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Unbrick methods.md

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Before you begin, identify what type of brick you have first.

* A hardware bricked device has nothing but a black screen (nothing ever comes on the screen, not even a boot logo), it might vibrate when a power button is pressed and held for 20 seconds, has no Recovery partition, no adb mode, and no fastboot partition. The device might be detected in Linux and you might be able to even send commands to it. In Windows, the bricked device should be detected as QHSUSB_BULK USB or one of its variations. You might have a bricked device as a result of flashing a kernel meant for a different device (or a ROM meant for another device that included a kernel), tinkering with the boot logo or bootloader, or your attempt of unlocking the bootloader resulted in corrupting the boot partition. Use any method and try your luck. Once your display starts to work, go to method 5 and perform that to fully recover your device.

* A software bricked device is one that might be stuck in a bootloop, but has a working bootloader, recovery partition, fastboot, or adb. If you press the power button and things appear on the screen and you are able to enter fastboot mode (Power + Volume Down) or recovery, then your device is soft bricked. Go straight to Method 5. DO NOT TRY OTHER METHODS NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS UNLESS YOU HARD BRICK YOUR PHONE OF COURSE!!

* Methods 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 are perfectly working. Your mileage will vary with other methods. Please don't give up on first try. You need to try a lot of times and test your luck.

Method 1 (QFIL):

No guarantee. Solely depends on your device condition.
  • Method 3 is the only way to unbrick on newer Qualcomm devices. Method 1 is for old devices.
  • Go through the Prerequisites.
  • Install latest QPST tools (I have uploaded all latest files even though I used version 2.7 build 437) and open QFIL (I used version 2.0.0.4).
  • Choose Flat Build under 'Select build type'.
  • Select the COM port to which the phone is connected by clicking 'Select port'.
  • Select the programmer by clicking 'Browse' and then choose the rawprogram0.xml and patch0.xml by clicking 'Load XML'. Make sure all files are in one folder and not in sub folders or other folders.
  • Click Download and watch your phone come back to life.

Note:

  • Please try all combinations of the files I uploaded. You can download from the folders on my GitHub repository.
  • The files aren't perfect as I haven't finished making them. Wait patiently for 24 hours before next try. For me, the phone suddenly powered on when I went out and came back home.
  • After each try, try to boot into fastboot mode. If successful, go straight to Method 5 without any delay. And your phone should be in perfect condition.

Method 2 (Blank Flash):

Don't try. Not working. You might make the situation worse. All files aren't present.

Blanklash won't work unless Motorola releases the signed files. It's not worth of my time to sit and sign the files with proper checksum. SORRY!

Those of you who already tried will most probably have to replace motherboard due to bootloader/SoC internal damage.

Method 3 (eMMC Software Download):

Warning: You will loose your IMEI and get a new IMEI by this method. You need to resolve the IMEI by yourself as both phones will end up with same IMEI.

Requirements for this method:

  • If you are on QHSUSB_BULK mode, get out of the mode by installing necessary drivers. Go through the Prerequisites.
  • Get an microSD card that has a minimum storage capacity of 4GB. You can try with 4GB and 8GB as some reported success with 4GB, while others reported success with 8GB. Speed must be UHS1, UHS2 or UHS3. Class10 aka C10 and below microSD cards didn't work for anyone except one person as far as people have reported to me. SO, please get UHS1 and above.
  • You need an exact duplicate of your phone. I mean, a different phone but same model number and CID. THe device chipset should be same. If working one is MSM8210, the bricked phone also should be MSM8210. The phone should also be bootloader unlocked, rooted and in perfect working condition. It should be running TWRP 3.2.1-0 or higher.
  • Make a full backup of the emmcblk0 in .img format. Name doesn't matter. You could name it backup.img for the sake of it. That's the internal EMMC storage card. Please try with loader.img and Loader.img also while using the dd command.

Steps to unbrick:

  • Before starting, factory reset the working phone. Don't setup any accounts. Keep the root access and bootloader unlocked state. Try this with Stock ROM and custom ROM.
  • Insert the microSD card into this phone. Format SD card as portable storage from within Android. Install Terminal Emulator and BusyBox on the phone.
  • Once BusyBox is installed, launch/open it and run/install its dependencies/files by clicking on the appropriate key in the app.
  • Now, launch/open Terminal Emulator on the working phone and type the command below and press the enter key:
su
  • You will be prompted to GRANT Terminal emulator Root Access, click GRANT.
  • Once root access has been granted, type the command below and hit the enter key:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/backup.img bs=1024 count=168960
  • Wait for about 20 minutes or until Terminal Emulator completes the process. It will take sometime as it has to clone the entire internal storage to external.
  • Once it is done, check the Root Folder/Directory of the SD Card inserted on the phone. You will see a file named backup.img has been created. If this file doesn't work, try replacing backup with Backup or Loader or loader and try again. Don't rename the file. Do the dd again.
  • That's your Qualcomm device unbrick file. Copy the file onto your PC from the microSD card. Download DiskImageRev or Rufus or Win32 Disk Imager or similar imaging softwares and flash the Qualcomm device unbrick file you copied previously onto the microSD card using the softwares you downloaded. Try multiple softwares if one doesn't work.
  • Once the flashing aka writing is done, your microSD card is in a bootable state as all the GPT information has been created.
  • Make sure the bricked phone is powered off. If possible, remove the battery (advisable). Wait for 2 minutes and then insert the microSD card.
  • Then connect the battery if you disconnected it and power the device back on with the power button. Make sure USB isn't connected. Wait for few minutes as it will take time to power on. Eventually, if everything went well, it would boot or go into download mode. Then, flash the stock files onto the phone without locking the bootloader. Follow, Method 5 for that. Sometimes, the display will be blank while in download mode. You should connect using adb/fastboot and check the status. Correct the IMEI after that.
  • If it didn't work, try with all the alternatives I mentioned. This is the only way to unbrick on newer Qualcomm devices. Method 1 is for old devices. This can be used when device doesn't enter recovery mode, download mode, power on, display anything or any of the Qualcomm status codes.

Method 4 (Mi Flash Tool):

  • Don't try. Not working. You might make the situation worse. All files aren't present.

Method 5 (Fastboot):

First, identify your situation:

  • Case 1: With the device powered off, press and hold the power button and volume down keys at once for 3-5 seconds to go to fastboot mode. (Only hold both keys for the specified time.)

  • Case 2: With the device powered on, go to Settings -> About Phone and tap on ‘Build number’ 6 times to unlock Developer Options. Come back to Settings to find it. In Developer Options, enable ‘adb’ and any other relevant adb setting. Then open adb on your computer and type ‘adb reboot bootloader’

Once in fastboot mode, do one of this (Everything should be in the root folder instead of sub-folders):

Note:

  • It's better to run the 'Fastboot Unbrick.bat' script to make everything automatic and easier.
  • Please unlock your bootloader before proceeding any further as you would render your device back to a hard bricked state or completely unusable state otherwise.

Automatic :

Windows Users:

  • Get 'Fastboot Unbrick.bat' from my repository, 'fastboot' and your firmware files in one folder.
  • Next, double click on Fastboot Unbrick.bat and watch your phone come back to life.

Linux and Mac Users:

  • Get 'Fastboot Unbrick.sh' from my repository, 'fastboot' and your firmware files in one folder.
  • Open terminal and navigate to this folder. Or simply right click on an empty space in the folder and choose 'Open in Terminal'.
  • Type the following commands to execute the script in terminal after giving permissions using chmod and watch your phone come back to life.:
chmod +x "Fastboot Unbrick.sh"

sudo ./"Fastboot Unbrick.sh"

Links:

Manual:

Open fastboot after connecting phone in fastboot mode and type:


fastboot flash partition gpt.bin

fastboot flash motoboot motoboot.img

fastboot reboot-bootloader

fastboot flash logo logo.bin

fastboot flash boot boot.img

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.0

fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.1

fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.2

fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.3

fastboot flash modem NON-HLOS.bin

fastboot erase modemst1

fastboot erase modemst2

fastboot flash fsg fsg.mbn

fastboot erase userdata

fastboot erase cache

fastboot reboot

Method 6 (JTAG):

Use this as a last resort if nothing works. JTAG is strictly not for noobs.

You can either buy a JTAG programmer if you know how to use it and connect to the SoC or contact someone nearby in your locality who can do it for you. But before you try, ask Motorola for their pricing. In some places, contacting Motorola would be better than JTAG. Do some research for the prices and the assurance before you proceed. JTAG will surely work as long as the required files and tools are available. You get higher surety with Motorola for sure as they have the skilled people. JTAG is strictly not for noobs.

Method 7 (Manual):

Use this as a last resort if nothing works. This is strictly not for noobs. You need lot of equipment, research and patience. I have put up the basic steps here.
  • Remove out the eMMC memory card from the motherboard. This is strictly not for noobs.
  • Solder it onto a SD card reader with the correct pins. Reference image.
  • Connect SD card to computer.
  • Wipe the card.
  • Partition using Linux and put appropiate data with correct filesystems.
  • Attach the eMMC back onto your phone and voila! Don't forget to dance! You just became an expert geek!

Method 8 (Voltage / Battery)

Details have been put up on my XDA DevDB main post.
  • Click here to view.