ZTE Grand X Max 2 Froze on Cricket logo

[dagwood24il]

I was taking a video and 30 seconds into the video, the screen flashed 3 or 4 times then the phone shut off. I hurried to restart the device so I could catch the rest of what I was filming but it will never get past the Cricket logo screen after I put in my password to start android. I have a bunch of pictures and videos I was taking while on my anniversary cruise with my wife at the time this happened. ZTE has been NO help except telling me to send it to their service center. I asked if there is a way to send me an update or software I can put on my SD card and upload from the recovery menu but they said no updates available right now. OK...how about an old one?!! They are giving me the run around like they don't really have techs just kids reading choreographed crap off a computer screen. I have tried to use a data recovery software but since I cant get it to boot up then I cant get the phone to connect to my computer. If I could get it to boot up then I wouldn't need the software to recover my pictures. I did try the wipe cache partition but did not help. I have a feeling if I send it to the service center they will just do a hard reset to try to fix the phone and not give a crap about my stuff. Anybody have suggestions on what to do? Not a real "techy" person. PLEASE HELP! Thank You!!!!!

 

[lunatic59]

I doubt an update would help you.
When you said it never got past the Cricket logo, do you mean it hung there or it got to the Cricket logo and then the screen went black? At the time the phone shut off, was it hot? Honestly it sounds like a battery problem. When you plug it in, does it show charging?

The problem with sending it in is that one of the things the service center would do out of policy is to reflash the firmware completely wiping anything you might want to recover.

 

[dagwood24il]

I doubt an update would help you.
When you said it never got past the Cricket logo, do you mean it hung there or it got to the Cricket logo and then the screen went black? At the time the phone shut off, was it hot? Honestly it sounds like a battery problem. When you plug it in, does it show charging?

The problem with sending it in is that one of the things the service center would do out of policy is to reflash the firmware completely wiping anything you might want to recover.

The phone turns on, goes thru the Grand X Max 2 animation, then it comes to the password input screen. I put in my pattern then it says starting android for about 2 seconds before going to the Cricket logo screen (which is normal) but then stays lit up there on the logo till it goes dead. Never actually boots up. I have run it completely dead twice and charged it 100% twice thinking if I run it completely dead and leave it for a day then it may reset like taking the battery out but did not help at all. It charges like it normally does and does show it's charging %. I remember a couple of weeks before our vacation, a notification popped up on the screen when I plugged it in at bedtime to my computer because I left my wall adapter work and it asked if I wanted to use USB for file transfer or charging. Of course I picked charging so maybe that's why I cant get it to connect to my computer now or does it usually have to be completely booted up to connect to a computer? It has never seemed hot to the touch. Never been dropped or subjected to water or high humidity. I have babied this thing trying to prove a point to my daughter about taking care of phones and making them last....BACKFIRE lol

 

[lunatic59]

Okay, if you want to simulate a battery pull, press and hold the power button until it shuts off. It might take 15 or 20 seconds. Then see if it boots up.

You might also try booting into recovery and clearing the system cache. (DON'T clear data or that will factory reset the phone.) To boot into recovery, turn the phone off and then press and hold Volume Up + Power button. Release both keys as soon as ZTE logo appears on the screen.

 

[dagwood24il]

Well..so far still not working. Ive pretty well come to the conclusion I'm just going to lose all my pictures and 15 years worth of contacts. I talked to a guy today that had the exact same problem a couple of months ago. He tried everything for several months and was told the only way to retrieve the internal memory in his case and mine is to dismantle the phone to get to the internal storage part of the phone? Pretty sure I'm not going to do that especially since this phone is under warranty till April. Thank you for taking the time to give me some help. If you can think of anything else I can try I would sure appreciate it otherwise going to wait till Monday or Tues and just bite the bullet and factory reset or send it to ZTE. Which would be best one to do though?

 

[lunatic59]

I'm assuming you never synced the phone with Google or a Cricket cloud account? If you did, you could try logging into your account to see if your contacts or images are there.

Otherwise, i guess a factory reset would be the first thing to try and if that doesn't work then send it back.

 

[dagwood24il]

Unfortunately I had assumed that google back up was working correctly on this device since how that is how I synced my contacts and apps to it when I bought it. Wish phones were as easy to manipulate as computers. Well they probably are if your a developer. Phones dont have back doors do they? lol

 

[dagwood24il]

Update....I finally bit the bullet and hard reset my phone. Everything started, updated and booted like it should. Lost all my contacts and photos but got my phone back where I can use it. I STRONGLY suggest anyone with an android phone to use the Google photos and google back-up. Don't just assume that its being backed up. Sync it once a week and log in on a desktop computer it make sure everything is showing up.

 

[lunatic59]

I thought sync for at least contacts was on by default and you have to deliberately turn off sync or set the contacts as "phone only" for them not to sync. Sorry you lost your stuff. Hope you can rebuild it.

 

[Astr4y4L]

I thought sync for at least contacts was on by default and you have to deliberately turn off sync or set the contacts as "phone only" for them not to sync. Sorry you lost your stuff. Hope you can rebuild it.

Yes sir Very good advise to Back up EVERY thing you care for on a regular basis.

Bummer about the data loss. if you hadn't gotten very far you could have tried various data recovery tools on the device, because even now that data isn't actually deleted.

It's sitting there in the linux filesystem underlying the android OS with a Flag on it that says
( Hey im not important write more data here!!! )

so see it's only marked as open space and now your android cant see it.
certain tools can be used to extract that data if done properly and if the Opperating system hasn't already overwritten the data with new data,.
I hope that Makes sense.

and in-case anyone else has an issue like this where preserving that (lost) data is important to you,
Be sure you completely remove the Battery/Power sources from the device, so that your data doesn't get overwritten and then look for forensic data tools such as Autopsy (one of my favorites)
or contact a Data recovery specialist quickly.

What ever you do DO NOT USE the device with the data you want recovered in the mean time as the O.S WILL Over write the data in time.

Hope this helps someone.
Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L

 

[Astr4y4L]

Update....I finally bit the bullet and hard reset my phone. Everything started, updated and booted like it should. Lost all my contacts and photos but got my phone back where I can use it. I STRONGLY suggest anyone with an android phone to use the Google photos and google back-up. Don't just assume that its being backed up. Sync it once a week and log in on a desktop computer it make sure everything is showing up.

Sir, It's unfortunate that you ended up Formating your fone and loosing your data.

But I'd like to ask you Please, since you opened this thread with a SUPPORT tag
to Please Mark the thread SOLVED

Thanks and Good luck

Astr4y4L
Team_Astr4y4L