(IJCH) After one week, I unbricked & restored my girlfriend's smartphone! (or How I learned how to hack into Android phones)
(IJCH) After one week, I unbricked & restored my girlfriend's smartphone! (or How I learned how to hack into Android phones)
From the Author:
Salutations.
I am JaiChai.
And if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance now.
I invite you to interact with everyone, learn, and have as much fun as possible!
For my returning online friends, "It's always great to see you again!"
Background:
It had to happen sooner or later.
With the way my girlfriend is chronically "click-happy", installs incompatible/shady sourced programs (of which, I eventually have to uninstall later), and downloads various "flavors" of videos, her smartphone $hit the bed.
It finally got bricked.
And it was ugly.
The thing wouldn't even reach the phone's logo upon bootup. It would just turn off.
It was after 10pm, so I told her to leave it alone and I would look at it in the morning.
Of course, she didn't.
While I was asleep, she kept trying to make it work by powering it on and off for God knows how long.
It finally must've went into an endless boot-loop until the battery was drained.
The next morning, the phone's battery was so low that the red charging light wasn't being displayed when I plugged the charger into the wall socket.
After an hour of hoping the thing was charging, I unplugged the mini-USB cable, waited for a couple minutes, reconnected it, and pressed the power on key.
The dreaded "Kernel Panic Upload Mode" screen came on - and stayed on.
Seven Days of Hair-Pulling Frustration!
I had never attempted to unbrick an Android smartphone before, so I scoured the internet, viewed dozens of YouTube videos and read as much as I could about it.
Nevertheless, it took one week to successfully unbrick and restore her phone to its original factory settings.
Additionally, I even upgraded her Android version 8 (Oreo) to version 9 (Pie).
Here's a short list of what I had to learn in the process:
How to install and use Heimdall (a tool for flashing ROMs) in Linux that after 3 days, still could not flash to my girlfriend's phone.
How to download a Windows iso using Linux. Why? Because the only other flashing tool was called "Odin" and only ran on Windows and Mac Operating Systems.
How to make a bootable Windows flash drive with a Linux package called WoeUSB.
How to install a dual boot (Windows/Linus) OS configuration.
All about mobile phone .tar. and .mdb files (Pit, BL, AP, CSC, HOME-CSC)
Understanding .mdb coes: country, bulid no., android version no. for resetting the Android OS.
How to unbrick a phone via OTG.
How to install FRP (Factory Rest Protection) release files via Odin (tool for flashing ROMs in Windows).
How to install and use ADB Tools for both Linux and Windows.
How to install and use MTP protocols for Linux and Windows.
How to unlock OEM, setup phone USB debugging, and Google account bypass with an FRP release file.
How to install Android version 9 (Pie) firmware.
The Biggest Time Eaters
Surprisingly, most of the time was NOT spent on learning all the foreign protocols, complex ROM flashing setup/procedures, and the new software packages (Heimdall and Odin).
The overwhelming time eaters were searching the internet and downloading the specific files that were compatible with the particular smartphone device, vendor brand, country and Android version, testing them, and if no success, rinsing and repeating the whole process!
In the end, through sheer stubbornness (and lack of sleep), I finally unbricked my girlfriend's phone. (Yeah!)
BUT...
To be honest, after 3 days of listening to my girlfriends whining and knowing that I may never be able to fix her phone, I caved in (capitulated) and bought her a new one!
(Heavy Sigh)
Oh well, on the bright side is that I know how to hack into almost any Android smartphone now - as a White Hat Hacker, of course.
Besides, the unbricked phone works perfectly and can serve as a great backup for whenever her or my own phone $hits the bed - again!
May you and yours be well and love life today.
Namaste, JaiChai
Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.
In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he performed high altitude, free-fall parachute jumps and hazardous diving ops in deep, open ocean water.
After 24 years of active duty, he retired in Asia.
Since then, he's been a full-time, single papa and actively pursuing his varied passions (Writing, Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency - plus more hobbies too boring or bizarre for most folk).
He lives on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, longtime girlfriend and three dogs.
"Power House Creatives - Superlative Member Support and the Supreme Welcome Party for all new Steemians!" - JaiChai
(More articles by JaiChai can be found on the Busy.org website. Use this link to visit Busy.org. Better yet, come join the Busy.org community!)
haha I love that most of your time seemed like it was getting a dual boot windows install on linux. I usually keep around an old windows 7 on a flashdrive for cases like these :) . This brought back fond memories of playing with the old iphones... lots and lots of bricked iphones...
I've never used android but I thought that you still had to 'root' the phone in order to have a catastrophic failure... kinda scary actually! Who knows what got in...
Crazy that you can learn those things on the internet and almost succeed :)
Thanks for sharing the steps my friend. good informative post..
Would love to learn how to hack
Posted using Partiko Android
Lovely one there, thanks for sharing.
Very interesting information. I have a phone that works, it's not bricked but it has a stupid Chinese ROM that just gets on my nerves. Maybe I should use something like that to re-install a fresh Android.
I warn you. If you have any OCD tendencies (like me), it will eat up A LOT of your time. And the result is never guaranteed!
Namaste, JaiChai
I see... Why do the Chinese have to mess up with the ROMs? Grrrrrrr. 😠
Well done for your perseverance JC, very impressive learning new skills by teaching yourself via Youtube etc online. We are so lucky nowadays to have access to all this info. Girlfriend should be proud of you.
That feeling that wouldn't want to give up. Unless you succeed in what you are trying to accomplish. Good job on unbricking the phone. Now she has two phones lol. A happy girlfriend makes a happy man.
Actually, I didn't tell her that I fixed it.
Predictably, she's never asked for, or mentioned anything about the old phone since I bought her the new one.
Additionally, she rarely (if ever) reads my posts, so I doubt she'll ever find out...
Namaste, JaiChai