Enter U.S. T-Mobile Vibrant Recovery Mode Guaranteed

You do relies the people with this download mode problem have hardware locked phones, rite?
Therefore they cant access recovery because the volume buttons dont work

I had a hardware locked vibrant and got to recovery the exaxt same way he described. Ill attest its true. Don't know about download mode though. Sounds interesting.

Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App

galonet said:

1. Press the Up and the Down button at the same time (yes both). I too thought that button was a Toggle which only did either Up or Down, but found that in fact it does do both.

2. At the same time, press the power button.

3. As soon as the Samsung / Vibrant logo comes up on the screen, release the power button.

4. Release the Up and Down buttons.

5. PRESTO

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I can't get it to work. How long do you wait before releasing both volume buttons (step 4)?

You do realize that "hardware locked" means the volume buttons don't work ... right? Otherwise what do you think it means?

tgrantjr said:

I had a hardware locked vibrant and got to recovery the exaxt same way he described. Ill attest its true. Don't know about download mode though. Sounds interesting.

Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Then it wasn't a hardware locked Vibrant...

How do you know if your phone is hardware locked? Is the only impact that you can't get into recovery mode?

This technique has been around for a while and it simply does not work for hardware locked phones. There is no known way to get the HL phones into recovery from a power off.

ive tried this method many times on the 2 vibrants ive had over the past 2 weeks. hasnt worked. although i can get into download mode just fine.

Never mind wrong mode I was trying to describe

He used to think people don't know they should press both volume keys...

I dont think there is such a thing as "hardware locked" vibrants. I know people think they do have one but why would some be locked and others unlocked? It doesnt make any sense, the vibrant has only been out since July.

quest4fire said:

I dont think there is such a thing as "hardware locked" vibrants. I know people think they do have one but why would some be locked and others unlocked? It doesnt make any sense, the vibrant has only been out since July.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Well I can get into download and recovery on my phone easy. Now a fried just bought on and the same methods I use to get into those modes do not work period... so yes, some are locked... :d

quest4fire said:

I dont think there is such a thing as "hardware locked" vibrants. I know people think they do have one but why would some be locked and others unlocked? It doesnt make any sense, the vibrant has only been out since July.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Whether they are defective or locked the fact of the matter is yea there is such thing, people are not imagining it.

Take me for example My first vibrant was fine...my jackass friend knocked it out of my hand and chipped very tiny piece of the fake chrome bezel. I only had for week so I returned and said it had issues.
I made sure I could access recovery with new phone before exchanging. They only had 2 left both with Sept date. Powered it up and no go, tried couple more time and still nothing...it was locked, we didn't even try 2nd one.

He ended up calling a friend at T-Mobile store in mall and had him look and see if he had any with the same date as the one i was returning "August ".
He had one and he had him test before i drove down....he did and he was able to access recovery, went down to mall and sure enough it was fine, able to get into recover first shot....so yes there is such think as "hardware locked" vibrants


Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

I have flashed a vibrant with a i9000S software but the radio did not work quite well. Since the two have different keys, now i cant get it to boot mode. i was able to get into recovery mode via ADB but all i can do is use vol to go up or down and not select an option. the device wont even get out of recovery mode.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Yes, some phones are locked. I had to get my Vibrant replaced, and was bitten by a different bug.

I went to my mom's and my niece locked my phone out by entering the wrong pattern incorrectly while it was charging (brand new phone, had to charge it... I typically don't use a pattern lock but since my first one was stolen....).

Now, the phone does not allow you to get into it using your Google Credentials.

Called T-Mobile and the woman said I'd have to send it in for a replacement because it's a "software glitch."

I asked her to try to factory reset it. She said her "researchers told her not to try it because it can brick the phone." We tried anyways.

Hold down both volume keys and power until the Vibrant logo comes up, then release.

Doesn't work. Hung up on her and went to a T-Mobile store. They tried for over 2 hours to factory reset this phone, and spend half the time on the phone with Tech Support to do it. You cannot access recovery mode on this phone. The other Vibrant here, that we checked, also cannot go into recovery mode. It boots straight up into the phone.

So:

1. Lots of Vibrants are unable to get into Recovery Mode/Download Mode
2. There is a bug in Android that will soft brick your phone if you or anyone enters the wrong pattern lock too many times - you will NOT be able to get back into your phone with your Google Credentials - at all. The phone will be useless.

Even though your phone can download emails from Google, and your sending them to yourself using the same login/password, you will not be able to authenticate your phone and unlock it.

Two pretty catastrophic faults, IMO.

When this next phone comes in (it will be brand new, like my first/second one - they're on backorder) - I'm immediately selling it, ETFing my account, and going to go phoneless (can use Google VOIP from a laptop/desktop over WiFi/Internet) and wait for a decent Win7 phone.

I doubt they will have such issues.

BTW, the Android bug I mentioned (not being able to unlock) has existed for 2+ years (since version 1.5 or before) and despite many people bricking their devices (and some devices being unable to hardware reset - like many Vibrants), Google has turned a blind eye to it, and keeps either closing the tickets or setting the priority to "medium" (Bluetooth functionality is critical, however - if you get my point).

For a long time i was under the impression that my phone was HW locked. i was on my last legs before sending out my phone for repair (im past the exchange date) so i called my carrier (Bell Mobility in Canada). They informed me i could do a restore through recovery mode -> to which i informed them that i could not enter after i had tried for 3 days previously. So the rep that i was speaking with advised me to do the following;

1. Turn phone off
2. Hold Vol+ & Menu & Power
3. Once screen displays Samsung release Power while still holding Menu & Vol+
4. Viola -> RECOVERY MODE

So, this got me thinking because if this got me into recovery mode -> download mode should be similar

1. Turn phone off
2. Hold Vol+ & Vol- & Menu & Power
3. Once screen displays Samsung release Power while still holding Menu & Vol+ & Vol-
4. Viola -> DOWNLOAD MODE

So, i thought my vibrant was hardware locked when infact it was simply just the wrong key combination to get into each respective mode. Not sure if i just wasnt reading some of the posts correctly or what but thats what worked for me.

That doesn't work on T-Mobile Vibrants.

The phone simply shows the Vibrant screen, then goes black and goes back to the Vibrant screen...

Over and over again. It can do it until the battery runs out. It will never get to the Galaxy S Screen as long as you have that Power Button down.

The only reason yours worked is cause your phone is not defective like many of ours.

I think I'm going to make a YouTube video of me using my Google Credentials (from a computer) to send myself emails while the phone syncs them in the background, yet refuses to allow me to use these credentials to unlock my phone - as well as rebooting to the Vibrant screen over and over again when I try to get into Recovery to reset it.

Because some people on this forum really like to act like problems don't exist, and tend to think their ignorance or operator error invalidates other posters' posts.

Congratulations on not having a defective device, though!

Looked it up and its real

http://www.youtube.com/user/stevec5375