Mods [Guide]How to flash a Nexus Factory Image manually.

[scary alien]

yeah, it consistently is telling you that the fastboot flashing operations are failing ("FAILED..."), so the bootloader is not actually unlocked...

It's also not a case of needing the "OEM Unlocking" set to enabled in the Settings -> Developer options menu since the Nexus 5 (hammerhead) does not have that option or restriction like many of the newer devices do.

Not sure where to have you go from here...we've seen this before on a few Nexus 5 and 7's, too, unfortunately...

 

[Albert Wang]

Well, thank you for the suggestions anyway! I guess it's time to start looking into a new phone then.

 

[Albert Wang]

Actually, I have one last question. If I remove the usb cable from the computer midway from the factory reset, the device will be hard bricked right? Sorry if this is annoying, I just need confirmation.

 

[scary alien]

Actually, I have one last question. If I remove the usb cable from the computer midway from the factory reset, the device will be hard bricked right? Sorry if this is annoying, I just need confirmation.

Oh, I'm not sure that would be the case, Albert...once you initiate the factory reset, I'm guessing it's just running a format and/or mass delete in the background (or the foreground if you're doing it from the stock recovery), so I'm not sure that would make any difference (I've never heard that, so that's mostly why I say that).

 

[lunatic59]

Before you totally give up @Albert Wang , give Wug's Nexus Root Toolkit a try. If you had a version of Marshmallow on your phone prior to this happening, there's an extra step needed to unlock the bootloader under developer options. If you don't enable "allow OEM unlocking" then the OEM unlock will appear to succeed from fastboot but when you restart, it will be locked again. There has been some success with Wug's although it's not guaranteed (and I think the N5 in particular has some issues).

There is one final option where Google has zipped up the full rom as a packaged OTA updates that you could apply through recovery.

https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/ota

This one I do believe works in your situtation.

 

[Alfar61]

@lunatic59 Hello, it keeps logging me out with my facebook account, so I had to connect via twitter. Does USB debugging HAVE to be enabled? If so, is USB debugging automatically disabled for phones?

 

[scary alien]

Hey Luna, I have 6.0.1 on an old N5 and I do not have the "OEM unlocking" option in my Developer Settings, so I'm not sure that's an option for the N5?

Also, Albert's device isn't booting properly for him to enable that or even enable USB debugging for the block-mode OTA to work .

 

[scary alien]

@lunatic59 Hello, it keeps logging me out with my facebook account, so I had to connect via twitter. Does USB debugging HAVE to be enabled? If so, is USB debugging automatically disabled for phones?

Oh, is this Albert again/too? (we might have to get this account merged with your other one if so...no biggie, just let us know).

Yes, USB debugging does not come automatically enabled for Android devices--you must explicitly enable it.

 

[Alfar61]

Yes it is . In other news, a friend of mine told me about a command called "fastboot flashing unlock" that unlocked his bootloader, would that apply in my case? Or is it time to say goodbye to my beloved phone

 

[scary alien]

Yes it is . In other news, a friend of mine told me about a command called "fastboot flashing unlock" that unlocked his bootloader, would that apply in my case? Or is it time to say goodbye to my beloved phone

That command string (fastboot flashing unlock) doesn't work on/for my version of the fastboot utility, so I'm not sure what is going on with that .

My family has five Nexus 5's, with three still in daily use, one for my testing, and one that's on-the-shelf waiting to be wiped. They're great devices (IMO) so I know what you mean above being beloved .

Hang on to it, though, in case we figure something magical out to fix it...there's always hope!

 

[bsullins]

I've been down the rabbit hole with this a few times and here I'm stuck with a Nexus 7 WiFi that is stuck in the "No Command" error on boot. I went through this tutorial and everything worked except flashing the recovery image. I've got a PC and tried WUG but to no avail since it appears my device won't connect through ADB. Thoughts on what steps I could take next?

c:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>fastboot flash recover recovery.img
target didn't report max-download-size
sending 'recover' (5682 KB)...
OKAY [  0.223s]
writing 'recover'...
FAILED (remote: partition table doesn't exist)
finished. total time: 0.246s

 

[Brian706]

Looks like you typed the command wrong: fastboot flash recover recovery.img

Should be: fastboot flash recovery recovery.img


Though I'm a little confused by the output because it seems like it accepted the command and attempted to write the recovery. Regardless, try again, but that's kinda weird.

 

[scary alien]

It looks like the "server side" of fastboot (i.e., the part that's on the N7) reported back that it doesn't know what the "recover" partition is (because it's actually "recovery") and that's what generated the "partition table doesn't exist") failure message.

So you were spot-on, Brian that it's very likely just the "recover" typo that should have been "recovery" (i.e., fastboot flash recovery recovery.img).

 

[Ro Smith]

Hi, I followed these instructions and they worked fine with my Nexus 7 (2012) so I offered to do the same to my son-in-laws some months later.

Everything was going fine I had completed step 1 through to 8 OK then I tried to load the Bootloader and hit problems.
I eventually loaded bootloader-grouper-4.23 which copied OK and ran OK.

I then had to go out so I powered down the Nexus 7 (2012) now I can't get it to power up although I know it was fully charged before I started.

I've tried all the recommended power up options, holding the button for 30-60 seconds, holding volume up and power button & holding volume down and power button.

Have I "bricked" the device?

 

[codesplice]

Hi @Ro Smith,

I know you say you tried holding the power button for 30+ seconds... did you try that with it connected to a charger?

It may also be worthwhile to leave it on charge overnight just to see if that does anything for you.

 

[Ro Smith]

Thanks for replying, yes I have tried that and just for good measure I put it on charge all night and tried again this moring to no avail. I guess it's now "spares".

 

[codesplice]

Thanks for replying, yes I have tried that and just for good measure I put it on charge all night and tried again this moring to no avail. I guess it's now "spares".

Yeah, unfortunately there's not a lot that we can do for a device which won't power on at all.

 

[ssk_ssk]

AWESOME

this link finally helped me to have KITKAT on my nexus 7
thanks a lot

though I got stuck at the bootloader part due to wrong names format given
please remove the " " for flash boot loader step .. I think

 

[Aoi v1]

Hi everyone, I have a Nexus 7 2013 wifi, it's stuck on google logo. I've had it for more than 3 years like this.

When trying "fastboot -w update blabla", I get an error while writing system. I tried to do it manually, and it says "FAILED (remote: Bogus size and sparse chunk header)".

I've never heard a proper explanation about that error, though I finally found a way to do it manually: "fastboot flash -S 512M system system.img" and it actually proceeds with writing the system img with no errors whatsoever! But with no different result my Nexus is still bricked, at google logo. I've let the device seat for good 20 minutes, but I've seen videos of people doing this and their devices take less than 30 seconds to boot after completing this guide.

Why is it so after I followed each and every step of this guide with no error?

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[Brian706]

Hi everyone, I have a Nexus 7 2013 wifi, it's stuck on google logo. I've had it for more than 3 years like this.

When trying "fastboot -w update blabla", I get an error while writing system. I tried to do it manually, and it says "FAILED (remote: Bogus size and sparse chunk header)".

I've never heard a proper explanation about that error, though I finally found a way to do it manually: "fastboot flash -S 512M system system.img" and it actually proceeds with writing the system img with no errors whatsoever! But with no different result my Nexus is still bricked, at google logo. I've let the device seat for good 20 minutes, but I've seen videos of people doing this and their devices take less than 30 seconds to boot after completing this guide.

Why is it so after I followed each and every step of this guide with no error?

Any help is greatly appreciated

My best guess would be a hardware failure. If that's the case, reflashing the firmware won't save it. If you successfully completed the steps and it still won't boot, hardware failure is my best guess.

Is there any chance you flashed the incorrect firmware?

 

[Aoi v1]

I've got tons of names on my head, please remind me, by firmware you mean stock image? I read that Jellybean 4.2.2 was quite a great version to run on fresh devices, so I looked for it and discovered the Nexus 7 was the first device to come with 4.3 anyways, I just flashed stock 4.3, flash_all.bat runs smoothly, but no, I'm now stuck on a boot loop.

In this thread from XDA, they explain Nexus 7 devices come with faulty Kingston storage. I dissassembled mine, it's not a Kingston. And they say if I can make it to fastboot, then my device should be able to recover, but I haven't been able to do so :/

 

[codesplice]

Hardware failures manifest in a variety of different ways. There's no easy guide to diagnosing such issues. Just because you can get to fastboot doesn't always mean that the hardware is fine. There were a huge number of Nexus 5X and 6P devices affected by bootloops. They were able to get into fastboot and reflash a factory image (assuming the OEM Unlocking option was enabled), but would inevitably bootloop again. The cause came down to cracks in the soldering joints for the SoC which only became a problem when the "big" CPU cores were working hard and generating heat. That's very different hardware, of course, but I mention it to illustrate that accessing the bootloader doesn't rule out hardware problems.

Based on what you've described I would bet on a flash storage failure. You should not have to pass extra arguments in order to flash /system - the fact that you had to strongly suggests there is something wrong. And while you were able to work around the issue preventing the file system from being imaged you can't work around the underlying problem(s) causing the bootloop.

 

[Aoi v1]

whoa, sounds like a solid answer. Actually, I have two boot loop stuck tablets, and both stopped working while playing PvZ2. I do remember the devices would go extremely hot while playing, so maybe that caused the desoldering problem. Do you think it would fix the problem if I apply enough heat to the eMMC for it to solder back in place again? Not like I'm intending to desolder it completely, just heat it enough for the spots to connect again.

 

[Jaden]

I tried this process to restore my 2013 Nexus 7. It all goes fine until my tablet tries to boot after the factory image is flashed, after which it get to the "Google" screen (white writing, unlocked symbol at the bottom) & then boot loops. Do you have any idea what may be causing this & what I can to do fix it?

 

[codesplice]

I tried this process to restore my 2013 Nexus 7. It all goes fine until my tablet tries to boot after the factory image is flashed, after which it get to the "Google" screen (white writing, unlocked symbol at the bottom) & then boot loops. Do you have any idea what may be causing this & what I can to do fix it?

Provided that you flashed the correct image ("razor" for the Wi-Fi-only 2013 Nexus 7, "razorg" for the one which has a cellular data connection), I'm afraid that likely indicates some manner of hardware failure.