[OnePlus 2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Kamakiriash:
So.... Pokemon Go has a lot to answer for......

I have run into a really strange problem when trying to install an OTA on my *unrooted* Oneplus 2. I have been trying to fix this for days but I have completely run out of ideas.

I originally had a working stock Oxygen 3 (Marshmallow) rom with TWRP recovery on my device (not sure of the version). The device was rooted and apart from not being able to install OTAs, I was fairly happy with the setup. Then along came the Pokemon GO update that banned rooted devices. Ok, "big deal" I thought. I was quite content playing Ingress instead (a far better game by the way that doesn't rely on a "pay to win" structure). I really wasn't too worried but then I found out about "systemless root" and "Magisk". I thought that if I installed this correctly I could still play a bit of Pokemon GO when I wanted to and could toggle a root button in Magisk Manager to install OTAs when they became available.

This is where the problems started.

I followed a guide on how to unroot and install Magisk and "Phh's Superuser". The problem was that the Phh Superuser was being denied permissions for Magisk Manager, there were no pop up notifications prompting me to give it access, just toast notifications. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to give it permission so the "enable root" slider button kept sliding back, not allowing root. This is when I used SuperSU ver 2.76 (Magisk version) and it seemed to work fine. I now had a stock Marshmallow rom with TWRP and Magisk Manager all working exactly how they should be. I could toggle root and play Pokemon GO, then return to a rooted state when I needed to.

"Awesome, mission accomplished." I thought. Now I just need to toggle root off, download the latest OTA and install it through Flashfire.

First I made a complete nandroid backup (as I've done with other devices many times before) through TWRP. I even copied the backup folder to my PC in case something went wrong.

Well, this is when the nightmare started.

The first mistake I made was to use Flashfire when it clearly stated that Oneplus devices were currently untested. Not sure if it was a big issue or not, but it was a mistake none the less. The second mistake I made was to not stop the stock recovery being replaced when prompted before the reboot. I assumed (and it even states in the app) that the custom recovery should be reverted back to the stock recovery when attempting to apply OTA updates.

So I went ahead and rebooted, waiting for the OTA to install. I'm fairly sure from memory that it went into the stock recovery, flashed the OTA and restarted.

This is when the phone soft bricked.

"Oh well, that is why I made the backup." I thought.

I reflashed TWRP in fastboot mode and attempted to restore my backup. No dice, the phone was still soft bricked.

(And by "soft bricked" and "boot looping" I mean the Oneplus logo was in the middle of the screen, "Powered by Android" was at the bottom and the two blue LEDs for the buttons either side of the fingerprint scanner/home button remained on. This for me was the tell tale sign of the soft brick because these two light go off after a few seconds after rebooting usually.

So from here I have tried EVERYTHING. All I really want now is a working stock (rooted) Marshmallow rom with TWRP. I have downloaded many different full rom zips and attempted to flash them through TWRP with no success, I have returned to stock recovery and tried flashing signed roms with no success, I've even tried flashing the official CM13 rom for Oneplus 2 (with the correct GAPPs and kernel) through TWRP with no luck.

But here is where it gets interesting......

There are a few things that are really weird...

1. I have always been able to get into Fastboot mode and ADB and Fastboot commands "work".

* Operations succeed but don't stick (for example trying to flash TWRP versions 3.0.2-1 and 3.0.2-2 through Fastboot mode result in no recovery being there at all.

2. I can flash TWRP recovery though Fastboot mode but ONLY VERSIONS 3.0.2-0 and lower. I can also successfully flash the stock recovery.

3. I can flash OxygenOS 2.2.1 but NOT ANY VERSION RELEASED AFTER THAT. Doing so results in the soft brick "bootloop" I mentioned earlier.

4. Attempting to flash the official CM13 rom for Oneplus 2 doesn't work either. Originally I got the error 7 message, but after editing "Updater-script" in the rom and re-zipping, the process seemed to work fine in TWRP but the reboot gave me... you guessed it... a softbrick.

I have flashed custom roms on a few different devices before so I'm not a COMPLETE newbie when it comes to this stuff, but I am by no means a developer or even anything close to one. I have bricked this phone in the past (long story, involved getting it without an invite and it being shipped to me with spyware on it) but I used a guide very similar to this and it worked a treat.

www(dot)androidbrick(dot)com/unbrick-oneplus-one-two-3-qualcomm-hs-usb-qdloader-9008

So, thinking that this process would format all partitions and start me from scatch I tried it. It worked fine but I was still unable to upgrade from Oxygen OS 2.2.1 or install TWRP versions 3.0.2-1 or 3.0.2-2.

I have tried all sorts of things. I have wiped, flashed and wiped again. Factory resets, dirty flashes, clean flashes.... everything. All sorts of different sources for the TWRP images and Oxygen roms... nothing seems to work.

It's just so weird considering it's not a hard brick... just a soft brick.

So I really need my phone so I am sitting on this current build because it is the only one that works.

Here are some details of the current build I am using. (using CPU-Z app)

Model: Oneplus 2 (ONE A2001)

Android version: 5.1.1

Oxygen OS version: 2.2.1

Bootloader: Unknown

Build ID: ONE A2001_14_160226

Java VM: ART 2.1.0

OpenGL ES: 3.1

Kernel Architecture: aarch64

Kernel version: 3.10.49-perf+ (56)

Root access: Yes

Super user app: SuperSU Free v2.46 (Chainfire)

OEM unlocking: Enabled

USB debugging: Enabled

And these are some of the ZIPs and IMGs that refuse to be flashed to my device.

TWRP-3.0.2-1-oneplus2

TWRP-3.0.2-2-oneplus2

Grarak's TWRP recovery IMG for Oneplus2 (modified to install CM13) according to this guide:

missingtricks(dot)net/oneplus-2-official-cyanogenmod-13

cm-13.0-20160924-NIGHTLY-oneplus2

OnePlus2Oxygen_14_OTA_019_all_1606041303_bd42fc5cc5cc4ab2

And also my TWRP backup named 2016-09-16--09-44-09

I am really at a loss as to what to do next. ANY help ANYONE could give me would be greatly appreciated. I have been all over the net looking for ways around this bt have had no luck.

As I've said, I'm not a huge tech head, but I'm not a newbie either. The only thing I can think of is that somehow one of the partitions (maybe boot? :confused:) may have been corrupted somehow when messing around with systemless root. But I don't know how considering it's "systemless". If anyone knows how to check for corrupted partitions on the Oneplus 2 please let me know and I'll try it. Maybe formatting these partitions might help (????), but I don't want to permanently brick my phone.

But I don't know how I've got this particular build working if one of the partitions has been corrupted. And the corrupted partition thing is just a guess.....

Please, anyone, someone point me in the right direction. Again, any and all feddback is welcomed and would be very much appreciated.

This is all Pikachu's fault. :)