Please help, possibly bricked :( - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Questions & Answers

Hi all,
I have asked this on the miui forums but no one was unable to assist,
I was updating my phone to the MIUI version that contained the new Android OS, and my stupid cat pulled the cable, causing the phone to unplug during flashing procedure, big no no
Firstly the phone would would just flash red which I believe was EDL mode, so I was able to after several goes reflash the chinese variant of MIUI rom onto the phone.
it would then be stuck on the MI screen, so I reflashed again and it started to proceed with the initial setup
However every couple of seconds the phone would crash, restart, get a bit further, crash and repeat till it finished the initial setup, this is where the device is today
I managed to flash twrp to see if there was anything I could do, I noticed it was complaining that /persist was missing/unable to process, I tried to reflash /persist using the online guides available but all of them ended up as the same result of "could not be flashed to device"
My bootloader is unlocked as confirmed by offical Xiaomi unlocker tool,
so I am stuck with a phone that bootloops and has no /persist, is there any hope for this device?
I am located in Australia so sending it to a service centre will not be an easy process if I can even get the seller to do so (dx.com)
Thanks for reading

---

Cexitime said:
so I am stuck with a phone that bootloops and has no /persist, is there any hope for this device?
I am located in Australia so sending it to a service centre will not be an easy process if I can even get the seller to do so (dx.com)
Thanks for reading
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there, Have you tried this method:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/guide-to-fix-persist-partition-t2821576
Hoping that it may help you.

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Cexitime said:
Hi all,
I have asked this on the miui forums but no one was unable to assist,
I was updating my phone to the MIUI version that contained the new Android OS, and my stupid cat pulled the cable, causing the phone to unplug during flashing procedure, big no no
Firstly the phone would would just flash red which I believe was EDL mode, so I was able to after several goes reflash the chinese variant of MIUI rom onto the phone.
it would then be stuck on the MI screen, so I reflashed again and it started to proceed with the initial setup
However every couple of seconds the phone would crash, restart, get a bit further, crash and repeat till it finished the initial setup, this is where the device is today
I managed to flash twrp to see if there was anything I could do, I noticed it was complaining that /persist was missing/unable to process, I tried to reflash /persist using the online guides available but all of them ended up as the same result of "could not be flashed to device"
My bootloader is unlocked as confirmed by offical Xiaomi unlocker tool,
so I am stuck with a phone that bootloops and has no /persist, is there any hope for this device?
I am located in Australia so sending it to a service centre will not be an easy process if I can even get the seller to do so (dx.com)
Thanks for reading
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to flash some custom rom through custom recovery and see if it works. I think your device isnt bricked because I've done the same when I realised that clean all and lock was ticked so I just unplug the cable in the middle of the flash process and flash the ROM again. Go to recovery and wipe all Dalvik, system and cache and then flash custom ROM and gapps. After that go and flash official rom through mi flash tool from fastboot.

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GabrielScott said:
Hey there, Have you tried this method:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/general/guide-to-fix-persist-partition-t2821576
Hoping that it may help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I tried the link and got the following;
C:\adb>adb shell
~ # make_ext4fs /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist
make_ext4fs /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist
open: No such file or directory
~ # e2fsck /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist
e2fsck /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist
e2fsck 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
e2fsck: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist
Possibly non-existent device?
~ # 
bpodnar said:
Try to flash some custom rom through custom recovery and see if it works. I think your device isnt bricked because I've done the same when I realised that clean all and lock was ticked so I just unplug the cable in the middle of the flash process and flash the ROM again. Go to recovery and wipe all Dalvik, system and cache and then flash custom ROM and gapps. After that go and flash official rom through mi flash tool from fastboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried to install lineage OS according to their instructions and got this error during installation
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

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Cexitime said:
I tried to install lineage OS according to their instructions and got this error during installation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Error 7 issue is probably due to corrupted zip.
Redownload the ROM again.
This time, format data or wipe everything then flash.

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GabrielScott said:
Error 7 issue is probably due to corrupted zip.
Redownload the ROM again.
This time, format data or wipe everything then flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded the rom again and this time it flashed, however the phone just got stuck in a boot loop till it went flat, still have the /persist error in twrp that I cannot fix utilizing the above commands,
I think shes dead jim

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Cexitime said:
I downloaded the rom again and this time it flashed, however the phone just got stuck in a boot loop till it went flat, still have the /persist error in twrp that I cannot fix utilizing the above commands,
I think shes dead jim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Last Try , did u already tried flashing persist img from official fastboot ROM?
@_ sorry, out of ideas

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So you just had corrupted persist partition, and cant mount persist partition right?
Have you tried flash persist.img from fastboot?
fastboot erase persist
fastboot flash persist persist.img
Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

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Someone please share persist.img file, the one present in fastboot file is low in size, & after flashing that file it keeps on rebooting.
I had to flash sensorfix file that comes with coloros to restore it to normal, & again this creates a new problem "this device associated with another mi account".

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Hii tired to do that in twrp as well, however when selecting the persist.img the /persist isn't a selectable option in twrp

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arshy said:
So you just had corrupted persist partition, and cant mount persist partition right?
Have you tried flash persist.img from fastboot?
fastboot erase persist
fastboot flash persist persist.img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Tried that as well, it comes up with the error in one of my replies

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Try this way:
first go here and download "Redmi Note 4X ( (3GB+32GB) Latest China Developer Version Fastboot File Download";
then follow this guide but only the PART II (the guide is for locked bootloader, but it doesn't matter on our case, because on mido you must have an unlocked bootloader to enter EDL).
The guide will modify some text file to flash only the persist.img, but if need you can flash all the firmware's files (but remember to insert the "persist.img" in the bat file, because it's not present by default). You will got a Chinese language phone (I don't know if English is present) but you can test if everything works and then re-flash a Global ROM or a custom ROM.
The summary of the procedure is flashing the China Developer ROM (including the persist.img) with MiFlash when the phone is in EDL mode (RN4 can be put in EDL mode with this tool but only if bootloader is unlocked).
Let us know if this works for you.

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I can help may be.... Read my post .... We can reflash stock ROM with all partitions and stuff(I know how to edl RN4) I believe it will work for sure..

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i have tried all the methods both locked as well as unlocked bootloader methods but for me none works. i have no persist file and it wont get flashed with miflash.

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Cexitime said:
Hi all,
I have asked this on the miui forums but no one was unable to assist,
I was updating my phone to the MIUI version that contained the new Android OS, and my stupid cat pulled the cable, causing the phone to unplug during flashing procedure, big no no
Firstly the phone would would just flash red which I believe was EDL mode, so I was able to after several goes reflash the chinese variant of MIUI rom onto the phone.
it would then be stuck on the MI screen, so I reflashed again and it started to proceed with the initial setup
However every couple of seconds the phone would crash, restart, get a bit further, crash and repeat till it finished the initial setup, this is where the device is today
I managed to flash twrp to see if there was anything I could do, I noticed it was complaining that /persist was missing/unable to process, I tried to reflash /persist using the online guides available but all of them ended up as the same result of "could not be flashed to device"
My bootloader is unlocked as confirmed by offical Xiaomi unlocker tool,
so I am stuck with a phone that bootloops and has no /persist, is there any hope for this device?
I am located in Australia so sending it to a service centre will not be an easy process if I can even get the seller to do so (dx.com)
Thanks for reading
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://bigota.d.miui.com/V8.1.10.0....DI_20161228.0000.00_6.0_global_7557bfe334.tgz
Flash this file via fastboot, if you are getting reboots.

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arshy said:
So you just had corrupted persist partition, and cant mount persist partition right?
Have you tried flash persist.img from fastboot?
fastboot erase persist
fastboot flash persist persist.img
Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
t only says C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot erase persist
erasing 'persist'...
FAILED (remote: Error: This image isn't allow download
)
finished. total time: 0.033s
C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot flash persist persist.i
mg
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
sending 'persist' (4716 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.162s]
writing 'persist'...
FAILED (remote: Error: This image isn't allow download
)
finished. total time: 0.194s
C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>
I think that means this isn't working.

---

BubuXP said:
Try this way:
first go here and download "Redmi Note 4X ( (3GB+32GB) Latest China Developer Version Fastboot File Download";
then follow this guide but only the PART II (the guide is for locked bootloader, but it doesn't matter on our case, because on mido you must have an unlocked bootloader to enter EDL).
The guide will modify some text file to flash only the persist.img, but if need you can flash all the firmware's files (but remember to insert the "persist.img" in the bat file, because it's not present by default). You will got a Chinese language phone (I don't know if English is present) but you can test if everything works and then re-flash a Global ROM or a custom ROM.
The summary of the procedure is flashing the China Developer ROM (including the persist.img) with MiFlash when the phone is in EDL mode (RN4 can be put in EDL mode with this tool but only if bootloader is unlocked).
Let us know if this works for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello. I have a Redmi Note 4 Snapdragon with the Bootloader unlocked because I bought it used and I have an account lock that prevent me to use it (it is like a bricked phone because the vendor doesn't know about the MI account and xiaomi cannot unbind the device from the MI account because I have not the registration email neither invoce of purchase).
Searching a way to avoid the lock of the MI account I am trying to flash persist.img because I read that the data of this account is saved in this partition.
- I downloaded the mido_global_images_8.12.20_20181220.0000.00_7.0_global_3947ba5143.tgz
- I modified the flash_factory.bat in order to add the line 28:
Code:
fastboot %* flash persist %~dp0images\persist.img || @echo "Flash persist error" && exit /B 1
- I modified rawprogram0.xml in order to add the "persist.img" in line
Code:
<program SECTOR_SIZE_IN_BYTES="512" file_sector_offset="0" filename="persist.img" label="persist" num_partition_sectors="65536" physical_partition_number="0" size_in_KB="32768.0" sparse="true" start_byte_hex="0xf4000000" start_sector="7995392"/>
- I entered in EDL using the test points, flashed with MiFlash20191206 and it says "flashSuccess" (attached is the log of the MIFlash)
But when the new ROM starts and connects to the internet, the MI account lock appears again. Then I have a device that cannot be used when connects to internet.
I have read in some threads that persist partition cannot be flashed in EDL mode with the unlocked Bootloader but it seems that I can do it (not in FastBooot that says explicitly that this partition cannot be flashed).
I have flashed the persist image that comes with the original ROM but I haven't tried with the ones that users upload in order to avoid another conflict of MI Accounts.
I have another Redmi Note 4 working with the unlocked BL, TWRP and LineageOS 16. I tried to make a backup of persist from TWRP in order to flash it in the locked device but it says that the partition uses 0 MB and the persist.ext4.win file has 473 KB that makes me think I am not doing it right.
Please, let me know what you think. Am I in the right way?
Thanks