I reinstalled the stock os .. unrooted .. And booted up my phone .. everything works perfectly ..but when I tried to update from December to Feb security update ..the phone got hard bricked ...I did the blank flash and got it working ...I didn't try to update again ...so I don't know whether I should update to September update or not .. someone please help
Software update problem
- Thread starter venkatkrishna_s
- Start date
First thing, Motorola does NOT support downgrading. What you did was you flashed the December update over some custom ROM you were using which in turn downgraded your bootloader and gpt partitions. Then you took OTA again which bricked your device.
You should always make sure that when you flash the stock ROM, you only flash the latest version available on XDA, in this case the June security update(NPJS25.93-14-8).
In case you flash any previous build of stock ROM DON'T flash the bootloader and gpt partitions (just ignore those two fastboot commands).
So what should you do now?
The link to the June security update full fastboot ROM : https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g4-plus/how-to/stock-rom-npjs25-93-14-4-march-1-t3608138
Flash this one using the scripts provided. Then take the September OTA. Things should go fine now if you follow the steps carefully.
You should always make sure that when you flash the stock ROM, you only flash the latest version available on XDA, in this case the June security update(NPJS25.93-14-8).
In case you flash any previous build of stock ROM DON'T flash the bootloader and gpt partitions (just ignore those two fastboot commands).
So what should you do now?
The link to the June security update full fastboot ROM : https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-g4-plus/how-to/stock-rom-npjs25-93-14-4-march-1-t3608138
Flash this one using the scripts provided. Then take the September OTA. Things should go fine now if you follow the steps carefully.
I'd like to add a correction to what's been mentioned so far.
I agree that you likely hard bricked from flashing an older stock ROM than what you had on your device already. However, the act of downgrading your device may not cause a brick, but by downgrading you may not be able to flash an older GPT/bootloader as they detect a 'security version downgrade' and block you from flashing the older versions of the GPT/bootloader. However, as you were able to flash the system side of the firmware, then you'd have the mismatch of a newer bootloader (likely B1:06 from the June 2017 stock update?) and an older system from the December 2016 patch.
Now, when you accepted and downloaded the OTA, the OTA assumed that your device is fully patched to the December 2016 security level and was all on the same patch level, which by downgrading your device was not. OTAs appear to check if your system and OEM and other partitions are of the expected patch level and do not necessarily verify that your GPT and bootloader are matching too. Thus, when it attempted patching to upgrade your device to the March 2017 patch, it applied updates to your bootloader and thus corrupted your newer bootloader, leading to a hard brick.
That's a reason why downgrading and updating by OTA updates is so risky now. Therefore, if you've downgraded, do not update via OTA.
I agree with the suggestion that you should use the full fastboot ROM, (you may wish to omit the 'erase userdata' command) to ensure your device is fully flashed to the same patch level. We've now got the September 2017 fastboot ROM to flash too if you're unsure about taking OTA updates.
In future, verify what stock firmware you had on your device before you flashed a custom ROM, and ensure you flash the firmware of the same patch level.
I agree that you likely hard bricked from flashing an older stock ROM than what you had on your device already. However, the act of downgrading your device may not cause a brick, but by downgrading you may not be able to flash an older GPT/bootloader as they detect a 'security version downgrade' and block you from flashing the older versions of the GPT/bootloader. However, as you were able to flash the system side of the firmware, then you'd have the mismatch of a newer bootloader (likely B1:06 from the June 2017 stock update?) and an older system from the December 2016 patch.
Now, when you accepted and downloaded the OTA, the OTA assumed that your device is fully patched to the December 2016 security level and was all on the same patch level, which by downgrading your device was not. OTAs appear to check if your system and OEM and other partitions are of the expected patch level and do not necessarily verify that your GPT and bootloader are matching too. Thus, when it attempted patching to upgrade your device to the March 2017 patch, it applied updates to your bootloader and thus corrupted your newer bootloader, leading to a hard brick.
That's a reason why downgrading and updating by OTA updates is so risky now. Therefore, if you've downgraded, do not update via OTA.
I agree with the suggestion that you should use the full fastboot ROM, (you may wish to omit the 'erase userdata' command) to ensure your device is fully flashed to the same patch level. We've now got the September 2017 fastboot ROM to flash too if you're unsure about taking OTA updates.
In future, verify what stock firmware you had on your device before you flashed a custom ROM, and ensure you flash the firmware of the same patch level.
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