Boot loop after Odin Root

[addamT989]

Hi everyone!! This is gonna be kinda long, but I wanna give as many details as I can to keep things accurate.

My wife and I both have the Galaxy S2 T989 (T-Mobile). Both purchased like new off eBay. When I got hers a couple months ago, as soon as I got it I factory reset and wiped the caches, upgraded to JB via Kies, and then turned right around and rooted it via Odin using the instructions found on galaxys2root.com. Everything went flawless, took me less than a half an hour total for everything. I got mine a couple months later and did the exact same process as soon as I got it in the mail. However after rooting on Odin and getting the green pass just like hers, it got stuck in a boot loop when it rebooted. It would go as far as the "galaxy S2" splash screen, and sometimes past that to where the Android takes off, then reboot, or freeze. It then became unresponsive to any button pushes and I had to pull the battery to get it to shut off (The battery is a new OEM Samsung battery incidentally). I ultimately had to unroot, re-install ICS and re-upgrade back to JB via Kies again to get out of the loop. I did this whole process 3 times to make sure it wasn

 

[Atma]

Hi addam :hello: welcome to the forum

First, I wouldn't use rom manager for anything except if you need to install CWM.

When you got in a boot loop, did you try going to recovery and doing a factory reset? That will often fix a boot loop.

What you might want to do is use the Odin guide and install the stock jellybean.

Then if you want to root, install TWRP and follow instructions in the last post in that thread.

 

[addamT989]

Hi addam :hello: welcome to the forum

First, I wouldn't use rom manager for anything except if you need to install CWM.

When you got in a boot loop, did you try going to recovery and doing a factory reset? That will often fix a boot loop.

What you might want to do is use the Odin guide and install the stock jellybean.

Then if you want to root, install TWRP and follow instructions in the last post in that thread.

Thanks for the warm welcome!!

I want to say i tried a factory reset after the loop started, but i feel like I probably knew i should of, but I didn't. I think i freaked out and lost the big picture and got more concerned about getting her up and running again in stock mode at least, vice have a soft brick (this was my first time soft brickign a phone, i'm less scared now that i know how easy it is to recover from it). And to clarify a little more, if it makes a difference, it didn't really loop as much as when the bar loaded under the splash screen would get almost all the way to the right it stop and not do anything else. The buttons wouldn't do anything at that point, and i'd have to pull the battery and try again. Only to have the same thing again.

Thanks for all the help!! I'm sure you're right and i'm just missing something obvious.

 

[addamT989]

Also....Odin shows my phone as an Epic 4G in the bar at the top. I've already loaded Kies before i loaded Odin. Does it matter that it says Epic vice Galaxy or whatnot? It seems to communicate with my phone just fine regardless.

 

[Atma]

Also....Odin shows my phone as an Epic 4G in the bar at the top. I've already loaded Kies before i loaded Odin. Does it matter that it says Epic vice Galaxy or whatnot? It seems to communicate with my phone just fine regardless.

The Epic 4G is the Sprint Galaxy S2. I'm not sure why it would say that. You do have the T-Mobile SGH-T989? Also, you say you loaded Kies before Odin? What do you mean?

 

[Jeremy R]

This is a known issue with the stock 4.1.2 rom and custom roms built on 4.1.2
I had this issue happen to me for the first time last night on the Jedi Mind Trick rom.
If it happens to you again and you have twrp, you can go into it and backup just your data, then wipe data only in advanced wipe. Then restore your data and it will boot right up. Annoying, but it works.

 

[addamT989]

The Epic 4G is the Sprint Galaxy S2. I'm not sure why it would say that. You do have the T-Mobile SGH-T989? Also, you say you loaded Kies before Odin? What do you mean?

That's wierd, yes i definatly have the T-Mobile SGH-T989. I'll plug my wife's T989 in today and see if Odin sees it as an Epic 4G too.

What i ment about Kies was that i had previously installed Kies on my laptop when I rooted my wife's T989 about a month ago, so i know i have the correct drivers installed on my laptop for our phones.

 

[addamT989]

This is a known issue with the stock 4.1.2 rom and custom roms built on 4.1.2
I had this issue happen to me for the first time last night on the Jedi Mind Trick rom.
If it happens to you again and you have twrp, you can go into it and backup just your data, then wipe data only in advanced wipe. Then restore your data and it will boot right up. Annoying, but it works.

Cool thanks! I'll try that if i still can't get it to boot after I root it.

 

[addamT989]

So I finally got it rooted, but I’m not exactly sure how or what I did. It's a loooong story, but worth sharing.....

I did what Atma suggested, and everything worked great (In the sense that there was no boot loop this time after installing a recovery app and a fresh flash) however I never got asked in TWRP if I wanted to be rooted, even though the superuser icon was in my apps after i completed the procedure. So I reloaded TWRP a few times like the link above suggested if this happened and same thing. I tried installing and running titanium backup and it still told me I’m not rooted (Something about bad/missing binary). I thought maybe it was TWRP that my phone didn't like, so I installed CWM recovery and same thing. But this time I made a backup in case I bricked it again. Here's where things got weird....

I tried using the superuser app I put on my wife's T989 which is different from the one in the above links, (It was the app suggested on S2root.com which is what I used to root her phone.). Well when I dumped it on my SD and installed it from CWM, it froze in recovery mode bad while opening the Zip. And I thought for sure I bricked it hard! So I installed what I though was the backup I saved, but I think turned out to be a residual backup from my T959 Vibrant that I still had on my SD card, that failed for obvious reasons, and I tried a couple more on the card (none had the current date for some reason that's why I was guessing which one was the one for my T989). I finally found the one I had made an hour earlier and it loaded. Now it rebooted and it was a new clean install (Not the backed up copy with all my apps and wallpaper I made an hour earlier). HOWEVER, for some odd reason the superuser "#" icon was in my app drawer, and it's now rooted. I accepted it for what it is, reloaded everything back onto it again and called it a night.

Sorry I know that's a lot, but I figure this could help someone else even though it's not entirely clear what I did or how this managed to work without bricking my phone installing a backup from a different model.

 

[Jeremy R]

Ha, if you installed a backup from another device, you are VERY lucky it did not brick your phone. Good luck with it man.

 

[Atma]

I think turned out to be a residual backup from my T959 Vibrant that I still had on my SD card, that failed for obvious reasons,

I think you're lucky and you should buy a lottery ticket today.

If you have to do the Odin thing again, wipe everything through recovery first and then odin stock. I don't understand all the weirdness with root.

 

[addamT989]

I think you're lucky and you should buy a lottery ticket today.
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If you have to do the Odin thing again, wipe everything through recovery first and then odin stock. I don't understand all the weirdness with root.

HA HA! Well when it locked up loading my Vibrant backup it happened in CWM during the attemped restore, so i think that's what saved me from a hard brick.

I'm with ya on all the wierdness! I also don't understand why the "correct" T989 backup, once i found it, was restored as if it was a rooted clean wipe instaead of a backup with all my apps and settings in tact.:dontknow: