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Android restore... Urgh..

7up
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Android restore... Urgh..

Hi all!

 

Since havnig had issues with the bundled ebay and skype apps on my phone I've been coping but today was the final straw with skype. The damned phone was going to get ROOTED!

So.. tried kingroot, failure, kingoroot, another failure... then i became suspicious.. and went into the settings =>Apps and notice rather a lot of suspicious stuff i'd never seen there before - ygps, MTKLogger, LocationEM2, several suspicious looking so-called android apps.. many of which had full permissions to everything - which is something that both rooters wanted. Additionally when i stopped / disabled some of then, another suspicious app that i'd never seen would appear - such as MusicFX - which isn't an app that a user can run from the normal app selection screen via the round dot at the bottom of the screen.

 

So, already suffering from a slow phone (limited ram, too many running processes) i figured i'd backup and restore the device. This is where it becomes a tad problematic. I've done the restore to factory thing.. but it doesn't actually reformat and reinstall, it just deletes the users stuff. Those apps that mysteriously turned up are still there and just like the PITA bundled apps, i can't seem to get shot of them. Worse, when turning on permission management, the normal user apps show up but the suspects don't - presumably meaning they're bypassng the permissions control?Huh

I was under the impression that android phones kept a copy of the OS rom so that they can completely reinstalled like windows - How do I do that?

Ta

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14 REPLIES 14
Darkfire
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

Which phone do you have?

 

there are a few methods to do a complete wipe and if you want to you could manually root and install a custom recovery at the same time or at a later time using the same methods.

 

First thing you need to do is boot into the phones built in recovery mode, usually a combination of power, volume up and a home/context key if you have one(I can be more precise if you can let me know the model) from there you can use the volume keys to go up and down and power to select the option to factory restore, this will do a full system wipe.

The good thing about android is you can destroy the entire OS, there's almost always a way to restore the OS back to the device if needs be Smiley

Alex
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

I don't know about Android being an iPhone user, but there must be something similar to your model.

I know I am probably talking the obvious but get all your personal data off and backed up first - that is a priority.

On an iPhone you can do a soft reset, which can help (doesn't wipe anything) - cetrain key combination I can't remember.

The other is DFU mode (Device Firmware Upgrade) a different key combination which means you have to reflash the phone and you will lose everything on there, so why I am saying to backup or it may be stored on the Cloud (as Apple call it).

I've done both in the past, and I'd imagine there is something similar to your phone.

7up
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

My replies in blue @Darkfire


@Darkfire wrote:

Which phone do you have?

 Medion E5004 running 5.1 Lollipop - made by Lenovo - basically a cheaper generic android phone

there are a few methods to do a complete wipe and if you want to you could manually root and install a custom recovery at the same time or at a later time using the same methods.

 Given that trying to root has caused me major hassle so far i'm thinking i might skip that! But if you think you can identify a safe way to do it i'm listening..

First thing you need to do is boot into the phones built in recovery mode, usually a combination of power, volume up and a home/context key if you have one(I can be more precise if you can let me know the model) from there you can use the volume keys to go up and down and power to select the option to factory restore, this will do a full system wipe.

I found that option but again it is simply saying the same as the android settings - erase data and reset. It doesn't seem to offer the option to perform a full reinstall like you'd be able to with a windows recovery program.

The good thing about android is you can destroy the entire OS, there's almost always a way to restore the OS back to the device if needs be Smiley


The options I get on recovery screen are:

  • reboot system now
  • apply update from ADB
  • apply update from sdcard
  • apply update from cache
  • wipe date/factory reset   - done from android settings previously - dodgy apps still present
  • wipe cache partition
  • backup user data  - already done
  • restore user data
  • root integrity check
  • reboot to bootloader
  • power down
  • view recovery logs

As it's a rare model of phone i find myself thinking that i'd be stuck even if i completely wiped the factory supplied rom and went for a default android one..

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billnotben
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

I may be wrong but when you choose wipe data/factory reset in the recovery menu it's a full on factory reset and different from the reset performed via the normal operating system.

The recovery reset is often used to bypass certain o/s restrictions so there must be a difference.

Darkfire
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

@billnotben is correct Smiley 

 

It should perform a full system wipe through recovery rather than an OS level wipe as the recovery is launched from a different partition it can do more to the OS install

 

the other options such as applying updates via adb are how you'd install a custom recovery and SU/SuperSU for root too Smiley 

7up
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

Ok thanks lads i'll give that a try then. I was skeptcal as previously it rebooted to perform the wipe in low level mode hence i thought the same thing but i'll give it a try and see what happens.

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7up
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

Nope, that didn't work - the erase data / factory reset thing.

All that happened was it wiped 3 directories in about 3-4 seconds and then rebooted back to the same android install with the same dodgy apps still there. So it seems that like a windows repair disk, this version of android has no real default image but only a reset method - and if you've picked up nasties along the way, tough seems to be googles attitude.

 

Anymore ideas please?

Ta

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VileReynard
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

Whilst I know nothing about mobiles (don't use one),

If the USB cable is plugged into a PC, you can see the files on the mobile as if it is an external drive.

This worked for me to access copy & delete some images - maybe you can delete a few programs?

Of course this is probably not news to any mobile experts out there... Cheesy

Note:- it was a Linux PC. Thumbs_Up

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7up
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

Afraid not! It doesn't let you see the core files of the OS, just what the limited user account can see.

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Alex
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

Sorry @7up if you've already tried this. I know I am probably repeating myself.

Like an iPhone doesn't it have the equivalent of a DFU mode where it wipes the entire phone - and yes:

  • It will delete all your data that is important to you, so have it backed up.
  • The phone will be unusable until you plug it into a computer and get it reflashed.

Then it should be back to basically factory condition with all the nasties gone?

Or maybe Android doesn't work like that - I would have thought so though.

7up
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

@Alex if i knew that then i wouldn't be here! 

 

I'd be quite happy to completely wipe it of all the gremlins.. but i'd still need to know how and what android rom would work on it afterwards with minimal fuss - i suspect the onboard devices like cameras, microphone, speaker, sim slots, 4G, wifi etc will all need drivers reinstalled.. On an obscure phone with almost no support, i can't see that being easy.

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RPMozley
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

The apps you mentioned are quite common android system ones (common to "non-premium" branded devices). It's not possible to remove them unless you write over with a different ROM image but it's tricky and may end up "bricking" your device.
I don't think they are actually dodgy though, might be barking up the wrong tree there.
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idonno
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

Probably too late but have you tried 'wipe cache partition'. Solved some problems on my Moto 3Gen last year.

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7up
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Re: Android restore... Urgh..

No need as I reset the phone which does that as part of the process.

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