My Tecno Spark 10 Pro (MediaTek Helio G88, Android 12) bootlooped after a banking app froze. Now it boots straight into stock recovery with the message that Android cannot be loaded and data may be corrupt. The bootloader is unlocked. I hooked it up to an Android tablet via OTG with Bugjaeger. The device uses A/B partitioning and was running on slot b. I switched it to slot a via fastboot, but slot a gives the exact same recovery loop, so the issue is clearly a corrupted userdata partition failing to mount during early init. All I need is my local KeePass database file from internal storage. I know modern Android uses File-Based Encryption with keys sealed in the TEE, but since my bootloader is unlocked, is there any known way via fastboot, MTK tools, or custom boot images to extract or decrypt that single file before I wipe the device? Or is it completely unrecoverable once the filesystem fails to mount?
it should be possible to recover given that you have full unrestricted access to the device and even know the lockscreen password…
seems like it’s possible with twrp. btw, i’ve bootlooped my phone before after using twrp to wipe dalvik cache on a recent encrypted phone (it created an unencrypted dir on userdata iirc, removing the offending directory solved it), so beware and don’t do anything that doesn’t seem necessary!
I don’t have root and I don’t have custom recovery :)
maybe try booting this or this TWRP temporarily without flashing using fastboot (
fastboot boot recovery_filename.img)(kinda unlikely to be able to directly mount data though, there’s one on 4PDA too dated Apr 2024 but it specifically says it doesn’t support mounting data)
are you able to obtain the installed version of the firmware or extract stock boot image from device? (if the TWRP above booted, you probably can)
in that case, we may be able to enable adb during boot phase by changing some props on the boot image’s initrd, and try logcat’ing to get android properly booting again.
TWRP won’t load :( The phone reboots and the error appears again
do you have the stock firmware of this device (the version installed on the phone)?
if you don’t, at least please share the build version or whatever info shows on the stock recovery, fastboot/bootloader menu (if it exists), etc
Here is the exact build information from my stock recovery screen:
Device: TECNO Spark 10 Pro (TECNO/KI7-GL/TECNO-KI7) Android version: 12 (SP1A.210812.016) Build number: 230703V2369 Build tag: user/release-keys
I don’t have the stock firmware package or scatter file on hand right now, but this is the exact build that is currently installed.
try downloading this boot.img file, and booting it with
fastboot boot tecno_ki7_boot.img. let me know if it tries to boot android (shows booting animation), fails, and goes to recovery just like now.it’s from this firmware file. (most firmwares for your phone on the net is android 13, this is 12)
(if this works, my idea is to unpack the boot.img, change
persist.sys.usb.configandro.adb.secureon default.prop to gain adb during boot. then we can use logcat to fix the issue and make android boot)It still won’t start
you mean it
i’ll need details to help…