Soft Bricked Note 3 When Attempting to Flash Stock 4.4.2 Firmware
I have a Note 3 SM-N9005. There was a polish release of 4.4.2 firmware which I installed in January using a guide on XDA.
Today I discovered that my carrier (Telstra, Australia) had released an official 4.4.2 firmware N9005XXUENE3, and thought I would flash it. The flash failed and I got the message "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue" in recovery. In a panic, I tried to return to the polish firmware. Having lost what I'd originally flashed, I tried N9005XXUENA6 from sammobile first. This got me to the setup screen, but the phone would crash on the first or second page of setup with "Unfortunately Samsung Setup Wizard has stopped". I then downloaded the N9005XXUENA6_N9005OXXENA5_N9005XXUENA2_OXX from the first link. This has the same result.
After each flash I did a factory reset and wiped the cache (not dalvik, because I'm not rooted). The stock firmware comes just in the form of a .tar.md5 as did the N9005XXUENA6 from sammobile, but the final polish firmware and the original I had installed had separate parts for bl, ap, cp, csc.
Is this what it means to be soft-bricked?
What was the mistake that I made to result in a soft brick?
What can I do to have a functional phone again, either with stock firmware or anything at all?
Given that my knox is still 0x0, is it likely my warranty is void anyway, and can I repair this somehow?
Update: Got past setup and into homescreen. Usually crashes after about 10 minutes, but sometimes I can get up to a few hours. Doesn't detect the SIM card, and camera doesn't work. Any clue what might be going on?
I have a Note 3 SM-N9005. There was a polish release of 4.4.2 firmware which I installed in January using a guide on XDA.
Today I discovered that my carrier (Telstra, Australia) had released an official 4.4.2 firmware N9005XXUENE3, and thought I would flash it. The flash failed and I got the message "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue" in recovery. In a panic, I tried to return to the polish firmware. Having lost what I'd originally flashed, I tried N9005XXUENA6 from sammobile first. This got me to the setup screen, but the phone would crash on the first or second page of setup with "Unfortunately Samsung Setup Wizard has stopped". I then downloaded the N9005XXUENA6_N9005OXXENA5_N9005XXUENA2_OXX from the first link. This has the same result.
After each flash I did a factory reset and wiped the cache (not dalvik, because I'm not rooted). The stock firmware comes just in the form of a .tar.md5 as did the N9005XXUENA6 from sammobile, but the final polish firmware and the original I had installed had separate parts for bl, ap, cp, csc.
Is this what it means to be soft-bricked?
What was the mistake that I made to result in a soft brick?
What can I do to have a functional phone again, either with stock firmware or anything at all?
Given that my knox is still 0x0, is it likely my warranty is void anyway, and can I repair this somehow?
Update: Got past setup and into homescreen. Usually crashes after about 10 minutes, but sometimes I can get up to a few hours. Doesn't detect the SIM card, and camera doesn't work. Any clue what might be going on?
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