I was stuck on the samsung logo and even letting it sit for 30+ minutes it never would progress. So, I then figured I was stuck on this so I looked up how to get back to stock and I used ODIN to get back to stock. Now, I think I'm not longer rooted and will have to go through the root process again. What path should I take to be able to get to the newer versions? I'm trying hard not to mess it up.
Thanks for any advice you can give!
Hellron

I actually figured out what to do. I had to update my TWRP and I just used ODIN to update it. I tried to use the app in the appstore but it didn't work.

Related

Help! (bell i171m galaxy note)

I'm trying to get my note back to original stock GB so I can ota upgrade to ICS.
I did a complete 'backup' of the original rom before I started messing around, and now, no matter what I do, I can't get that backup to reinstall on the phone.
I've done a lot of searching around, and found many threads about getting notes back to AT&T stock, and am very wary about doing that.
I've also found a few threads about getting back to original bell stock firmware etc, but whenever I run the files through odin, I get wierd errors (some with chinese writing), and just get frustrated.
I liked a few of the custom rom's I found, but the crazy thing, is the spen gestures (specifically the double-tap with button down for quick memos) are just too important to be without. I got the phone for work, and thought those where neat 'features'. Well.. seems I can't live without them.
But NOTHING I can find helps. I've tried methods listed on rootgalaxynote.com to unroot and get back to stock, and everything looks fine till I try either ota updating or kies updating. The phone simply isn't recognized in kies, and the ota update says nothing is available. and I know it IS available, cause I did the upgrade just after it was released, before I did all this custom rom stuff.
I'm start to get at my wits end. I simply want my original stock firmware etc. back on the phone, upgraded to ICS, and then I can just forget about everything else.
Is there anyone that can help?
P.S. if you know of any links I may have overlooked, please just post them. Believe me when I say I've spent well over a week just browsing the forums and google, doing searches etc. Its entirely possible it's something obvious that I just didn't see... with my 3 older kids and a newborn, I'm getting almost zero sleep, and am constantly frazzled. I sometimes don't even realize my wife is talking to me (on the worse days).
Anyways, thanks for anyone's help.
Ragnarkov said:
I'm trying to get my note back to original stock GB so I can ota upgrade to ICS.
I did a complete 'backup' of the original rom before I started messing around, and now, no matter what I do, I can't get that backup to reinstall on the phone.
I've done a lot of searching around, and found many threads about getting notes back to AT&T stock, and am very wary about doing that.
I've also found a few threads about getting back to original bell stock firmware etc, but whenever I run the files through odin, I get wierd errors (some with chinese writing), and just get frustrated.
I liked a few of the custom rom's I found, but the crazy thing, is the spen gestures (specifically the double-tap with button down for quick memos) are just too important to be without. I got the phone for work, and thought those where neat 'features'. Well.. seems I can't live without them.
But NOTHING I can find helps. I've tried methods listed on rootgalaxynote.com to unroot and get back to stock, and everything looks fine till I try either ota updating or kies updating. The phone simply isn't recognized in kies, and the ota update says nothing is available. and I know it IS available, cause I did the upgrade just after it was released, before I did all this custom rom stuff.
I'm start to get at my wits end. I simply want my original stock firmware etc. back on the phone, upgraded to ICS, and then I can just forget about everything else.
Is there anyone that can help?
P.S. if you know of any links I may have overlooked, please just post them. Believe me when I say I've spent well over a week just browsing the forums and google, doing searches etc. Its entirely possible it's something obvious that I just didn't see... with my 3 older kids and a newborn, I'm getting almost zero sleep, and am constantly frazzled. I sometimes don't even realize my wife is talking to me (on the worse days).
Anyways, thanks for anyone's help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm you I would continue with a custom rom. GNote replaces what you want. You can always install a TW based ROM. What I do is have Gnote as a shortcut on my homescreen. With Gnote I can still write with my Spen. Personally, I'd never use a NON-JB Paranoid ROM. ICS has melted over the summer! Being able to tweak my DPI settings is very important for me for each app. The default DPI and screen layouts are too fricken big, ie; status bar and icons. My eyes are still fine so I don't everything humongous on my screen.
Make sure you have Odin3 v1.85 on your pc. Download the Bell ICS ROM from here:
http://www.hotfile.com/dl/163095548/c1447e9/I717MUGLF4_I717MBMCLF4_BMC.zip.html
Unzip it on your pc. Restart your phone to Download Mode (Hold "Volume Down" and "Power" to start your phone). Once in download mode connect to your pc and start Odin. Put the ROM.MD5 file in the PDA slot that you just unzipped and update away.
This will give you the Bell ICS stock ROM. Better than the OTA when it comes to rooting it. If you have been reading for a week then I am sure you know what that means.
SOLVED
Thanks for the tips/suggestions.
I did a little more reading, and came to this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1599127
Flashed the kernal/system/recover like it said, and still a nogo. So then I figured wth, lets flash modem too.
BAM. booted it back, and its currently snagging the ota update.
So now that I have the methods and files to get back to stock, I am no longer worried too much about the future. I did have paranoid 2.0 for a while, and was loving it, but the simple idea of doubletapping while in ANY app to get a quick memo was still missing. Maybe after a bit I'll be hating the touchwiz ui yet again, and need a change. But at least I know now how to get back to stock.
Go figure. The thread itself looks vaguely familiar from earlier in the week, but I for some reason must have skipped it. I just got off a nice nap my wife let me have, and HEY... i figured it out. Guess 'sleep' is actually kinda important
Modem is the most important part for having you phone recognized properly for the OTA update. Link I gave you would have given you the update.

Updating crazyness.

I have been trying to update my S4 (vruame7) to the latest. I'm willing to lose root. The issue I'm having though is one that NOBODY seems to have mentioned anywhere: It started where I couldn't update over the air as the update fails. So I tried to update it with Kies on my mac but the program says I need more memory on my phone even though I already have it. This prompted me to unroot my phone and do the update again, but the issue is still there. So I tried booting into recovery and that worked. I decided then to reboot my phone and add CWM touch via ROM toolbox Pro. It said it worked fine, but now I cannot boot into the recovery mode. It just goes straight into ODIN mode and it won't prompt me to confirm it or not. I get into a very soft boot loop if I try and reboot though Rom Toolbox Pro to go into the recovery. I will land in ODIN and then unless I tell the phone manually to go into ODIN and then NOT proceed than it will be in a soft boot loop. So far I've tried unrooting and using Kies, Rooting and trying to load CWM onto my phone and failing, causing OTA to not be able to even start installing, and I've yet tried to go into safe mode and try to reset my phone that way. I might have to do that. if anyone has any other ideas I am open to that.
Your on me7 so you half to use safestrap that's the on way you can have a recover...... You probably half to Odin your phone back to me7 for the update to work. You can't use cwm or twrp on me7, unless u have safetrap installed and the its a version of twrp in it
hyperdrive powered s4
ebsk8er06 said:
Your on me7 so you half to use safestrap that's the on way you can have a recover...... You probably half to Odin your phone back to me7 for the update to work. You can't use cwm or twrp on me7, unless u have safetrap installed and the its a version of twrp in it
hyperdrive powered s4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I've got safestrap installed sucessfully (it was so easy), and I'm now trying to install the update by wiping my phone and then doing it. I'll see if that works.
Well, it looks like I may have wiped my phone too far as I'm stuck at the Samsung custom logo and It's not booting farther. i can get into odin but I have a mac, so what do I do?
beez1717 said:
Well, it looks like I may have wiped my phone too far as I'm stuck at the Samsung custom logo and It's not booting farther. i can get into odin but I have a mac, so what do I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heimdall is like odin but its mac.compatible
Hit thanks if I helped you out. Doing a little bit of reading goes a long way. Sent via tapatalk.
Use oden or Heimdall (guess its a Mac thing) to flash back to stock and then you can take the update. You haven't bricked yet but it sounds like you are getting close so be careful.
beez1717 said:
Well, it looks like I may have wiped my phone too far as I'm stuck at the Samsung custom logo and It's not booting farther. i can get into odin but I have a mac, so what do I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you did a full wipe on non safe side "stock rom" of safestrap so your gonna have to flash a whole factory image cause it all gone the whole os
So after working for hoursx and hours, of working at it, I finally found http://sonofgeektalk.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/heimdall-on-a-mac/ <-- that webpage and it helped walk me through using Helmdall and it worked after much fiddling and discovering that I had to plug in my phone AFTER it got into odin but BEFORE I confirmed I wanted to be in odin. I then had to not wipe the phone clean but just do the install with the right files. It worked and I'm so happy. Now to see if I can update the darn phone. Don't know if I can or not but hey, I've got my phone back up and running and that's a GOOD thing.
I don't care about root as much as I care about getting the latest software if it provides enhancements I like, or security features I want. I think that root is fun, but it can be a pain in the butt as I just saw. Now that I know how to do the whole shtick, I should be able to do a lot more with my phone. I remember when I had to learn the ins and outs of my old Xperia Play. Horrible battery life and sub-par graphics chip but an awesome phone that had an awesome utility that could do just about anything with the phone with minimal work.
Looks like the system is updating itself just fine using OTA. What a LONG workaround I had to do. Thank you all for helping me teach myself a lot more about my phone
I'm having trouble trying to update as well. I unrooted and did a factory reset but the update still fails. What should I be trying?
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
beez1717 said:
So after working for hoursx and hours, of working at it, I finally found http://sonofgeektalk.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/heimdall-on-a-mac/ <-- that webpage and it helped walk me through using Helmdall and it worked after much fiddling and discovering that I had to plug in my phone AFTER it got into odin but BEFORE I confirmed I wanted to be in odin. I then had to not wipe the phone clean but just do the install with the right files. It worked and I'm so happy. Now to see if I can update the darn phone. Don't know if I can or not but hey, I've got my phone back up and running and that's a GOOD thing.
I don't care about root as much as I care about getting the latest software if it provides enhancements I like, or security features I want. I think that root is fun, but it can be a pain in the butt as I just saw. Now that I know how to do the whole shtick, I should be able to do a lot more with my phone. I remember when I had to learn the ins and outs of my old Xperia Play. Horrible battery life and sub-par graphics chip but an awesome phone that had an awesome utility that could do just about anything with the phone with minimal work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the problem here was that you tried to take an official update AFTER you messed with your phone... you should take this as a lesson to always flash back to stock before trying any 'official' updates, or better yet just have some patience for the updated files to show up here on the forums so you don't have to deal with OTAs at all. I don't really see the big rush to get the newest MI1 update anyway, it really doesn't provide any huge benefits at all and plus will possibly void your warranty through that stupid Knox thing if you try to root.
One thing I've learned is use patients dont jump the gun and if your not sure before you do something look here cause someone has already screwed up so the right way will be here somewhere and video will be on youtube!!

[Q] Options for getting as close to Google Experience as Possible?

I got the S4 back when it first came out, and messed around with some CM ROMs and other custom ROMs that worked fairly well. The big killers for me though were bluetooth audio not working, not being able to use headphone microphones, and the proximity sensor being all weird. So I reverted to stock but kept root, and eventually upgraded to MJ7 while keeping root. When I boot I still get the 'Samsung Custom' bootscreen.
I've never been happy with Touchwiz, and have all of the Samsung features turned off. The stock messaging app is really the thing that bugs the hell out of me, since it takes forever to get messages (sometimes up to an hour, while Handcent will get them right away), and I love my Nexus 7 experience. I'd really like to get as close to a 'Google' phone as possible, but I'm currently stuck on Verizon.
I've tried using GooManager to download the recovery managers again, but it's having problems with 404 errors downloading the scripts. I tried ROM Manager and it says it installs ClockworkMod (6.0.44 in fact), but it refuses to boot into recovery mode. Most of the tools I'm finding are not for MJ7, so I'm kind of hesitant to solutions that aren't for my current version. Since I can't make any backups without being able to boot into a proper recovery mode, that's another kind of notch against using most of the guides.
I don't mind the actual process of doing the work, I'm just not sure where to go from here. What are my options?
dragonmantank said:
I got the S4 back when it first came out, and messed around with some CM ROMs and other custom ROMs that worked fairly well. The big killers for me though were bluetooth audio not working, not being able to use headphone microphones, and the proximity sensor being all weird. So I reverted to stock but kept root, and eventually upgraded to MJ7 while keeping root. When I boot I still get the 'Samsung Custom' bootscreen.
I've never been happy with Touchwiz, and have all of the Samsung features turned off. The stock messaging app is really the thing that bugs the hell out of me, since it takes forever to get messages (sometimes up to an hour, while Handcent will get them right away), and I love my Nexus 7 experience. I'd really like to get as close to a 'Google' phone as possible, but I'm currently stuck on Verizon.
I've tried using GooManager to download the recovery managers again, but it's having problems with 404 errors downloading the scripts. I tried ROM Manager and it says it installs ClockworkMod (6.0.44 in fact), but it refuses to boot into recovery mode. Most of the tools I'm finding are not for MJ7, so I'm kind of hesitant to solutions that aren't for my current version. Since I can't make any backups without being able to boot into a proper recovery mode, that's another kind of notch against using most of the guides.
I don't mind the actual process of doing the work, I'm just not sure where to go from here. What are my options?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well unfortunately for you you're on MJ7 which means your only options right now are rooting and Xposed. Other than that though, there's really nothing else you can do at the moment. If you were on ME7 or MI1 still you could at least run Safestrap, but even then you would be limited to Touchwiz based roms. Unless you're willing to go on the hunt for an MDK S4 you'll just have to deal with your limited options for now. Oh and before you ask, there is absolutely no way to revert back to earlier firmwares. Once you update, you're stuck.
Crawshayi said:
Well unfortunately for you you're on MJ7 which means your only options right now are rooting and Xposed. Other than that though, there's really nothing else you can do at the moment. If you were on ME7 or MI1 still you could at least run Safestrap, but even then you would be limited to Touchwiz based roms. Unless you're willing to go on the hunt for an MDK S4 you'll just have to deal with your limited options for now. Oh and before you ask, there is absolutely no way to revert back to earlier firmwares. Once you update, you're stuck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I know I couldn't revert the firmware to something earlier. Is it possible to revert to stock even? At this point I think I just want to revert it and sell this phone off and get something else. I don't care about KNOX status, just getting it back to stock so that whomever buys it won't keep getting security notifications.
dragonmantank said:
Yeah, I know I couldn't revert the firmware to something earlier. Is it possible to revert to stock even? At this point I think I just want to revert it and sell this phone off and get something else. I don't care about KNOX status, just getting it back to stock so that whomever buys it won't keep getting security notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I believe it's possible, I found this thread that gives you an Odin image to flash: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2507217
The security notification was actually fixed and supposedly an update was pushed out, but maybe yours didn't grab the update properly? I'm not sure, but that Odin image should get you back to factory stock. If I were you I would get an HTC One if you can live with not having a removable battery and sd card.
Awesome, thank you very much.
I'm re-flashing today take it back. I'll have a look at the HTC One, since it wasn't out when I got my S4. I know that (at the time) the S4 was the only Android phone I had found, with the One a close second but not available. I would really love a Google phone, but I get the feeling that will probably never happen on VZW.

I can enter bootloader without root on ME7.

Maybe I just haven't been able to find anything on this, but here is the quick version.
Rooted this phone when I bought it in May. Working perfectly running Hyperdrive releases the whole time.
Last Thursday morning, I flashed to version 12. Spent the next 3 days fixing it. First, the system ui wasn't working, so everything stopped about every 8 seconds until I acknowledged it each time.
Then I totally screwed up and had the kies error and could do nothing.
Now, I am back to stock, looked at the build (which I never initially did) and notice that it is me7.
If I hold up/home/power, I get the Samsung logo, but then it enters bootloader. I haven't re flashed anything else, but will. Just not sure what.
Update. Also, I can't seem to re root. I was hoping for some suggestions.....
I figured that someone might have a question or may know how to find value in my situation, so I am posting this, since I have found no others that have stated the same.
I am busy enough that I couldn't search everything, so if this has already been addressed somewhere else, my apologies.
Another Update. ..
ok, I am dumb. I was able to use the work around. Just took 10 times. Sorry for the wasted reading!

Flashed an incompatible ROM. Able to get into download mode. Now what?

I rooted my sprint Note 3 when I first got it three years ago and flashed it with a custom ROM. I used it for a year and then got a cell phone from work, so I basically stopped using the Note 3 except occasionally. I decided the other day that I wanted to try updating to a newer version of android on the Note 3. It's been a long time since I messed around with rooting, ROMs, and such, and I did not pay close attention to what I was doing and flashed a ROM that was incompatible. When I restarted, I got a Set Warranty Bit Kernel error. I can get the phone into download mode, but I'm unsure of what to do next to get it back to a usable state.
Is there a guide somewhere to walk me through this process?
Thanks!
Solved
Well, I got the phone working again. I basically followed this guide I found. I tried to paste in the link but I'm still too much of a noob. Anyway, it was on android central, and part of the url was how-flash-stock-rom-via-odin-new-interface. Hope that helps someone.
There was one step not covered in that guide - odin kept saying that the md5 value was invalid. I found a youtube video that said to change the extension of the firmware (it was .tar.md5, changed to .tar). After that, it worked and my phone is back.
Is there a guide somewhere to walk me through this process?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's guides everywhere on this site! Just gotta find the right ones lol. Makes it that much better when you finally find em. Next time make a complete backup of your phone first. I like to use TWRP, you can download it directly from the Play Store. I got my Stock Firmware from this archive:
http://samsung-updates.com/device/?id=SM-N900P
Make a backup of that then flash away! It'll be a lot easier/faster to recover with TWRP. What ROM did you flash to yours? Just curious cause every one I've tried had multiple issues to where I wasn't even able to use half my phone smh. Then I root it with CF-Auto:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2466423
Through Odin:
http://odindownload.com/download/#.WYX1A4jyuyJ
Then I make a another separate TWRP backup of my Rooted Stock Phone just in case lol. Lemme know if you run into problems again I'll try to help find it and/or fix it. The more problems I deal with the more I learn! :fingers-crossed:
Might wanna get a USB storage or something too cause ALL these backups take up time and space. (My external SD Card slot hasn't worked for awhile!)... does yours?

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