Random crash resulted in infinite boot loop

BinaryUnit

Hi everyone. I've been using GrapheneOS on my phone for around 2 years with basically no issues. Last night I dropped my phone and thought nothing of it, after all I have a screen protector and there didn't seem to be any damage. About an hour later, I'm using it and all the sudden my screen freezes and then my phone crashes. I power it back on and it shows the Google logo, then briefly the Graphene logo and then shuts off again, before automatically restarting the phone in an infinite loop. I'm not sure if me dropping the phone has any connection to this issue, but for the sake of being thorough I thought I'd mention it. Is there anyway to recover or re-flash Graphene and ALSO keep all of my data?

Johnnyloans

BinaryUnit

Greetings,
That's unfortunate.

Your data will be safe if a sideload is successful. Keep in mind there are 2 boot slots--2 copies of the OS.

If your phone is a pixel 7a, these are the correct files but only choose 1 of these 2 files to sideload.
Regular:
https://releases.grapheneos.org/lynx-install-2026050900.zip

This is the security preview version (recommended)
https://releases.grapheneos.org/lynx-install-2026050901.zip

If you're unsure, they both work.

Check what boot slot you're on before sideloading successfully. It says on the bootloader screen, a or b.
If the phone reboots before you sideload, check again. After sideloading, let it boot up twice, the boot slot may change. It might work on the 1st or 2nd boot up. Sideload to both boot slots if the 1st try is successful but it reboots twice without getting to your lock screen.

Here are the instructions.
https://grapheneos.org/usage#updates-sideloading

Goodluck. Let us know how it goes

IksNorTen

Capacitors, storage drives, and solder joints don't like G-forces or vibrations -- totally plausible.

IksNorTen

So you're telling me you haven't had any issues for two years, and then after dropping it, you suddenly have a problem with your Pixel?

That’s way too much of a coincidence; I actually think something must have happened on the hardware side.
Don’t blame yourself - the exact same thing happened to me with my old Pixel. I’d had that phone for 2.5 years, and over the last few weeks I’d been really careless, it fell on the floor several times.

Around the same period, it started having major battery issues, it would crash as soon as I stopped charging it, and the battery swelled up from the inside... Never had any issue before that.

Even if you have a case, if you're unlucky like me and the Pixel is slightly more fragile than other Pixels (even just a tiny bit, just a minuscule difference that happened during manufacturing), all it takes is one drop...

BinaryUnit

Johnnyloans After attempting this, my terminal posts the follows:

adb sideload lynx-install-2026050901.zip
* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037
* daemon started successfully
Total xfer: 0.00x

And on my Pixel it says:

Supported API: 3
Finding update package...
Verifying update package...
ERROR: recovery: footer is wrong
Update package verification took 0.2 s (result 1).
ERROR:    recovery: Signature verification failed
ERROR:    recovery: error: 21


Install from ADB completed with status 2.
Installation aborted.

Some additional information:
After leaving it plugged in while it did a boot loop, it eventually managed to launch to my lock screen. I unplugged the phone when I noticed this and it shut off immediately and went back to boot looping. I left it to boot loop again overnight in hopes of replicating this and was successful, as the next morning I saw the lock screen on again. I left it plugged in this time and tried to unlock the phone, but as soon as I did, it crashed again.

My device state is locked (unlockable) and my boot slot is b.

Thank you for the detailed reply! To be honest, as much as I'd love to save the phone, the data is the real treasure that I want to save, so even if I could just somehow get in there and copy everything without fixing the phone, that would be great.

Johnnyloans

BinaryUnit I left it to boot loop again overnight

If your storage is having a hardware failure, this'll make it worse.

Sorry, that was the wrong link.

https://releases.grapheneos.org/lynx-ota_update-2026050901.zip

BinaryUnit

Johnnyloans

adb sideload lynx-ota_update-2026050901.zip
* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037
* daemon started successfully
serving: 'lynx-ota_update-2026050901.zip'  (~94%)    adb: failed to read command: Success

Thank you for your replies, they have been super helpful. I ran the command twice and both times it stopped at 94%.

Johnnyloans

BinaryUnit ₉₄%) adb: failed to read command: Success

Did the phone or computer say any information like
Total xfer: 1.00x

Apparently people speculate that the 100% progress bar is made for Google .zip images. So for other OSes it might not reach 100%. The message you received means the phone was done loading and closed the connection.

I haven't sideloaded an update before. Was there an option to reboot after? Does the phone turn on all the way? It might take longer or reboot twice.
Did it switch boot slots?

Looks like at least some comments say everything worked fine and booted up despite seeing an error like yours.

This is info about LienageOS:
(I guess theirs stops at 47%)

Tip: Normally, adb reports Total xfer: 1.00x, but in some cases, even if the process succeeds, the output may stop at 47% and show adb: failed to read command: Success. In other instances, it might display adb: failed to read command: No error or adb: failed to read command: Undefined error: 0 which is also fine.

Step 5 of the instructions - https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/x2/install/#installing-lineageos-from-recovery

That's an ADB issue, nothing is wrong with the device, cable, PC or the installation process.

If I remember correctly (from a discussion long ago), Google's ROMs are transferred about 2.2 times across the sideload. To make the progress bar add up to 100%, they said "2.2 times the file size equals 100%". Our ZIPs are transferred just once, so the final progress is at about 47% with a success. The xfer seems to show the transferred data compared to the file size. Ours clocks in at x1.00 or x1.01, while Google's is about x2.something.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/af12lu/comment/edvwaex/

BinaryUnit

Johnnyloans
My previous reply shows the full contents of what my terminal posted. My phone immediately reboots into recovery mode after completion so I'm not able to see what it says. I'm still experiencing the same issue.

I accidentally left it plugged in during it's loop and it once again posted to the lock screen after an unknown amount of time and crashed again after unlocking the phone.
Boot slot is still b.

Johnnyloans

BinaryUnit

Darn,
I can think of 3 options from this point:

Sideload an update
Boot into safemode (while it boots up, hold down the volume down button when you see a Google logo and don't let go. If it reboots again instead of going to a lockscreen, then it probably can't go to safemode either)
Factory reset might help. (Your data gets deleted) https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/16493042?hl=en