Please Help! Can I still access my data??

[PsyintZ]

Hi there guys! I made a mistake and I'm wondering if there is a way to fix it. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

I have an LG G2 vs980 5.0.2

I wanted to change my startup screen from the boring LG logo, so I searched on Google how to do so, and I followed the steps. Everything worked perfectly, except I didn't realize until later that I used a startup screen for a totally different phone by accident - and it turns out it is not compatible with my LG G2, and it causes my phone to lock up before booting. It flashes the (incompatible) startup image I replaced the stock one with and then the screen goes blank and the little light at the top cycles through different colors. I cannot do anything from here.

So, I was wondering if there is ANY way to access my system folder while my phone is off - since I know exactly what file I would have to remove to fix this issue?

That is the most frusturating part about this. It's not some random error that I know nothing about. I know exactly how to fix it, I just don't know if it's possible to access the file without being able to get on the phone. I really hope I don't have to perform full wipe back to stock all because of a simple startup image.

If anybody knows how I could access the files on my phone without actually being able to boot the phone up - I would be forever grateful. Thank you very much in advance!

Sincerely,
Crissy (Psyintz)

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I moved this from the Lollipop forum to the G2 Rooting forum for more specific traffic. (I presume you rooted it in order to change the boot animation.)

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. I am pretty sure you are going to have to reflash a stock ROM, or restore a Nandroid backup. You can't pull files from a powered off state, and ADB commands can only be done when the phone is booted to Android.

 

[PsyintZ]

Welcome to the forums. I am pretty sure you are going to have to reflash a stock ROM, or restore a Nandroid backup. You can't pull files from a powered off state, and ADB commands can only be done when the phone is booted to Android.

Oh no! Someone on the XDA forums told me "You can flash TWRP 3.x.x using adb and access system from there, as it has a built-in file manager in it." However, all of the guides I have encountered seem to need access to my phone in order to do this. When I try running the "adb reboot bootloader" command, it just says "error: device (null) not found." - Do you have any idea if his idea is possible? And if so, how I would do it?

Thank you very much for your help Golfdriver97, I really appreciate it!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Oh no! Someone on the XDA forums told me "You can flash TWRP 3.x.x using adb and access system from there, as it has a built-in file manager in it." However, all of the guides I have encountered seem to need access to my phone in order to do this. When I try running the "adb reboot bootloader" command, it just says "error: device (null) not found." - Do you have any idea if his idea is possible? And if so, how I would do it?

Thank you very much for your help Golfdriver97, I really appreciate it!

It may be possible, but highly unlikely. I tried running ADB commands from recovery on my Pixel, and they wouldn't take.

Crucial question: Did you have USB Debugging enabled before the device became bricked?

As for flashing TWRP....It can be done by fastboot (different animal from ADB) commands, but here is a catch: LG often locks the bootloader. They don't play well for unlocking it, but for a moment, we will assume yours can be. Once you unlock the bootloader, it wipes the device.

I am still under the impression that reflashing the stock ROM is the best way to proceed.

 

[Psyentizt]

Crucial question: Did you have USB Debugging enabled before the device became bricked?

Yes, I did have to enable USB debugging during the process of swapping out my startup images.

 

[Psyentizt]

I'm still stuck guys. I have no idea what to do I think I am losing faith and have almost resorted to the fact that I'm going to have to wipe all of my data and go back to stock.

If I were to do this - can I just use the built-in "factory reset" by holding the volume down + power buttons, and then choosing "Factory Reset?" - Will this just wipe all of my data and put my phone back to how it was when it was brand new?

 

[smvim]

I'm still stuck guys. I have no idea what to do I think I am losing faith and have almost resorted to the fact that I'm going to have to wipe all of my data and go back to stock.

If I were to do this - can I just use the built-in "factory reset" by holding the volume down + power buttons, and then choosing "Factory Reset?" - Will this just wipe all of my data and put my phone back to how it was when it was brand new?

Your phone's internal storage media has several different partitions on it. A Factory Reset only wipes the general, user data partition, it does not affect any of the operating system partitions. Whatever OS your phone is running before a Reset will remain the same after a Reset, the /data partition is the only thing cleared. Even that term 'Factory Reset' is something of a misnomer, there might be a lot less confusion if it was instead named something more appropriate like 'Data Reset'.
You need to re-flash the ROM to return your phone to a brand new state. Re-writing the ROM on a smartphone is essentially the same as doing a clean install of the OS on a computer.

 

[Psyentizt]

Solved. You may close the thread if you'd like.

 

[MatthiasU]

Solved. You may close the thread if you'd like.

Oh come on. Tell the rest of the world how you did it!