Your device is corrupt

[gillsman]

I have a Nokia T20 tablet running android 13 with all the up to date security patches, it's about 3 months old and twice recently I've switched it on and waited several minutes only to be greeted with a white screen with message "your device is corrupt and can't be trusted, it will not boot" or something very similar as far as I can remember. On both occasions I pressed volume and power buttons together and it rebooted and started up properly and was usable as normal. Now obviously it was scary to encounter such a message, I've looked online for help and most sites seem to be saying it's normally as a result of flashing with a custom ROM or trying to root the device, well I've never done that and wouldn't have any idea how to. I'm worried my tablet will stop working altogether one day, what should I do? Any suggestions please.
Thanks,

 

[olbriar]

It sounds like a corrupted system file of some sort. Being so new, it could have been caused by an update that didn't load properly. A factory reset no doubt will put things right. Another member might have a less painful fix. If the problem persists and you do a factory reset, make sure you back up everything that is important to you and have your original Google login credentials handy for you will have to log in as the original owner to use your tablet.

 

[ocnbrze]

I agree, try doing a factory reset. Be prepared though as it will erase your data..... so back up accordingly.

 

[AugieTN]

Nokia did something that's hard to understand. I have a T20 tablet, but I have Android 12. The update to Android 13 was limited. Here's the post

Updates

 

[gillsman]

Thanks for the answers, I think it may well be the android 13 update that caused the issue, as I bought two of these T20 devices at the same time, one for me and one for a friend, mine had the android 13 update about six weeks ago, my friend never got it. When they arrived they were both running Android 11, if I do a factory reset I assume it will go back to 11 again and at some time it will update to 12 but perhaps this time I won't receive 13

 

[olbriar]

I would expect it to again upgrade to 13. I don't think 13 is causing the problem. The upgrade process encountering a glitch during install is more likely. Most often, starting all over and letting the upgrades install will be the fix.

I see that your Nokia T20 tablet is to receive Android 13. Both tablets should receive the updates. That does raise the question as to why one tablet upgraded with problems and the other is still on 11.

 

[gillsman]

Well I have reset my device and it has indeed updated itself to android 13, all other security updates are in now & I've got all my apps up n running, everything is working well at the moment.

 

[olbriar]

I hope that you are good to go now. If you encounter the corrupted device error again it has to be an app that you have installed. I can't imagine it being an installed app problem but it can't be ruled out.
Let us know if you receive such an error. There are measure that will confirm it's an installed app and we can go from there. Good luck... I hope it's case closed.

As to your friends tablet, you should investigate why. He / she is being short changed by being stuck on 11 and no security updates.

 

[gillsman]

Thanks for your assistance. Sorry for delay in replying

 

[Hadron]

if I do a factory reset I assume it will go back to 11 again and at some time it will update to 12 but perhaps this time I won't receive 13

Glad it worked for you. But just in case it helps to understand what a reset does, the name "factory reset" can be misleading. All it does is delete files in the /data partition (settings, user-installed apps, all app data). It doesn't do anything to the /system partition, where the ROM lives. So it won't actually undo updates and return you to the Android version the device was originally loaded with. It's a "factory reset" in the sense that it "resets the device to the state it would be in if it had left the factory with the system software it currently has installed". Some people try to say "factory data reset" to make this clearer.

So I'm not surprised that it's now on 13. I guess the problem was some data file that was incompatible with the A13 update and was removed by the reset.