Galaxy S4 BOOT LOOP. Verizon: FIX IT!!!!!!

[ph0tic]

My phone doesnt work, I cant call individuals for study groups for a very important test.. etc. way too reliable on a large company to NOT SCREW UP. My fault.

I downloaded the OTA last night, and now horribly regret it. My phone when plugged in just loops with the charging battery screen over and over and over.. and over.

I can only get to the recovery screen if i have it plugged in to the wall, So that means i cant download anything to it.

I'm not trying a hard reset, because that will clear out all data internally via repartitioning and reformatting. I have audio and video that i absolutely do not want to use.

Best case scenario i can think of is verizon releases an update that fixes the problem that can be downloaded onto an SD card and installed via recovery.

VERIZON. YOU NEED TO FIX THIS ASAP. How many more people need to raise the issue???

[ph0tic]

So went to the VZW store and put in a 100% charged battery from another S4 and the phone still wouldn't turn on. (rooting discussion removed) I find a solution and Verizon still hinders me.

I want my files. I do NOT want to hard reset for something that is NOT my fault. Atleast give me an update i can run from recovery mode so i can put it on my SD card and fix all of this. PLEASE. or something to revert back to 4.2 ... or something to backup my files to the sd card. OR SOMETHING!

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[budone]

Are your pix and music on the SIM or Memory card? If so they will not be deleted.

I did the update 2 days ago....by mistake and have not had an issue

[ph0tic]

yeah they are on both. OKAY so I somewhat found a solution for my specific problem. Steps are below:

It seems my issue with just getting the phone on or to stay on is with regards to the amount of power being sucked up by it. The battery says 100%, but it still has a lightning bolt on it; the LED is still red (charging at 100%). I can get the phone on but it will still spontaneously turn off if there is a spike in power (see steps below). So thats one problem somewhat solved, but even if this battery issue were to totally be fixed I still havent seen it update from voicemail, text messages, transfer data via 3g or 4g, etc. nothing. SO.... My plan is to extract what i can and factory reset. So far I have gotten all video/images/audio off of the internal drive, now I am working with getting my SMS and MMS...

Lol, Verizon should be paying me right now.

1. Plug in the phone to an outlet (we need the 5v /2.0+ amps). Why? It appears the phone is trying to boot off the USB power alone and then switch over to battery during normal boot.
2. Hold down power + vol down when the phone vibrates - let go when the next screen appears (if you got the battery icon, you were too late). Why? This gives us the download screen (not being too descriptive; i don't recall the actual name). It will present you with a warning.
3. press vol down for cancel / boot phone normally. Why? I dont know why!!!! but this WILL actually boot Verizon's custom ROM on the phone bypassing check is stopping it from booting in the first place! You will see the Samsung Swoosh, the Verizon logo, and then hopefully your home screen/lock pin/pattern.
4. Press the power button quickly! Why? This will turn off the screen. You hopefully should see the charge light on your phone (red/green/whatever). Mine is red right now and yet the battery supposedly is at 100 percent.Why again? Because when the phone boots up, services start running, widgets start up, etc, etc. Ever watch Apollo 13 when they are trying to to figure out the boot sequence without too much juice? Kinda similar here. No joke; my phone will stay on indefinitely as long as the screen stays off. It will get Google Play Pushes, move files, etc.
5. After some time has passed (relative; 1-5minutes), turn your screen on and quickly get rid of all your tiles. Why? we're stopping widgets from starting services, taking up memory, etc. Your phone will probably reboot again before/during/after completing this step.
   
6. power down things on your phone wifi/bluetooth/turn on energy saver/etc. For some reason, the phone will power cycle if i turn on airplane mode... Why? again, limiting the amount of power we drain.
7. Open up My Files app ( i believe its a default application), start selecting directories, select copy to from the options in the upper left, and dump onto the SD card somewhere. TURN THE SCREEN BACK OFF!! Why? We want our stuff onto the SD card, right? turning the screen off will not stop the copy process.
8. Push your favorite SMS app from Play.google.com to your phone (yes, you will have to turn wifi back on). Let the app install with the screen OFF.  Why? I want all my text messages too! duh!
9. To be continued...

Again, the phone is gonna power cycle throughout this whole thing. Just hopefully not at a bad time (i.e. moving a huge file). I have *never* had it powercycle with the screen off.