[HOW-TO] Unbrick Your Android Phone (HTC ONE S)

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(Method 1)

Ok so you're trying to put this really cool new custom ROM on your phone and then suddenly, your phone won't start up or go to recovery… well my friends, you have got yourself a bricked phone. The thing you worry about the entire time you're rooting, and flashing your phone, has now become reality. Well, fear no more, for I, have found a way to unbrick your device! after bricking my phone and finding different ways how to do it...

Because we are not able to swap or get the sdcard out from the phone, it makes it difficult on how to add a ROM.zip and re-install. Another issue I found is that CWM will not be able to read the sdcard if you do an adb push ROM.zip /sdcard/ROM.zip or by mounting the sdcard adb shell mount /sdcard . If you have this issue will explain later

So let's get started.

Step 1: Turning Off Your Phone and Reboot to Boot-Loader

Because you have a bricked phone, you can't just hold the power button. So if your phone is not already off then you're going to want to turn off by pressing the volume down + power button until the phone shuts off then turn on to boot-loader by pressing volume down and press for 3 seconds the power button. once in boot-loader select fastboot.

Step 2: Adb push to SD card

I assume that you have install CWM, if you don't you can download it from HERE. Once downloaded install CWM fastboot flash recovery CWM.TOUCH.5.8.3.1.img, where your done go back to boot-loader and select recovery. Once in recovery do an adb push of a ROM, in this example I used "Energy ROM" you can get the ROM from HERE. Once you have your ROM rename ROM.zip and push adb push ROM.zip /sdcard/ROM.zip, you will get a message stating the size of the the push.

If you can't do a push because you got an error message will explain later.

Step 3: Wipe The Phone

Make sure to do a Factory Reset / Wipe before installing ROM

Step 4: Reboot back to fastboot

Once you install the room you will need to make sure you have a boot.img for the ROM your using.

adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash boot Recoveries/boot.img

YOUR DONE


If your the unlucky one's that can't do an adb push to the SD card do the following.

- Reinstall STOCK Recovery fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
- Lock OEM fastboot oem lock
- Unlock OEM fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock/Unlock_code.bin
- Reinstall CWM Recovery fastboot flash recovery CWM.TOUCH.5.8.3.1.img

That should fix the problem on how to push back to the sdcard

If you have other methods post them below...

Sticky!!

But this won't work if you flash a wrong radio, will it? I thought that if you flashed a wrong radio, you couldn't get anything done, even not booting into bootloader, because it boots the radio first?

I'll second that this method works. Did for me and is easy to do once you take your time. Also make sure you have all the right files and you make sure to type everything word for word in ADB..

This tutorial already exists as a sticky in the Q&A section:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1630459

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk 2

Nice writeup.


For every new Phone I own, the first thing I do after flashing a Custom Recovery is Making a Nandroid Backup of the stock Rom. If something goes wrong after flashing a bad rom I just restore to Stock rom.

A real life Saver for me.

Originally Posted by snwman

I'll second that this method works. Did for me and is easy to do once you take your time. Also make sure you have all the right files and you make sure to type everything word for word in ADB..

It worked for me when I bricked my phone and had to find ways how to be able to load a ROM back to the SDcard and reflash it...

This is a combo of a tutorial cannondale wrote and one I wrote myself.

His is stickied in Q&A section, mine is in Android Dev section...

Not sure why this is here lol.

i get the error 155 when trying to install the RUU

Originally Posted by 420haxr

i get the error 155 when trying to install the RUU

Try to relock your bootloader first.
In fastboot:
fastboot oem lock

Sent from my HTC One S