What is Bootloop, Soft Brick, and Hard Brick on Your Android Device and How to Solve It

"Hey do your phone never got bootloop? Then you are not blessed one yet" :D . That's the word i hear often in the facebook group (in Indonesia) where the Android entusiast gathered. It means, bootloop is not something like you are going to die, but it's something you must face everyday if you declare yourself as an Android modder or entusiast. Bootloop on my Android phone is just like breathing in my life :D .

Actually, bootloop is just the most easy situation to handle on your Android device if you make a fail modification or hack on it. There are his big brother which worse called "soft brick" and "hard brick". And this is the difference between them:

Bootloop on Android

(source: forum.xda-developers.com)

The name said it all, a looping on booting process. Bootloop is happen if you make a fail modification or hack to your Android device, and after you restart your Android device it is just give you a boot animation on the screen forever.

You know boot animation right? Boot animation is like the gif image you see when you waiting for your Android device to live and enter homescreen. Example boot animation on Samsung Android device is the Samsung logo with white dot splash animation. Boot animation on CyanogenMod ROM is Cyanogen alien face with animation of white circle around it.

The boot animation process is usually take 1 to 5 minutes. But in bootloop state, it will take forever. Even if you waiting 1 hour, 3 hour, your device won't start.

Usually if you make a modification by flashing a zip file through recovery and the result is gave you a bootloop, it can be fixed by also flashing the uninstaller zip file provided by the mod author's to remove the modification from the device system. Example from the Xposed installation on Android Lollipop and up, it require us to install a zip file through the recovery and if the result is gave us a bootloop, to fix it just simply flash the uninstaller zip file which the developer provided

To fix bootloop is just simply restore from your Android device nandroid backup or flashing some uninstaller zip file where the mod authors provided.

Soft Brick on Android

(source: forum.xda-developers.com)

Softbrick on Android is a state where the device even not enter boot animation. The device just pass untill boot logo and then it will like that forever.

Different with boot animation, bootlogo is the static image of the Android device manufacturer logo and usually followed by text at the bottom "Powered by Android". Bootlogo is the first state ever your device will shown on the screen in the booting process. It give you sign that the device is still fixable by yourself if you make a fail modification. The ordered process of device booting is: Boot logo -> Boot animation -> Device live and enter homescreen.

To fix soft brick on your Android device is just simply restore from your nandroid backup. If that's not helped, you need to reinstall the firmware of your Android device with the stock firmware.

Hard Brick on Android

Hard Brick is the worst situation ever happen to your Android device if you make a fail modification / hack where the device is totally dead. It even not showing you the boot logo, the screen is just totally black.

Well, if your Android device got a hard brick don't desperate first. Try to restore from the nandroid backup, and if that not helped try to reinstall the firmware, and if that's not helped too maybe you should take your Android device to the service center or the repairman :D

Best practice when make a modification on an Android device to prepare the possibilities of bootloop, soft brick, or hard brick

If you are going to make modification on your Android device moreover it is a big modification like installing a custom ROM, it is very recommended to make a nandroid backup first.

Nandroid backup is like a snapshot of your Android device which containing whole device content, system, and even installed applications. The nandroid backup is made using custom recovery like CWM, TWRP, etc. So, if something wrong happen to your Android device after did some modification, simply just restore it back from the Nandroid backup you made. Nandroid backup is already save my Android smartphone from bad situations many times i couldn't remember.

What is Stock - Custom - ROM on Android

ROM stands for Read Only Memory. ROM is basically part of device storage where the content is cannot easily to be changed, that's why it's called "Read Only". It need some hacking jobs to change a ROM of Android device. And it is because changing ROM is a hacking jobs, it is also be "illegal" in some way to change the ROM of Android device to the device manufacturer. But it's not illegal like you will be jailed, cause me myself have done it many times (lol :D ), it is just like the device manufacturer will say "Hey i build that phone, you have no permission to modify it" and something "Owh, you modify the system of my phone. Allright, just don't blame me if something happen to your device" :D .

Change the ROM in Android device refers to change or modify the system like the display, system contents, or even upgrade / downgrade the Operating System versions. Only with change the ROM by installing custom ROM is the only way i can feel and use Android 6.0 Marshmallow on my Samsung Galaxy V which originally released as Android 4.4 Kitkat.

Stock ROM on Android

Like it's called "Stock" ROM is the original ROM released with the device from the manufacturer. Example the stock ROM Android device on Samsung is Touchwiz, on Xiaomi is MIUI, on Sony is Sense, etc.

I basically do not like stock ROM especially on my Samsung Galaxy V cause there is so much unnecessary bloatware and it just overload the system and eat storage space and RAM. Example on my Samsung Galaxy V stock ROM, there is Google Plus app (who need Google Plus if there is something called Facebook, oops... :D ) and Line app which i think it's just "brotherhood app" (because both Line and Samsung was born at South Korea :D ).

Advantages of using stock ROM:

• More stable
• Easy to use
• Get support service from device manufacturer

Custom ROM on Android

Custom ROM is a ROM created by third party. Let's just say it is developed outside the legal device manufacturer. Example the most popular custom ROM on Android is CyanogenMod, AOKP, etc. One thing you must remember for custom ROM development on Android, it maybe started by one man, but it involved huge number of people contribute to the development. That's why i think Android community is so cool :D .

Because Android itself is an Open Source project, so everyone can modify, tweak, and release his own creation of Android freely to the public. And for the reason, Android now become the most popular mobile Operating System in the world and beat the other predecessors like Symbian, Blackberry, and even iOS.

The advantages of custom ROM of course it will be more suitable to the user needs. Because custom ROM is developed by a group of people, where they get suggestions and requests directly from the Android users of how and like what the ROM should be developed.

Advantages of using custom ROM:

• Display and UI is more attractive
• The features is more suitable to the user
• Many choices from different developers
• Performance increasement
• Can upgrade the Android version

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Although it's more interesting to change your Android device ROM into a custom ROM, remember that installing a custom ROM will make your warranty of your device void. Installing and using a custom ROM is also need some knowledge to do it. Read, learn, and gather informations before you decide to install a custom ROM on your Android device because if you make a mistake, your device could be not booting anymore or even it will become totally dead.

What is Init.d and How to Enable It on Your Android Device

Universal Init.d is an application to make init.d feature on Android to running some script, and then it can execute the script automatically every time we boot / restart our Android device. In other words, it can help us applying init.d script without need to be manual executed by the us everytime we boot / restart the device.

What is init.d script on Android and how should i care about it?

Init.d Script is like a bunch of text containing command for the Android system to be executed. There are many benefits using init.d script, depend on the init.d script itself of course. But mainly, user placing init.d script on their Android device to get better performance from the device like reduce lag, help RAM performance, better graphic and sound, and other many of positive purposes.

The main advantage of using Init.d script of course is to tweak the Android system without need any additional application as the command is send directly to the system.

Universal init.d application can be used on every Android device running any kernel, need rooted device though. After we activate the Universal Init.d, we can place the init.d script we want to execute every boot on directory /system/etc/init.d/.

The best place to find Init.d scripts is on XDA forums. You can search init.d script that shared and created by the members which suits your need to tweak your Android device there.

Why Init.d is not activated on my Android device (the init.d script is not running / affect) after enabled the Universal Init.d?

Remember Universal Init.d is need root permission to execute the script everytime you boot the device.

If it is the first time you open / install the Universal Init.d app, make sure the switch is in "on". Then you will see two come-from-nowhere init.d script. Tap the one named "00banner", then tap the three dot icon on top and tap "Execute", now Universal Init.d will asking root permission and be sure to give it. Now then the root permission is gained, you can start placing the script on /system/etc/init.d/, and it will executed automatically everytime you boot your Android device (there will be delay 1 - 2 minutes after booting complete for the init.d script to be executed).

Best practice when applying / adding init.d scripts on your Android device

If you start using an init.d script and later you find it very usefull on your Android device, i'm sure you will also start to seek for more better scripts you think will greater than your old installed one. But one behaviour on init.d script if you use more than one script at a time, is they may will get conflict each other if the script command is same.

Say you installed two init.d script. Script A is for increasing RAM performance, and Script B is tweaking whole system and RAM performance is also one of the function. You be better remove the script A first, before placing the script B. Because there are same function that will run same command on both two script that is RAM performance tweak, it will get conflict each other and who know which one will affect the RAM performance on the system it is script A or script B.

So, best practice on using / applying init.d script on your Android device is use single script. By use only one init.d script, it will avoid scripts conflict each other and you can compare the script effectiveness from one script to another.

Universal Init.d APK Android application download link

-> UNIVERSAL INIT.D.apk (855 kB)

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This Android application is available on the Play Store. Rate it and give it nice comment if you find it usefull.

What is ODEX, deODEX, and The Benefits on Android

For us who like to modding our Android device must be often hear about "ODEX" and "deODEXed". So what is that things? And why there must be two DEX type? Actually this is myself question :v .

Quoted from stackoverflow.com:

Applications are basically glorified ZIP archives. The java code is stored in a file called classes.dex and this file is parsed by the Dalvik JVM and a cache of the processed classes.dex file is stored in the phone's Dalvik cache.

An odex is basically a pre-processed version of an application's classes.dex that is execution-ready for Dalvik. When an application is odexed, the classes.dex is removed from the APK archive and it does not write anything to the Dalvik cache. An application that is not odexed ends up with 2 copies of the classes.dex file - the packaged one in the APK, and the processed one in the Dalvik cache. It also takes a little longer to launch the first time since Dalvik has to extract and process the classes.dex file.

If you are building or choosing a custom ROM, it's a really good idea to odex both your framework JAR files and the stock apps in order to maximize the internal storage space for user-installed apps. If you want to theming it, then simply deodex -> apply your theme -> reodex -> release.

DEX stands for "Dalvik EXecutable", so ODEX will be " Optimized Dalvik EXecutable". As it says, ODEX is an optimized one from the app apk dex file so the system will more easier and faster to read and execute the application information.

The way to know which one our ROM classified to is pretty simple, just use an application that can explore the root directory (like ES File Explorer or Root explorer), and go to directory /system/app. If we found inside the directory two same application name with different extension (example: gmail.apk and gmail.odex) so our Android ROM is on ODEX. If not found any odex file inside the directory, then our ROM must be deODEXed.

ODEX on Android

ODEX ROM oftenly we will find it on stock ROM, the default ROM that created by device manufacturer. ODEX ROM will save more phone storage (internal memory) because the system apk app DEX (ODEX) files will moved to /system

ODEX ROM has advantages:
- More safe and stable, because not easy to be changed / modified
- More free space on internal memory

deODEXed on Android

Different with another one, deODEXed ROM will oftenly be found on stock ROM (3rd party created ROM). Say for ROMs for my Samsung Galaxy V, the developers of the custom ROMs make its all deODEXed (except CM11). It will use more space on internal memory, but saves more on system storage.

deODEXed ROM has advantages:
- Easier to mod / theming it (it's good for you who like to change the theme like icon, systemUI, colors, etc)
- More free space on /system directory.

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How about speed and RAM problem

From what i read, many says that ODEX ROM is faster than deODEXed, moreover from booting time. But from what i feel in my Samsung Galaxy V Android, the two is just the same. It is true need a longer booting time in a deODEXed ROM, but it just happen one time when the ROM is first booting (just after i install the deODEXed custom ROM)

If see from RAM problem, yes i feel the ODEX ROM has more empty RAM space. But the different is not very great, maybe the RAM is just 10% more empty from deODEXed one. Because the RAM or speed is basically up to the user how he treat his Android device and the size of application that installed on the device.

What is Stock, Custom, Recovery Mode in Android and The Function

Just like it's named, recovery mode take an act to recover your Android device. In simple way for me, recovery mode is like some "first aid" when something happen to your device. Recovery mode is one of feature in Android smartphones that serves to fix, add, replace, remove (delete), the contents of our Android device or even to upgrade the Android version. Maybe we often hear recovery mode is needed when are to install custom ROM, systemUI mod, or adding tweaks (script to boost performance) to our device.

To put our Android device into recovery mode, turn off the device, and then press the following button: Volume Up + Home + Power, simultaneously and hold its for 5 second. When you are in recovery mode, use the Volume Up and Volume Down button as navigation and Power button as confirmation (in CWM recovery the confirmation button is changed to Home button).

Stock recovery in android

Stock recovery is the default recovery of Android smartphones from the device manufacturer. Features in stock recovery is soooo... limited. And sometimes (many times) if we do an "install from zip" will become failed because "file header verification failed", that is because the device manufacturer is some kind like "protect" the system from being modified. Even on some Android smartphone brand does not have default recovery mode installed. So for the reason, installing a custom recovery is something we can not avoid IF we want to change the system of our Android device effectively

(Stock recovery mode on samsung)

Custom recovery CWM and TWRP

As it says "Custom", not original, it is a recovery mode that is made by 3rd party. In Custom recovery is added some features that does not exist in stock recovery like backup, touchscreen support, file manager, etc. There is two most popular custom recovery used by Android device user, that is CMW (ClockWorkMod) and TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project), although there's another custom recovery like Philz Recovery. Most important thing in custom recovery is ability to disable the "signature file verification", so we can install or flash any file we want without worry the zip files being blocked to be flashed because the signature things just like in the default recovery.

(CWM custom recovery mode)

(TWRP Custom Recovery Mode)

To install a custom recovery we need to find the correct recovery file to our Android device model. We must extremely carefull because different way to install the recovery, different smartphone device model, and the recovery file will be different. If we choose the wrong recovery file or wrong method will cause our Android device unable to enter to recovery mode anymore, or even worse: bootloop or softbtrick.

Source: Google.com