Help [Solved] HTC One M8 stuck on HTC/HTC One logo.

[vector3156]

I bough an HTC One M8 (Model: 0P6B100) for cheap in really good condition but someone before me tried to install a newer android version or something else. Whatever they did bricked the phone really good. It's stuck on the HTC logo most of the time and sometimes gets to the HTC One logo. When the phone is off it appears to be charging normally. I can get to the bootloader and I have photos of the bootloader and other stuff I think might be important. First thing I tried to do is factory reset which seemed like it was gonna work but after the phone managed to "almost" get to the OS it kept saying some apps (maybe they were processes? I really don't know) stopped working again and again not letting me get any further than that (I couldn't continue with logging in my google account and activating the phone). I couldn't replicate it again also there was only the back arrow and home button. A restart got me stuck at the HTC logo again. After that I tried wiping the data and cache and it didn't work. The screen was also flickering, but now it isn't. The phone also takes way too long to go to the recovery menu, I don't think it should be that slow. On one of the pictures it's saying it can't mount an SD card but there is no SD card in the phone. I don't really know what to do, I hope someone here can help me. I have zero experience with rooting phones, installing newer android versions etc.

 

[Dannydet]

Try this site

HTC One M8 stuck at HTC logo screen

Hi, First of all, this was supposed to be my first flash. So I am very new and confused. (I get that you probably have loads of those... I am sorry) I got a HTC One M8 that was already rooted and S-OFF, had SuperCID and everything. And I hate...

forum.xda-developers.com

 

[ocnbrze]

That's for a rooted phone. The op's phone is not rooted as it had s-on. You are going to need a new firmware update to flash. Unfortunately, I'm getting ready to go to work and don't have time to find everything for you. Hopefully someone here, maybe @Hadron can chime in.

 

[vector3156]

That's for a rooted phone. The op's phone is not rooted as it had s-on. You are going to need a new firmware update to flash. Unfortunately, I'm getting ready to go to work and don't have time to find everything for you. Hopefully someone here, maybe @Hadron can chime in.

So the phone firmware is corrupted? All I have to do is find any firmware for an HTC One M8 or does it have to be a specific one?

 

[Hadron]

You'll need firmware for that particular M8 variant. I think "UL" is the global GSM model, but the question is whether it was originally sold locked to a service provider or not: because if was then the chances are that we'll need to locate firmware for that provider.

The interesting thing is that it says "locked" rather than "relocked". Locked usually means that the bootloader has never been unlocked, but "modified" software would suggest that someone has managed to do something to the system software nonetheless. It's possible to set the status back to locked if you have s-off and then reset that to s-on, but someone competent enough to do that would be able to leave the phone in a working state. So I'm not sure what's happened here.

I'm going to be offline for a few hours, but will see what I can find out. The information in your screenshots may be enough to identify whether it's a branded handset or not, then it will be a matter of whether we can track down the right package.

 

[vector3156]

You'll need firmware for that particular M8 variant. I think "UL" is the global GSM model, but the question is whether it was originally sold locked to a service provider or not: because if was then the chances are that we'll need to locate firmware for that provider.

The interesting thing is that it says "locked" rather than "relocked". Locked usually means that the bootloader has never been unlocked, but "modified" software would suggest that someone has managed to do something to the system software nonetheless. It's possible to set the status back to locked if you have s-off and then reset that to s-on, but someone competent enough to do that would be able to leave the phone in a working state. So I'm not sure what's happened here.

I'm going to be offline for a few hours, but will see what I can find out. The information in your screenshots may be enough to identify whether it's a branded handset or not, then it will be a matter of whether we can track down the right package.

I have no idea if the phone is locked to a service provider. In my country (if the phone was even sold in my country) some service providers lock their phones while others don't. So there is a good chance it's unlocked if it was sold by a carrier from my country. If you need a picture of anything specific I will happily upload. One more thing that seems strange to me is when I go to the system recovery menu and choose wipe data there's a list with 10 "no" options and 1 "yes" option (check picture), I don't know if this is normal.

 

[iBowToAndroid]

I bough an HTC One M8 (Model: 0P6B100) for cheap in really good condition but someone before me tried to install a newer android version or something else. Whatever they did bricked the phone really good. It's stuck on the HTC logo most of the time and sometimes gets to the HTC One logo. When the phone is off it appears to be charging normally. I can get to the bootloader and I have photos of the bootloader and other stuff I think might be important. First thing I tried to do is factory reset which seemed like it was gonna work but after the phone managed to "almost" get to the OS it kept saying some apps (maybe they were processes? I really don't know) stopped working again and again not letting me get any further than that (I couldn't continue with logging in my google account and activating the phone). I couldn't replicate it again also there was only the back arrow and home button. A restart got me stuck at the HTC logo again. After that I tried wiping the data and cache and it didn't work. The screen was also flickering, but now it isn't. The phone also takes way too long to go to the recovery menu, I don't think it should be that slow. On one of the pictures it's saying it can't mount an SD card but there is no SD card in the phone. I don't really know what to do, I hope someone here can help me. I have zero experience with rooting phones, installing newer android versions etc.

If you've already tried a factory reset, the next step would be to re-flash the device's firmware. XDA should have everything that you need, if you search

 

[vector3156]

OK guys the phone managed to start. I somehow replicated the factory reset thing, this time I tried the kid mode option which you get when holding down the power button and when I exited out of it the activation procedure or whatever it is called appeared. But once again pop-up after pop-up about a process called "com.google.process.gapps" and apps (I think they are apps, I could be wrong) like internet and fitbit that have stopped working made it really hard to do anything on the phone. I got through the activation and to the home screen. I took photos of the software information and other things that could be important. Opening apps most of the time froze the phone and it either locked itself after some time or I had to lock then unlock it for it to unfreeze or simply crashed with the phone not freezing. Opening the camera it works for like a second and it crashes, same with google chrome and other apps. There was no sound, the speakers just make faint popping sounds when a sound is supposed to play (like checking the alarm song or ringtone in the settings). I took videos of the phone's behavior and can upload it to like youtube if any of you wan't/need to see, but I don't think they can be of any help. After a restart the phone is again stuck on the HTC logo. I'm leaving it for like an hour or more to see if it will start again so far 30 minutes have passed and nothing.

 

[Dannydet]

This is a 9 year old device.
Toss it and move on, in my opinion.

 

[vector3156]

This is a 9 year old device.
Toss it and move on, in my opinion.

I agree, its pretty old and a lot of stuff is not supported on it. But I used to own it back in 2015 (only mine was One M8s) and I really loved it but I broke mine and tossed it in the trash (big regret as I think it could have been fixed). I want to use it again it was a cool phone and I had good memories with mine.

 

[Hadron]

"gapps" is the Google apps package (though it's unusual to see it described that way in a stock ROM).
The phone claims to be running the stock android 5.01 ROM. The software information indicates a "World-Wide English" European phone.

However, there are some oddities:
* Though the software information says Android 5, "CW" (can't remember what that is) says "KK44", which is Kit-Kat, Android 4.4.
* The IMEI is unavailable. That's a serious red flag: something is badly wrong there.

And the worrying thing is that that "CW" information also says "Orange", because if there is mention of a service provider in the firmware it may well not allow you to flash anything other than that service provider's firmware (that, rather than a SIM lock, is the concern with service provider devices). The problem after all this time is that many of the sources you used to be able to download firmware from now longer exist, but Orange ROMs (in any of their national variants) were very rarely available.

So, what to do? Well I found one source for a stock HTC RUU matching the software version you have where the download link is still live: RUU_M8_UL_L50_SENSE60_MR_HTC_Europe_4.16.401.10_Radio_1.25.214500021.06G_20.68.4196t.01_F_release_417003_signed.exe | by kalel77 for One M8. This will download the RUU as a Windows .exe file, so you need a Windows computer and a USB cable to use this. Connect the phone to the computer and run the RUU, it should give you instructions for anything else (you probably need USB debugging enabled. If you don't have a developer options menu, tap repeatedly on the "build number" in the software information until it tells you that you are a developer. Then go into developer options and enable usb debugging). If running that way doesn't work you could maybe try booting into fastboot mode (from the bootloader menu) and then running the RUU - I ever used these things from Windows so am not sure, but the first thing the RUU will do is boot your phone into fastboot so if it doesn't work when running Android maybe try that anyway and see if it can carry on from there? Otherwise there are tricks to extract the ROM zip from the RUU, copy it onto the phone (or an SD card) and then install that from recovery mode, but may as well try this first.

If the handset wants provider-specific software then it will refuse to install the ROM, probably with a message about the "CID" (Customer ID - where the customer is the service provider, not the end user). You don't have to worry about flashing the wrong RUU if the phone is S-On, it just won't do it (the problem being that this might stop you flashing perfectly compatible firmware just because it isn't signed by the service provider).

I can't think of anything else to try other than flashing a new stock firmware. But if that flashes and it doesn't work after that then it's probably a hardware fault, because the RUU will replace everything from bootloader onwards, so whatever a previous owner may have done to the software will be fixed.

 

[vector3156]

"gapps" is the Google apps package (though it's unusual to see it described that way in a stock ROM).
The phone claims to be running the stock android 5.01 ROM. The software information indicates a "World-Wide English" European phone.

However, there are some oddities:
* Though the software information says Android 5, "CW" (can't remember what that is) says "KK44", which is Kit-Kat, Android 4.4.
* The IMEI is unavailable. That's a serious red flag: something is badly wrong there.

And the worrying thing is that that "CW" information also says "Orange", because if there is mention of a service provider in the firmware it may well not allow you to flash anything other than that service provider's firmware (that, rather than a SIM lock, is the concern with service provider devices). The problem after all this time is that many of the sources you used to be able to download firmware from now longer exist, but Orange ROMs (in any of their national variants) were very rarely available.

So, what to do? Well I found one source for a stock HTC RUU matching the software version you have where the download link is still live: RUU_M8_UL_L50_SENSE60_MR_HTC_Europe_4.16.401.10_Radio_1.25.214500021.06G_20.68.4196t.01_F_release_417003_signed.exe | by kalel77 for One M8. This will download the RUU as a Windows .exe file, so you need a Windows computer and a USB cable to use this. Connect the phone to the computer and run the RUU, it should give you instructions for anything else (you probably need USB debugging enabled. If you don't have a developer options menu, tap repeatedly on the "build number" in the software information until it tells you that you are a developer. Then go into developer options and enable usb debugging). If running that way doesn't work you could maybe try booting into fastboot mode (from the bootloader menu) and then running the RUU - I ever used these things from Windows so am not sure, but the first thing the RUU will do is boot your phone into fastboot so if it doesn't work when running Android maybe try that anyway and see if it can carry on from there? Otherwise there are tricks to extract the ROM zip from the RUU, copy it onto the phone (or an SD card) and then install that from recovery mode, but may as well try this first.

If the handset wants provider-specific software then it will refuse to install the ROM, probably with a message about the "CID" (Customer ID - where the customer is the service provider, not the end user). You don't have to worry about flashing the wrong RUU if the phone is S-On, it just won't do it (the problem being that this might stop you flashing perfectly compatible firmware just because it isn't signed by the service provider).

I can't think of anything else to try other than flashing a new stock firmware. But if that flashes and it doesn't work after that then it's probably a hardware fault, because the RUU will replace everything from bootloader onwards, so whatever a previous owner may have done to the software will be fixed.

I'm downloading it and trying it in a few minutes. Going to post results as soon as it's done. One question I have is why is the IMEI being unavailable a bad thing?

 

[Hadron]

Every phone has an IMEI, so if yours isn't able to display one that means that something is broken.

 

[vector3156]

Every phone has an IMEI, so if yours isn't able to display one that means that something is broken.

The phone is stuck at the HTC logo again so im trying the fastboot method but the program is just not doing anything. It starts a setup I accept the license agreement and when I click next it disappears. I'm also trying to factory reset the phone and boot the phone again, could you give me instructions on how to mount the firmware to an SD card because the phone doesn't want to boot. Does it have to be a zip file and how do I get it?

 

[vector3156]

It's working guys. So in the end it appears that the phone would boot if I simply keep trying and waiting for a few minutes. I turn it on wait a few minutes and if it doesn't show anything except the HTC logo I restart it with volume up + power buttons and try again and again until it boots.

The RUU program thing was not working because I had to install visual c++ 2008 x86, I don't know why it doesn't show like an error or something it just closes), credits to Labeled from this thread on XDA RUU will not open on my computer for the solution.

After that the RUU program kept giving me error 170 saying the phone wasn't connected to my computer even after disconnecting and reconnecting the phone a few times. I don't know what solved the connection issue I installed HTC Sync Manager and it updated the phone sync manager app but at first the phone wasn't showing up in the sync manager and disconnecting and reconnecting fixed it, afterwards the usb debugging was asking if I want to enable it and I clicked on remember this PC, I also tried all my usb ports on my PC and lastly closing and opening the RUU program (again, im not sure what fixed the error 170 connection issue).

After the phone was connected and I started the process of updating the firmware the phone shut off and showed the white htc logo with black background screen and it was stuck on "updating....(0/7)Sending" for an hour, I ended the program's process from task manager and tried again with every program that could maybe cause a problem closed (steam, firefox etc.) and disconnected the phone once and it just showed the bootloader with RUU as the only "option" and after reconnecting it it again showed the white htc logo with black background screen.

Afterwards it worked perfectly with no problems, phone was flashed/updated, it booted up with no problems nothing was crashing and the speakers were working. The CW field in software information is no longer there which is interesting. I managed to connect to wi-fi, tried my SIM card and it works I haven't tested if absolutely everything works but it most likely does. Only thing that is not fixed (maybe it was like that always?) is the "cant mount SD card" in the system recovery along with the other messages in yellow, if anyone knows what that means/what it is please share I am interested in learning. I uploaded some pictures of the bootloader and software information (just in case someone spots something that might not be ok). Anyway phone is working now and it was quite an experience! Big thanks to everyone for the help and for pointing me in the right direction (especially @Hadron )!

 

[vector3156]

One more thing I would love to know is how do I flash the firmware update from SD card in the bootloader? I was reading and I got really confused. I managed to get the rom.zip file from the RUU program, and what are you supposed to do with it? People say I need to put it on the root in the SD card. What does that mean? How should the SD card be formatted? There were people that couldn't flash the update from the bootloader because of it's size. I'm curious and any information is appreciated.

 

[ocnbrze]

One more thing I would love to know is how do I flash the firmware update from SD card in the bootloader? I was reading and I got really confused. I managed to get the rom.zip file from the RUU program, and what are you supposed to do with it? People say I need to put it on the root in the SD card. What does that mean? How should the SD card be formatted? There were people that couldn't flash the update from the bootloader because of it's size. I'm curious and any information is appreciated.

the "root" of the sd card is where you are at the top in terms of order on the card. it is the upper most level......basically not in any folder, just on the card.

 

[Hadron]

Excellent

I think that installing HTC Sync Manager probably installed or updated a driver for the device. Sorry that was more of a hassle than it should have been: these things are supposed to just run, rather than require stopping, restarting, etc. But it worked in the end

As @ocnbrze says, the "root" of the SD card means the top directory of the filesystem, i.e. copy it onto the card, don't put it in a subdirectory (aka "folder"). The default fat32 format of the sd card is fine. It may be that the zip file has to be given a particular name as well (OPsomething-or-other.zip - it varies between HTC models, but I'm sure a web search would locate it for the M8). It's also possible to flash the ROM zip over USB using "fastboot" (a program you install on the computer: I remember that there was a HTC version available somewhere on HTCDev.com, but I don't think you have to use that). The RUU is basically a program to do that for you: you can find the instructions for flashing via fastboot in various places in XDA, it involves booting the phone into a special mode for RUU flashing (which I think you met after disconnecting the phone from the RUU tool) and then issuing the same command line instruction twice (the first time does a quick flash of the most critical part, the bootloader, the second does the longer but safer job of loading the rest - safer because as long as the bootloader is intact you can always try again, but a disturbance during the few seconds it takes to flash the bootloader could leave you in a serious mess).

Sorry, probably TMI: I used to do a lot of messing with HTCs between 2010 and 2017, but have been out of the rooting game since them (apart from reflashing my old M7 with a Google-free LineageOS build a couple of years back), so this is a bit of a test of memory for me .

 

[vector3156]

Excellent

I think that installing HTC Sync Manager probably installed or updated a driver for the device. Sorry that was more of a hassle than it should have been: these things are supposed to just run, rather than require stopping, restarting, etc. But it worked in the end

As @ocnbrze says, the "root" of the SD card means the top directory of the filesystem, i.e. copy it onto the card, don't put it in a subdirectory (aka "folder"). The default fat32 format of the sd card is fine. It may be that the zip file has to be given a particular name as well (OPsomething-or-other.zip - it varies between HTC models, but I'm sure a web search would locate it for the M8). It's also possible to flash the ROM zip over USB using "fastboot" (a program you install on the computer: I remember that there was a HTC version available somewhere on HTCDev.com, but I don't think you have to use that). The RUU is basically a program to do that for you: you can find the instructions for flashing via fastboot in various places in XDA, it involves booting the phone into a special mode for RUU flashing (which I think you met after disconnecting the phone from the RUU tool) and then issuing the same command line instruction twice (the first time does a quick flash of the most critical part, the bootloader, the second does the longer but safer job of loading the rest - safer because as long as the bootloader is intact you can always try again, but a disturbance during the few seconds it takes to flash the bootloader could leave you in a serious mess).

Sorry, probably TMI: I used to do a lot of messing with HTCs between 2010 and 2017, but have been out of the rooting game since them (apart from reflashing my old M7 with a Google-free LineageOS build a couple of years back), so this is a bit of a test of memory for me .

How is your M7 doing with LineageOS? Is the phone performing good and does everything work normally? I will most likely get an M7 in the future, as I plan on making a collection of cool phones I can find, especially HTC phones (I'm a big fan of the brand).

If I put the rom.zip in the top directory does that mean I can put anything I want in folders? Like any files whatever they may be won't conflict in any way as long as they are in a folder and the rom.zip is at the top directory/root?

Currently I am impressed with the M8, I updated it to android 6 through the software updates in the settings because on android 5 it almost couldn't do anything (the play store wasn't working at first, after opening and closing it a few times it worked but nothing could be downloaded it was giving an error that the download has failed) which is strange as I have an LG G2 that is running android 4.4.2 and some of the google apps are working fine. The M8 is running decently in my opinion, all the apps I use so far are still supported (youtube vanced, the basic youtube app, spotify) which is just amazing to me. It struggles a little bit with youtube playback but that was expected and for a 9 year old phone it does damn well.

One interesting thing is after updating to android 6 the "CW" tab is back and it is reporting the same thing "M8_UL_K44_SENSE60 EU_Orange_CH/84805". I looked on google what "CW" could possibly mean and I couldn't find an answer. What I did found out though is the phone is from Switzerland, the letters "CH" in the "CW" field mean Switzerland and "Orange" is like a phone carrier in Switzerland. But since you said "K44" means kitkat 4.4.0 it's strange why it would say that.

Thank you again for the help .

 

[Hadron]

Maybe the KK44 refers to the original firmware (that is the android version it was released with)?

The M7 runs fine with whichever Lineage is on it (it was the Android 7 version). I really put it on as an experiment with a Google-free phone, but haven't found time to do much with it. Last used it as a hotspot during a transfer between ISPs .

And yes, you can not only put other files in other directories on the card, you can put other files in the root directory. The bootloader will simply ignore them.

 

[vector3156]

Maybe the KK44 refers to the original firmware (that is the android version it was released with)?

The M7 runs fine with whichever Lineage is on it (it was the Android 7 version). I really put it on as an experiment with a Google-free phone, but haven't found time to do much with it. Last used it as a hotspot during a transfer between ISPs .

And yes, you can not only put other files in other directories on the card, you can put other files in the root directory. The bootloader will simply ignore them.

Hi again, the HTC seemed to be doing fine but now that I have more time to play around with it there is an issue. The storage of the phone starts with the "system" partition taking around 6GB or so. But after some time it keeps getting bigger and bigger, sometimes reaching 10GB with very basic apps installed (spotify, youtube vanced and a IR remote app). Tried factory reset, data wipe, cache wipe but it's still doing it. Since you have owned HTC's and you have experience with them do you know if this is normal? Sorry this might not be the best way to ask but I don't know how to message you in private or if that is even possible.

 

[Hadron]

PMs are possible, but the general etiquette is to ask questions in the public forum. That way (a) you get more eyes on them, and (b) the answers may later help someone else.

How do you know it's the system partition growing? I would not expect that to happen (I never saw any change in the actual partition size), but system usage can grow: system cache and updates to system apps will eat space. Could you perhaps provide a screenshot?

 

[vector3156]

PMs are possible, but the general etiquette is to ask questions in the public forum. That way (a) you get more eyes on them, and (b) the answers may later help someone else.

How do you know it's the system partition growing? I would not expect that to happen (I never saw any change in the actual partition size), but system usage can grow: system cache and updates to system apps will eat space. Could you perhaps provide a screenshot?

In the beginning the "System" is 6GB but it increases to 10GB over time (right now its 8GB in the screenshot). I think it's a partition but I could be wrong. In my HTC U11 the "System" is taking 4,2GB and that's why I'm confused.

 

[Hadron]

These "Storage" menus are a bit of a nightmare: they can be inconsistent in how they present information from one phone to another or one Android version to another, and they are never very clear about what the different categories actually mean. For example, my Galaxy s21 tells me that the System uses 34.77 GB out of 256 GB, while the user-accessible storage volume is about 242 GB in size, which obviously only adds up if most of that "system" usage is actually not in the system partition.

If you really want to see how your space is being used there's an app called DiskUsage that I recommend. On an unrooted device that will only show you the user-accessible volumes, but I'll bet you see part of that being used for system storage as well.

Any updates to system apps, and any data they store, will use user space. But steady growth of that degree is a bit surprising to me nonetheless. Does wiping the caches of any pre-installed apps make any difference to this e.g. if you use a browser that's installed in the ROM try looking at its cache size, wiping the cache, and seeing whether the "system" usage decreases? I picked a browser as the example there because they can cache a lot of stuff (my default browser had a 560 MB cache when I checked just now), so the effect may be large enough to see. Or if you go into recovery and wipe the system cache (just cache, not all data) does that make a difference? I can't say I remember for sure how the menu reported things back in the Android 5-6 days, so this is really just trying to figure out what that number means here.

 

[vector3156]

These "Storage" menus are a bit of a nightmare: they can be inconsistent in how they present information from one phone to another or one Android version to another, and they are never very clear about what the different categories actually mean. For example, my Galaxy s21 tells me that the System uses 34.77 GB out of 256 GB, while the user-accessible storage volume is about 242 GB in size, which obviously only adds up if most of that "system" usage is actually not in the system partition.

If you really want to see how your space is being used there's an app called DiskUsage that I recommend. On an unrooted device that will only show you the user-accessible volumes, but I'll bet you see part of that being used for system storage as well.

Any updates to system apps, and any data they store, will use user space. But steady growth of that degree is a bit surprising to me nonetheless. Does wiping the caches of any pre-installed apps make any difference to this e.g. if you use a browser that's installed in the ROM try looking at its cache size, wiping the cache, and seeing whether the "system" usage decreases? I picked a browser as the example there because they can cache a lot of stuff (my default browser had a 560 MB cache when I checked just now), so the effect may be large enough to see. Or if you go into recovery and wipe the system cache (just cache, not all data) does that make a difference? I can't say I remember for sure how the menu reported things back in the Android 5-6 days, so this is really just trying to figure out what that number means here.

The system dropped to 7.98GB after clearing a lot of preinstalled app caches and after cache wipe in the recovery it dropped to 7.95GB. I remember back when I had my M8s it was not taking that much space but since the phones aren't identical maybe the M8 is just like this.

I was staring to suspect something is wrong with the motherboard (maybe the storage eMMC) since every now and then HTC Sense Home or something else stops working and one time I had to restart the phone because it just appears again and again not letting me do anything on the phone and when the system got to 10GB I was really skeptical but it hasn't happened again for now. They might have tried to fix the phone with another firmware or something but when it got bricked they just left it for dead.

I can't install the app you mentioned for some reason it says it's not compatible even though it should be.