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So, to make a long story, short, for the past couple of days my phone has been soft-bricked... It first happened when I attempted to flash dmodv6 in CWM. Everything looked good throughout the installation, however, when I rebooted my device, I got stuck in a boot loop where It would say "Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I8190" for a few seconds, the screen would go black, then say the same thing again... over and over and over...
After a lot of trial and error because of NOT making a nandroid backup via CWM (stupid, I know - I had made one via Titanium Backup and thought that might be good enough), I finally was able to boot. Thanks to xXPR0T0TYPEXx, I was able to flash another rom by puting my external sd card into another phone, loading another rom onto it, and putting it back in my phone. I now had Cyanogenmod10 and was able to boot back up.
I attempted to restore the Titanium Backup I had made with this new rom (stupid again, I know) and it made almost every service on the phone stop working... I desperately wanted just to get back to square one - to install stock firmware and go from there. I followed tys0n's guide on flashing stock recovery then attempted to install stock firmware... All seemingly went well - I booted up, got past the initial "Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I8190" logo and finally got hung up at the "Samsung" logo. I left it one while I went to sleep, just to see if it would eventually work... I woke up and it was still the same. I tried flashing different version of the same stock firmware but it all ended in getting hung up at the "Samsung" logo.
A major problem is that I absolutely CANNOT flash a custom recovery via Odin - it just will NOT work. Everything looks good on Odin's end - I PASS, get the (succeed 1 / failed 0) thing but am sent to stock recovery every time I do the 3 button combination. I've tried many version of CWM and TWRP.... NOTHING. I've even unticked the "Auto-Reboot" button in Odin and pulled the usb cable and battery upon completion but, but nothing ever works. The only way I was ever able to get CWM on my phone in the first place was by an in-phone app... Rom Manager, maybe? I can't remember. But, as it is, that method is out of the question.
I've learned a lot about what I did wrong so that's the only good part of all of this. Now, all that's left is to fix the thing so I can go about it right. I'm completely out of ideas, have spent almost a full 24 hours searching solutions to this problem and I am at wits end...
I just want to get back to stock firmware... Any ideas, guys? Should I go about re-partitioning my device at this time?
I have the PIT file... but I'm not sure as to which firmware to choose. I imagine a firmware that is 4.1.1 like my phone was... but I'm not sure about the region. I live in the US and there is no US or North American region firmware version.Can anyone shed some light on which one I should choose?
My SSN underneath my battery say "GTI8190GSMH".
I'm sorry this is so long, I just wanted to explain what happened as best as I could. So, should I go about re-partitioning my device at this point? If so, what firmware would you recommend for my model? Are different region versions okay for a this method?
Or is there another way?
Thanks, guys. :silly:
Some additional details (if it will help): I can, indeed, boot into both recovery and download mode. I just can't seem to flash a stock rom that will boot past the "Samsung" logo.
I've even attempted to flash the param file after the rom flash but it didn't help.
AffectiveEffect said:
Some additional details (if it will help): I can, indeed, boot into both recovery and download mode. I just can't seem to flash a stock rom that will boot past the "Samsung" logo.
I've even attempted to flash the param file after the rom flash but it didn't help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the stock recovery now instead CWM? If yes do (if you didn't try it) a factory/data reset and wipe cache but it will delete your pics, music etc on your internal storage too.
xXPR0T0TYPEXx said:
Do you have the stock recovery now instead CWM? If yes do (if you didn't try it) a factory/data reset and wipe cache but it will delete your pics, music etc on your internal storage too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have stock recovery now and I have tried that many, many times... Even if I install something like CyanogenMod, it still gets hung up on the CyanogenMod boot screen... And if I boot a stock firmware, it gets hung up at the same place at the "Samsung" logo...
I have an idea that one of the only options left is a PIT re-partitioning... If so, how would I properly go about that? Load the PIT file and the stock firmware in odin? Or only the PIT as PDA? I've heard a couple of different things and am unsure.
AffectiveEffect said:
Yeah, I have stock recovery now and I have tried that many, many times... Even if I install something like CyanogenMod, it still gets hung up on the CyanogenMod boot screen... And if I boot a stock firmware, it gets hung up at the same place at the "Samsung" logo...
I have an idea that one of the only options left is a PIT re-partitioning... If so, how would I properly go about that? Load the PIT file and the stock firmware in odin? Or only the PIT as PDA? I've heard a couple of different things and am unsure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about PIT files but some people got this message : "CUSTOM PIT BINARY" in recovery mode after flashed a PIT file (maybe they used a other PIT file that wasn't compatible). So make sure you use a PIT file that is GT-i8190 compatible.
I tried flashing the PIT file for the hell of it because I am completely out of ideas.... It failed repeatedly in Odin.
I have no clue on how to fix this... I've tried countless roms and they all get stuck on their respective boot screens. The only one that gave me a glimmer of hope was Cyanogenmod10.2.... It went as far as saying "Android is upgrading" and showed "starting apps" but it got hung up there.
I don't know what to do, guys. Someone help!!!
AffectiveEffect said:
I tried flashing the PIT file for the hell of it because I am completely out of ideas.... It failed repeatedly in Odin.
I have no clue on how to fix this... I've tried countless roms and they all get stuck on their respective boot screens. The only one that gave me a glimmer of hope was Cyanogenmod10.2.... It went as far as saying "Android is upgrading" and showed "starting apps" but it got hung up there.
I don't know what to do, guys. Someone help!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use a custom ROM to see if it will fix the problem .Try to flash CyanogenMod 10.2 by NovaFusion via odin or if you flash CyanogenMod 11 then you will automatically get the TWRP recovery. NovaFusion Team Homepage : novafusion.pl. I know you want the stock ROM but try other ROMs to get a booting phone again
xXPR0T0TYPEXx said:
Use a custom ROM to see if it will fix the problem .Try to flash CyanogenMod 10.2 by NovaFusion via odin or if you flash CyanogenMod 11 then you will automatically get the TWRP recovery. NovaFusion Team Homepage : novafusion.pl. I know you want the stock ROM but try other ROMs to get a booting phone again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have... I've tried numerous stock roms and numerous custom roms... all versions of Cyanogenmod, Chameleon, Carbon, Slim mod, etc... They all get stuck at their respective logos.
I even tried the Cyanogenmod with TWRP but, as I explained earlier, I absolutely CAN NOT flash a custom recovery unless I use what ever app I used.... It doesn't work with Odin or with a rom. I don't know why.
I wish someone had more info on repartitioning my phone and if it would help.
NEED HELP?
AffectiveEffect said:
So, to make a long story, short, for the past couple of days my phone has been soft-bricked... It first happened when I attempted to flash dmodv6 in CWM. Everything looked good throughout the installation, however, when I rebooted my device, I got stuck in a boot loop where It would say "Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I8190" for a few seconds, the screen would go black, then say the same thing again... over and over and over...
After a lot of trial and error because of NOT making a nandroid backup via CWM (stupid, I know - I had made one via Titanium Backup and thought that might be good enough), I finally was able to boot. Thanks to xXPR0T0TYPEXx, I was able to flash another rom by puting my external sd card into another phone, loading another rom onto it, and putting it back in my phone. I now had Cyanogenmod10 and was able to boot back up.
I attempted to restore the Titanium Backup I had made with this new rom (stupid again, I know) and it made almost every service on the phone stop working... I desperately wanted just to get back to square one - to install stock firmware and go from there. I followed tys0n's guide on flashing stock recovery then attempted to install stock firmware... All seemingly went well - I booted up, got past the initial "Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I8190" logo and finally got hung up at the "Samsung" logo. I left it one while I went to sleep, just to see if it would eventually work... I woke up and it was still the same. I tried flashing different version of the same stock firmware but it all ended in getting hung up at the "Samsung" logo.
A major problem is that I absolutely CANNOT flash a custom recovery via Odin - it just will NOT work. Everything looks good on Odin's end - I PASS, get the (succeed 1 / failed 0) thing but am sent to stock recovery every time I do the 3 button combination. I've tried many version of CWM and TWRP.... NOTHING. I've even unticked the "Auto-Reboot" button in Odin and pulled the usb cable and battery upon completion but, but nothing ever works. The only way I was ever able to get CWM on my phone in the first place was by an in-phone app... Rom Manager, maybe? I can't remember. But, as it is, that method is out of the question.
I've learned a lot about what I did wrong so that's the only good part of all of this. Now, all that's left is to fix the thing so I can go about it right. I'm completely out of ideas, have spent almost a full 24 hours searching solutions to this problem and I am at wits end...
I just want to get back to stock firmware... Any ideas, guys? Should I go about re-partitioning my device at this time?
I have the PIT file... but I'm not sure as to which firmware to choose. I imagine a firmware that is 4.1.1 like my phone was... but I'm not sure about the region. I live in the US and there is no US or North American region firmware version.Can anyone shed some light on which one I should choose?
My SSN underneath my battery say "GTI8190GSMH".
I'm sorry this is so long, I just wanted to explain what happened as best as I could. So, should I go about re-partitioning my device at this point? If so, what firmware would you recommend for my model? Are different region versions okay for a this method?
Or is there another way?
Thanks, guys. :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i got same problem with you before im wayback dmod v6 before and stuck at samsung logo i just try hard reset
1. open your phone
2. remove battery and put the battery try and try til u get in recovery mode (CWM) maybe just tried almost 20x restarting in logo til u in CWM :victory:
3. re-Flash your dmod v6 this way for dirty rom like what i said (softbricks)
4. just flash another new rom whatever u like or dmod v6.
5. I HOPE IT HELPS DONT FORGET TO THANKS <3 :highfive:
So I have a very odd problem, and I'm fairly experienced with repairing, rooting, and reverting phones to stock which have custom roms, in this case I have a completely stock note 5 which was experiencing a boot loop error at the note 5 model number screen. Going through the motions I normally would, hard reset, nope, safe mode, nope, wipe cache, nope, master reset, nope, so I flash the firmware with a stock rom, which worked, but resulted in the same problem, rebooting at the model number screen just before the samsung logo every few seconds, tried 3 other firmware versions and downloads, also no. Not sure whats up with this thing, but anyone have any ideas? I personally know the user, family, phone wasnt physically damaged or exposed to water. I'm also getting no command just before entering recovery and failed to mount/ preload (no such file or directory) during the master reset. Its been forever sense I've meddled with a note 5 and cannot remember if these are normal, or related to the issue, I dont ever remember seeing these with my own note 5.
I ran into this exact same problem weeks ago on my S7. I tried flashing 7.0 on my 930V and for whatever reason the phone went into the exact same bootloop showing the Samsung logo every few seconds, vibrating, etc. I got back into download mode but wasn't able to fix it. Then went into Recovery and it only said in blue letters in the top left "Recovery rebooting" and kept flashing that message. Lucky for me I was under warranty and sent it to Samsung. They replaced it free of charge. I ended up trading for a Note 5. I kept running into issues with my S7 and network issues so I traded it.
Anyway, I'm like you in the fact I'm pretty comfortable rooting, repairing devices etc. But I still don't know what I did to mess up that S7 in Odin. Just wanted to share that I had a similar situation. Hope you were able to get a new phone or fix your issue.
sinkableelk said:
So I have a very odd problem, and I'm fairly experienced with repairing, rooting, and reverting phones to stock which have custom roms, in this case I have a completely stock note 5 which was experiencing a boot loop error at the note 5 model number screen. Going through the motions I normally would, hard reset, nope, safe mode, nope, wipe cache, nope, master reset, nope, so I flash the firmware with a stock rom, which worked, but resulted in the same problem, rebooting at the model number screen just before the samsung logo every few seconds, tried 3 other firmware versions and downloads, also no. Not sure whats up with this thing, but anyone have any ideas? I personally know the user, family, phone wasnt physically damaged or exposed to water. I'm also getting no command just before entering recovery and failed to mount/ preload (no such file or directory) during the master reset. Its been forever sense I've meddled with a note 5 and cannot remember if these are normal, or related to the issue, I dont ever remember seeing these with my own note 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My suggestion is this..
Download the latest version of TWRP
Boot to Download Mode
Odin flash TWRP
Boot to TWRP Recovery
Full wipe including internal storage x 2
Format DATA x 2
Odin flash the latest firmware for your device
(All 4 - BLUE, AP, CP, CSC)
OR
Use Smart Switch Emergency Recovery to restore the firmware.
Hope this helps. Good luck and happy flashing! Let's us know what happens.
Sent from my Samsung SM-G955U using XDA Labs
Sup, I got sick of waiting for OEM Unlock (at 13 days now on BRI CSC from never-msrp) and decided to try flashing another region.
Clearly, region is stuck with what you started with regardless of the firmware you flash.
Alright, so let's just erase efs (yeah, that little checkbox in Odin that's usually safe on every other device, or an empty or unsigned efs.img in the tar) then and pull SIM out and maybe it won't know what I started with and default to XEU.
Yeah, no, dm-verity errors from then on. Device completely unrecognizable by Kies & Smart Switch.
It gets into Download mode, it flashes, but it fails the Installing screen @ around 32% on the next boot and falls back to recovery showing dm-verity error.
So, any suggestions? I'm sure someone has experience here with wiped EFS on the S8 or Note 8.
By the way, this device, as you can tell by the first sentence, is in OEM LOCKED mode.
UPDATE: SEE LAST POST https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=75879640&postcount=20
That (32%) is the normal stop point for the binaries error at boot after flashing unofficial firmware, I'd try flashing the full smash, BL, CP, CSC, AP from a stock firmware all at once in Odin, it got me out of it.
Have you tried flashing the factory binary for N950F? I had almost the same, not flashing situation, and the factory binary allowed me to restore my phone following the steps I found for restoring EFS. Although I paid 10 dollars to be able to download the factory binary from a website. It is called COMBINATION file.
i23u8 said:
Have you tried flashing the factory binary for N950F? I had almost the same, not flashing situation, and the factory binary allowed me to restore my phone following the steps I found for restoring EFS. Although I paid 10 dollars to be able to download the factory binary from a website. It is called COMBINATION file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, I found one for AQH9. I'll see what I can do with it! Thanks!
krabman said:
That (32%) is the normal stop point for the binaries error at boot after flashing unofficial firmware, I'd try flashing the full smash, BL, CP, CSC, AP from a stock firmware all at once in Odin, it got me out of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is actually the first thing I tried.
jcadduono said:
Sup, I got sick of waiting for OEM Unlock (at 13 days now on BRI CSC from never-msrp) and decided to try flashing another region.
Clearly, region is stuck with what you started with regardless of the firmware you flash.
Alright, so let's just erase efs then and pull SIM out and maybe it won't know what I started with and default to XEU.
Yeah, no, dm-verity errors from then on. Device completely unrecognizable by Kies & Smart Switch.
It gets into Download mode, it flashes, but it fails the Installing screen @ around 32% on the next boot and falls back to recovery showing dm-verity error.
So, any suggestions? I'm sure someone has experience here with wiped EFS on the S8 or Note 8.
By the way, this device, as you can tell by the first sentence, is in OEM LOCKED mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to the N8 group. Can you specify What exactly is giving a dm-verity error? You say its able to get to recovery. Have you tried flashing your CSC?
EDIT: Other than that if you can find the Combo files for your model(you cannot use the n950U ones) then you could boot into the device using a similar method to the snapdragon root(using the abl.elf,devcfg,boot.img and recovery.img in a tar file flash with comsey odin and dm-verity on system should get disabled. That will allow you to at least boot. but since you wiped efs probably dont have service.
No success with factory binaries, they don't boot past the FACTORY BINARY >>>>>>>>> loading screen.
I think the modem is panicking early in boot process due to empty efs partition.
So if you try to flash efs.img unsigned with Odin, it will erase efs and then refuse to flash new one. I guess I'm screwed unless I can somehow find a signed efs.img to flash.
jcadduono said:
No success with factory binaries, they don't boot past the FACTORY BINARY >>>>>>>>> loading screen.
I think the modem is panicking early in boot process due to empty efs partition.
So if you try to flash efs.img unsigned with Odin, it will erase efs and then refuse to flash new one. I guess I'm screwed unless I can somehow find a signed efs.img to flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try installing all stock FW then create a new tar with the files i mentioned above. See what happens then. You SHOULD also have adb on boot when using the combo files like that.
me2151 said:
Try installing all stock FW then create a new tar with the files i mentioned above. See what happens then. You SHOULD also have adb on boot when using the combo files like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, adb is unauthorized though so what's the point of it
also, i did try this, no success getting past samsung screen, which is the same case as factory binary system, just stuck on the logo forever with adb unauthorized
jcadduono said:
yes, adb is unauthorized though so what's the point of it
also, i did try this, no success getting past samsung screen, which is the same case as factory binary system, just stuck on the logo forever with adb unauthorized
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. Is your efs image sparse or regular img? According to a guy i know on S8 efs isnt secure boot checked and is flashable no issue in odin. just needs to be a sparse image and named efs.img.ext4
me2151 said:
Ok. Is your efs image sparse or regular img? According to a guy i know on S8 efs isnt secure boot checked and is flashable no issue in odin. just needs to be a sparse image and named efs.img.ext4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is secure boot checked, i flashed a sparse ext4 efs.img (efs.img is what the partition layout says it should be named), it failed with the error that you can't flash unsigned files to this partition (on DL mode screen)
it also left the efs partition completely empty, so it zeros it out before even checking if the image sent is signed
the guy who said it wasn't secure boot checked probably had an OEM unlocked device
my sparse ext4.img file was an empty filesystem, it would have at least mounted if the flash worked
jcadduono said:
it is secure boot checked, i flashed a sparse ext4 efs.img (efs.img is what the partition layout says it should be named), it failed with the error that you can't flash unsigned files to this partition (on DL mode screen)
it also left the efs partition completely empty, so it zeros it out before even checking if the image sent is signed
the guy who said it wasn't secure boot checked probably had an OEM unlocked device
my sparse ext4.img file was an empty filesystem, it would have at least mounted if the flash worked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Crap. Forgot you were Exynos. Your Secure boot stuff is different. We are Snapdragon. Sorry.
Was looking into Octoplus or z3x as a solution, but unfortunately both require a rooted working phone, it seems the only way to possibly get past this error is to get EFS formatted somehow, or flash a signed sparse EFS in Odin. Maybe if engineering binary doesn't have verity on system it could be possible to replace an early system service with a shell script to format efs, and that might bring the device far enough to boot, but even then I would never have service until I bought some kind of Samsung EFS certificate and installed it with a z3x/octoplus.
This is way beyond me, so either I have to desperately plea with never-msrp, or Samsung Taiwan, or find someone in Taiwan willing to RMA the Note8 for me then ship the fixed one back to me
ebay and paypal say buyer's fault and won't let me open a case (told them it failed during firmware upgrade)
argued that the seller did not mention anywhere in ad that the phone was from a region that did not speak English and offered no manufacturer warranty (at least a UK or UAE Exynos phone can be RMA'd then forwarded by a friend, Taiwan cannot)
got nowhere
eBay says: The moment you accept a firmware upgrade on a smartphone, even if it is official/from the manufacturer, you forfeit your 30 day money back guarantee. This is because any modification done to an item after receiving it counts as altering the product and breaks the guarantee.
Me: Well, in that case just setting it up breaks the guarantee!
i can probably get $250 for it being sold for parts which is pretty painful when it's brand new without a single scratch and knox 0x0
if it were possible to purchase a motherboard for the phone i would do that, but that probably won't be possible for at least 2 years
update: never-msrp is trying to see if they can help me get it into taiwan rma through them
i tihnk i can fix inbox me
I once had a note 4 that where bricked and nothing I did could bring it back and no one on XDA was able to help so I thought it was dead beat.
I refused to give up as back then the phone was only a few months old and I paid full price on release date so I got online and started downloading stock Rom after stock Rom all from different countries and after a week of downloading and flashing I got it working.
Right after I got it working I flashed BTU stock and then I was a happy dude.
I don't know what caused the issue and I don't know how it was fixed other then the longest week of my life of downloading and flashing that got it working. Would maybe have taken half the time if the samfirmware downloading speeds wernt so damn slow.
I know ur issue is different and furthermore u understand what u r doing more then I ever will but maybe with a bit of luck and persistently trying it might work again.
jcadduono said:
No success with factory binaries, they don't boot past the FACTORY BINARY >>>>>>>>> loading screen.
I think the modem is panicking early in boot process due to empty efs partition.
So if you try to flash efs.img unsigned with Odin, it will erase efs and then refuse to flash new one. I guess I'm screwed unless I can somehow find a signed efs.img to flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which version of Factory you flashed?
Someone who's hard brick try this. I msg guy and he said they haven't had chance to try with Note 8 yet. He has thousands of reviews and high stars. Dealt with him in the past.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/121826357738
Feel for ya hope you get it sorted
Sent from my SM-N950F using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Try the s8plus csc of rom.
Hey guys, so one day I came upon something in my facebook feed regarding G955F being "world first" /efs mount fail fixed.
This gave me some hella hope, so I contacted the guy who posted it.
He charged $75 USD via PayPal (I paid with "goods and services" option in PayPal to his email using my VISA)
Installed TeamViewerQS and Flexihub.
He logged in, and was able to use some tool from his side with Flexihub while my N950F/DS was in download mode and it somehow convinced the phone to recreate its EFS partition.
Once the EFS was back to life, I was FINALLY able to boot a factory binary, and this fixed the remainder of my phone.
He then flashed stock and it booted up and made it to setup wizard.
(there was about an hour or so during this that system was not flashing, and I had to switch PCs to get a USB 2.0 port. Apparently USB 3.1 was too fast for download mode to work correctly)
He says that my DRK is probably still corrupt so rebooting the phone will boot loop, but if I OEM Unlock it then I will be able to bypass DRK error.
Update: My phone reboots fine and is perfectly working! yay!
I have LTE and both of my IMEI are proper.
As for as I can tell everything is working perfectly and the device is still OEM ON FRP OFF and Official status.
I have not tried rebooting.
I cannot OEM Unlock my phone probably for another 2 weeks after adding my Samsung account, so gotta be careful not to let the battery die. :/
If you want his services, you can message him on his facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/baselalzoupi
Good luck!
1. I flash into SC-02B stock rom successfully, with Odin.
2. Upgraded it into custom rom with samsung kies.
3. Flash a wrong root (For I9000 only). Made it boot stuck still able to fix later on, by wiping caches & other etc, but the root is deleted by itself.
4. Then flash a correct root (For SC-02B). Causing it become soft bricked, I try wiping caches & other etc. still not working.
5. I decided to downgraded it into stock rom again, I tick re partition, The re partition has finished, but the PIT files has stuck for 10 mins
6. So I take my phone battery out, then unpluged & close Odin.
I try to turn it on but no respond, no download mode, no recovery mode & battery logo. but still able to charged with a wall charger, the next thing I do, I bought a very cheap JIG ordered from china, it doesn't give my phone into download mode (Don't know why). So I need help with all the solutions & Instructions whoever encounter with problem please help.
OK, using my phone normally rooted. I sometimes get random reboots and it bootloops. I have to force reboot a few times by holding power, bixby, volume down etc etc and it boots up normally.
This time, it did the same thing and force rebooting got me to the lockscreen but kept rebooting at that screen. I plugged in to the computer and forced reboot and it worked fine but for some reason but it made me start the whole setup process again as if I factory reset the phone but everything was still there except settings were reset.
Brightness wasn't working, so I tried to reboot to see if it would fix the problem but it started to bootlooping again and NOW I can't get past the lockscreen without it rebooting.
What do I do. I tried wiping cache in recovery but no dice. Can I reflash the firmware in odin? I don't want to lose any data. I know about flashing home csc instead but I'm rooted and I don't have the modified ap file from magisk, so wouldn't it just wipe my phone?
From my experience with the Galaxy S3 and S4, you will need to flash the firmware with Odin which will wipe everything. Use Samsung smart switch or TWRP to make a back-up of your data.
StoneyJSG said:
From my experience with the Galaxy S3 and S4, you will need to flash the firmware with Odin which will wipe everything. Use Samsung smart switch or TWRP to make a back-up of your data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
things have significantly changed since those days, but youre half right. In the new firmwares, there are 5 files. 3 of them have to be flashes as normal, but the last 2 are the CSC and HOME_CSC, you can shoose whichever of the 2 you want to flash depending on whether or not youll end up factory resetting. HOME_CSC doesnt wipe whereas CSC does.
OP, flash the HOME_CSC and the other 3 files as normal in Odin and you should retain your data and fix whatever part of the firmware is having a seizure. If the problem persists, then youre stuck with alternate methods of data recovery, including but not limited to ADB'ing into it while in the bootloader screen so long that you have ADB enabled in dev settings and then flashing the CSC to reset it. If THAT doesnt fix it, then youre prolly boned. Prolly a hardware issue at that point.
Where do you get HOME_CSC files from? Been looking for it for my AT&T firmware.