How can I get my phone out of recovery mode after a failed Lollipop update?

Steven Hare

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Feb 10, 2015
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Lollipop Update gone wrong - phone stuck in recovery mode

My wife’s HTC One M8 somehow messed up during her attempt to update to Lollipop. I am hoping some knowledgeable soul(s) here can help me to restore her phone if I provide enough detail about what happened/current state. I am not a phone techie but am reasonably tech savvy – but I am not savvy with tools used to root/flash/S-On/etc with cell phones.

The sequence of events is as such. My wife bought her phone brand new in Budapest, Hungary while on her way to where we live now (New Caledonia, South Pacific). She had the phone unlocked there (at the store in Budapest) and it had worked splendidly here for six months. We never altered the phone in anyway – stock operating system, one or two minor OTA updates to get the phone to Android 4.4.2 and Sense to 5.0 or 6.0 (I think it was) but nothing like rooting or flashing another ROM. She was checking daily to see when Lollipop was available and, while I was away on duty travel unfortunately, it was suddenly there. She did the download, told the phone to go ahead and update and that was where things went completely south.

By the time she emailed me to tell me her phone no longer worked, she had tried several things such as Recovery and Factory reset, etc. If the phone is put into Recovery mode (from the Bootloader screen – the one with three android figures at the bottom) it just cycles non stop from the red triangle to white screens and back to the red triangle and the only thing you can do to then phone is press Volume up and Power button to get the “Android System Recovery” screen. I have tried to execute all five of commands on that screen – “apply from sd card”, “apply from phone storage” … “wipe cache partition” but the end result is always the same – just an endless red triangle to white screen non stop until the battery dies.
On the Android system Recovery screen, there is a consistent error message “Mount SDCARD failed 1 times” (and then … failed 2/3/4/5 times), followed by “Can not mount SD Card (No such file or directory). So, to recap, anything I try to do from the Bootloader screen leads to the Red Triangle/white screen cycling which can be interrupted ONLY by Volume Up/Power buttons (not by Volume Down/Power buttons) which gives the Android System Recovery screen and all of those options also lead to the Red Triangle/White screen loop. Also, and probably very importantly, it doesn’t seem that my computer can “see” the HTC when plugged in .. at least it doesn’t show up in the traditional way it used to when plugged in via USB cable.

The phone is six months old and under warranty but it was bought (brand new) from a dealer on the 0ther side of the globe from where I live. I’ve attached (or am attempting to attach) photos that show some of what I’ve described.

Any suggestions on something to try would be GREATLY appreciated.


HTC1.jpg
HTC2.jpg
 
Re: Lollipop Update gone wrong - phone stuck in recovery mode

Did you try to redownload the Rom from HTC support web site and flash it through the recovery
 
Re: Lollipop Update gone wrong - phone stuck in recovery mode

Welcome to Android Central.

The second picture with all the failed attempts should be normal if you don't have an external SD card in. Mine gave me that all the time.

When it is done scanning for the SD card, can you do anything in recovery then? Reset and power button to accept?
 
Re: Lollipop Update gone wrong - phone stuck in recovery mode

I downloaded the OTA update (500+ MB) and have that. But as I noted, I'm no cell phone techie so I don't get what "flash it through the recovery" means or how to do that. The computer does not see the phone, at least int he way it used to as a named device seen in Windows Explorer. I do get a brief message from Windows operating system that device is functioning properly (paraphrasing there).
 
Re: Lollipop Update gone wrong - phone stuck in recovery mode

Nothing works. I try "wipe data/factory reset" and the same cycle continues - the bright white screen flashes two or three times and then after a minute or two the red triangle shows up. about a minute or two later, it goes to the white screen/red triangle cycle again .. and can continue all night (as I've let it twice to run down the battery). I cannot power off the phone using the power button. I can only access Volume up+Power button to get back to the Android system Recovery Screen. the only way, in fact, I can even get to the Bootloader screen is when the battery has been completely drained and I then turn on the phone with volume Down+Power buttons.
 
Re: Lollipop Update gone wrong - phone stuck in recovery mode

I would call HTC support for this. You might have to reflash the ROM file, but because you got the device in one part of the world and use it in another, that may be part of the issue behind what is happening.
 
Re: Lollipop Update gone wrong - phone stuck in recovery mode

flash Rom mean install operating system
 
Re: Lollipop Update gone wrong - phone stuck in recovery mode

.. and this can be done from a PC via a USB connection? Not sure how I can tell if my PC "sees" my semi-comatose phone as there is no appearance of the phone in Windows Explorer. I've seen/read discussion about something abbreviated "ADB". Is that what I would use? Again, sorry to be asking such naive questions but this is not the simplest tech subject to suddenly confront for the first time.
 
Re: Lollipop Update gone wrong - phone stuck in recovery mode

Best way to do that is to get a micro sd card an load the software from your computer to the sd an put the Sd card in your phone and from recovery install the os ,I think you should do what golfdriver97 said call HTC support first they should be able to help
 

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