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Help Please Help! Phone in Boot Loop and I need Data from it

S

seedorfj

Newbie
I have re-flashed the phone with a stock version (I never did any flashing/rooting before this, but have on a previous phone so I know how). I would just factory reset, but I NEED the videos I recorded today. Is there a way to pull files without booting (I can get recovery and download modes, no option is available for mounting the USB connection like I have read about). It is not in developer mode, and I don't think it would matter if it was because I can't boot past app loading (to my belief). When I flashed the device, it loaded and started "upgrading android" upon completion is said starting apps and then rebooted. If I can't pull files can I remove 3rd party apps.
 
Do you remember if USB Debugging is enabled in Dev Options? (By default it isnt).
In what way did you flash the firmware?
 
It was not, after ending up with a bricked phone (months after rooting and then restoring to normal) I decided it was such a hassle I wouldn't bother with it. I have been able to flash CWM recovery and I have read dev options are automatically enable, but I have no way of using that unless it works in recovery or download mode. The phone will not finish a boot or hold past the splash screen in its regular boot. The brightness is full as expected on boot, then everything starts loading and the screen dims, then withing 2 more seconds it goes black and restarts again and again and again until I pull the battery.

I flashed with Odin, I used the stock builds ella and emd2 along with and insecure (rooted) ella build. All for the GTI9300 which is my device.
 
Have you tried clearing your cache/dalvik cache?

Also, you could try booting into safe mode by turning the phone off, then hold the power button and -I believe- the volume down buttons at the same time, then let go of the power button when it starts turning on, but continue holding the volume button until it completely boots up. Though, being able to get into safe mode would probably require your phone to at least get to the lock screen.
 
I can yes get into both download and recovery. I can not enter safe-mode which would be nice if I could because it could very likely be an app problem. I have cleared both caches after which the device made it far enough to optimize apps after which, upon starting them, it would restart. Just to see if files still existed I used the tool to locate a recovery zip and everything looks as it should, I can actually see the folder for my photos in recovery mode (not the photos/videos themselves) so I am so close, but I have no way to grab them from my phone, I have considered wiping it and then using a data recovery tool, but that will be my very very last resort.
 
I just meant to say that unless the developer USB connection works within those modes, (which I don't think it does) then I can not connect in that way. Is there something I could flash on which either changes the boot sequence (I don't think my carrier actually allows safe mode/my phone has it disabled) or allows you to connect via USB. I am really willing to do anything, as of now I don't need to salvage the phone, just the data and If that means I have to flash something that turns the thing into a data spewing vegetable then I can do it.
If only there were a custom reset which only factory reset some of the phone, oh well.
 
Do you have a custom recovery installed? If so, you can mount at least your sd card from there.

Also, in order to get to safe mode, you have to hold the volume button until the phone boots to android (it will say "safe model at the bottom). As far as I know, no carrier has it disabled, and it should be accessible on any phone.
 
I guess you weren't using a SD card? If you have a custom recovery boot into that, connect the phone to your computer, and then mount storage. You should be able to copy any pictures or videos then.

I don't think a carrier would disable safe mode. That's a pretty critical part of the OS. It just sounds like it's that screwed up to where it still won't boot.
 
The way ive always got safe mode is to boot the phone using power button and tap tap tap tap the menu button until it boots. Try that.
I think you can save the phone in recovery CWM. Just dirty flash whatever rom zip you have there :thumbup:
 
I wasn't using an SD card, but I do have one and it is now in the phone. I entered CWM Recovery mode and used the mounts and storage menu to mount the external sd. It mounted, but there is no difference in computer accessibility. There is not an option to mount storage, only /efs /cache /system /data /preload and /external_sd then the option to format all of those with the addition of /sdcard and /data and /ata/media (/sdcard)
Haha, you don't know my carrier!
As for spamming the menu button, that doesn't work either. I don't have a rom .zip to "dirty flash" though, I have only flashed things through odin
 
ah I have a connection I believe, at least my device manager lists samsung android adb interface, I just don't have any idea how to pull the data. I am using samsung galaxy s3 toolkit and I need a path and filename, I think I can guess together a filename, but the path i am not so sure about
 
I used odin3 to install a .tar version of clockworksMod (CWM) Be Carefull There Are Tons Of Ads On This Link because I was unable to install in the more common rooted-app format. I then re-flashed my stock ella build (downloaded with Galaxy S3 Toolkit which included Odin3) , however a rooted build or any other build would likely work as long as it doesn't overwrite the Custom Recovery Menu (CWM). The next step was to get a program/terminal for the Android Debug Bridge (ADB). I found a program called Minimal ADB and Fastboot which allowed me to easily install and use the ADB. I booted my phone into my custom recovery mode (CWM), plugged it in via USB, and then navigated to the mount submenu. I didn't really know what I was doing and I figured it should hurt to just mount everything which wasn't already mounted. I then opened my adb program which was py_cmd.exe. I used the command "adb pull /sdcard/DCIM/Camera C:\pulledfiles" I found that some people need to include sdcard and others don't, probably the result of having an external sd card. The name may also be different, I know on my note that it is sdcard0, but for the Galaxy SIII it is sdcard. After that it just pulled my whole Camera folder along with the hidden thumbnail folder and put it on my c drive right into the folder called pulled files the videos were huge and the whole pulling process took quite a while, but every last file I will ever need from my camera is now on my computer. Now all of this didn't fix my phone from boot loop, but a quick factory reset should do the trick once I decide I have pulled everything I need.

If anyone is interested in what the video was, it was some hexacopter onboard footage of a windfarm, the thing wound up much higher than originally anticipated (above the wind turbines). I have to give the galaxy's camera props as always.
 
I've just read this post today, but I would have also suggested the adb route as it uses low-level commands to communicate between PC and device and since your phone managed to get into recovery and download mode that's all you need to get things moved to and from the device.

I have used adb ever since starting with Android since I had Google Nexus devices and you unlock and flash always via adb. For this you download the Google SDK kit and install it on your PC - if anyone is interested or needs it you can get it from here Android SDK | Android Developers

Through your custom recovery you can then also 'sideload' .zip files for flashing, that is if you failed to get files on your internal or external SD for flashing.

You will find more on the subject over at XDA site.
 
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