Recover a bricked or un-bootable android device

How to recover a bricked or un-bootable android device

If you have rooted your Android phone, or are looking to do so, you may have heard of what happens when things go wrong. Your Android device could become bricked, making it essentially useless unless you can undo the damage. An Android device is bricked when the Android Operating System becomes damaged. This can occur in a number of ways, including through accidental corruption, installing certain apps or as a result of a faulty Android device.

Sometimes, its important to consider whether or not you have caused any physical damage to the device. If you have recently dropped your phone or exposed it to water, there is a chance that the hardware in the device is no longer functioning correctly. If this is the case, your best bet is probably to get a new phone, or to take your phone into your nearest repair shop to see what they can do.

If you are adamant there is no hardware damage, there are other steps that can be taken to work towards un-bricking your Android device. These steps include a basic reset, using an Android un-bricking app, fixing boot loop issues by formatting cache partitions, stopping your device from booting in recovery mode and using Odin to un-brick your device.

Try to reset:
This is the most basic of options for recovery. Depending on your device, you can initiate a hard reset by holding down the lock button and volume down button for 30 seconds. If this combination does not work, you could also try the home button and volume down button, or other variations like the Home button and volume up button. Different devices have different hard reset button combinations, but most will reset by holding the lock button and the volume down button. If your device does not restart, its time to try something else.

Try an Android Un-bricking App
There is actually an application called OneClick Unbrick that may help you un-brick your device, depending on the cause of bricking. This app will work on all Samsung devices that use Odin3. The app is portable and works on both Windows and Mac. This open source application is programmed in Java. It deploys and installs Heimdall for your OS and is rather easy to use. Available here: http://adf.ly/pyHSi

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Boot Loop Issue Fix
A boot loop issue usually arises when a ROM is installed on an Android device without deleting previous ROM files on the device. If your Android device is suffering from a boot loop problem, you might have to format the cache partition of your device. This can be done in recovery mode.

Turn off your device.
Boot your device into recovery mode. Generally, this requires holding down the volume down button and then pressing the power button.
Once in recovery mode, use the volume buttons to navigate through the menus. The power button can be used to select. Scroll to the Advanced menu, choose it.
Select the ‘Wipe Dalvik Cache’ option.
Go back to the main screen.
Select the ‘Wipe Cache Partition’ option.
Select the ‘Wipe Data/Factory Reset’ option. Please note, this will delete all apps and settings.
Restart the device and hope its fixed.

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The above steps may also help for those who encounter freezing when trying to boot.

Stop From Booting Into Recovery Mode
Sometimes, Android devices go straight into recovery mode. This is pretty unhelpful if you want to actually use your device. You can try the following fix:
Copy your chosen ROM onto a FAT32 memory card and insert it into the device.
Boot into recovery mode.
Enter ‘Mounts and Storage’.
Select the ZIP file of the ROM.
Choose the ‘Install’ option and select ‘Yes’.
If this method does not work, it might be best to unroot your device and install the original ROM or a different compatible ROM.

Use Odin to flash bricked devices:
You can use Odin to flash your devices that have been bricked. The first thing you will need is the stock firmware for your device. Make sure you have the right firmware. Then follow this video guide:

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dAjBGWdoobU[/video]

If your Android device is still bricked after trying these different methods, it might be possible that there is some hardware damage. As previously mentioned, in this case your best bet would be to purchase a new device or take yours in for repair. Don’t forget to check your warranty if you have not voided it.

What other methods has everyone come across for un-bricking their devices?