woaproject.net

Ok, I bought a Lumia 950 XL specifically to run Windows 10 ARM on the device. At first, I didn't care if I had Windows 10 Mobile on the device because I had a QI enabled wireless charger. I figured I could carry that around with me, especially because I don't intend to use it as a primary device. After a few days of using it, I came to the conclusion that it is not at all optimal to use this phone primarily with Windows 10 ARM. The phone runs HOT and I'm afraid I'm going to burn the device up. Battery only lasts about 3 hours before you need to charge and unfortunately the phone on idle consumes more power than the wireless charger can provide. Windows must go to sleep before it will begin charging and it takes longer than charging on Windows 10 Mobile.

This thread is a tutorial for those of you who blew away Windows 10 Mobile using WoADeployer without backing up Windows 10 Mobile first like me. It happens, I know. But, luckily if you've successfully deployed Windows 10 ARM, you already have everything you need to flash Window 10 Mobile. So lets get started.

Boot your phone to the boot menu where you can select Windows 10 to boot or boot into the recovery menu. Don't select anything yet though. Plug your cable into your PC and then plug that into your phone. Open WPInternals to the "Info" page. On your phone, push and hold Volume Down and Power for at least 10 seconds or three phone vibrations. Release both buttons. The phone will display a red screen with a "rewind" symbol. WPInterals will detect your device at this point.

In WPInternals, select "Flash" on the left side. In the right side, under "Flash Original FFU", select "Select FFU to flash to the phone...". Navigate to the following place on your computer:

C:\ProgramData\WPInternals\Repository\DMN\Repository\

Where "DMN" will be the Device Model Number (in my case, RM-1085). Keep in mind that the ProgramData folder is a hidden folder. You will need to adjust Windows file and folder view settings in order to find it. While you are adjusting those view settings, also enable the "show file extensions" setting too! Inside the Repository folder will be four files. Two of them we do not care about at all. The other two will have .ffu extensions. Either will work for your device and will get you Windows 10 Mobile back. Select either of these files but not both at once. When you get back to WPInternals, select "Flash FFU Image". Your device will begin rebooting automatically and the flashing process will begin. When it is complete, you will end up at the Windows 10 Mobile setup screen on your device.

If you intend to go back and redeploy Windows 10 ARM, create a backup of Windows 10 Mobile using WPInternals. It is much faster to restore than flashing the FFU files. Likewise, back these FFU files up to multiple places as they can be reused to fix a bricked device. I haven't redeployed Windows 10 ARM as a dual boot solution yet, but I'm almost certain that after doing these steps you will have to unlock the bootloader again.

Edit: You WILL have to run through the bootloader unlock process again. I've just confirmed that.

I hope this helps someone get back to Windows 10 Mobile that accidentally or purposely blew away Windows 10 Mobile with Woadeployer. I'll try and get screenshots as well as photos of the phone during this process to add to the post and make it a bit easier to follow for everyone.

Nice tutorial. I like it especially because you show a way which avoids official Microsoft recovery tools (like Windows Device Recovery Tool or over-the-cable updater).

Thanks. To be honest, I had forgotten about those tools. I just knew I needed to flash an FFU file and couldn't find one I trusted that still worked. Then it dawned on me... I downloaded an FFU file when I unlocked the bootloader in WPInternals! I can boot the damn thing into restore mode and flash the FFU file that way!

When reading around the forums, I read a few people that were in the same situation as me. Since nobody knew how to restore the phone and I had just done it, I figured I'd throw up a quick tutorial so people can get their phones back to stock.

It doesn't work for me, I hold volume down and power for 10 seconds and it just reboots, I did hold it till vibrate 3 times and the same happens, it reboots. That's the only way or the easiest one? I like windows on arm, but it's not viable yet, so I want to put my phone back into one piece till woa become more stable and usable.

It doesn't work for me, I hold volume down and power for 10 seconds and it just reboots, I did hold it till vibrate 3 times and the same happens, it reboots. That's the only way or the easiest one? I like windows on arm, but it's not viable yet, so I want to put my phone back into one piece till woa become more stable and usable.

Sounds like you are missing the recovery drivers that get installed with Windows Device Recovery Tool.

I never used the Windows Device Recovery Tool, it detects my device, but when I select my device it gives me an error that I don't have a clue how to solve it.

Els992 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 02, 2019 1:10 am

I never used the Windows Device Recovery Tool, it detects my device, but when I select my device it gives me an error that I don't have a clue how to solve it.

So has installing the Windows Device Recovery Tool helped you? Because you JUST have to install it, you do NOT have to use it.

Actually it was really useful when I needed to revive my lumia flashing the emergency files, because I've messed it up after I've failed to unlock bootloader using a corrupted ffu, which made me believe for a long time that my phone it was dead, and then out of hope I've tried one more time, this time with battery charged and I got it working, so yeah it was useful. But I was wondering, correct me if I am wrong, to revert all the process, all I need is to flash the original ffu, right? What if I try to enter recovery mode using windows internals instead of a key combination?

Els992 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 02, 2019 10:56 am

Actually it was really useful when I needed to revive my lumia flashing the emergency files, because I've messed it up after I've failed to unlock bootloader using a corrupted ffu, which made me believe for a long time that my phone it was dead, and then out of hope I've tried one more time, this time with battery charged and I got it working, so yeah it was useful. But I was wondering, correct me if I am wrong, to revert all the process, all I need is to flash the original ffu, right? What if I try to enter recovery mode using windows internals instead of a key combination?

If you can get WPInternals to detect the phone you can use it to enter recovery mode. I could not get WPI to detect my 950 XL so I installed WDRT and used the key combo.

Yes, it does work, it boots to recovery using WPI, maybe it has something to do with the version of phone I guess!? In your case was a RM-1085 and mine is a RM-1116.

If you really need to restore Windows 10 Mobile, follow the instructions until you get to booting into recovery. Use WPI to boot recovery and then follow the instructions again.

This tutorial assumes you've already followed the tutorials to unlock the bootloader and deploy WoA. If neither of these tutorials have been followed exactly this will fail because you won't have the proper FFU file or drivers/utilities needed to restore Windows 10 Mobile.

I'll add updated subdirections for using WPI to boot recovery instead of using the button combo later tonight. Thanks for the heads up that for some the button combo might not work.

Yes, you're right, I did all stuff needed to install WoA and I installed it in dual boot with windows 10 mobile, and the ffu flash was a total success. Thank you for all your help.