Question Maybe not Bricked ?

[eschank]

Hello Everyone,
I have a Yotaphone-2 which I liked a lot. I believe it runs Marschmallow.
I played about with it some years back ( tried to Root it ) and screwed things up, ( Yes, I need a smack on the back of the head for that ! ), now I'm trying to get it working again.

I first recharged it, then it displayed the Yota screensaver and the device got really hot, nothing worked, I could not even switch it off.
Then, For some reason, about 30mins later, the device cooled down and I got the back screen to work, showing date & time and also my last text messages from years back.
On the front screen I got a message,

"unfortunately com.android.systemui has stopped working" OK

So I hit OK, and it removes that small message. The screen is blank but shows ( along the bottom, ) a return arrow, an up arrow and the Apps icon.
When I hold the Apps icon I get into a screen which allows me to get into App Settings, and I can see all my Apps: Downloaded, Running, All and Disabled.
I can view the info on all these apps, but I cannot get to interact with any of them. I cannot launch any Apps.

Also using the USB port, I connected to my PC, and I got into the phone's file system and found many of my old photos.
That's all that I can do with it.

Does anybody know if this is a permanent state, or can something be done to retrieve functionality ( without wiping any data I may still have on it.)
Any help, advice of thoughts will be welcomed.
Thanks.

 

[belodion]

Welcome.

Are you able to boot into Recovery? If so, a Cache Partition wipe may help. I doubt that it will in fact, but you may as well try.

Tell us what happens.

 

[eschank]

Hello Belodion and Thank You. I can get into the Settings and I see a Clear Cache, and factory reset buttons, but I am reluctant to lose my data.Can I maybe connect to my PC and store my data there first before I hit Reset?

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. Rooting usually involves adding a file that alters the OS in some way. You would need to find the stock firmware in order to remove root access.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Hello Everyone,
I have a Yotaphone-2 which I liked a lot. I believe it runs Marschmallow.
I played about with it some years back ( tried to Root it ) and screwed things up, ( Yes, I need a smack on the back of the head for that ! ), now I'm trying to get it working again.

I first recharged it, then it displayed the Yota screensaver and the device got really hot, nothing worked, I could not even switch it off.
Then, For some reason, about 30mins later, the device cooled down and I got the back screen to work, showing date & time and also my last text messages from years back.
On the front screen I got a message,

"unfortunately com.android.systemui has stopped working" OK

So I hit OK, and it removes that small message. The screen is blank but shows ( along the bottom, ) a return arrow, an up arrow and the Apps icon.
When I hold the Apps icon I get into a screen which allows me to get into App Settings, and I can see all my Apps: Downloaded, Running, All and Disabled.
I can view the info on all these apps, but I cannot get to interact with any of them. I cannot launch any Apps.

Also using the USB port, I connected to my PC, and I got into the phone's file system and found many of my old photos.
That's all that I can do with it.

Does anybody know if this is a permanent state, or can something be done to retrieve functionality ( without wiping any data I may still have on it.)
Any help, advice of thoughts will be welcomed.
Thanks.

Your best bet provided you didn't change the bootloader to TWRP and is the stock one is to take the opportunity infact wipe it. The fact that it booted 30 mins later/at all is peculiar in the first place.

Since you don't recall exactly what you did, there's no way to know exactly how to, if it even can be, undone. you'll save yourself a headache down the line.

 

[eschank]

Thanks Golfdriver97,

I am looking at an old Youtube video about upgrading the Firmware of my device, would that be the "Stock" firmware that you refer to or is Stock Firmware something else.
Also, as I cannot access the Internet from my phone, ( although it is connected to my Wifi ), I would need to do the download onto my PC. If I do that how would I get the file from my PC onto my phone.
I don't have a GUI to interact with.
I can access my phones Filesystem from my PC using a USB link, would that do it ?

 

[eschank]

Thanks SyCoReaper,
yes it was a few years ago but I do not recall ever changing the Bootloader to TWRP, as I do not even know what that is. I've got some experience with Linux on the PC, but none with Android.
I am and always have been "Anti-Google", so my plan back then was to change my home screen and ditch any reference Google, or at least confine it to the background. That was the only reason.
As I can boot into Safe mode, is there any way of getting an App to run at all from there ?
or can I get back to my Home Screen ?
Any thoughts ?

 

[eschank]

Update:

After re-starting, I managed to get Firefoxup and running,( using the google Icon on the back )
I also got another App started because these was a notification linked to it.
But I still don't have a home screen.

 

[eschank]

Latest Update:
I have a screen telling me:
Kingo
Superuser
Have Root!
Your phone has root, you can manage the rights.

Ok, so I have Root, but what can I do with it.? I don't have a home screen and I don't have an App launcher.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Latest Update:
I have a screen telling me:
Kingo
Superuser
Have Root!
Your phone has root, you can manage the rights.

Ok, so I have Root, but what can I do with it.? I don't have a home screen and I don't have an App launcher.

If you need a GUI, by extension launcher to recover files, you can use ADB to push something like Nova or a FOSS launcher of your choice. After that I would backup everything you want.

Start fresh. Do a factory reset. Get back into a fresh install. From there, see if there is a bootloader unlock available and install TWRP, find a ROM, root.

TWRP is your safteynet if something goes wrong. As long as you don't overwrite the recovery in the future you can butcher the OS as much as you want and always have TWRP to boot into to start fresh.

If you're not going to reroot, settle with a full reset, do not restore any backups associated with the device.