Yesterday I installed the newest software update for the Samsung galaxy S4(GT-19505). At first, the phone was stuck on a loop of the update 'installing' to 100%, turning on then switching off and repeating. I did a battery pull and removed my SD card. when i went to switch on my phone and it was stuck on 'android is updating. i left it and fell asleep. this morning i switched it on and it started as normal but then froze and got stuck at the glowing 'SAMSUNG' logo. i have tried using the power+up+home to and cleared the cache partition but that did not help. i have also taken out and replaced the battery many times. Samsung Kies also does not recognise my phone. How do I fix this problem? I am a complete newbie when it comes to phones and the technical side of them and would prefer an easy guide as to how to fix my problem/what the problem is. I would also REALLY REALLY REALLY prefer not to do a factory reset and wipe all my data.
2 Answers
Having experienced booting problems before, it's usually suitable to simply perform a battery-pull as you've done. The state that your phone is almost certainly 'recoverable,' but may require re-flashing the firmware (i.e. potentially performing a factory reset).
Have a think about it, and possibly wait for any more input from the community. If there is no more useful feedback, I'd advise downloading a copy of the official firmware for the device (should be pretty simple to find on Google). Download ODIN3 (http://odin3.en.lo4d.com/) (a tool used for flashing ROM's to Android devices) and have a read up on how to use it.
To put your phone into 'download mode,' reset the device and hold [POWER] + [HOME] + [VOLUME DOWN]. It should say "Downloading.. do not turn off target" or similar if performed successfully. Your computer should pick up the device and it is now primed for flashing.
The other Answer is very good. Just a view more hints: here a link to download firmwares. http://samsung-updates.com/device/?id=GT-I9505 Make sure it's exactly your device. 9505 and 9506 are different hardware! Don't try to flash firmware that is older than the one you had before. After flashing, wait for the phone to do it's firt installations. This may take a while ( up to 7 minutes or so ). It usually installs the stuff that was flashed in the cache partition upon first boot on the new firmware. Normally you do not need to wipe the data partition, as this is where all your personal stuff is stored. But sometimes it's stuff on your data partition that make the device crash upon boot.
Yet another hint: Is adb enabled on your device? If so, try to connect to your device while it hangs. Usually this works and lets you adb pull your personal files before further modifications.
Good luck.
