Related
Sharing time!!
I did something quite stupid today and, in the interest of both comedy and warning, want to share it with the world.
In my rooted glory I began to think back to the V6 supercharger script that my Droid1 loved so much.
Long story short it did not do well on my droid and I ended up with a boot loop at the "Droid" soundbite. Hard to hide your mistakes when your phone is screaming every 5 seconds. All of the boot loop fixes failed.
Factory reset cleared up the boot loop but thanks to some .apk cleaning I am now stuck with no home screen. Installing a home screen replacement has not helped yet, but at least I have adb and still have root so some .apk moving from the backup directory should get me running in an hour or so.
Feel free to laugh knowing I have been hacking phones since my old xv6800. Also make sure you know the risks when you play with the file system on your phone.
Thanks mate, I feel for you. Yesterday I tried to update my Droid to 5.6.890 but first I had to Unroot it with Petes Motorola Root Tools and restore the /system/app folder. Unfortunately I left the downloaded apk zip in the restore folder which has been also restored to /system/app.
Then bootloop. And drooooooooooooid, drooooooooooooooid, droiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid. ^^
I had to manually root it, this thread helped http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1236465
Then I restored /system/app again, but correctly this time.
Finally I could start the update and everything was working again...
Anyone who has a bricked DROID 3 phone (Verizon only), I may have a solution for you.
Requirements:
Windows platform
7-zip installed (and know how to extract files)
ability to follow all instructions exactly
willingness to factory reset/lose data on their phone
This unbrick method is NOT guaranteed to work, but it's very hopeful for most situations where other methods aren't working. If you are in desperate need of a fix, send me a PM and I'll link you some files to try.
Lastly: I will not be walking through anyone step by step on how to run this procedure -- the included instructions should be more than enough for most people. If you read the instructions and are thoroughly confused, then this fix isn't for you.
Almost back up and running now. Thankfully Marketplace pushed some apps and then notified me about it so I could open up the marketplace and install ADW. Once I got home back it was just a matter of reinstalling and rebuilding.
Oddly my Social Networking widget is no longer working correctly. A shame but only a minor issue overall.
Oddly the bootloop fix instructions you listed did not work for me. ./adb devices showed an entry but no info and told me I did not have any permissions on the device. I am running on Linux so it may have been a driver issue of some kind.
I'm sure what happened to the damn thing the other day, but.
I put my phone into Sleep Mode during a morning of hunting and when I tried to wake it back up it wouldn't respond. It had actually done this before, so I wasn't too concerned. It seems to be an issue with the leaked OTA.
So I pulled the battery, powered it back on, and stuffed it back in my pocket and drove 20 minutes back home. When I tried to check it afterwords it wouldn't wake up again; stuck at black screen.
Pulled the battery again, powered on and waited... and waited... and waited. After several minutes it would reboot again.
Sooo I plugged it into my computer and started to try to figure out what the hell happened. The logcat gave me no good indication as to what might be the issue, it just seemed to hang right after booting.
I deleted my replacement home (Launcher Pro) and that got me a little further. It would boot to the lock screen! But it would never respond to my inputs.
I resorted all system apps. Same thing, not responding, stuck on lock-screen in airplane mode.
I unrooted then re-installed the OTA leak. No change.
So I finally caved and decided to try a factory reset, which if failed, could almost totally screw me out of ADB access or worse.
But thankfully it totally worked! It booted right up and I was able to complete every setup screen without issue. Rooted, Titanium restored my apps and a pinch of data and I was back in business in 30 minutes!
Now I make sure that I never put the phone into Sleep Mode.
Brief history: I bought my Kindle Fire HD in November 20012. It was the first android device I had, so I did not know anything about it. My first search was for rooting, thing that I could make with the help of this forum. From that moment I started reading the forum because everything was new to me and interesting. Meanwhile my rooted kindle worked fine until at some point began to turn off alone. With help of some people of this forum, I was noticed that the problem were gmail notifications. I disabled the notification and the problem was fixed for several months . . . but after that she started doing it again.
There began -also with the help of people on the forum- an odyssey of endless tests, install and uninstall apps, upgrades, downgrades, battery calibrations, etc. until I decided to install TWRP and flash CM 10.2. Of course I learned a lot in this process and I am very happy with CM 10.2.
But what which leaves me sad, very sad and frustrated, is that remain turning off arbitrarily and randomly!!!!!
It can spend two whole days working fine until battery is low, but it can also happen that its turns off every 10 minutes. It is totally independent of the battery charge, although it tends to do more when it is around 50%!
After that, sometimes I can turn-it on normally, but sometimes I have to try 10 or 20 times because she turn off again while charging system.
If I plug-it (to wall or PC) she normally turns on and does not auto turn off again (while plugged).
My latest finding is that if when she turns off itself I shake-it vigorously I can then turning on normally. It's like there's a loose connection or something like that.
As I'm outside the U.S. have no chance of sending it to Amazon.
I really appreciate if someone have some idea about this problem.
I want to thank again all those who given me very good suggestions. It is thanks to them that I learned a lot.
I edit to coment another thing. When I use Corpse Finder from SD Maid, it detect 3 files: .adobe-digital-editions; kindle and Digital Editions ( the three placed in: /storage/emulated/0). No matter how many times I clean it, they always are found in a new corpse search. I don´t know if that its relevant, but is strange to me.
The same problem, HELP US
Elgari said:
Brief history: I bought my Kindle Fire HD in November 20012. It was the first android device I had, so I did not know anything about it. My first search was for rooting, thing that I could make with the help of this forum. From that moment I started reading the forum because everything was new to me and interesting. Meanwhile my rooted kindle worked fine until at some point began to turn off alone. With help of some people of this forum, I was noticed that the problem were gmail notifications. I disabled the notification and the problem was fixed for several months . . . but after that she started doing it again.
There began -also with the help of people on the forum- an odyssey of endless tests, install and uninstall apps, upgrades, downgrades, battery calibrations, etc. until I decided to install TWRP and flash CM 10.2. Of course I learned a lot in this process and I am very happy with CM 10.2.
But what which leaves me sad, very sad and frustrated, is that remain turning off arbitrarily and randomly!!!!!
It can spend two whole days working fine until battery is low, but it can also happen that its turns off every 10 minutes. It is totally independent of the battery charge, although it tends to do more when it is around 50%!
After that, sometimes I can turn-it on normally, but sometimes I have to try 10 or 20 times because she turn off again while charging system.
If I plug-it (to wall or PC) she normally turns on and does not auto turn off again (while plugged).
My latest finding is that if when she turns off itself I shake-it vigorously I can then turning on normally. It's like there's a loose connection or something like that.
As I'm outside the U.S. have no chance of sending it to Amazon.
I really appreciate if someone have some idea about this problem.
I want to thank again all those who given me very good suggestions. It is thanks to them that I learned a lot.
I edit to coment another thing. When I use Corpse Finder from SD Maid, it detect 3 files: .adobe-digital-editions; kindle and Digital Editions ( the three placed in: /storage/emulated/0). No matter how many times I clean it, they always are found in a new corpse search. I don´t know if that its relevant, but is strange to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM, I DON´T KNOW WHAT´S HAPPEN. Can you fix it?
i have heard occasionally around on the forums of peoples power buttons and such doing this after a while, if that is the case you might be able to test for it but its kinda complicated. Is it sleeping or shutting off? If it's shutting off it would be interesting to see why but you'd have to have either a logcat running on the pc the entire time, a cat of the kmsg, or something of that nature running and turn off while its doing that, then you can find the root of the problem. If it won't do it while plugged in, cm has a way to wirelessly do adb commands. I think hashcode said in his sources theres a test binary for the buttons to see if they are doing anything, but i'd have to figure out how to cross compile it by itself if thats the case, unless its precompiled.
Yes, cassualy I fix it last week. I open the Kindle, looking the wires and conectors and close again. And voila . . . fixed!
Enviado desde mi Amazon Kindle Fire HD mediante Tapatalk
To the admins I apologize if this is in the wrong section if it is please move it accordingly.
Hello everyone, I have an issue, hopefully someone can hel me and it starts like this. I and everyone else have been waiting for months for a safe root method and a recovery system such as TWRP OR CWM just incase I fudge something up flashing custom roms so I can always go back to stock. I came across a safestrap article and decided it was something similar to what I was looking for. So I decided to root using the big K. I know not the best choice, you can boo me now.
After a successful root, I installed safestrap. Unfortunately safestrap kept crashing upon starting the app, I couldnt even get it to set up. thats fine, I was just going to unroot and keep on living life, but then I stumbled upon Xposed installer, that modified and tweaked like a custom rom but without all the risk according to a website. I said hey thats worth a try and I did. After the Xposed installer setup and a reboot, I wad looking for mods on the web and all of a sudden my apps and system files started crashing to the point that I could not use my phone. I immedeately uninstalled Xposed installer ss soon ad my phone stabalized and unrooted.
I thought everything was good, 4 hours later the apps and system files started crashing again, so I did a reboot and I noticed that custom with the lock came up on intial startup. though I was told I was unrooted by the K program and even double checked using a rootchecker app, which stated I had indeed an unrooted phone. I did another reboot and no custom or logo came out. At this point I just wanted a working phone and As much as I hated doing so I did a factory reset. This seemed to have fixed the problem, but 4 days later my phone randomly went into a bootloop. I couldnt get it to stop so I took out the battery and that did not fix it.It was strange becuase I thought it might have been unrelated since it wasnt doing this when I had the issue with Xposed installer.
After yet another factory reset my phone seems to be fine, its still too early to tell though since its only been about a day. I had the normal google playstore and gvoice app crashing...Sigh..the only thing different was that sometime yesterday after the second factory reset a notification popup of unfortunately a sytem file stopped working came up. I acknowledged it, but thankfully I havent gotten any problems. I forgot what the notification read. hopefully its not related to what happened the other day.I dont know if this is related to one another, but I did notice that before I rooted my android system had automatically upgraded. I looked for issues like this on the net and saw people where having random bootloops after system upgrades and that unchecking scanning for wifi fixed the problem. though I did this and it did not work, thats why I did the second factory reset.
Now Im asking for help if any further issues arise. I love my Note3 and at this point I just want a reliable working device. Im keeping my fingers crossed and hopefully that will be the end of it, but in case it started to act up again, what can I do? any information and help is greatly appreciated. thanks.
Never uninstall any Xposed app that changes system files without first reverting any changes you made with it. Some of them are permanent until they are turned off in the App. Then you can disable the module.
You may want to look into this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2559715
I cannot stress this enough.
READ READ READ.
Too many times have I seen someone read a line or 2 then rush right in ultimately turning their very nice phone into the most expensive paperweight one could own.
On that link I posted, read it until your eyes are bleeding if you truly need to start from scratch.
I am not joking here.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Thanks man. it makes sense. I will look into it. you mentioned read. I have read what I thought was plenty, but always ideas and opinions differ, sometimes knowing too much and causing what they say decision paralysis. Because I still read about the Xposed experiences and different people go about it in a different way. but what you mentioned about reverting back makes alot of sense.
Hi!
Yesterday my phone beeped telling me there was and Android update available, around 198MB
it came from this
dropbox.. com/s/kek0lyolyzdrjhj/2014-10-17%2020.16.39.png?dl=0
To this
dropbox.. com/s/zh92wxumigfe00e/2014-10-17%2020.38.32.png?dl=0
Everything was ok for some hours until hell broke loose
The screen will have a bad time turning on. I press the button several times with no response.
The phone is lagged as my grandpa in his grave. Apps close and even transition from one screen to the other is everything but impossible.
But, when I reboot it, it's ok for as long as I'm using it. If I lock the screen and let it aside for a while, the problems come back
No app updates in the meantime. It went from smooth to horrendous in the period of 4 or 5 hours. I didn't use it much in there, but I doubt it was malfunctioning like this
Special apps I have are Greenify pro, MinGuard (I think that's the name), SuperUser and I rooted it with Towelroot long ago
Any help will be appreciated
marioho said:
Hi!
Yesterday my phone beeped telling me there was and Android update available, around 198MB
it came from this
dropbox.. com/s/kek0lyolyzdrjhj/2014-10-17%2020.16.39.png?dl=0
To this
dropbox.. com/s/zh92wxumigfe00e/2014-10-17%2020.38.32.png?dl=0
Everything was ok for some hours until hell broke loose
The screen will have a bad time turning on. I press the button several times with no response.
The phone is lagged as my grandpa in his grave. Apps close and even transition from one screen to the other is everything but impossible.
But, when I reboot it, it's ok for as long as I'm using it. If I lock the screen and let it aside for a while, the problems come back
No app updates in the meantime. It went from smooth to horrendous in the period of 4 or 5 hours. I didn't use it much in there, but I doubt it was malfunctioning like this
Special apps I have are Greenify pro, MinGuard (I think that's the name), SuperUser and I rooted it with Towelroot long ago
Any help will be appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it was a factory update I'm willing to bet you lost root along with busybox. If so, TowelRoot will probably not work this time. There's another root exploit available called PurpleDrake.
shinobisoft said:
If it was a factory update I'm willing to bet you lost root along with busybox. If so, TowelRoot will probably not work this time. There's another root exploit available called PurpleDrake.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! I did it, re-rooted it following the instructions (indeed it looked like I'd lost my root) but the problem is not solved.
It's just a hunch, but seems to me that changing the Launcher smoothes things up. I was using Google Now Launcher and switched to both LG stock one and Solo Launcher and it seems to be ok.
I'll update the post in a few minutes to clarify it further. It could be that just those few minutes of usage after a reboot are smooth, as I stated in OP. Nevertheless, as soon as I change the launcher, the phone behaves better
Any hints? Google launcher version in Play Store is from August 1st here
Edit: bah, no luck. Same ****, regardless of the chosen launcher.
What do I do now? Try to downgrade it?
marioho said:
Thank you! I did it, re-rooted it following the instructions (indeed it looked like I'd lost my root) but the problem is not solved.
It's just a hunch, but seems to me that changing the Launcher smoothes things up. I was using Google Now Launcher and switched to both LG stock one and Solo Launcher and it seems to be ok.
I'll update the post in a few minutes to clarify it further. It could be that just those few minutes of usage after a reboot are smooth, as I stated in OP. Nevertheless, as soon as I change the launcher, the phone behaves better
Any hints? Google launcher version in Play Store is from August 1st here
Edit: bah, no luck. Same ****, regardless of the chosen launcher.
What do I do now? Try to downgrade it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait a minute. I remember some issues changing from Quarx ROM back to stock. I walked someone else thru this once before. Lemme see if I can find that post. Otherwise I'll have to go back to stock, which isn't a problem but I'd rather not if I can avoid it. LOL.
shinobisoft said:
Wait a minute. I remember some issues changing from Quarx ROM back to stock. I walked someone else thru this once before. Lemme see if I can find that post. Otherwise I'll have to go back to stock, which isn't a problem but I'd rather not if I can avoid it. LOL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a special place in Heaven for people like you.
It's probably clear by now, but I'm using stock rom here. I grabbed the phone in its early days, when this sub was crawling its way to glory, and we didn't even have a Recovery by that time. Since I was mostly ok with Stock, never minded doing anything special other than rooting it.
marioho said:
There's a special place in Heaven for people like you.
It's probably clear by now, but I'm using stock rom here. I grabbed the phone in its early days, when this sub was crawling its way to glory, and we didn't even have a Recovery by that time. Since I was mostly ok with Stock, never minded doing anything special other than rooting it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL. Thanks
Here's the post.
Let me know if that does the trick.
---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:33 PM ----------
I forgot to mention, the code listed to activate LG's hidden menu is for the D415 variant.
Code:
3845#*XXX#
Change the XXX to your device model number, ie, 400, 405, 410, 415
shinobisoft said:
LOL. Thanks
Here's the post.
Let me know if that does the trick.
---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:33 PM ----------
I forgot to mention, the code listed to activate LG's hidden menu is for the D415 variant.
Code:
3845#*XXX#
Change the XXX to your device model number, ie, 400, 405, 410, 415
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha I noticed that. Mine is 410 (LGD410HN, to be more precise, according to lg-firmware-rom.com).
I followed the instructions. This is what I saw: dropbox. com/s/6h721axufevchjw/2014-10-18%2019.42.10.png?dl=0
I'll update the post in a few minutes with the outcome. As far as I can see, though, things seem to be the same.
Just rebooted the phone, so it takes a few minutes for it to get sluggish.
Edit: Yeah, same thing.
It's another hunch, but every now and then pops up a message saying that a certain google process or app stopped working. Yesterday's update did have a pack of Google updates, IIRC.
Check greenified apps. Maybe it's trying greenify any system or normal app and Android it's trying wake it. Same problem here time ago
Kowalzki said:
Check greenified apps. Maybe it's trying greenify any system or normal app and Android it's trying wake it. Same problem here time ago
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It makes sense if you take in account that the problem starts a few minutes after the phone sits idle.
I opened Greenify and there was this orange popup
dropbox. com/s/qkxeb850esfkxuo/2014-10-18%2020.40.57.png?dl=0
I disabled the auto-hibernate featuer now and unchecked the google apps that were on the list (Play Music; Play Books, Play Games, Remote Access - i think). But I didn't add any app since the update yesterday and the phone was running smooth since the last time I checked a few more, wich happened weeks ago.
I've got no clue about what may be causing the auto-hibernation problem that Greenify notes (the picture above).
I'll only be able to state for sure in a few minutes, but seems to me that the problem persists.
marioho said:
It makes sense if you take in account that the problem starts a few minutes after the phone sits idle.
I opened Greenify and there was this orange popup
dropbox. com/s/qkxeb850esfkxuo/2014-10-18%2020.40.57.png?dl=0
I disabled the auto-hibernate featuer now and unchecked the google apps that were on the list (Play Music; Play Books, Play Games, Remote Access - i think). But I didn't add any app since the update yesterday and the phone was running smooth since the last time I checked a few more, wich happened weeks ago.
I've got no clue about what may be causing the auto-hibernation problem that Greenify notes (the picture above).
I'll only be able to state for sure in a few minutes, but seems to me that the problem persists.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a custom recovery installed? If so, the only other suggestion I have, mainly because of the app updates, is to wipe cache and Dalvik cache and then reboot the device.
shinobisoft said:
Do you have a custom recovery installed? If so, the only other suggestion I have, mainly because of the app updates, is to wipe cache and Dalvik cache and then reboot the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I don't, but I'll try to install one right now.
If it doesn't work, will downgrade be the only option?
marioho said:
No, I don't, but I'll try to install one right now.
If it doesn't work, will downgrade be the only option?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what it's sounding like. I hate to say that because the only way to downgrade is to flash a KDZ. Unless someone has made a flashable zip of your stock ROM.
shinobisoft said:
That's what it's sounding like. I hate to say that because the only way to downgrade is to flash a KDZ. Unless someone has made a flashable zip of your stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's been ages since I last meddled with KDZ-ish things... I guess the "hate to say" part is because it will wipe all data from my phone, right?
I installed CWM and wiped cache and Dalvik. It asked to fix my root, I chose 'yes' and rebooted. After the phone took its sweet time to update apps, I was gifted with this popup message after normally unlocking the screen:
Code:
Unfortunately, the process com.google.process.gapps has stopped.
It's the same error message I've been receiving constantly for a while now, as I stated before.
And, yes, things seem to be the same broken s**t as before.
Gosh, what a headache!
marioho said:
It's been ages since I last meddled with KDZ-ish things... I guess the "hate to say" part is because it will wipe all data from my phone, right?
I installed CWM and wiped cache and Dalvik. It asked to fix my root, I chose 'yes' and rebooted. After the phone took its sweet time to update apps, I was gifted with this popup message after normally unlocking the screen:
Code:
Unfortunately, the process com.google.process.gapps has stopped.
It's the same error message I've been receiving constantly for a while now, as I stated before.
And, yes, things seem to be the same broken s**t as before.
Gosh, what a headache!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, you cannot just reflash GApps on stock like we can on custom ROMs. As for CWM asking to fix root, this generally isn't needed. So selecting "No" wouldn't hurt.
Well my friend, I'm fresh outta ideas. This may be the first issue that I've not had a fix for. LOL. Sorry. I really hate it when I can't help someone resolve an issue. It's the perfectionist in me, LOL.
Your help and almost instantaneous replies made it. I appreciate, trust me.
I'll search for that old post with LG tool and kdz files and do the deed in a few minutes. I'll update the topic and deem it Solved when I'm finished
Thank you, again
A few days ago, I was trying to launch an app from my phone's home screen when it suddenly rebooted itself and downloaded/installed an OTA update, removing root in the process. So it looks like Google just force-restarted it and updated it without my consent!
Or, if not that, then I truly must have the worst luck imaginable - like astronomically, unbelievably bad; so bad it could be legendary - almost as if I were cursed by some mythical, malevolent creature with magical powers.
For what I'm about to assume might have happened to be what actually happened, the odds are probably astronomically against it occurring, or nearing the realm of quantum impossibility (or, at the very least, it would be extremely-improbable and highly-unlikely, statistically speaking).
There have been a handful of times (3-5, but I haven't kept count) in the few months I've had this phone that, after unlocking the screen, I see a window drawn over my phone's home screen: a notification dialog with info about downloading/installing a security update for the OS. At the bottom of the window I recall there being two buttons: one to confirm, reboot my phone, and download/install the update, and the other to postpone the update until some later time at night.
Since there was no button for the polite, socially-acceptable equivalent to responding, "NO, **** YOU! STOP ANNOYING ME WITH THIS PROMPT TO UPDATE! I NEVER WANT TO DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL AN UPDATE, OR SEE THIS POP UP EVER AGAIN!", I've just used the "back" button on my phone to dismiss this notification/prompt rather than accepting one of the two equally-unacceptable choices it offered me and being forced into downloading and updating my phone.
So, in theory, it's possible that, at the same exact moment as my phone's screen refreshed to draw this update notification/prompt again, I just happened to also click in exactly the wrong place - the place where that dreaded "reboot" button was drawn - thereby selecting the option to immediately reboot my phone, downloading and installing the update in the process. It would've had to have happened so quickly - literally, within the same 1/90th of a second - that the screen was drawn so that I didn't even see the notification appear before clicking the option to accept and reboot/install the update immediately.
1/90th of a second: that's just a hair over 11 milliseconds, or a hundredth of a second. And I just happened to click in exactly the wrong spot at exactly that moment?
Utterly, unimaginably, and even ridiculously bad luck if this is what actually happened. But aside from Google simply forcing a reboot/update remotely while I was using my phone, it's the only other thing I can think of that might've caused this.
Whoever programmed this functionality should at the very least be publicly shamed and insulted for it, but possibly also dragged out of their bed in the middle of the night into the street and beaten mercilessly. I don't know the law well enough to be aware of the name of the crime for such a thing (annoying millions of people with this almost-unavoidable and heinously-obnoxious nag to update their phone's OS, and causing maybe thousands of them to suffer some sort of financial loss, pain & suffering, or tragic inconvenience by accidentally accepting and applying the update - especially if they happened to be on a limited mobile data plan, or were roaming at the time). However, I'm fairly certain that most people who have experienced something like what I've been through and am forced to deal with now as a result of an OTA update being applied against their will would be fine with either or both of these things being administered as the just and appropriate form of punishment for such a crime.
So, all that being said, what are my odds that I'll be able to not only restore root to my phone without wiping it and losing all the sensitive data I had saved with root access but hadn't had the time to back up yet during one of the most difficult and tragic weeks of my life (I can't even begin to explain all of the other **** that has gone horribly wrong recently), but to also recover compensation for the cost of exceeding my data plan while visiting another country due to the update being downloaded at an EXTREMELY inopportune time? My guess: probably worse than the odds of accidentally clicking to accept and immediately download and apply an OS update within the same ≈11 milliseconds the nag for it was drawn on my phone's screen while also in the middle of giving a presentation in a super-important, multinational business meeting.
But hey, I figured I would share this post here anyway in the hopes of maybe learning that Google force-pushed an OTA update and pissed off millions of people who then filed a class action lawsuit because of it, and I just hadn't heard the news about it yet, but it was also recent enough that I could still get in on that action and recover at least some part of what I've lost in the past week.
And if not that, maybe I'll at least somehow get confirmation of having some of the worst luck imaginable, or validation that I'm not crazy, or just some sympathy and comfort from the community during a very dark time in my life when I sorely need it.
And I guess if there's even a modicum of hope I'll discover that I'm not completely alone in this world of **** that I now find myself in, and that there are others who have suffered a similar fate or misfortune as a result of either unbelievably bad luck with their phone, or Google forcibly cramming something very large and uncomfortable into an extremely sensitive area against their will - maybe even at one of the worst possible times of their life - then maybe there's even some hope left for my life; some point to even continuing it and trying to get out of the horribly-****ty, godforsaken nightmare I'm stuck in right now.
Or maybe I'll just learn that it is actually somehow possible to restore root to my phone without needing to wipe it first so I'm at least not quite as completely screwed as it looks like I am right now.
≈-∞
Google Pixel 5, OS 11
rooted with Magisk, no TWRP/recovery
recently forcibly OTA-updated to build RQ1A.201205.011
Disable updates permanently. I'm more concerned with the damage updates will do than malware at this point
leveleyed said:
A few days ago, I was trying to launch an app from my phone's home screen when it suddenly rebooted itself and downloaded/installed an OTA update, removing root in the process. So it looks like Google just force-restarted it and updated it without my consent!
Or, if not that, then I truly must have the worst luck imaginable - like astronomically, unbelievably bad; so bad it could be legendary - almost as if I were cursed by some mythical, malevolent creature with magical powers.
For what I'm about to assume might have happened to be what actually happened, the odds are probably astronomically against it occurring, or nearing the realm of quantum impossibility (or, at the very least, it would be extremely-improbable and highly-unlikely, statistically speaking).
There have been a handful of times (3-5, but I haven't kept count) in the few months I've had this phone that, after unlocking the screen, I see a window drawn over my phone's home screen: a notification dialog with info about downloading/installing a security update for the OS. At the bottom of the window I recall there being two buttons: one to confirm, reboot my phone, and download/install the update, and the other to postpone the update until some later time at night.
Since there was no button for the polite, socially-acceptable equivalent to responding, "NO, **** YOU! STOP ANNOYING ME WITH THIS PROMPT TO UPDATE! I NEVER WANT TO DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL AN UPDATE, OR SEE THIS POP UP EVER AGAIN!", I've just used the "back" button on my phone to dismiss this notification/prompt rather than accepting one of the two equally-unacceptable choices it offered me and being forced into downloading and updating my phone.
So, in theory, it's possible that, at the same exact moment as my phone's screen refreshed to draw this update notification/prompt again, I just happened to also click in exactly the wrong place - the place where that dreaded "reboot" button was drawn - thereby selecting the option to immediately reboot my phone, downloading and installing the update in the process. It would've had to have happened so quickly - literally, within the same 1/90th of a second - that the screen was drawn so that I didn't even see the notification appear before clicking the option to accept and reboot/install the update immediately.
1/90th of a second: that's just a hair over 11 milliseconds, or a hundredth of a second. And I just happened to click in exactly the wrong spot at exactly that moment?
Utterly, unimaginably, and even ridiculously bad luck if this is what actually happened. But aside from Google simply forcing a reboot/update remotely while I was using my phone, it's the only other thing I can think of that might've caused this.
Whoever programmed this functionality should at the very least be publicly shamed and insulted for it, but possibly also dragged out of their bed in the middle of the night into the street and beaten mercilessly. I don't know the law well enough to be aware of the name of the crime for such a thing (annoying millions of people with this almost-unavoidable and heinously-obnoxious nag to update their phone's OS, and causing maybe thousands of them to suffer some sort of financial loss, pain & suffering, or tragic inconvenience by accidentally accepting and applying the update - especially if they happened to be on a limited mobile data plan, or were roaming at the time). However, I'm fairly certain that most people who have experienced something like what I've been through and am forced to deal with now as a result of an OTA update being applied against their will would be fine with either or both of these things being administered as the just and appropriate form of punishment for such a crime.
So, all that being said, what are my odds that I'll be able to not only restore root to my phone without wiping it and losing all the sensitive data I had saved with root access but hadn't had the time to back up yet during one of the most difficult and tragic weeks of my life (I can't even begin to explain all of the other **** that has gone horribly wrong recently), but to also recover compensation for the cost of exceeding my data plan while visiting another country due to the update being downloaded at an EXTREMELY inopportune time? My guess: probably worse than the odds of accidentally clicking to accept and immediately download and apply an OS update within the same ≈11 milliseconds the nag for it was drawn on my phone's screen while also in the middle of giving a presentation in a super-important, multinational business meeting.
But hey, I figured I would share this post here anyway in the hopes of maybe learning that Google force-pushed an OTA update and pissed off millions of people who then filed a class action lawsuit because of it, and I just hadn't heard the news about it yet, but it was also recent enough that I could still get in on that action and recover at least some part of what I've lost in the past week.
And if not that, maybe I'll at least somehow get confirmation of having some of the worst luck imaginable, or validation that I'm not crazy, or just some sympathy and comfort from the community during a very dark time in my life when I sorely need it.
And I guess if there's even a modicum of hope I'll discover that I'm not completely alone in this world of **** that I now find myself in, and that there are others who have suffered a similar fate or misfortune as a result of either unbelievably bad luck with their phone, or Google forcibly cramming something very large and uncomfortable into an extremely sensitive area against their will - maybe even at one of the worst possible times of their life - then maybe there's even some hope left for my life; some point to even continuing it and trying to get out of the horribly-****ty, godforsaken nightmare I'm stuck in right now.
Or maybe I'll just learn that it is actually somehow possible to restore root to my phone without needing to wipe it first so I'm at least not quite as completely screwed as it looks like I am right now.
≈-∞
Google Pixel 5, OS 11
rooted with Magisk, no TWRP/recovery
recently forcibly OTA-updated to build RQ1A.201205.011
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, automatic system updates are turned off. it's the first thing i do when i set up a new phone. so like i said, either Google still forced an update on my phone - despite having the automatic update setting turned off - or i have unbelievably impeccable timing on top of horribly bad luck.
Still hoping someone might have a solution that would allow me to restore root without wiping my device/data. please oh please oh please let there be some way to do this.
leveleyed said:
Still hoping someone might have a solution that would allow me to restore root without wiping my device/data. please oh please oh please let there be some way to do this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a simple solution and has been discussed before.
Get the boot.img for your current build
Copy it to the phone and patch it with Magisk Manager
Fastboot flash the resulting patched image
Accidentally OTA updated my pixel, all fine but root gone
So i accidentally updated my pixel firmware via official OTA update (security patch 5. january 2021). First i was scared of a bootloop but it all went fine and booted. Of course my root is gone now, but i want to root it again. Bootloader is...
forum.xda-developers.com
UPDATING Pixel 5 Factory Image & Re-Rooting
Why This Thread? I have seen several questions on the process for updating a rooted Pixel 5, since the existing guides only explain the unlock and initial rooting, I thought I'd throw together a quick HOW TO on UPDATING and Re-Rooting for...
forum.xda-developers.com
l7777 said:
This is a simple solution and has been discussed before.
Get the boot.img for your current build
Copy it to the phone and patch it with Magisk Manager
Fastboot flash the resulting patched image
Accidentally OTA updated my pixel, all fine but root gone
So i accidentally updated my pixel firmware via official OTA update (security patch 5. january 2021). First i was scared of a bootloop but it all went fine and booted. Of course my root is gone now, but i want to root it again. Bootloader is...
forum.xda-developers.com
UPDATING Pixel 5 Factory Image & Re-Rooting
Why This Thread? I have seen several questions on the process for updating a rooted Pixel 5, since the existing guides only explain the unlock and initial rooting, I thought I'd throw together a quick HOW TO on UPDATING and Re-Rooting for...
forum.xda-developers.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Sorry for asking something that already had an answer. I guess I wasn't searching for the info properly.
I'm still having a problem though. I got the boot.img for the new version on my device. But when trying to launch Magisk manager, I see a window that says "upgrade to full Magisk Manager to finish the setup. Download and install?" I click "OK". But the next time I try to open it, it just keeps doing that same thing.
leveleyed said:
Thanks! Sorry for asking something that already had an answer. I guess I wasn't searching for the info properly.
I'm still having a problem though. I got the boot.img for the new version on my device. But when trying to launch Magisk manager, I see a window that says "upgrade to full Magisk Manager to finish the setup. Download and install?" I click "OK". But the next time I try to open it, it just keeps doing that same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try downloading magisk directly and installing. Or are if it already downloaded it and install that one.
leveleyed said:
yes, automatic system updates are turned off. it's the first thing i do when i set up a new phone. so like i said, either Google still forced an update on my phone - despite having the automatic update settingl turned off - or i have unbelievably impeccable timing on top of horribly bad luck.
Still hoping someone might have a solution that would allow me to restore root without wiping my device/data. please oh please oh please let there be some way to do this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry this happened to you.
But I think you more than likely thought it was off, I don't see why Google would "force" updates for only you.
leveleyed said:
Thanks! Sorry for asking something that already had an answer. I guess I wasn't searching for the info properly.
I'm still having a problem though. I got the boot.img for the new version on my device. But when trying to launch Magisk manager, I see a window that says "upgrade to full Magisk Manager to finish the setup. Download and install?" I click "OK". But the next time I try to open it, it just keeps doing that same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try downloading Magisk v22.
There is no longer Magisk Manager.
Releases · topjohnwu/Magisk
The Magic Mask for Android. Contribute to topjohnwu/Magisk development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
l7777 said:
Try downloading magisk directly and installing. Or are if it already downloaded it and install that one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay. I went to download v22 from Github (assuming I don't want Canary). But on the download page, I see written more than once, "RESTORE THE EXISTING MAGISK MANAGER BACK TO NORMAL BEFORE UPGRADING IF HIDDEN!" Unfortunately, I had Magisk hidden as a different app name. so I can't unhide it. I'm not sure what to do about this. Should I uninstall the hidden/renamed Magisk, or leave it and install the new one?
leveleyed said:
Okay. I went to download v22 from Github (assuming I don't want Canary). But on the download page, I see written more than once, "RESTORE THE EXISTING MAGISK MANAGER BACK TO NORMAL BEFORE UPGRADING IF HIDDEN!" Unfortunately, I had Magisk hidden as a different app name. so I can't unhide it. I'm not sure what to do about this. Should I uninstall the hidden/renamed Magisk, or leave it and install the new one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you should be able to uninstall it manually. Won't hurt anything.
leveleyed said:
Okay. I went to download v22 from Github (assuming I don't want Canary). But on the download page, I see written more than once, "RESTORE THE EXISTING MAGISK MANAGER BACK TO NORMAL BEFORE UPGRADING IF HIDDEN!" Unfortunately, I had Magisk hidden as a different app name. so I can't unhide it. I'm not sure what to do about this. Should I uninstall the hidden/renamed Magisk, or leave it and install the new one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No don't use canary, use v22.
But why can't you inside it? It's in Magisk settling. If you must uninstall it, you can try that also then install v22
andybones said:
I'm sorry this happened to you.
But I think you more than likely thought it was off, I don't see why Google would "force" updates for only you.
Try downloading Magisk v22.
There is no longer Magisk Manager.
Releases · topjohnwu/Magisk
The Magic Mask for Android. Contribute to topjohnwu/Magisk development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I know it was off because I am paranoid about automatic updates. I have them off in both Play Store and for system updates. I checked the setting after I rooted previously, and after it updated. So I guess it was actually just extremely bad luck/timing to click the location of the 'reboot and update now' button within the same frame the prompt appeared on my phone's home screen so that I never even saw it before it started rebooting and applied the update.
andybones said:
No don't use canary, use v22.
But why can't you inside it? It's in Magisk settling. If you must uninstall it, you can try that also then install v22
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't unhide it because I was unable to launch Magisk at all. Every time I tried, I was just prompted to download it.
After uninstalling/reinstalling Magisk, downloading and extracting the boot.img for my current version of Android OS, patching in Magisk, and flashing the patched boot.img, I'm happy to report that I've successfully restored root without loss of my data partition!
Thank you so much to everyone here who helped me to get this resolved!
Now, hopefully I can find an app (or perhaps a Magisk module) that will prevent the system update notifications/prompts from even showing up on my phone, thereby eliminating the potential risk of needing to go through this again.