N4 lost its memory...

[Guest The Soup Thief]

Well, only half of it and just for a while.

On Thursday night I stayed up late to update my nexus 4 to 4.3. Figured I'd do it "properly" using adb and the command prompt rather than use a toolkit like I usually would have done.

Followed a really good guide at xda (will dig out the link of anyone's interested).

Was really easy if a bit slow. So all was good, got it rooted & set up as I like it.

Then on Friday I noticed my 16gb n4 suddenly only had 8gb! Apparently this happens sometimes when you flash new recoveries on the device (plainly there must be a more rational explanation but I don't know it - it's never happened to me before though and I'm a bit of a flashaholic) - there are a few threads on xda about this problem. Also there are some fixes, the most straight forward of which I followed: return the phone to stock (rom, bootloader, recovery, everything) and it should see the full 16gb again. If not, factory reset a few times.

So I did that and it worked - bit of a PITA having to flash it all again, but it worked out fine.

To save time I tried to get wug's latest toolkit, but there's been some problem with an update and I wasn't able to download it.

Ended up using a new toolkit - N-Cry. It's really really good! The guy who developed it seems every bit as involved as wug with v frequent updates. It offers a 1-click return to stock (4.2.2 or 4.3).

Really good though!

Will add some links when I get a moment, but Google the above and you'll find it all

EDIT - corrected some autocomplete abominations....

Edited July 28, 2013 by The Soup Thief

[Guest bladyle]

I think flashing latest bootloader and radio (from the 4.3) fix this problem.

[Guest EddyOS]

People really need to stop using toolkits and just learn to use adb/fastboot manually. It's so much easier to work out issues if you know what's going on in the first place...XDA has a very nice guide on everything here:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010312

[Guest The Soup Thief]

Steady on EddyOS - it was after upgrading manually (following exactly the guide to which you linked, as it happens!) that the problem of the missing memory came up (though I'm certainly not saying "it was adb that caused the problem" - most likely it was a bad flash of the radios, though they were downloaded from google's download page and I checked the md5s).

I used the tool to sort it out cos I didn't have time to fanny about flashing the bootloader, radio etc through the command prompt for a second time when I could save further keystrokes by using a tool to do it automagically.

I'm not saying one approach is "better" than another (they're both doing the same thing afterall, using the same functions, just initiated in different ways) and without doubt having a working knowledge of how to use the command prompt and adb is "a good thing" (being a transferrable skill between devices and tasks).

"People really need to stop using toolkits" in the same way as "people really need to stop splitting infinitives / driving in the middle lane on motorways / etc". It's not going to happen. They either will or they won't depending on their own priorities. Personally I find good well maintained toolkits save me time when I could be doing something that's more important to me and they stop me making actuarial errors (simple typos etc). Personally I'm a bit curious and try to make sure I know (broadly) what's going on behind the scenes so I can see where it's gone wrong rather than blindly pressing "Flash", but loads of people really don't care. And that's fine - to each his own. Once they can be bothered to deal with the fallout in sorting out any problems, I don't think it matters one bit what method people use.

Edited July 29, 2013 by The Soup Thief

[Guest EddyOS]

I'm not meaning to have a go, it's just that these toolkits cause more problems then they're worth! :)

And yes the link does mention what to do if you lose the memory on the device, mine did exactly that as well! :D

"Once they can be bothered to deal with the fallout in sorting out any problems, I don't think it matters one bit what method people use."

There lies the issue, users expect to be told how to fix something. If they were to post on here they might get help, but they'll get flamed to hell on XDA as there is SO much information available on there and Google that there is no excuse not to work it out for yourself. IMHO the toolkit is the worth thing to ever be invented as, like you said, people just click buttons and when something goes wrong they panic and usually do more bad than good trying to fix it themselves.

Learn adb/fastboot (takes all of 10 minutes to know the common commands to use with any Android device) and you'll never be a slave to a toolkit every again ;)

Edited July 29, 2013 by EddyOS