[Fire Android Development] snark.shark:
So I got my rooting via the Supertool done successfully a few days ago, and it ran fine. I blocked updates as part of the process. But today, after days of my rooted Fire 5th Gen (with FireOS 5.1.2 on it) being fine, I'm suddenly stuck in a "Optimizing system storage and applications" booting loop. Here's the sequence.

1.) Amazon logo, as per usual (note I didn't actually SEE this happen the first time, but in subsequent attempts to reboot from Power-Vol Down I have).

2.) Fire logo with "Optimizing system storage and applications" , it takes the usual time (probably not really 10 minutes but close)

3.) Then instead of booting to the OS proper, I get the animated Fire logo AGAIN--for a few seconds alone, then "Optimizing system storage and applications" again (with the almost 10 minutes again). Note: it does not at this point reboot totally to the Amazon Logo--it goes directly from the Fire logo with "Optimizing" to the Fire logo without "Optimizing" back to the one with it again.. in a literally endless loop. I 've sat here watching it do it around 5 times in a row, and suspect it did it far more times earlier today when I wasn't looking.

While some applications may have changed on my Fire in the past few days, as far as I know nothing else should have changed (and today was hardly the first time I've restarted it since I got the rooting done). In fact, this whole thing didn't even start with me restarting it. It started with me putting it down (but powered on) for about 7 or 8 hours, then picking it up and noticing it already in this "Optimizing" loop--so something clearly caused a reboot during that time (although as I said, I'd run the Supertool routine to block updates).

Power Key and Vol. Down WILL return me to the Amazon Logo (in other words a full reboot), but the endless loop with the Fire logo and "Optimizing system storage and applications" follows after, even after doing that.

Very frustrating. It's marginally better than a paperweight, since it powers up and down with the power key, or tries a reboot with the Power-Vol Down combo... but not MUCH better.

Any advice? Anyone else suddenly having a successfully rooted unit stuck like this?

ETA: I just hooked my USB cable up from the unit to my PC and the Supertool/ADB still sees the device, by the way, even while it's stuck in this endless booting loop.

ETA2: Just to be clear about the state of the Device BEFORE today:

A.) Used an older version of the Supertool when I first got the unit a few months ago to add the Google Play store but no other customizations. I believe I was on 5.11 at the time, but can't swear to that 100%. Either way, that's all that was done at that point.

B.) AFTER my until upgraded to 5.12 I ran the latest Supertool and rooted the unit. Had a little trouble and it took Kingroot quite a few tries to root it properly, but it WAS clearly working by the time I was done.

C.) At that time I used Option 3 inside the Supertool to block OTA updates, Option 5 to install Flashfire (but didn't really do anything else with it other than install it), and Option 8 to remove the Ads. I did NOT use Option 7 to change the Launcher.

D.) As I've said, I've restarted/rebooted a number of times in the days since then, had some Google Play apps updated, and used the unit for miscellaneous things for at least a few hours each day.

ETA3: Okay, I just found the stuff about entering the System Recovery. I HAD been trying Power-Vol Down but doing so from the Fire Animation (which just reboots). I've now seen that if you do Power-Vol-Down when the unit is completely powered off, I do indeed get into the System Recovery menu.

The question is.... with a rooted 5.1.2 setup do I choose the Factory Reset or is that going to cause even more trouble with a rooted device? I also see the ADB update option, and I see there's a post here on this board with various files for various OS versions, including both 5.1.2 and 5.1.2.1 (I had the former and I'm thinking that somehow the update blocking failed and the unit TRYING to update to 5.1..2.1 is what bricked me). The logical thing to do is get the 5.1.2 image and restore that, but then I'm afraid if I do that, and root it again, the same thing will just happen to me again--assuming the update blocking failed and does so again. So I'm waiting a bit before I do anything to see if anyone else with a rooted device has had these issues too. If I restore 5.1.2 and DON'T pretty much instantly root it I assume 5.1.2.1 is going to wind up on the thing really quickly and it looks like I lose any chance at all of rooting if I let that happen.

So my options appear to be:

a.) Factory Reset from System Recovery (assuming that even works with a previously rooted 5.1.2) and won't brick me even worse.

b.) update via ADB back to 5.1.2, root it again, and cross my fingers the update blocking is really working

c.) update via ADB back to 5.1.2, don't root, have it toss 5.1.2.1 at me, and hope at some point in the future another rooting routine is prepared that works under that.

Have I missed anything?