How to recover from unsuccessful firmware. Recovering data on Android after a factory reset. Life after hard reset

Mobile devices are so closely intertwined with everyday life that not having a smartphone at hand can cause panic. And if it’s broken, then there’s nothing to say. For many, this threatens the loss of thousands of nerve cells. In this article we will look at how to restore Android work device in case of some “breakdowns”, we will learn how to partially restore its functions before purchasing a new one and get important information from a broken phone.

The ideal option for the recipes described in the article is a phone with an unlocked bootloader installed with a custom one. recovery TWRP(CWM has not been updated for a long time), with availability root rights and the “USB Debugging” checkbox in the developer settings. Such a little thing as this very tick will allow in case broken screen not only retrieve data from the memory card, but also retrieve contact databases or SMS using the ADB plugin for Total Commander.

I recommend doing these manipulations right away so that it won’t be excruciatingly painful when problems arise with your phone. All examples will be given for the Nexus 5, as the most common reference Android smartphone.

PROBLEM #1. PHONE WILL NOT LOAD UP

Let's start with the most common problems. The phone stopped booting. The Google logo is constantly hanging, and things don't go any further. We have a classic bootloop (bootloop - loading in a circle). It can occur after a monthly device security update, even for users with stock firmware who have never accessed the system. There are three solutions:

• reset from stock recovery(will lead to loss of all data) or from TWRP (data will not be lost);
• flash the full OTA image in ZIP format from stock recovery via sideload, which has been available since May Google started lay out for public use, which has greatly simplified life for many users (the data will not be lost);
• flash the full firmware image, having previously removed -w from the flash-all.bat script so as not to lose data.

PROBLEM #2. PHONE WILL NOT TURN ON

If the battery is completely discharged, the phone may not turn on even after connecting the charger: when the charge reaches a few percent, the smartphone will begin booting, during which it will drain the battery and turn off again. There may be several solutions.

• Connect a charger from another device with a high current, ideally 2A.
• Go to the bootloader (usually volume down + power), then use the “Power” button to confirm the selected Start item. If it doesn’t help, then in bootloader mode select the volume Power down, then confirm with the Power button. Next, disconnect the charger and connect it again within ten seconds. A battery icon should appear on the screen. After this, you can try to turn on the device, after letting it charge for at least an hour. You can read more on the official support page.
• Power your smartphone from the USB output of your computer using a homemade frog. To do this, just find any USB cable (also suitable for a mouse), cut it off, and then connect the red wire to the positive of the battery, and the black wire to the negative. Next, put the battery in place (with the wires connected) and turn on the smartphone.

PROBLEM #3. PHONE DOESN'T RING

If you can’t make a call or your smartphone doesn’t see it at all mobile network, then first of all you should check the IMEI. You can do this by dialing *#06#. If zeros are displayed instead of the number, then the IMEI has been lost. The easiest way is to restore it from a backup, so I recommend doing it after reading the article and uploading it to the cloud. IN Play Market There are a lot of programs for creating and restoring such backups, so I won’t dwell on them. You can do the same with your hands. For example, for Nexus 4, in the terminal emulator or from the console, you need to enter the following commands:

Backup IMEI:

Repair IMEI:

The Nexus 5 does not have a dedicated EFS partition. Therefore, you need to backup sections 12 and 13 in their entirety:

Restoration is carried out as follows:

But what to do if there is no backup? Way IMEI repair will be found in this case too. You need EFS Professional and QPST utility sets, as well as Qualcomm drivers for your device. First, the modified kernel is loaded, then the phone is rebooted into diagnostic mode with the commands

After this, IMEI can be changed. Detailed instructions. If you don’t have the box at hand, you can find out the IMEI from Google at personal account on the Android tab.

Additionally, you will need to know the SPC code - a six-digit number required for operation service programs. You can do this as follows. Download from the market and launch Nexus 5 Field Test Mode, click three dots, then Settings (view), then select LTE, edit, a window will pop up asking for a code. After this, you need to enter in the console:

Flashing a full image on Nexus 7 via flash-all.bat without the -w parameter

Red - plus, black - minus

The response will be lines like:

where the six digits at the end are the required code.

Android tab with IMEI in your personal account

Connecting the EFS Professional program

Operation of the Qualcomm NV Tools utility included in the EFS Professional kit

PROBLEM #4. TOUCHSCREEN DOES NOT WORK

If you accidentally drop your phone, you can damage the screen and, as a result, the touchscreen. In this case, a mouse connected to the smartphone via a USBOTG adapter will help. You can also connect the device to your computer and use the console and ADB for control, which I wrote about in the article. ADB will allow you not only to launch applications, send SMS and even make calls, but also to emulate taps on the screen. The commands look like this:

Text<строка>- enter a line;
keyevent<код_клавиши>- emulate pressing a hard button;
tap - tap on the specified location on the screen;
swipe - swipe from x1, y1 to x2, y2.

Using QPST, you can activate it on the Nexus 5 of the American model D820 LTE frequencies, suitable for use in Europe.

For example, you can pull out the curtain with notifications like this (coordinates are counted from the upper left corner):

If only part of the screen does not work, you can arbitrarily shift the displayed image using the console command wm overscan or the Screen Shift program.

PROBLEM #5. USB DOES NOT WORK

If according to USB phone It charges, but when connected, the computer does not see the device; you can manipulate the phone via Wi-Fi. To do this, you need root rights and the WiFi ADB application. We launch the application, press the button and connect to the smartphone using the connect command and the IP address shown by the application:

A complete guide to working with ADB, I repeat, is in the article. As a more convenient alternative, you can use AirDroid.

PROBLEM #6. POWER BUTTON DOESN'T WORK

If the power button on your smartphone is broken, you can turn it on like this: press the volume down and connect the wire to the computer. We get into the bootloader. From the console, enter the command to continue booting (fastboot is included in Android SDK, platform-tools folder):

The phone will boot. To ensure functionality, you can install the GravityBox module for the Xposed framework and enable the “Wake up with volume” option or install a kernel with DoubleTap2Wake support. To be able to turn off the screen (lock), you must activate the “Double tap to sleep” option in GravityBox.

Other hardware buttons can be reassigned by editing one of the files /system/usr/keylayout. There are few hardware buttons on Nexus 5, so I’ll give an example with Micromax smartphone Q415. It has a very poor placement of the Back and Menu buttons, but they can be easily swapped if you edit the ft5x06_ts.kl file:

key 158 BACK
key 139 APP_SWITCH key 172 HOME
key 217 SEARCH
key 249 MENU

It is enough to indicate the keycode 249 in the first line, and 158 in the last line. You can similarly change any other buttons, including the volume buttons (their settings may be in another file).

PROBLEM #7. WHAT TO DO IF YOU FORGOT YOUR PIN CODE

Let's say you forgot your PIN or you set a pattern key not entirely sober, or your friends joked and turned on facial recognition. So, if the device is locked for some reason, the lock can be removed (provided USB debugging is enabled and root rights are enabled) through the same console:

The command will remove all passwords and graphic keys. The files themselves, depending on the firmware and model of the device, can be: gesture.key, password.key, cm_ gesture.key, personalpattern.key, personalbackuppin.key. The files locksettings.db, locksettings.db-shm, locksettings.db-wal are also responsible for blocking.

After this, just reboot the device and enter any key or password. If this doesn't help, you can try the following:

PROBLEM #8. REQUESTING A GOOGLE ACCOUNT AFTER A FACTORY RESET

On all Nexuses, starting with Nexus 6, and also on many modern phones Google and manufacturers have introduced a new user data protection system called Factory Reset Protection(FRP). Now, after resetting the device to factory settings, at the initial setup stage the user will be required to enter data (email address and password) from the previous account to which the phone is linked.
According to Google, such protection makes stealing a phone pointless: an attacker who fails to guess the password will be able to reset the device to factory settings through stock recovery, but will run into this screen when loading.

But what should honest users do if they have forgotten their login and password on their device? You set up the phone for your parents and forgot your email and password. will come to the rescue YouTube channel Rootjunky.com. The channel has a lot of video instructions on how to bypass protection on different devices, including the June 1, 2016 security update and Android firmware N developer preview 4.

They boil down to the fact that you need to get to the browser, download and install the QuickShortcutMaker program, find in it Google Account Manager, select Type Email and Password, click Try, three dots, then Browser sign-in. After which you can enter the data of any account and reboot the device. Once the setup wizard starts, it will no longer require Verify your account.

After this, the device should work normally. The only negative is that the /persist directory will be empty, and the MAC addresses for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will change with each reboot. If this is critical, then additional steps can be taken:

As you can see, even in the event of major breakdowns, you can still work with the device, albeit with difficulty, or at least extract important information from it. And it’s almost impossible to kill Nexus. You have to try very hard to deliberately flash a file from another device or pull out the cord at the time of flashing. I hope that with this article I will encourage you to study the internals and principles of operation of devices and help you save your nerves in future breakdowns.

Last updated by at November 18, 2016.

In the first case, there is nothing much to worry about, since, most likely, the cause of the trouble was a conflict in some applications or widgets, and everything can be corrected by returning to the factory settings. If the smartphone still works, albeit with various “artifacts,” you can also fix this yourself. In the third case, it is unlikely that you will be able to get by with “little loss” and you will have to either restore your smartphone via a computer using special software, or contact a service center or a familiar computer guru who knows how to restore Android after unsuccessful firmware.

How to restore factory firmware on Android

First of all, you need to find it. This will not be difficult to do, since popular manufacturers of mobile gadgets post on their official websites current versions firmware for all models of smartphones and tablets. The necessary software and detailed guide how to return factory firmware Android. If there is none, you can easily find it on the Internet by indicating the exact name and model of the device.

Rollback "raw" new version updating the firmware to stable is the easiest way to fix a smartphone after an unsuccessful upgrade. If, of course, the user has a backup copy made in advance. It should be noted that even Google lately strongly recommends making a backup of the system before each update and this suggestion should not be neglected. Moreover, all the necessary functionality is included in the firmware, and if you wish, you can use special programs from Google Play. This will not take much time, but it will protect the user from the loss of valuable data and other problems that may arise if the update is unsuccessful.

Popular utilities for creating backups and restoring Android systems

Titanium Backup

One of the oldest and most popular programs For backup and data recovery. It has very broad functionality, which is both its advantage and disadvantage. The latter is that if you accidentally activate the wrong process, you may not get the desired result or cause even more harm. Therefore, before you restore the firmware on Android using it, you need to find suitable instructions and strictly follow them.

Important note: the program only runs as superuser ().

Easy Backup & Restore

Also very good option. The capabilities of this utility are even wider than the previous one, since you can copy everything from applications to contacts, bookmarks, calendar events and language layouts on the keyboard. Moreover, the “backup” can be either saved on a smartphone or sent to the “cloud” or to a PC. In general, everything is provided.

How to flash Android through recovery

ClockworkMod Recovery- This is a “must have” application. It is a much more advanced alternative standard utility(recovery), present in the composition operating system default. If the latter can only clear the cache and perform updates, then ClockworkMod Recovery allows the following:

• edit system components via Android SDK;
• create a full system snapshot and use it as a backup;
• install third-party firmware;
• update hotel system utilities;
• create and edit partitions in the file system.

Download ClockworkMod Recovery for Android

CMR is popular app, so there are versions for almost all smartphone models. How to flash Android through recovery with using ClockworkMod Recovery? The instructions are actually very simple and all the work is done in a few steps:

Intensive use of a mobile gadget leads to the fact that over time its operating system begins to “glitch”. Errors appear in the operation of certain applications, the device freezes, and functions may become unavailable. This material will allow you to find out in what cases it is necessary to restore the Android system and how to do it correctly.

First, let's look at the reasons why you can determine the need for restoration standard settings platforms:

1. Infection of a mobile gadget with viruses and malware. This happens as a result of the fact that the user did not think about the security of the device and did not install antivirus program. The likelihood of a gadget being infected will be high if the user constantly clicks on suspicious links from emails. This happens due to the installation of unofficial programs and applications or software developed by hackers. Viruses can also enter your phone from suspicious Internet resources.
2. Platform littering. This problem is relevant for active users who regularly download new software and applications to their phones. The official store offers users a large selection of applications and programs, but this does not mean that you need to download everything. Large quantity installed programs will lead to a decrease in the efficiency of the operating system, as a result it will “freeze”, making it almost impossible to work.
3. Software malfunctions in the phone. There are no viruses on the smartphone, from programs - necessary software, and the phone does not work efficiently. The reason may be a malfunction in one of the installed utilities. Moreover, sometimes the malfunction lies precisely in the operation of system applications.

Recovery procedure

The recovery procedure is not a particularly complicated process that a schoolchild can handle today. To do everything correctly, consider a few nuances described below.

If this is your first time encountering the need to restore the operating system on your phone or tablet, it will be useful to learn about the backup function. When you completely update the platform and return it to the factory configuration, all user information, account information, contacts, etc. will be deleted from the phone. Therefore, you will have to re-find and install the programs and applications necessary for normal operation. It is almost impossible to remember the list of all installed programs on your phone; it is especially difficult to find applications. You can use the account copy option, this will allow you to register all programs on Google Play.

The backup procedure is performed as follows:

1. First, go to your phone's settings menu.
2. Here you will see the Recovery and reset tab. Select Information Reservations (backup).
3. Check the appropriate box next to the item. This will save the information to a cloud service.
4. Next, you will need to specify account Google for data backup.
5. Below you can see the inscription - Auto recovery. Check the box next to the item.
6. When the actions are completed, all your information will be restored to automatic mode to factory settings after you perform a restore (video published by Android Software channel).

Please note that after recovery you must provide the login and password of the account that was used to register on Google Play.

How to reset Android settings

If the operating system on your mobile gadget has crashed, but you can still access the settings, then you can try to perform a recovery.

How to restore the device's operation with your own hands:

1. First, you need to go to the phone settings option and find the tab for Restore settings and reset them.
2. Go to the reset option. The gadget will warn you that the information will be deleted from the phone. If necessary, back up your data or select the files and transfer them to external storage. Just below is the red reset button of the mobile computer.
3. Select Reset settings. A warning will appear that data will be deleted from internal memory. If the internal memory has important files or documents and you don’t want to lose them - you need to copy all this data to external card memory or cloud storage. On the same Google Drive, for example. Below is the “red button” Reset the mobile computer.
   Write down your account login details separately on paper, if you don’t remember them by heart, this will allow you to quickly access your account after recovery.
4. During the reset, you will need to put the phone on charge by connecting the wire to it. The recovery process itself is performed automatically and does not require user participation.
5. When the procedure is completed, you need to log in Google services, to do this you will need to enter your username and password for your account.
6. When you successfully log in, the system will begin to check and install all programs that were installed before the settings were reset. If you want the installation process to be completed faster, connect mobile gadget to the Internet via Wi-Fi, since it is restored when connected via mobile internet the programs will take a long time. This completes the restoration.

But what if the operating system does not even respond to touch touches and you cannot enter the settings menu? In such cases, you can use the physical configuration reset function, which is provided by almost all mobile device manufacturers.

In accordance with the technical and design features, recovery options may be different, so we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the service book for the phone:

1. A mobile device can be equipped with a special small hole on the device body. Typically this hole is located next to the power button; on tablets it is often located on back cover, near the camera or speaker. There is a small button in this hole; you need to press it with a pin or needle. Essentially, this is a reset button, like on a computer.
2. You can try to turn off the device and at the same time press the power key, as well as the volume up or down button (usually down). In some devices, you can hold down the power button and briefly press and release the volume key. Ultimately, a menu should appear on the display where you need to select “ wipe data factory reset", and then click on "yes - delete all user data".

Many of us are familiar with the operating system “Android”. All owners of devices running this shell know that using Android is simple and convenient: your favorite applications are always at hand, useful features, and the interface is so flexible that you can almost completely change it at your discretion.

"Brick" - what is it?

“Android” began its journey back in 2009, and since then the developers have been promoting and improving the shell, without sleep or rest. Updates and new versions are regularly released. As a rule, a user buys a gadget with an operating system already installed on it, and throughout the entire “life” of the device, the firmware of this version (operating system version) remains. But sometimes it needs to be reinstalled due to technical problems or at will user. Then you have to take your favorite device to a service center, to an experienced technician, and some people start reflashing it themselves.

Here, many novice users who are familiar with Android at a level no higher than installing applications from the Play Market “grow wings.” They, having read various instructions in the vastness of the World Wide Web, they think that reinstalling the OS is not difficult and that they can handle it themselves. In addition, they will save a certain amount that they would have taken in service center. But soon such users realize that they exaggerated own strength and the flashing cannot be completed properly.

In this case, there are different scenarios for the development of events. The most unfortunate of them is when the phone turns into a brick. You may have heard this phrase before but didn't understand what it meant. "Bricking" or "bricking" a device means that it partially or completely stops working. That is, it does not turn on, does not respond to pressing buttons or connecting to a computer. Is it possible to restore bricked Android? Of course you can. Hence the name - brick, because the functionality of the gadget is now no more than that of a stone, and now you can only crack nuts with it. It is quite difficult to bring the device to this state; it requires talent. But we hasten to please you - the device is in any case subject to restoration, if you did not take the idea about nuts seriously, and the device itself is safe and sound. So, how to restore an Android brick?

Why can a device become a brick?

In order to understand how to restore an Android brick, you first need to understand the mechanism by which the device turns into it. So to speak, go from the opposite. And once again it would be nice to prove to users that without physical intervention in the case and internal structure A smartphone or tablet cannot be completely “killed” and can be returned to work in ways that we will discuss below. We will explain in simple language. Your device has it. It is located in the internal memory and has no points of intersection with the operating system, that is, these are two independent substances. And even if failures, malfunctions or errors occur during the flashing process, this same console will remain intact and you can use it to reinstall the firmware again. In addition, you can backup the OS with all the necessary information to this console.

Don't panic

The question arises: “What if there is something wrong with the console itself and it disappears?” Liquidation of the console occurs quite rarely, but even if this happens, the operating system will remain in place, and from it using special utilities It will be possible to restore the console. There are practically no cases when both the console and the operating system “fly away”; you just need to have incredible luck to destroy these two shells at the same time, but recovery is possible in this case too.

How to restore bricked Android at home

If you are well versed in technology, but for some reason you turned your device into a brick, you can restore it at home. There are several options in which scaling occurs. Let's look at each case separately.

Unable to log into the operating system

That is, the gadget itself shows signs of life, you can turn it on, but the firmware freezes endlessly, resets, or you simply see a loading or power-on window on the screen, but in fact nothing happens. Firstly, don't rush to conclusions. For example, people who do not understand how to restore a Chinese Android brick begin to panic just a few minutes after the power-on screen appears, but such a device still needs more time for “reflections” than a quality apparatus. You can only come to the realization that something went wrong 10-15 minutes after turning it on.

Then your actions are as follows: turn off the device completely and log back in recovery mode(the system console, being in which is an integral part of the flashing itself, so there is hardly any need to talk about what it is and how to get there). After this, you can try again to install the same firmware as the first time (Install zip from sdcard -> Chooze zip from sdcard) or do system backup (Backup and restore -> Restore). Please note that if after the first attempt to reflash the device you were unable to log in, then perhaps the OS itself was of poor quality or not intended for your gadget, and there is no need to “install” it again. Choose another version or restore the old one. The same problems may occur if there was not enough battery power to complete the process or memory to install new system(the device model is outdated for the new firmware version).

It is impossible to enter recovery mode after flashing

There is also an option that after flashing the OS itself works fine, but you can’t log into the console. Everything is fixable and much simpler than you think. On the Play Market of the same name you can find special programs, designed to return you to recovery mode. For example, applications such as TWRP Manager or Installer does an excellent job. If your device is specific and similar utilities did not help you, then there are other ways to restore the “Android” brick of console mode.

You "killed" both the firmware and the console mode

This happens very rarely, and if you were looking for how to restore an Android brick through a computer, then your time has come. You can't do this without a PC. You will need to go into fastboot mode and perform a series of simple steps. We do not focus on this point, because each device model has its own way to enter this mode, and it is the type of gadget that determines everything further actions user. How to restore an Android brick on a tablet? The series of actions is not much different from the procedure with a smartphone.

We told you about how to restore an Android brick. Bring your gadget back to life and use it with pleasure!

Sooner or later there comes a time when, for some reason, you need to return more earlier version firmware on your Android device. These reasons can be very different: from software failures and errors to dissatisfaction with some unofficial build of the operating system. In any case, you need to be fully armed and know how to undo changes made to the software.

Possible problems after updating Android

Android updates do not always improve the life of the device owner

Not to say that an Android upgrade will completely ruin the life of the device owner, but it is guaranteed to cause moments of headache.

After the update, some shortcuts periodically disappear from the desktop, and along with them, programs.

In other cases, after modifying the system, the user discovers new ones that are not at all compulsory programs, which cannot be deleted.

Options for returning old firmware

Backup

There are many applications that are designed to create backup copies data of your Android gadget, all of them have their advantages and disadvantages. But we will look at the example of one of the first and most universal programs for backup and recovery – Titanium Backup.

Titanium Backup has long gained fame as the most effective program for backups

First, let's figure out why use a special software, because Android natively has backup capabilities. For example, when changing your phone or after a full reset To return to factory settings, just log into your Google account and your contact data will be restored. However, do not forget that in this case all applications and games are lost. Wi-Fi settings and other networks, system settings etc. And this is a very significant problem if dozens of those same applications are installed - since restoration can take an prohibitively long time.

So, to create a backup, we need Root rights on the device and the Titanium Backup program itself. Root rights are required to access system files and folders in which the settings and data we are interested in are stored. Next, install the Titanium Backup program. Don't forget to allow installation of applications from " Unknown sources" After the first launch, Titanium Backup will ask for superuser rights, we give them and we can remember the decision. Don’t rush to click everything - the program is quite powerful, and with full access to the system inexperienced user can do a lot of things. Adhere to the principle: “never use functions unless you are sure what they do.”

To create a backup, you will need a memory card installed in the appropriate slot with sufficient free space, since the backup will be made specifically to it. On the main work screen, select the “Backups” tab. Press the “Menu” button on the phone and select “Processing” at the bottom of the screen. In the menu that opens, select “Back up all user software and system data” and click “Start” next to it. The program will prompt you to select all applications for backup. We are interested in a complete copy of the system, so we don’t change anything. After this, I start the process of creating a backup. The process may take different quantities time, depending on the number of installed programs. Now in the “TitaniumBackup” folder on your memory card you can see large number files with backup copies, it is advisable to copy them to a computer or other device - you never know, suddenly microSD card will fail. It is also possible to configure automatic creation backups in the “Schedules” menu.

When the time comes and you need to restore the contents of your Android device, you can do this in several ways. Firstly, you can restore both applications and settings. Through the “Processing” menu item, go to the “Recovery” section and click “Restore all software with data”. You can also restore only individual applications– then in the “Backups” section select specific applications and click “Restore”. Don't forget that sometimes you need to reboot your device before the changes take effect. In any case, Titanium Backup offers a huge number of options for creating and restoring backups, so you can always return your Android gadget to initial state. If you need to restore full copy operating system, that is, firmware, then you need to use the alternative recovery menu ClockworkMod Recovery or similar.

Other rollback methods

Reset to menu

The path to the treasured option depends on the type and model of your device:

• phones on Android versions 2.3: Settings > Privacy >
• Android phones version 4: Settings > Device memory > Reset to factory settings;
• tablets on Android version 4: Settings > Backup & reset > Reset settings.

Hard reset

The path to a hard reset starts with Android menu system recovery

Go to the menu " Android system recovery" (). First you will need to turn off your smartphone or tablet, and then use the key combination, which again differs depending on the device manufacturer:

• a more or less universal option is to simultaneously hold down the power and volume down buttons;
• Samsung – simultaneously hold down the power and volume up buttons;
• Sony Ericsson – simultaneously hold down the power, volume down and camera buttons;
• Huawei – simultaneously hold down the power, volume down and volume up buttons;
• LG – simultaneously hold down the power, volume down and home screen buttons for more than 10 seconds. Release the power button after the LG logo lights up on the screen, hold the rest until you go to the recovery screen;
• HTC (the most interesting) - hold down the volume down key, then briefly press the power button. Once you see the recovery menu on the screen, you can temporarily leave the volume down button alone. Find the “Clear storage” item, select it by pressing the power button and confirm the action by clicking on volume down.

For more confident navigation through the “Android system recovery” menu, it would be useful to remind you of the button assignments: highlight is to move through the menu, and select is to select a menu item.

We get to the line “wipe data / factory reset” and select this item. Then in the new menu we find the action confirmation sub-item and select it.

With both the hard and the lighter reset options, a reboot will occur, after which your device will wake up with standard factory settings.

Video: How to restore firmware on Android

As you can see, the process of returning to old version Android is not as scary as many people think. Follow our instructions and don’t forget to make backups.