[RECOVERY] Official TWRP 3.3.1 for Moto G7 Plus [lake]

[maybeme2]

I've always been a great believer in TWRP and it's backup/restore is one of the main reasons I root my phones: to restore the system when things go bad. But restoring a TWRP nandroid has failed and soft-bricked my Moto G7 phone more than once and I don't understand what has happened to the trusty TWRP backup I used to know.

Here's my latest tragedy:

I had a working Moto G7 phone with stock Android 9 rooted with Magisk. Trying to flash a system update using adb and flashback I messed up. So I did a twrp restore from a backup made the previous day thinking that would save the day. After all, isn't that why we do TWRP backups?

Rebooting after that restore caused a boot loop. So, after meny tries and repeated TWRP restores, I finally flashed a stock boot.img from my W10 laptop and ended with the same boot loop or just the Moto image staying static.

I need a working phone so I gave up and decided to just do a factory restore of the phone wiping all data. That failed too!

TWRP is now no longer available as recovery. When I boot to recovery I now get the dead android with red exclamation mark. Using Power and Volume up, I got from there to the phone options and selected factory restore with wipe user data. But, now reboot gives me a static Moto image and nothing further. <crying>

I repeated the factory restore with wipe user data 2 more times with same result. I cannot boot to a reset working phone.

How do I get a working phone again? Someone please help.
This is beyong my knowhow and I am without a phone which I need badly.

Why are TWRP backups no longer dependable? Is it the Moto G7 phone?

 

[KtownJeff]

I've always been a great believer in TWRP and it's backup/restore is one of the main reasons I root my phones: to restore the system when things go bad. But restoring a TWRP nandroid has failed and soft-bricked my Moto G7 phone more than once and I don't understand what has happened to the trusty TWRP backup I used to know.


is your g7 a plus variant xt-1965-2, or xt-1965-3?.... if so you may have bricked or have other partition issues...i know if you down grade from android 10 back to pie there have been reported issues....you may need to try this https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/general/update-moto-lenovo-moto-smart-assistant-t3951714 or this https://forum.xda-developers.com/g7-plus/how-to/hard-brick-moto-g7-plus-downgrade-t3958608 ......stay on Android q i have flashed/tested every rom available w/o issue...also I have flashed/tested just about every treble based gsi successfully ..... If it is a regular g7, g7 play, or g7 power you need to check the correct forum for that device because my understanding is that g7plus has a different processor and all g7 plus roms firmware and twrp is not cross-compatible with the other g7 variants.... if you need help or any questions you can private message me anytime

 

[maybeme2]

I've always been a great believer in TWRP and it's backup/restore is one of the main reasons I root my phones: to restore the system when things go bad. But restoring a TWRP nandroid has failed and soft-bricked my Moto G7 phone more than once and I don't understand what has happened to the trusty TWRP backup I used to know.


is your g7 a plus variant xt-1965-2, or xt-1965-3?.... if so you may have bricked or have other partition issues...i know if you down grade from android 10 back to pie there have been reported issues....you may need to try this https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/general/update-moto-lenovo-moto-smart-assistant-t3951714 or this https://forum.xda-developers.com/g7-plus/how-to/hard-brick-moto-g7-plus-downgrade-t3958608 ......stay on Android q i have flashed/tested every rom available w/o issue...also I have flashed/tested just about every treble based gsi successfully ..... If it is a regular g7, g7 play, or g7 power you need to check the correct forum for that device because my understanding is that g7plus has a different processor and all g7 plus roms firmware and twrp is not cross-compatible with the other g7 variants.... if you need help or any questions you can private message me anytime

Thank you for replying. My phone is a regular G7, not a variant.

I don't know what happened but I finally was able to flash stock Android pie rom, reroot and restore using Titanium backup.

But it shook my trust of twrp system restores. Has twrp always restored it's nandroid backups successfully for you?

 

[KtownJeff]

I have used the restore and I found that when you restore it switches slots so you have to manually switch the slots to get the restore to boot or reflash magisk or reflash twrp..(then after an hour and 30 flashes later) yeah backup restore is not the same with these devices with the ab slots...After ota updates you have to reflash gapps and magisk to make it work right .I have a backup of etc i keep stashed and I backup data only usually...I too use TB more now.....I think its time to compile Orange fox recovery

 

[maybeme2]

I have used the restore and I found that when you restore it switches slots so you have to manually switch the slots to get the restore to boot or reflash magisk or reflash twrp..(then after an hour and 30 flashes later) yeah backup restore is not the same with these devices with the ab slots...After ota updates you have to reflash gapps and magisk to make it work right .I have a backup of etc i keep stashed and I backup data only usually...I too use TB more now.....I think its time to compile Orange fox recovery

I think you hit it right on the nail. Especially about the."... after an hour and 30 flashes later.....". You just skipped mentioning the panic and desperation in the ordinary non expert end user.

I suspected it had something to do with twrp restoring to the wrong slot but did not know enough to resolve it. Actually that seems like a major bug in today's twrp's restore. There should be some way to warn the user, many of whom like me are not experts, about this!

Could you explain further, —in newbie steps— how to *avoid* this hapening again during future twrp restores?

How does one determine which slot is the active one?

How to then tell twrp to restore to that correct slot?

My twrp backup was done two days earlier. The twrp restore was done using the same twrp on the same phone without touching anything to do with the slots. Is it unreasonable to expect the restore would restore to the same slot?

Please explain in detail the exact steps for a successful twrp restore. It would help so many besides me.

What is Orange fox recovery?

Thank you again.

 

[KtownJeff]

The second paragraph from the OP explains the whole backup restore process......For me When i come from stock moto 10 and I first boot to recovery then install the installer...then I format data and install the AB slot copy zip..The first Rom I install will automatically boot off slot b because this slots are in theory for seamless OTA updates so the device thinks that first flash is update...k well slot is set to b after you flash/reboot..I have gotten in a habit of manually checking my active slot as well as flashing twrp installer with every rom flash...some of these roms flash boot images that have stock recovery like lineagos 17.1...if u get stock on the wrong slot and TWRP is froze reboot to bootloader and type fastboot getvar all it will give you all the info and tell you which slot is active.... if you need to change active slot the command is fastboot --set-active=a or fastboot --set-active= b ..... still confused right?? totally i spend half my day remembering which special zip goes with which GSI because out of the four major devs they all have their unique tweak.....I have found that if I flash a g7 plus specific custom rom it brings all my security and vendor up to date.....then i flash an phhtrebel gsi img and i got a very nice rom with all the moto g7 plus extras like the radio and the moto gestures....you wont break these phones unless u do something totallly crazy and the way the bootloader is locked down on these devices you can always bring it back to life if you have the firmware and can read so dont be too nervous...trust me Ive been up and down all around trying to get the ins and outs down. with this phone and I promise its gonna keep up.. hopefully later this year motorola will bump us on the Android 11 update G8 is 100% G7 50% chance....that would be nice because they will probably switch to the new fastbootd.......

Re read the OP (original post) of this thread and check this thread out too...
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-...ess-updates-affect-custom-development-on-xda/

 

[maybeme2]

Deleted

 

[maybeme2]

I've always been a great believer in TWRP and it's backup/restore is......

As I described above a restore of a nandroid backup made with twrp 3.3.1 ended in a boot loop of my Moto G7 phone that I could not get out of. I am now fine after flashing stock android pie, rerouting, and reinstalling everything. After reflashing the stock rom, twrp, and Magisk I also flashed copypartition.zip.

Obviously I did something wrong when I did my restore 4 days ago. So, to avoid repeating this painful experience in the future are there special steps or precautions I should take to ensure my next twrp restore goes smoothly? Do I need to check the A B partition status? Do something else?
Was my backup possibly corrupted somehow?
Any suggestions are very welcome.

Thank you.

 

[KtownJeff]

new official 3.40 update!!

@Jleeblanch update OP please new update for recovery image and installer

https://dl.twrp.me/lake/

 

[skullkid383]

Anyway someone can make official twrp for g7 play @Jleeblanch the one we have doesn't allow stock to boot and doesn't decrypt

 

[Jonny_Bandana]

Has anyone experienced the issue where touch is disabled in TWRP?

After wiping everything and installing TWRP using the .zip, I boot into TWRP and the touch is not working.

 

[KtownJeff]

Has anyone experienced the issue where touch is disabled in TWRP?

After wiping everything and installing TWRP using the .zip, I boot into TWRP and the touch is not working.

Yes that was in issue with the 3.40 build..... moto changed something in the firmware a couple builds back.... The official maintainer for the TWRP recovery updated but for some reason I dont think this thread got updated.... The new patched version is unofficial so it dosent show on the actual TWRP website..... Here is the link to the developers webportal.... There is some custom rom links as well.

https://dl.jleeblanch.com/TWRP/lake/

 

[Jonny_Bandana]

I am also getting an issue on 3.4.0 v2.1, where I can't copy any items to my internal storage or SD card. I get the following error message (Windows 10):

Cannot copy item
The device has either stopped working or has been disconnected.

I am trying to copy the LineageOS zip and OpenGApps zip.

Edit: I have tried many USB cables and uninstalled and reinstalled Motorola drivers.

 

[KtownJeff]

I am also getting an issue on 3.4.0 v2.1, where I can't copy any items to my internal storage or SD card. I get the following error message (Windows 10):

Ive had that error also but the item will copy, i also move items from anywhere on the phone /root directory to internal sd card... then move it from sd card to external with twrp or windows file manager while its hooked up... or use file manager commands from adb/twrp shell

 

[Jonny_Bandana]

I am also getting an issue on 3.4.0 v2.1, where I can't copy any items to my internal storage or SD card. I get the following error message (Windows 10):

Ive had that error also but the item will copy, i also move items from anywhere on the phone /root directory to internal sd card... then move it from sd card to external with twrp or windows file manager while its hooked up... or use file manager commands from adb/twrp shell

Thanks but my SD card wasn't working either. And the items didn't actually copy.

I installed Arch Linux (I'm guessing any distro will do) and it works perfectly there. It seems to be Windows' problem.

 

[papperlapapp]

I´ll get a G7 Plus the next days and will install LineageOS.
Would you recommend to install TWRP at first or first install the LineageOS recovery and later get twrp? I think you can install twrp any time later, right?

 

[Zojak]

I´ll get a G7 Plus the next days and will install LineageOS.
Would you recommend to install TWRP at first or first install the LineageOS recovery and later get twrp? I think you can install twrp any time later, right?

LineageOS will install LOS Recovery automatically, replacing TWRP. Whenever I flash/update LOS, I immediately reboot back into recovery and flash TWRP before booting into LOS. It's been awhile so I don't recall if there's issues with flashing TWRP at a later time. I know flashing gapps has to be done before the first boot otherwise it doesn't work properly.

 

[papperlapapp]

Im not going to use gapps, so no problem there.
Do you remember, can the LOS recovery handle an encrypted device?

 

[Zojak]

Im not going to use gapps, so no problem there.
Do you remember, can the LOS recovery handle an encrypted device?

I don't recall.

 

[cherry314159]

I'm trying to install TWRP on a new unlocked G7+ (updated to Android 10 patch level August 1, 2020)
Unfortunately, the fastboot boot twrp.img hangs on my linux host. fastboot devices reports my device is ready.
I've tried various images: twrp-3.3.1-lake-Q-v1.img, and twrp-3.4.0-0-lake.img with the same results.

Edit: I've tried using an oder machine with a USB 2 port and the boot command downloaded and restarted
the phone and looks like it tried to go to recovery. However, after a few seconds it returned to the bootloader.

I must be missing something. Any ideas?

(yes, I've cracked the glass)