yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
Thanks for replying, Man!

Is this how you got your custom recovery loaded onto it? I've watched the device fleetingly appear in Device manager... Just long enough to take a screen grab ([Alt] [fn] [Prt Sc]), can't possibly click on the thing long enough to select loading a driver for it, it disappears immediately! That's nuts!

(if you don't see an image here - I see it in preview, it's gone once posted, then it appears only as "hxxp://xdaforums.com/xdaforums.com/i65.tinypic.com/ifwsn9.jpg" when I go back to the advanced editor - replace the the hxxp with the real thing to get the real link)

(Ok, got that cleared out by editing in Tapatalk, where I could actually see the code and edit the junk out)

Notice the device is listed as "Preloader USB VCOM Port (COM12)", whereas I have "Mediatek Preloader USB VCOM Port(COM14)" after installing said mediatek drivers using Legacy mode, with Yellow Mark (code 10, device not started)...

Any ideas?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EternalGrump:
Open device manager and follow the directions in the post I linked below.

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=64006390&postcount=165

If you can't click the popup in time, look for the device to show up in device manager under other devices and point it at the sp driver update from there.

The link below explains the process of getting sp flash tools to begin the flashing process.

http://www.theandroidhow.com/2014/06/how-to-flash-stock-custom-recovery-sp-flash-tool.html

Basically select the scatter file in sp flash tools, then select recovery only from the available check boxes, then hit download and then plug in your powered off tablet.

At that point the tablet will be recognized and the flashing should begin.

installing the sp 2.0 drivers and flashing the recover require the tablet to be powered off before being plugged into the computer.

So to be clear the A10-70F_S000022_150626_ROW_USER update that is available through system update is an update for kitkat?

I was thinking it was the upgrade to lollipop and had been avoiding it.

I still haven't gone through with the process of flashing my tablet yet but I've been spending some time going through the details with the same friend who helped me flash my last tablet.

He hasn't done that sort of thing in a while so the help he can give is limited but it helped a bit to be able to discuss things in real time.

As much as I appreciate all the information left behind by everyone who went through this before us, it would help if all this info had been collected into a concise tutorial instead of being spread out over 20+ pages.

It makes it fairly difficult to make sure you aren't missing any steps.

I could swear someone explained how to get sp flash tools going earlier in the thread but I've looked all over and can't find it.

I ended up having to google a generic tutorial as a result but it sounds like what I remember reading so it should be right.

Let me know how things go if you can get sp flash tools working.

Again I'd also be interested to know if you manage to get supersu applied successfully through carlivrecovery as that sounds more direct and maybe less troublesome than kingroot if it works.

Also, I can't seem to get mtk tools to talk to my tablet, I'm not sure if I'm missing somethng or what but mtk just doesn't see the tablet at all.

I know you said you couldn't get a backup going with mtk but you did say it could see and talk to your tablet.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
Alright I went ahead and took the plunge this morning.

My Tablet was already on 5.01 so I used the Lenovo Tab 2 A10-70 - Corliv Touch Recovery - Android 5.02 with SP-Flash-Tool-v5.1436.00

I used the instruction posted above with no problems

I had already copied SuperSU 2.49 to the tablet so before booting up the tablet I booted to the boot choice screen by holding power and volume up for about 7 seconds

a small menu appears and I choose recovery which booted right into the newly flashed Carliv recovery.

from their I went to the carliv menu and backed up NVRAM and UBOOT

Next step was the backup/restore menu and did a full backup.

next step I flashed Supersu and rebooted to the system with no errors.

once the tablet booted up i installed busybox on rails and SuperSu Pro.

That's probably all I'll do to the tablet for now unless the wifi signal loss gets too bad then I'll revert to Kitkat

I uploaded all the files I used and have here >> https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=46340

(sorry about the picture quality, their is a lot of glare in the photos)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
Great! That is encouragiong and the outcome I was expecting as well considering everyone else seems to be able to do it without much fuss!!! Your screenshots made me realize one thing I hadn't thought asking - the recovery screen and how strange it seemed to me when I first tried to access it...

Since you've been through that, could you tell me whether I'm going nuts or whether I may have perhaps received a device that had already been tampered with?

Here are the pictures I get when I enter recovery, and

that is stock!

Please excuse the poor quality of the photos - my cell phone attempted to turn the black background into grey, even with exposure dialed down 2 stops.

Here's the first screen showing the stock recovery you're supposed to get upon first entering it after flashing a custom recovery:

When I select Recovery, however, this is what I get for a few seconds

And then this one

Is this a normal recovery considering it has the ability to load updates from ADB, recovery and cache? Does the title "Android System Recovery <3e>" mean something to you guys? Or did I get an engineering sample from Lenovo? Also, the "volume up and down" instructions don't work as stated, as pressing the power button has no effect and in fact only the volume buttons work - volume down is select and volume up is OK - or the opposite, don't remember which, in any case it's like stated on the initial recovery screen.

Again, any help would be appreciated... To anyone who remembers going though this or hasn't done anything with his tablet yet, could you check YOUR recovery (volume up and power for about 10 seconds from off)? Today I'm an orphan as my wife wisely decided to go see her daughter for the day, she won't have to endure the fusses and cusses as I try to get this problem solved.. Just need to find out whether my device is normal or not before I proceed any further...
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] suhridkhan:
I believe this is the normal recovery. I am on the exact firmware version as yourself, and the recovery screen is identical.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
Thanks for answering so quickly, Man! I've decided to try my luck on my backup Windows 7 machine that I rarely use because it's almost completely uncustomized and close to a fresh factory install, hopefully this will solve my problem with lack of communication with SP Flash.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
Yeah that was the stock recovery, mine was a little different because of the lollipop update

I was also able to pull some info from ADB and Fastboot
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
All I needed was a fresh PC...

Thank you guys - Your posts, and a good night's sleep, definitely put me back on the right track. After firing up the backup machine with that stock windows 7 install, everything went as smoothly as possible. It took literally less than 2 minutes to get the custom recovery installed and going.

Basically I opened device manager, plugged in the tablet, located the MT67XX preloader that appeared for about 2 seconds this time, updated the driver using the SP_drivers_v2.0 (CDC directory), fired up SP Flash, loaded the Carliv Recovery for 4.4.4 through its scatter file, clicked download, plugged in the tablet and after a couple of seconds it was all done.

Then I pressed power and volume up for about 5 to 10 seconds until the Lenovo splash screen appeared, selected recovery, got into carliv recovery and installed SuperSU_256.

Moral of the story: if you cannot get it to work on your main computer, do it on another one that has a clean, fresh, stock OS install. One reason more to clean house on the old computer ;)

I'm now going to shut the tablet down, install my SD Card and give myself root access to it by the script method, editing the system/etc/permissions/platform.xml file adding "<group gid=”media_rw” />" in the "android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" section. If that doesn't work there is always SD_Fix, but I prefer the command line ;)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
OK, so I got SD card access using the above script but as the SD Card is 64GB I had to format it to FAT using DiskPart, so it's going to take a bit of time to complete. once you type Disk part in a command line session, you can access its advanced formatting features. Beats having to download bloatware. Man, I love the command line!

Going for a walk with the dog now while it formats to have a taste of the first snow (exceptionally late for us in the great white north), I haven't been out of the house since Christmas ;)

---------- Post added at 18:23 ---------- Previous post was at 18:18 ----------

How's the WiFi on Lollipop? Are you going to root hit using carliv's lollipop cwm recovery? I love this recovery, can even backup the nvram with it :)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
Yeah already flashed and backed up

I did experience a few WiFi drops the first couple hours, but none sense I rooted
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
Format your 64GB microsdhc card so it's recognized

OK so after almost 2 hours it turns out that was the wrong way to it, or I should have selected fat32... So I looked around and found this small utility here and it was completed in second and I now have full control over my content, settings and applications, something that should be a given for all instead of a few 'underground' types...

OK so it turns out I didn't need a kludge or install a root script to mount the SD Card as USB Storage... As soon as the SD Card was recognized by the device, I saw the option to mount it as USB Storage directly... Thank you Lenovo!!!

Free at last, Free at last, Free at last!
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EternalGrump:
I'm really glad you managed to get things working.

I was getting a bit worried that the drivers might be unreliable.

I suspect switching to windows 7 made the difference, I had no idea you were still running vista (didn't even think to ask).

I kinda figured most people moved away from that long ago due to just how unfinished and downright broken it was by default.

Microsoft and their beta edition operating systems...

So to be clear, the order should be custom recovery, then root, but can you perform the backup before applying supersu or does root access have to already be enabled to do any backups.

I just want to understand if I can do a pre-root backup and an post-root backup or only the post.

This confused me at first and then I looked up what sdfix does and the details of why it's even a thing...

I had no idea google had done something as despicable as removing write access to the external microsd in 4.4.4.

You mentioned something about that with 5.01 but I both didn't really understand what you meant at the time and also figured it wouldn't affect me since I was staying on 4.4.4.

I'm not super comfortable with the command line have you used sdfix before, does it work well?

I'm tending toward that option since it makes a backup of the original file it modifies to make reverting easy.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
Yes, I don't see why you couldn't.

Indeed, there is no reason it shouldn't work.

However, without root you would not be able to write to the external SDCard, which means you would have to backup onto the internal SDCard, which would make your system vulnerable in case of corruption of data. I've had that problem happen three times over the past three years with my Galaxy Note 2, which required a complete internal memory format and reload of the factory ROM before I could restore my backup bfrom the. Without a backup on my external SDCard, I would have lost everything.

That's certainly a way of doing things that seems feasible... As for myself, I would simply load the factory ROM and only back up the system after I have installed most of my apps to it and tweaked it the way I like it. Then I make weekly backups of my data using Titanium Backup. That's how I've done it with my Galaxy Note 2, and it has been a cinch to get my system restored when it needed it.

I was mentioning the factory KitKat update to bring the ROM from Version 000021 to 000022... In the condition the tablet was delivered (at least to me).

Sorry, I tend to make long winded and convoluted sentences ;)

You could also copy the file (super su in this case) through the MTP protocol, in other words with the device plugged in to the computer and appearing as a device in Windows Explorer instead of a drive, I presume, so doing it through adb may not be a necessity.

Sure...

Although it's a great tool with powerful features, learning adb shell is probably overkill for that ;)

Yeah, that's good enough since it will be looking for that specific vcom driver and also it always looks in child folders if it doesn't find what it needs in the parent directory.

Honestly, I don't know about speedboot, never saw this in my previous devices. Normal is normal boot, which would apparently overwrite the custom recovery at this stage, that's why you would want to avoid it.

What?! Didn't you know that was a 'feature'?:rolleyes:

Not sure it's such a good idea - especially if you've tweaked it further and installed apps that require root - too many things would bring up warning bells during warranty service. I wouldn't chance it and would simply wipe it all and reflash it with the factory ROM in SP Flash.

See my answer above ;)
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
Great conversation guys...

couple of things, Carliv Recovery will backup to sdcard0 (internal) or sdcard1 (ext-sdcard)

backing up everything before flashing SuperSu root is the best way to have a full back to stock system.

the carliv backups on the Internal sdcard did not show up on my PC but they are their when you boot back to recovery

The backups to sdcard1 show up on the PC so they can be backed up without any problem

all the OTA updates are in my AFH account here >> https://www.androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=46340

also their is a hack to use exfat on your 64gig sdcard while in the tablet OS

the file is in my AFH collection I posted above - update-android-fs-1-0-4-install-sud-zip.

Instructions to use it are here >>https://translate.googleusercontent...42143/&usg=ALkJrhjp1hOQYA3ML76vkdrXgeqQrqiKkA
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Sparkrite:
Nice collection of files cisA, thanks.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EternalGrump:
That's good to know about the backup files not being visible on the internal sd card to a pc.

You said that the files can be backed up to the external microsd but is it possible to do that from the custom recovery pre-root or only post-root?

Old Faithful mentioned that android pre-root can't write to the external microsd on 4.4.4, I was assuming that applied in the recovery as well up to this point.

If it can't be done without root, is it possible to copy the backup files to the external microsd from the recovery after the backup has been done or is the recovery not really able to do file copying?

Have you tested that method before of backing everything up pre-root and then restoring to that point and re-flashing the stock recovery?

Is it safe, does it work, and can the tablet go through servicing at that point without issues?

Thanks for both of those links, that's very useful.

You said you had all the OTA updates for the A10-70F and while I see the stock rom and some files that appear to be updates that came prior to the stock rom version, I don't see A10-70F_S000022_150626, the update that came after stock and before lollipop.

I don't know if it's necessary to have that since it should be obtainable regardless from the system update app but if you were looking to have a complete archive, you might want to be aware that update isn't present.

As for the exFAT driver, you've tested it I take it, does it work well, are there any issues?

I saw in the description that an exFAT microsd has to be manually remounted if removed during operation.

It doesn't look too difficult to do but I was curious what your experience with that driver has been.

One other thing, after installing the exFAT driver, will restoring to the pre-root backup remove the driver or does it have to be manually removed before the recovery is performed?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
I never tried moving the files while in recovery (their is an Aroma file manager that should work though)

and the first backup I did to sdcard 1 was after I was rooted so I'm not sure their (my sdcard is 64gb fat32 from another tablet)

The carliv recovery may have the same limitations or fat32 sdcards I'm not sure

The 150626 update is in the collection now (14mb) Sorry I missed that one.

I never tested exfat .. my sdcard was already fat32 I left it as that. I don't really use any files over 4gb so it's not that important to me.

I just reposted the info here for others.

I'm also working on a Full A10-70F_S000120_150807_ROW (Android 5.01) I got from a Chinese site. It needs testing before I post it.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
No need to download all my files most are from the German forum you posted above.

I mirrored them because their actual Lenovo files and they could pull them at any time (dl.ota.lenovomm.com FA10-70F_S000021_150501_ROW_TO_A10-70F_S000022_150626_ROW_USER_WCB1.zip)

The Chinese ROW is a Full SP Flash set Files are dated 9/14/2015

"E:\Lenovo Tab 2 A10-70\Chinese A10-70F 5.01
\boot.img"
\cache.img"
\CheckSum_Generate.exe"
\lk.bin"
\logo.bin"
\MT6752_Android_scatter.txt"
\preloader_hq8752_tb_b2b_l.bin"
\recovery.img"
\secro.img"
\system.img"
\trustzone.bin"
\userdata.img"
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EternalGrump:
I may give that a try.

One thing I noticed in the app post was this: NOTE: WILL ONLY WORKS ON DEVICE WITH ARM NEON SUPPORT.

Is that likely to be an issue or should it work anyway?

Cool, thanks for updating that. :)

Out of curiosity, what was your source for those files, was it the same as Old Faithful or a different one?

It's rare that I would need a file over 4gb as well but some video files can be kinda huge so it's a nice option to have at least.

Also good to know it hasn't been tested on this tablet yet.

Does that mean all the other files in the archive have been tested in practice?

It's always good to know if things are confirmed as working vs working in theory.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
The OTA files and the Stock Kitkat all come from the German site listed above and are not tested by me at all.

the exfat fix is also in that same thread and tested working by them (not Me .. as is everything on that forum)

the Chinese files I'm working on come from here >> http://www.xianshuabao.com/rom/lenovo/20183.html

so far these seem very promising for a SD Flash tool recovery of Lollipop 5.01

their are some things lost in translation but I figured out the first tab is altered files the second tab is Stock and the 3rd tab is Rooted

Their are 6 files total. I only collected the Stock one's. The Stock Kitkat from the chinese site are older than the ones on the German forum

chinese 4.4.4 dated 4/25/2015

German 4.4.4 dated 5/04/2015

all the Scatter files are about the same

except the lollipop scatter includes the preloader_hq8752_tb_b2b_l.bin

and not the preloader_huaqin8752_tb_b2d_kk.bin from KitKat 4.4.4

Well I may not have to mess with the Chinese files after all

The Full A10-70F_S000120_150907_ROW Lollipop 5.01 is posted here >> http://www.android-hilfe.de/thema/l...g-firmware-recovery-root.739625/#post-9447919

I'll mirror the file in case his One drive link goes down

Mirror here >> https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24345424848488356
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
I messed with the color in user mode and it did help (Dynamic Contrast seemed good)

To set a wallpaper I do it from settings / display and choose ES file explorer

Browse to my wallpapers and set them from their. This allows some resizing you don't have other wise.

More off topic, a great app to get to custom recovery is Quickboot in the play store
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] suhridkhan:
This tablet is the first android device I have ever seen that has a way of rebooting to Recovery mode on the stock rom.

Go to the 'System Update' app and click the rectangular icon on the top right corners. You will find an option 'Reboot in Recovery mode'
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] suhridkhan:
Question to those who already flashed custom recovery...

I cannot seem to create scatter file using the MTKdroidTools. The option is greyed out.

Any ideas ?

Would it be safe use the scatter file from others?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
the scatter file is included in the carliv recovery
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EternalGrump:
Well, i think so far we have come to the collective conclusion that mtkdroidtools doesn't work on this tablet.

I can't even get the software to talk to my tablet, that may be an issue with something I did or didn't do though.

Old Faithful can get the software to see his tablet but he found out that development on the toolkit has been stopped and it seems to have stopped prior to this tablet being officially supported.

I don't know that it's impossible to use it but we are presently dubious of how well it will work or if it will work at all.

As clsA stated, there is a scatter file present specifically for the custom recovery in the carliv zip file.

Also you want to be using sp flash tools to load the recovery, not mtkdroidtools.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Old faithful:
Be careful if your plan is to read back the factory ROM using MTKDroidTools - development has ceased and the author has said it was basically incompatible with our devices. Having a recovery that works and manufacturer ROMs with their proven scatter files is fine, but it's a big step to actually use them with MTKDroid to extract your own ROM.

If the carliv recovery author could chime in, it would be of great help to shed further light on this. As it stands its quite possible some other tool was used to create those scatter files.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] SCWells72:
I returned my device for an exchange at Wal-Mart today. I was wondering if I should take any of the OS updates or just stay on the one that came with it (A10-70F_S000019_150309_ROW). I also noticed that this device has 1.5GHz cores vs. 1.7GHz cores in the one I returned. For my purposes, it doesn't really matter...just something I noticed.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
I think I read the S000118 update raised the CPU from 1.5ghz to 1.7ghz.

as far as taking the updates that's up to you, but many dislike the lollipop update and claim it breaks WiFi and Dolby sound.

Mine come with the latest software already installed and I have had a few wifi drops but nothing that serious. It usually happens right after waking the device from deep sleep, the wifi seems unresponsive until you turn it off and back on.
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] SCWells72:
Yeah, I did the exchange because I took all of the available updates on the previous device and ended up with Lollipop and therefore flaky wifi and a screen that would turn off once in a while on its own. I'm trying to make this work better, so I'm hoping to get info on which is the last update I should take, presumably the last KitKat build. Any ideas which one that might be?
[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] clsA:
I think this is the last Kitkat update >> A10-70F_S000021_150501_ROW_TO_A10-70F_S000022_150626_ROW_USER_WCB1.zip