[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] MagicManyNyc:
Hi,

I’d really appreciate it if someone can help me, as I’ve not been able to find my exact problem and solution anywhere in the last 5 days of trying to fix my Samsung Galaxy S3 SPH-L710 – Sprint.

Not sure what happened but I had just swapped out my battery and my problem began – I have 3 batteries that I charge and swap when needed… one of the reasons I’m still using the S3. Been wanting to get a new phone but just haven’t decided which one and kept putting if off. Anyway… After charging the battery I turned on the phone and it got stuck on the Samsung Galaxy S3 screen. Went online and read I should try a cache wipe. I did that and got a bunch of failed to mount lines and a few other failures. Mostly failed cache. Not sure if this had anything to do with it but I was running low on the internal free space and had to delete a few things to make more space and then it would fill up again etc… Internal size is 16gb.

Here’s what I tried:

Attempted the 4.4.2 ROM flash in Odin. – Got a PIT partition message and then tried again and got write Failures after NAND started. Tried a few more times and same thing but I don’t get the PIT error anymore… I tried different Odin versions, computers, and cables, and same results. I have the correct USB driver. I’m using the same version ROM that’s on my phone, but the build name on my phone is last (newest) update and I could only find the previous build of the same 4.4.2 version. Note – This phone was a swap by Sprint when my first S3 had a start button issue. This one is a refurbished… not sure if that changes anything.

I also tried a TWRP install via Odin and it Failed.

I tried to Root via Odin and it Failed.

I DID NOT do a factory reset because I don’t want to lose all my data.

MORE INFO:

Phone is not Rooted and never was.

Phone goes into download mode and also stock recovery mode without any problems.

I never set the developer option and I didn’t enable debugging. Not sure how, now that my phone is soft-bricked.

QUESTIONS:

I’d like to preserve all my data and settings and somehow back them up so that I can put them on a reset phone.

Is there any way to work around this soft-brick and grab all the info including the system info and settings, all my files, and pictures, etc??… Everything! … I’d like to get the phone working again and put it all back on it and be the same as it was. I have so much important stuff on the phone. I have been doing backups via Kies but haven’t done it for a few months and I don’t even want to lose even a few months of data, and the way my phone was set up. Is there anything I can do to basically get a mirror image of my phone? Assuming all the information is still intact but it just can’t mount properly.

Is the developer / debugging setting preventing me from being able to do what I tried? Is it because I’m not Rooted? Is there OEM Locking on my phone?

Should I try to install TWRP from the stock recovery via external SD card? And then Backup from there? Is that different than doing it from Odin or will that fail too?

Please help – I love my S3. No phone for 5 days and I feel so disconnected :crying:

Thank you!