[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] kjdiehl:
Norcalz71, please do keep us updated. Some users who got their's repaired had it fail again after subsequently updating.

---------- Post added at 07:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:48 AM ----------

***AFFECTED CUSTOMERS!*** In your reporting, please include:

Have you recently updated? To which version? When?

Device model, year, storage size

Network Carrier, if applicable.

Is your bootloader unlocked?

Are you rooted or have any other software/OS modifications?

Please contact [MENTION=318577]Asus[/MENTION] [MENTION=4418828]GoogleNexus[/MENTION] [MENTION=1858400]enga[/MENTION]dget_tips [MENTION=1180631]gizmodo[/MENTION] and use the hashtag #NEXUS7BRICKED to get the message out.

4/11/15

To recap the current state of things:

Nexus 7 2013 (Asus manufactured) and Nexus 5 (LG manufactured) owners, since as far back as Nov/Dec 2014, have been reporting bricked devices sometime shortly after a Lollipop update. There seem to be far more N7 complaints than N5s.

My personal experience:

My N7 2013 32GB wifi-only device, running stock OS, with an unlocked bootloader received at least one over-the-air Android 5.X (maybe 5.0.2?) Lollipop update sometime in late March 2015. After some time, I did notice extreme battery usage while idle, (which I believe to be an unrelated app issue, though I could be wrong,) and occasional touch-lag. Then, two nights ago, my N7 spontaneously rebooted while I was merely reading an article. The next morning, as I was checking Facebook on it, the device spontaneously rebooted again, this time hanging up on the Google logo splash screen.

After deciding it was not going to finish booting, I began researching for similar problems on the internet and performed the following steps. Please note, I am an experienced Android enthusiast, having rooted and installed custom ROMs on my many Android devices since the original G1. However, while I had rooted it in the past, my N7 was currently unrooted when this problem occurred.

I tried several times to boot my device, with a full charge, without success. It would always hang on the Google screen. I held down power and vol-down to enter the Fastboot Mode. I tried following the onscreen commands to enter Recovery Mode, but it would fail in the same way, hanging at the Google screen.* I connected my N7 to my computer with the OEM cable and used Adb to connect to my device. Using a terminal, I was able to successfully send fastboot commands* to my N7, (but no adb commands worked,) including locking and then again unlocking my bootloader**, and rebooting, (where it would again hang.) However, any commands needing to write to the NAND memory would fail, including erase, format, install-all, and install individual images. With this troubleshooting and extensive corroborating research online it seems that:

Google sent a faulty Lollipop update which had the effect of making the NAND unusable. Conjecture that a bug caused excess write cycles to be occurring, causing the NAND to prematurely reach it’s write-cycle limit. This would explain how the problem occurred after an update, but took some time to build up to critical failure.

Some users are reporting variously that they can enter Recovery, while others cannot. Those who can enter Recovery however cannot successfully complete any commands. I did hear of one user who claimed to be able to successfully wipe their device and restore it to working order.

Many users have reached out to Asus and been quoted repair costs from $100-$300 to replace the entire motherboard. At least two users report having had their device repaired, returned to them with 4.4 KitKat installed, and then followed the usual onscreen notifications and prompts to update to 5.X, only to have the bricking problem return within a short time.

Google has been extremely dismissive on their product forums, suggesting that users turn to the manufacturer, despite users’ informed opinion that it is a problem directly caused by Google.

This problem also seems to have occurred to a smaller reported number of Nexus 5 users. All steps and symptoms remain the same: device updates, then eventually begins spontaneous reboots once or a few times, before going into an irrecoverable bootloop. On the N5 the bootloop flashes the Google logo on and off fairly rapidly. But behavior in Fastboot Mode remains the same with complete inability to boot or write to NAND.*** My T-Mobile Nexus 5 remains currently unaffected, though I did witness the problem occur to a friend’s T-Mo N5. I am unaware of the carrier status of other devices with this problem.

Both the N7 & N5 use Qualcomm chips, though different versions. This may or may not be relevant.

Some very few users report that their devices spontaneously began working again after waiting several days, dropping the device, or repeatedly pressing the power button in rapid succession for a sustained period. None of these users have reported if the problem has returned. Some users report that if they hold the power button down longer, the device might boot partially into the swirling colored dots boot animation, before looping back to start, and others have gotten their device to boot all the way into the system, but the system acts as though a new update has been applied as it begins going through the app-optimization process, which never completes before looping back to the beginning of the boot. The users reporting these partial successes are very few.

*These steps and symptoms reported by many other users as well.

**Users report variously that the problem occurred with and without an unlocked bootloader. Also, they report variously on being able to lock or unlock the bootloader, though most seem unable.

***This seems to be the single most universal and salient consistency across all reports, along with the fact of it occurring shortly after an update.

This is a serious problem affecting at least hundreds of reporting users. That certainly means there are many more affected devices which are unreported. Especially since the Nexus 7 & 5 are both over a year old, many consumers may simply decide that this problem is due to the age of the device and give up without bothering to report the problem anywhere. This is all especially concerning since these are Nexus devices, and the most recent ones at that. (The N6 & 9 are more recent but were specifically designed for Lollipop so it seems less likely that they would be experiencing update-related NAND bricking.) Google has consistently been at least fairly good at ensuring that recent Nexus devices receive solid updates, and it is a major selling point of the product line. This bricking problem on the most recent and very well regarded devices draws into question the entire promise of the Nexus line.

Several tech websites have begun reporting on this problem:

http://9to5google.com/2015/04/10/ne...ler&utm_medium=Drippler&utm_campaign=Drippler

https://www.androidheadlines.com/20...5-0-2-report-significant-issues-updating.html

https://www.androidheadlines.com/20...5-0-2-report-significant-issues-updating.html

And trending on Twitter: #NEXUS7BRICKED

https://twitter.com/search?q=#NEXUS7BRICKED&src=tyah

The most active Google Product complaint forum is here:

Nexus 7 2013 - Fastboot stuck on Erase Userdata while restoring Factory Image

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/Ykfqr5RnlW0[101-125]

Others:

Another Bricked Nexus 7 after Lollipop

http://xdaforums.com/nexus-7-2013/nexus-7-2013-qa/bricked-nexus-7-lollipop-t2942131

Nexus 7 stuck on Google screen

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/nexus/aHPjOTqCpXY[151-175]

And the N5 problem also reflected here:

https://productforums.google.com/fo...otification#!category-topic/nexus/1H6ZiIMYrtw

Similar/probably related:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/nexus/IIi9RFHYy_c