Anyone else had a Nokia stuck in download mode?

Forums › Android › Anyone else had a Nokia stuck in download mode?

Kookoo

312 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 4

# 249017 19-Apr-2019 19:37

Wife's Nokia 8 is stuck in Download mode. I'm not sure how it got to this stage, but since it's been perfectly stable until now I can only guess it's an update gone wrong. Force restart, and restart via "volume down + power" simply returns to the black "download mode" screen.

I can probably recover it via fastboot but that will erase all data, and frankly - I'm not sure how good she is at backing stuff up, so would rather not do it that way.

Anyone else had this happen to them? Any ideas how to recover aside from fastboot?

Hello, Ground!

qwerty123

105 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

# 2221296 19-Apr-2019 21:54

You can enter recovery and reboot in normal mode

Kookoo

312 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 4

# 2221301 19-Apr-2019 22:07

qwerty123:
You can enter recovery and reboot in normal mode

Would love to. How do I enter recovery? I've tried VolUp+Power and VolDown+Power - it just returns to Download Mode.

Hello, Ground!

Kookoo

312 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 4

# 2221308 19-Apr-2019 22:43

Quick update - fastboot was no help.

"Fastboot reboot recovery" reboots it back into Download mode. I got the sinking feeling it's bricked, but would love to try any other ideas.

Hello, Ground!

qwerty123

105 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

# 2222136 22-Apr-2019 12:43

If you turn the phone off, connect to charger, when the phone turns on and charging animation appears. Press VolUP & Power? Does fallen robot animation appear?

If not the probably recovery partition was buggered as well and the only option is go to service.

Kookoo

312 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 4

# 2222169 22-Apr-2019 13:36

qwerty123:
If you turn the phone off, connect to charger, when the phone turns on and charging animation appears. Press VolUP & Power? Does fallen robot animation appear?

If not the probably recovery partition was buggered as well and the only option is go to service.

Nope. Can't turn it off either - it just reboots and goes straight to the black "Download mode. Powered by Android" screen.
I can't imagine how an upgrade could've messed up the recovery partition, but who knows.

Hello, Ground!

qwerty123

105 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

# 2222472 22-Apr-2019 23:00

Kookoo:
I can't imagine how an upgrade could've messed up the recovery partition, but who knows.

Easily. I looked into OTA packages for Nokia 6, typical OTA update rewrites recovery, sbl, aboot partitions and selectively rewrites files on system. I reckon Nokia 8 is no different.

As far as I remember Nokia 8 supports seamless updates and has the double set of system partitions (except recovery partition). You can try switching A/B partitions via fastboot:

fastboot getvar current-slot

it should return either a or b, select the opposite slot

fastboot --set-active=<a or b>

and then

fastboot reboot

pipe60

69 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 12

# 2222482 23-Apr-2019 07:24

My Nokia 8 was the same after an update 8 weeks ago tried everything I could find on the net had no luck.phone was still under warranty so got them to have a look they restored it blaming update.

Kookoo

312 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 4

# 2222658 23-Apr-2019 12:02

qwerty123:
Kookoo:
I can't imagine how an upgrade could've messed up the recovery partition, but who knows.

Easily. I looked into OTA packages for Nokia 6, typical OTA update rewrites recovery, sbl, aboot partitions and selectively rewrites files on system. I reckon Nokia 8 is no different.

As far as I remember Nokia 8 supports seamless updates and has the double set of system partitions (except recovery partition). You can try switching A/B partitions via fastboot:

fastboot getvar current-slot

it should return either a or b, select the opposite slot

fastboot --set-active=<a or b>

and then

fastboot reboot

No luck :(

C:\platform-tools>fastboot getvar current-slot

current-slot: b

Finished. Total time: 0.003s

C:\platform-tools>fastboot --set-active=a

Setting current slot to 'a'

FAILED (remote: 'Slot Change is not allowed in Lock State')

fastboot: error: Command failed

C:\platform-tools>fastboot flashing unlock

FAILED (remote: 'Flashing Unlock is not allowed')

fastboot: error: Command failed

C:\platform-tools>fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability

(bootloader) get_unlock_ability: 0

OKAY [ 0.003s]

Finished. Total time: 0.010s

Anything else I could try?

Hello, Ground!

qwerty123

105 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 13

# 2222700 23-Apr-2019 14:53

I guess nothing else unless you wanna open up the phone and short the test point on pcb. HMD hardened flashing process since Android 8 and tricks with shorting pins on usb cable no longer work. Official flashing tool OST LA requires login to update server since bootloader does encrypted challenge-response exchange.