[HELP THREAD] Ask ANY Question. Noob Friendly.

[immortalneo]

There are a lot of people joining XDA on a daily basis, and there are a lot of repetitive questions being asked
which clutter up the Development and 'Q & A' threads. Point them here. Feel free to ask or answer questions.

The idea of this thread is to get users to help other users with their problems/questions. People are usually
ridiculed for asking questions that other people deem stupid even though it may be a legitimate question. This
leads to new users being afraid to ask questions!

Only provide well mannered help towards users in this thread. Please do not spoon feed, but rather point in
the direction where that user can find an answer and educate himself. If you don't want to answer, at least
point out where to find the answer.


Before posting anything, I strongly advise you to read THIS thread.

Then, have a quick look at the names of threads in Post No. 2, you might find what you need right away.

Third. Even if you do get your question answered, please do come back and read threads in Post No. 2
(coming later as soon as we start getting the guides) to educate yourself. You'll be surprised how much time
and frustration it will save you in the future!


No abuse towards noobs tolerated here! That means:

NO TROLLING
NO NAME CALLING
NO RIDICULING
NO FLAMING​

ASK ANY QUESTION HERE! No question is stupid or irrelevant in this thread. You will either get an answer or will get pointed in the right direction.

*A Special Thanks to mark manning for his help in creating this thread*


HALL OF FAME

People who contributed most to this thread and helped countless number of people with their
problems/questions. In no particular order.

Bruce Wayne
post-mortem
SilentStrider
Ghostfreak NB
mayank9856
sgs22012
Zatta
ADDICT.ANK


These people also have the right to use the banner below:

Just add this code to your signature:

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[SalamiNinja]

how do i post a thread or forum post??

 

[Droidriven]

My phone is stuck in fastboot, i cannot access the recovery, or the adb i was downloading a twrp.img and i think it occupied my storage space so now i can't delete it.
I am now following this guide: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/fastboot-unbrick-your-device-with-no-display.2949356/ and im stuck at "fastboot update update.zip"
I am pretty sure i don't have the right update.zip but i am also afraid that my obama phone wont have enough space for when I do find the right update.zip same with the "recovery.img" mentioned in that guide.
I know that my device is oem unlocked and i know how to delete cache.

Now thanks to you i also know that sim unlocking is a completely different thing which i thank you for that but my device is still bricked

Are you spelling the file name correctly when you type the command? Is the update zip stored in your fastboot folder on your PC? If not, you will have to include the path to the file in your command or move the copy of update.zip to the folder where fastboot/adb.exe are located, then the command can properly find the file without having include the path to file in your command. What is contained in the update.zip, extract it to see it's contents.

Also, the thread you linked says that method will not work if your recovery partition is not intact, you may have corrupted your recovery partition, preventing this method from working.

Have you tried downloading a stock firmware for the device or extracting the update.zip and then flashing the individual .img files via fastboot using fastboot flashing commands for each .img?

 

[Novice_independence]

Are you spelling the file name correctly when you type the command? Is the update zip stored in your fastboot folder on your PC? If not, you will have to include the path to the file in your command or move the copy of update.zip to the folder where fastboot/adb.exe are located, then the command can properly find the file without having include the path to file in your command. What is contained in the update.zip, extract it to see it's contents.

Also, the thread you linked says that method will not work if your recovery partition is not intact, you may have corrupted your recovery partition, preventing this method from working.

Have you tried downloading a stock firmware for the device or extracting the update.zip and then flashing the individual .img files via fastboot using fastboot flashing commands for each .img?

1. Are you spelling the file name correctly when you type the command?

Yes i am, upon connecting my phone to my pc, I type "fastboot devices" and if I don't spell it right or i am not in the right folder i get the error ['fastboot' is not recognized], If i am in the right folder (C: \.android) and type fastboot devices I get [XXXXXXXX fastboot] if i type "adb devices i only get [list of devices attached] and then nothing.

2. Is the update.zip stored in your fastboot folder on your PC?

Yes,it is stored in my .android folder, where fastboot and adb is located.

3. What is contained in the update.zip?

It is the only attached file

4. Have you tried downloading a stock firmware for the device?

I looked around for a stock firmware for my Sense tw102 but all the google pages and XDA forums lead to expired/dead links. I did find a tutorial on XDA that basically allows me to save my stock firmware as a backup in case I brick my phone but I only backed up my data, I didn't know i had to backup my stock firmware too

(The XDA tutorial to backen a stock firmware: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/need-a-loader-file-to-unbrick-moto-g7.3938342/ )

5. Have you tried extracting the update.zip and then flashing the individual .img files via fastboot using fastboot flashing commands for each .img?
The update.zip doesn't seem to have any .img files so idk how to
There's another .img file titled "recovery_samsung_11.img
I thought samsung11.img would flash without a problem when I use the command "fastboot flash boot recovery_samsung_11.img" but it returned:

sending 'boot' (58324 KB)...
OKAY [ 1.869s]
writing 'boot'...
FAILED (remote: size too large)
finished. total time: 1.869s

Idk how to free up space using fastboot also i just need something operational and low on storage, oh and thank you for talking the time to help me, i really appriciate it!

 

[Droidriven]

1. Are you spelling the file name correctly when you type the command?

Yes i am, upon connecting my phone to my pc, I type "fastboot devices" and if I don't spell it right or i am not in the right folder i get the error ['fastboot' is not recognized], If i am in the right folder (C: \.android) and type fastboot devices I get [XXXXXXXX fastboot] if i type "adb devices i only get [list of devices attached] and then nothing.

2. Is the update.zip stored in your fastboot folder on your PC?

Yes,it is stored in my .android folder, where fastboot and adb is located.

3. What is contained in the update.zip?

It is the only attached file

4. Have you tried downloading a stock firmware for the device?

I looked around for a stock firmware for my Sense tw102 but all the google pages and XDA forums lead to expired/dead links. I did find a tutorial on XDA that basically allows me to save my stock firmware as a backup in case I brick my phone but I only backed up my data, I didn't know i had to backup my stock firmware too

(The XDA tutorial to backen a stock firmware: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/need-a-loader-file-to-unbrick-moto-g7.3938342/ )

5. Have you tried extracting the update.zip and then flashing the individual .img files via fastboot using fastboot flashing commands for each .img?
The update.zip doesn't seem to have any .img files so idk how to
There's another .img file titled "recovery_samsung_11.img
I thought samsung11.img would flash without a problem when I use the command "fastboot flash boot recovery_samsung_11.img" but it returned:

sending 'boot' (58324 KB)...
OKAY [ 1.869s]
writing 'boot'...
FAILED (remote: size too large)
finished. total time: 1.869s

Idk how to free up space using fastboot also i just need something operational and low on storage, oh and thank you for talking the time to help me, i really appriciate it!

ADB will not respond while in fastboot mode.

The recovery .img you have might be just the recovery itself instead of a whole boot .img. I could easily be wrong though. If it actually just the recovery by itself, then, instead of:

fastboot flash boot recovery_samsung_11.img

Try:

fastboot flash recovery recovery_samsung_11.img

I'm just grasping at straws here, so, don't try this command without first verifying whether or not your file is the recovery by itself because flashing things to partitions they weren't meant for will brick your device. There is also the possibility that what I'm saying doesn't even apply because of how things constantly change in how Android is partitioned and what those partitions contain. For example, on some devices, recovery is packaged as part of the boot.img and on others it isn't or In the past, some devices had recovery packaged with the kernel(which can also be part of the boot.img but in a different place).

 

[Novice_independence]

ADB will not respond while in fastboot mode.

The recovery .img you have might be just the recovery itself instead of a whole boot .img. I could easily be wrong though. If it actually just the recovery by itself, then, instead of:

fastboot flash boot recovery_samsung_11.img

Try:

fastboot flash recovery recovery_samsung_11.img

I'm just grasping at straws here, so, don't try this command without first verifying whether or not your file is the recovery by itself because flashing things to partitions they weren't meant for will brick your device. There is also the possibility that what I'm saying doesn't even apply because of how things constantly change in how Android is partitioned and what those partitions contain. For example, on some devices, recovery is packaged as part of the boot.img and on others it isn't or In the past, some devices had recovery packaged with the kernel.

well before i try, is there a way to redo this fastboot command like fastboot clean partition or fastboot delete useless files?

Edit: same issue, file too large

Edit 2: I managed to get the latest twrp recovery.img and used your command to enact it...
Output:
sending 'recovery' (4690 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.142s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [ 0.063s]
finished. total time: 0.205s

Afterwards, I attempted to access the recovery mode on my phone but it was without a success. I am attempting again in different methods as im writing this

 

[SubwayChamp]

I ended up flashing stock rom on my phone (Realme 8i RMX3151) while using sp flash tool, apparently wiping or overwriting NVRAM in the process.
I lost the imei and googlekey attestation but managed to restore them using SN writer. However my touchscreen also became erratic and completely unusable, with the four quadrants of the screen also swapped around, and the X and Y axis swapped within them. I've requested help from the manufacturers with no result. I wonder if anyone knows what I have done and how I can fix it. My research so far leads me to think that lost the configuration/calibration data for the touchscreen, something which is no included in the downloadable stock rom. I wonder if I can somehow obtain this data file from an identical phone, either individually if I can identify it, or simply clone everything, in order to restore the required data.

I've read somewhere that I can fix this by flashing touch configuration file, not that that helps me much as I have no idea where to find it.

I'm not sure to what degree this problem, and any solution, might be device specific. I've found many threads of people in the same position, with a wide variety of phones, but no answers on how to solve it.

Does anyone have any knowledge about this issues or and pointers towards solutions?

For the next, you should know that never you have to use the Format All instance in SPFT, this is reserved for engineers, SPFT is an advanced tool that can completely wipe your device.

In a normal flashing round, some partitions are ignored by SPFT, you can try editing the scatter file, first open SPFT, choose the OFP file, previously extracted, see which partitions are listed, and compare one by one with your scatter text, you have to edit it and change it where it says download = false, for true, with this, you only will do a step furthermore, to get sure more partitions are effectively flashed, you can use too mtk client from GitHub (just search it).

Although that, there are two main issues here, oppo_custom files have the ability to fix many things to the device, but unfortunately, the right one is not provided in the stock firmware, you should search for one, in case, at this stage, you can't solve the issue.

And second, only MTK DownloadTool_Rcsm can flash properly all the files, but it is reserved for commercial use.

Anyway, you were lucky to recover the IMEI, and trying the first method, may or may not solve it.

In the super_map file, you have to check which is the right super image according to your region.

 

[WorstHacKerEver]

Hello how do I unlock my galaxy A12 without PC or with my pc

 

[SubwayChamp]

Hello how do I unlock my galaxy A12 without PC or with my pc

Some Samsung devices of the new A series can enter to unlocking mode using hardware buttons, as the A01,2,3 series.

From a device off, try pressing PWR + volume down buttons, if you are redirected to the unlock bootloader screen menu, then you can, just by long pressing the volume up, as indicated in that menu, by pressing volume up shortly, then you can cancel the operation.

 

[Scripter84]

Hey all,

Trying to unlock the bootloader for my wife's Nokia C30. I have done all the standard stuff;

- Enabled USB debugging
- OEM unlock is set to yes
- Drivers installed etc
- No PIN or security set on phone

However when I boot into "Fastboot Mode" the 'Device State' is "Lock".

I then tried to run the "fastboot oem unlock" command (through powershell as admin) but get:

FAILED (remote: 'Unlock bootloader fail.')

I have also done a factory reset and had the same results. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[galih_ken]

Hi, anyone knows a video player that can loop video seamlessly? I mean seamless and without milliseconds pause in between.

I have many video which should be played with perfect loop but I haven't found even one video player app on android able to do this.

On windows there's mpv and mplayer, but on android??

 

[SubwayChamp]

Hey all,

Trying to unlock the bootloader for my wife's Nokia C30. I have done all the standard stuff;

- Enabled USB debugging
- OEM unlock is set to yes
- Drivers installed etc
- No PIN or security set on phone

However when I boot into "Fastboot Mode" the 'Device State' is "Lock".

Those steps are to be able to unlock the bootloader in the next steps required, they don't unlock by itself.

I then tried to run the "fastboot oem unlock" command (through powershell as admin) but get:

FAILED (remote: 'Unlock bootloader fail.')

I have also done a factory reset and had the same results. Does anyone have any ideas?

Since last year, Nokia started to provide keys/token, to can unlock bootloader, to some eligible devices, it can't be unlocked just using command like you tried.

For a strange reason, actually I can't find the official page (in a quick search), so you can search it more extensively, something like "Nokia unlock bootloader official site", it could be also, that it is temporarily (or permanent) suspended.

 

[O.operator]

Hello,
been having great trouble trying to install stock rom onto my BLU View 2 (B130DL), running android 11 I believe.
I accidentally took the battery out of my phone while it was still running.... sure enough my phone became corrupted and I am forced to either keep trying to reboot for eternity or factory reset (I have some very important things on this phone that I'd like to salvage). I have tried re installing the stock firmware onto the phone using ADB which always leaves me with

"E:footer is wrong
Updage package verification took 0.0 s
E:Signature verification failed
E:error: 21"

My phone is only ever recognized by my pc when i plug it in after I press "Apply update from ADB".
I've also tried the SP Flash tool method, but my phone isn't ever recognized and nothing happens.
I can't boot into fastboot mode on my phone because there is no fastboot option in the list to pick when I am in recovery mode, and no combination of long hold power key + up or down works to get into fastboot either.
Neither my phone's bootloader nor developer options have ever been unlocked, never rooted or jailbroken obviously.
Am I doomed? Should I just factory reset? Would I be able to install the stock firmware with a SD card as a last option?

 

[SubwayChamp]

Hello,
been having great trouble trying to install stock rom onto my BLU View 2 (B130DL), running android 11 I believe.
I accidentally took the battery out of my phone while it was still running.... sure enough my phone became corrupted and I am forced to either keep trying to reboot for eternity or factory reset (I have some very important things on this phone that I'd like to salvage). I have tried re installing the stock firmware onto the phone using ADB which always leaves me with

"E:footer is wrong
Updage package verification took 0.0 s
E:Signature verification failed
E:error: 21"

My phone is only ever recognized by my pc when i plug it in after I press "Apply update from ADB".
I've also tried the SP Flash tool method, but my phone isn't ever recognized and nothing happens.
I can't boot into fastboot mode on my phone because there is no fastboot option in the list to pick when I am in recovery mode, and no combination of long hold power key + up or down works to get into fastboot either.
Neither my phone's bootloader nor developer options have ever been unlocked, never rooted or jailbroken obviously.
Am I doomed? Should I just factory reset? Would I be able to install the stock firmware with a SD card as a last option?

In order to use SPFT, you need to update the drivers, installing the MediaTek drivers, you'll need to update them, after that your device has to be recognized like MediaTek Preloader USB VCOM or a similar naming depending on the version.

Once you get it, you need to bypass the DA/SLAA restriction, you may read this https://www.getdroidtips.com/bypass-mediateks-sp-flash-tool-authentication-protection/ and here other tool https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient

Once you have all, don't flash the userdata partition.

 

[lm8lm8]

hi guys
have a xperia h8216
with lineageos 20
Id like to know :
how could I enable the camera access directly on lock screen?
how to change the bottom to up swipe to accept incoming call, to a left to right swipe?

thank you

 

[SubwayChamp]

hi guys
have a xperia h8216
with lineageos 20
Id like to know :
how could I enable the camera access directly on lock screen?
how to change the bottom to up swipe to accept incoming call, to a left to right swipe?

thank you

Check if those options are present in the lock screen and security settings (where they're placed may vary), if not, then ask the developer to include them in some build.

 

[lm8lm8]

Check if those options are present in the lock screen and security settings (where they're placed may vary), if not, then ask the developer to include them in some build.

its the official 20th release of lineageos

 

[SubwayChamp]

its the official 20th release of lineageos

Actually, I'm not using this specific custom ROM, and I don't check, but you should search for those functions you mentioned. There are some custom ROMs, I knew of, that have them.

Also, you can check on the changelog, and the next to come is announced https://www.lineageoslog.com/20.0/akari

 

[kos25k]

Hello guys.Please some help here.I want a way (maybe with tasker or macrodroid) to have option (probably by pressing volume & power buttons combo) to fake an incoming call (with stock ringtone and dialer)I know there are some apps out there,but they mimic the fake call with their own iconic dialer and also only by setting the time manually for phone to make the fake call.I just want to avoid stupid and arid conversations like:When will you get maried,or to avoid stupid conversations at work.Thanks for possible help.

 

[NightRaven49]

hi all,

just wanted to ask if it is possible to obtain logs from bootloop in recovery? my mi mix 2s running los 18 started bootlooping when it was tethered to my laptop, and does not show up in adb when bootlooping so i am unable to to logcat. ive also tried looking for /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops and /proc/last_kmsg but they do not exist.

 

[michal_jb]

Is there a simple way to map app identifiers (like 'com.andorid.chrome') to 'pretty' app names?

Specifically i have TWRP backup that i have extracted data directory from, and i'm trying to see what apps were installed, and potentially restore their data (that's a separate issue).