Information is still very sketchy but it appears the January software update for Samsung phones is causing at least one model to stop working requiring some sort of complex reset procedure and the consequent loss of all data.
This is probably a bit technical for most but it's worth making you aware that it may well be possible to save your phone data and giving a little more insight into what's going on.
- the Android 13 update causes some (a very small percentage??) of Galaxy phones to freeze after loading the bootloader
- this Android 13 update also rotates the encryption keys of the /data partition, so flashing back to Android 12 doesn't help, as whilst the phone boots, it can't decrypt the /data partition
- Samsung has pulled Android 13 firmware updates from Australia for phones that were originally released with Android 11, phones that were originally shipped with Android 12 still have the Android 13 firmware available
- if the phone has been affected, then reflashing a 2023 Android 13 firmware (ending in WAx ) using Odin (you have to get the firmware from another region, not Australia) then allows you to boot your affected phone into Safe Mode, which lets you backup what you need from it (it may work with a late 2022 firmware unknown)
- doing a factory reset and reformatting the /data partition gets the phone functional again, after which you can restore your backed up data
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken"
Oliver Cromwell, 3rd August 1650 - in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland
