[Q] Reverting to stock FAIL - Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II

Hi guys,
I am trying to help someone get their phone back to stock. It's a verizon galaxy note 2 and all the information I have is that they tried to root or rom it and now it doesn't start (and to get it to boot you have to remove/put in the battery)
I'm following droidstyle's guide and I can get as far as starting the odin flash process to stock, but it goes for a few minutes and then I just get a FAIL.
UPDATE1: So I tried again but with the root66 stock VRALJB and it passed but I'm getting the system software not authorized message. I'll keep trying some things..
Anyway I can get this thing up and running again?
UPDATE2: I'm flashing the stock roms semi-successfully, but even after a PASS on the flash, I get the "Verizon has detected unauthorized software" message. Any ideas?

Bascotie said:
Hi guys,
I am trying to help someone get their phone back to stock. It's a verizon galaxy note 2 and all the information I have is that they tried to root or rom it and now it doesn't start (and to get it to boot you have to remove/put in the battery)
I'm following droidstyle's guide and I can get as far as starting the odin flash process to stock, but it goes for a few minutes and then I just get a FAIL.
UPDATE1: So I tried again but with the root66 stock VRALJB and it passed but I'm getting the system software not authorized message. I'll keep trying some things..
Anyway I can get this thing up and running again?
UPDATE2: I'm flashing the stock roms semi-successfully, but even after a PASS on the flash, I get the "Verizon has detected unauthorized software" message. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What version of stock firmware was on the phone when the person tried to root it? If it was mj9 4.3 or above you will have to flash the version that was installed through Odin to get it to work. The bootloader starting in mj9 4.3 doesn't allow to downgrade to previous version.

BluGuy said:
What version of stock firmware was on the phone when the person tried to root it? If it was mj9 4.3 or above you will have to flash the version that was installed through Odin to get it to work. The bootloader starting in mj9 4.3 doesn't allow to downgrade to previous version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question. He doesn't really know as he was even newer to this than I am (I've done it on a couple phones in the past only a few times, so I do kinda have the hang of it, but this phone's a bit different).
Can I just try flashing 4.3 or above and see if that works? What would be the way to go if I don't know what was flashed previously?

Related

[Q] Not sure if I bricked it, but I can't get it to work

I picked up a Verizon Galaxy S4 today, and it installed the OTA update.
Tonight I tried to root the phone, and it did not work, and now I can't get the phone to start back up. It gives me the "firmware update encountered an issue message."
I can get the phone into download mode, but I haven't been able to install a stock rom using ODIN. I think maybe I'm using the wrong ROM.
What should I be doing?
Mechachrome said:
I picked up a Verizon Galaxy S4 today, and it installed the OTA update.
Tonight I tried to root the phone, and it did not work, and now I can't get the phone to start back up. It gives me the "firmware update encountered an issue message."
I can get the phone into download mode, but I haven't been able to install a stock rom using ODIN. I think maybe I'm using the wrong ROM.
What should I be doing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're probably using the wrong ROM.
Which OTA? What baseband were you on prior to and after the OTA? What errors did you see in ODIN and on the phone.
If you were on MJ7 and updated to MK2, then you should be able to flash the MJ7 no-wipe ROM to recover.
Failing that, install Samsung Kies and use it to recover your phone.

[Q] Soft bricked after 4.4 OTA update Please help

It's been 3 days since I had my phone soft bricked. Here's what happened. I had rooted 4.1.2 and my sister accepted OTA when 4.3 (MJ9) came out so I lost my root access. Everything was working fine and I wasn't doing much on my phone so I didn't bother to root it back. 4.3 (VRUAND3) OTA failed on my phone when it came out and I didn't care about it because it was still on 4.3. When 4.4 came out, I decided to do OTA update and everything went fine except when it rebooted. It will pass the samsung logo but when it got to Verizon logo, it was just stuck there. So I searched this forum and tried everything that I found about unbricking the soft bricked phone. All stock roms will fail at sboot.bin except for root66_VZW_stock_system.tar (I did try with and without .pit and I only checked autoreboot F. Reset time) but when I do that then I will get the system software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found error (with yellow triangle). Here's the list of stock roms I tried and odin versions.
ROM: root66_VZW_stock_system.tar, I605VZWEMJ9, I605VRALJB, I605VZWAND3 (all with and without .pit)
Odin: 1.85, 3.07, 3.09
The only good thing is that I still have my odin mode and the number of binary didn't change. And I didn't get the knox.....
I really need you guys' expertise... any suggestion will help at this moment... Sorry for the lengthy post I really tried to be specific on what I tried so far.... I'm currently downloading VRAND7 (4.4) and I'm out of the option after I try this one with odin.... Thank you.
gomtingeee said:
It's been 3 days since I had my phone soft bricked. Here's what happened. I had rooted 4.1.2 and my sister accepted OTA when 4.3 (MJ9) came out so I lost my root access. Everything was working fine and I wasn't doing much on my phone so I didn't bother to root it back. 4.3 (VRUAND3) OTA failed on my phone when it came out and I didn't care about it because it was still on 4.3. When 4.4 came out, I decided to do OTA update and everything went fine except when it rebooted. It will pass the samsung logo but when it got to Verizon logo, it was just stuck there. So I searched this forum and tried everything that I found about unbricking the soft bricked phone. All stock roms will fail at sboot.bin except for root66_VZW_stock_system.tar (I did try with and without .pit and I only checked autoreboot F. Reset time) but when I do that then I will get the system software not authorized by Verizon Wireless has been found error (with yellow triangle). Here's the list of stock roms I tried and odin versions.
ROM: root66_VZW_stock_system.tar, I605VZWEMJ9, I605VRALJB, I605VZWAND3 (all with and without .pit)
Odin: 1.85, 3.07, 3.09
The only good thing is that I still have my odin mode and the number of binary didn't change. And I didn't get the knox.....
I really need you guys' expertise... any suggestion will help at this moment... Sorry for the lengthy post I really tried to be specific on what I tried so far.... I'm currently downloading VRAMC3 (4.4) and I'm out of the option after I try this one with odin.... Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason they all fail at sboot is bc you are attempting to downgrade to fix it..that's not possible.. so here is what you need to do.
Go to Sammobile.com
Go to Firmwares (top of page)
Scroll down to Search
Type "SCH-I605"
Select & download ND7 4.4.2
Flash via Odin w/ pit
It should pass and you will be good to go
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Free mobile app
lacoursiere18 said:
The reason they all fail at sboot is bc you are attempting to downgrade to fix it..that's not possible.. so here is what you need to do.
Go to Sammobile.com
Go to Firmwares (top of page)
Scroll down to Search
Type "SCH-I605"
Select & download ND7 4.4.2
Flash via Odin w/ pit
It should pass and you will be good to go
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw this post on the development forum [ROM][I605VRUFND7][4.4.2]OFFICIAL STOCK ROOTED ODEX/DEODEX[6/19/2014]
so that rom won't work on mine? just asking out of a curiosity...
gomtingeee said:
I saw this post on the development forum [ROM][I605VRUFND7][4.4.2]OFFICIAL STOCK ROOTED ODEX/DEODEX[6/19/2014]
so that rom won't work on mine? just asking out of a curiosity...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. You taking the 4.3 and 4.4.2 OTA locked your bootloader.. so therfore no flashing custom roms like that one and I don't believe there is even a root method yet..
Oh okay thank you for your info. I flashed it to 4.4 and it`s working. I`ll wait for the developer`s to come up with the rooting method for 4.4 thank you guys for everything
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Free mobile app

Always getting either "Not authorized by Verizon" or "Upgrade encountered an issue"

Always getting either "Not authorized by Verizon" or "Upgrade encountered an issue"
Hey guys, hoping someone can help me out with what appears to be a soft brick on my phone.
Background
Bought phone in January 2013, immediately rooted and installed custom recovery. Phone stayed this way until yesterday, when I restored with ODIN and then installed all OTA's to prepare for a replacement under a Best Buy service plan, expecting it to work like it used to where I go into the store and drop off the phone, then a new one is sent to the store. I then installed all OTA's up to 4.4.2 (I think that one is ND7 but not sure as I was using AOSP-based ROMS while rooted). The ODIN restore brought me back to saying the firmware was all official.
Currently
Replacement process changed and I am stuck with this phone for another week while a replacement gets mailed to my home, so I decided to play around with ODIN to restore to MJ9 since most root methods seemed to work for MJ9, but I accidentally chose the LJB image that I had downloaded yesterday for the PDA in ODIN. When running this, it failed on sboot.bin.
I restarted the phone and it said "Firmware Upgrade encountered an issue" and tells me to connect it to Kies, which I tried, but for some reason Kies just runs on Connecting to Device and won't do anything else. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on that though, as it also changed the "System Status" to Custom while leaving Current Binary as Official, and from what I read Kies will refuse to do a recovery if anything is Custom.
I tried to install MJ9 through ODIN and it also fails at sboot.bin, resulting in the same message as above. I downloaded the alternate MC3 from this thread and it ran through ODIN fine since it does not have an sboot.bin, but it gives the error about the firmware not being authorized by Verizon and changes both Current Binary and System Status to Custom (I think MJ9 was the first locked bootloader, so I would assume that is why, but I don't know for sure). There was no alternate for MJ9 so I tried to make my own by extracting, removing sboot.bin, and then putting the rest of the files in a new tar file, but ODIN won't run it and gives an error about the MD5 not matching.
At this point the phone working is not so much of an issue since I already have a replacement on the way to my house, but I would prefer to fix this so a) I have a phone for the next few days, and b) so I don't have to go short something inside on purpose to hard-brick it and prevent them from refusing my replacement claim.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Michael
Once you updated the phone to factory stock 4.4.2, you permanently locked the bootloader and you can't downgrade to any other pre 4.4.2 ND7 firmwares. The easiest thing to do now would be to use Odin to restore the device back to to factory 4.4.2 stock firmware. There is GhettoRoot for 4.4.2 if you're wanting to root the device again on 4.4.2... and people are reporting that safestrap works as well for flashing 4.4.2 touchwiz roms. Good luck!
Ahh, I wasn't aware that ND7 couldn't be downgraded at all; I thought anything past MJ9 would work since that was when the bootloader became locked. I don't see any ND7 ODIN images available anywhere and Kies won't allow me to restore the device. Is there another method I should be using to restore? My wife has an i605 on 4.1.1 right now (same background as mine, just not bricked and no OTAs downloaded); if we updated until ND7 was downloaded but not installed, would I be able to pull the OTA from hers and flash in ODIN, or are they not ODIN-compatible?
opalelement said:
Ahh, I wasn't aware that ND7 couldn't be downgraded at all; I thought anything past MJ9 would work since that was when the bootloader became locked. I don't see any ND7 ODIN images available anywhere and Kies won't allow me to restore the device. Is there another method I should be using to restore? My wife has an i605 on 4.1.1 right now (same background as mine, just not bricked and no OTAs downloaded); if we updated until ND7 was downloaded but not installed, would I be able to pull the OTA from hers and flash in ODIN, or are they not ODIN-compatible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's a link to the Verizon stock 4.4.2 firmware from Sammobile. You'll have to register, but the download should be free. You should be able to use Odin to restore the device with this firmware file and the pit file from Droidstyle's restore guide. If Odin 3.07 doesn't work, try Odin 3.09 from Sammobile... or try Odin 3.10, which I've been using lately with no problems.
Thanks for that link, I was able to download and restore my phone with the ND7 download. I wasn't aware that SamMobile keeps a firmware database, so I also appreciate that piece of info.
Thanks,
Michael

Phone firmware fail/brick please help

I have the Verizon Galaxy s4 and I rooted it and attempted to install the cm-12.1 custom rom. I could not get CWM to work so I went to the safestrap route. My phone got stuck booting into recovery so I flashed stock everything VIA Odin. It failed. So now I'm stuck with the message at start up "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies and try again".
Please HELP.
P.S It is the SCH-I545 model.
WarCrazy said:
I have the Verizon Galaxy s4 and I rooted it and attempted to install the cm-12.1 custom rom. I could not get CWM to work so I went to the safestrap route. My phone got stuck booting into recovery so I flashed stock everything VIA Odin. It failed. So now I'm stuck with the message at start up "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies and try again".
Please HELP.
P.S It is the SCH-I545 model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What were you on... CM-12 does not work on any bootloader besides MDK. It does not work with safestrap. It will not work with CWM. Odin with a FULL NC5 WIPE. If that does not work, its bricked. Possibly JTG, but I doubt it. Read more before you do something. This could have been avoided.
XxD34THxX said:
What were you on... CM-12 does not work on any bootloader besides MDK. It does not work with safestrap. It will not work with CWM. Odin with a FULL NC5 WIPE. If that does not work, its bricked. Possibly JTG, but I doubt it. Read more before you do something. This could have been avoided.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I did everything from a different site instructions. But I appreciate the reply. I did thankfully fix my phone by connecting it to Kies which restored firmware. Problem now, I lost root access and I upgraded to 5.0.1 lollipop from 4.2.2 kitkat and I now can't seem to find a rooting option now. Running SCH-I545 VRUGOC1.
Can you point me to the right direction? I've decently looked around, don't see any way to do it?
WarCrazy said:
Well, I did everything from a different site instructions. But I appreciate the reply. I did thankfully fix my phone by connecting it to Kies which restored firmware. Problem now, I lost root access and I upgraded to 5.0.1 lollipop from 4.2.2 kitkat and I now can't seem to find a rooting option now. Running SCH-I545 VRUGOC1.
Can you point me to the right direction? I've decently looked around, don't see any way to do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No root for OC1. No downgrade either as a qfuse has been blown.

[Q] Easiest Path - Upgrade MK2 to OF1 ?

Hello Everyone,
I'm a first time poster but have been reading this site for weeks trying to find the answer to my questions. I've acquired a good bit of info but still wanted to clarify some things before I take the plunge.
I'm currently using a Verizon GS4 (I-545) running rooted stock MK2 jellybean. I rooted ~2 years ago to get rid of the bloatware and just never bothered upgrading/keeping up with the firmware updates. There are some new apps that won't work on my phone, but are working on my wife's stock GS4 on OF1. I'd like to upgrade my firmware (and keep root) so that I don't have to keep stealing her phone.
I've come across several threads discussing upgrading from one baseband to the next - none quite match my scenario. Most threads talk about how to upgrade and keep root but now that I'm late to the party, it seems like root methods have been discovered for all stock firmware versions (even OF1 by flashing OC1 kernel, rooting, and flashing back to OF1 kernel). So with this in mind, can I just skip all the complicated stuff and just use Odin to flash OF1 and then follow Edgardo_Uchicha's OF1 root method?
If I can use Odin to flash OF1, will the file I load in the "AP" slot also includes the proper modules, bootloaders, etc. to upgrade everything to OF1? Will it do a factory reset/wipe or will I keep all my data like an OTA? As for getting the Odin file, it looks like I should just use the Samsung site to get it directly?
If I can use the Odin method, are there any drawbacks? If I don't like lollipop I realize I'm stuck and can't go back, but is there anyway to upgrade and be able to go back (downgrade)?
Thanks again for your help!
Mike
Hello Mike,
You can flash OF1 and root via the method others and I posted, some people wrote that other rooting software/apps are starting to work on lollipop builds, I haven't tested yet(since my device have a custom rom and it's rooted) but soon I will and will update the thread. Btw, my suggestion to you is flashing this specific odin package:
[Odin][TAR] I545VRUGOF1 neutered (No BL)
I was on kitkat bootloader, flashed this OF1 build and went back to kitkat without problems
Good luck!
Edgardo_Uchiha said:
Hello Mike,
You can flash OF1 and root via the method others and I posted, some people wrote that other rooting software/apps are starting to work on lollipop builds, I haven't tested yet(since my device have a custom rom and it's rooted) but soon I will and will update the thread. Btw, my suggestion to you is flashing this specific odin package:
[Odin][TAR] I545VRUGOF1 neutered (No BL)
I was on kitkat bootloader, flashed this OF1 build and went back to kitkat without problems
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I followed the thread you linked and it looked like my phone upgraded OK. However, even at lock screen I get the message "Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped". It reappears as soon as I dismiss it...basically making my phone useless. I was able to navigate to the Settings page though and it says I'm on 5.0.1 but under baseband it says "Unknown" rather than OF1. It does show OF1 under the build number though. I'm guessing it didn't like the MK2 bootloader?
Any ideas how to fix? Help!!
mike2914 said:
So I followed the thread you linked and it looked like my phone upgraded OK. However, even at lock screen I get the message "Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped". It reappears as soon as I dismiss it...basically making my phone useless. I was able to navigate to the Settings page though and it says I'm on 5.0.1 but under baseband it says "Unknown" rather than OF1. It does show OF1 under the build number though. I'm guessing it didn't like the MK2 bootloader?
Any ideas how to fix? Help!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try wiping via recovery, if I'm not wrong this package does not wipe your phone so maybe there are some leftovers that are messing up the new system
You are correct, the OF1 Odin file you recommended did not wipe my data/apps. You were also correct in that doing a factory reset/wipe fixed the issue. I had some apps that were previously "frozen/disabled" while I had root so I have a feeling that didn't help things when it got updated.
Is there any way to confirm that I still have the MK2 bootloader?
mike2914 said:
You are correct, the OF1 Odin file you recommended did not wipe my data/apps. You were also correct in that doing a factory reset/wipe fixed the issue. I had some apps that were previously "frozen/disabled" while I had root so I have a feeling that didn't help things when it got updated.
Is there any way to confirm that I still have the MK2 bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download and install terminal emulator, the run these commands:
1. su
2. getprop ro.bootloader
Awesome! I was able to confirm I'm still using the MK2 bootloader. Thanks for all your help!

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