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Root Tried to de-root my Nexus 4, got a mess.

M

MikeVx

Lurker
I wanted to de-root my Nexus 4 so that I could safely apply the upgrade from 4.2 to 4.3. I had used Wugs toolkit to root the unit originally, so I tried to do the Flash Stock + unroot option. That didn't work. (I have a TitaniumBackup, as well as having copied all of my files out to my PC.)

The DOS window that opened up went through all the steps, then got hung up on reformatting the userdata area. After a couple of hours, I figured this was not going anywhere and stopped things. My current problem is this: Depending on which flash I've tried most recently, the phone boots through the Google screen and either comes up to the pulsing X, or the CyanogenMod Stargate. And that's as far as it goes. All attempts to restore using Wugs toolkit hang up on the userdata issue.

I've used ADB in Linux to hand-restore everything using various sets of instructions. Nothing works.

I've tried using CWM recovery, but I get errors when I clear data. When I try a wipe I get 'E:\ Can't mount SD Card.' I thought maybe the directory being missing was messing with it so I created /scdard to give the thing a mount point. It now skips the can't mount error and complains about being unable to access /sdcard/.android_secure.

I've tried using TWRP, that doesn't get me anywhere.

I've tried restoring stock recovery, but all that gets me is the 'dead android' screen when I try to go to recovery. In a moment of aggravation I tried flashing 4.3 directly, and that got me nowhere mighty fast. At the moment my current flash is to CyanogenMod 10.2.

I am open to suggestions. I've stuck my SIM in an old BlackBerry 7100 for the moment, so this is in the category of Minor Aggravation rather than Major Disaster. I have a phone, just not a very smart one.
 
Hello and welcome to the forums. I see your having a problem with your android device. May i ask who is the carrier your with .
 
I had a secure SMS app that stored the messages encrypted. Also KeePass for Android. Nothing at the operating system level, though.
 
In one of those flashes of inspiration, I figured out a solution to my problem. I am posting the details here in the hopes that if someone else ever gets into this mess, they might find extracting themselves from it easier.

I was continuing to fiddle with the phone, hoping for an idea, when I thought to search on ".android_secure". This gave me the result that this was used by the phone to store app fragments on the SD card. For some reason, this made an idea click.

The solution I found:

I used ClockWorkMod for this. After doing a wipe/reset, check to see that you have a folder /sdcard and that it is linked to /data/media. You will probably not have this. Reboot back into CWM, check this again, it should be there this time. I don't know if you can create this directly, I had created /sdcard at one point because CWM complained about being unable to access it during wipe. This may have given it a needed mount point. At this point. flashing gets you a splash screen forever, so wait until the next step is done before loading your firmware.

Next, run the command (tis is from Linux, adjust as needed for Windows): ./adb shell mkdir /sdcard/.android_secure

At this point, you can install things.

You might be able to do the SD Card load, I used sideload and installed CyanogenMod 10.2.

I also installed the Google Apps package. I then rebooted the phone, and, voila! It welcomed me to CyanogenMod and complained about needing the SIM. I powered it off, swapped back the SIM, booted it again, and it is currently working on WIFi, and makes and gets calls. I will be testing other functions, but it appears to be working fine now.

It may not have been necessary to re-flash the unit again, but in the end, it worked.
 
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