SM-P613. Error vbmeta image.

[Pablosky000]

Hello!

I was recently gifted a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 SM-P13. I only use my tablet to watch chess videos on Youtube, so I was happy to get a tablet to mess around a bit with it. I did not know much about rooting, but I thought installing Lineage OS and learning from it would be exciting.

I'm good at following instructions, but with some overenthusiasm, I realized that Lineage OS did not support my model a bit too late. So I reached step 5 of "Installing a custom recovery using heimdall" in the official instructions (https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/gta4xlwifi/install).

But I could not do step 6 as it could not boot into recovery mode. It will stay in download mode with the following message:

<!>
_partition recovery
Reason recovery: Error verifying vbmeta image: invalid vbmeta header(6)
CUSTOM recovery
VBMETA P613XXU1AVG5, 54410278R

I have looked around to see fixes, but I have felt slightly overwhelmed. So I have installed Odin, and at this moment, as Lineage OS is not an option, I don't care which ROM to install (stock, lite, etc...).

Can someone guide me on what to do now so I won't worsen things?

Thank you for your help in advance!

 

[oFluffy]

Hey Pablosky000, have you tried using odin to flash stock firmware to fix it back to how it orignally was?

 

[Pablosky000]

Hey Pablosky000, have you tried using odin to flash stock firmware to fix it back to how it orignally was?

Hi. Liked I said, I feel a bit overwhelmed and risk-averse at the moment. I have Odin installed and a the stock lite version downloaded. Was hoping for a "Try Odin with stock first" before making any further mistakes.

 

[oFluffy]

Hi. Liked I said, I feel a bit overwhelmed and risk-averse at the moment. I have Odin installed and a the stock lite version downloaded. Was hoping for a "Try Odin with stock first" before making any further mistakes.

I don't fully understand whether or not you are wanting to return it to normal or not here, but I do know about the S6 lite. I have my own S6 lite, and I noticed no one has been updating the patched files for it. A recent update forces it to have the file it was talking about, and unless someone makes a specific twrp for that device specifically, we won't be able to use a custom recovery to flash a rom.

If your issue is getting it into recovery mode however, you aren't alone. The Samsung tablet's usually have the same method for launching, but this one specifically was weird.
You have to:
1.Unplug it
2.Hold power and volume down
3. As soon as it turns off plug it back in and begin holding the recovery key buttons
4.If it isn't in recovery you may have just missed the small window you had to do it, which is fine just start from step one until it works.

If you did flash your own recovery and expected it to show the stock Samsung recovery menu, that won't happen since you overwrote it by flashing a recovery. You should be able to find your device model on https://sfirmware.com/

In odin "AP" is where you flash your recovery files. If the device isn't working you may have to also flash the "BL" or binaries for your device. I usually do anyway just to make sure it is going to work correctly. Make sure you have adb, and any Android drivers needed for it to work. Let me know if you need more help! Thanks.

 

[Pablosky000]

I don't fully understand whether or not you are wanting to return it to normal or not here, but I do know about the S6 lite. I have my own S6 lite, and I noticed no one has been updating the patched files for it. A recent update forces it to have the file it was talking about, and unless someone makes a specific twrp for that device specifically, we won't be able to use a custom recovery to flash a rom.

If your issue is getting it into recovery mode however, you aren't alone. The Samsung tablet's usually have the same method for launching, but this one specifically was weird.
You have to:
1.Unplug it
2.Hold power and volume down
3. As soon as it turns off plug it back in and begin holding the recovery key buttons
4.If it isn't in recovery you may have just missed the small window you had to do it, which is fine just start from step one until it works.

If you did flash your own recovery and expected it to show the stock Samsung recovery menu, that won't happen since you overwrote it by flashing a recovery. You should be able to find your device model on https://sfirmware.com/

In odin "AP" is where you flash your recovery files. If the device isn't working you may have to also flash the "BL" or binaries for your device. I usually do anyway just to make sure it is going to work correctly. Make sure you have adb, and any Android drivers needed for it to work. Let me know if you need more help! Thanks.

Perfect!!! Thanks a lot. I didn't have much expectation apart from "not bricking it". I just wanted to make sure I did not do anything stupid. Follow your instructions. And it worked perfectly! Thanks a lot for the help! I truly appreciated. I am usually alright at a lot of these things, but I ended up being a bit lost, and just wanted to make sure I stopped doing stupid stuff!

Million thanks!!!!

 

[mr_scientific127]

I am facing a similar issue, but I can't seem to find a recovery image, so can you please help with that? I went to the sfirmware website, but can't locate the recovery image for sm-p613, though I did find it for other models such as p610. At this point, I'm fine with going stock os if it means I haven't bricked the tablet.

 

[deckardsdream1988]

I am facing a similar issue, but I can't seem to find a recovery image, so can you please help with that? I went to the sfirmware website, but can't locate the recovery image for sm-p613, though I did find it for other models such as p610. At this point, I'm fine with going stock os if it means I haven't bricked the tablet.

I softbricked mine with Snapdragon last night. See the fix and link to a working recovery image here. Developer says there's no hope for Snapdragon support for the S6 Lite Wifi now or in the future. Samsung doesn't even support the firmware reload for this device in their own Smart Switch Windows app.

 

[mr_scientific127]

I softbricked mine with Snapdragon last night. See the fix and link to a working recovery image here. Developer says there's no hope for Snapdragon support for the S6 Lite Wifi now or in the future. Samsung doesn't even support the firmware reload for this device in their own Smart Switch Windows app.

Thank you, I managed to get my tablet working. Really wish samsung made the firmware more available.