PLEASE HELP! HTC Droid Incredible stuck in reboot loop

Oct 25, 2014
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I have an HTC Droid Incredible.

Last night, 10/24/2014, I was walking with my phone in my pocket and out of nowhere it said "DROID!" as if it had rebooted on its own. Since then, it is constantly rebooting to the point where it says "DROID!" and the eyeball appears, and the two dots freeze on the right sized of the eyeball. It sits there for a while, then starts it all over. The only way to stop it is to remove the battery, but upon putting the battery back in (immediately or hours later) it still gets stuck in the loop.

I haven't done anything to the phone since getting it years ago, and all updates have been whatever HTC/Verizon have sent over the air. No rooting or any of that, just standard automatic updates.

From searching online, it sounds like a factory reset is about the only way to fix this, and that would be fine... except there are pictures stored on the phone memory that I'd really like to retrieve if that is at all possible, since a factory reset will delete everything.

So:
1. Is there a way to fix this without a factory reset?
2. If not... is there any way to get the phone booted up fully just once so I can rescue these pictures, before doing a factory reset?
3. If not... is there any other way to get the pictures off, before/after a factory reset?

Here's what the HBOOT screen says:
*** LOCKED ***
INCREDIBLEC XC SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-1.07.0000
MICROP-0417
TOUCH PANEL-ATMELC03_16ac
RADIO-2.15.10.12.20
Apr 24 2012,22:58:40

I'm not dumb, but talk to me like I'm dumb! If someone can provide clear, step-by-step instructions and any files needed to do this, I can follow them to the letter. Any help is greatly appreciated!
 

B. Diddy

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Welcome to Android Central! Try booting into Recovery Mode and wiping the cache partition, which won't erase any personal data. Follow the steps in this video, but instead of selecting Wipe Data/Factory Reset, make sure you select Wipe Cache Partition. When complete, then select Reboot System Now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgGdBN8GaI8
 
Oct 25, 2014
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Thanks for the reply! OK, wiped the cache from the recovery menu, and it said:
--Wiping cache...
Formatting /cache...
Cache wipe complete.

Then selected
"Reboot system now"

...and got to "DROID!" and the eyeball, and the red dots froze on the right side of the eyeball, then after a while rebooted :'(

Not sure if it matters, but on first powering up, the phone goes to the white screen with "HTC Incredible" in all black text, then to the white screen with the green HTC logo and black text saying "incredibly brilliant". But, every other cycle after that in the rebooting loop, it goes from the frozen eyeball straight to the white screen with green HTC logo and black "incredibly brilliant".

Does the fact that the cache wipe didn't work indicate anything or narrow the problem down at all? Is there a next step to try now?

Thanks again
 

B. Diddy

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I'm not sure if you'll be able to avoid a factory reset. The only other thing I can think of right now is powering the phone down and removing the SD card, in case it's corrupted somehow.
 
Oct 25, 2014
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SD card in or out, same thing happens.

I'm becoming resigned to ultimately have to do the factory reset. This thread gives hope for a post-reset picture salvage:
forums dot androidcentral dot com/verizon-droid-incredible/115556-file-recovery-bootloop-issue-solved dot html
(site won't let me post links yet)
It's a 3 year old thread, but it's still something to try.

Once it's factory reset time, is there anything more to it than selecting "Wipe data/factory reset" from Recovery Mode?

Lesson learned: set up to save important things to SD card.
 

B. Diddy

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Wipe Data/Factory Reset is the way to go in the Recovery Menu. Assuming you successfully reset the phone and start setting it up again, try not to let the device automatically reinstall your previous apps, in case something you installed caused this problem. I'm not sure if you'll be presented with any options to restore your previous apps--if you're not, then once the Setup Wizard is done, go immediately to the Play Store, select My Apps, and stop any updates or downloads that might have started.
 
Oct 25, 2014
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I just realized not all my contacts / phone numbers from my phone are showing up in my Gmail account online... is there somewhere else to look for those missing contacts?

Also, in my google searches I saw other people with this same reboot loop problem talking about trying to flash an update to their phone using HBOOT, and other posts about RUUs and things like that which would require a lot more research on my part. Is any of that even in the realm of possibility for my phone?
 

B. Diddy

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I don't have experience with rooting and flashing ROMs, so I can't help you there.

Do you know if all of the contacts on your phone are associated with your Google account? It's possible that some are associated with the Phone Account, which doesn't sync with Google.
 
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Did the factory reset, phone booted properly. Connected to computer as USB drive and tried to recover files with Photorec and Recuva, but no success. Anybody out there with any ideas or programs to try? The phone is sitting idle to avoid writing new data... even though it works now, I don't want to use it in case there's still a way to recover the old data. :(