Lineage OS Fix: After reboot phone not usable anymore (Only back button/statusbar visible)

Sadly, my Nexus 4 (mako) had a rough experience after upgrading to Lineage OS: After a reboot, I ended up with this screen:

As you can see, only the back button and status bar are visible anymore, I can drag down the status bar and enable / disable stuff but cannot launch the settings or anything else - brick'd :(. I had to reinstall that thing several times, but then came to the conclusion what caused the error: I had enabled a screenlock (does not matter which kind :)) and played with the System Profile under Settings. I created a second System Profile which - as soon as it connected to my Home Wifi, removed the screenlock. And that was the problem. After two additional reboots, the error as seen manifested.

Good news: It only took me three complete reinstalls (read: wipe... ^^') to get that - and the fix is very simple: Don't create such an System profile. If you have and you end up there, that is no problem as well: If you have adb Debug enabled, you'll have it fixed in one minute and one reboot:

# open your CMD / Bash
adb shell
# activate root
su
# go to the correct folder
cd /data/system/
# get your current profile config
cat profiles.xml
# now grab that config file, remove the <profile> </profile>
# part which causes the error -> your newly created profile
# with "auto turnoff screenlock"
# after that, put it back on your phone
echo 'HERESHOULDBETHENEWCONFIG' > profiles.xml
# then reboot your phone
reboot

If you have no root access available you could get root on your device via the addon from Lineage OS, and if you don't want that (which is good too!) or you got no ADB Debug enabled - fix it from within TWRP :).

PS: If you want to report something, always pass along your logcat (extract with adb logcat -d '*:V' > logcat.txtif you got adb access)

11 thoughts on “Lineage OS Fix: After reboot phone not usable anymore (Only back button/statusbar visible)

  1. Thanks !! Exactly what I needed.. I just did it within TWRP shell and changed the screen lock option in my profile back to 0 with VI.

  2. THX!!!! - I deleted the "profiles.xml" file within TWRP as you said, restarted. Bam - Solved!
    many thanks from AUT 😉

  3. Thanks for all the pointers. Unfortunately, I cannot access my device via adb. But how exactly do I "fix it from within TWRP"? I made a TWRP backup and was able to access the profiles.xml within the data.ext4.win001 file (renaming it as .zip allowed me to open and browse the file). But how can I recreate the win001 file to retransmit it on the phone and restore with TWRP?
    Any help would be much appreciated!

  4. Very easy: As soon as you boot TWRP, an ADB Demon is started in the background of the phone. From this moment on you can connect with adb shell and then delete or edit profiles.xml

  5. Oh my! Connecting via adb shell did not work.
    But I actually managed to boot into recovery, go to advanced settings in TWRP, open the terminal, find the file and _manually_ edit the file in the phone with vi according to your advice.
    Thank you!

  6. Hi, I have exatly that issue if i update from an unofficial LineageOS 2017-03-09 to an up to Date Version (later then 2017-03-25).

    I could not nail that issue down. Just if i use another Profile (Guast or a new one) i had no issues. But that is no solution. Because i will carry on my User-Apps, Contacts...

    I have a WLAN Connection that start automatically. Yes some time before i add a screenlock "without log".

    The sad Thing is:

    0 is still to Zero.

    If i delete profiles.xml, and restart. The issue is still there and a new profiles.xml will be created.

  7. Ok. I try it with the delete of my profile setting. And find out that my lineageos from 9 March did not restore by itself the profiles.xml file. That was just a test because the 9. March Version run nomally before. So i start the April 17 Version and it created a new profiles.xml. But first it had the That caused another issue that my contacts-application crash every time.

    So i jumped back to my last backup of the whole thing over trwarp.

    Since i had the WLAN Connection Manager in suggestion that it cause the trouble i try to disable wlan and enable airplane mode to restart offline.

    That restart worked fine. My lineage from March the 9th start fine offline.

    Ok lets try to restart and update from that stage... (i am to 80 percent sure that it show that behavior) same as before. Black Screen and Wlan toggle on.

    But hey i SOLVED it!
    I had the issue that WLAN starts automatic, even if enable airplanemode. Often i use the airplanemode to save energy, that i lost for the Mobil Connection. So maybe some app trigger my wlan if it is accessible.

    I tried delete the wlan, try to disable it. But it enable itself automatically. Airplanemode did not help. But:

    The Solution was:
    The Black Screen allows to open through the above bar to enable and disable airplane mode. So i disable the airplane mode. Open the Wifi-Connection manager and disable Wlan there, and reboot with that open setting screen -because if i closed it start to reanable itself!- Then i toggle a reboot**.

    After the reboot wlan was disabled. Airplanemode was disabled. And the Mobilconneciton start. I cant believe that after i unlock the the screen by pin. The desktop stay as the normal way.

    **with holding power off.

  8. Not like that i have just installed lineage 16 at 1st time display was working screen was flickering after clean install again it has black screen only power and volume was working how to solve my problem

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