Tutorial: Recover a Soft-Bricked Android

Flashing a custom ROM on your Android is risky. You never know what will go wrong even if you skip one simple step while flashing. But this won’t stop us from flashing, tweaking and exploring the deepest corner of our beloved android.

You will always be warned by the developer of any mods or ROMs about the possible risk of flashing. He’ll post a precaution or warning section and instructions on his ROM’s thread on the forum. This warning and instruction should always be read thoroughly every time you are about to flash your device. If you don’t follow the instructions properly, you may brick your device. When your device gets “bricked”, you’ll be unable to use it. There are several types or “brick” but here we’re going to talk about “Soft-Brick” and learn how to recover from it.

So what is “soft-brick”? It is the situation when your phone is unable to start because of software corruption. This usually occurs after flashing incompatible ROM and/or not following the instructions properly. Your device is soft-bricked if it is:

• Stuck on vendor logo.
• Stuck on boot animation
• Boot looping
• Not charging, etc.

There are many methods for repairing a soft bricked device but not all methods works for every device. There one common solution that works on most of the device. It is called “Fastboot”. In this tutorial, we’re going to focus on “Fastboot” and learn how to repair a soft-bricked device using Fastboot. Follow the points below.

1. Download the SDK:
The SDK provides developer tools necessary for building, testing and debugging apps on android. You can get it from http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html. Download the latest version for your platform i.e. Windows, Mac or Linux. We don’t need to install the SDK for this tutorial as we are only going to use one of its tools.

2. Boot device to Fastboot:
Now you have to boot tour device into Fastboot. This can be done by using various key combination which will vary from device to device. For example, in Sony Xperia P you can boot into Fastboot by pressing volume up button and connecting it to the computer.

3. Locate Fastboot folder:
Extract the zip you’ve downloaded. We’ll only need the Fastboot tool from the SDK folder which is located in the “platformtools” subfolder of the SDK.

4. Check your commands:
Double clicking on the Fastboot icon on the platform-tools will also give you the various commands you can use. After you’re more experienced, you’ll be able to use multiple commands at the same time.

5. Change Directory:
Now change the directory on CMD or similar to that of the platform-tools folder. To do this you need to type “cd” followed by the full path to the platform-tools folder. For example “cd /Users/name/Desktop/ android-sdk-mac_x86/platform-tools”.

6. Check Fastboot mode:
Connect your device in Fastboot mode using proper key combinations. Check that the device is recognized by typing “fastboot devices” in the command line. All commands on Mac and Linux should be followed by a “/”, for example “/fastboot”. Your serial should be listed if you’re connected.

7. Wipe (optional)
In some cases. Wiping the device will repair you soft-bricked device if it was caused by conflicting data and files. To do this type “fastboot –w” in the command line and your device will be cleared.

8. Flash a Recovery:
Download a new custom Recovery for you device. You can go to www.clockworkmode.com ad search a compatible recovery for your device. Then place it in platform-tools folder for easy access. To flash a custom recovery, you need to type “fastboot flash recovery (recoveryimagename.img)”. Do not disconnect the device while ti is in progress.

9. Flash a ROM:
After you’ve flashed a custom recovery, you can now use it to flash a custom rom. To do so you can download compatible ROM and place it in your phone and select “install zip” or similar from the recovery and select you downloaded ROM to install. Alternatively, you can also flash a ROM using Fastboot. To start flashing, type “fastboot update (rom.zip)”. This will take some minutes to complete.

10. Reboot:
You device may reboot after the flashing procedure is completed. If not, reboot it manually by using Fastboot. Type “fastboot reboot” and the device will restart. Rebooting for the first time after flashing an new ROM takes a longer time than usual reboots so be patient.
This is the end of this tutorial. This is how you repair your soft-bricked device.