Just downgraded. (Accidentally). Now I have some questions

[Fadelight]

This is NOT a how-to or anything. Don't try to follow in my footsteps of stupidity and brick your phone.

That being said...

XT 1060 (Verizon)

I have been running 4.4.4 for quite a while now. Right after JCase released sunshine for our phones. (I have an unlocked bootloader.)

I had it rooted, and tried out the 5.0 ROMs a while ago. Flashed back to stock to wait for the update when we heard it was coming "very soon". But tonight I got impatient and decided I was going to re-root and switch back to CM12. So, I opened Moto X Toolkit (love that tool) and installed TWRP. When I manually rebooted I forgot to boot into recovery. Don't know if that had anything to do with the ensuing problems or not, but after that, I couldn't get it to boot into recovery.

So, I flashed back to stock 4.4.4 again. Tried rebooting into stock recovery... no joy.
So off I go again... one more attempt to flash stock 4.4.4. This time, when it asked me if I wanted to reboot into bootloader or android, I tried to boot into android. Sadly I missed the "a" and typed "ndroid". The toolkit began doing something... looks like it was running the flash all over again. I let it do its thing, then very carefully typed "android" so I wouldnt screw it up again.

It rebooted perfectly, but once it was up and running, I noticed all of my icons were blue. I quickly jumped into the "about phone section and noticed it said "4.2.2".

This is not supposed to be possible, so at this point I was half panicking and half curious... so I decided to do an even more stupid thing and accept the updates.

I am now updated completely to 4.4.4. Zero issues... recovery works fine, radio is fine, wifi and BT are fine.


This leads me to two questions (Directed to developers)...

1) Is there a possibility this is repeatable?

2) My curiosity is about to get me into trouble... I have two more Moto X's that are 4.4.4. Locked BL. I would like to know what the worst case scenario is. I know there is a possibility of "bricking", but that term has not, for a long time, meant what it originally did. How badly "bricked" might it be? Bootloops? Chance of recovering by flashing stock firmware or RSD? Or truly bricked?

 

[jaystone86]

You are lucky you didn't bricked it by installing ota
updates. Whatever you do please don't install any ota updates. Simple wait for the sbf and manually flash it with rsd. Don't even even attempt to downgraded

 

[Fadelight]

I know I got lucky, but that didn't answer either of my questions.

 

[jaystone86]

I wouldn't try to repeated it if I were you. Go to moto x bricked phones thread and read the comments. That will satisfy and answer your questions http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x/general/how-to-resurrecting-bricked-moto-x-t2629057

 

[KidJoe]

This leads me to two questions (Directed to developers)...

1) Is there a possibility this is repeatable?

2) My curiosity is about to get me into trouble... I have two more Moto X's that are 4.4.4. Locked BL. I would like to know what the worst case scenario is. I know there is a possibility of "bricking", but that term has not, for a long time, meant what it originally did. How badly "bricked" might it be? Bootloops? Chance of recovering by flashing stock firmware or RSD? Or truly bricked?

1) I would NOT try to repeat it. You are lucky.

What likely happened is the toolkit flashed 4.2.2 via mFastboot, errored on GPT.BIN and Motoboot.img, and continued flashing the rest. Taking an OTA in this state USUALLY bricks the phone, however we have seen a few, like yourself, who reported it didn't brick.

Due to the sheer number of people and threads from those who have bricked doing this, the warnings have been... do NOT try it unless you don't mind if you turn your phone into a paper weight!

To be safe at this point, I would consider downloading the Verizon 4.4.4 SBF, and re-flashing it using Option 5 (and its pre-reqs) at -> http://mark.cdmaforums.com/MotoX-ReturnToStock.html to make sure everything is back to stock/consistent. Its your choice if you don't want to.

2) Worst case is you turn your phone into a paperweight.

Some have screwed it up very badly but have been able to recover following these instructions -> http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x/general/how-to-resurrecting-bricked-moto-x-t2629057 It is the last resort. You'll also see many in that thread who followed those instructions and were unsuccessful, leaving their phone unusable.

We've also seen a few who were able to reflash the latest rom (currently 4.4.4) via mFastboot, with a few "extra" commands and have been able to recover, but that is a very small number compared to those who have bricked.

 

[Fadelight]

That's the odd thing... it DIDN'T error on anything. I would've thought the same thing... error on motoboot and gpt.

I don't mind screwing up a phone and taking a day or two to get it back to operable. As long as there is a way to fix it, I'm good. I just don't want to completely brick the phone. That's why I asked if people meant truly bricked or the new standardized "bricked" which usually means nothing more than having to RSD.

 

[KidJoe]

That's the odd thing... it DIDN'T error on anything. I would've thought the same thing... error on motoboot and gpt.

I don't mind screwing up a phone and taking a day or two to get it back to operable. As long as there is a way to fix it, I'm good. I just don't want to completely brick the phone. That's why I asked if people meant truly bricked or the new standardized "bricked" which usually means nothing more than having to RSD.

I haven't used that tool kit. I do everything manually. So I don't know exactly what processes it runs, or what steps it takes when flashing. IF while flashing it does try to flash all parts, it should have given an error on GPT.BIN if it tried to downgrade, but at the same respect, if its a batch file that just runs the fastboot commands one after the other, if fastboot errors, it will just go to the next line in the bat file, so unless you are paying attention and watching it from start to finish, you could have missed the error.

Another possibility would be if you, or someone who had your phone, upgraded to 4.4.4 by flashing only system.img, and the older bootloader and partition table remained on your phone, then attempting to "downgrade" would not have failed (depending on the bootloader/gpt.bin on your phone).


As said... there are enough that have NOT been able to recover their phones, even after following the instructions in -> http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x/general/how-to-resurrecting-bricked-moto-x-t2629057 which are usually the last resort.

 

[Fadelight]

Yeah, the second it started running again after I typed "ndroid" by accident, I was in full-on panic mode, so my eyes were glued to the phone and the computer. I saw them flash.

As far as upgrading, I was on 4.4.0 until Sunshine was released... at which point I unlocked my BL and took all of the OTA updates. So it was on full 4.4.4.

This is the oddest thing I have seen in a long time. I was tempted to send a DM to JCase and ask him, but I figured that would probably go over like a fart in church.